AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Alright, here's my first attempt at an AAR... more of an IMR (in media res), but anyways...

This is not really designed for me to instruct anyone... it's for feedback on how I play Caelum according to the game definition, and for explanation of why strategies work or don't. I will, of course, be giving my input, but I'd appreciate if the more experienced players give me feedback on what I'm doing wrong (which I suspect will be almost everything).

Oh, and another note: Careful with the flames... Caelum can't handle them! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Alright, first things first, the Pretender:

Virtue
Magic: Air 8
Dominion stats: Order 3, Cold 3, Growth 1, Luck 0, Magic 3 D. Strength 7
Fortification type: Castle

Well, this is a pretty vanilla start. I know that Caelum are some of the best air mages, and, being inexperienced, I don't want to have a Pretender at radical odds to the theme's Magic. I've read the Caelum Posts, and it seems to me (also after playing Caelum for about 45 turns before I read the post) that Mammoths will be a must, so I have Order 3 for the Gold Income, and no Productivity because the majority of my units don't have a high Resource cost. The Castle is my default fortification, so I just went with it for this game. Also, Luck is even for a specific reason. I'm going to keep a track of all events that happen to me, the scales where they happened (as best as I can determine), and stuff like that.

Lack of Water on the Pretender precludes Quickness being cast by him, I understand, but once I have access to Boots of Quickness, it'll be another issue entirely.

Game Setup:
All enemies except Ermor, Atlantis, and R'lyeh enabled (on Normal AI).
Again, being my first attempt at this, didn't want to deal with the problem of Ermor, nor the tactical flexibility of the marine races. Also, my map selection would have made the marines pretty sickly, so that's another issue.

Map: Inland Map (154 provs, 5 Underwater)
(Lots of Forests, supposedly)
This map looked interesting, I don't know it too well, and the lack of Water means that my pretender sans Water isn't making a difference in the flexibility to attack the water.

Starting Prov: 1
Independent Strength: 4
Magic Site Freq: 50
Renaming Allowed

This is all set up basically by my normal setup. I'm used to Magic Sites all the way up at 75, but I'm trying to be more normal in my playstyle, so I put it at 50. The independent strength is actually average to a little high for me, but that's probably due to my poor skills as a tactician.

Anyways, that's the setup, and feel free to comment (as I know you people will). I'll respond when I can, and try to keep this up and running at a good pace.

Wyatt

[ March 27, 2004, 07:40: Message edited by: Wyatt Hebert ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 1 Orders:

Well, I started in Province 92, whose terrain is simply Forest. On 5 sides, there are more forests, and to the direct south, there are some plains, and to the south of that is some farmlands. To the west of the western border forests are some plains as well, which I want to get so as to keep a good income. From a first glance, the Farmlands will probably be a very good place to put a second Fortress, as it should have very good income, as well as decent Resources due to the surrounding Forests. My first turn orders are as follows:

I order my starting Storm General to become my prophet, I tell the Scout to bypass the immediately adjacent provinces and go check out the southern farmlands, and I order the Pretender to start researching Evocation (to get to Lightning Bolt, predominantly).

I notice that Burelk's City Guard is for hire, so I grab them (paying 145 G to make sure I get them), and then I recruit a Seraph, 6 Wingless (to get started for a Mammoth support unit), and 3 extra Caelian Archers. That's about it for the first turn.

Couple of points: I didn't wait to get a Seraphine (for the level 4 priest from prophet) mainly due to no bless effects, time loss getting a prophet, and to keep the commander out of combat. I'm losing access to Fanaticism, but as I only expect to have a single squad in combat at a time, I think it should work out ok, at least for now.

I grabbed the mercs because I'm only on Ind St 4, and Burelk comes with 60 guys... in one squad, even Militia will have pretty decent morale. I'm also hoping that the local enemies won't be very tough, but that may be a forlorn hope. We'll see.

That's most of the stuff for turn 1.

Turn 2 is coming up.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

I am a total novice, so take my advice with a grain of sand.

I feel strongly you should make your prophet from a Seraphine. You spent points for Order 3, Growth 1, and Magic 3. You want to spread your Cold 3 as fast as you can. Having a prophet with a level of 4 is going to spread your dominion much faster than making a prophet from a Storm General. I look at my prophet as only second in importance in spreading my dominion.

