Devil Review
 

I'm playing Abyssia in a MP game with some friends using a blood pretender and wondering about options for devil summoning. Specifically, I'm curious to the possible uses for different types of devils/demons and what a good mix of devils/demons looks like. For instance, storm demons and the demon knights are both hard to acquire in bulk, and so I have no idea about their relative effectiveness versus standard devils/ice devils/etc. I never read much about anyone summoning these guys, but maybe that's because there are better things to spend on at that level.

For devil/demon mix, this is more a question of how/if you pair the various types of summons together and for what strategic gain.

Finally, thoughts about support mages for devil forces, capable leaders,and countering anti-devil strategies would be appreciated.

Abyssia has such good national troops that I am not sure how heavily I will dive into the summons space (in the short term), but not having familiarity with blood, I still wanted to inquire.

Thanks

Re: Devil Review
 

Yes!
Give us N00bs some answers!
-Yc

Re: Devil Review
 

Have a 5 blood mage use a dwarven hammer to build soul contracts and give them to scouts. Set the scouts to hide and let them pump out and endless supply of devils.

I would not waste blood on anything else except Ice Devils and Arch Devils, and a few select blood items such as blood stones, armour of souls, blood thorn and brazen vessel.

You will not need your national troops at all after turn 50 or so. The devils are better in all respects, can fly, and consume no supply or upkeep. Go devils! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

As long as you are playing on a somewhat large map ( anything larger than Aran with 8 players or ) then what Soapyfrog said is pretty much the way to go: make soul contracts. And make lots of them. Blood goes into Ice devils, arch devils, equipment for the ice/arch devils, soul contracts. Pretty much in that order.

As for leading all of those devils well you have a lot of options. Those arch/ice devils are decent leaders ( and you are giving those ice devils boots of flying right? right! ). Your demonbred if you are playing base Abysia are fine leaders as well. Banes/Banelords are also fine leaders ( agains with boots of flying ). Vampire lords are superior undead leaders ( 125 if I remember correctly).

As for counters to hoards of devils, you need SC's and tough one. Wimpy SC's need not apply. And wraithful skies helps a lot. One SC who can tank the devils and one caster at the back who casts wrathful skies and retreats works wonders.

But other than that ... there ain't a whole heck of a lot that can be done to devils.

Re: Devil Review
 

Storm demons are nice because they can fly through storms. And the Staff of Storms and the Storm spell are a popular way to try and slow Devils down long enough to kill them with magic.

Re: Devil Review
 

Storm demons are great, but generally only once you hit blood 9 and can summon them in batches, otherwise you wont have the mass you need and they will die all too often. Other problem is the combination of Air and Blood is rare on a mage, and you will often find you need them to forge air items instead of summoning storm demons.

BTW I would make soul contracts even on fairly small maps. The fact that you are going to be getting free, very strong troops, every turn in increasing numbers generally outweighs any "need it right now" blood summons, although I will, in emergencies, go for the most efficient blood summons like crossbreeding if I need mass. Also horde from hell can be very handy. But for sure, Ice/Arch devils and Soul Contracts get priority by rule of thumb.

Re: Devil Review
 

Abysian national troops are good but slow (strategic movement 1). At a certain point, you NEED devils if you want to achieve anything.

Re: Devil Review
 

Well base abysia is the only nation that has a somewhat cheap caster who can actually summon them: the demonbred. They could potentially need 20 devils right away ( although you would need a buttload of demonbred to cast that many ).

Re: Devil Review
 

Huzur - you mention Arch & Ice as important summons. What about Helio's? Any good on a relative basis or stick with vamps? Also what about the demon lords? A lot of blood slaves to be sure, but the stats look effectives.

Also, what are good equipment combos for the arch/ice? Do you equip all the same or is there a plan for variety & counters to certain anti-SC strategies?

Thanks for the great tips. Not sure I'll survive long enough to get these guys en masse (Van has launched an attack already), but it's sure nice knowing.

Re: Devil Review
 

Out of the heliophagus, I try for Gorilon usually since that will allow easy summoning of Vampire Lords and access to good death magic.

