Thank you very much for another excellent guide!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedas
Another thing not to look down at is the broad sword/axe type warrior. Why? Because you have only length 1 weapons on all your other units (except iron and steel warrior). Short sword and axes will not have the upper hand against the very common short sword of early age, broad sword is length 2 however and will. All of them including iron (maul) and (great sword) steel warrior will have problem with the even more common spear. Only the shield maiden with her high defence and morale will have it easier when facing masses of spears, but with only a short sword, one attack and lower strength than the warriors she won't punch through heavy armour such as Abysias. In that case I would definitely go with the double wielding high strength and cheap axe throwing maniacs. Anything with no shield (no high parry) and medium to low defence (but maybe high protection) should get an axe to the head.
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You may not spotted it, but most short-sword or spear-carrying troops in EA
do have shields. And spears repel your broadsword-carrying guys just as good as they do shortsword-wielding gals - better, actually, as both kinds of elite Maidens have bonuses to defense while your "mainacs" actually have
penalties for their axes... (this is also why I am a loud proponent of an idea to arm them mainly with hatchets? by the way - -1 to both attack and defense with double weapons just can't be overcome with any ambidexterity...)
As for low MR I'm currently thinking about actually taking Drain with this nations - but possibly it won't work due to lack of high-end mages who can overcome Drain penalty...
On the other hand, you have access to all 3 research boosters and may forge them with discount. Plus, it's more thematic...
To pyg:
When I tried them some time ago I always had 2 Death-2 Shamans on average by the end of year 2 - mid-year 3 iirc both in SP tests and in MP. Please don't forget that EA Ulm has cheap castles
and all other Shamans you get are far from being useless (from each hundred you gain about 2 D2, 2 N2, 2 E3, 2 F2 - very useful all except N2 which you already have from Antlered ones - and all others can at least research or thug out)...
To Maraxus on tramplers:
Warrior maidens with their high-precision bows! In sufficient numbers they can make tramplers run even without buffs - and if numbers aren't sufficient they just fade back into woods...
As for research, I'd say that with this nation the main theme would be a Construction. With Alteration and Enchantment as secondary obiections (Probably Ench 3-4 first for Strength of Giants). On the other hand, if you have Magic scale, you will probably need to study Thaumathurgy quite soon - you have no problem with research but need more gems to forge with.
And on Pretender design - Forge Lord would be very thematic, but we are severely pressed to put additional paths on him. So I think that Rainbow or even Immobile would be better here. Actually, some time ago I've toyed with an idea of a Drain scale offset with an Awakened Sage... What would Your Baalziness say?