Uses of Indie Soldiers?

[Tricon]

And don't forget moose riders . Seriously, in early to mid game a nice stealthy army can to wonders for your game.

[tinkthank]

Trying not to repeat what has already been said:

- Cavalry is nice if you are playing any nation without horsies.
- Heavy Infantry is nice if you are playing a low-armor nation (Mictlan comes to mind)
- Water nations will like just about any landlubber units when fighting on land
- Land nations will like underwater units if wanting to take over and keep some water provinces
- The ice cream vendors are nice if you are playing Abysia or Machaka.

[AhhhFresh]

How much does indy units affect your fortification strategy?

I'm playing around with my R'yleh strategies in an SP game... in this game I have a couple of coastal land provinces that border my capital that can produce knights... is it worth building a 40 admin fortess on the knight province that will suck resources from my capital (that I really don't use anyway), as opposed to moving to a more "strategic" province?

In general, how do you balance indie units vs. strategy vs. resources available in selecting where to put a castle?

[Arryn]

Playing as R'leyh, I don't find knights to be all that useful. Given a choice of spending gold on them versus buying more illithids, I choose illithids. For frontline grunt troops I prefer summons (sea trolls are my favorite, and vine ogres are always handy) or shamblers. For wetwork, hordes of cheap tritons are useful.

Being a magically strong -- and aquatic -- nation whose best units cannot be recruited on land, R'leyh doesn't benefit as much from a fortification-indies strategy as other nations do. The squiddies have more (and typically better) options open to them. IMO.

[AhhhFresh]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Playing as R'leyh, I don't find knights to be all that useful. Given a choice of spending gold on them versus buying more illithids, I choose illithids. For frontline grunt troops I prefer summons (sea trolls are my favorite, and vine ogres are always handy) or shamblers. For wetwork, hordes of cheap tritons are useful.

Being a magically strong -- and aquatic -- nation whose best units cannot be recruited on land, R'leyh doesn't benefit as much from a fortification-indies strategy as other nations do. The squiddies have more (and typically better) options open to them. IMO.

Oh, I agree with you. That is how I generally do it as well.

However, Shamblers and Lobos and Illithids are all magic troops... as are all the summons from the void gate.

And while all R'yleh commanders can lead magic troops(except the scout I guess)... there is a relatively small upper limit per commander... hybrids and slaves are ok to fill in the gaps... but you have to balance between mind numbing squidies, stomping shambler thralls, and cheapie mindless arrow catching lobos... but I'm currently exploring whether indie troops might provide more "bang for the buck" in the normal troop department.

My current battle strategy doesn't seem to dovetail very well with cavalry's fast movement... but they intriuge me because of the possibilities of flanking... which is impossible with any R'yleh unit, except a Vastness... but you might not even ever get one of those, and there are far better uses for that badboy than pseudo-cavalry.

[Arryn]

The shamblers I was referring to are the *indy* shamblers (non-magical) ...

EDIT: vine ogres are not considered magical troops, which is why I think they are so handy.

EDIT 2: as the squiddies, I tend to not bother much with "flanking". I just put up a wall of tough grunts to fend off the enemy and let the squids in my rear area have at the foe with mind bLasts and spells like enslave. Charon is more or less doing in his AAR what I do myself in my SP squid games.

[ March 17, 2004, 18:52: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arryn:
EDIT 2: as the squiddies, I tend to not bother much with "flanking". I just put up a wall of tough grunts to fend off the enemy and let the squids in my rear area have at the foe with mind bLasts and spells like enslave. Charon is more or less doing in his AAR what I do myself in my SP squid games.

Flanking is useful with the Squiddlies: I like a good center block of Lobos, pasted to the front wall: They're the arrow fodder and anvil: Then I have a pair of shambler wings on the side, on attack rear, slightly behind them: They close as a set of pincers and mow through the enemy center with their trample attacks, and the squiddly blocks fire their mindbLasts into the fray to sow terror, paralysis, and confusion.