Summoning vs Forging

[MaxWilson]

Sensori said:
Yeah, Enslave Mind, Soul Slay and the works will work only on the commander-type. And then... There's a whole plethora of things that work on the Iron Dragons. All the things that work on Lifeless things (like Shatter), all things that work on Magical things (like Opposition, Unraveling). Storm kills their flying ability.

Sure, they rock people's socks off if they haven't had the time to prepare, but they aren't that hot when they are ready. :/

Point taken. I tested this out with a Wraith Lord + 9 Iron Dragons vs. 10-15 Ktonian necromancers w/ 25 PD and 30-odd troops (since LA Agartha is my flavor of the month) casting Shatter, Banefire, and Petrify. The Iron Dragons killed all the troops, zero mages, and died to a man. That's good to know in case anyone ever rushes me with Iron Dragons.

My current nightmare is now a Tartarian who casts Rain of Stones on the first round of combat, accompanied by 9 Iron Dragons. I suppose the defender bonus of going first, together with Ironskin, would probably get me through, though.

-Max
Very fond of petrify at the moment

[Tuidjy]

I am SC addict, although after the first few bite the dust, I start supporting
them heavily. In general, I find that spells that are the bane of single SCs
are rather worthless when the SCs have an army in tow. This is how I see the
balance of power:

Mages leading strong armies defeat anything.
Offensive rituals and suicide squads cripple mages and armies.
Well equipped SCs are terrific harassers.
Teleporting squads convert or eliminate solo SCs easily.
Everything but a stealth SC will die 1 turn after the enemy gets serious about it.

At the end of my MP games usually I end up with huge armies composed of 2-3 SCs,
a few dozen mages, 200-300 archers, and some protection 20+ meat shields. Half
the mages at least are capable of generating chaffe. In big battles, I cast at
least a couple of mass protection spells. Still the casualties are usually high.

At the same time, I usually have at least 2-3 fully equipped SCs hopping in the
enemy's rear and hurting his economy.

For defense, I rely only on castles. In the only MP game I currently am, I have
as many castles as everyone else together, and I am only one of the four
remaining superpowers. By the time the enemy cracks a castle, there should be
a custom tailored defense force waiting.

As for equipment, I believe in fully equipped SCs. The wraith lords with Soul
Vortex are the only exception and that only against indies in friendly domain.
If the target is worth a SC, it's worth an equipped one.

[Ironhawk]

Nice analysis, Tuidjy! I agree on almost all points.

The only thing I do differently is forts. I believe that a strong offense is the best defense

[Huzurdaddi]

So what are the archers for? Do you use archers since they will stay where you put them?

[Tuidjy]

Yup, the archers stay in place for 12 turns, and the crossbowmen for even longer.
Furthermore, do not sneer at 300 archers with Flame Arrows and Wind Guide.
Enemy chaffe just evaporates. In the game I mentioned, I broke a 600+ army
on turn two, using mostly archers and Shadow Blasts. If the enemies had not been
three quarters jaguar warriors, they may have broken after the first salvo. As
it were, I lost half my archers to enemy spells. Still, a good castle produces
50 archers per turn, but only one sauromancer.

But of course, there are spells like Arrow Fend that neuter the archers. They
still stay and fire, though, and die much slower... the mages do the real job,
the archers are there to prevent the enemy from targeting the mages.

Oh, and a strong offense is worse than a strong offense plus a strong defense. ;-)