Bandar Log advice

[secretperson]

I've been trying out new nations and just recently decided to give Bandar Log a go, but I'm having trouble deciding on a good pretender build. I've been trying various bless strategies as they get some okay sacreds and even better ones via summons from what I can tell. However, I am having trouble expanding early without a SC pretender.

Anyone have some advice on pretender builds for this nation? Or just general advice? Is an awake SC pretender pretty much required for this nation or can I use some sort of bless? I'm assume a high bless probably wouldn't be very viable...

[MaxWilson]

I've never played Bandar Log but IIRC it is famous for its trampling elephants. I expect that a bless or awake pretender would be superfluous. (Blessed units would probably still be inferior to elephants for expansion.)

-Max

[Endoperez]

Sacred White One mages benefit from Earth bless reinvigoration. Gandharvas (Conjuration 5/astral summon) have two attacks and prot 17, and can use both the reinvigoration and the protection from E9 bless. You have nation-spesific Celestial Music that gives all sacred magic beings Quickness, so Water 9 effect will eventually become useless.

You can summon Yaksha and Yakshini from Conjuration, given enough Nature; Yakshini can do Clams and Yakshas can forge Dwarven Hammers. For an astral nation, that's quite a deal.

You have weak mages and weak PD. You have to work around that. No doubt someone will soon start throwing fecal matter about monkey pd being a joke.

[K]

Go with a E9/N9 on a Sleeping Earth Mother with good scales. You shouldn't have any trouble expanding with White Ones and atavi archers as long as you avoid the trap of Tiger Riders and/or Elephants.

Shoot or Ghandarvas(Conj5) ASAP and look for death scales in the wrong place so that you can Akashic Record them for death sites (possibly letting you use your awesome death summons).

[atul]

As K says, White Ones are solid with bless that strengthens their armour. Dunno how "good" scales you can get with E9N9 though, even if you get free points from heat and semi-free (for shorter games) with heavy death.

I've tried to use Elephants, but they just cost way too much. You can get same indy-bashing power from the combination K suggests with way less money - resources might become an issue though.

And btw, check the EA Arcoscephale thread for advice how to use Oneiads. Your astral commander summons have similar qualities (awe and good buffing magic), with even more hands to wield weapons and shields with.

[secretperson]

Thank you guys for the input and advice, I'll definately try these out.


I also noticed that Bandar Log has access to the same blood summons that Lanka has. Is it feasible in any way to acquire these as well? Some of these summons are very nice

[atul]

You can bootstrap to blood by blood hunting with many scouts in several provinces (5000+ pop, preferably low income) to get enough slaves for the first empowerment and going forward from there.

Or taking a pretender with blood.

But wouldn't make that a cornerstone tactic, more like an extra trick in your sleeve. After all, researching blood with what is essentially a non-blood nation isn't necessarily that cost-effective.

[K]

Sure. Regular commanders can get blood slaves, just at a very very bad rate (1-20, in my calculation). Scouts are the favored unit since 20 of them is only 400 gold.

There are also some summonable commanders that get Blood on randoms (one of the three Treelords and Lamia Queens).

Btw, you can go E9/N9 with: Order0/Sloth3/Heat3/Growth3/Misfortune2/Magic1 and dom 8 on an Earth Mother. If the scales scare you, then drop the Earth. Nature 9 is the keystone of most good bless strategies for the regen and most importantly the Beserk. It's a little hard to break out of your province with the low production, but once you have the provinces around your capital cleared you are good to go.

[secretperson]

Taking the first province seems to be my biggest problem. Seems like the starting Bandar Log army is pretty much garbage, which is why I was wondering about the SC pretender approach.

How late can I take my first province without worrying too much about being too far behind with Bandar Log?

[secretperson]

Also, how much am I going to hate taking 2 misfortune?