Demon Lords at 150 a pop, I fear you are better off building 2.5 soul contracts with that blood... however I have (just for fun) summoned Belial once and thought his ability to steal commanders was great fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Not very cost effective since you can get a succubus to do the same thing for less than half the blood.

Other problem with Demon Lords is that they do not have all the item slots so they are tough to equip properly...

Re: Devil Review
 

Belial might be more effective than a Succubus. There's also no thematic reason why he'd be limited from corrupting female commanders, as well, and he probably has a far better chance of surviving a failed corruption. He also generates free blood slaves and meat shields, IIRC. Perhaps still not a particularly efficient purchase, but...

Now, if you get the Plague Wind, that might be a problem; doesn't he spread disease to the province he's in? Hm.

If you like thematic SCs, the Unquenched Sword seems obvious for any of the Archdevils, as would the non-unique flaming swords, demon whips, and perhaps tridents (stretching this a bit). For the Archdevils and Ice Devils, don't forget the MR boosters (starshine skullcap, antimagic talisman are cheap), flight/quickness (boots of quickness or Jade Armor for the Archdevil, winged shoes for the Ice Devil and have the ID script Quickness), perhaps a luck shield if you're using a one-handed weapon. And if you're dealing with specific attack forms, e.g. massed Incinerate and you've got an ID, get the relevant immunity (unless impossible, e.g. Drain Life is not really blockable; you can only mitigate it by massive reinvigoration e.g. Boots of Calius, regeneration, life draining attack of your own, other units to keep fighting while your unconscious or to absorb Drain Life spamming).

Re: Devil Review
 

A main reason for Demon lords is their good magic and if you have all 3 they cover all expect Water and Astral very well .
Belial can do the nature stuff and cast e.g. GoH with only 1 empowering item , Belphegor is a good Earth forger and Pazuzu can summon Storm demons and lead them in battle as supporting storm + wrathful sky caster .

Belphegor lacks the feet + body slot but he can cast invulnerability , blood vengeance , fire shield and phönix pyre .
177 hp are nice .
So he is not an outstanding SC but formidable .
Only the missing quickness sucks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif .

Re: Devil Review
 

One of the things I love to do with demons is make assassins out of them if they can sneak (black heart). Especially if they can do bind-heart. Especially if they can summon other sneaks. Especially if they can fly. MUHAHahahahaha.

I think a bind-heart assassin is an ultimate strategy (please lets not start a thread to get it "fixed"). If they are coming at you with an army of say 5 commanders leading 50 troops each. You sneak in your assassin and have him strike. Their commander becomes your commander with all his equipment, and he is down one commander. The next message says there is a combat in that province as your new convert is visible and gets attacked by his old buddies. 50 troops rout for lack of a commander and some damage is done to his army. Your assassin is hidden and does not participate. Now your assassin strikes again. Another commander switches sides. Maybe the other guy moves his army but it still leaves 50 troops behind waiting for a new commander to lead them. You follow him and snatch commanders one by one chopping his army into bits scattered across the map or routed to nothingness. The Last commander is the most fun. He attacks his previous troops. One guy against 50 troops but they all rout for lack of leadership and you now own that province.

Re: Devil Review
 

I am not sure it is "ultimate" since it is both counterable and has a chance of failure, but it is fun and it will give your oppoenents headaches, thats for sure!

Re: Devil Review
 

Problem is that you have to snatch a commander; move the next turn, guessing which way the enemy is going; if lucky, snatch a commander, else guess which way the enemy is going and try again.

Does Bind-Heart leave the target as a commander, or does it steal the willpower? I haven't played enough blood to know, but I find that Nature's Charm is somewhat superior to the Astral Version for that reason. In which case, one of Pangaea's big stealthy mages with flying boots and the black heart might be even more effective than the demon, since you get (for instance) fully equipped banelords and such on your side.

Re: Devil Review
 

True. But there is also my favorite "step up".
A Garnet Amazon (red) province with a lab, 0 taxes, and no Province Defense. Send a lvl 5 air mage (or lvl 3 air mage with a Bag of Wind and that Winged Helm). Build amazon mages and set them to hunting blood slaves.

