Getting the max out of MA Agartha

[Jazzepi]

I really don't see the point in a bless for a nation like Argatha (at least one that doesn't also hit the big sacred recruitables). All you're going to do is gimp yourself in the beginning.

I messed around some more with the build I posted earlier. I'm pretty much convinced that you need lots of early production. IMO you either have one of three things. Early production, an awake pretender, or a bless. If you don't have one of those three things your early expansion is going to be too slow. I'm sure there's a nation or two that can get away without the production, but I can't name any off the top of my head, but I think it applies in general.

Here's an updated build for CBM.

Forge Lord
Dormant
Dominion 7
F2
E4
B4

O3
P3
H1
G1
Misfortune2
Magic1

I really like this build, even though I think you'd probably get rolled by a bless rush. It's difficult to defend with Argatha against something like that. In the end, though, I don't know how much spending good scales on an awake pretender would help. Many bless rush strats can't be beaten by a pretender alone, and you can only forge earth gear for him, so he probably has to be undead. Production 3 also allows you to reliable produce archers from indy provinces without planting a castle down on them. Also, and I don't know why this is, but Argatha has some of the worst, most expensive castles that I've ever seen. They're regularly 1k-1.2k in gold, with FIFTEEN admin which makes them useless for sucking up resources. With this build I would focus on finding good placements for castles on plains/nothing which gives you a fortified city that has 50 admin.

At the end of the day you want to hole up, and forge blood stones each'n'every turn with your god. When he isn't forging, he should be blood hunting if you aren't lucky enough to find someone to trade with. Towards the middle / end of the game, I would probably amass 20 scouts in a single province to do your blood hunting. You really only need a meager income (3 slaves a turn on average) to supply your god with stones.

Since the stones act as boosters, you should find it very easy to get high level earth evocations in every fight, including earthquake spam. You can mix bladewind and iron bane to good effect with your statutes. They aren't actually wearing any armor that can break from the iron bane which should help deal with argatha's most problem enemies; high armor, high defense units that archers can't hurt, and their basic soldiers, statues included, can't really hit because their attack values are garbage.

Jazzepi

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Jazzepi

Also, and I don't know why this is, but Argatha has some of the worst, most expensive castles that I've ever seen. They're regularly 1k-1.2k in gold, with FIFTEEN admin which makes them useless for sucking up resources. With this build I would focus on finding good placements for castles on plains/nothing which gives you a fortified city that has 50 admin.
Jazzepi

The good thing about the agarthan castles is that cave cities have autocast darkness, which means that any of your recruitables will destroy whomever tries to invade it in the early/mid game. Very useful, though perhaps not good enough for the high cost and low prod.

[chrispedersen]

Well, no one has picked up on it despite me dropping the hint several times. So I'll out and out state it:

For early game expansion under CBM, nothing (but nothing) beats a phoenix.

And agartha is a perfect fit. You don't want (or need) a lot of paths - you want scales. So something like an F4-6Ax. And for grins and giggles take H3.

[P3D]

Indeed