Thoughts on EA Abyssia (guide)

[Micah]

Dragar - There are no crossbows in EA. You're also doing just fine if your ironskinned, phoenix pyre'd, fire shielded, armored and reinvigorated Anointed of Rhuax is using his (30+) protection value for something useful. The burning ones kicking all sorts of *** at the beginning of the game gets you to the research you need for that.

Any path at 10 is a waste of points, and twist fate doesn't work admirably well with heavily armored troops. You can admittedly do nasty things with an S9 pretender, but that tends to come later in the game, and I'd generally prefer to have a whole bunch of units (anointed) causing havoc than one crazy-strong mage. Especially since earth-based mages are going to be more of a problem than astral for Aby, for the most part (destruction early and army of gold later both ruin your day) so the magic-duel potential of your pretender might go to waste.

That being said, going for maybe a master lich and some diversity with EA aby isn't a terrible idea, but I'd prefer to play to their strengths and try to get enough of an early lead with them to find indies or empower instead of trying to get my pretender to make up for the massive amount of diversity they're lacking.

Also, lanterns are an excellent idea.

[dirtywick]

Thaum 2 for Bonds of Fire I would also make an early priority. It's a really nice spell for holding units in place, and usually for getting mages into the HoF because they rack up kills quickly using it.

[kasnavada]

Hoho, nice additions !

I'm adding them now.

EDIT :

For magic diversity purposes, I try to take a pretender with 4 nature, for those reasons :
- nature -> air (fairy queen).
- nature & air = precision item and spells, which your mages lack completly.
- nature = regeneration. Your sacred do not die from poison if they regenerate, they also tend to take much less afflictions, and also it's a good protection from disease (especially since most of your mages are old).

[chrispedersen]

I can't add a lot on abysia except:
The one person I aw expand very quickly in a mp with abysia did so using salamanders.

when I asked him his trick, he said:
"dont fight archers".

I have no idea about taking death 3 scale - however you might wish to mention that abysia is not fully affected by it.

Doesn't abysia get access to baphomet? If you wanted Astral its a pretty good chasis.

[Dragar]

I took the Astral 10 with a sphinx. Base 3 astral on a cheap chassis means getting to 10 wasn't so difficult. Given that the mind hunt type spells risk killing your own mage I figured it was worth maxing out, and +4 MR is solid

I also run 4 earth and 4 blood. Only the blood bless is wasted on mages (very good on your sacred troops though), and it really opens up a lot of spells for casting by the pretender

Interesting thoughts on the Falling fires, i might start a game with the same pretender and give that a shot

[MaxWilson]

What do you mean about the Mind Hunt spells? Mind Hunt feebleminds you if there's any mage, even an S1, in the territory. Only Magic Duel cares about the relative levels, and since the Sphinx is immobile (IIRC it can't even Teleport) you won't be getting in very many of those because you'll rarely be in combat.

-Max

[kasnavada]

To chrispedersen :

The only pretender with base astral for EA abyssia are :
- sphinx (3),
- solar disc (2),
- great sage and great enchanteress (1)

I also need you to explain a bit more about abysia not being affected by death scales ?

On ths subject of astral magic, the +4 to MR is pretty good since most of your mages can be blessed actually, but it works only in battle unless you equip them all the time with a shroud of the battle saint. That equipment costs as much as the amulet of antimagic, so in my opinion it's good (different spot so they add up) but not worth 100 extra points (with the sphinx : 120 points to 8, 224 to 10).

Twist fate is quite good too even for 50 extra points since it protects you from spells like flying arrow (again, with the shroud).

[Dragar]

Am trying a modified build - changed sphinx to Divine Glyph, dropped Astral to 9 and Grabbed Fire 4. So F4E4S9B4. Had to drop one scale to do it. It looks like a goer in the early game at least, +2 attack is useful

[JimMorrison]

Dragar said:
Am trying a modified build - changed sphinx to Divine Glyph, dropped Astral to 9 and Grabbed Fire 4. So F4E4S9B4. Had to drop one scale to do it. It looks like a goer in the early game at least, +2 attack is useful

That's quite a bless, Imprisoned I take it?

I just assembled an E6/S9 Sphinx with O3/P1/H3/L1/M3..... It looks pretty hot, so to speak. I kind of like the ability to reach M3 for them, especially with an S9 pretender, you could potentially do well by shooting straight up Evo, Probing everything you own the whole way. Maybe take a brief pit stop just to get Augury, and try to alchemize into as many extra paths as possible, to prepare for Strands.

[MaxWilson]

Micah said:
Any path at 10 is a waste of points,

That's true only 99% of the time. I have found that I like E10N6 for Ashdod quite a bit better than E9N6, because the sacreds have exactly 5 encumbrance. I hate having to worry about battle duration, and with 0 net encumbrance instead of 1 a lot of problems go away.

-Max