Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by DeathDaemon

Great guide Baalz! I would like you and/or the community to comment on the strategy of self-buffed combat sorcerers w/ little or none crafted items and then charging in to become spiders. I remember using them like that in Dom2, but not for years now... Have you had too many losses for this strategy or do you not find them as effective as researching and then using them as mages?

Quoting from upthread:

Originally Posted by Baalz

@Thejeff - I find the black sorcerer thugs a bit of a fun gimmick rather than a very effective thug. You don't want to equip anything other than misc items if you plan on switching to a spider (you'll lose them), which doesn't leave much that's terribly effective. I'm certainly open to someone proving me wrong, but I haven't been able to make this effective yet.

-Max

[Kadelake]

Fun strategy

I've some questions about kitting out the banes. (By the way, you've written bane lord instead of bane everywhere)
What's your opinion on adding a lychantrope amulet and maybe a fire plate? The fire plate might seem a little redundant with the bane's heavy starting armour but if you have a lot of fire gems the better def, ap and 100% fire resistance might make a difference.

I think it depends on your luck in finding death and earth gems. If you can afford to field several banes with firebrand and awe shield I guess that would be most effective but if you have trouble affording them it might be worth it to kit them out some more.

[WraithLord]

Baalz. How do you manage to come with all those interesting and surprising strategies?- I usually read your guides and think how come I wasn't aware of this before.

I esp. like your guides for weak nations. I'm looking forward to day you'll make a Yomi guide.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Kadelake

Fun strategy

I've some questions about kitting out the banes. (By the way, you've written bane lord instead of bane everywhere)
What's your opinion on adding a lychantrope amulet and maybe a fire plate? The fire plate might seem a little redundant with the bane's heavy starting armour but if you have a lot of fire gems the better def, ap and 100% fire resistance might make a difference.

I think it depends on your luck in finding death and earth gems. If you can afford to field several banes with firebrand and awe shield I guess that would be most effective but if you have trouble affording them it might be worth it to kit them out some more.

Yes, the lycanthrope amulet is an excellent choice, and there are worse ideas than using fire gems for fire plate, though the primary thing you're gonna be struggling with generally at this point is scraping up enough gems to outfit a steady stream of banes. Keep in mind that these are 4 gem summons so while the gems obviously don't always translate directly across I tend to think skipping the amulet and fire plate is almost another bane with an awe shield and weapon. These are the frontline troops of your army, you want mass over efficiency. You'll probably be dissapointed if you're trying to shoehorn these guys into real thug roles, but if you can really convince yourself that they are your uber-heavy infantry then you'll have a big grin on your face every time you bring them to a fight.

The thing is, you're also going to want to be diversifying so that you're not completely screwed when your opponent starts spamming dust to dust (or other strong anti-undead spells). I'd almost always recommend nature and fire gems get funneled into dragon master and fire drakes, or vine ogres, or fire boosters for combat mages, or something else clever rather than making your banes more efficient.

[chrispedersen]

Even better than Machaka on fever fetishes is EA Arco.

Keep on province where you kill your own dominion. (Skeptics).
When unit x gets down to 3 hp or so.. switch amulet to another scout. Heal. Repeat.

[Kadelake]

Originally Posted by Baalz

The thing is, you're also going to want to be diversifying so that you're not completely screwed when your opponent starts spamming dust to dust (or other strong anti-undead spells). I'd almost always recommend nature and fire gems get funneled into dragon master and fire drakes, or vine ogres, or fire boosters for combat mages, or something else clever rather than making your banes more efficient.

I tried out the strat in SP and had horrible luck finding death gems (but I was lucky enough to find garnet amazons next to my capital, fetish spam + bloodstone spam = fun ). I had a great number of fire drakes soon and they worked very well but even with heavy armour and 50%FR the banes took noticeable friendly fire. Either a lycanthrope amulet or fire plate would take care of that. But as stated it all depends on what gems you find.

I was a little annoyed by the banes slow speed. Other units tend to pass them by (and get hit by their cold aura) and they are slow to help other parts of your army after they've killed the bad guys next to them.

Have you tried the stat against a heavy air nation? How does it stand up to thunder strike spam?