Sceptical about sceptics

[Pickles]

I have decided I like the Golden Age Arcoscephale with their homeric feel. However I have not been able to find whay Sceptics do. The game says that they reduce the dominion of other gods but there is no command for this. Is it a passive effect or are they in fact simply expensive scouts?

Further as a newb I am not sure what good all their cheap research does me but I have lots of it!
Any suggestions for good paths to follow (summoning to support the indifferent troops is the first idea)

Ta
Pickles

[PvK]

I think the Skeptics reduce your own people's faith in you, too, and the thing to do is send them abroad quickly!

Use them to reduce enemy dominion.

For research, I suggest looking for powerful-looking target spells which your mages can use, and trying to achieve those deliberately.

All the paths have good things, but it helps to decide what you're going to do and how you're going to use it to good effect.

PvK

[tinkthank]

I actually never tried G.A.

Are you saying that they have a stealthy unit with a "built-in" Stone Idol function??

[Scott Hebert]

First, to Tinkthank. AFAICT, yes, that's exactly what the Sceptic is. Stealthy(+0), reduces Dominion by presence.

Golden Era is one of my favorite themes, actually. My first inclination is to recruit a Sceptic, make him my Prophet, and send him out to find annoying/weak Dominions. When you combine his innate Dominion-reducing ability, his innate Dominion-growing ability (as your Prophet), AND his activated ability of preaching to reduce Dominion, he's VERY effective at tearing down enemy Dominions. If you can get him into Mictlan's capital early, e.g., you can really wreak some havok.

Also of note is that Golden Era has perhaps the easiest time making Stone Idols, considering their innate Earth/Astral income, and their Mystics.

Oh, and the Wind Riders are really good sacred troop. I recall Zen making comparisons to other sacred troops, and not seeing them stack up, but that lance of theirs is really quite deadly.

Scott

Golden Era is a harder nut to crack than most.

It has the best commanders availiable to Arco (The Priestess and the Mystic) but also has some other useful niche commanders.

The Skeptic falls into this Category. You need to have 3 or 4 in one place to really see the Dominion drop consistantly.

Another perhaps overlooked unit is the Engineer. Once you have a secondary fortress I usually build 5-10 of these for take and hold measures.

Golden Era is only really very usable with a Pretender that plays into the Mystic strengths. Since you can equip a Mystic fairly easily with Earth Boots and a Starshine Cap, you can make Golembatants which fill in nicely with Chariot/PetLast armies.

Edit: As BT said, I did a comparison of the Pegi's vs others and found that they are just too prohibitively expensive for my particular taste. That doesn't mean you can't equip just the Commanders and use them as flying hammers, though they don't do as well as Vanjarls or other comparable troops for other nations. It's a semi-meeting of the minds of flying troops along with the strengths of Arco.

With the ability to communion up Mystics to cast whatever Battlefield buffs you need, I feel it's important to use the large armies of chariots to hammer into enemy territory based on the survivability of such large armies with support Mystics.

[ June 08, 2004, 15:46: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Scott Hebert]

Though, Zen, it's rather aggravating that you can't take 'special' Dominions along with themes. If you could, I'm not sure I'd ever play anything but Golden Era Golem Cult.

Scott

Originally posted by Bayushi Tasogare:
Though, Zen, it's rather aggravating that you can't take 'special' Dominions along with themes. If you could, I'm not sure I'd ever play anything but Golden Era Golem Cult.

Scott

I see absolutely no reason why you should not be able to. Though, I may be a minority.

[tinkthank]

Two follow-up questions:

1. Isnt Stealth-0 a little low to trust to send out a naked prophet deep into enemy territory? I find that anything under stealth-10 WILL be found soon enough.

2. Anyone know the stats on a Stone Idol / Skeptic? (Is it like, say, a level-2 Priest in reverse? Or an anti-temple? Or what?) (I actually love stone idols, I frequently get them on good stealth units, just for the idea; yummy with Marignon.)

EDIT: No, 3 questions:
3. Will putting a Stone Idol on a Sceptic stack? (wow)

[ June 08, 2004, 16:40: Message edited by: tinkthank ]

[Scott Hebert]

Originally posted by tinkthank:

1. Isnt Stealth-0 a little low to trust to send out a naked prophet deep into enemy territory? I find that anything under stealth-10 WILL be found soon enough.

It depends. Going into a capital that still has its beginning PD is suicide, yes. Other than that, I've never had much problem in SP with people finding my Stealth-0 characters.

As for a Spy, I'm pretty fearless about sticking them even in Capitals. (Not that GE Arco gets Spies...)

2. Anyone know the stats on a Stone Idol / Skeptic? (Is it like, say, a level-2 Priest in reverse? Or an anti-temple? Or what?) (I actually love stone idols, I frequently get them on good stealth units, just for the idea; yummy with Marignon.)

It would be interesting to know. It might be automatic... which would sort of fit with my observations. Maybe not, though. It shouldn't go off a Temple check, because that makes little sense...

Scott

[MythicalMino]

so, by the description, skeptics *do* hurt your own dominion, right?