Foray into Bandar Log

[Hadrian_II]

I played Bandar Log in EHII and i used W9S9 dualbless, whiteones are quite strong for expanding. 9 whiteones + 1 bandar archer and a indy priest are able to take on most indy troops, so you can start one expanding party per turn. (The archer is there so that you can set your priest on stay behind and he does not charge along with the white ones).

In my testgames for expansion, i reached 20 provinces in a year without an SC, so Bandar Log has very rapide expansion.

Also Gandharvas are ultra elite summons and able to fight back almost everything, and E9 would give them 20 protection and 0 enc what would be really nice.

And Tiger riders are very nice cavalry so a good bless pays good with bandar log.

I would try to rush one enemy with elephants & whiteones at the beginning, then kill the next with ghandaravas after that you should have construction and conjuration researched to get your national thug/SCs rolling.

Btw, you will have access to every important army bless from summons, so your armies can stay competitive in a time where every other nation only can field expensive chaff.

[Karlem]

Main problem with magic diversity for BL is death.

Best bless for thugs is earth 9.

So a dormant Cyclops with E9D4Dom7 and your scales seems a good option. It will not have AWE, but a very high prot and good fear range.

[K]

I've found that the best Bless is an E9/N9 on an Earth Mother. It creates the most survivable Bandar Log overall. Avoid the Tiger Riders. For the price, you can get four White Ones and four of them beat single Tiger Riders hands down.

Shoot for Conj5 for Ghandarvas and you'll have an elite squad of almost unkillable units with the E9N9 Bless.

Also, the precision on the Longbowman is pretty bad so avoid them until you can cast Wind Guide consistently. The Atavi Archers are nice stealth archers.

Remember that you get Lanka's good Death and Blood summons, so breaking into these economies as soon as possible boosts your overall survivability quite a bit. Since its an MP game, trade and bargaining is your best best, though I've gotten lucky with Akashic Record before.

If you went with the N9 Bless, tossing down Foul Vapors and poison immunity on casters means that you can eat through lesser armies.

[Natpy]

I tried to play BandarLog with strong bless, but there was a serious problem - absence of good priests. In my opinion the good variant is awake SC with air and blood for Lanka summons in the midgame. A4E4B4 Dom10 awake Deva Order 3, Sloth -3, some Heat, some Death, Mistfortune -2 Magic 1.
Research Alt 3 for buff your Deva, Thaum 2, Evo 2 for siteserching and Blood 6 for Dakini.

[K]

Natpy said:
I tried to play BandarLog with strong bless, but there was a serious problem - absence of good priests. In my opinion the good variant is awake SC with air and blood for Lanka summons in the midgame. A4E4B4 Dom10 awake Deva Order 3, Sloth -3, some Heat, some Death, Mistfortune -2 Magic 1.
Research Alt 3 for buff your Deva, Thaum 2, Evo 2 for siteserching and Blood 6 for Dakini.

Bandar Log is in the position of being able to get to H3 pretty easily if they summon a Yaksha or Yakshini and Communion up and/or use a Crystal Shield to boost. Its a little work, but worthwhile

[Hadrian_II]

Siddhas are H3 from the beginning and only cost 35 pearls

[VedalkenBear]

I would like to point out a different strategy for Bandar Log. Namely, 1002: An Earth Odyssey.

This is more a mid-game strategy, but noting that Rishis can all Teleport, and ~25% of them can Enslave Mind while another ~25% of them can Charm, if you rush to Thaumaturgy-7, you can have whole armies of units not yours roaming around blissfully following your Rishis. It's another answer to diversification as well since you will be able to throw the 'commanderization' ritual (can't recall its name offhand) on the commanders that are Enslaved.

Also worth noting is that this gives you many useful spells along the way (Mind Burn, Soul Slay, I think Dispel is in Thaumaturgy?). This also 'plays nicely' with an E9 bless (though not N9) due to the fact that all your mages are sacred. You'll need a blesser, though, or (preferred if you simply have 9 bajillion Astral Pearls) Saint robes for them. About the only counterindication is that it delays getting Gandharvas.

For clamming, note that not only can the Yakshinis inherently make clams, but the Yakshas can inherently make Dwarven Hammers. Oh, and the lesser monkey mages are good for creating Communions with.

[K]

I find that mind control is a fun, but not very powerful tactic unless you go the Master Enslave route (and hey, anything at 9 is powerful).