Looking for TienChi S&A EVIL strats - anyone?

[Cainehill]

Endoperez said:
Do most people here think that Vanir and similar powerful units are the only national units worth using? It feels strange to always find comments like this in here, when I use national units extensively in my single-player games.

Well ... SP games you can play and win with pretty much whatever playstle & strategy you like. MP games, most national troops are dead meat as soon as people have researched enough magic. Even the powerful sacred ones like Vans, black hunters, etc, die pretty quickly to magic, although the Vans have two big advantages : recruitable anywhere, & stealthy.

[1000yd_stare]

So, an update.

I researched to alt 2 (quickness), evocation to falling frost/fire, and conj to get 2 air queens and a fire king.

Around then, with my neighbor pythium being so weak, I invaded. Unfortunately, my blitz of him brought the unwanted attentions of Arco, my other neigbhor.

Arco invaded with a mixed bag of hypatists, wolves, vinemen, claymen, and black hawks. We have gone back and forth, with his mystics doing paralyze, soulslay, and enslave mind, which has worked very well on my 2 castings of trolls (1 sea, 1 earth).

So, i am found with a huge glut of celestials, 1 air queen and 1 fire queen, but no construction yet (still early game). I had summoned the royals with a 5a5f phoenix, who is busy with the last bits of pythium.
Dont really have the gems for any real summons - and with evocation and conjuration really the only thing researched (and I am at the top of the research by a good margin), are there any suggestions on spell combos vs arco mages out there? I'm leery of bringing my s2 mages in too close (using CB 5.4).

[Saber Cherry]

Apologies if these are invalid, I don't know CB stats offhand. That said...

With only conjuration, you'd be toast. If you have Evocation up to Seeking Arrow, spam his mage-rich army with those, or hit his Capitol, castles, and grasslands with Hurricane.

It may be too late now, but you should have positioned Consorts in your neighbors' rich provinces to paralyze them.

If you can, hit him with trolls (poison immune, IIRC) and a Celestial Master communioning up to Foul Vapors. I think that's Water-Nature, right?

Make sure your Trolls are doing Earth Power -> Blade Wind...

Try Shadow Blast. Death 1 plus 2 Death Gems can cast it. It's even better, of course, with a +Pen amulet and Rune Smasher or Skull Staff, but you don't have what you don't have.

With a Phoenix as Tien Chi, I would have gone for Enchantment ASAP to get Flaming Arrows. Ah well.

[shovah]

yes, going for flaming arrows wouldve been nice with all those archers. also if shadow blast shines anywhere its seiges. if you go for cheap death spell, cheap death spell, shadow blast the enemy should be in your gate and when this thing hits its astounding. basically do what SC said (the seeking arrow spam rocks vrs mage armys) and go in for the kill with some AoE magic, shield of a few troops and possibly a high mr flying thug to deal with any existing mages if you still have enemys like this to fight once you reach a decent construction lvl (and remember to make clams)

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

SC: S&A doesn't have Consorts. Seeking Arrow is Ench, not Evoc. I get those mixed up too sometimes. Also it's Air 3, not very spammable.
1000YS: Research Construction next! At least to 6, and preferably 8, to make sure the artifacts are in your control. Even the ones you don't plan on using, but don't want to see coming at you.
Maybe a couple levels of Thaumaturgy for the other site-search spells (a full boat of M5Es can do a clean search-- except for Blood and Unholy sites, but there aren't enough of those to help much...)
Is Pythium playing standard or Serpent Cult? If standard, keep pressing to take the capitol... you'll need the pearls for a lot of things. And 7/turn won't be enough... have you been Arcane Probing the inner provinces? Alternatively, ticket an M5E (+W) for clam-spamming... one thing Arco can't do anymore that they had been able to do before the balance mods!
An M5E (+E) and two CMs (one +E, and one +S -- if you caught one with both you should be ecstatic) can combine for Rings of Wizardry (Ought to be obvious what the stepping stone items are.). Give one of those to a M5E and he can lead a simply massive stack of magical beings (tack on a Staff of Elemental Mastery A/E for even more fun--- and gives pretty good protection in the bargain, as pay-back for only giving one resistance.)
Has Ho Hsien-Ku turned up? She can make the boosters to N5... can you say Beckoning (THAU 6)? It'll make forest provinces virtual no-go zones once you've done it a few times. You want evil tactics, is that one evil enough for ya? For less evil applications, she can cast Gift of Health too (ENCH 5) when holding Treelord's Staff. (Only if you have Nature gems coming out of your ears though-- it'll get dispelled right off the break otherwise!)
Li T'ieh-Kuai checked in? Evocation 7 please, for Nether Darts. Put him off to one side on the combat board in case he gets caught in the same province with one of your armies. Forget once... never again. Or boost him to S4 so he casts Ether Gate. Same destructive power, no disease aura.
Might think of more later...

[shovah]

a nasty thing is GoH and a bunch of trolls/river demons/sea trolls/vine ogres/tarrasques ect. these guys have high health and that plus gift of health (and some-one to cast mass regeneration if possible) is very hard to kill. also GoH also helps those kings/queens you have (kit out the air queen(s) first, they rock)