Yomi Pretender design and general MP Strategy ?

[FAJ]

Over the last two patches, the oni have gotten a considerable boost. I wouldn't write them off right away. Bakemono are flaky because they die so easily and can make your Commander auto-rout. That, and one pesky mage with arrow-fend and those bakemono are worthless.

[KissBlade]

I didn't write them off. I said, don't recruit /many/. I actually use them every so and often now. Also bakemono's may be "flakey" but they are cheap as heck and easy to mass up for early game. You, yourself even mentioned that. Most exp. players will get arrow fend to counter you anyway since they'll expect it coming but generally the vast amount of projectiles just being flung is still menacing.

[smu666ler]

Hey, thanks for all the advice. I didn't expect this much input on such short notice!

To be honest I wasn't very far in my test SP last night from what KissBlade and (to some extent) FAJ are suggesting. I did a druid (kinda like the stealthy pretender and it's rainbow capability) with W4/N4/E4 and also threw in 2F and 2A just because, with being close to a rainbow mage, I could search for all the sites of gems I will need more easily - with just my pretender. The initial pick is 10 anyway so it's no big deal. I did 3 order/3 sloth/ 1 misfortune also (what a coincidence) but took just 1 research to have 5 candles and the 2 in fire and astral, I'm not sure if that was worth it ... I did the bakemono at start with some mercs and some cold oni and some fire oni. I built a Dai Oni on second turn (to make him my prophet next turn) so he could be the only one casting divine bless instead of all the dai onis doing it for themselves .... et cetera et cetera it turned out very good against the AI in the end actually. Altho my Dai Onis which I trained every 3 turns started getting afflictions from all the fighting. Which equipement would help them stay more resistant? I did give them lighter armor and helmets like FAJ suggested ...

@KissBlade
When you said "your starting commanders" did you mean one of the 2 stealthy bandit commanders you get at startup? Also I didn't know Oni Generals were very effective, I'll have to try them out.

@FAJ

What boost? I only know that

[KissBlade]

If you gave them lighter armor, script them with bless, summon earthpower, fireshield (change this to soul vortex once you get it) and ironskin (change this to invulnerability when you get it). Plus you can buff them before battle with your pretender if you so choose with luck + body ethereal. Also look into gift of health from the enchantment tree =).

[Jurri]

The Cyclops is an awesome pretender for Yomi (and to any other nation that has it available). E9N4 will give the Cyclops a terrific protection out the gate, the ability to cast summon earthpower to relieve fatigue and Strength of Gaia/Personal Regeneration to regenerate (as well as resist poison, elemental fortitude, iron will if the situation so demands), and provide a blessing that's very useful to the nation's sacred commanders and summons. An awake cyclops like that can even attack the indies from turn 1 if you're willing to risk it; in the Early Age the probability of facing something that can afflict the cyclops is low, but it's always real.

With the blessing mentioned, unequipped Dai Oni in their heavy armor can be scripted to blessing, summon earthpower, fire shield, fire at closest and still have the Oni almost fatigueless when the enemies engage in melee. (Firing missile weapons doesn't cause fatigue.) You should pay careful attention to the dominion in the province, though, since if there's drain you're better off dropping the last two spells.

Thus, early research goals in pursuing this strategy should be conjuration 3 for summon earthpower and enchantment 3 for fire shield and personal regeneration. (Besides thaumaturgy 2 for the site-searching spells, of course, but that's a given with all nations).

These goals are have formidable synergy with other approaches: At conjuration 2 there's the all-important Dark Knowledge and at conjuration 3 there's the Konoha Tengu -summon, which I think is actually rather decent for the cost: 5 sacred fliers with good attacks for 5 gems makes it a very nice spell if you should chance upon air gem sources. Enchantment 3 provides raise skeletons, which is a terrific spell indeed for the hannyas.

As for the early expansion, well, I've had some modicum of success with having a Dai Oni backed by a couple dozen archers cast blessing and then throw flames at the oncoming enemies. It is very durable even without further spells or equipment and can hold the line by itself while the archers deal the majority of the damage: the fear of the Oni make the enemy run soonish I've found, and as long as the hard targets are avoided there should be little chance of losing the Oni, at least for good. A group like that can be further augmented by putting Oni Generals next to the Dai Oni to partake in the blessing and to guard it's flanks: especially fire-random ones are neat since they can cast fire shield once it's available. That's pretty expensive, though, and you might prefer buying sorcerers or hannyas in your secondary castles. (I guess it goes without saying you'll want to start buying a Dai Oni each turn as soon as possible in your capital.)

Later development after the milestones of conjuration 3 and enchantment 3 are done would include:
-Enchantment 4 for flaming arrows. One of the cheapest archers in the game both gold- and resource-wise, and a mage capable of casting this spell recruitable in every castle!
-Alteration 3 for ironskin. Later invulnerability, soul vortex and Phoenix Pyre, but you'll want to equip the Onis by then.
-Construction for lighter armors which will come in handy when you start getting too many spells in your script: soul vortex is harsh to your fatigue even without the added encumberance from armor. Magical weapons and girdles of might won't hurt either.
-Thaumaturgy 3 for Iron Will. I always forget to research this before it's too late, and lose a turn of action just when you need it the most. (You don't want to face Pangaea with Charm without this!)

Some side notes:
-The cyclops will benefit greatly from a weapon, anything will do. A helmet would do good, too. The Dai Oni also reap great rewards from helmets, since they lack one naturally and thus do not get the earth-blessing bonus to the head-protection either without an artificial one.
-The cyclops can forge a thistle mace to give to the hannyas; this will greatly increase your forging possibilities, assuming you have the gem-income. Choice nature items for the Dai Oni are boots of the messenger (only N1 to make), ring of regeneration, amulet of reinvigoration, to name the most important possibilities.
-For scales, Kissblade's ones work nice, although you'll need to cut corners to get the bless. Order 3, sloth 3, heat 1, death 2, misfortune 1, magic 1 leaves you with 5 dominion, which is quite enough. Dominion 9 would of course have synergy with Cyclops's fear, but since you don't have any special reason for high dominion (the cyclops will function just fine even in neutral dominion), it might prove a waste. Dominion 3 would allow to reduce one negative scale, which might be doable since your pretender is awake and thus guarding you from dominion death. Forgoing the N4 would save a lot of points, too.

[Shovah32]

I agree with Jurris E9N4 Cyclops, i have used it myself for Yomi and the dai oni are amazing with it.

[KissBlade]

Yah Jurri pretty much hit the nail on the head. Also I should point out, don't forget both oni commanders come with wolves. Not much but it's still nice to tie up the infantry for a turn.

[smu666ler]

Wow thanks Jurri for the extensive guide with tons of valuable info. This is exactly the thing I needed to get me started.

My pretender god is sent, I can't tell you exactly what I decided to use, but maybe I will keep a not-too-roleplayish log of the game which might turn out as an interesting AAR in the end - one from the eyes of the newbee

btw when I searched for a good name for a god of Oni or the ruler of Yomi (which is a Japanese equivalent of Greek Hades and to some extent Hell) I learned a lot about the Japanese folklore and mythology through a chain of articles on Wiki. Funny how games can inspire you to learn something new sometimes.


This topic turned out as quite a good guide for playing Yomi in the end. =) I am even starting to like them since it is so challenging to bring them to their full potential, it doesn't come right out of the box like for some races.

Cheers!
Marko