Caelum tips?

[Gandalf Parker]

Did someone mention a "why use this" question? My territory.

Caelum can move a support army quickly.

They can use mercs or indeps to form a hold-attack front line, wait for the enemy to charge it, then attack at the rear.

Caelum as an AI loves to pester everyone with random attacks of "Call of the Wind". With alittle more intelligent targeting and followup that can be one effective tool.

Caelum can play checkers with the map. Use your scouts or dominion to find weak provinces. Jump OVER rougher indeps like knights and longbow. Caelum has the ability to bring up both mages and priests to build all structures. Leapfrogging that way you can move farther and faster than anyone. And attacking you with an army such as Ulm would be doubly hard because they would have to fight you for a few, then indeps while you recover, to reach some more of you to fight.

Caelums ability to leap over provinces also makes it a good ally. One of the common complaints about "lack of diplomacy" is that you cant move armies across an allies area. But there are nations (Caelum is one) who dont really have that problem. One small stepping stone province will let you move across alot of allied territory and QUICKLY come to the aid of a friend.

You have fast access to one of my favorite spells Wind Ride to snatch enemy commenders just before a battle. For nations who tend to assign alot of army to a few commanders this can cause much of his army to rout if even a scout attacks them.

Perhaps you should test it a little more, if you are careless with them or set them the wrong orders, they will be decimated.

The same as if you group 3 elephants together in a squad and they rout and run through your army and over your commanders.

[Raen]

Originally posted by Zen:
Perhaps you should test it a little more, if you are careless with them or set them the wrong orders, they will be decimated.

Fine, oh flawless one. Care to give me the order you assign to Spine Horn Warriors to keep them from rushing on to the next group after the first group has been routed?

Depends on what you are fighting and why are you using Spire Horn warriors? Do you have any other units? What type of Commander(s) do you have? What type of spell levels?

I'm not flawless, but as is common to some people who play this game, they ask a question; don't like the answer or it doesn't fit what they wanted to do; and do not attempt to find a way to circumvent it and instead say broad generalizations like "I've played a Mammoth nation, I want to play a flying one" that don't take into account the whole and only a thin perspective of what they can't seem to get to work.

[Raen]

Originally posted by Zen:
Depends on what you are fighting and why are you using Spire Horn warriors?

I'm using Spine Horn Warriors because that's what Caelum starts the game with.

I'm not flawless, but as is common to some people who play this game, they ask a question; don't like the answer or it doesn't fit what they wanted to do; and do not attempt to find a way to circumvent it and instead say broad generalizations like "I've played a Mammoth nation, I want to play a flying one" that don't take into account the whole and only a thin perspective of what they can't seem to get to work.

I'll resist the urge to reply in kind. Let's bank the fires a bit.

The point is, later on, do these flying things actually contribute, or are they just irritants?

What troops does Caelum field in the endgame?

Alright I'll try to be as genial as possible in explaining.

In the End Game with Caelum you are using a conjunction of A.) Iceclads (If you have enough production to really utilize them, and your domain is fairly widespread) B.) Blizzard Warriors (For more suvivability and after you have such spells as Wind Guide, Orb Lightning and such) C.) Spring Hawks and Winter Wolves, various other summons. D.) Mammoth/Wingless/Temple Guards. This is the 'meat' of your army, for when your opponent has countered your raiding and starving/diseasing tactics (along with your mages).

Unless your opponent is playing with alot of Nature or growth, they will be hurt by the inability to really quickly reinforce, hold outlying provinces and spending money on Province Defense that you can defeat anyway with a properly made raiding team.

You on the other hand will have the ability to reinforce virtually anywhere, have access to some of the best magic and mages, and able to counter what you are weak against with your land armies (that being arrows, fire magic).

You more than likely are going to have more money and more security than your opponent as well as a better research tree. (This is on average)

That is what the end game is like for Caelum, you are picking away at them until you can steamroll over them.

[apoger]

>The point is, later on, do these flying things actually contribute, or are they just irritants?


In a long game Caelum can build up a hefty supply of 25 troop flying armies. They aren't tough enough to beat down real armies, but are often more than enough to overcome province defense of undefended locations. With their fast movement they can be "shotgunned" all over enemy territory. All games provide differing circumstances, but this tactic has served me well in the past.

[Psitticine]

I'm currently playing a game as Caelum. I've been using large armies of Blizzard Warriors with Wind Guide for aiming and Arrow Fend for friendly-fire protection. The front line is set to Hold and Attack so the enemy gets well softened up before the melee begins.

For the regular front line troops, I've been using Mastodons grouped with Wingless or Iceclads. The High Seraphs do most of the "recruiting", however, as I've been relying heavily upon summons.

This has been working so well, I haven't been leaning much on the other troops, although I did have a lot of luck with squads that were set to attack the rear after Holding.

I also had fun messing with Ulm by jumping around, pillaging and tearing up temples, with an army of Spire Horn Warriors. They were meant to be rather disposable, so I just let them clash with local defense, chewing up the ol' support system, until they finally got wiped out. I should have recruited some more, come to think of it. That approach was both successful and properly vicious.

[ December 01, 2003, 03:52: Message edited by: Psitticine ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes all the nations have seem to have something that makes it a very efficient counter to something that other nations like to do. Caelum DEFINETLY forces a player to spread his defenses equally over all his empire. Not only the winged troops but also the obvious built-in preference for spells like Call of the Winds.

Without Caelum then the Ulm tactic of maintaining a strong army in the forefront would be much more powerful.

Of course one of the nations with a built in counter to Caelum is Jotunheim where even a 6 point defense in a province is adequate.