Blesses and ranged weapons
 

What kind of bless is best for ranged sacred?

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

I've never bothered with a blessing for sacred archers...

Air blessing maybe? It seems that it would be kinda a waste to devote a blessing made just for archers...

My two cents worth... :D

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

A water-9 bless will get your archers to fire 50% more often (3 times every two combat rounds) so that's something. A death bless will have their arrows causing more afflictions. That's actually very synergistic with LA T'ien Ch'i since their sacred mounted archers cause AoE fear with their arrows, which stacks nicely with the common affliction of Battle Fright. Air can help since it'll make your archers more resistant to enemy archers, but it's a pretty tepid bless overall.

And that's about it. No other bless directly helps sacred archers. Of course, everything loves a little regen (nature), reinvig (earth), MR or twisted fate (astral). Note that a bonus to attack does nothing for ranged attacks and fire weapons only apply to melee, so a fire bless does literally nothing for sacred archers.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

Quickness is good for archers, helps them get more volleys out faster. But quickened archers also annoyingly move between shots, so they will always get into melee. But that isn't a problem with LA Tien Chi, if that's what you were thinking of, since they do fine up close. But TC can also cast quickness, so you aren't getting much for your design points.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

Actually it will get them to fire once, then move forward. It's a terrible bless for sacred archers.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

They do fire more often, but they also move forward. I've not quite figured out the pattern behind it.

It's really only worth it when the sacred archers are also melee capable. Which probably means LA TC.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

LA Man, wardens are rather capable in melee ;) Or does it not work well with x-bows?

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

They also have high encumbrance so speeding them up might not be the best idea :)

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

I assumed a level-9-Fire-blessed ("Flaming weapons") sacred archer would mean "Flaming arrows". Am I thinking too literally? Is that not the case?

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

No, doesn't work. Flaming arrows only comes through the spell.

The fire bless only works on melee weapons.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

LOL, OK (though it makes no sense to me). Shows you can think too deeply about this game :)

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

That means they need an earth bless.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

Well, I originally asked because of a mod that Shatner and I put together for a Middle Era Jomon Nation. You can find details here

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

So now you've got a W9Ex bless, on a nation that also needs G3/M1-3 and really thrives on O3/P3/G3 since it's so good at overtaxing & making castles. All this just to make a W9 bless not entirely unviable to use on archers (who are actually crossbowmen, and as such wouldn't even profit that much from the W9 bless to begin with).

You can't see it, but I'm doing my dubious face right now. But feel free to prove me wrong by winning with such a build ! :)

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

No I won't :)
Just wanted to bring up another sacred ranged unit with good melee capability. Never meant to use a bless for sacred archers myself. I think its a waste.
On the other hand the melee Wardens recruitable everywhere could sure profit from a bless. I often thought about that. But I would do it rather in the ME where the Mothers and Crones of Avalon also profit from lets say an earth bless.
Perhaps I will try that sometimes.

Re: Blesses and ranged weapons
 

I've been playing with a MA Man build with a water 9 bless, and it's actually quite effective even without an E bless to compensate. 15 Def, quickened wardens + whatever experience they gain can be very, very nasty. 5 of them plus a stealthy preist to bless can reliably take out most reasonable amounts of PD. Making MA Man in CBM one of the premier stealth raiding nations. Sure they fatigue out a little quicker, but they also lay down an impressive amount of damage so the extra fatigue never really comes to bear.

Also works very well to turn your mothers into extremely effective archer support and is probably the best bless I've found for Cu sidhe as well. Give your mothers a lightning bow, or a bow of war, bless, aim/eagle eyes and watch the destruction fly even with just a couple of them.

The LA Wardens with their crossbows are actually better than the MA wardens. And LA man wouldn't have too many problems getting a bless. You don't need an awake pretender as your national troops are fairly strong for expansion plus you have a tolerance for drain so you net an extra 120 design points.

The only real problem is that they're still cap only while the MA ones are recruit anywhere. As cap only you'll just never have enough of them to base a strategy around.