Shamblers

Renojustin · #1 April 11th, 2008, 05:12 AM

Trogs are much more dangerous than elephants against almost anything.

But your point is well taken about the sieges, and amphibious nature of Shamblers. You can definitely build up a very nice siege force in no time with Shamblers, and then throw them away against some average PD when you don't need them anymore.

vfb · #2 April 11th, 2008, 05:44 AM

Okay, so I had to go test.

Shamblers are even better against Trogs than they are against Elephants. With even gold costs, Shamblers actually won 2 out of 5 battles (120 Shamblers against 72 Troglodytes).

Renojustin · #3 April 11th, 2008, 05:55 AM

Oh come on, 5 trials, that's practically a case study.

Kuritza · #4 April 11th, 2008, 06:50 AM

Not every troop has to be cost-effective, sometimes they just live there for flavour. Shamblers are old and they dont want to fight, so they are hard to enroll (unless its a thrall, admittedly). Seems logical.
And occasionally they are even useful. Shamblers are ok if you ask me.

Rathar · #5 April 11th, 2008, 07:22 AM

Shamblers at 30 gold suck but at 1 resource they rock. In almost every case I have come across from dom2 to now I can build a force capable of taking an indy water province in 1-2 turns with them as compared to uhh 3-6 turns with ichtyids.

Now, or soon after is better almost all the time

Again, yeah the 30 gold sucks but "sometimes" you just gotta get in there right now. Admittedly in MP games I never use them. Either I set myself up to Really Play in the water or I try to be meticulous with my diplomacy towards the water nations.

If I have a ginormous pile of gold then they also make rapidly formed speed bumps but are perhaps poor for that due to the 75% of total hp's lost routing rules. I am not one of those folks who scoffs at impossible AI though so grain of salt applies.

BesucherXia · #6 April 11th, 2008, 12:01 PM

As someone has stated, not every unit is supposed to be cost-effective, but the capability of rapidly-spam is also of value.

Shamblers can be useful if you are planing a blitz-landing for EA_Oceanaia. Some guides have also covered such an idea for MA_Atlantis. Ichtyids can not fit that strategy well, since they will take you about 3 times longer time for the recruitment.

Btw. I personally would also suggest considering a little discount for them. IMO, Atlantis is accepted to be the weakest underwater races, which can also benefit from it.

Xietor · #7 April 11th, 2008, 12:04 PM

I use shamblers when i need troops with darkvision, and i try to buff them with spells.