Any good strategies for C'tis Poison Slingers

[stiger]

The problem with fire-and-flee for archers (or slingers in that case) is that they do actually... well... flee after it. So after each battle they end up in another province (or even scattered in three different provinces) and you have to spend turns geting them into your army again. Hope it will be fixed.

As for poison slingers, I've had hard time using them even with 100% poison immune army. Their range of fire is just too small... A sauromancer using breath of dragon or, with some beefing up, poison cloud/foul vapors will have much more impact on any battle (provided the army is resistant of course) then a couple of slingers for the same price.

[Thilock_Dominus]

I tried the strategy Gandalf Parker suggested. It works okay. But somehow a big investment for an units to fire & Flee.

Here is how I played them in one of my main forces(new game, turn 15):

- My Pretender god a green dragon, placed in front, first two turns casting luck and twisted faith. Set to attack rearest enemy.
- Poison Slingers unit, placed left flank front, set to fire and flee on closest enemy.
- Heavy Infantry, placed in center, hold for 2 turns before attacking nearest enemy.
- Light Infantry, placed on the right flank between center and front, holding 2 turns and attacking nearest enemy.
- Small armies of Swamp Guards are protecting the pretender guard, leaders, priests etc.
- Leader: Lizard King, placed rear, casting fanatism etc.
- Leader: Marsh Master, placed right flank rear, casting offensive spells and raising dead.
- Leader: A commander wich name I can't remember(the one with rainbow armor), placed with the light infantry.
- A unit of snakes, placed behind the heavy infantry, hold 2 turns and attacking the nearest enemy.

The Pretender is decoying all enemy arrows, big deal the dragon have nice protection, so no harm is done. I have manage to scare the enemy units after 6 or 7 turn with the poison slingers and the dragon so it seems to work quiet nice.
As 'Stiger' says about the fire & flee I agree 100%, but I would also hope they do something about the poison slingers range. Not am I saying they should have range like the archers, but a little more would make them ideal.
Another thing is the fire & flee command, why don't make it optionable to set how many times they will fire before flee.

[ January 10, 2004, 11:04: Message edited by: Thilock_Dominus ]

[Wauthan]

I'm not a big fan of C'Tis but I've ran a "Toxic Avenger" campaign were poison was the whole point of the army. Undead and Vinemen to attract arrows and tie up the infantery. Bogbeasts on hold and attack closest behind them. Poison Slingers with fire archers on the flank. Serpent Dancers on hold and attack next to them. Three nature casters (druids I think) on 2*attack 3*breath of the dragon on the other flank. Green dragon pretender on fire closest in the rearmost position. Right next to Lizard King prophet with antipoison gear put on.

Worked very well. Nature 10 gives the Serpent Dancers less staying power than Water 10 but their whole role was to tie up the enemy in case things went badly. With Slingers on Fire Archers they ran past the melee and tossed their grenades right on the commanders. Pretty often the infantery would break pretty fast and run right back trough the clouds of poison.

As game went on I kept adding poison related spells, items and beasts (Horned serpents, Wyverns and whatnot. There's a whole cadre of venomous and resistant beasts) until the enemy simply drowned in toxic ichor. Unfortunatly it took a lot longer to make this army really effective than say a fire/cold theme. Poison simply doesn't drop units fast enough and attrition in the ranks was pretty high. Still with a strong nature pretender I had quite some luck with Transformation, Gift of Reason and Gift of Health.

Hmmm... Now that I think about it, it was actually pretty fun. If a bit inefficient. Guess I could try it out again now that I know a bit more about the game.

[ January 10, 2004, 13:07: Message edited by: Wauthan ]