Brainstorming : LA Man, Vs LA Utgard

[JulienLeo]

Sandman said:
You're in for a tough fight. Utgard is probably better than L Man is almost every way.

L Man has spies; try to get two or three into Utgard's capital and order them to instill unrest.

Hmmm, I'm afraid that his provinces are pretty well defended, I'm not sure that I will be able to sneak a few spy without them being caught on the way by the militias. The magister isn't exactly the sneakiest unit I've ever seen, it only got a lame (Stealth +0).

Regarding the air+astral magic advice, any spells specifically in mind ? I'd need something that would really pack a punch.

Soulslay, Mindburn, Paralyse ? For astral maybe ?

What about air ? Mass spam with fantasmal warrior or ghostwolves maybe ... or rather Thunderstrike and Lighting bolt ?

Most of my mages are doing research but I can move them to the battlefield I guess.

[Esben Mose Hansen]

The light of northern star (comes as a banner, convieniently) and lots of soul slays and/or paralysis usually works very well against big targets. I think. I'm not playing this game that much, too many annoyances.

[thejeff]

Some of your judges will get Fire and Death, they can make Flaming Skulls, and then with Phoenix Power, cast Flaming Arrows. That, along with Wind Guide, should help the longbows hurt even blessed giants.

Thunderstrike, lightning bolt and orb lightning are all good.

Defenders are a good solid unit, with crossbows, so they'll benefit from the Wind guide/Flaming Arrows and be tough enough to at least slow the giants briefly.

What does Chelms have for national summons? I don't remember anything spectacular.

It does seem strange to have half your starting gem income in Nature and no Nature mages to use it. Really limits pretender design.

[thejeff]

Careful with Light of the Northern Star, though. It boosts all astral mages and Utgard has astral as well.

[Saxon]

Just a thought. LA Man has stealth units and commanders. One solid army of them will take out most normal PD with ease. Send this army into enemy territory, capture rich provinces and raise taxes. Move on and strike again. Follow up with spies who keeps instilling unrest once the enemy retakes the province. Based on what is in the other active thread on spies, once the unrest is up with the high taxes, instilling unrest should be easy and safe.

Take out a few key provinces. The enemy gold supply goes down significantly, making it harder to run the giant strategy he is using. Further, he has to divert resources to retaking and patrolling the provinces you took. This takes pressure off your territory.

Raiding with spies to compound the effect. I think they call it joint operations in the real world.

[JulienLeo]

thejeff said:
What does Chelms have for national summons? I don't remember anything spectacular.

It does seem strange to have half your starting gem income in Nature and no Nature mages to use it. Really limits pretender design.

Taken from another post, credit to Kalin :

Summon Black Dogs should summon 20 black dogs for 10 death gems.
(Black Dogs: 14HP, size 2, 4 Prot, 13 Mor/MR, 2 Enc, 12 str, 12 atk, 10 def, 5 prec, 3/24 Mv, +20 Stealthy, Animal, 100 Darkvision, Bite attack)

Summon Cu Sith should summon 7 Cu Sith for 10 nature gems.
(Cu Sith: 26HP, size 3, 7 Prot, 14 Mor/MR, 2 Enc, 15 str, 13 atk, 12 def, 5 prec, 3/28 Mv, Sacred, +0 Stealthy, Forest Survival, Animal, Bite attack)

Summon Baghests should summon 9 Baghest for 13 death gems.
(Baghests: 28HP, size 3, 6 Prot, 14 Mor, 15 MR, 2 Enc, 16 str, 13 atk, 10 def, 5 pref, 3/26 Mv, Sacred, +20 Stealthy, Animal, 100 Darkvision, Venomous Bite attack)

The summons aren't too bad ... however I can't take advantage of them due to my pretender built ...

I should have bought at least D2 for my pretender ... who is still imprisoned atm *grins*

Flaming arrow is a good option, I agree that it can be absolutely devasting on giants, however I can see that it will take a long bit of time to get into shape and to have something worthy.

Regarding light of the northstar and soulslay spam, that seems like a good idea (not sure if I have researched it yet however, gotta check and have a look at the book to see what level it is). From the battle I have seen, I wouldn't be too much worried about the astral mage from Urtgar, as the basic tactics seems to be a Priest lvl 2, spam blessing Woodman ... a bit cheap and crude for a tactics, you will have to agree however it is definitely effective *laughs*.
So if I can stop his army, I think that will give me some time to work on a tactic and harass him a bit with an important sneaking army.

Oh ... what would you think of a phantasm spam with the air mage ? Any chance that it could work against the big giants, maybe buying some time for the archer to take them down, and of course, I wouldn't have to worry too much about friendly fire.

[thejeff]

Right, those are new in 3.06. I only really looked at Chelms in 3.04.

I haven't tried the phantasm spam idea. My guess is you'd need a ton of mages to make it effective. You don't have a reliable source of cheap A1 mages and there has to be something more effective for the Magisters Arcane to do. But like I said, I haven't tried it and I've often been surprised by what does work.

I'd be more tempted to recruit cheap, but real, troops to slow them and hope mass longbows and crossbows can drop them.

Commanders with bows on fire rear to target his commanders?