Abysya Help Request.

[tinkthank]

Yes, you put your finger on some sore points.
What I try to do to counter this is:
Get a low-cost pretender and spend points on Scales. Get Order 3 as a must-have.
Search. Find gems. You need em. Alchemize your fire early on for gold to buy troops. Be aggressive.
Not finding sages sucks. There is no real solution to this. Thus: be aggressive, expand, and hope to find sages.
I still like Abysia's national troops, they are just not particularly flexible. Gateway is a must-have spell for me since it's easy to cast for us and I want Thaumaturgy anyhow.
Well maybe that helps?

[Cohen]

Demonbred initial cost is 260, while the Warlock Apprentice is only 150 ...

110 gold less

Demonbred Unkeep= 8.66
Warlock Apprentice=10

110 / 1.4 = 74 turns

In 74 turns your Warlock Apprentice will be more costly than the demonbred, adding the starting cost to the unkeep.
Well Demonbred is far more effective for research and battle too, but often it costs more and you need gold for troops.

All those tactics I use already, except the one of the lifelong protection, since I prefer to use in other manner the slaves.

I didn't know heat aura exausthed. I believed that it was cold aura however.

[Teraswaerto]

Both heat and cold auras cause fatigue. Heat also causes combustion and cold numbness.

The Demonbreds are good for many things. They can serve as combat mages, and since they fly traveling to the front lines is quick. They can summon & lead devils. They are the best researchers Abysia has. Though cheaper the Warlock Apprentice is far less useful, and has higher upkeep. IMO, choosing the DB over the WA is a no-brainer.

[tinkthank]

I certainly dont think it's a "no-brainer".
The DB doesnt research that much better (in fact: 1 point), and I usually have at least 1 or 2 magic scales with Abysia; for the money, I find that 3 non-sacred WAs research much better than 2 sacred DBs.

You may like DBs more; and surely they are a fine unit, and I like them as well.
But I doubt that the choice between the DB and the WA (like almost ANY choice in Dom2) is a "no-brainer".

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
.
But I doubt that the choice between the DB and the WA (like almost ANY choice in Dom2) is a "no-brainer".

I'm sure the WA has it's place in some strategies and play styles. I was merely explaining why, in my opinion, one is better off recruiting DBs instead of WAs.

I usually recruit WA's for Blood Duty more than Research Duty (though, they provide that function as well).

Often with Abysia, you are early game pounding with Troops and then at some point (usually turn 15ish) have to do a massive switch to blood to either field an immediate Devil Army (which your 4+ DB's can summon), Ice Devil or begin production of Soul Contracts. You can field quite a few more WA's than DB's when doing this because of the mandatory use of high gold troops that will allow you to win against nearby neighbors. And while mobility is a factor, I find it more important in those situations to have quantity of hunters over a highly mobile fewer.

[ June 11, 2004, 15:51: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Cohen]

Well, I'm probably pretty slower since my blood hunt starts on turn 20 if not 30 ...

The real problem is that I can't keep the pace of enemy research when I turn my guys blood hunting! Even with magic-3 scale.