Tips for Yomi, Oni Kings

[TwoBits]

Dai-Oni make outstanding battle mages, able to cast all the heavy hitting spells from Fire, Earth, and Death, once you deal with their horrible encumbrance. Get them out of their armor (the lighter the better, but anything, even Steel Plate, is better than their heavy samurai armor), give them some reinvigoration items, and maybe even think about a light Earth bless. Oh, and casting Summon Earth Power at the beginning of battle is a good idea too (all of them can do it).

It helps to think of them as four different units, depending on the random. If you get one with F3, well, Phoenix Power will get you to F4, good enough for Falling Fires spam, etc. Give him a Skull of Fire, and now he can cast every Fire magic spell in the book, including BE spells like Heat from Hell, Fire Storm, etc.. Give him a Flame Helmet too, and well, he'll hand it right back saying he doesn't even need it Oh, and Warriors of Muspelheim will make all your 50% FR Oni 100% FR.

If you get the guy with the A1 random, think Aim plus anything. I like it with Bane Fire, a very nasty spell if it can be cast with any accuracy! Late in the game, with a Death booster, the niche yet powerful spells Wailing Winds and Wind of Death become available. Oh, I almost forgot, with Earth Power or a booster, they can also cast Rain of Stones, a cheap, brutal spell for Yomi to use with its robust demon units (keep the Bakemono and Sorcerers at home for this one).

The E3 guys? Boots get you to E4, Earth Power to E5. And now you can cast every Earth spell too! All those cool buffs - for starters though, think End of Weakness, and your Oni soldiers now have, well, average protection, but still with only an Encumbrance of 1. Blade Wind is nice, but Magma Eruption is better. Petrify, Weapons of Sharpness, and finally, the Army spells.

Oh, and finally, the guys with D4. That's right, Yomi has access to natural D4 mages, so D6 with Staff and Helmet (or if you're super lucky, you just might get a D5 10% random that will get you to D7 without Artifacts or empowerment - I got two of those in my last MP game, used 'em as cheap Tartarian factories!). Darkness is a given (even Bakemono have 50% Darkvision). Judicious use of Shadow Blast can be powerful. Drain Life and Disintegrate for enemy Thugs/SCs. Fear/Terror, Cloud of Death, Plague, etc. etc..

Oh, your E3 Dai-Oni can forge Dwarven Hammers immediately. You should eventually have a lot of them floating around. Site search like mad, get those gems flowing in, and forge away!

[HoneyBadger]

I have to say, this is the first post that's imparted any real confidence in Yomi to me. So thank you for doing that for one of my favorite nations

[K]

Yomi is, as far as I can tell, a proof of concept that with awesome magery you don't need real troops.

And they do that in spades. Toss down Darkness and your bakemono actually have 50% darkvision so they tend to come out even with real troops who don't. Toss down Army of Lead and you have the Protection to compete. Toss down army destroying spells and spells with high collateral damage like Falling Foo because your units are cheap when other people's are not. Boost the Str on your fire breathing units with Strength of Giants and Bloodlust and increase Precision with Wind Guide and you've got super-powerful AP fire attacks.

Heck, send in a Dai Oni with Soul Vortex and Fire Shield and Invulnerability and it doesn't even matter if he hits things....things just die.

The key problem is getting that Research. Your best mages are crap researchers, so there is a big loss of turn advantage in the beginning of the game.

[HoneyBadger]

Yomi does have ok troops, though. If they had any sacred recruits at all, they'd *be* awesome, so I've never had as much of a problem with them as with EA R'lyeh, which is-apparently-supposed to be proof of the same concept, and lays it out even better than Yomi.

Aboleths have *no* decent troops, and their mages, while great, still have their limitations-and they lack *any* national summons, sacred or otherwise. So as a fan of both nations, I don't complain so much about Yomi as I do about Aboleths.

We really need to ask Kristoffer to play Aboleths in a MP game Yomi too...but it's not as urgent.

[TwoBits]

Remember, Yomi has the paths and gem income to forge all three research boosters (and at a discount with Hammers). That should help out greatly with long term research.

[Trumanator]

One thing that I think would be very effective for Yomi is some destruction spam. It would level the playing field protwise and the Oni have higher hitpoints and a big whackin' club coupled with high strength.
Personally my favorite thing to do against the AI is to just spam Aka-Onis and watch them fill the sky with fire. Probably wouldn't work in MP though.

[Tifone]

One nasty thing with Yomi is IMHO that the awake SC pretender you need for expanding early (unbuffed recruitables are pretty much pityful), must be used with incredible care as you can't recall him easily - none of your researchers (the critical mass for the Call God usually) are priests and that's a very bad sinergy.

[Gregstrom]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

We really need to ask Kristoffer to play Aboleths in a MP game Yomi too...but it's not as urgent.

KO was Yomi in Kingmaker, IIRC. He got eaten by LA Pan pretty early on.

[Crevan]

Hmmm... Oni. One of my favorites, second after Marignon
First - Oni don`t need supplies, so you can set supplies to 50 (looks like cheat. but may be very useful against non-nature players)
Second - Brutal magic. Forging and magic rush with SC mages. Right, they`re ecu is poor, but some light armor and artefacts would help. I usually boost main (highest) magic skill with artefacts and at the end of game forge Rings of Sorcery
Third - Mighty magic of Oni is an easy way to my favorite style: creating large summoned armies. Oni with high D-skills can summon Tartarans and Legions of Wights. High E-skills leads to Iron Dragons, the deadliest unit in game. High F-skills give no powerful units, but Fires from Afar is rather deadly spell. Sure, for such overmagic game you need powerful astral mages (for total Acasic Record) and large/huge map with over 150 provs under control and 300+ all (I play 300+ vs Players and 450+ vs AI)
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Gregstrom, to prevent Pangaean "Minotaur Rush" Oni can recruit as many troops as possible and pillage provinces to continue expensive upkeep. It`s possible, but too hard. They`re not rushers But in game with 300x300x50 they have a chance

[Tifone]

Well actually only the demonic troops of Oni don't need supplies, the others do and they are seriously put in danger of starving by the demons' gluttony. Relying on demons' only doesn't look like a good strategy until you have some way to boost the not exceptional MR - having your army of Onis banished by a handful of cheap priests and some blockers looks like a painful experience.
Dai Oni SCs are of course a great opportunity but not until you have some buffs and gear...