what to do with sirrush ?

Horst F. JENS · #1 June 15th, 2009, 03:50 AM

playing EA Arco with CBM mod, i discovered that sirrush are only 8 Astral gems and castable by most of my Mystics (SE, conj 5).

Now the question is: what should i do with those ancient dragons ?

The sirrush are super-strong, sacred, size 6 and have decent hitpoints and 3 good attacks (all length 0).

At the moment i use them as castle defenders. Having an S4E4N4 bless, 2-3 of those beasts can block my castle entrances and eat anything in front of them. Only danger is enemy mages casting rage ore other side-switching spells on them.

I noted that in open-field combat my Sirrush get swarmed and slayed by normal infantry.

Also noted that after gift of reason a Sirrush has only 2 misc slots.

At the moment i think about bringing them to battle together with a priestess (for bless) and some other mages to cast luck, gift of flight and body etheral on them.

Any clever ideas how to use the Sirrush other than as castle defense and what to to with them after gift-of-reason ?

ano · #2 June 15th, 2009, 05:47 AM

Sirrush is generally a waste of gems. If you want to use gems effectively, forge or (though EA Arco doesn't really need it) create golems.
Gift of Reason is even bigger waste of gems.

Executor · #3 June 15th, 2009, 06:01 AM

What to do with Sirrush? Don't summon them.

Agema · #4 June 15th, 2009, 06:04 AM

Don't GoR a Sirrush. Total waste of gems. If you've got a decent bless, you can get some niche uses from them, but generally there are much better things to do with 8 astral pearls and I'd not summon them except in an emergency. If you do take them into battle, mix them in with other units so they don't get swarmed.

Kuritza · #5 June 15th, 2009, 07:01 AM

As blockers, perhaps, if you are desperate and have a nature bless to give them some staying power. Mix them with infantry as suggested.
I have used them once, when invaded by a large Pythium army with communion, angels etc. I had GoH up, thus they were just freaking huge and absorbed lots of hits while foul vapors did their foul job. But then again, I just didnt have astral/earth mages to summon golems.

Horst F. JENS · #6 June 15th, 2009, 07:11 AM

it seems that it was a bad idea to gift of reason one. Now i think i will send the Sirrush into the next Arena Deathmatch. But even if he win, he can not hold the trident, so it is rather pointless :-(

vfb · #7 June 15th, 2009, 07:33 AM

Well, if you already GOR'ed it, I say give it a Lycanthrope's Ammy and a Girdle of Might. Or a Lycanthrope's Ammy and the Gift of Kurgi, if you've got it.

MaxWilson · #8 June 15th, 2009, 11:00 AM

Wait, this is Arco, right? Have a mystic cast "Iron Warriors", "Luck", and "Body ethereal" on it and let it rip. Especially with your blessing.

-Max

Baalz · #9 June 15th, 2009, 11:55 AM

Yeah, I have to disagree with the advice not to use them. MaxWilson has one very good suggestion, another is that they get a whole lot more scary used together with other things so they don't get swarmed. Amusingly, they work fairly well with bog beasts and longdead (more a C'tis thing, but you'll get the point and could do something similar). Sure it's not *that* hard to counter, but pretty effective for the gem cost in some situations (do I attack that poison cloud group with my expensive dual blessed sacreds, or kit out a thug with poison immunity and hope the sirrush doesn't eat him?) Niche unit, but I've seen them be fairly effective.

Sombre · #10 June 15th, 2009, 12:03 PM

I think in CBM they aren't too bad, but pricey considering they can get blasted by nasty kill spells and/or swarmed by not so awesome units. With the right bless and with buffs like body ethereal they're ok. This is true of so many things it's ridiculous though. Still feels like putting a silk hat on a pig.

They are fun however. And again, not awful. Just not great.