Gryphon Rider too weak/costly?

[Vicious Love]

Agreed, PvK. The hunter spider is a mainstay unit(Or the higher-end variant of the spider rider mainstay unit, at any rate). Without hunter spiders or spider knights/riders, a Machakan army is simply incomplete, and spider troops are the backbone of any Machakan raiding party.
Gryphon Riders, on the other hand, are a more specialized kind of unit. They fill a very specific niche which some nations(Particularly ones without air magic, blood magic, or flyers of their own) can benefit tremendously from(Bringing down a VQ without flyers is always tricky, for instance).
If they're overpriced, it's because they're exotic indy troops, meant to be used under specific strategic conditions or supplement existing armies, not national troops, which are supposed to be able to win wars on their own.

Update: Point in case - The Last thing anyone expects Atlantis to do is start striking at undefended enemy hinterlands with Water-9 blessed flying shock troops. Caelum might benefit a bit less from indy flyers, but that's why they're indies.

[ June 14, 2004, 21:13: Message edited by: Vicious Love ]

[Vynd]

I think the Gryphon Riders are fine. Sure, maybe they're not as good as the very best knights and knight equivalents in the game in terms of pure toughness and power, but they make up for that with their flight. Are there any recruitable flying units out there that are better, 1 for 1?

What's so awesome about the other Amazonian sacred troops, anyway? I got my first look at some Onyx Amazons the other day, and I was not all that impressed by their sacred unit. The Jade Amazon cavalry is nice, but didn't seem truly remarkable to me. I've never checked out the Diamond Amazons, I gather they're the coolest?

[PvK]

They're all good but not game winners by themselves, and tend to be on the light side in terms of Protection.

Jade have the lightest cavalry, but it is dirt cheap (40 gold and sacred). The Onyx cavalry is definitely unique - huge fatigue but with a Fear effect. Like the Gryphon Riders, the I expect the Onyx cavalry is better, the more you have - neither would do well in a heavy head-on battle with very tough and brave opponents, but enough of them can annihilate a less formidable target.

Crystal amazons have air and astral magic and accuracy 13 + Air, they all carry short bows and their cavalry ride pegasi. They are a lot cheaper than gryphon riders (50 gold and 5 resources) and are much more fragile (and I don't think the pegasus stays to fight after the rider falls, at all), but they do have 18 defense... combine that with a heavy water blessing and they might never get hit. Their melee attacks are just Light Lance and Hoof, though.

PvK

[Arralen]

Onyx Rides are absolutly devastating with a lowly earth-4/death-4 blessing. You only have to make shure they don't take the brunt of the enemies attack - if they're set to attack rearmost, it's irrelevant if it works or not: Troops they attack from the flank/behind will root very fast.

[PvK]

Thanks Arralen. That's kinda what I expected, if you have enough of them.

PvK