How to Play the Abysian Race?

[tinkthank]

These are all great tips and advice, and I wont repeat this. Odd however because these are not the first things that pop into my head about Abysia, which I like to play. But that's the great thing about DomII.
Obviously, Abysia is a fire race, but I dont play it with strong fire casting. I love its Astral, and its blood.
I often go with an Oracle, a Divine Glyph, or a Phoenix or a Virtue. (On the virtue I slap a fire ring on round 1.) I want Air 4 on my pretender for the bless effect, and I want to be able to forge +air items in case I get a random on my warlocks, which I get a lot of asap, and to forge a staff of storms. Staff of storms is key for me. Abysia doesnt use projectile weapons, and I try to make sure my enemies cant either. Keep those storms coming. So I invest in Construction quite a bit too. Construction will also get you those contracts (btw: its a blood 5 req for Soul Contract, which you get at Constuct 2).
Thaumaturgy is key for me too. I prefer Communion to Sabath master/slave. I love warlocks for mind burn, then soul slay, paralyze, and then later of course mind control. And the most important for me: Gateway. Notice how Abysias great troops are so damn slow? I hate toting them around, so I gateway them with my warlocks.
I like Blood for Send Horrors, which is great. Thats almost about all I use it for, with the occasional summon Storm Demon, Succubus, and Horde. I dont care for the rest of the summons as much as other people do, but thats a style thing again. Do what you like.
Then I invest in some conjuration and some evocation as time permits. Enchantment and Alteration as time permits.
Well thats just a few quick tips from my perspective, which is of course very different from what other like (and what they said here is all good, true stuff), and hopefully different from yours too. Enjoy!

[SelfishGene]

Salamanders rock at times. They killed my trample 20+ prot, trample, 34+ regen, Earth Mother in a PBeM. I would have crushed the Abysian army easily had not their large armor piercing attack ripped right into my Pretender and killed her in about two turns of combat.

[ March 13, 2004, 20:46: Message edited by: SelfishGene ]

[tinkthank]

Yes.
Their upkeep is a real issue however. Thanks to Wauthan (praise be to him), I have made a mini-mod with his help which makes Salamanders a bit more expensive but sacred. I think it is a nice balance. Their upkeep is then tolerable, and it makes for a more varied army.

[Zurai]

Problem with using a Staff of Storms as Abyssia is that a storm makes fire magic more fatiguing in combat, which sucks. Still, if you're facing someone like Man with heavy duty, accurate archers, it might be worthwhile.

[PhilD]

Most of the comments seem to revolve around magic; here's one it took me some time to understand...

Abysian troops (Abysian Infantry) require tons of resources. (the mages cost a lot of gold, while the troops, not counting the lava warriors, cost relatively little gold, but a lot of resources)

Consider using a cheaply built fortress, so you can recruit them from more than one place. I try to go with the Wizard's Tower, though the 120 design points hurt a lot.

[Norfleet]

Most of the comments tend to be based around magic because Abysian troops are fairly straightforward. They're burly, mean, and heavily armored. You build them in packs and then go beat stuff up. In many ways, they're not all that different from Ulm, except that they tend to work poorly with other infantries because of their heat auras.

[Yossar]

And a total lack of missile troops.