Lanka pretender design/strategy

[Gregstrom]

The sacreds are pretty hard to rout anyway, with the +2 off Bless making 17 morale. And I'm not sure the +2 strength is much additional bonus with their existing Str of 18-odd and falchions. Most hits Lanka sacreds make are already blasting through all normal armour.

The protection boost is interesting though. What I'd like to know is whether it's worth the drop of 2 points defence (16 with W9 bless going down to 14, and Prot rising from 12 to 14). I'm relatively new to Dominions, but in most combat systems I'm familiar with it's better to avoid damage than absorb it.

As I read the numbers here, 12 and 14 prot are both the strong end of the mid-range, but going from 14 to 16 defence takes it from fairly good to exceptional (off the top end of the normal infantry scale).

[Shovah32]

Well defence doesn't help against a ranged weapon, and your sacreds are nice enough in combat to not really need the extra defence.
I tend to take E9N9 rather than a bless involving water or fire so their survivability gets quite a big boost with +2 protection from berserk, +4 protection from earth bless, 4 reinvigoration and good regeneration. All of their sacreds are fairly strong offensively(recruitables and summons) and have very good survivability(Palankashas have 60 health per square) so I like to boost their survivability from good to great.

[K]

Gregstrom said:
The sacreds are pretty hard to rout anyway, with the +2 off Bless making 17 morale. And I'm not sure the +2 strength is much additional bonus with their existing Str of 18-odd and falchions. Most hits Lanka sacreds make are already blasting through all normal armour.

The problem is that you aren't fielding a lot of sacreds, and when a unit gets under five things in it it checks to route every turn.

But, if even one person in a unit is Berserk, then the whole unit is unroutable. The N9 is essential to Lanka's strategy of fielding low numbers of very strong guys.

The Water 9 bless also makes your demons wicked fast, meaning fewer enemies escape battles and the demons spend less time taking ranged fire before they get into melee and that ranged fire starts to get your enemies as well.

It takes only a few minutes to test out a W9N9 bless vs other ones. Try it.

[Valandil]

After testing, I concluded that W9 N9 is NOT the best bless. W9 N9 E9 is.

Yes, K, you seem to be correct.

[Reverend Zombie]

Valandil said:
After testing, I concluded that W9 N9 is NOT the best bless. W9 N9 E9 is.

Yes, K, you seem to be correct.

What's the best double bless?

[thejeff]

I don't think that one berserker makes a whole unit unroutable. I'm pretty sure I've seen a squad route while berserkers in it keep attacking.

That said I don't know how it plays in to group morale. Or the other special morale cases, either.

[Valandil]

I think that thejeff is right, though I'm not certain either.

I'd agree on W9N9 being awesome, but I havn't tested every option.

[Gregstrom]

I'm with thejeff here, based on observations from a recent MP game.

Having done a bit of testing (albeit with sub-optimal strategies, and on a small scale), there's only a small difference between say F4W9N6 and W9N9. Both seem to fall over when hugely outnumbered by barbarians and sometimes cavalry.

Has anyone tried a strategy using Blood as a secondary economy and using hordes of Kala-Mukhas generated using multiple castles? It'd need a huge income though.

Also, I have worries about reliance on the demon troops against other players. Falling Fires could really ruin your day.

[K]

Valandil said:
After testing, I concluded that W9 N9 is NOT the best bless.
W9 N9 E9 is.

Yes, K, you seem to be correct.

The triple bless is suicide in MP.

That being said, the E9 is a perfect addition because your demons fatigue out pretty quickly with the Quickness bless, but as Lanka you get the potential for Relief and Wooden Warriors, which is almost as good.

I've been experimenting with adding a E4, but I'm not 100% sure if its worth the investment.

---------------

If you see units with Berserks running, its because your commanders have been killed or left the field.

The actual Berserkers will fight even without commanders, which can sometimes win you a battle with no commanders at the end.

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High damage armies will kill your sacreds, so you need to use basic tactics like:

A. Barbarians require archers.

B. Calvary requires chaff to absorb the lance hits.

[Valandil]

I am aware that triple bless (or, more accurately, the scales needed to take triple bless) would kill you in MP, although the initial rush might be pretty fun to play