[Jazzepi]

Early rushes come in three basic forms.

1. The sacred blessed troops.

2. Elephants, or some other trampler.

3. A SC pretender.

Lets address these out of order because some require less discussion than others. The most important thing to remember is that most, but not all, counters are based on researching the proper spells.

2. Generally these troops have low morale / low MR. Find spells that immobilize them, force them to make morale checks, or kill them outright based on an MR check. If you can forge them, the astral bow that causes Soul Slay upon hit is quite nice.

3. SC pretenders are a touch more difficult. If it's undead, look for a spell that damages it. Nature has maggots, I believe astral has a special spell that hits a single square for 5 points of AN damage which can also be cast off a Herald Lance, death magic has dust to dust.

Other pretenders, like a cyclops, are probably better dealt with spamming spells like lightning bolt, mind burn/soul slay, or some other form of direct damage. Also, pay attention to the morale of units you're trying to kill their pretender with. Pretenders that use Awe usually depend on it a great deal for their survival. High morale, mindless units, or undead units, are great for attacking them with.

I believe black bow of Beowulf feeble minds the guy it hits, so this is a good choice against pretenders who are buffing themselves going into battle.

Also, remember that if a pretender routes and has no where to flee, they die. And if a pretender is with an army, even a small one, when you kill 75% of the troops, that army, including the pretender, will flee.

1. Like pretenders, you really need to look at the composition of the blessed unit to consider how to beat it. Sacred units generally have high MR, and high morale, so soul slay spells are out unless there's an extremely low amount of those units, like the EA Neifhelm giants.

In another instance, I used earth grip against low strength Vans. The grip reduced their defense to 0, and then I swarmed them with cheap medium / light infantry. Another tactic I used was dust to dust against a bless rush MA Ermor who had shadow vestals.

I hope that helps some. Since your early magic is somewhat limited with LA Marignon, that should give you some ideas on what you can, and can't do. Also the size of the map (number of provinces / player) will let you get a rough idea of how far along in your research you should be.

Jazzepi