[ March 27, 2004, 13:33: Message edited by: Inigo Montoya ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

I did think about that, and when I lose this prophet (which I assume I will),I will undoubtedly make a Seraphine the prophet. I just decided to make the Storm General the prophet to do the following:

1) Create my prophet immediately.
2) Get a free level 3 Priest immediately.
3) Move him out immediately.
4) Not lose a turn for research when a lvl 4 priest isn't required.

I was thinking in terms of a time crunch, and also that the sneakiness of the Seraphine is unnecessary at this point in time, as well as point 4. I want to ramp up the research engine, as well as expand as fast as I can.

Just my reasoning.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Makes sense, plus it will make your commander a bit beefier in your dominion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is only true if your prophet is preaching, which means that it is not available that turn to cast fanaticism in a battle.

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 2 Report:

My scout sends back the report that ~30 Militia and Crossbowmen are in the Farmlands province, so I will be sending the mercenary unit south to try and take them out. I again have him skip around to the west, to check out the plains in that direction. (He's moving to province 97)

I give one air gem to my Prophet, and one to my new Seraph. Then I do a bit of unit location maintenance. I move the 10 Spire Horn Warriors I started with to the Seraph, and lump all 18 of my Caelian archers on the prophet (Storm General), as well as the 6 Wingless. I also move the Archers to the side, for enfilade fire.

As I mentioned above, I send the militia Mercs south, against an estimated 20 light infantry and crossbowmen, and I also set them as far forward on the setup map as possible. The prophet and Seraph are moved NW against an estimated 20 militias and archers. The Spire Horn Warriors are on Hold/Attack orders, the Wingless are guarding, and the Archers are on fire closest. The Seraph is scripted to cast Wind Guide.

The new Mercenary unit Urgek's Beast Brothers (I think it's called... the Foul Spawn) are available, and I hire them so that they can take the shock hit from some Barbarians next turn when my main army hits them. I also hire another Seraph, 5 more Wingless, and 6 more Caelian Archers.

That's most of the orders for Turn 2.

Now for my explanations (and, experienced guys, bear with me... this is probably all old-hat to you guys).

First, I gave the air gem to the Seraph because it's required for Wind Guide (which, for the other neophytes out there, increases the precision of all of your troops on the battlefield). I gave the gem to the prophet because I don't want the Seraph wasting any when it casts Air Shield (as I knew it would). This gives me an endurance of two turns before needing more gems.

Second, the Horn Warriors are Hold/Attack to give the archers a chance to damage the enemies before they engage, and they aren't that well protected, so I'm trying to keep down on casualties. Also, something that you can't know is that I went NW with the main army due to a rather nice income in that Forest province. At least, that's what was reported. I'll be happy to answer any other questions about my proposed moves. Let's hope they work out.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

I always try to send some sort of commander with mercs. Even if they dont do any fighting. Even a scout on open movement if nothing else is nearby. No reason to waste the experience and possible hall of fame bonuses.

[ March 27, 2004, 15:01: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Thank you, Gandalf, for pointing that out. Unfortunately, I'm spread a wee bit thin right now, and am hoping to expand very quickly, so some sacrifices need to be made.

It was not a point I had thought of previously (though I tended to send lvl 3+ Priests with mine to keep them from breaking), and I will keep it in mind.

Turn 2 aftermath and turn 3 orders going to be posted soon.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is only true if your prophet is preaching, which means that it is not available that turn to cast fanaticism in a battle. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not true. A prophet is like a mobile temple. It gives you a temple check every turn in whatever province the prophet is in. You can preach in addition, but preaching cannot spread dominion to other provinces -- it only affects the province in which preaching occurs. This is why your prophet is second in importance to your God in Dominions. The third most important factor is how many temples you have. Preaching is helpful in specific provinces, but as far as spreading dominion to neighboring provinces (not counting the Restless Worshipers special dominion), all you have is your God, your prophet, your capital and temples.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Ok, I'm going to try and post this kind of like Arryn's later Posts. A post for results of my orders, then a post for the new orders for the turn. I'll post it like (Turn 2 Aftermath) and (Turn 3 Orders) or something. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Anyways, Turn 2 Aftermath.

I have been blessed by accurate intelligence. The Prophet and Seraph engage 9 Militia, 5 Archers, 3 HI, and 3 Commanders (I'll only post their equipment if asked), for a total of 20 enemies. I have, iirc, 18 Caelian Archers, 10 Spire Horn Warriors, and ~6 Wingless (who guard).

