Killing blessed giants
 

Hi, Im playing as Lanka in a game with two friends, and I was wondering how to effectivly kill nature and earthblessed giants. One plays as Niefelheim and the other Formoria, and they waltz through the AI. Thats probably because the AI is stupid..... but so am I.

Thanks in advance

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

One of the best ways is slay/paralyze spells as they are rarely numerous (if you have astral mages or can reach alt 8 for disintegrate)

Blood or nature can also allow you to charm them at high levels.

Or just immobilize them (with mages chain casting spells like vine arrow, earth meld, tangle vines, bonds of fire etc...) and kill them with hordes of expandable troops (troops with powerful weapons like barbarians to do more dmg than what they regenerate)

Finally, even with an E9 bless, units using n9+ bless are vulnerable against fatigue (especially niefel or fomorian thugs casting quicken self) as berserking gives an encumbrance penalty, so any spell doing stun dammage is good to use.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Neifel Giants are vulnerable to fire.
The most dangerous thing about them is the Chill aura. Your troops fatigue out and die. If you can throw cold immune troops at them they're much weaker. Undead are cold immune.

Try to fight them in hot provinces. Avoid cold ones. The chill is weaker and I think they take penalties as well.


Lanka has impressive sacreds as well, if you've got a good bless of your own.

I'm less sure about Formoria.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Barbariens are definitly a good way.

Winter Ward helps against Nifelheim, a strong own dominion (without cold) even more.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Not sure where you are research wise but Bane lords with Eye Shields is a cheap solution. They are immune to cold, and will send Niefel giants into the costly retirement home once those eyes start getting plucked.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

In my experience barbarians tend to suffer too much from the long weapons used by giants - their low morale and protection results in a whole lot of repels. The theory of using high damage or armour bypassing attacks is certainly right though. Bear in mind that your own armour is largely irrelevant also, due to their high strength.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Na, I remember fighting Barbariens with Giants and it hurts.

You get 38.5 Barbariens for a Niefel Jarl and another 11.5 Barbariens for each Giant.

A good mix is about 1 Jarl with 3 Sidekicks, so this is 73 Barbariens - definitly an equall opponent on temperature-neutral ground.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

You're Lanka. If you have a decent bless, you can field an awful lot of your own sacreds in response. Palankashas and Rakshasa Warriors are pretty tough in their own right, and are strong enough to push through Niefel armour with their own strength. And in the later game it's worth remembering that your guys can see through darkness while the other giants can't.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Alternatively, avoid them. Cloud Trapeze/Flying Raksharajas can probably take giant PD, seducers can grab undefended provinces with skelspam, and eventually kill even jarls with disintegrate. Use overwhelming force of mages to kill one army at a time, while raiding like crazy.

Honestly, After turn 35 or so, standards of the damned, drain life spells, hellbind hearts, disintegrates, and even life for a life, should mean that you can weather a pure giant army. 'Course, your opponent is reasearching too.

N9 W9 Palankashas work pretty well, too.

Caveat: I can't play this game. At all.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Different nations have different counters to blessed giants. To name a few:
1. Undead spamming. Ermor, Ctis and other nations with strong access to death magic can field squads of skelli spammers. The skellies can serve both as meat shield and to fatigue the giants.
Once the giants are busy with the undead spam move to killer spells. Drain life for example or if access to other schools then frozen heart, incinerate to name a few.

2. Entangle, vine arrows, entangle, vine bows, bonds of fire, false fetters etc. Stop giants, lower defense, move melee troops for the kill.

3. Create your own SCs. Bane lords, Wraith lords, Angels, Troll king, Elemental royalty etc.

4. Astral, Blood and Nature allows for enslave mind, charm and the equivalent blood spell to take control of the giants. Add communion and MR penetrate items for extra potency

5. Avoid them. Use raiding tactics. Best results when access to sneaking troops/summons and/or flying troops/summons.

6. Never tried it but sounds fun. Horror mark the giants.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

I found out it depends a lot on the giants. Niefel giants fall easily to fire, so fire 9 bless T'ien Ch'i sacreds backed with Fire Demons can tear them down cost effectively. This doesn't work against fire resistant Hinnom and may not be that effectie against the Fomoré.
A death bless can also cripple giants as none of them has recuperation.
As Lanka, you should probably try to resort to thunderstrike and skeleton spam.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Hinnom gets recruit-anywhere healers. That said, a D9B9 blessing for a nation with cheap sacreds would still make you an annoying punk. :/

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

The spell Iron Bane works well against giants. Once the giant's armor is weakened, they die quickly against swarming smaller units. Of course this weakens your own unit's armor as well, but it is not like they are going to survive a hit from a giant anyway. The best part about this spell is that it only requires an an E1 caster with Earth boots. So if you can find an independent with E1, and then trade for earth boots, you are set.

Darkness + undead/demons also works well, since your undead hordes will hit almost every time, while the giants will have pathetic attack values (and won't be able to lower your defense through multiple attacks against a single target).

For best results, combine these two tactics against an enormous army of sacred giants that Nieflheim has spent 30 turns building up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Hell no! Lanka should be able to get a F9W9N4 bless vs the giants X9N6. Under which 3Tigers take 2 giants.

And I like the River Demons as Tien Chi MUCH better than the fire ones.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Lanka F9 will indeed work very well against almost everybody but I'm not sure against hinnom.
I like River demons a lot too, and a F9W9 bless on them is deadly indeed, but F9 is mostly wasted against Hinnom.

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Unless you have multiple attacks, the 6 AP bless from F9 is pretty minor compared to the +4 to attack. With Lanka's hugely damaging Falchions F9 is IMHO not wasted against Hinnom. It's *better* against Niefelheim's fire vulnerability of course but against Hinnom the 6 AP attack would only add another 15% damage or so if Hinnom didn't have fire resistance.

-Max

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

How would high death perform on nature blessed giants as opposed to fire?

Re: Killing blessed giants
 

Death would cause more afflictions, including against a regenerating giant, but fire would hit more often.
Against Niefelheim, fire is definitely better. Against Hinnom, I'd have to test, but MaxWilson is quite right that the +4 attack can make a big difference.
However, Death bless +%affliction affects all attacks, including spells and missiles, which makes it useful if you have sacred mages.