Have all the mages set to hellbind, hellbind, hellbind, attack. Have the air mage cast Wind Ride every turn against some province in your enemys territory. Its like a birthday present each turn. You want to rush to that province to see what you got and what items it had on it. The real prize is ending up having 2 or 3 prophets all working in your name.

Re: Devil Review
 

Bind Heart does leave him as a commander. And seems to work more often than some of the others. Pangaea has stealthy gods which make for a fun assassin. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Pandemoniacs make good bind-heart assassins also.

Another advantage with Pangaea for assassins is that even without a charm they speed up taking provinces ALOT! A Pan assassin tosses Maenads each turn. So you assassinate a commander then there is an attack by 3 or 4 loose maenads. It makes it easy to know when you get the Last commander, and the province is yours automatically without having to take another turn to do an attack.

Re: Devil Review
 

The black heart is construction 6 . So to make your Pans assasins you need construction 6 but by that time there won't be too many indy provinces left on not too big maps or other very special settings .

So you mean using them against other players ?
This is very nasty i think because the pan should be not easy to kill during an assasination http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif . I didn't play pangenea often can you give the pan a few FoDs as bodyguard and they participate the assasination ?

What happens if you are in enemy lands , no way to retreat and you charm an SC ? Does he then attack the defenders of the province as well or does he die because of nowhere to retreat ?

Re: Devil Review
 

Yes they arent weak and the magic helps alot. Given the right items they Last in the field well which is good considering they are very expensive. Pandemoniacs are capital only but Pans can be made in cheap towers. I love playing Pangaea as sneak armies. Seank them in, take some small province off in the corner, no dominion push to draw attention to your location, crank out sneak units and spread them all over the map. A few spots like that can wreak havoc on some of these "unbeatable strategies".

FoD? bodyguards dont help in assassination but are nice in case you are spotted. Trinkets that summon do assist in assinations such as that skull talisman. Self-fighting items like the stone dove help also.
He attacks the defenders but I think its a seperate battle. I dont remember.

Re: Devil Review
 

FoD should be fiend of darkness because he is stealthy too and Pan can bloodhunt a bit http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

I would love to see your strat once in a mp game because it is really great but i am curious about the time by when you achieve your special strats :
-Pan is a very bad researcher , Charm is Thaum 7 , Black heart is Con 6 , hellbind heart is B5 .
-350 gold for a Pan is very much , 23 1/3 upkeep , for a Pandemoniac 320 gold , 21 1/3 upkeep .

Scales + a SC are so a problem . Your dryads cost only 110 gold + are sacred but they only net you 3 research .
So if you don't want to rely on sages you should take Magic 3 and use dryads as main researchers .
Your Pans are so expensive that you almost should take Growth 3 + Order 3 imo .
Ok you can free points by sloth 3 + misfortune 2 + watchtower .
Then you have 340 points left for pretender + dominion .
Hm would be enough for a decent Ghostking though he is not very thematic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif .

Would you please post your favourite pretenderdesign for Pangenea fitting your strat ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

Oh I know my stuff is very inefficient. I play almost entirely solo and on larger maps than Illwinter has for download.

I like the Lord of the Hunt (he sneaks and tosses LOTS of Maenads). And have had fun with Carrion Dragon using the CW theme.

In MP games I dont play to win so I tend to stay out of the discussions about "winning strategies". I have a number of choices. I play to be an indispensable ally providing tons of info on other players, harassing them, jumping up as a surprise to ruin their well laid plans, things like that. Or I play the breaking-dam game. Long buildup waiting for someone to decide to attack me then washing over them like a flood keeping us both from winning.

In one game I actually held out as a major pain for a long time after losing my provinces and later even my god. I kept my units sneaking around the map taking undefended provinces, jacking the taxes to 200%, building defense, and sneaking on. I forced the player to completely rework his strategy of large armies, SC god and units, and no money on PD. He had to take time to revamp just to get rid of me.

Think of Data in that episode where he is forced to challenge a guy in StratGema. He changes his strategy from trying to win, to remaining in the game instead.

If you cant beath them, then join them.
If you cant beat or join them, then try to be a surprise.

Some play to win or lose, others to stay in the game.
Are we talking about games? Or life in general?
EXACTLY!

