T'ien C'hi help

[Firebreath]

I'm in a similar situation to you, so I'll just add the little that I know.

Composite bows + footpads
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Composite bows are non armour piercing (I think), so if you play against ulm, for example, they won't do much damage in the first 3 rounds, and then afterwards they'll hurt your footmen more than the enemy .Since you have imperial crossbows, that isn't a problem.

Ordinary/Imperial archers
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Ordinary ones are much cheaper, so normally better. Except, of course, if you end up in an archery duel with heavily armed archers. They are also much, much worse if the enemy gets through or round (or over) your front ranks

Cavalry
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Against your standard enemy forces, no cavarly is just fine. However, so types of army are succeptibly much weaker without a flanking cover (something on your flanks to protect you from enemy flanking attacks). You cant always rely on melee infantry to do this as they'll most likely head for the center scrap, leaving their position empty. However, the horse archers are relatively good for this, as they'll stay where they are (since they're firing their bows) and they'll put up a good fight if attacked.

Heavy cavalry
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Even if you're planning on a defensive tactic, it's worth having a few heavies on 'attack rear', occasionally they'll go straight to the enemy commanders and finish the battle before it started

Enemy fliers
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Early on they're quite rare, though a few draconians or devils on 'hold and attack archers' will mess up your nice plans

Celestials
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I don't know much about them. The pigs didn't seem to add any tactical element, and my other computer foes were already vanquished by the time I had enough crystals to conjure anything else

[HotNifeThruButr]

Thanks Dice, but about the celestials, I'd much rather pay 250 for a mage that I know can summon demons of heavenly garbage (ironically, celestial masters don't have enough air magic to summon celestial soldiers, unless they get an air pick, so only my pretender will do that. At least they summon in bulk) than try for a 1:7 chance of getting the right pick with a master of the way.

BTW, when your units play the attack animation while the enemy attacked them, that's indicates a repel, right? Does it mean an attempted repel (passes defense/attack check) or a succeeded one (passes morale check)?

[HotNifeThruButr]

Thanks Dice, but about the celestials, I'd much rather pay 250 for a mage that I know can summon demons of heavenly garbage (ironically, celestial masters don't have enough air magic to summon celestial soldiers, unless they get an air pick, so only my pretender will do that. At least they summon in bulk) than try for a 1:7 chance of getting the right pick with a master of the way.

BTW, when your units play the attack animation while the enemy attacked them, that's indicates a repel, right? Does it mean an attempted repel (passes defense/attack check) or a succeeded one (passes morale check)?

[HotNifeThruButr]

Thanks Dice, but about the celestials, I'd much rather pay 250 for a mage that I know can summon demons of heavenly garbage (ironically, celestial masters don't have enough air magic to summon celestial soldiers, unless they get an air pick, so only my pretender will do that. At least they summon in bulk) than try for a 1:7 chance of getting the right pick with a master of the way.

BTW, when your units play the attack animation while the enemy attacked them, that's indicates a repel, right? Does it mean an attempted repel (passes defense/attack check) or a succeeded one (passes morale check)?

Edit: triple post... what the crap? How do I delete Posts?

Edit 2: I may just be accustomed to the kick *** infantry of Ulm from the demo, but Footmen of all types seem pretty puny. They seem to get wasted by even New Era Satry Hoplites

Edit 3: I thought Falchions were European and the big broad swords you see in the movies/books were scimitars.

[ April 11, 2004, 06:41: Message edited by: HotNifeThruButr ]

[rabelais]

Tien Chi is great, but the themes need to be played very differently

Default -- Red guards and/or imperial crossbowmen kick butt the former esp. if you like a bless effect versatile race.


Spring and Autumn-- Flying Ubermages. Ridiculously fast site searching. My favorite.

Don't use the demons of heavenly fire, they take too much mage time to summon to be useful.

Demons of heavenly rivers are fine, (especially if you disapprove of clam hoarding) but only from cheap masters of the way with a random astral.


Barbarian Kings- Be a Mongol! Wheeeeee!

Not terribly effective in MP with the required turmoil2, but as much fun as you'll have with cavalry in this game. (Still not that much, IMHO, Maybe if the horsemen spawned like Ermorian fodder?)

The death priests having the 15 paralyzing spirit for 4 death gem spell from the beginning is nice too.


Celestial Rabe, Master of Spring and Autumn

[atul]

Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
I don't play Spring and Autumn, since it is incredibly limited in unit choices, and I like my high morale imperials, but do demons set off that glaring weakness? Are there only Demons of Heavenly Rivers and Fires or are there more?

As Rabelais mentioned, S&A Celestial Masters fly. They also have two random picks instead of one, with same low price of 250 g. There aren't any other demons, but like Barbarian Kings, S&A can summon dispossessed spirits.

Unlike the default theme, where you need to fight to gain a mage able to summon your Celestials, with S&A's initial gem income (and recruiting one CM and Master of the Dead) alone you can summon your first Demon of the Heavenly Rivers on the second turn, DotH Fires on third, and 15 dispossessed spirits on fourth, if you want. So, their troops may be weaker, but you've got summons a lot earlier.

I must disagree with Rabelais, as I've found Demons of the Heavenly Fires extremely useful. They are flying, so can be deployed fast along your CMs and their armour-piercing attack can kill even Ulm's knights. I've got into a habit of searching my first provinces for magic sites, and immediately when I've got enough income to faciliate monthly castings I've set one CM to summon Fire Demons and one Master of the Dead to summon Dispossessed Spirits monthly. Probably not most efficient way of using resources, but it is nice to have some reserves.

Demons of the Heavenly Rivers, on the other hand, haven't found any place in my armies. To each their own.

[HotNifeThruButr]

Spring and Autumn mages are all good and fun, but how do you cope with their second rate units? do you have armies composed only of demons