The enemy shoots off a volley, which doesn't even reach me. My return volley (after Wind Guide goes up) does seemingly no damage, but luckily for me, it breaks both the enemy militia and the archer squad! (Stray arrow hit an archer who advanced due to range). My second volley does no apparent damage to the advancing HI/Commanders, and my third volley does nothing but hit (damage, and afflict) one of my Spire Horn Warriors, who just charged. The Warriors then proceed to clean up the enemies, and I take no fatalities in the process.

The mercenary Burelk, in the meantime, hits 5 Crossbowmen, 2 HI, 15 Light Infantry (with Javelins), and 3 Commanders. I lose 6 of the mercenary militia taking the enemy out, and I'm up two provinces.

I finished researching Evocation Level 1, and am heading to level 2. Currently, my research plan is to get Evo 2, then Alt 2 (as I think it's kinda pointless to have quickness with nothing to cast), and then possibly Const 2, to get Owl Quills. I'd appreciate feedback concerning this plan.

Lastly, I find Ulm's second province just north of my prophet's province, which means I have my work cut out for against some of the best infantry in the game. If the computer is smart and goes for the shielded infantry, my archers won't be worth nearly as much. imo, this means that Mammoths are even more important to get started, because I think they'd do a decent level of damage to Ulm. Feedback on this is also appreciated.

My orders for turn 3 are coming up.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Inigo, you are correct in all ways I think except one.

iirc, temple checks (due to anything) are not based on the prophet's priest level. They are based on your max dominion. In that case, the extra turn I get from the prophet is a direct advantage, and the only benefit of the Seraphine is her stealth. I think I'm going to need all the research I can get, so I'm working on that end. Besides, it's done, but I appreciate all the dialogue. As I said, later in the game, my plan is to replace the SG prophet with a Seraphine... who I'll use to Dominion push against Abysia/Machaka types (who like Heat).

That's my understanding of it.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Aha! That makes perfect sense! Thanks for clearing that up for me.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 3 Orders:

Recruitment (at capital):
Storm General, Mammoth, 3 Wingless, and 4 Caelian Archers.

I was originally going to get another Seraph, but realized that I'm going to need another commander for the Mammoth force, and I can use this guy to also bring more Air Gems to the Seraph, and have her continue the Wind Guiding. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Move Urgek+Prophet army to the prov NE of the cap (which also has good income). Reported resistance: 20 (Archers/Militia)

Burelk moves to attack the Farmlands to the south.

New Seraph starts to help the research pile, while the Pretender also continues to research. I expect Evo2 in two turns.
I reduce taxes in both new provs to 60% to immediately quell the unrest there. It should work, as both unrests are ~11-12.

Ulm's starting army (plus a potential one turn recruitment) are north of the prophet's army (~20 Infantry of Ulm). Hoping they don't attack the prov I'm leaving. Their new prov has a magic site, which I hope to get from them, but not yet). I have 15G after recruitment, which I use to raise the PD of the prophet's prov to 5.

Luckily, I realized that I couldn't hop the Wingless to my proposed attack stop, so I defaulted back to my original plan, and have the foul spawn mercs and the prophet's army hit the province to the south. Urgek is my shock absorber (if he even saves two of my melee units, he'll have been a break even proposition).

Lastly, I'm moving the scout to Ulm's prov, to locate his capital. It appears from a rogue dominion plot that he has a minimum of Drain 1 and Misfortune 1 (and more likely higher in both). This might cause issues, but I am unconcerned as of right now.

I'm not using the Pretender to attack yet due to lack of a proper spell to cast. I may move her out to start attacking once I get Evo2 (due to getting both Lightning bolt and shock bLast). I also need to make her a Ring of Frost, to make her immune to my cold dominion.

Can't think of any other explanations needed. Questions welcome as always.

[Edit: Obscuro the Hidden Master was up for sale, but I don't think I need research badly enough to pay for him, and I certainly don't need an Air 2 mage, imo. ]
Wyatt

[ March 27, 2004, 15:50: Message edited by: Wyatt Hebert ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Wyatt,

Are you going to name your AAR anything particularly menacing and frightening? For when it's added to the AAR thread?

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Um, no.

This isn't supposed to be role-playing at all, really. Just me (the neophyte) playing Caelum basically with the entire forum second-guessing and laughing over my shoulder http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

Still, I named it how I wanted it to show up.

