Arcoscephole.
 

Hello.
Well, now I'm pressed for time, and my Last post got deleted as my computer decided to crash, so here's the short list Version:
1)What are some good general Acro. strategies?
2)Do their trample units really have any worth... other than failing moral?
3)Best strategy to use to counter armies with missile superiority?
4)Is it better to build heavy elite hoplite\hyapist armies, or numerically superior peltast armies,etc???
any helps appreciated, thanks.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hi. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Arco generally does well with a variety of strategies, most centered on their excellent mages. They also can use SCs better than most because of their healing priestesses.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't use them... but if you search the forum, I'm sure you can find ways of dealing with the morale issue (mixing higher-morale troops in).

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you can get Staff of Storms, that's a one-stop answer. If not, you have great HI with good shields. Your main form of missile fire is magical artillery barrages. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The general consensus here is that LI is worthless, though I believe the Peltast is one that is sometimes used. Stick with Hypaspists, though. Faster and better morale than Hoplites. That's the common wisdom.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not a problem. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

There was a very good thread of Arco tips in the past month or two, which you might find of you search the forums a bit.

Reasonably big Groups of hoplites with some heart companions make for a very solid front line, which you can back with some peltasts and lots of slingers. Plus a few preistesses in the back casting Sermon of Courage. Mages are a plus but not critical. You will take some attrition, but this combo held up well against almost everything I came across early-mid game. Unfortunately, this makes for a slow 1-province-move army

Better, though, is the tip I got from that thread I mentioned:
Build elephants and hypaspists, and group them together in 1:4 ratio (ie: 1 elephant per 4 hypaspists). 4 elephants/16 hypaspsists makes for a pretty solid group. Late game, I've done 10/40 or even 12/48 Groups. I always use one or more Strategos commanders to lead, for their Standard bonus. The elephants generally race ahead of the hypaspists, trampling everything, and leaving the stragglers and flankers for the hyps to mop up. The elephants take to brunt of the damage, but you can even lose all your ele's and the group *still* doesn't route.

With this plan, you don't build any peltasts or slingers, and idealy equip someone with a Staff of Storms to give you some missile defense (especially your low-prot elephants). Bring some priestesses for SoC and healing. Bringing some mages is bonus, but you can live without them (depending on what you're fighting, of course!)

A hyp/ele army also has 2-province move, which is nice. The downside is that those elephants are expensive! (The same plan should work with the much-cheaper chariots, but in my experience the chariots die too quickly to really be worth it.) Another thing to watch out for is that eles have pretty low MR and seem pretty vulnerable to stuff like paralyzation. Having 3-4 paralyzed elephants in a battle is a sad thing. I think there's an astral spell than can give some MR boost, though.

Other tips:
- If you give your Strategos' some items, they can be pretty survivable (and even make their way into the HoF) even if you put them on "attack closest". When I could afford it, I tended to give them stuff like luck pendants, shields of valor, Dragon/Spirit helm, and/or a decent magic sword.
- For battle-mages, I tended to have them concentrate on the 100-precision Frozen Heart, and Incinerate (for those that were capable of such), and I avoid the low-precision area affect spells after the first 1-2 rounds to avoid zapping my eles with them.
- Arco has lots of flexibility for creating SC's. The Bane Lord with some items is a great choice. I also like the trampling golem-with-stygian-armor SC.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

aye, that really clears things up.

I started using magic Users for missile units, and that has already improved my performance, as well as my Hi's, with the legion of steel spell.
I will try the elephant advice later this evening as my empire crumbles under the onslaught of equally heavy Ulm infantry, backed by bowmen and crossbows...
oh one other thing, I still can't figure out what SC stands for... tho i managed Li and Hi.
thanks for the help.

PS: I'll look for that Arco thread, I take it there are also threads on pretty much every other race as well on the forum?
Deft°

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">SC = Supercombatant. Single units (generally commanders) made to take out entire (normal) armies. In SP, you really don't have to worry about these. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pretty much.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I disagree with this. With the Mystic and the Astrologer (!!) Arco has access to some very powerful mages. They should not be "a plus" to any arco strategy but an integral part of it. Additionally as was noted in some other arco threads, the Mystic acts almost as a mini rainbow-mage so you should be able to get your gem supply up fast.

Additionally, about elephants: they are *very* effective and the army quite fast with the 4/1 hypaptist/ele combo. Be very careful when using them in Groups of less than 4 tho (like after losing a few on a campaing). Particularly against other players they may not have enough crunch power to get the troops they are attacking to break. And if they end a turn in the middle of a stack of heavy inf or other powerful troop without routing them you can expect to lose the little you have left.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I disagree with this. With the Mystic and the Astrologer (!!) Arco has access to some very powerful mages. They should not be "a plus" to any arco strategy but an integral part of it. Additionally as was noted in some other arco threads, the Mystic acts almost as a mini rainbow-mage so you should be able to get your gem supply up fast.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, the mystic and astrologer are definitely awesome units, and I build lots of them. But when I was saying the mages were not critical, I was speaking of for in-battle usage. I use the mages mainly for research, rituals, and forging and wasn't willing to spare many for battles until late-game (and I found I didn't really need that many in battle). Of course, that's just my style of play (and skill level - I'm not an expert) - I'm sure they can be an awesome force in themselves, expecially if you used communion to link them up. I'd be very interested in hearing how you use them in battle (ie: how many, what spells scripted, what items, etc).

You do have a good point about their mini-rainbow-mage site-hunting potential that's well worth mentioning.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

I, too, tend to eschew the use of mages in battle, relatively early in the game: Early on, you will have nothing really impressive that's worth casting: Even once you have something, you shouldn't commit mages to the field unless you have a plan in mind for what you want to cast with them: If you just leave them on default orders or spells, they probably don't belong there. In fact, overuse of mages early in the game tends to both get them killed, and greatly retard your research development. When the time comes to actually leave the labs, you have only dead mages.

However, once you *DO* have something hefty to lob into the face of your enemies, easy access to Communion and a wide variety of magical paths available to you will guarantee that you can lob just about anything at them. By all means, make use of this. But don't just blindly toss mages into a battlefield and expect them to do anything intelligent, as the spellcasting AI seems to have no understanding of purpose and is thus abysmally stupid.

Re: Arcoscephole.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">When I play Pythium I find that a pack of Theurg Acolytes casting body etherial make expansion rather painless. Not to mention that your pricipes tend to live for quite a few extra battles with when they are etherial and they quickly seems to get 17 defence which ain't shabby.

So I *think* that mages are decent almost right off the bat with Pythium. With other nations I do not know. I don't think ( but am not sure ) that my armies would do nearly as well without the body etherial.

Not to mention 5-6 theurg acolytes are pretty cheap.