Re: Devil Review
 

I play now again SP too .
I had the idea of playing a good scale pretender like an oracle to make it a bit harder and to try nations like Serpent Cult http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

I played Cradle of Zen with 16 players ( Ermor left out ) , all Ais to impossible .

You may laugh now but i lost my games because the Ai's numbers overwhelmed me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif . I always had the luck that either Vanheim or Marignon or Jotunheim went to war with me soon .
The Ai hordes even defeated sometimes my Mini-Sc banelords http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

Has the Ai gotten improved a bit in 2.14 or is it only because i play at rather crazy settings ?


Do you play against impossible Ai's too on crowded maps ?

Even my new try with madcastling + VQ is interesting cause i don't get everywhere good enough SCs or Armies to hold of the various 200-500 men AI armies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

Hmmm if I did I think I would take the tactic of strong defense and taking advantage of circumstances such as them banging their two large armies together.

You ever play any of my maps from www.dom2minions.com?

Re: Devil Review
 

The cool thing is that with impossible Ais the starving is not such a big problem because they have so good scales or so good bless effects that their troops are still frigthening http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif .

Another "problem" is that my Thugs like banelords tend to get too much afflictions and without trading it is not so easy to forge all good stuff early enough http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .


I have downloaded a few of your maps Gandalf but i haven't played them often because i found faerun then and it was my taste for large maps . Now i prefer 200 province maps because conquering whole faerun takes too long i think http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .
Hope you don't hate me after this confession http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

I think you can win vs impossible AI reliably, but you need to play different strategies than you'd use vs humans in MP. For sure, AI will try to swarm you early on. It's not that bad on choke-pointed maps like Cradle of Zen, but on open wrap-around map, like Inland the beginning is really tough. I usually go for low-attrition strategy, basically some plan that would allow me to beat AI hordes with minimal losses quite soon. Important part is to plan carefully, so that you can use one AI (or indies) as a shield vs another.

Re: Devil Review
 

It really depends a lot on which nation you play http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .
If you play ermor / pan cw then even impossible Ai is not so good .
I haven't played it but i think Ctis Miasma will work very well against Ai too .
If you play Ryleh or Atlantis and hide in the sea and just clamhoard then you can easy win too of course .

But if you try to play a "normal" nation or even a weaker one like Tien Chi then the ai gives you a hard time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

It is always a Helms Klamm feeling but unfortunately the end is often not as in the film positive for me hehe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

I thought T'ien C'hi would be much more powerful in SP than it is in MP, because the AI never uses (or atleast used, been some time) Mind Duel... CMs are not *bad* units, they just have a blatant and deadly weakness most players can abuse.

Re: Devil Review
 

That's nice setup Gandelf and I agree, it is certanly fun. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif But I think it can only work once in MP if you are playing against good opponent, since the next turn you will likely to get a Ghost Riders/other magical-summon/teleport attack on your "Christmas present" province. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif If it has just bunch of amazons set on "hellbind" and air 5 mage, as your described, it'll not stop this attack, and your mages will be killed/routed. If your opponent would also block all retreat routes than all your mages will be lost.

Re: Devil Review
 

Managed to Wind Ride / Charm about a half dozen commanders in an ongoing game - I also had enough other troops to slow down or kill tough opponents, and could probably have held off ghost riders, possibly even two.

Re: Devil Review
 

I admit that I dont remember being at the other end of windride. I suppose it does say where the commander went.

Having troops or defence there tended to kill the sucker before I could convert him so I knew I was taking chances with no troops and no defence. I usually had my windmage set for a couple of actions and then retreat or some sort of safety transport. It was the only piece of importance. Taking back the province is no big deal.

It might not be an ultimate strategy but its a fun one to keep in the carddeck just in case you get the chance to use it.