If I'm right, I've already taught one thing to Inigo, which means the endeavor is paying off already. (If I'm not, oh, well... plenty more chances for the future). [Edit: My apologies for being rude, Inigo. You're quite welcome! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ]

Your thoughts on my progress, Zen? (If you have the time)

Wyatt

[ March 27, 2004, 15:45: Message edited by: Wyatt Hebert ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Yo bro! (For those in the know, Wyatt is my twin brother who I suc^H^H^H got interested in this game.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Nice AAR so far. I agree with most if not all of your decisions, except one. No fair taking Caelum! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Guess I'll have to do one on Machaka...

One other thing: Obscuro IME always comes with Air gems, and you _can_ take them off of him. You could either have hired him into your main army to replenish your supply for Wind Guide or hired him in the capital to put them in the lab and start him researching. With Ulm on your doorstep, I really would have gotten him. An extra 7 research a turn is not too shabby.

Bayushi Tasogare

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Just a point for people to add to their hint-n-tips (dont we all have a notepad file we are adding to?). That flying stealthy +3 priest seraphine can be a useful tactic as a prophet. Its a great way to quickly find and hold the dominion of certain nations. Since you specifically mentioned leaving Ermor out of this game I didnt bring the point up earlier.

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

I have a few observations, not particularly suggestions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif As it's your AAR. Normally with Caelum I tend to crank taxes in the beginning and not appoint a Storm General Prophet instead using him for Patrolling.

I also dislike the militia mercs (just because they are so fragile). So I usually will let them slide unless I have some desperate need for them. As they are mostly just fodder.

As your brother said, if you get Obscuro first, you get up to 8 Air Gems or something. I'll always bid on him his first turn out (and often later as I like having a free Air2 caster).

The Beast Brothers are great mercs, very cheap and very good at doing what they do best, dying.

With your current research strategy (Evo2, Alt 2?) I'd probably concentrate on Evo until you get Wrathful Skies after you get Quickness (that's usually my primary goal with Caelum regardless of my Pretender). Maybe even stop off to grab Alt 3 after you get Evo 4. Nothing quite hammers an Army like a few High Seraphs with Quickness, Air Shield, Mistform, Mirror Image, Resist Lightning, Shock Wave for a quick routing punch. Or if you are using alot Mammoths, you'll have your artillery.

But that may just be my preference as I tend to use my Air Gems early on for Wrathing.

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

*nods* Agreed, Gandalf. Never said it wouldn't be useful, just not necessarily immediately in the beginning. I don't think it's made a difference the way I've done it this time, so maybe next time I'll try playing the Seraphine.

Guilty as charged with Obscuro. I guess I just wanted to get my Mammoth out the door. Ah, well, live and learn.

Surprisingly, Burelk has taken both his provinces thus far, but I don't have the money to rehire him, so I'm sending him on a difficult run to see if I can get most of his men killed in case someone paid to hire him.

Never having used Wrathful Skies, I'll bow to your superior wisdom and rush for it, just to see it. And, Zen, I'm specifically asking for feedback, so that anyone else who may ask why I do something, or if they think there's a better way to do something, can find out differing opinions. Also, I want to get better, personally, so I want feedback!

Turn 3 Aftermath coming up!

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 3 Aftermath

No events have popped up (at all, yet). Strange, to me, actually... does positive luck affect rate of events in 2.08? (I usually play positive luck with high Order, and I think I'm used to seeing more events than this).

No new research... only real report are the two battles.

Prophet/Seraph/Urgek vs. Barbarians.

Friendly Commanders 3/0 (Start/Died)
Regular Units 54/26

Enemy Commanders (2/2)
Regular Units (24/24)

As you can see, Urgek did his job. Provided the speedbump to slow down the Barbarians. However, I learned something else. If I was to do that again, I'd put the Spire Horn Warriors (of whom I lost 6, I believe) on Guard Commander, so they wouldn't have gotten creamed along with the Mercs. Learning to change the tactical options for a given combat will take some time, I believe. No losses to the Missile group, so that's good.

Burelk vs. Independents

Friendly Comm 1/0
Regular Units 54/5

Enemy Comm 3/3
Regular Units 21/21

Actually, I think I got off lucky! Come to find out, the enemies had 3 Heavy Cav (w/ Lances), 6 Light Cav, 12 Militia of their own, and 3 Mounted Commanders. It should have been a lot worse, imo.

