Battling Ermoria

[Cainehill]

jarenko said:
So lets say the situation is a 2 player game on a relatively small map(40 provinces or so), and both players agree not to go to war for awhile so both nations take a 20/20 split on the land and thus have time to build up.

Lets say war starts on turn 50. With this much time to develop, does Ermor carry a heavy advantage?

If you wait until turn 50 on that small map, yes Ermor has a big advantage. By then, they've killed all the population, making their 20 provinces a no-man's land for the living - no supplies, no resources, no gold income. Your armies starve when you try to invade his provinces, and you get very little for your efforts - magic gems, if there are any sites in the province.

And yes, you're making a mistake by only using / building up magic on your pretender. This is true against any nation, but against Ermor perhaps a little more so - the undead never have a problem with morale or fatigue, so your troops are just tiring themselves out until ... they die, after taking a handful of undead each, at most.

Your mages, though, can be very effective, especially with spells that effect an area. Many of these spells do more damage, and cover a larger area, if the mage is powerful in that area of magic. And Ermor's troops, by and large, are very vulnerable to these spells - little or no armor on most, and no healing between battles.

(Although they _will_ heal if visiting a friendly lab.)

Your pretender just can't shoulder it all by himself. Especially as either a Wyrm or a human rainbow mage.

[Molog]

Don't only magic non-healing units get repaired at labs? Not ermors undead.

[Arryn]

Molog said:
Don't only magic non-healing units get repaired at labs? Not ermors undead.

Correct.

[deccan]

To hijack this thread in the opposite direction, I want to what is the most effective way to play Ermor AE. I mean you have very little money, so what should the spending priority be: forts, temples, PD, independent troops (sages)?

And how do you push dominion as Ermor? I know Ermor easily has enough points to buy 10 starting dominion, but how can you help to make your dominion as fast as possible?

[Arryn]

deccan said:
To hijack this thread in the opposite direction, I want to what is the most effective way to play Ermor AE. I mean you have very little money, so what should the spending priority be: forts, temples, PD, independent troops (sages)?

I'm not an expert at Ermor, but I'd say sages (when you can get them, since Ermor's research generally sucks), followed by indies. You still have to be careful, even if you can afford to hire them, that you can also feed and pay them afterwards.

Ermorian PD reeks, temples are pricey given your serious lack of funds (due to population-killing dominion), and forts, while useful, are even harder to afford than temples. In short, things that cost money are things to try to avoid, unless you have something that can give you a steady income (however small that may be). Ermor is a swamp-them-with-crappy-masses sort of nation, and about the only economy you have to speak of is gems, and even that's not great. Your goal is to expand as fast as possible to scarf up new gold-producing lands before your dominion turns them desolate, and look for gem sites while you're at it.

deccan said:
And how do you push dominion as Ermor? I know Ermor easily has enough points to buy 10 starting dominion, but how can you help to make your dominion as fast as possible?

You buy that 10, and push it with your pretender and prophet. Your task isn't so much pushing your dominion as it is systematically crushing your enemies' temples so that they have nothing with which to impede the spread of yours.

[atul]

Arryn said:
I'm not an expert at Ermor, but I'd say sages (when you can get them, since Ermor's research generally sucks), followed by indies. You still have to be careful, even if you can afford to hire them, that you can also feed and pay them afterwards.

Ermorian PD reeks, temples are pricey given your serious lack of funds (due to population-killing dominion), and forts, while useful, are even harder to afford than temples.

How much difference is between Ermor-specific undead (velites, legionnares et al) and general ones (soullesses, longdeads) in terms of usefulness, you reckon? If I've understood it correctly you can only get the specific ones in a province with a fort, while unforted get you truly crappy ones. And adding temples should give you those knights. (speaking AE theme)

I mean, would Ermor benefit from castles enough for them to be worth it due to "quality" of troops? Yes, troops are crap anyway, but I'm talking about different flavors of crap here. The research sucks, but how much indy mages can you afford anyway?

[Arryn]

atul said:
Yes, troops are crap anyway, but I'm talking about different flavors of crap here.

I think I'll let someone else better qualified on Ermor than I discuss the finer nuances of crap ...

[Karacan]

deccan said:
To hijack this thread in the opposite direction, I want to what is the most effective way to play Ermor AE. I mean you have very little money, so what should the spending priority be: forts, temples, PD, independent troops (sages)?

Actually, you do not have a real money problem. If you slow down your expansion to pillage any province you conquered at least one turn, money will be avaiable in good enough quantities to buy the much needed temples and castles. Choose Dominion 8 or 9, unless you are on a really small map, because you want to build temples and castles anyway, as they cause the heavier of Ermor's troops to spawn. This is especially true for Soul Gate.

Also, don't forget to add at least 1 point of pd to every province. While you have tons of freespawns in there, they usually come without a leader, and a surprise sneak attack will not rout them but dissolve them (since they find themselves on a battlefield without undead leadership).

[jarenko]

So, what's a good magical combo to take for your pretender to maximize his undead slaying abilities? [or to best let him reinforce his armies with magic to increase theirs, which is probably more useful]

And man, those ethereal units. How to crack an egg like that? Especially as a physical nation like Ulm?

A friend I play with has a summer lion obsession and they really tear through my armies. I'm considering next time attempting to use more magic, and try some of the magical/dead destroying/control spells since he usually uses a small group of normal soldiers and a truckload of dead and magical/summoned creatures.

[Arryn]

jarenko said:
And man, those ethereal units. How to crack an egg like that? Especially as a physical nation like Ulm?

Forge lots of magic weapons. No nation forges better than Ulm. Now you know why. They need it. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]