Re: Help with Arco
 

Chug one every time you win a battle. That should make the war go back and forth. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

But seriously, Arcos power is in magic. Great mages, labs at 1/2 price, starting spells designed at spying out the world quickest. In SP games its hard to see the use of magic but in MP games you can usually get there.

A fairly standard Arcos thing is NOT to try and take the world. You take enough for gold/gem income, concentrate on defense so the game goes long enough, and lead scoreboard in research.

Depending on who you are next to you might create a temporary alliance feeding them gold/gems/magic-items and let them plow the way. If you bribe them enough they might even let you have some of their backside provinces. Arcos/Ulm makes a heck of a combo but they have to be close enough to be your barrier while you research yourself into power.

Just my humble opinion of course. There are many ways to play in this game. Oh yeah, a combat god might help balance things for you.

[ January 21, 2004, 13:19: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Help with Arco
 

Hmm, I haven't played them much, but as I remember, they have decent heavy infantry (hypaspists and hoplites) and some nice javelin throwers (peltasts). But the javelin throwers on fire closest on the front line, back them with heavy infantry on attack closest just behind, and you have the making of a decent army for the starting game The javelin will act as softeners and shock absorbers for your heavy infantry, which should have a very good survival rate (not so the throwers, but they are cheap). Forget the slingers, the cavalry and the cardaces. When you have the money, you can try elephants, but they are tricky to use : you must plan for them to rout, and leave the way open, or you will feel the pain http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Also, you need at the very least 5 of them, a little back so they are not the first target of archers, or they will never get to the enemy before routing...

Remember that your priestess can heal afflictions.

Later, you will need to use their mages, but I can't help you there, I have never gotten that far.

Re: Help with Arco
 

Mix elephants with hypaphists so they are less likely to rout and go trample. Put chariots on the flanks with ordered to "hold and attack rear" for some more trample.

Re: Help with Arco
 

A little trick : put some Hypaspists along with Elephants to boost their morale somewhat.
5 Elephants costs 500 G/100 R, Morale is 9
5 Elephants + 5 Hyps costs 575 G/190 R, avg morale is 11.5 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Help with Arco
 

This is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for guys, thank you. Soon I will impose my tyranny over the entire map and force everyone to eat olive-based dishes!

Muhahahahaha! Ha!

Re: Help with Arco
 

Body Ethereal works great on elephants, just make sure to group them with Hypaspists for morale.

LI javelins should be good too, but don't put them front and center. They get massacred by bowfire or melee contact, and you really want to find something less vulnerable to take the brunt.

Re: Help with Arco
 

As was stated before, you should put Hyps and Elephants together, but you should note that the Elephants will far outdistance the Hyps and one or two may die. My common configuration for Indy stomping is 4 Elephants 12~13 Hyps. You can get away with 3 sometimes, but more often than not, a headstong elephant will run out in front of the rest and try to stmapede his way to the back and get caught and killed in the middle. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

But with 4 or 5 Elephants, most things will rout by the pure carnage that the elephants bring.

Also using Hyps instead of Hoplites allows Map movement of two.

You should be able to build an army like that every turn or two as you expand. Then have a 4 Astral Astrologer equipped with a Crown of Command play the role of ferry. Have him grab large amounts of troops and Gateway them to your borders (with a lab).

Also never stop making Mystics, with their magic versitility, ability to communion, 2 astral base (for paralyze, stellar fires) and good research capability you'll have a very decent search force (for sites) and an incredibly versatile magic resource for when you can't count on the pure elephant factor. Also save an Astrologer who gets 1 in Death for any SC's you happen to see marching around, and as soon as they enter your domain hit them with a Vengance of the Dead.

Help with Arco
 

Ok, so I have managed to turn on a number of my buddies to Dom2, and their CDs arrived late Last week. We have set up the details on a small PBEM game amongst ourselves, and drew lots as to which races we would play. I drew Arcoscephale, and I have been playing quickie SP games to get myself acquainted with them.

Now, obviously my overall goal here is to leave my good friends crushed and broken in the mud, whimpering like 12-year-old girls. Yet I despair of being able to accomplish this noble feat using the feta-eating phalanxes of Arcoscephale.

In my test games (five or six of them using various pretender load-outs), I have been stomped repeatedly by the AI, though I can do well with several other races.

Oh great Dominion II gliteratti, I beseech you! Bestow upon me your Arco-related wisdom so that I might whip my buddies into submission and force them to buy me beer.

Re: Help with Arco
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You should turn that deal around and make it so that you get the beer if and when they beat you like a drum at a band contest. That way, if and when you lose, you are assured of easing your pain with copious quantities of alcohol. It's sneaky. Perhaps the negative incentive of having to ply you with beer will discourage them from being nasty, and make your victory, however dry, sweet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Help with Arco
 

Send plenty of gems and gold to the Tien Chi player. Thus is the way to victory.

Re: Help with Arco
 

Bureaucratic scum! I am going to send you home sobbing to your ancestors! I am going to get bronze-age Greek on your ***!

Actually, strike that Last bit.

Re: Help with Arco
 

Following the example of my hated foe, 100_yard_stare (otherwise known as the Most Honorable He Who Will Soon Buy Me Beer), I would like to thank you guys for your advice.

This afternoon while pretending to watch the kids while my wife was in class, I played a quick game against an easy AI Version of my impending opponents. Implementing your hints I was able grind them beneath my elephantine feet while hardly ever routing... much.

Truly your collective wisdom is stupendous, and as I move out of the newbie stage, take my place in the board-sponsored MP games and begin to smite you in a most egregious fashion, I hope you will be able to look back on the service you did me now and not feel too much despair.

Re: Help with Arco
 

A few other points on Arco.

Arco has great access to multiple paths of magic. As such they can search and forge alot of different items. Most of the spells, summons and items with a path 4 requirement or lower you will be able to use. If your pretender has a physically strong form you might want to put some of the better items on him and send him out to crush armies with only a light vanguard.

Hoplites while slow are very strong. They can hold back and fight even very strong odds because they have shields and very long weapons. They are best used at a front building in a castle. They are resource intensive, but well worth the costs. They also have very decent morale.

Priestesses can heal Afflictions as well as cast Protection. Don't be afraid to have these around healing whoever happens to be in the province they are. The magic phase is before the movement phase so someone can get healed and move out in the same turn.

Arco's scrying domain lets them know quite a bit about what is coming and how to react. Don't be afraid to use your instant access spell of Astral Window as soon as you find an opponents capital in order to look know what's going on in each of their production centers. This will also let you know who and when people are going to 'change their mind' and attack http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

One Independant you might want to look for/keep an eye on/build a castle on is a decent archer. Woodsmen and Hoburg Xbows are both very good for this.

Watch out for using chariots in the same fashion you use Elephants. They rout and will trample through your own lines unless they have a strong backbone. They are also size 4, so if you do put them on a flank, and your opponent uses cavalry, you will be able to trample them.

I'd shy away from building any mounted with Arco, as none of them have lances.

Slingers make excellent patrollers if you don't happen to have any air gems for a Call of the Wind.

Re: Help with Arco
 

My advice: bless heart companions. They get really nasty with a couple different blesses, and the extra gold over hoplites is definitely worth it. I've found the weakness of arco to be armor penetration (except for the dangerous elephants), so bless accordingly.