Re: Devil Review
 

Oh, it is certanly fun, I agree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I never tried to set up such "presents" factory on the regular basis that you have described. It would be interesting to try in on of my MP games, just for the heck of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

I do not think it is the ghost rider type spells that are the real
problem. In a game with Cohen, I was running a variation of this:
the firing squad province. I had about ten sages, an arch seraph,
and a few defenders. The 'wind ridden' commanders were tried,
found guilty and executed in a very efficient manner. I was pestering
him for a few turns, snatching his merc commanders on the turn he
renewed their contracts, splitting his devil armies in two, etc...
He did attempt a few attacks on the provinces, but the sages held
their own (frozen heart and false horror are quite unpleasant)

I was sure that I would soon be at the receiving end of some seeking
arrows or flames from sky, and that would be the end of the joy rides,
given that I would have had to dome the province, or lose expensive
commanders. Fortunately, I happened to snatch his pretender and then
the commander of his Last devil squad... and he quit on turn 22.

But the point of all this was that if you have a province like this,
you will probably be arrowed or flamed.

Re: Devil Review
 

I think it's more of knowing how to play particular nation. Not that I've tried all of them. Do you have any particularly hard settings and nation in mind?

Re: Devil Review
 

Wind Ride IMO is fine as it is.
It's A5, and requires 10 Air Gems to be cast. It's a good spell, but it's fine. It could kill a commander, and however if you've many commanders you can even wind ride the wrong commander (I've wasted so many gems in trying to Wind Ryde some Ermorian Dusk Elders or such, ending up to catch some new created Mound Kings that popped out as spawn in that province).
Ghost Rider could kill an entire Army, or SCs too if unprepared. It costs 5 Death Gems, and it's damn good.
In fact in my MOD Ghost Riders have an increase in gem cost.

Re: Devil Review
 

Cohen,
Ghost Riders is a level 9 spell. As such, it is supposed to be very, very, good.

Re: Devil Review
 

I wonder what that Army was supposed to fight if it can't defeat Ghost Riders? GR is level 9, so it should have been expecting to fight some serious opposition. GR are pretty good (if you cast 5 or so sets of them) at kicking out gems and killing off fodder from the Armies, but otherwise, they're just a tool to hunt down some annoying raiders, or to take down some overly well organized PD.

Re: Devil Review
 

Or to take down two pretenders in two turns, when people are stupid enough to have their pretenders out solo with poor equipment long after Ghost Riders has been researched. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif One had the nerve to "declare war" by popping his pretender on top of my newly discovered fort.

Best of all - the first was killed even _after_ I wiped out my own PD with one casting of GR. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

I've seen them do some rather amazing things. I once had 4 castings of Ghost Riders wipe out 3 Angelic Hosts, an Ivy King with a largish stack of Vine Ogres, and a newly summoned Lamia Queen (I remember thinking at the time that if I'd been able to script the Lamia Queen I would have survived, although it would still have been costly). This was quite some time ago, and I've learned a lot since then, but compute the relative value for yourself.

There was a large thread on this subject way back when. My only comment at the time was: "4 pages on *this*?", but now I wouldn't mind seeing Ghost Riders be made a bit more expensive.

Re: Devil Review
 

On the other hand, I've spent about 12 castings of GR on one R'lyan army - mostly Vine Ogres, some Illithids, and about 10 mage/priest commanders. 12 GRs, as many as 4 at one time, plus two armies (including powerful artifacts in one), and I only now have it whittled down to killing strength where I can dispose of the artifacts in order to reforge them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

I've seen GR killing fully equipped SCs.
Simply their Life Draining swords doesn't work against them (not that it is a bad thing). And thus this would imply that the SC act as solo.
But for 5 or perhaps 10 D.Gems, being able to kill an SC, I think it's too much.
Dunno how much it will change if the GR cost is 8 D.Gems now, but in the long run there's a difference.

Re: Devil Review
 

That's surprising. What were Arch Angels' and Ivy King's scripts?

Re: Devil Review
 

Well, if SCs have decided to travel alone, they were asking for it I guess. Of course, you can get anything killed by pretty much anything. I've seen Moloch and 2 fully equipped Arch Devils killed by a bunch of PD and black hawks. (always take care of a safe escape route ;->)

But in the situation when the players remember about Ghost Riders, GR are not that good, at least not for killing armies. To some extent they're similar to Flames from the Sky, wrathful skies, rain of stones etc which can demolish careless armies. If anything, it's easier to protect from GRs than from the mentioned spells.

