abysia strategies

[Kel]

1. When people talk about Aby being in the top 5 races, most people are talking about them in MP. I don't know if they still are in SP but some rankings, like AE Ermor for example, may change based on MP/SP. They might still be top 5 in SP but just realize that when most people talk about strategies in Dom2, unless specified, they are talking about MP and any corrleation to SP is incidental.

2. Afaik, until a single cheater was found not that long ago, don't be afraid of MP because of a fear of cheating. While it is clearly possible to cheat, I think it is probably *far* less common in Dom2 than other MP games. I don't know if the single person discovered cheating was the only one, necessarily, but just the fact that it caused so much shock is a good indiciator that it isn't very common. I entirely quit playing Diablo2 because of the rampant cheaters so it would be a factor for me, too, if I thought there was much of it.

3.
a) Watchtowers good
b) Alt-2/Blood 5-6/Const 6 in that order if there are other blood nations to compete with in MP (to race for unique summons since they have to get to const 4).
c) Helios are definitely worth summoning. As good as an ID/AD ? Maybe not...but still really, really good. Plus, you get a 4D mage with one of them, which I am almost always happy to see.
d) ID's on turn 15 is decent enough, imo. That's usually what I aim for but it may also depend on the settings you are using, which you did not specify. On turn 15, though, they are not going to be equipped very well so they may not get sent out until later (except for Gaap, I just give him a luck ammy and send him out asap). Fortunately, they have other uses as site searchers, researchers and summoners (for Cimejes and Bune).
e) How many provinces I set to blood hunting in the early game usually varies depending on a lot of factors. As a general rule, I try to get the uniques asap. The number of provinces I blood hunt will depend on how early I get them blood hunting and how my research is doing. That sounds vague, I know.
The idea for me, though, is to get the uniques asap. If I find some nice sages early on, I may blood hunt more provinces and let the sages research. If I find no indie researchers, I may have to keep more blood hunters at home to hit the blood 5 research level at the same time I get enough slaves.

4. I would disagree with a lot of what Cohen said. Keep in mind that he is coming from the opinion that Abysia is a weak race, rather than one of the top 5.
a) Aby HI is *amazing*, probably my favorite HI in the entire game, and I rarely find them useless. Yes, I would rather have a devil but there is nothing wrong with having both and, both having heat aura and fire resistance, compliment each other just fine. Also keep in mind that Productivity adds gold as well, something I am always in short supply of.

b) You may lose them all on a rout *if* you set them all in the front and fail to plan for their low movement. Early on, going against a cav/inf province, for example, I usually set them in the rear with wait and attack orders. This separates out the cav and if you rout, you don't lose them all. Low movement is a weakness but it is one you can take into account.

c) Aby HI has a morale of 11. That isn't weak, compared to their peers. It's average, at the very least. You can look at the charts for regular troops and see that 10-11 is common.

d) While I agree with magic-3, if it was based on capitol only mages, it would not be so useful. Magic 3 is more useful when you have lots of cheap researchers, rather than a few expensive ones as it does not add a percentage, it adds a set amount of research per mage. That said, it isn't hard to find cheap researchers. There is almost always an indie around, whether you are lucky enough to find a sage or you have to settle for a shaman or druid.

e) Whether or not Aby has combat mages depends on what your research is and what you are facing (or basically, what stage of the game). I find summoning imps in battle pretty useful early on, for example. They don't compare to the nations that have the best combat mages but they are still useful. Keep in mind that demonbred, for example, are one of the few naturally flying mages and they just happen to be sacred and priest 3 in addition.

- Kel