LA Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings Strategy Guide 2.0

[Zenzei]

Good work DC! One question though, how strong earth bless would you recommend and how's your god initial status (awake/dormant/jail)?

[DonCorazon]

Dedas and C, thanks for the comments, I never noticed the N staved off old age and should definitely talk about remote assassination, which also includes Mind Hunt.

I will update the guide later.

Zenzei, I went with a dormant Cyclops E9 bless – no other magic. Synergizes nicely with your mages already respectable armor, and the reinvigoration is key to getting the most use out of your mages in long battles. I never really missed Fire magic – I had some Enchantresses who could forge Rune Smashers which are great to use in conjunction with Disintegrate, Charm and Enslave. I did slightly miss Blood magic in the endgame where spamming Doom Horrors and Disease Demons are cost-effective tactics but you can get Blood magic through Tarts or Enslaving then Gift of Reasoning your foes. I think forgetting about Blood and Fire though is not a significant sacrifice given TC’s complete versatility everywhere else, and the fact you can protect yourself from fire with Army of Gold – an Earth spell and your mobile horsemen can quickly recapture lands taken by Doom Horrors as well as protect almost 100% against Disease Demons.

[Baalz]

Hehe, very good guide DC. A couple thoughts you might want to include:

Though it's implied you might want to make a special note that weapons of sharpness fits very nicely in your research path, casting ability, and units. Summon earthpower + boots + 1 earth gem makes most anybody not quite sure if they want to close on those horsemen or just sit under the wind guided barrage. Plus, armor piercing on the first strike lances will take out virtually any SC if he's dumb enough to come alone.

Also, I find it hard to justify using air gems for anything much other than winged shoes so your mages don't slow down your rapid movement. You definitely hit the nail on the head that one of LA TCs great strengths is mobility, bring your mages along for the fun.

Also, it's worthwhile to consider a death blessing which offers some interesting strategies with holy archers and holy mages. The death weapons don't pass to missiles or spells but the extra affliction chance does. Who wants to run through your solid PD, with ancestor vessels and blade wind spewing smiths bestowing liberal afflictions while sitting in the back row then running away without a loss when the PD breaks? Very effective hit and run tactics if you're being invaded by an overwhelming force. Then for the really evil there's fun things like +400% affliction rain of stones. This also solves the problem of Celestial soldiers not having magic weapons.

Also, with your awesome archery I find destruction is a very high priority for research. Remember, destruction not only removes armor it also destroys shields! Those composite bows are practically 50 cal machine guns against armorless guys with no shields.

I'd also fill out the celestial chastisement section, this is a great spell under the right circumstances. Think charm except they take unresistable AN damage if they *pass* the MR check.

Ancestor vessels' arrows cause fear, and you've also got mages who can spam panic and terror. There are worse uses of your death gems than conjuring ghosts or other fear aura troops while leveraging your mobility to cut off the retreat of whoever you're planning on routing. Don't discount how effective this can be, particularly if you're clever about fighting in your dominion and you time it so that the enemy is partially starving. Pay attention to the terrain and leverage your mobility to control when and where the fighting happens. Hit and run, hit and run, causing afflictions all the way, then blamo that huge army chases you into a wasteland and promptly breaks and is killed to a man with hardly a friendly casualty.

[thejeff]

Death bless may not be the best bless, even for LA T'ien Ch'i, but I think it's the best nation to take a Death bless with.

Sacred archers and mages. There is no other nation that benefits so much from Death on it's sacreds.

[DonCorazon]

Thanks Baalz, great input - as usual what I expect from your evil genius. I will include when I update the guide. On the air gem point, I may overestimate its value but came to feel Fog Warriors is almost a must in major late game clashes so tended to use my Air gems on Bags of Winds and Winged Helmets, not too mention an Air Queen when available. Air gems always felt in tight supply so it is a tough call on how to allocate them. Terrain can slow down your cavalry so I guess the choice on Winged Boots depends on how your map looks. I also liked forging Bows of War - 5 air gems and 13 magic arrows helps counter Fog Warriors, especially when you throw it in the hands of a Sleeper with Boots of Speed.

On spamming panic and terror, this goes to my point about the Death casters being so useful it is challenging to decide how best to use them. I found Wrath of the Ancestors a very effective Death spell - 20+ little ethereal paralyzing spirits can completely plug up your enemies efforts to get to your archers, locking them down under a rain of arrows.

And I think a Death blessing is a perfect fit for TC and fun to use just to make you a totally unpalatable enemy.

[Taqwus]

Might be worth noting that while your mages tend towards the old, you do have a national ritual ('Inner Alchemy') that can reduce age. The usual 'ring of regeneration to stave off death by disease' road is also accessible. A ring will also help stop the Master of the Iron Crutch from dying of his own leprosy cloud.

Regarding Lu-Tung Pin, I don't recall his stats, but he's a flying immortal who's a decent swordsman, but better used as a combat mage -- he's rather nasty with Astral Fires, for instance.

[DonCorazon]

Thanks, Taqwus - added.

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Ancestor vessels' arrows cause fear, and you've also got mages who can spam panic and terror. There are worse uses of your death gems than conjuring ghosts or other fear aura troops while leveraging your mobility to cut off the retreat of whoever you're planning on routing. Don't discount how effective this can be, particularly if you're clever about fighting in your dominion and you time it so that the enemy is partially starving. Pay attention to the terrain and leverage your mobility to control when and where the fighting happens. Hit and run, hit and run, causing afflictions all the way, then blamo that huge army chases you into a wasteland and promptly breaks and is killed to a man with hardly a friendly casualty.

It occurs to me that fear spamming is an even more viable tactic for LA TC in the most recent CBMs. With "Wailing Winds" easier (D3 A1, instead of D4A1, and Level 4 Evo instead of 6!) to cast, any Ancestor Guide with an extra D gem can cast it. Combined with "Panic", "Terror" and the howling bows, you can beat up the enemy's moral right quick. This guide didnt mention "False Horror", but that is available too (for Ancestor guides casting storm power), even if it comes a bit too late to be very useful. Khans also cause lesser fear now, though I still wouldn't bother with them. Lastly, the global "Dark Skies" is now cheaper (30 gems instead of 50) and lower level (Thaum 5, down from 7),and while it will almost certainly be dispelled, you might keep it long enough to use it to good effect in a war or two.

[Shangrila00]

The main problem with that is you need to focus research on Thaumaturgy and Evocation when Tien Chi also really likes Alteration, Enchantment, Construction, and Conjuration (those Celestial Soldiers are really good in CBM, if you have a good bless), and you can't possibly cover them all. Tien Chi doesn't have the stealth or flying options to really leverage army routing, so it's good, but maybe not better than going mainly Smiths spamming Destruction and buffing all your heavy cavalry with Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants, and Weapons of Sharpness. And if you're going construction for weapons of sharpness, it can be pretty fun to grab some artifacts too, with the Ark seemingly made for TC.

[rdonj]

While it's a perfectly valid point that TC likes a lot of paths early and can do very nice things with all of them, you're comparing evo 4 or maybe 5 (to grab shadow blast, gifts from heaven, healing mists, falling frosts, storm, etc all in one go) with having 3 enchantment, 4 alteration, and 7-8 construction. Enchantment 3 and construction 1 is a somewhat comparable option, but I would prefer to go with either evo or alt 4 over the enchantment route.