MA Argatha - go punch a mountain

[Aezeal]

Sounds nice but I'm wondering if a good bless wouldn't be better. I don't have a proposition yet though..

[JimMorrison]

EA has better bless prospects due to recruitable anywhere Sacreds. MA wants to tailor the bless for their statues (thought I argue N4 really is a powerful tool for MA Agartha), and there's almost nothing that works well with them.

Fire - Minor is a no brainer, Major won't play well with geared Oracles.
Air - No seriously? Major has niche use, can't imagine worth the points, and Minor is a joke for Agartha.
Water - Minor is nearly useless on such low Def units, Major could be fun, but is a weak path for Agartha to invest so many points into.
Earth - Minor is excellent for mages, Major is no good for statues.
Astral - Minor is good for statues, Major will largely be wasted on Oracles who will want more than 18MR.
Nature - Minor is great for recruitables, and for path access, Major would be silly.... can Mindless Constructs go Berserk...?
Death - Minor could be powerful, but it makes Earthquakes dangerous to you as well, Major is also bad for geared Oracles.
Blood - Minor could be alright, Major, no.

So really taking into account the entire picture, the ONLY Major bless that even makes any sense for MA would be W9, but it's hard to justify the expense for that. That is, unless statues can Berserk, in which case, running an N9 could almost be worth it, as Berserking would turn these critters into juggernauts.

[Trumanator]

The pikeman thrust his weapon at the statue with all his might, carving a flake from its chest. Suddenly, the statue's face somehow contorted, and it began to slash and thrust with abandon, seeking to overwhelm him with sheer ferocity. The hapless pikeman wondered, "how on earth do you make a Statue angry?

[Nasser]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

The pikeman thrust his weapon at the statue with all his might, carving a flake from its chest. Suddenly, the statue's face somehow contorted, and it began to slash and thrust with abandon, seeking to overwhelm him with sheer ferocity. The hapless pikeman wondered, "how on earth do you make a Statue angry?

Gisuppe surveyed the field, two armies prepared to do battle in the early morning light. Infantry wielding pikes and bows, flails and spears all streamed from the camps into formation facing the Agarthans on the other side of the valley. Gisuppe squinted in the rays, he knew it would partially blind his men for most of the battle, but on the other hand the Agarthan infantry would have to make a fatiguing hike up the hillside in order to reach his own lines. In the distance a monstrous and ancient Pale One waved its oversized hands about the air in blasphemous reverie to its heretical godling. Suddenly, the valley grew twice as bright as the sunlight bounced and shimmered off of the smooth, polished marble bodies of hundreds upon hundreds of colossal statues. They moved ponderously out from amidst the woods in which they must have been waiting. At the bottom of the hill they formed ranks and, with precision Gisuppe knew mortal infantry could never match, began marching lockstep up and toward his own troops. All around him his men fell silent, the only sound audible was the rythmic thumping of tonnes of marble striking the ground in unison. The cold, detached army moved steadily up the hill. Its silence was deafening.

[chrispedersen]

Interesting. Both Brilliance and Darkness can help Agartha. Darkness due to darkvision - and brilliance because Blindness affects agartha less than others, since they hit so badly all ready...

[Meglobob]

Good guide Baalz.

However, I would like to point out a fatal flaw with this Ma Agartha guide and that is Ma Caelum. If I was playing Ma Caelum and was next door to a Ma Agartha with cold 3 and lots of statues I would be laughing all the way to Ma Agarthas capital and that very pleasent E income it has.

Lightning will wipe the floor with most of the golem cult and the mechanical men will be defeated easily by Caelums troops in cold 3 dominion.

So if you use the build you after be very friendly with Caelum, hope its not in the game or starting along way from you. Even other nations like Eriu, Vanheim, Man and T'ien Ch'i may well fancy there chances in the early to mid game vs this Ma Agartha build. Also, Jotunheim may do okay with its CR and heavy hitting power.

Ma Agartha has a hard time of it in the Ma, as there are so many nations in the same age as you that can exploit the one dimensional nature of Ma Agartha.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Meglobob

Good guide Baalz.

However, I would like to point out a fatal flaw with this Ma Agartha guide and that is Ma Caelum. If I was playing Ma Caelum and was next door to a Ma Agartha with cold 3 and lots of statues I would be laughing all the way to Ma Agarthas capital and that very pleasent E income it has.

Lightning will wipe the floor with most of the golem cult and the mechanical men will be defeated easily by Caelums troops in cold 3 dominion.

So if you use the build you after be very friendly with Caelum, hope its not in the game or starting along way from you. Even other nations like Eriu, Vanheim, Man and T'ien Ch'i may well fancy there chances in the early to mid game vs this Ma Agartha build. Also, Jotunheim may do okay with its CR and heavy hitting power.

Ma Agartha has a hard time of it in the Ma, as there are so many nations in the same age as you that can exploit the one dimensional nature of Ma Agartha.

Hmmmm, I'm curious Meglobob, what do you have in mind to field as Caelum against mechanical men with a couple golem crafters for support that so dominates them? To be sure, there's not much you can do against heavy lightning until you get there, which is one of the reasons it's your second target (and I can't really think of any reasonable way to do much before that point). Once you make it there though I actually think it's Caelum who's going to be hard core struggling in major fights even in cold-3 (raiding is, of course, a Caelum advantage against many nations). Mechanical men and weapons of sharpness are kind of implied to mostly be used together along with strength of giants, so those mechanical men are hitting for 22 AP damage, with a 14 defense, 18 protection and (in dominion) hitpoints in the teens while being immune to every spell Caelum can drop. Meanwhile the golem crafters (holding lighting rods to keep from being picked off as the only valid lighting targets) are relatively shortly coming online with magma eruptions/earthquakes or destruction/iron bane which the Caelum troops most definitely are *not* immune to, quickness is starting to be dropped on those mechanical men and rigormortis + penetration boosted curse of stones doesn't really need the grip of winter to cripple those high encumbrance flying heavies. What did you have in mind?

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Hmmmm, I'm curious Meglobob, what do you have in mind to field as Caelum against mechanical men with a couple golem crafters for support that so dominates them?

Lightning [orb lightning], Lightning [orb lightning], Lightning [orb lightning], retreat.

On the rare times that caelum loses, he's trading gold pieces for the gems required for agartha's summons.

[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.

[Tolkien]

How do you blind a statue?