H2 priests: Why, when, how? - Page 3

Gregstrom · #1 March 10th, 2009, 04:02 PM

Actually, that is quite a nice use for them (if you can't get H3s, ofc). Thing is, a lot of the nations I've played have had priest/mages with H2, so it hasn't been an either/or choice for me so far.

Gregstrom · #2 March 10th, 2009, 06:39 PM

I can go with that.

Lingchih · #3 March 10th, 2009, 11:53 PM

I get most of my H2 priests from events. But then, I most often take Luck. They're free then. They may not appear in the area you want them to, but then again, they are free.

Dragar · #4 March 11th, 2009, 12:33 AM

They're not really free, they come with a swarm of militia you normally don't want and for whatever reason can't get rid of for ages

they are only ever useful if you need help sieging nearby somewhere, otherwise it's just upkeep.

I wish there was a disband unit option.

Lingchih · #5 March 12th, 2009, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragar

They're not really free, they come with a swarm of militia you normally don't want and for whatever reason can't get rid of for ages

they are only ever useful if you need help sieging nearby somewhere, otherwise it's just upkeep.

I wish there was a disband unit option.

I really don't mind the militia they come with. I use them to fill up frontier forts, making them harder to siege. I don't fight with them of course, just use them for wall defense. And sometimes that "free" H2 priest you get from luck scales comes with flaggies, instead of militia. And those can be useful.

alhorro · #6 March 11th, 2009, 02:30 AM

Milita and other living chaff are great for nations that can't convert gold into undead. You can rise taxes and patrol with them, compensating upkeep and providing corpses for your necromancers. You can gather them in your lab and gateway to the front, or to defend your own fort. You don't have to invest into PD — 100 militas with H2 priest can stop almost every single remote attack, including GR, AotD, HfH. They serve as a meatshield for your mages, swarmers for enemy thugs/SCs, spell decoys for your elite troops. I definitely prefer using only cheapest chaff and top-shelf troops such as wigths/trolls/demons, everything in between is just useless.

Jarkko · #7 March 11th, 2009, 07:59 AM

So, I guess the consensus is that H2 priests are nice when you happen to get them for free (or find a site from which you can recruit High Priests even without a castle), but there really is not much point in recruiting them (unless they are mage-priests of some sort, when they could have other benefits). Basically what I've been doing so far anyway.

Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion!

llamabeast · #8 March 11th, 2009, 12:53 PM

On the subject of disbanding, check out the mod listed in my signature.

Baalz · #9 March 11th, 2009, 01:03 PM

I wanted to reiterate how significant sermon of courage can be in *lots* of situations. Bandar Log, for instance, really suffers from not having one - from elephants to markatas pretty much all their units are drastically better with just a little extra morale. More generally for lots of nations, dropping sermon of courage can often make your nice, cheap light infantry a reasonable choice for early expansion opening up strategies for more slothful scales (Abyssia for instance). Even when you're using units with a naturally high morale it can be a very nice buff when fighting awe or fear auras - it's surprising how much more difficult it is to use a thug with a shield of beaten gold to raid PD which gets an H2 priest.

analytic_kernel · #10 March 11th, 2009, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baalz

I wanted to reiterate how significant sermon of courage can be in *lots* of situations. Bandar Log, for instance, really suffers from not having one - from elephants to markatas pretty much all their units are drastically better with just a little extra morale. More generally for lots of nations, dropping sermon of courage can often make your nice, cheap light infantry a reasonable choice for early expansion opening up strategies for more slothful scales (Abyssia for instance).

I can definitely vouch for this. With Arco, I use Priestesses primarily for Sermon of Courage and not for their ability to heal or their N1 magic. With a little encouragement, Barbarians (low rcost unit, so good for Sloth scales with EA Arco) stay on the battlefield long enough to dish out some heavy hurt rather than run away at the slightest scratch.

Also, I recently fought a MP battle where I had a squad of blessed, encouraged Heart Companions (which already have high morale for non-undead or non-mindless troops), and they fought down almost to the last man. Granted they didn't get to engage the fear-and-awe SC which I recruited them to fight against, but it was still impressive to see them re-enacting the Greeks at Thermopylae....

Sermon of Courage is a great buff. I've experienced enough battles fought with and without it to be a believer in the significant difference it makes. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't feel cheated recruiting some H2 commanders instead of mages.