Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

Hello,
I am going to be facing 7 others in a mp game soon. Playing S&A, probably without a bless strat. I am looking for ideas, suggestions, etc on how to best use my mages and demons. Especially looking for things like the black servant mini-thug, for instance.

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

black servant mini thugs are good and easily made with TC. summon a black servant with a master of the dead (they are only around 3 death gems i think), give him a lucky coin (luck+a shield for 5 astral gems is a bargain by anyones standards) and if you want give him some armour (i suggest marble armour/dragon armour which are both cheap and effective).

make sure to make boosters for your mages as magical versatility is your main power. always remember that all of your recruitable troops suck (the horsemen are mildly useful but not really) and all you should be recruiting are: mages, strong indies and maybe some nobles (a noble with a lucky coin, reinvig item(s) and a horror helm makes a decent thug but not that good).

take a high magic scale and a rainbow pretender to get those boosters+dwarven hammers out quicker and for your main armies try lots of easy to get summons (massed dispossesed spirits combined with fire demons can work well)

try to be first in research and gem income or as close as you can be to it (use site searching spells quite alot) and try to be the first or atleast one of the first to start churning out sc's and thugs (banelord+wraithsword+horror helm+boots of flying/quickness+pendant of luck+ring of regen is a high end thug/decent sc that should be useful right through the game)

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

I'm sure you'll get better posts than from me, but I love to pounce on strategy threads to get people rolling...

I'd make the Black Servant Thug® equipped with the following, in order of importance:

Rime Hauberk
Horror Helm
Lucky Amulet
Girdle of Might (in case you fight lifeless, i assume)
Flying Boots (seems useful for sniping unprotected armies)

Kissblade (on the forums) has been the one obsessed with this theme, contact him or search for his posts for some deep thought if he's interested.

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

morks black servant is better than mine but swap the amulet for a coin and take out the girdle (servant will die before getting 100 fatigue)

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

Actually, he won't get fatigue in first place (without the action of some form of enemy magic). He has 0 base enc. so that means no melee fatigue no matter how much armour, and he has no magic so no spell fatigue.

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

yea i knew that, its just mork mentioned undead and some of them can give fatigue cant they?

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

thanks guys, good stuff.

I should mention we will be using CB 5.4, and indies at 9.
So, getting out of the gate, in my test games i have been buying a lot of comp bowmen and the heavy spear and shield men as a meatshield.

Currently my strat is expand with a bunch of mages shooting any good evocation spells they can, but I am slow getting out the gate with my turmoil.

How many of your CMs do you send out with the armies, and how many do you keep home to research? I am thinking around turns 10-30.

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

At least in the early game, you can't go wrong with the TC archers. They're cheap and have a very effective missile attack. Get some demons for shock troops as soon as you can. There are lots of things you can do with their versatlity.

Edi

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

ive found they dont really match up to indie archers for the simple reason that their armour means they cost more resources (so they are harder to mass) and indies tend not to fire archers so...

Re: Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?
 

Hehe. If I recall, Black Servants don't work during 5.4 anymore since they don't have life drain anymore. Try not to get a rainbow pretender actually, try to get an early combat (Dragon really since Wyrm requires a bit of research) or VQ because that'll be your main power in expanding in the beginning. Your early forces just won't be that good since your only real units are going to be archers, I haven't found the other troops ever effective so archers with a basic thug or two in the front is alright (or even water demons). I don't like to send celestials master out till late game or unless I'm in a war. They're so expensive and you need them for so many things. Or enpower yourself to make one. Do get a high magic scale though. From there on, I'd just try to research up a lot and stay low profile and explode out the gates with gem income spells later on. Don't be overly aggressive till then because you really don't have a good military till you have a solid research + gem base going. Oh and spirit mastery is nice but not as good as you think since it's not mage effective to mass lots of them as screens.