Re: Caelum strategies
Have you only played Caelum? If so, I suggest you start with another nation, like Pythium, Marignon, or Abysia. Or any other nation except Mictlan, actually.
Here are some hints, though...
1) Pick a strong combat pretender, ideally immortal or regenerating (or able to cast regen / make a ring of regeneration), such as a Wyrm, Vampire Queen, Prince of Death, Earth Mother, or so forth. For a cold-based nation, avoid anything cold-blooded.
2) Expand rapidly into nearby indies starting at turn 1 or 2. Ideally your pretender can solo, allowing you to make a powerful priest, make it a prophet, and use it to lead a second army (scripted to cast fanatacism) that is also conquering indies by turn 3. This early head-start gives you a vital economic boost.
3) Don't simply build the cheapest troops; they are usually trash. Examine the stats and equipment, and make real choices. Build things that are useful, or save the money.
4) Troops without armor and shields are usually worthless - a waste of gold and food. Whether your mages cast spells is irrelevant to the armor of your troops, unless they cast "Army of Lead" or "Mass Protection", which they won't be doing at the beginning.
5) Everything recruited needs upkeep - 1/15 if build cost for all non-sacred units. So massing unarmored low-resource, high-gold troops puts a huge drain on the treasury even when they just sit around.
6) Never build high-research national mages to do research. That's what low-research national mages are for! Do a cost/benefit analysis: A 1-magic mage that costs 60g (+4g/turn) and puts out 3 research will go to 7 research at level 1 with an owl quill. A 5-magic mage that costs 250 gold (+17/turn) will do 7 research, or 11 with an experience level and an owl quill. Researching with expensive mages will drive you bankrupt.
7) Summons do NOT need upkeep, and are extremely powerful. Try some. Caelians are cold-immune so you might find summons with cold auras to be especially useful, as they don't freeze your own troops like normal...
8) Caelum units are the hungriest in the game, for their power - considering they eat twice as much as humans, have lower stats (in melee), and live in Cold+3. Other nations give less trouble with food.
9) Lastly, Caelum are archers, not fighters. Go for Wind Guide (and flaming arrows, if you can cast it) and clean up.
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