Flexibility and Mobility; How do you raid/teleport without air or strong astral?

[Immaculate]

So, i am currently playing three MP games. Two of the nations have stong air magic and i am looking forward to using cloud trapeze to get my thugs and thunderstrike spammers deep into enemy territory at the beginning of a war, but...

in my third game i am playing sauromatia and while i feel that their front-end assault should be pretty effective, i worry about their quick access to raiding thugs.

Sending (multiple) large armies to fight the enemy, at a strategic level, seems like a bad idea. It gives my opponent a chance to build multiple defensive lines and lets them raid me as i press my armies into his borderlands.

So, i guess this is a pretty generic question, but how do you raid without air or strong astral? How can i get some mobility on an army that has no flying troops?

Any suggestions are very welcome.

[Ironhawk]

The short answer is to diversify your nation before you get to that point. If you know your nation has no long term access to astral you should plan from the start to summon or find mages that can.

That said - if you find yourself stuck in a situation where you just dont have those mages... I'm not sure. Its really like having your hands tied to not have astral or air. The only thing I can think of is Faery Trod and Stygian Paths. The first of which is inaccurate and the second of which is deadly. If you at least had SOME access to air you could forge flying shoes. Then put them on your thugs/SCs and that will give you some good mobility.

[llamabeast]

If you just march on his capital and win he will be screwed. I've been playing Tir recently, and while their raiding abilities are great, there is a lot to be said for straightforward force as well. Sauromatia has plenty of that.

[Immaculate]

Thank you both for your answers. I'm still pretty new and i had not really considered the strategic war as much as the tactical. I have to start considering this now.

I.

[Quitti]

Also do consider the remote attack spells as an useful way to raid - you won't get the income, but it will sure hurt your opponent. By remote attack spells I mean horrors, ghost riders and possibly unrest-increasing spells such as hurricane, raging hearts and so on (latter won't stop the gem income though).

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Immaculate

So, i guess this is a pretty generic question, but how do you raid without air or strong astral? How can i get some mobility on an army that has no flying troops?

There's always "traditional" raiders - along shared borders and with stealthy troops lead by stealthy commanders.

Also, while it's not raiding per se, many of the same goals can be achieved by using remote spells to cause unrest (rain of toads, etc.)

[Frozen Lama]

well for sauromatia you can use your sorceresses in packs. especially if you have an E bless of some kind, and N helps, you put a couple sorceresses together with brands and shields and they can run all over the place wreaking havok

[Baalz]

Quitti hit the nail on the head. You have to play each nation along the grain, and when you've got a nation like Sauromatia you've got to plan for going without the A/S. Sauromatia does have a couple national heroes with A though, one of which is immortal and a pretty thuggable lass. Outside of that though, what you want to do is focus on remote attack spells (arouse hunger, hoard from hell, call of the wild, and send horror...you've probably empowered an Eranies to blood, right?). These spells will rock the casaba against anybody putting just a point or two in PD, but you'll want some good scouting to find out before you blow your load. Sauromatia also has ubiquitous thugs with warrior sorceresses being easily blessed/outfitted/buffed for PD clearing, so you can look at a pretty good blitz/raid along your whole border (wherever he doesn't have an army). Sauromatia also has easy access to vampires and can blood sacrifice, so if you push your dominion a bit (jade daggers) immortal, stealthy fliers make excellent raiders. If you manage to line up crystal coins (then forge a cap) your Enaries can teleport, power of the speres and soul vortex... which then leads to a never ending stream of undead being created as a blocking action while the PD has their souls sucked out.

[K]

As a Blood nation with some access to astral, you might want to look into Horrors. They can destroy PD with ease and can demolish unprepared armies. Then take the undefended provinces with Imps via Horde from Hell.

Sure, it is a blood heavy strategy and so happens later in the game, but as a nation that does Blood, Nature, and Astral, the Path of Blood has many useful tactics (for example, see Rain of Toads for the easiest way to shut down enemy troop production).