Last of the Tuatha strategy

[Jasper]

After more testing I've come to agree with Keir that the Water 9 blessing is better than Fire 9 for Tuatha (a main point of our discussion in the thread he mentions). I think I must have had bad luck with my initial Water 9 test, or done something stupid. Moreover the benefit of +4 defense increases as your troops gain experience.

Still, Fire 9 + Dom 6 is much cheaper to get with the Moloch than Water 9 + Dom 6 is with a Blue Dragon...

As an aside, I think it's better to send your Sidhe into battle, rather than casting evocations. They're effective, hard to hurt, and you won't get any friendly fire. Barkskin and Mist Form help greatly here.

Also, someone else mentioned putting your Doaine Sidhe in the front to attract arrows. IMHO this is a very bad idea. True, their glamour helps a bit, but for their cost they're still vulnerable, especially due to their low protection. Something cheaper with higher protection works better IMHO, as you really don't want to lose any Sidhe during expansion.

[ January 10, 2004, 05:37: Message edited by: Jasper ]

[Jasper]

Arg! I hit quote rather than edit.

[ January 10, 2004, 05:37: Message edited by: Jasper ]

[quantum_mechani]

My personal favorite strat for Last of the Tuatha is using a nine astral oracle. Being the cheapest way to get a level nine blessing (other than the blood fountain) it leaves enough points to have growth and productivity scales. I find that important to compensate for the lost income from the turmoil and luck scales which seem most effecient for the theme.

Also Cu Sihde work very well with Twist Fate, and with already high magic resistance both your sacred troops make a good counter for a variety of spells.

[ January 10, 2004, 18:23: Message edited by: quantum_mechani ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by quantum_mechani:
My personal favorite strat for Last of the Tuatha is using a nine astral oracle.

I used both. An Oracle with 9 astral and 9 water. It struck me as bubbling water so I named it Champagne

[ January 10, 2004, 19:00: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[quantum_mechani]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
I used both. An Oracle with 9 astral and 9 water.

Was that with order or turmoil?
Becuse using turmoil even with productivity and growth I was having trouble affording sacred units.

[Shuji Doyama]

Hi again.

I'm beginning to think that while lvl9 water blessing is great, it may be dangerous. I am playing with 4 difficult computers now, using (besides normal armies, of course) lonely well-equipped Tuatha mages. Lvl4 construction gives them some really nice items, and protective magic makes them virtually impossible to kill for the conventional armies comp is raising. For now, I've lost just one of them, he was killed by the Golden Naga pretender god. (it was a tight duel, btw - Naga had just 20 hp remaining). I must say I was impressed by these Tuatha commandos. I had a single Tuatha reclaim province targeted by Imprint Souls, killing 100 madmen and flagellants. I am starting to think that even in Multi (have yet to learn before I try) they may be used to great effect.

The problem with water blessing is quickness. I am using resillience amulets and rainbow armors for better rejuvenation, yet quickened mages manage to spend more fatique than they recover.
For now I would like to try some other bless effects. For example, with lvl9 Air sacred troops don't fear arrows even fired by these friendly longbows, and it will take less points to build a pretender God.

[ January 11, 2004, 01:15: Message edited by: Shuji Doyama ]

[Keir Maxwell]

I have had alot of fun with water9 but I'm about to try a slightly different approach with C'tis that might benifit Tuatha - Moloch with Fire9 Water4-6. Did you try something like this when you were experimenting with Fire Jasper?

The idea is that Fire9 is not that pricey and Water4-6 gets you a big part of what Water9 does without the full cost. Wether or not it works depends on how much faster you rout your opponents as this is a good way of reducing casulties. Routing people fast becomes increasingly important as magic starts to back up missile fire and you want to get the battle won before the enemy mages wreak to much havoc on your expensive sacred troops. However if the defense of the Daone Sidhe is not high enough it won't work so well.

I don't build anything other than sacred troops or arrow catchers in my home province with Tuatha as while the longbows do work they don't work well with Daoine Sidhe. Having spent so many points on high level magic for bless effects I want as many of my troops as possible to be able to utilise the bless effects. This is partly a personal taste question and I do understand people can get good results early with Longbows and without the complexity/risk the Daoine Sidhe/Cu Sidhe armies entail. If you can get the start right relying on sacred troops you do end up with a higher quality army.

The lack of good arrow catchers is a big problem with this race. Its nice to have something with a prot of about 13 and a strat move of 2 to deploy to middle and fore of your army on hold and attack so that the arrows stay away from the expensive sacred lads - but Man doesn't get anything like that.

I do think this is a tricky race to use and requires alot of practice to get the expansion right. I've gone off expensive low hit point troops for the moment (it was the Centaur Warrior experiance) but when I next try them I must remember to give Tuatha another go as it is an underdog race with some real strengths and I like that combo.

cheers

Keir