Ermor themes, too strong?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Ermor is not as strong as many would believe. Here's a breakdown of Ermor, from the perspective of an avid Ermor player:

You've missed their major advantage, which is that they are still balanced for the Dominions 1 economy, whereas every other nation now has half the gold production available.

It is popularly believed that if Ermor is left uncontained, it will grow to be unstoppable. This is not inherently true, or at least more true, of Ermor: All nations, if left unchecked, will reach a point where stopping them becomes very difficult.

I believe that that statement is quite literally true. Ermor has absolutely no limitations on the maximum number of troops it can support, and pays no upkeep on its mages whatsoever. That alone is an incredibly massive advantage. Every other nation requires high population in many provinces to keep their troops and mage numbers high, and population only drops over time.

If your dominion is weak, however, you must shore it up with priests and temples, or Ermor's temple spread will quickly overwhelm yours and ruin your lands.

This is the major problem with them. Ermor has absolutely no need for population, so once they have captured a province it becomes useless to anyone else within a few turns.

Don't let yourself be goaded into a rash campaign: Act with patience and prudence, not a knee-jerk reaction of "Ermor must die!".

I think that this is poor advice. Once ghost riders comes into play, which tends to be before turn 40, you basically have no chance against an Ermorian player. This spell makes building fortreses necessary in every province with a temple, which drains gold reserves incredibly quickly.

Both population killing Ermorian themes should probably cost 200 points just to match the other reanimating themes that exist.