Tips for Yomi, Oni Kings

[sum1lost]

Alteration is your best friend ever, as far as paths. For Dai Oni especially.

[Rytek]

Consider an A9 bless. It will couteract Iron skin buff. And if you get into war with a major air user (caelum) it will help. Your pretender will be able to actually do something with those air gems you get. And the air shield is nice vs bows of botulf and allows you to use 2handed weapons without fear of flaming arrows.
The nature 4 bless is also very nice.

order3/sloth 3 seems to be a no-brainer with the low production cost of the Oni's.

[quantum_mechani]

Rytek said:
Consider an A9 bless. It will couteract Iron skin buff. And if you get into war with a major air user (caelum) it will help. Your pretender will be able to actually do something with those air gems you get. And the air shield is nice vs bows of botulf and allows you to use 2handed weapons without fear of flaming arrows.

I really don't recommend the A9 bless in any case, but for Yomi it seems a particularly poor choice. I have yet to ever have a Dai Oni die or be crippled from an arrow, and if lighting is a big issue for your SCs, you are much better off trading for lightning res items or switching tactics than paying the ungodly amount of points for A9. Actually, about the only Yomi blesses I think I'd consider very seriously are earth and perhaps nature 4.

Tips that come to mind:

*Don't underestimate Hannyas, they are extremely potent and versatile mages for 200 gold. Early on on use skelly spam or eagle eyes + fireball, later add phionix power, falling fires and shadow blast to your options.

*Be sure to abuse your stealthy 8 gold shortbows to the max, including of course flaming arrows. Don't even think about the other bakemono in 99% of cases.

*Careful buying demon troops, in general error on the side of buying better mages, fewer demons.

[Reverend Zombie]

quantum_mechani said:
I really don't recommend the A9 bless in any case, but for Yomi it seems a particularly poor choice.

Agree.

Note that Yomi's paths cover forging lots of the elemental resistance items for your Dai Onis: copper plate replaces your too-heavy samurai armor and gives you 100% SR. Hannya's can forge Brimstone Boots to boost your PR to 100% and give you 50% CR (plus fatigue recovery). Charcoal shield or fire helmet or burning pearl boost you to 100% FR.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Tip #5: Dai Oni can reanimate dead. Specifically, Ghouls and Soulless. If you've got a crippled Dai Oni, he can spend time bringing you some spare troops to flush out the ranks of your undead leadership - especially since it's difficult to afford many of the oni.

Your Demon Priests cannot reanimate, but your Oni Generals and Hannya can if you make them your prophets. If you make them (or Dai Onis) prophets (H3), you can reanimate more of the above and longdead warriors.

Soulless require corpses, Ghouls consume population, and longdead neither.

Tip #6: Twice born will not work on Hannya or Oni, since they're demonic. As of 3.08, it is not worth casting Twice Born on a diseased Sorcerer as they will be reborn with one hitpoint. But, if you want to save a particular demon general or sorcerer... just be aware that twice born keeps magic and experience, but loses all abilities other than heroic ones, in favor of the wight mage's chassis. Generally not worth casting with yomi, though there are specific applications for undead mages, you'll just be vulnerable to banishment.

Tip #7:
Ritual of Rebirth does not work on lifeless or undead, but does work on demons (just tested). Use this on a former prophet to get multiple level three/four priests for reanimation purposes.
http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/dom3spells.html
Edit: Also, a reborn oni loses the research penalty, and their sacred status, though they retain their priest magics.