Anyways, that's all for aftermath (other than finding out Arco has their Hero already, and he's now their prophet).

Orders coming up!

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 4 Orders

The Unrest died out in the two provinces I took previously, so I brought the taxes back up to 100%. My two new provinces are at 15 and 10, so I lower their taxes to 50% and 60% respectively.

My total income is 323, with an upkeep of 55.

Gem income is 3 Air, 2 Water (nothing has changed.)

My Scout, having found no local defense and no Province Defense, elects to attack the province Ulm took on turn 2, as their army moved west to take the province just north of my capital. Knowing that Ulm could reinforce, I put my Scout on Retreat orders, so that if there is some opposition, he will not be lost (and yes, I'm adjacent to a friendly prov http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

Urgek, being all alone now, is going to go west to get himself killed... I mean, to get accurate intelligence on the plains defenders to my west.

My prophet, with all 18 of my Archers on the right wing of the army (and staying behind them), moves to the prov NE of my capital (which supposedly has some good income), to meet up with the new Storm General, hopefully to take it out.

The Seraph, taking command of the 6 Wingless, is moving directly north to come up against the Flank of Ulm, and to help shelter the Scout if he needs to retreat.

The new Storm General, who has the following 3 squads:
(1 Mammoth/8 Wingless in Forward Middle)
(2 Horn Warriors on Guard Commander with the Commander)
(10 Archers (Fire Archers order) on left Flank with the Commander)

moves to meet up with the Prophet who is bringing a heavy force of Archers to support taking the NE Province, which is supposed to have ~(40 Archer/Militia).

The Pretender and one Seraph in the capital are Researching (and should finish Evo2 this turn).

Dante's Stingers are up for hire, and, liking most of the HI Mercs, I decide to hire them in the capital, to possibly aid in a strike against Ulm. A good bulwark unit to supplement my Archers is about what I need.

With my meager remaining Gold, I hire another Seraph in my Capital.

Burelk is moving SE against ~50 (Militia/HI). Since I don't have the money to rehire him (assuming I want to further my research curve), I'm hoping I can get a pyrrhic victory, and get him nigh massacred while still taking the prov. Burelk has some experience, but is allegedly outnumbered. It'll be bloody, either way.

Ulm's army, just north of my cap, looks to either go due north (away from me), or possibly to the east, which is the province my main army/ies are converging on. I'm hoping he moves first, gets bloodied (or bloodies the indies), and I then swoop in to mop up. That's another reason the Scout is attacking this turn... if I'm going to have a good possibility of being at war, I'd like to maximize my chances early on.

Ulm's capital has the dubious distinction of being exactly 3 Provinces to the NW-N-NW of my cap, which brings him range of a paradrop that could wipe him up. I just have to make sure I can take his PD of 20 Arbalesters, 5 IoUlm, Priest (woo), and CoUlm. I may be capable of that soon.

Checking on Ulm's pretender, I notice that it is:

Ninsaba, Devourer of Sins, Lady of Flames. Points to Fire Magic, as well as blood? or Death? In any event, her Dominion doesn't seem to be too high, so I might have a good chance of just preaching him out (as it seems he only came towards me early). A Vamp Queen would be annoying, but that could very well be my opponent.

Lastly, to the west of Burelk's position (and almost where I sent him) is a bunch of woodsman types, basically screaming Druids. That'll be very nice to get, as it adds another stealthy priest to the arsenal, but more importantly gives access to a double Nature mage inherently, so I could possibly start getting Supply items, which I think I'm going to need.

That's the info for this turn.

If I need to add anything in here, please let me know. I'm trying to give all the pertinent info, without boring everyone.

Have fun, and comment away!

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Turn 4 Aftermath...

Geez, I have a bit to learn about proper tactics, it appears. Though it could have been worse.

Alright, Messages start off with Level 2 Evocation being finished. Then I find out Pythium has made a Serpent Lord their Prophet (could be playing Serpent Cult, which might make things easier (if I can dominion push on them and make him fight in the cold). OTOH, fighting a Sacred Hydra is never easy.

Burelk, despite my best intentions, pulls off an easy win attacking his province. He lost 4 men defeating an army of 26+4 Comm (so the estimate was very high, it appears), and then to add insult to injury, goes off to join Ulm (at their capital, I discover). Oh, well... rule I think is that if you have more provs the merc can take, seriously consider keeping him an extra set of turns.

