T'ien Ch'i, and how they rule!

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Zen:
Crystal Shields ... Sigh. They are expensive, Cost something like 20 Astral 20 Earth gems to forge

20 Earth - bugger. I didn't realise they had gone up so much in cost. I guess I won't bother trying so hard to get them then.

Where I seem to be falling, is really penetrating those heavy troops of the enemy.

This is certainly an issue for S&A lacking the Lancers of BK. I find mages the only answer and as you say they have a tendency to go to sleep on the job. Still a few well placed fireballs and those indie Knights are fleeing.

In the long term missiles (Xbow or Comp) are not adequate so you need to transition to something else but what? BK can go HC but S&A only really has its mages and they will only do so much. My response to my first attempts at S&A is that they suck and that seems fairly close - give them more quality chariots and all that changes.

BK is better, playable, but deeply flawed due to the odd behaviour of the multi-armed cavalry. In practice you need to rely on Comp bow and HI to expand. The LC that should define the race end up optional and need higher precision to reflect their exceptional skills as horse archers (like maybe 10). Khans could do with an extra role and I still like the recruiting LC through conquest idea. At present the Generals are more rewarding as they have a bow to keep themselves busy while the standard affect of the Khan is hard to make use of.

Haven't played Main Theme Tien Chi much but they seem the strongest and more comparable to main stream Dom races.

Cheers

Keir