How to fight EA Abysia?

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

Il Magno--you're right, I put it inside of angle brackets instead of square brackets, so the forum software thought it was an HTML tag and omitted it. [Summon Earthpower, Iron Bane] is what I wrote.

-Max

You don't need no stinking Ironbane. Nor rusting mist... nothing. Androphags is all you need.

If you *really* feel compelled to get fancy:

Androphags + earthmeld.
Androphags + quagmire.
Androphags + curse of stones.


And if by chance you have progresses to W4: Wolven Winter.

[Xietor]

Use Wolven winter if possible on his capital to reduce income. Also use it on any prospective battlefields.

Properly equipped thugs like banelords with eye shields and 100 fr can mow through any of their castle bought troops.

[Executor]

Originally Posted by Xietor

Properly equipped thugs like banelords with eye shields and 100 fr can mow through any of their castle bought troops.

But not Burning Ones, those bastards are hard to kill.
I tested an Air Queen for one game with, eye shield, frost brend, fear helmet, marble armor, lucky pendant and fire ring and still they kicked the shhh... out of her.
However leech worked like a charm.

[Xietor]

My banelords killed burning ones double 9 blessed in the big game. Give them ring regen, luck, boots quickness, eye shield, fire brand(been months since i played dom III think that is name of ap 50 fr sword), dragon helm, some good light armor.

I usually sent them in pairs or even in a group of 3. Mage support is good, but not essential.

[MaxWilson]

Androphag archers are quite impressive--easily-massed and quite deadly. However, poison arrows take a while to kill, in my experience. Iron Bane or Destruction may be helpful for finishing off enemy formations, weakened and thinned out by poison arrows, BEFORE they hit your lines like a ton of bricks.

-Max

[Il Magno]

Well I have many-many androphags and Oriopatas.......

[Dragar]

In a current MP game as EA Abysia I recently fought Sauro and androphags, and they were very troublesome, and that was against my E9W9 burning ones, who didn't feel much of the normal damage and could close into combat much faster than normal. Basically it was a question of how much damage he could do before my troops closed in, as once they were in melee it was over very quickly. Even when I won the battles I often lost more than he did in cost terms, and abysian troops are very slow to reinforce. You need to have enough firepower in each battle relative to his army to do heavy damage before he arrives. If you can only kill a small portion of his force before he closes you are in trouble.

I've often considered playing EA abysia with E9A9 to handle range threats and lightning spam, but it doesn't give you enough benefit against other opponents for the cost, which is why I went with water - useful for closing quickly and for dishing out melee damage faster.

I ended up prevailing but that was largely due to an ally who was very effective against the sauromatian armies, I don't think I would have gotten there alone.

The abysian will be trying to get into close combat before his top troops are decimated by the androphags, so be wary of chaff screens and the like. If he has a means of casting storm or arrow fend start to be worried, otherwise just make sure you have some kind of decent physical barrier to protect your androphags for long enough if the infantry manage to close in. Skelly spam could potentially do the job nicely.

Also if you happen to be approaching high research be wary of fire storm, it’s the kind of spell that will take out your archers very quickly.


Oh, and obviously look for fire resistance wherever possible, it really takes the heat out of EA abysia in particular. I forget if its Alt or Ench that has the good nature magic area effect elemental resistance spells?

[Jarkko]

Quagmire + Rain + Androphag Archers.

All sorts of snares (you have access to a ton of cheap N mages to cast tangle vines) are your friends.

Send in waves of imps, they are immune to the heat, and they will delay the heavy Abysian infantry (and the heavy infantry will get more and more exhausted).

If you can, summon some earth elementals for the battle. They'll trample the Abysian infantry. Yeah, the elementals will faint from exhaustion too, but they will still take some beating even when unconcious, during which time your Androphag Archers keep on peppering.

Ie anything that will make your androphag archers shoot for as long as possible is good for you.

[Baalz]

Don't forget to leverage your nice PD as well. Androphags firing from behind moderate PD means he has to close, then kill you PD, then close, *then* kill your Androphags, taking poison damage the whole time. Add in some skellispam, which has a chance to build up critical mass while he's chewing through your PD, and he'll take very heavy casualties before he can inflict a single one to you. Don't want to repeat what others have said, but the name of the game is delaying him, and you've got tons of options.

[Il Magno]

Thx guys

just an additional question, what is better: skellyspam, nether darts bombing or a good mix?