MA Argatha - go punch a mountain

[chrispedersen]

well... first you make him very very angry....

[Trumanator]

Do statues' afflictions get healed when they visit a friendly lab, along with their HPs? Also, you'd think that statues would be blind...

[Dragar]

If a statue with boosted hit points wanders into enemy dominion he keeps his HP because he doesn't heal, as baalz stated. Should you capture an enemy province with a lab, would his hit points then drop back to their base amount?

That would be a cunning trap, seed a lab into a province to be invaded, then attack the weakened army

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Dragar

If a statue with boosted hit points wanders into enemy dominion he keeps his HP because he doesn't heal, as baalz stated. Should you capture an enemy province with a lab, would his hit points then drop back to their base amount?

That would be a cunning trap, seed a lab into a province to be invaded, then attack the weakened army

Nope, for the lifeless units the hitpoints only ever go down from taking damage. They go up any turn they're at a friendly lab, the amount determined by your dominion (no bonus in a hostile one).

[Nasser]

post the most agarthan fan fic you got itt

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by alhorro

The main problem I see with this strategy is absolute lack of mobility. All that constructs and mages (except golems, but golems alone can't win the game for you) will be just crawling around, while majority of nations can easily outrun them. Who wants to fight that stone park if one can just avoid it with flighting/teleporting/stealthy/remote stuff until it'd be possible to destroy it with a proper SC? And if you want to push your mobility, you'd have to trade/alchemize/invest most of your E income.

Not entirely true. The big problem is that your mages are map move 1, your constructs and undead summons are (I believe) universally map move 3. If you spread your castles around your territory and thus have mages close to anywhere you need them, you can shuffle boosters/etc. around instantly in the labs to get what you need around. To move your units around is as easy as sticking a crown of command on...oh anything with good movement will do, a mound king has a movement of 4 and only costs 3 gems. True, you're always going to limp around your slow mages a bit, but cleverly deployed you certainly aren't 'crawling around' and 'easily outrun'. As to flying/teleporting/raiding stuff, a couple people have mentioned that. This is almost too easy - you've got golem crafters *everywhere* and boosters coming out your ears. Depends on what exactly is raiding you of course, but weapons of sharpness + strength of giants + legions of steel will sharply adjust peoples assessment of your PD. Bloodstone + earth boots + summon earth power = petrify. Drop weapons of sharpness first and that raiding SC is now paralyzed and being hacked with AP weapons. Blade wind, destruction, magma eruption....just sprinkle a couple of your golem crafters around scripted appropriately behind your PD and there's not much you have to worry about WRT raiding... Oh, and just one or two golems in your stable and you've got incredibly solid anti-raiders ready to drop. Later on earth attack is fabulous in this capacity.

[Dragar]

aren't mechanical men shock resistant?

[Meglobob]

Yes they are are 100% resistant to lightning, fire, posion and cold. However, one of there weaknesses (surprised no one said it) is they are size 2. No doubt caelum will have alot of expensive mammoths who after the expansion phase (or during) would love nothing more than to trample some size 2 mechanical men into the ground. Even with 16 hps from golem cult those mechanical men will be crushed, sure you will lose alot of mammoths but you want to lose them before mid game anyway because of the expensive upkeep.

Also, does weapons of sharpness make the weapons magical or does it just give armour piercing? If it does not make the mechanical mens broadsword magical then body ethereal on mammoths or caelum protection 20-22 (in cold 3) iceclads will defeat those mechanical men. Caelum can also bring quickness and luck to the party without any real effort.

Also, when spamming lightning doesn't the AI account for SR 100% and avoid targeting those, so would instead target those mages of yours? Not completely sure on this one, I am constantly forgetting and remembering Dominions rules.

Remember, everything I have said Caelum can do is gold recruitable. Pretty much everything you want Ma Agartha to do is via earth gems. You will run out of earth gems alot faster than Caelum runs out of gold.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Meglobob

Also, when spamming lightning doesn't the AI account for SR 100% and avoid targeting those, so would instead target those mages of yours? Not completely sure on this one, I am constantly forgetting and remembering Dominions rules.

Probably yes, since Baalz mentioned you have to forge lightning resistance items for the mages. Iron Rods are cheap, though.

Good points about mammoths and high-prot troops, although the protection Baalz's Agartha can deal with. Strength of Giants, Weapons of Sharpness, Acid spells, Armor of Achilles/Destruction, etc.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Endoperez

Good points about mammoths and high-prot troops, although the protection Baalz's Agartha can deal with. Strength of Giants, Weapons of Sharpness, Acid spells, Armor of Achilles/Destruction, etc.

*slaps forehead* I can't believe I forgot to mention this when I intended to emphasize it. Acid has *awesome* synergy with MA Argatha. Why? Because it is AP and there is no way to gain a resistance to it. It also destroys armor just like destruction. This means that that the only thing that helps is to have high natural procection, no non-magic armor you care about, and high hitpoints. Argatha has....all of that! Vitriols are awesome and should be staple troops, and acid rain is like falling fires + destruction in one spell than nobody is immune to, but the apple of my eye is acid storm. 4 AP doesn't sound like all that much, but the important thing here is that it destroys armor, so that 4 AP attack is only blocked by natural protection the second time it hits. This adds up *fast* to anybody without very high natural protection. It also (unlike iron bane) destroys the armor on a battlefield wide scale without it having to be hit in melee first. Think about charging into blade wind spam with no armor or shield. How long does it take to chip away at those sacred statues again?