[Micah]

Actually, I just tested it, 15 E9/W9 Vans killed 45 N9/F9 Heart Companions, taking 6 losses, I replicated the test several times, Van losses ranged from 4-6, Arco lost all 45 every single time. Prophet commander on both sides, in Arco dominion. Troops set to hold and attack, prophets to divine bless, sermon of courage, stay behind troops, center of the field.

This gives Arco a stronger bless than is suggested, and also gives them every other conceivable advantage...they actually get to find and fight the vans instead of moving around ineffectually protecting one province at a time while their empire is raided to death, the ridiculous resource differential cost is ignored, as is the triple Holy cost of producing that many Heart Companions, and the benefits of having an Earth bless with sacred mages on Vanheim's side is also not accounted for. Actually fighting a straight up battle is the Van's WORST point, and they STILL win.

Xietor, it seems your understanding of the competitive MP environment is not very developed at this point, and I was there myself about 6 months ago, getting killed in a few games, and doing well in others where I've taken advice has really led me to trust the opinions of the people on this board that have had extensive MP experience. Dom is a very complex game, and while something may look great on paper the people that have actually played a lot of MP are the ones that will be able to tell you if that translates to actual gameplay or not. I guess it might be hard to tell who is actually experienced and who is not, but in general most of the people that are posting here using a definitive tone are fairly accurate in their statements. (Like my earlier post about Arco being a bad bless nation) Your tendency to argue for your favored strategies despite not having nearly the amount of experience as some of the other posters is slightly frustrating, since you can always come up with SOME situation where unit X is better than unit Y. If you're not sure WHY someone is saying what they are then feel free to ask, but arguing based on hypothetical situations doesn't accomplish much.