Advice for Bandar Log in Dawn of Dominions map

[Shovah32]

11 points can also be handy for the possibility of catching stealthy units(that starts at 10 or 11, right? Or am I just completely wrong here?) and stopping the occasional random event or remote attack.

[vfb]

Starts at 10, but I've never caught a thing with PD.

I've only played one MP game with Bandar, so I don't have much experience with them. But I did not buy more than 1 PD in that game. I don't think monkey PD will do well against Barbarians or Call of Winds.

You could use it to get some chaff into a defensive fight, I suppose.

[Hadrian_II]

Barbarians are actually the only thing monkey pd does well against. Markata have hight defence, so the barbarians have trouble hitting them.

[Humakty]

PD can be usefull to lower unrest, starting at ten. Costs less in the long run than having an army patrolling (or just less micro...), especially in ennemy dominion

[thejeff]

I didn't know that PD helped lower unrest.

More generally, 1 PD is essential, anything beyond that is situational. Don't rely on it to stop any significant enemy attack, but it's worth it if it can hold off most random events and the lesser remote attack spells and small raiding parties. Especially early in the game. Even if all it does is make your enemy send less, but larger, raiding forces. That's more cost for less provinces.

Later on, when raiding parties tend to be thugs who can take any reasonable PD, it does become almost useless.

[Twan]

Humakty said:
PD can be usefull to lower unrest, starting at ten. Costs less in the long run than having an army patrolling (or just less micro...), especially in ennemy dominion

According to the manual PD patrols to find spies but I never seen it lowering unrest alone.

(and with the new stealth level of spies, you need far more than 10 PD to catch some)

[thejeff]

Those are open ended die rolls. It doesn't happen often, but it is possible.

I've had bards (30 stealth!) caught by just PD and a few patrollers.

[Mr_Dark]

heh - I didn't mean to go too far into the vagaries of monkey PD, though I did enjoy the poem in the haiku thread.

You've all sussed the problem - I usually use a PD of 15, which for most races in SP is enough to discourage barbarian invasions and catch the occasional spy/assassin.

For those of you wondering, my last game on Sunday I knocked off C'tis, which put me in contact with Ermor. PD was catching a spy or assassin from the computer every other turn, and I still lost border leaders. It is worth it to put some PD points into places that border races with active assassins when playing the computer.

back on track - does anyone have any battle-specific spell combinations they like?

[Kristoffer O]

> I didn't know that PD helped lower unrest.

Neither did I.

[VedalkenBear]

Well, if we're talking about Bandar Log, specifically (the Middle Era guys), then your Rishis can open some serious smackdown on people by simply stealing all of their armies. At least 1/4 of your Rishis can throw Enslave Mind, and another 1/4 of them can throw Charm. This is my 'normal' strategy with them; rush to Thaumaturgy 6 for Enslave Mind (along the way picking up 'intermediary' spells like Mind Burn, Soul Slay, and Paralyze). Then I would get Gandharvas (Conj 5). But seriously, 4 or 5 Rishis throwing Enslave Mind hurt the enemy rather nicely, due to the way the combat rules work.

Now, more generally, my brother Wyatt twigged me to the Light Bandar Infantry. Let me pull up their (vanilla) Sticks/Stones stats...

Dam: 12
Rng: 15
Prec: 7
Ammo: 30
#Att: 2

Compare this to a shortbow:

Dam: 10
Rng: 25
Prec: 9 (on the same unit)
Ammo: 12
#Att: 1

And here's a comparison to a javelin on an Ermorian unit:

Dam: 13
Rng: 10
Prec: 8
Ammo: 2
#Att: 1

Sticks and Stones are actually quite powerful when thrown by Bandar. So an army of Light Bandar backed up by Rishis can actually be rather nasty.

(Note: If you increase the Bandar's strength, then the range and damage of the Sticks/Stones increases, similar to a javelin.)

Anyway, just some thoughts.