Urgek does his job, and dies horribly discovering that the defenders at one of the plains consist of 26 units (13 Archers, 4 HI, and 9 Militia). Should be a fairly easy win if I set it up properly. But that's a future concern.

The prophet's army, however, gets rather mauled. I lost 16 regular units, predominantly archers (as that's predominantly what I had). One Mammoth, I've learned isn't effective enough. Two or three may have been good, but onle one got routed too quickly. I lost roughly 3 of the Wingless (one before the route, and 2 during, I think). Then the infantry got up to my archers, and it got rather ugly... and it didn't stop, because when I finally routed the enemy, my archers decided to harry them continually, and that meant stopping them from retreating... which got even more killed. At least I didn't keep everyone clustered in the middle, or the Mammoth would have lost the battle for me. Live and learn I guess you could say. I learned to split the formations the hard way (from my previous attempt to use Mammoths).

The Scout did manage to take Ulm's province (and I got a Wild Forest), which I suppose starts a war with Ulm. I think he's less prepared than I am, but I may just be hoping and grasping at straws. I may be dead very quickly. If I can get a High Seraph or two up and running, tho, I can probably make mincemeat out of the tinboys.

Anyways, as I mentioned, Burelk went to Ulm, and I bought Dante, who will be very, very useful. Like Experienced HI with Spears. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Anyways, that's the aftermath... I'm going to take a small hiatus (an hour or two, I think), and play a completely different game, while I wait for feedback over my latest blunder. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

At least I took the province.

Wyatt

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Bad luck, there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Anyway, if Pythium has Serpent Priests, he's playing Serpent Cult. You probably won't have much to worry about, as Hydras are just a little worse than Mammoths routing, and your archers should be able to cause a rout before they get to you. Unless they're like me and play with Berserking Hydras...

As long as you have your High Seraphs and they can at least cast Thunder Strike (or whatever it is) or Orb Lightning, I really don't think you'll have much to worry about. High Seraph vs. Ulm -> Sauron vs. Dunedain... piles of men flying everywhere. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Keep up the good work.

Bayushi Tasogare

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

I said Serpent LORD not serpent Priest. I think that's the Serpent Cataphract commander, so I'm not sure which it is yet.

And the comp would have to be stupid not to have Nature 4 when playing Serpent Cult (not that it's necessarily known for intelligence).

[Edit: I'm not sure it was bad luck. I should have known better, I think, than to send in a lone Mammoth (even with a backup squad of Wingless). As I said, two or three Mammoths probably would have done much better.]
Wyatt

[ March 29, 2004, 19:42: Message edited by: Wyatt Hebert ]

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

Bless always gives that +3 morale, so sacred hydras of the Serpent Cult are much better at staying in the field than the ones of base Pythium, even without blessing effects.

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

You can add me to the list that has learned something so far. I never knew you could "steal" the gems from mercs. I will have to remember that one. I have tried to take their magic items before with no success and figured the gems worked the same way.

I am sure it has been mentioned before, but another thing that can help in controlling how many gems your commanders use each battle is to store them on a non-spellcasting commander in your army and just hand over to your casters the amount you want to allow them to use before each battle. This helps reduce waste and extra trips back to a lab to replenish gems. I played some Man for a while and it finally occured to me to try this so they wouldn't burn up all the gems in one battle casting Wind Guide, Swarm, and other spells.

Good luck with the rest of the AAR http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">hehe. It appears that I'm setting new "standards" for AAR style. Imitation *is* flattery. Thanks!

I'm pleased to see that you're having fun with your AAR and that you (and others) are learning from the process. Having fun and learning is what AARs are all about (IMO).

Keep up the good work!


Cheers,

Arryn

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I thought the point of an AAR was to try and cause an argument as various other forumites bicker over the relative merits of your choices?

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I thought the point of an AAR was to try and cause an argument as various other forumites bicker over the relative merits of your choices? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That *is* part of the learning process: you learn who's sincerely offering useful (and polite) advice and who's just being a jerk trying to score cheap shots at the expense of someone's (like the AAR author's) hard work ...

Re: AAR-Neophyte with Caelum
 

*nods*
Unfortunately, this project is on a bit of a hiatus currently, but I swear I'll get back to it eventually! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Wyatt