Ermor - Early Age Guide (?)
 

Has anyone created a guide to playing Early Age Ermor? If so, please post it here or supply a link. I'd welcome any advice or comments as well.

Re: Ermor - Early Age Guide (?)
 

EA Ermor has access to excellent magical diversity. Your augurs are very strong in death, fire and astral. Some of your other mages provide you with nature, earth and (if I recall) water, meaning you lack access only to air. Your pretender can fill in this gap.

Use your magical diversity early on to aid in site searching - have multipath mages running around searching early on and you will find that by midgame you will have access to many gems and independent mages - I recall in a recent game having Crystal Mages, Wizards, Enchantresses, Gnomes and Adepts of the Silver Order. In the late game, your magical diversity will provide you the muscle and adaptability to win.

In the early game, rely on your excellent national troops. Your Equites of the Sacred Shroud are quite good, particularly with a water blessing (I would not, however, play Ermor as a bless nation). Lizard Auxiliaries are cheap and tough, with low morale being the only setback.

Almost all your troops have very good defense and tower shields, giving them alot of staying power against both bows and melee attacks.

To sum up: In the early game, rely on strong national troops to expand. Midgame your augurs are powerful battle mages who can supplement your nationals. Late game your magical diversity (which you should be developing throughout the game) and access to powerful Astral magic will give you an edge.

Re: Ermor - Early Age Guide (?)
 

one word: communion. Ah yeah.

Make a pretender that has Astral, you will not be sorry late game.

Re: Ermor - Early Age Guide (?)
 

I recently fired up a game with EA Ermor and was wondering what would be the best path for them?

I took an S9E4 with 5 dominion and some fair scales. I am awash with cash and have been naming some of the Arch Augurs or whatever they are each turn.

Would I be better off with a rainbow pretender, or should I go with more of a bless strategy? It looks like a F9 bless would be great for these guys.

Re: Ermor - Early Age Guide (?)
 

And like Arco they got priest which heal afflictions. So you can send your lovely pretender to battle without being afraid to catch one.

Re: Ermor
 

I don't think I would necessarily pursue a bless strategy. Your sacreds, while good, are cap only and aren't as good as some of the other sacred nations like Vanheim and Helheim.

Instead, i would concentrate on working your magical diversity. Take a pretender who is strong in areas you aren't (Earth, Nature, Air, Water) and use that to gain access to some of the great late-game summons and items.

Re: Ermor
 

EA Ermor is fairly effective but i think they are not the invincible legions that the Roman-themed nations of Ermor/Pythium possess in the Middle Era. EA Ermor has a few oddball things about it; Death mages, old age, no Death gem income, Priests that heal (albiet quite ineffectively, only about 1/3 to 1/4 as well as a Arco Priestess), medium Cavalry, Gladiators.

Gladiators are so effective it's almost always worth throwing a few in any battle where you know some casualties are inevitable (against Cavalry/Elephants, or Blood Vines). It's a bit of a micro headache to keep the "Gladiator reserves" stocked and up with the main army, though.

There really aren't any Pretenders/paths that especially come to mind immediately either when using Ermor. The Lord of um... Nature?, the Zeus-like titan with a pot on his head - he seems the most "thematic" Pretender to choose. Remember, though, you do have healing Priests, so taking an affliction-prone Pretender SC chassis is a very real and valid option.

Re: Ermor
 

I wonder, do gladiators disappear after really tiny battles? Like finding a scout?

Re: Ermor
 

I believe they do... it makes it troublesome to use them when attacking, because you might just hit PD and lose them.

Re: Ermor
 

Or the enemy can just raid you with indy scouts whenever he notices or expects gladiators.

Re: Ermor
 

> The Lord of um... Nature?, the Zeus-like titan with a pot on his head - he seems the most "thematic" Pretender to choose.

That is Serapis, and he has a calathus on his head. He was a conglomerate of Osiris/Pluto and Apis. Although he collected more and more attributes over time. In the late roman empire he and Isis came to represent the imperial couple. He was reputedly created by one of the Ptolemies to create a helleno-egyptian cult for the ptolemaic kingdom. He is one of my favourite gods.

Re: Ermor
 

EA Ermor is pretty interesting to me. You have great mages, but the Augur Lords are not really battlemages, they are more summoning/RP guys. Your battlemages are the Augurs and Flamens. Your summoning strength is in fire and death, but you have no death gem income. You have great astral gem income, but not a ton of quality astral mages.

Your military is pretty good. You have good infantry, but I find myself making primarily Principes. Gladiators have niche uses, but they survivability is so low, they have little use far from forts. Your Equiites are good, but not great. What is fascinating are the sacreds, the only sacreds are the Shroud Cav which seems a bit weak.

What I have been doing is using Leves in front set to fire and flee, so they get off a shot before the battle lines collide. The main battle line of principes sprinkled with gladiators is set to hold and attack. So far, my casualties have been light, unless I run up against enemy cav. I have yet to put this up against anyone with a mage so I don't know how we will fare against any magic heavy nation.

Something I was wondering was whether or not to take an Air bless, don't you get a precision bless with air, or is it just air shield with air bless? What I was thinking was with all the mages, if I could increase their precision, their fire magic could be pretty devastating in combat.

Does anyone else have any other bless strategy for EA Ermor? Not saying it is the best way to go, but the most puzzling for me.

Otherwise, I think my long term strategy is to summon some undead and focus on upgrading some of my astral paths for some late game magic. Battlemages are going to be augurs and flamen. I just don't know what to do with the sacreds.

Re: Ermor
 

Augur Elders not battlemages? I beg to disagree.

Even without any death gems you can raise dead all day long. Get one of those astral banners and you can go about castin some wicked death armor-negating spells.

There is not much of a reason to make a strong bless with EA Ermor although of course 9F/9W pretty much works with any and every sacred in the game.

Ermor lacks a bit in the magic diversity, though. I don't think it can get above a 2S caster naturally, only 1N/1A/1E.

With natural healing, i think EA Ermor pretty much begs from some kind of early/sleeping SC strategy. You can get away with a sleeping SC pretender because Ermors' starting forces are decent enough to expand on their own a bit until he awakes.

Re: Ermor
 

But isn't the strength of EA Ermor that you don't need an SC since you have a pretty dang good army for early expansion?

Re: Ermor
 

You dont need a SC pretender but its still useful to speed up expansion and, with healing, its less risky than with some others.

Re: Ermor
 

Unfortunately, there's no precision boost with an air bless. The air bless in general might best be described as 'situational'.

Re: Ermor
 

Yeah, its an increase based on air magic steps, not air bless. I was getting the two confused.