I have tested my theories a bit. Not to the extent that you suggest however, but I will, because to me it sounds very plausible, something that could actually work. I got some experience with Agony and pikemen playing LA Ulm, and it really does work, taking out strength 9 provinces early in the game without taking more than a lost pikemen or two at most. I also fought a big AI army with some blessed troops - but that is the AI of course.
Tomorrow I will conduct some tests on the matter.
Anything that:
1. Adds fatigue to enemies (by more encumbrance for example). This will make it easier for the repelling units to repel, as you have to hit your target to be successful. Most pikemen have 10 in attack, and with a long spear that will make it 11. Every 10 points of fatigue on an enemy unit will make them lose 1 defense point. There are several cheap and also more expensive spells that will achieve this. Also, if they have, say 40 in fatigue (-4 defense) when they join in combat with the pikemen, they will surely get more from the prolonged combat repelling units can put up with low defense units with not extremely high morale. After some rounds they will get really worn out and they are ready to be slaughtered by the flankers or whatever.
Slime is another cheap spell that you can throw at the approaching enemy, as their defenses and AP will effectively be halved.
This tactic is mostly water based.
2. Add attack to the pikemen. The only spell I found that does this is berserk and its variations, it adds attack, protection and strength and decreases defense. And this is really something interesting because pikemen does not really need defense, as they can repel instead. It is of course good to have defense if you fail your repel. Maybe this is something to use on those high defense, high protection Arcoscephale Phalanxes. This only nature based as far as I can see.
3. Attack enemy morale. Here the level 2 blood spell Agony really impresses. You can actually make standard morale (10) flee at once if you use 5-6 slaves. This is not really needed though, when you have repelling units. Just to get their morale down to 10 is to make them vulnerable to repel (at least in my earlier games). So not many slaves are needed, use more wizards instead. Or, if you really have a lot of slaves you can of course widen the area of effect with just one. This is one of the thing that makes this spell so great, it is so dynamic.
This is an all blood based tactic of course.
So lowered morale means fear of the pikes, and that means more fatigue and lowered defense and more hits by repellers and so on. So you don't really need all of the above to succeed, but the more the better obviously - it will surely cut down any losses.
Lots of more to try, but right now I'm going to bed.
Cheers!
Re: Are heavy bless strategies the best ones ?
Hybrid Mode
