[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:

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Originally posted by Jasper:
I'm not concentrating solely on the Sidhe, as longbows can be usefull for expansion too.
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I effectively decided not to use the Cu.

Funny thing is I've decide the best usage for my starting Longbows is to but them out the front in the first battle and save myself 5gps a turn.

Perhaps I should give longbow based expansion a go but they just combo so badly with the Sidhe. I want to start building Sidhe early to get enough for later. A large part of my plan is not to lose Sidhe but rather to steadily build an uber army or two.

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Build two armies. One province a turn isn't enough.

Anyway, Man national longbows have better precision than indies; I haven't had that much trouble with friendly fire yet. (Of course I paired them with some HI mercs and used them early, before I could afford a substantial force of Daoine Sidhe.)

Currently I have some axemen/longspears in front, Daoine throwing javelins (they will automatically close after that) and longbows behind that. Although there might be some friendly fire to the infantry, the Daoine are unlikely to take much if any; and they're positioned to move into close combat if the infantry rout. That way most of my losses come from the cheap units, and the Daoine keep racking up exp from javelin kills.

Its important only to take the provinces that matter - you can even stealth past a blocking province to take a gold rich province with a Daoine and Cu Sidhe force.

I am hoping that the Cu Sidhe are the key to accelerating early expansion as they are thematically suberb, oustandingly fast on the battle board, really easy to build, have a good defense when blessed, and good offense - especially with quickness. I definitly don't want any Longbow near my Cu Sidhe.

I haven't used the Cu yet - it seems to me that they would be most effective massed, which seems like it would require a Sidhe Lord or Tuatha prophet for Divine Blessing. Since I decided to make my initial Castellan my initial prophet (I like this more in Dom II because it takes longer to save up for that high level priest you might have wanted to prophetize in Dom I - especially if you also want mercs or troops for early expansion) and he hasn't died yet, Priest 4 isn't yet an option.

On the other hand, I don't have a water blessing either (Nature 9 White Bull, worked great until he tried to take a province by himself the same turn 15 Jotuns had the same idea. Even a 200 hp, regenerating, size 6 trampler has a bit of trouble trampling 15 Jotuns to death by himself.)

I wouldn't expect water to do the Sidhe much good - their defense is already so high that they're only going to get hit by (a) people who get a really lucky attack roll (I don't think you can squeeze much more out of that) or (b) missiles. On the other hand they have decent prot, so with a nature blessing, a lot of missiles will just make them mad (and with regen, are unlikely to cause afflictions or bring them down by accumulating damage). But then, I'm not a fan of defense in general - too easy to negate it with a good roll, and beating defense by 1 gets you a hit for full damage.

Of course the nature blessing is kind of wasted against Jotunheim, but against anything else I think it'll work well.

Air wouldn't be bad either - maybe I'll try the Mother of Tuathas. (Although I heard someone else post that she wasn't stealthy - is this a bug? Allfather gets the full set of Van abilities including sailing...)

Earth could be interesting too - reinvig for all your mages (except bards), and +4 prot for the Sidhe if you take it to 9. Wouldn't do the Cu much good though. Earth is also a good choice for combat gods (IMO) for invulnerability (and depending on your targets, blade wind).

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Ahhhh. I did have Quickness, but had the dragon operating alone, taking on moderate to weak provinces. The Blue dragon seems much less suited to this than the Red Dragon. The Green Dragon seems even better due to Regeneration, although it requires more research and I haven't tried it with Tuatha. I'm not sure whether or not Nature 9 bless would be effective on Sidhe...

Berserk is not going to work well as the key with the Sidhe (or Van) is not to get hit. Once you get hit and lose your glamour they generally die fast - especially with a lowered defense.

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Berserking lowers their defense to about 16 - still a tough target for most units - and raises their prot to, IIRC, 17. Add regeneration to that and I haven't seen them "die fast".

10 Daoine and a Champion beat about 15 Jotuns with only 3 losses (some were militia though). I think one of the Jotuns might have made it off the field. Although I'm not sure how many actually went berserk - but Jotuns are the worst case for a nature blessing anyway, since they will usually kill even armored units in one hit. I've never lost a Daoine to indies with nature 9, or even gotten an affliction yet.

I think you underestimate the survivability of the Sidhe.

Its a real shame you can't set a target for "attack one turn" or you could go quickness, change shape, attack one turn rearmost, fire, fire, and fry the rear zones without danger of friendly fire. As it is I can't get the Blue Dragon to use its breath weapon - just seems to ignore the fire order. What am I doing wrong?

Maybe it can't use fire order because it is in close combat?


A couple more comments about the Tuatha theme:

Daoine Sidhe have great precision and above average strength. Javelins in general are pretty effective in Dom II, but Sidhe javelins are really impressive. I've killed Jotuns with them. Also, Sidhe Champions, Lords and Tuathas are really impressive with magic bows because of their high precision - and they can cast both Eagle Eyes and Aim (which stack!). Not so coincidentally, some of the best bows are Air.


Last of the Tuatha shouldn't get Brangwen the Blind One - she's an Avalon witch. Aren't there any Tuatha heroes for them to get instead?