The Power of Pangaea - Centaur Warriors

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by apoger:
The satyr hoplites, centaurs, and minotaurs are all good troops. And yes, all draw Pangaea towards a military-based/order game rather than a turmoil based magic-maenad game.


The 350 gold cost of Pan's is hard to justify even with the improved magics (over Dom1) and potential maenad production.

IMHO.

I still think this is because Misfortune is free points if you have Order (very little risk), and Turmoil/Luck doesn't work like it should.

But there's no question that Panii are still very very expensive for their magical skills. Given that Pangaea was widely considered weak in Dom I, I don't see why Panii couldn't have gotten the magic improvement at the same cost, or split into a Pan (200 or so for the Dom I magic skills, maybe 1-2 less maenads per turn) and a Pan Elder (Dom II stats and cost, maybe capitol only).

[Jasper]

If you're taking full advantage of the Maeneds the Pan aren't such a bad deal, especially as they're fairly robust and stealthy. Of course, they're not really a good deal either...

The problem is that taking full advantage means you lose about 1/3 of your income essentially in return for more random events, of about neutral net value.

[Keir Maxwell]

Here is where I'm at with the design:

Mother of Lions, nature3, dom5
order3, prod1, growth3, misfortune3, magic3
Wizards Tower

Could be a good race for players new to dom as its got narrow magic (earth, nature) a useful starting spell (Panic) that can be easily cast in the first battles (pretender) and boosted (Eagle Eyes). Add in powerful, fast, stealthy troops in the Centaur Warriors with good leaders in your Dryads, Centaur Heirophants, and a Pan per major army after the first - commanded by your pretender.

I stay away from all the strat move 1 units. For resource heavy troops the Centaur Cataphracts have strat move 2 and do a good job in the center. Early on the only unit I build is Centaur Warriors. Stick the free Satyrs on hold and attack in the middle and set the Centaurs loose on indies - there is lots of different tactics to try with the Centaurs and surrounding and destroying ai armies is a breeze. I really like the speed, both tactical and strategic, of this race.

The Mother of Lions is cheap, decent precision (13), can cast Panic, gets free lions every battle and has a decent base dominion - 3. You could go for a more costly pretender and reduce the extravegent scales but seeing as the Mother works really well why bother?

Magic3 makes Dryads good researchers curing one of Pangaea's major weaknesses and the lure of Mass Protection is overwhelming. Centaur Warriors will be ~17 prot with Mass Protection and the Cataphracts will be up around ~22. Must get time for a play tonight so I can get far enough to try it out.

I patrol on the first turn setting taxes to 150% (I'm cautious) and do a bit of other patrolling for extra gold when there is troops who don't need to move off that turn.

I find this race a pleasure to play. Frustration value is very low (as long as you check to see if you are moving or sneaking everytime!) and if you set your Centaur Heirophants on stay behind troops you don't have an archery phase speeding up the battle replays - which are pretty fast anyway what with the Centaur Warriors.

Merry Xmas

Keir

[ December 25, 2003, 07:17: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[Keir Maxwell]

I do not think the Pan are weak. I'm using one per army with my order race. Currently its turn 26 and I have three large armies with Pan commanding them, one has 12 maenads, one 19, one 24. The Maenads are placed at the front middle on attack closest and take steady casulties but they are still kept up to strength. As the Pan are mostly outside of my weak dominion my order is not harming them nor would having turmoil help them much.

I have conquered a powerful Pythium and I'm now beating on Marignon with the help of C'tis so I've done alot of fighting.

A Pan cost 23gps a turn to upkeep and churn out more than enough maenads to make up for this - especially as maenads have no upkeep and appear right where you need them.

I like Pan - lots. I'm playing order and maybe right now thats one of the best ways to use Pan as it makes them affordable and if you are using them actively they are not inside you dominion anyway. So do you have to play turmoil to make good use of Pan? I think not.

I think we can throw away Dom1 assessments of Pangaea's stregnth based on my experiance. powerful, forgiving, militarily flexible - just make sure you don't sneak when you mean mean to move.

Cheers

Keir