Is Vanheim generally considered overpowered? Just asking, I dont claim to know.

[Pocus]

elephants are useless against valks, as trampling is a base 10 attack versus the defencer's defence.

use spells. spells dont care about the defence of valks. If you have armored troops, try for example some blade winds (wont pass high prot), the ladies wont appreciate.

[Targa]

I love Blade Wind! My fave spell against lightly armored troops. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing 25-50% of a charging army get killed in the first few rounds of battle. Just be sure to have your caster ordered to only cast it twice, right at the start of battle. Once your troops are engaged, you're likely to get heavy "friendly fire" casualties.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Targa:
I love Blade Wind! My fave spell against lightly armored troops. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing 25-50% of a charging army get killed in the first few rounds of battle. Just be sure to have your caster ordered to only cast it twice, right at the start of battle. Once your troops are engaged, you're likely to get heavy "friendly fire" casualties.

OK guys, who are you using for Blade Wind? Each time I've had someone casting it, I saw a very pretty display of very harmless blades fan out from my mage's hands, either falling very far from any possible targets or grazing them harmlessly.

And no, I didn't empower Abysian mages in Earth so as to be able to cast BW. Those were typically Ulmish Black Priests or Smiths.

(But, if you don't want your Mages to cast BW more than once, it's typically enough not to give them any gems; at 80- Fatigue for level 3, it would take Earth 4 to still be conscious after two castings)

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Osium:
I lost about 45 units plus an assortment of mages. Of his 110 units, I'd guess 40 were valks, I killed maybe 25 of them. His vans and regular infantry were able to bog down my pretender and the rest of my units. I don't know if 18 elephants and about 45 Hyps + my god is a good trade off for what he was able to inflict on me.

Vans and Valkyries can be beaten by heavily armored units and by damage spells. His were fire-blessed, though, so armor is not very good. In that case, I would suggest firey spells, like fireball, falling fires, and so forth. Cheap archers and xbows work well too; they only have 13 protection, and a single hit kills their mirrror image. Of course, Valkyries can fly... so you have to distract them with a closer target than your archers. But elephants won't work at all.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by PhilD:
OK guys, who are you using for Blade Wind? Each time I've had someone casting it, I saw a very pretty display of very harmless blades fan out from my mage's hands, either falling very far from any possible targets or grazing them harmlessly.

How far are your mages from the front of the battlefield? I tend to put master smiths right behind my Ulmish infantry, but far enough away that stray arrows won't hit them.

(But, if you don't want your Mages to cast BW more than once, it's typically enough not to give them any gems; at 80- Fatigue for level 3, it would take Earth 4 to still be conscious after two castings)

That's what summon earthpower and the earth reinvigoration belt is for with Ulm. Give your smiths earth boots and the belt, maybe an eye of aiming if you have independent air mages. Cast summon earthpower, blade wind X 4. They will get a bunch off in a battle that way.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Osium:
My pretender fatigued out rather quickly, an oversight on my behalf it was a Nataraja using 4 enchanted swords a pendant of luck. I over buffed and ended up at like 80 fatigue it did nice damage but 3 turns later it was sitting still getting swamped.

It also helps if a pretender you're trying to use as an SC has somewhat more endurance than a schoolgirl, because it's not much use if its only action in a battle is to pass out. You need a minimum reinvigoration level equal to twice your melee encumberance to be worthwhile.

[Teraswaerto]

Or a Wraith Sword. No good for a trampler though...