Ermor Themes

[Turin]

Jurri said:

I would think perhaps fire-blessed Vans or Sidhe or anything, really, could work, since they should be able to hurt the spirits and in the case of these two and some others also have a lot of survivability against centurions. Also, vans can sac slaves to spread dominion, right? That could be useful, too, if the game prolonged. Lightning bolts should work fine against centurions, as long as they aren't especially protected.

The problem with those strategies (apart from the supply issue) is that your troops will likely get diseased in the first battle due to apparitions, so Pangeae seems to be the most effective choice for a bless troop strategy. However the centaurs are very expensive, so you need good scales, a lvl 9 bless and very high dominion.
So you will be likely to create only one army, whereas the ermor player will run rampant through your provinces. If you split your main army, they will most likely get overwhelmed by the paralizing spirits and lifedraining ghosts.

And the ermor player will equip his centurion prophet with a fire resist ring, which will provide another nasty problem.

[Jurri]

The disease cloud won't affect the units if they have their mirror images intact, right? At least other AoE effects won't, to my knowledge.

Your points may be correct... It's an interesting problem, really; I do share the view that it's a difficult proposition no matter the strategy, especially against such a skillfull foe as Turin. But, I do think that feature is shared by AE Ermor and CW Pan too.

[Alneyan]

Jurri: The Machakan kamikazes are the key to the problem. Remember those Sorcerers that just wouldn't die? That should work fine against the undead, too.

That aside, do you think Phoenix Pyre would help against the undeads? Witch Doctors can cast it, and those can be everywhere, and the spell deals some damage over a widespread area. Of course, fatigue will kill the mages sooner or later (Summon Earthpower may help here), but it might just work out. Of course, getting to that level of research is a problem... but then anything involving the undead is a problem.

Spirokeat: Dominion is mighty hard to undo, and the undead can easily afford maximum Dominion. If you can pull it out, everything will be easier though. Friendly Dominion isn't still enough for Immortals though: assassination spells will remove all their items and send them back home regardless, and commanders that keep on dying aren't that useful. I'm addicted to Mind Hunt now.

[spirokeat]

Thats why I was thinking of a nation like Mari who has special stealthy priests to undo dominion. Especially if you can give them a stone idol or something. Though i'm not sure how the maths on that would stack up.

But I suppose keeping them slapped and itemless would go a long way too.

SPiro.

[Alneyan]

Inquisitors aren't stealthy, unless I am grossly mistaken. Stealth priests still have to "uncloak" to preach however, so you will need to spend one turn in the province, and pray the Nine that the hordes aren't going to attack you (that sounds unlikely, if they have seen your lovely Inquisitors).

I haven't been impressed with Stone Idols myself: they didn't seem to have much of an effect, with several needed to start having a real impact, and the difficulty of keeping that Dominion down: your Dominion has to go in that province and grows high for the province to remain converted. I have been fighting a Black Forest Ulm recently, and despite all my best efforts, I haven't really broken down their Dominion (still an healthy 9/10 in their core provinces), and we have been neighbours (with a lot of temples on both sides) for... what, sixty turns?

The Skeptics should be able to do that, however: 50 gold is a lot better than 20 gems (kind of expensive when fighting a mad opponent), and they will work right as soon as they enter the province. They bring their own problems, of course: one skeptic means one less commander that could be used to do something else. Down with the undead!

[quantum_mechani]

Alneyan said:
Stealth priests still have to "uncloak" to preach however

No, they can preach while remaining hidden.

[Reverend Zombie]

Alneyan said:
Inquisitors aren't stealthy, unless I am grossly mistaken. Stealth priests still have to "uncloak" to preach however, so you will need to spend one turn in the province, and pray the Nine that the hordes aren't going to attack you (that sounds unlikely, if they have seen your lovely Inquisitors).

Inquisitors no, but the monk(?) is. I have used them to stealth preach and never had to uncloak them, however: sneaking in and starting to preach worked just fine.

[spirokeat]

My Bad,

Its the friars that are stealthy. The inquisitors are just double priest level against enemy dominion. So you would have to use them to supress incroaching enemy dom.

I've not used Mari so not sure how stealthy units and preach works to be honest.

I'm working on the assumption of course that your priest level dictates the effectiveness of your preach and so all things being equal (temple etc) then you would have an adverse effect on an enemy dominion should you have the higher priest.

Anyone have any idea of how effective blood sacrifice is in comparison to normal preach >?

Spiro

[shovah]

how about arco sceptics with stone idols and winged shoes??

[Graeme Dice]

Alneyan said:
Inquisitors aren't stealthy, unless I am grossly mistaken. Stealth priests still have to "uncloak" to preach however, so you will need to spend one turn in the province, and pray the Nine that the hordes aren't going to attack you (that sounds unlikely, if they have seen your lovely Inquisitors).

Stealthy priests remain stealthy while preaching in enemy territory. Friar's don't really affect high dominion however.