Help w/Arco
Planning to take Arco in an upcoming multi-player game w/friends. My test games, however, have raised a number of questions. Keep in mind, all of these insights are with Zen's balance mod on, difficult research, indy 9, and 50 magic site settings.
- with heavy scales and an SC pretender (wyrm, dragon, etc), I can manage early expansion pretty well. I'm using the elephant/hypaspist combo detailed in so many posts on this board to get a nice average morale. What next though? In a prior game as Abyssia, by an equivalent turn (20 or so), I had hordes of 30-40 fiends led by demonbred that would lay waste to the armies I am fielding as Arco. Moreover, they were supported by an SC VQ... How does Arco make the transition to competent midgame not in danger of being wiped by this kind of easy summons?
- is heavy scales and high dom the right way to go? I've read posts about the SC Nataraja approach, but don't like the fact that he's not a good expansion SC until you get some construction magic researched and gem income(how high would I have to get). With difficult research, this could be awhile; I'm guessing my early expansion would suffer mightily, especially with the elephant losses I suffer in each and every battle.
- I like Arco's mages ie the mystics with a sprinkling of astrologers. What are some good mid-level magic options to shoot for? I'm assuming their abundance makes them nice battlefield magic support.
- I'm assuming watch tower is a good option. With high production scales, I just don't miss the benefits of a wizard's tower and with non-capitol only mages, I figure more castles + lots of income = good.
Thanks in advance for help... If you've never played Arco, but been blasted by a good player, I'd love to know what it was they fielded at this mid game stage.
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