Best sacred units?

[magnate]

Sorry if this has been done before, but I can't find it anywhere. Following on from the thread about bless effects, I'm curious to see what people consider the best sacred units. This is overall best, not necessarily best bang-per-buck, because money/resources might not be a concern for some. Though a unit which is too expensive to produce is also not great.

I won't do a poll, because there are 36 sacred units, not to mention all the different R'lyeh spawns. Here's my obvious shortlist though:

Neifel Giant (Neifelheim)
Jotun Woodsman (all Jotun themes)
Lava Warrior (Abysia base)
Daoine Sidhe (Man LoT)
Knight of the Chalice (Marignon)
Dryad Hoplite (Pan NE)
Celestial Soldier (Tien Chi)
Van or Valkyrie (Vanheim)

Also, are all sacred units capital-only? I don't think the Jotun Woodsman is, nor Mictlan's Eagle & Jaguar Warriors. Not sure about others. Being able to recruit them outside the capital would be a huge boost (though the Mictlan units are pretty crap).

Finally, I've not listed sacred commanders - how many of you use blessings on your sacred commanders, and which ones? I can see that an astral blessing would be good for mages - anything else?

CC

[quantum_mechani]

magnate said:
Sorry if this has been done before, but I can't find it anywhere. Following on from the thread about bless effects, I'm curious to see what people consider the best sacred units. This is overall best, not necessarily best bang-per-buck, because money/resources might not be a concern for some. Though a unit which is too expensive to produce is also not great.

I won't do a poll, because there are 36 sacred units, not to mention all the different R'lyeh spawns. Here's my obvious shortlist though:

Neifel Giant (Neifelheim)
Jotun Woodsman (all Jotun themes)
Lava Warrior (Abysia base)
Daoine Sidhe (Man LoT)
Knight of the Chalice (Marignon)
Dryad Hoplite (Pan NE)
Celestial Soldier (Tien Chi)
Van or Valkyrie (Vanheim)

Also, are all sacred units capital-only? I don't think the Jotun Woodsman is, nor Mictlan's Eagle & Jaguar Warriors. Not sure about others. Being able to recruit them outside the capital would be a huge boost (though the Mictlan units are pretty crap).

Finally, I've not listed sacred commanders - how many of you use blessings on your sacred commanders, and which ones? I can see that an astral blessing would be good for mages - anything else?

CC

Many commanders benefit from a bless, primarily Jotun (any bless but particularly nature), Van and Sidhe (any bless, but particularly water). Woodsmen are capital only, but not vans, flagellants or jaguar warriors. White centaurs should certainly make the list, as should flagellants and hunter spiders. Really, though, there are no sacred units with the possible exception of red guard that are not well worth it with a bless.

[Nerfix]

No Hydras?

[magnate]

IMLE hydras are way too expensive and have crappy defence, meaning lots of afflictions (and no recuperation).

Interesting to see a vote for Black Hunters and Flagellants.

CC

[quantum_mechani]

magnate said:
IMLE hydras are way too expensive and have crappy defence, meaning lots of afflictions (and no recuperation).
CC

Afflictions are not a problem (regen), but expense is. They are not unusable, but as far as sacreds go they are on the low end of the scale.

[Oversway]

I'd think that Black Templars (ulm IF) are at least as good as Knights of the Chalice, although I havn't used either very much.

Jotun Woodsman arn't as bad as hydras, but they have low prot and high cost too... they often don't live long enough for my taste

[Evil Dave]

magnate said:
Interesting to see a vote for Black Hunters and Flagellants.

I tend to like the Black Hunters as well. They're similar to the Jotun Woodsmen (once the rider dies ) with poison and webs. If you can keep the rider alive, they get an extra attack. The are a bit expensive and resource intensive, tho.

I like Flagellants, C'tis Serpent Dancers, and Mictlan troops as well, but I use them differently: they can be produced in bulk, so even tho they die like flies, they can be used in mass attacks. With say, a death-4 fire-4 blessing, they can often rout larger forces by inflicting enough little wounds and fear to cause morale collapse.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "best" sacred troops.

[Huzurdaddi]

As for sacred commanders I *really* like Jotun Herses with a N9 bless they rock! 60 gold and they can be recruited anywhere. Put 8-10 in the front rank of a small-medium army and they p0wn!

My vote for most cost effective would be Daoine Sidhe. But it's capitol only. My vote for best non-capitol would be the van.

[Cainehill]

magnate said:
Interesting to see a vote for Black Hunters and Flagellants.

The black hunters are awesome : give them something to cut down on afflictions (E9 or N9, or both and they're amazing. One of my favorites. Actually I think my favorites are black hunters, jotun woodsmen, niefel giants, and vans; others have too many flaws / weaknesses, while each of the ones I mention can have a number of very potent bless strategies attached. And IIRC : A black hunter with an E9 / N9 bless is protection 27. After it goes berserk : protection 30, _and_ regenerating and berserk. Sweet.

[Boron]

I like Mictlan with a dual/triple bless best.
Their sacreds are so cheap that you can still afford them.
Because of their cheapness you can afford 1 bless more than others like Pan or Vanheim.
And Mictlans Sacreds with something like s9f9w9 are very potent. As a plus the formidable Jaguar warriors are one of the few non-capitol only sacreds.