MA Man

[Valandil]

I'm actually impressed by the depth of analysis and so forth that went into that. I should note, though, that boosting the nature magic of a crone de-oldifies (not a word) them. Als, they can self-heal in battles via regen spell anyway. Finally, late game you are definately going to have a faerie queen, which has Heal Troops.

[Nikolai]

In two weeks reading this board I have learnt more that from last six months playing the game. Even from the same people I play with. Now I know why all of Petar's Gods look same.

[CUnknown]

Tuidjy, I love unrest-causing units myself. However, why do you think that Bards are so much better than, say, spies? Bards may have a better stealth, but they're so much more expensive to recruit that I think spies are better for this purpose.

Not that I'm saying you're wrong. I was just wondering what your reasoning was. Are Bards better at causing unrest, or does that extra stealth mean that they are never caught, maybe?

[Tuidjy]

Bards are better than spies in a few small, but significant ways.

The extra stealth is very useful. How useful? In a game I am currently in, four
bards had shut down my capital. I had province defense of 25, a Call of the Wild,
a Call of the Wind, and a Watcher (50 men worth) patrolling, and it took me at
least three turns to catch them all. Before I summoned the Watcher, I did not
manage to catch even one. High stealth becomes silly. In that game, I was
brought from a surplus of 1500 gold to less than 200 in two turns.

The Bard is also a researcher, thus you can, and will mass them for other purposes.

The Bard is not helpless in combat. He has a number of songs that can be
useful, and the old favorite of "Eagle Eyes, Vine Arrow x 4, cast spells" is
there too. The combat AI is also smart enough to start using the Soothing
song when fatigue start running high.

And finally the bard can lead men. A bard, a monk, 15 stealth archers and
only a few wardens with protection are a hell of a raiding group. The archers
have to be found as indies, but even if you are not lucky in that respect,
wardens with Protection from the bard and the standard E4, N4 blessing will
do just fine.

[Jazzepi]

Tuidjy said:
Bards are better than spies in a few small, but significant ways.

The extra stealth is very useful. How useful? In a game I am currently in, four
bards had shut down my capital. I had province defense of 25, a Call of the Wild,
a Call of the Wind, and a Watcher (50 men worth) patrolling, and it took me at
least three turns to catch them all. Before I summoned the Watcher, I did not
manage to catch even one. High stealth becomes silly. In that game, I was
brought from a surplus of 1500 gold to less than 200 in two turns.

The Bard is also a researcher, thus you can, and will mass them for other purposes.

The Bard is not helpless in combat. He has a number of songs that can be
useful, and the old favorite of "Eagle Eyes, Vine Arrow x 4, cast spells" is
there too. The combat AI is also smart enough to start using the Soothing
song when fatigue start running high.

And finally the bard can lead men. A bard, a monk, 15 stealth archers and
only a few wardens with protection are a hell of a raiding group. The archers
have to be found as indies, but even if you are not lucky in that respect,
wardens with Protection from the bard and the standard E4, N4 blessing will
do just fine.

It seems like you could mass about 20 bards in the same square or so on the map, and just have them spam soothing song + vine arrows.

Jazzepi

[CUnknown]

Yeah soothing song is great!

I see what you're saying, Tuidjy. Bards are indeed an excellent unit. But, the fact that they are researchers, to me, is sort of a negative. I mean, I guess I like specialized units. I want my researchers to research and my unrest-causers to cause unrest. I don't want to be at a point in the game where I have to sacrifice research in order to cause unrest, or decide not to cause unrest in order to research a particular spell that I need.

The extra stealth that you mention does sound pretty awesome, though. And admittedly, this does mean that it is difficult to mass spies in a sense -- when you build a spy you have to not build a mage, whereas with bards you don't have to make that choice.

What do bards cost, like 100 or 110? It's a matter of opinion, I suppose, but in my book I like an 80 gold researcher and a 30 gold spy just as well if not better than a 110-gold researcher/spy. But there is a trade-off both ways.

[Tuidjy]

You can have your 80 gold researcher and your 30 gold spy. I'll keep my 75 gold
bard, thank you very much ;-)

And I guess it is a personal preference, but I love to bring my researchers to
the battlefield when they are needed. That's why I love Pythium acolytes and
Ulm Reborn's librarians. Give them a Banner of the North Star (or whatever that
wonderful standard is called) or a leader who can cast Light of the North star,
and your humble researchers deliver a deluge of mind blasts, or paralyze a SC
before he can cast his first buff.