Seeking MP Serpent Cult Advice

VedalkenBear · #1 November 15th, 2007, 03:51 PM

The Heretics are MUCH faster at cleaning up dominion than temples, prophet, or cheap priests. Heretics don't have to be set to preach, they just move around. Temples can be expensive (and I hear people don't just put them up willy-nilly in MP). You have one prophet. And cheap indy priests are not very useful given the way preaching works.

Consider the simple effect of using heretics to funnel troops (magical or otherwise) to the front line through hostile dominion. Having reread the dominion rules, preaching (which I assume heretics are a form of) doesn't care about your Dominion. Therefore, as the Serpent Cult you can most likely get away with a rather low starting dominion and use your heretics to screen away opponents' dominion.

Heretics have their uses. I am sorry if you are unable to see them.

Ironhawk · #2 November 15th, 2007, 05:31 PM

Hey, another question for you all: Assuming I were to go the ethereal hydra route, for a moment. And keeping in mind the paths that are generally available to LA pyth...

What poison res unit should I use to fill out the ranks of that army?

quantum_mechani · #3 November 15th, 2007, 05:40 PM

Clearly, bog beasts are the superior choice.

Ironhawk · #4 November 15th, 2007, 05:48 PM

LDiCesare · #5 November 15th, 2007, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Ironhawk said:
What poison res unit should I use to fill out the ranks of that army?

Your random S Serpent Priests. They are capital only, like the hydras, 100%PR. About one in 4 will be astral endowed, but that's usually enough.
I'd also suggest not buying any troop (but mages) for a few turns before you plan buying hydras, in order to save the upkeep costs. If you have 1000 gold and dom 8, wait till you have 2000 gold to buy 8 hydras in one turn for instance. The upkeep of hydras staying idle in the capital is huge.

llamabeast · #6 November 15th, 2007, 08:58 PM

quantum_mechani, Sombre will love you for that.

VedalkenBear · #7 November 15th, 2007, 10:23 PM

Ironhawk: The easy answer is 'undead'. IIRC, the Renatus can get to Death-2 on its own. That allows Death-3.

Unfortunately, Kydnides aren't PI, or they'd be pretty good. I note Sea Trolls are PI. That more or less covers water.

Nature, there's the ever-popular Vine Ogres. You can also leverage your Priests to Nature-4 with a few Astral pearls. Once there, you can get Lamias.

Ironhawk · #8 November 16th, 2007, 04:18 PM

Yeah I considered undead for a while with the mage you describe. It is a good choice but the prob there is gems. Will take me some time to drum up enough death gem income to keep a steady supply of undead chaff.

Lamias! Now there is something I hadn't considered. Yeah I will have to look into that. I was playing around with Clay Men last night - they werent bad, but werent very good, either.