Re: Devil Review
 

generally, the easiest way to tell if something is a bit too cheap is how prevalently it is used. on that yardstick, ghostriders is too good a deal. I love them, and use them all the time, but I think bumping up their cost, even to say 7 death gems, would be a good thing. As it is they are just one of the many things that makes castling such a necessary strategy, as the open lands are so dangerous.

Re: Devil Review
 

The Arch Angels were spamming Holy Pyre - they were in Carrion Woods territory. I don't recall what the Ivy King was doing (this was perhaps 8 months ago). Holy Pyre will kill alot of Ghost Riders, its true - but there were 132 of them, summoned up for only 20 death gems...

Re: Devil Review
 

Having been the Ghost Rider (not the Marvel comics one, mind, though that would be even cooler), I can state that a moderate army can deal with multiple ghost riders. A moderate meat shield (20-40 vine ogres, easy to come up with) both slows the undead down and kills a lot of them. Having several priests doing banishments, or astral mages doing the anti-undead fire spell, or fire mages doing Holy Pyre, or death mages doing wither bones, or ....

Ghost riders _are_ vicious. I don't think they're as much of a cause of castling as the cheap/easy raiding mechanism is, and they are, after all, a level nine research spell requiring D4 casters.

A very minor tweak might be okay for them - at 5 gems a cast, they already diminish your supply of death gems severely. And remember, unlike blood's Contracts, there actually are many other great things to be doing with death gems than spamming Ghost Riders : wraith crowns, Liches, Spectres, Tartarians, etc.

Re: Devil Review
 

'course, one might note this: in combination with castling, Ghost Riders makes a nasty anti-raider spell as well. Enemy arrives in your province, perhaps by flying or magical means (several Tartarians cloud-jumping in for a visit, say), then get nailed by 5-6 castings of Ghost Riders before they can move away (short of using the Boots of the Planes or Gateway Stone to 'port/astral travel away) or breach the walls.

It's handy against PDs or unprepared small/medium armies; against the larger armies FFTS, Murdering Winter or perhaps even Beckoning can do more damage.

Re: Devil Review
 

I had similar (but the difference is in details) battles few times, usually I'd only lose some small number of Vine Ogres. Though I'd always have somebody spam stoppers, like swarm, false horrors etc. I don't know how many Vine Ogres you had, but Ivy Kings casting 2-3 swarms would have helped greatly to ensure the victory and cut the losses. Idea is to stop and break down horsemen's charge.

The main application of GR vs large armies I use is anti-storming raids. You cast 4-5 sets of GR and opponents mages lose their cool and start expending their gems like there's no tomorrow. Then the enemy becomes much easier to defeat when he storms the fortress. It only works well if you don't put a dome though.

But of course, if the enemy insists on leaving his army unprepared in the open... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Devil Review
 

What about scouts, sages and indy priests then? They are used all the time. In all cases it's just the right tool for the common task. Same for GR - raid interception/raiding. However, for raiding purposes it is not efficient in general. You lose 5 gems and gain whatever is the target province income. After that you'll lose the province unless you bring some forces, in which case you could just take it using those forces (except, if there was overly well organized PD). So this exchange is good only for rich provinces, but they're usually castled/well protected. So it leaves GR for raid interception and tactical raiding (cut out escapes, demolish temples or high PD, allowing your army to advance without revealing details of tactics etc)


I don't see why it makes castling necessary. Sure you'd castle your best and strategically important provinces, but otherwise, what do you keep in the open lands which makes you afraid of GR? If the enemy wants to spend 5 gems to "neutralize" your 10 gold, 1 gem income province, better for you, those 5 gems could've been used for something nastier.

Re: Devil Review
 

When you only castle the important provinces with e.g. a citadel or high admin castle then you won't have a lot temples .

So to protect your temples a bit you normally castle .
Otherwise you get probably either dominionproblems or the enemy kills your temples with ghost riders / other raiders always .

Re: Devil Review
 

Which means you either build castles for your temples, or you build enough PD to neutralize spies (so they don't know where your temples are) or you build temples in spots where you have enough forces to repel ghost riders.

Admittedly that Last is really best suited to certain themes / nations, but _most_ themes can afford to sit a mage down in a province to shepherd a bunch of maintance free summoned critters.