Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

EA Abysia is all about fire. Fair enough, I have set up the damage spells and enemies armies tend to turn into giant bonfires. I summoned the two Fire Kings and they do their thing, thought fire based construction items are not that exciting. Second Sun is too subtle for me to figure out the big advantage for 80 gems. Late game, I don’t see the “kick butt” strategy. What am I missing?

Every other nation I have played has a range of different strategies and in late game can do many interesting things. All Abysia seems to do is get more and more fire damage spells. There has been no sudden “look what I just got, my nation rocks” moment that you get when you GOR an Otherness or finally cast Astral Corruption. Just more and more fire mages tossing more and more forms of fire over the heads

Also, the national summons spells, Spectral Infantry and Scorpion Man, both rely on empowerment and gems that you have to get independents or mercenaries to create. Maybe I am missing something (I usually am) but these units can not make up the heart of a strategy for this nation.

So, yes, a strong but slow nation, but it seems unusually shallow. You have to diversify your magic. Am I missing something? Have I not explored blood and astral enough?

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

I got absolutely destroyed by a guy playing Abysia who used astral magic to setup a giant communion army. They had one leader who would communion master and then cast firestorm. Or whatever the name of the AoE battlefield wide nuke was.

Jazzepi

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

Doesn't have to be communion either - you have the blood there for sabbaths too.

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

Flame storm is F5, any Anointed can cast it with a simple Phoenix Power casting, I don't see all the fuss with communions.

They can also summon Scorpion Men with base paths, contrary to what the OP seems to imply.

The demon lords have all of the paths except water and astral between them, but they're expensive and pretty late game. It is a last-resort option for diversification though. Astral magic is really good also, but the EA Warlocks are fairly weak in both.

Nature is always an option via indies, at worst, and then you can start site searching for enchantresses, which open up much better nature and all the elements and seem to be fairly common.

Playing the mid-era version of Aby in MP I found that establishing a good trade partner early on will greatly aid your attempts at diversifying. Hellbind heart mage-trades are especially good for you if you can get a trade arranged. Negotiating for an air mage is especially fun because you can trade with anyone on the map with cloud trapeze, so you can afford to shop around a bit in a large game. Try some of those ideas, see if it helps.

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

Fire storm, the spell I was talking about, is a battlefield wide AoE enchantment spell. It's absolutely nuts. Unfortunately you can not simply empower yourself to F5 to cast it. It costs 500 fatigue, so you need some form of communicants to distribute the fatigue.

I don't know, maybe the game lets you expend commanders to single cast it and let them die to the fatigue?

Jazzepi

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

In retrospect, it doesn't matter. The spell ends if the mage dies, so it would be useless to do a suicidal casting of it if it is even possible.

Jazzepi

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

You can cast Fire Storm with a fire 5 mage, no communion needed, and the mage does not die. I have done so several times. The effect can be nice.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8162/fireap1.jpg

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

I confess that I don't understand. Shouldn't your mage be killed by fatigue when it goes over 200 isn't it converted into damage?

Jazzepi

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

Being the Abysia player in question, I didn't use a communion for that particular casting, I just gave the Annointed of Rhaux a load of booster items and fire gems.

Pure fire magic lacks versatility, to say the least. It's got the worst summons in the game, and not that much in the way of buffs either. And I always seem to have terrible luck finding fire sites.

For the Middle Way game, I took a 4-earth, 4-astral, 4-blood great enchantress. Being able to forge all the blood, astral and earth boosters was a real boost to my magical versatility, making the feeble skills that EA Abysia has in these paths useful. The free astral gem every turn helped as well.

Re: Late game EA Abyisa. Where is the on button?
 

I'm not sure what the mechanics are exactly, but the impression I have is that fatigue from a spell is capped at 200. A mage can't die from casting a spell, but communion slaves can.

Fire magic isn't versatile, but it can destroy anything that isn't immune to fire, and SCs are vulnerable to Blindness.