[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
You've missed their major advantage, which is that they are still balanced for the Dominions 1 economy, whereas every other nation now has half the gold production available.

I don't happen to have Dominions 1, so I have no idea what you're talking about. Besides, it is irrelevant: Ermor will always have a more ridiculously huge number of troops than a living nation: Undoing Ermor's troops cannot be accomplished by hamhandedly throwing more troops at it, and if use the correct tools for the job, losing ANY troops in a clash of conventional armies is completely optional.

I believe that that statement is quite literally true. Ermor has absolutely no limitations on the maximum number of troops it can support

Incorrect: There is a maximum number of troops that Ermor (or any nation) is allowed to have, after which Ermor will not be able to receive any more troops, and any attempts to summon better troops risks failure due to this limit.

and pays no upkeep on its mages whatsoever.

This is certainly an advantage, but I don't see it as overwhelming: Other nations are perfectly capable of switching to summoned, no-upkeep mages as well.

quote:

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Don't let yourself be goaded into a rash campaign: Act with patience and prudence, not a knee-jerk reaction of "Ermor must die!".

I think that this is poor advice. Once ghost riders comes into play, which tends to be before turn 40, you basically have no chance against an Ermorian player. This spell makes building fortreses necessary in every province with a temple, which drains gold reserves incredibly quickly.

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Impulsive, poorly considered, knee-jerk attacks are invariably the cause of total army loss. An impulsive, badly planned rush with poor strategic support will leave you in a very awkward position if it fails horribly.

I see you've caught onto my remote temple burning strategy. Building fortresses in every province with a temple, this is basically necessary anyway: Ghost Riders is not the only remote-raiding spell, and fliers, or flying SCs, can easily maraud completely unchecked, leaving you to try to guess their next move in a giant, extremely aggravating, whack-a-mole, unless you build forts. Province defense can stop very lightweight attacks, but is generally worthless against a human player, and there is really no point to using it other than to run off scouts. Fortresses, no matter how lousy, however, do something that NO amount of PD can do: No matter HOW large the attacking army is, you will always buy yourself a minimum of one turn to respond. Furthermore, your attacker is unable to pillage the province, and the amount of savaging he can conduct merely by raising taxes to 200 is far more limited. Lastly, if your attacker is unable to breach the wall, he can't kill your army: Forts are particularly effective against lone SCs, because SCs tend to be exceedingly poor at sieging even the weakest forts, and will be forced to either bring or request backup, give up, or camp out in front of the gates until the defender can muster a suitable response and run him off.

It should also be noted that Ermor is not even the only nation capable of using remote summons, including Ghost Riders. I regularly employ the use of Ghost Riders for temple burnings as living nations as well. Forts are mandatory, and are by far a better long-term investment than troops that invariably die ineffectually, as I tend to see them do often: After all, if you can't defend your land and prevent the enemy from taking it, all you have really accomplished is clearing the indies out at your own expense so that your enemy can use the land. This is stupid: If you can't hold onto it, it's not yours, and you're just conquering it for the enemy.

Both population killing Ermorian themes should probably cost 200 points just to match the other reanimating themes that exist.

CW Pan is a zero-point reanimating theme. DT C'tis costs 200, an amount many believe is far overpriced, and only seems to warrant any cost at all because it (allegedly) lacks the killer dominion that will render your lands devoid of income, and thus permits the simultaneous use of living troops, removing the one-dimensional limitation of other reanimation themes.