Ug, Vans!
 

Any advice on how to defend against a van rush with E9 N4 bless?

I'm playing MA Argatha, so all I really have are big stupid troops. I should have statues soon.

My big decision is between recruiting about 20 militia, light infantry, or short bow archers in this neutral province I have every turn.

Should I try to swam with low level infantry? I had a bunch of archers fight, and they didn't seem to do much against the high protection.

Jazzepi

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

You should have enough magic to toss Destruction or Iron Bane at them. That should cut Protection to 0, and your archers should clean up. Earth Meld reduces their defense, too.

-Max

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

Is rust mist any good?

Jazzepi

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

Earth meld is almost obligatory if you're going to use the old ones. Otherwise they won't hit anything and will be hit by anything.

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

haven't confirmed it myself but I think it was mentioned that the 1 pt of damage from freezing mist drops glamour. no clue if its true.

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

I'm using the heavy infantry. I have very good production scales, and I found a mine right next to my capital http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Jazzepi

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

(rhetorical question) How come all you have are big stupid troops as MA Agartha? When I play MA Agartha, I see good troops for conquering independent oceans (especially Pale One Soldiers in large enough numbers), which Vanheim generally doesn't do well, if at all. Meanwhile, their human infantry is also very good when used in quantity, if you have the patience to build decent-sized groups of armored men and deploy them well. All those units only cost 10 gold.

Some magical ideas: With fire and water magic and Construction research, you can give cheap Fire Brands and Frost Brands to your giants, enabling them to hit Vans regardless of their defense skill. Frozen Heart also ignores all defenses. Legions of Steel is a good choice to make it much harder for Vans to chop through your massed infantry.

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

I've never tried Rust Mist, but if you have the paths for it I expect it's just as good as Destruction, which is to say it's good if you don't care about friendly fire hits. Chaff + archers vs. expensive vans sounds like a situation where you don't care about friendly fire.

Edit: And don't forget that you have access to Strength of Giants and Weapons of Sharpness, too. WoS is good if you *are* worried about friendly fire (I hate it when I Destruction my own troops)--one cast should cover most of your army and a second one in the first round of battle will cover PD, too.

-Max

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

Rust Mist is nice, but the problem with it is that you have to hit the target once to break its armor. Against Vanir, that can be hard.

Earth Meld is VERY good. Use it to the full effect.

Statues are very good: they get extra hp when in Agartha's dominion. Remember that magical creatures with "do not heal" heal whenever they are in a province with a lab (repairs, etc).

Finally, as of last patch Glamour doesn't affect missiles or spells. Getting rid of the Glamour will help a lot, so mass those independent archers, or even just spam Fire Darts and/or Stone Shards, anything with large number of effects. I'd imagine that Blade Wind is ideal.

Re: Ug, Vans!
 

Ug ug! Ug van no good ug!

Ug bash van man good!

UG UG UG.