Counters to Niefelheim

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Foul Air may be nice... Incredibly slow, but nice. And not readily available to you.

How good are these giants at sieges? Can they be starved easily? I know I tend to take death scales as Agartha and I have a province as low as 86 food- and this is only two provinces distant from my capital. Size five, 30 Niefels, 120 food? You could probably starve them.

On the other hand, with a strength of 25, they'd have a siege strength of 6.25 x 30, or 187. It would be difficult (though not impossible) to hold off that force, but if your armies will be defeated in the field, than why not fort up? (other than losing the chance to counter-raid).

[Meglobob]

I had a 50 or so giant army of sacreds with a N8, E9 bless destroyed very easily by EA Ctis casting darkness and spamming raise skeletons.

Up till then the army had been virtually invincible.

EA Niefelheim is powerful but has many exploitable weaknesses. Many of which have been listed already.

EA Nielfelheim can recruit specific troops for sieging, the rock hurlers. They get a decent siege bonus.

[Micah]

Quite right Folket, I'd completely forgotten about magic duel for some reason. That'd pretty much gank their MR though.

I still stand by Flaming Arrows though, they cut through E9N4 giants without any trouble at all...maybe the extra regen at N9 changes things though, I haven't tried it. A couple of volleys and their whole army is on fire though, which helps negate some of the regen. Even if you're doing some other strat dropping a FA only takes a single mage, so why not add it on?

[Saint_Dude]

Of course, as Niefel, you are always concerned about Flaming Arrows and other instances of concentrated fire magic. Casting Rain on the first round of combat is a good idea for the Niefel player. With Rain and a nature bless, Niefel giants can hold up to large volleys of Flaming Arrows.

[Tuidjy]

When I play Niefel, I seldom, if ever, buy the Niefel giants. I stick to the
Jotun hirdmen. In the early game the big guys are too expensive. In the middle
game, buying Niefel jarls at the capital is so important that there is no money
to spend on Niefel giants. In the late game, the Niefel giants are irrelevant.
Nice to have, maybe, but if my opponent is worth anything, he is loaded for jarl,
and in that case the giants are just chafe. The Jotun hirdmen do most of what
Niefel giants do, at a fraction of the price.

[BigDisAwesome]

They were spamming disintegrate too Meglobob.