Help w/Arco

[Wish]

an SC nataraja isn't good until you get alt 3, which can be accomplished around turn 4 or so, until then use base troops and mercs.

in upcomming CB mods black servants wont make good thugs, sinc ethey will be losing life drain and instead gaining drain strength.

so don't get as attached to that strategy as I have.

[shovah]

im not too attached to it, aslong as my flaming heirophants of doom dont get nerfed im a happy bunny

[incognito]

Thanks for tips thus far.

Given your descriptions, what kind of armies are you typically fielding as Arco at Turn20? Turn 50? How do those armies stand up versus undead hordes? Blood summons?

As much detail as possible about stock troops, mass summons, supporting mages, and special rare complementing summons (eg a fire king)is helpful.

[shovah]

against undead you have solar rays and MIND BRUN (if he is a purely mindless undead army he will die) and against conventional armies you have buffed elephants (ethereal and lucky elephants rock) and a multitude of spells and low level summons. against a blood army with only a few units then soul slay would be good and against alot of blood i would try to mind hunt+earth attack or else just use what you use vrs undead (remember your priests are good) make sure to get construction up early and make a dwarven hammer or 2 (with your pretender if needed) to make a bunch of boosters which turn your low random path mages into immensely destructive beings of great power
a good way to fill your army out is to get a couple of priestesses with vine crowns and have them cast awaken vinemen (select however many priestesses you want to cast it and press shift+m to give the order, it will make them autocast it every turn without you having to reorder it)

[Wish]

so far mid-late game is my week point also. I am not very good at assembling armies, but pretty good at early expansion.

a downfall since getting big fast makes people want to tear you down first (what happened to me in the winnowing)

[shovah]

im the opposite of wish. i have a little trouble with expansion but late game expansion and equiping SC's and thugs is where i shine (compared to my other skills)

[Ironhawk]

incognito said:
Thanks for tips thus far.

Given your descriptions, what kind of armies are you typically fielding as Arco at Turn20? Turn 50? How do those armies stand up versus undead hordes? Blood summons?

As much detail as possible about stock troops, mass summons, supporting mages, and special rare complementing summons (eg a fire king)is helpful.

For initial expansion, as you do, I use the elephant/hypaptist combo. But as time drags on that is no longer viable as other human players will target your elephants with Fire Largest and the like, making them a liability more than anything else. By turn 20 or so I usually kill off all my elephants and have armies composed mostly of Hypaptists and Mystics (with all the archers and whatnot as well). The job of the hypaptists isnt really to fight or in this particular case match off against fiends or undead. Thier job is simply to buy time with thier high prot/high morale for Arco battlefield magic to hammer the enemy.

And that is the key to the arco mid-game: that thier battlemagic is so powerful and versatile. Vs regular troops they have access to blade wind, falling fires, and even acid rain/falling frost/thunderstrike occassionally. Vs heavy troops they have lightning bolts, magma bolts, and gifts from heaven. Vs SCs they have paralyze and soul slay on top of the fact that I believe Astrologers can teleport? So you can almost be gauranteed of an SC kill.

By turn 50 or so you should have diversified your magic to the point where you have a Vine Ogre factory set up to be your primary meatshield. Hypaptists are still a good troop even in that era tho. Additionally you should have gotten a 3-level in a single path Mystic for most elemental paths by that point. Which, accompained by what should be a large gem income, you can use to summon the elemental royalty. Any SCs you summon should be well equipped too, due to the Arco elemental diversity.

[1000yd_stare]

My advice would be to surrender all your gems to the Tien Chi player.

Magic for Arco should be everything they have said and more.

You have the elemental magics for shooting the evocation spells, you have the astral for battlefield altering spells, and you can also use communion. With one or more seperate casters spamming relief, you could be communed casting some impressive magics, all boosted by spell focuses, rune smashers, etc.

With this setup, you just need a meat shield to keep the bad guys off of you.

Bear in mind, both pan and ctis will probably go undead, given thier past history.