Troops vs magic, what am I doing wrong?

[anonymity]

Well the point is you take advantage of when the thugs are extremely efficient and avoid situations where they won't be efficient. If you're saying 4 took out an army of 100 light infantry with no casualties, that's not "about par". It would be "about par" for gold-efficiency if you lost 3 of them and the last one was crippled. Sidhe Lords are stealth and cloud trapeze capable and so can pick their fights fairly well.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by anonymity

Well the point is you take advantage of when the thugs are extremely efficient and avoid situations where they won't be efficient. If you're saying 4 took out an army of 100 light infantry with no casualties, that's not "about par". It would be "about par" for gold-efficiency if you lost 3 of them and the last one was crippled. Sidhe Lords are stealth and cloud trapeze capable and so can pick their fights fairly well.

Typically AI troops are poor quality, starving, etc., so if I come at an AI army of 100 troops with my 60 Principes I'll lose about 10. With the Sidhe Lords, I was losing about 1 every 2-3 battles. They're not indestructable until you give them the shield and sword combo, which pumps up their cost a bit.

As long as you attack where the enemy is weak and run away where he is strong, you really don't suffer too many casualties. The trouble is that when you're surrounded by 6 AI opponents all gunning for you there's few places to run and hide from his strength. Maybe I really should take up raiding.

[krpeters]

OK, so I found a convoluted way of getting some serious firepower at seriously low cost with magic. Is this sort of result typical, or am I taking advantage of an exploit that's likely to get nerfed?

1) EA Ermor
2) Principe meat shield
3) 5 Augurs. No, not Auger Eldurs (250 Au apiece, expensive! 80 Au Augers -- cheap!)
4) 3 astral pearls on the 5th Augur.

Lead Augurs are scripted to Communion Slave, Hold, Hold, Astral Fires, Astral Fires.

Tail Augur is scripted to cast Communion Master, Power of the Spheres, Light of the Northern Star, Astral Fires, Astral Fires.

Cost: 400 Au, 3 pearls
Result: 10x Astral Fires.
Efficiency: Medium. If an Astral Fires does 50hp damage average (depends on if I'm up against good MR troops or not), then it works out about even.

Smashing the AI with a pile of Principes is a whole lot easier, though

[Rookierookie]

Try these thugging options with E9N6 Sidhe Lords:

Option 1: Vine shield + Rainbow Armor. That's 20 gems.
Script Blessing, Air Shield, Mistform, Resist Lightning, Soothing Song, Cast spells

With Con-4, Alt-3 and Evo-2, your Sidhe Lords will cast Shock Wave which will wipe out AI chaff. You should have enough reinvig and regen from the bless to survive a long time, but you can also slap on the Ring of Regen and the Amulet of Resilience to help, or put on a Ring of Tamed Lightning and skip the Resist Lightning part, which brings the gem cost up a little. But the above setup can be mass produced and is quite survivable.

Options 2: Snake Bladder Stick + Vine Shield + Rainbow Armor. 25 gems.
Script Blessing, Resist Poison, Air Shield, Mistform, Soothing Song, Attack Closest.

Needs Con-4 and Alt-3, is a little easier on the fatigue, and will do bad things to non-poison immune troops. You can slap on a snake ring and spare yourself Resist Poison for another 5 gems, or additional reinvig/regen in a misc slot.

All these are achievable with relatively little research, can be mass produced, and the vine shield is the only thing that cannot be forged by the Sidhe Lords themselves (and you always have mages who can forge them).

[Rookierookie]

Originally Posted by krpeters

Typically AI troops are poor quality, starving, etc., so if I come at an AI army of 100 troops with my 60 Principes I'll lose about 10. With the Sidhe Lords, I was losing about 1 every 2-3 battles. They're not indestructable until you give them the shield and sword combo, which pumps up their cost a bit.

As long as you attack where the enemy is weak and run away where he is strong, you really don't suffer too many casualties. The trouble is that when you're surrounded by 6 AI opponents all gunning for you there's few places to run and hide from his strength. Maybe I really should take up raiding.

That's why we play on 300 supplies.