Why Kailasa, Bandar Log, and Patala NEVER WIN

[Lord_Bob]

Bandar Log is a fairly good nation. The Markatas are okay chaff, and you can always mind hunt or teleport something nasty onto raiders.

I would like to emphasize that these forces are not "stealth" in any way and can very easily have an Astral Mage lying around. However, I wouldn't bother with that. Mind Hunt forces me, sob, to add another commander to the force. Total cost:230 gold. But if Bandar Log wants to use 4 astral pearls and 2 mage-turns, I'm sorry, 2 BOOSTED Mage-Turns in order to kill 230 gold, then I think he should. Or does it take 3 castings to kill two commanders? Well then, 6 Astral Pearls. I think that's great. Of course, if I get tired of this, I'll develop the nasty habit of teleporting high Astral Mages onto some raiding groups, thus hopefully feebleminding several extremely expensive mages.

[Sandman]

Lord_Bob said:

I would like to emphasize that these forces are not "stealth" in any way and can very easily have an Astral Mage lying around. However, I wouldn't bother with that. Mind Hunt forces me, sob, to add another commander to the force. Total cost:230 gold. But if Bandar Log wants to use 4 astral pearls and 2 mage-turns, I'm sorry, 2 BOOSTED Mage-Turns in order to kill 230 gold, then I think he should. Or does it take 3 castings to kill two commanders? Well then, 6 Astral Pearls. I think that's great. Of course, if I get tired of this, I'll develop the nasty habit of teleporting high Astral Mages onto some raiding groups, thus hopefully feebleminding several extremely expensive mages.

If the Bandar Log player is going for a mind hunt strategy, they're probably going to have booster items lying about anyway. Risking high level astral mages to support a cheap-o incursion strategy strikes me as foolhardy.

In any case, Bandar Log's troops all have move-2 and forest survival, so they're going to be able to move swifty to counter improvised incursions. And don't forget the recruitable-anywhere sacreds.

[Sandman]

In my experience playing a MP game with Bandar Log, the main points of pain for Bandar Log are:

1. Crappy forts. Mostly fortified cities. Sometimes you want these, mostly you want something cheap.

2. Crappy priests. Combined with the above, it blunts the recruitable-everywhere-sacred edge.

3. Crappy searching. Bandar Log is a real gem-hog, with its summons and gem-heavy battlemagic. But the Rishis only have map-move 1, and remote searching spells may accentuate your gem shortage if you're unlucky.

[Hadrian_II]

Sandman said:
In my experience playing a MP game with Bandar Log, the main points of pain for Bandar Log are:

2. Crappy priests. Combined with the above, it blunts the recruitable-everywhere-sacred edge.

I think this only slows down early expansion, as the 9hp unarmored priests just like to be shot with an arrow and rout everything. But later you can either recruit siddhas for your bigger armies or just recruit enough indy priests to bless your armies.

Sandman said:3. Crappy searching. Bandar Log is a real gem-hog, with its summons and gem-heavy battlemagic. But the Rishis only have map-move 1, and remote searching spells may accentuate your gem shortage if you're unlucky.

Sandman said:
This is a problem, especially with their lack of magic paths . But i would say that you get more gems for remote site searching than it costs, so it should not shorten your gem supply.

Lord_Bob said:
Attempts to raid them with "200 gold force"

Why dont you just get your own 200 gold force out if indys instead of buying 20 PD for the same price, so you have at least a 50% chance in winning.

[Lord_Bob]

Why dont you just get your own 200 gold force out if indys instead of buying 20 PD for the same price, so you have at least a 50% chance in winning.

And then I put them in every province and pay maintenace every turn. And then they die to a slightly more powerfull force. PD, in order to be effective, has to be CHEAPER THAN THE RAIDING FORCE THAT CAN BEAT IT.

[Yucky]

Hadrian_II said:this only slows down early expansion

Early expansion is one of the most important things in MP.

[Hadrian_II]

Yucky said:

Early expansion is one of the most important things in MP.

Bandar logs expansion is fast enough, you can start every second turn a force of approx 15 dual blessed white ones in the battle (an early temple does not hurt to get the mages). you might even try to start a conquering party every turn.

I did some short check and i was able to get 15 provinces in a year, and this is not that bad, especially as i did it in 5 minutes. The slowing down of expansion did happen as one of my expanding party (10 tigre riders and a brahmin) got defeated, as the brahmin said hy to an arrow.

[Lord_Bob]

I'm sorry, you can only attack a province you are adjacent to. So if by "swiftly", you mean two turns, yes. And the high level astral mage leaves the next turn, using a "move into friendly territory" move. Or he can pop a Returning if for some bizarre reason I decide to do that. Of course, the bandar and teleport mages onto him..... which won't stop the returning though... Now we are getting quite expensive, eh? All for a little 200 gold raiding force.