LA Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings Strategy Guide 2.0

[Baalz]

Hehe, very good guide DC. A couple thoughts you might want to include:

Though it's implied you might want to make a special note that weapons of sharpness fits very nicely in your research path, casting ability, and units. Summon earthpower + boots + 1 earth gem makes most anybody not quite sure if they want to close on those horsemen or just sit under the wind guided barrage. Plus, armor piercing on the first strike lances will take out virtually any SC if he's dumb enough to come alone.

Also, I find it hard to justify using air gems for anything much other than winged shoes so your mages don't slow down your rapid movement. You definitely hit the nail on the head that one of LA TCs great strengths is mobility, bring your mages along for the fun.

Also, it's worthwhile to consider a death blessing which offers some interesting strategies with holy archers and holy mages. The death weapons don't pass to missiles or spells but the extra affliction chance does. Who wants to run through your solid PD, with ancestor vessels and blade wind spewing smiths bestowing liberal afflictions while sitting in the back row then running away without a loss when the PD breaks? Very effective hit and run tactics if you're being invaded by an overwhelming force. Then for the really evil there's fun things like +400% affliction rain of stones. This also solves the problem of Celestial soldiers not having magic weapons.

Also, with your awesome archery I find destruction is a very high priority for research. Remember, destruction not only removes armor it also destroys shields! Those composite bows are practically 50 cal machine guns against armorless guys with no shields.

I'd also fill out the celestial chastisement section, this is a great spell under the right circumstances. Think charm except they take unresistable AN damage if they *pass* the MR check.

Ancestor vessels' arrows cause fear, and you've also got mages who can spam panic and terror. There are worse uses of your death gems than conjuring ghosts or other fear aura troops while leveraging your mobility to cut off the retreat of whoever you're planning on routing. Don't discount how effective this can be, particularly if you're clever about fighting in your dominion and you time it so that the enemy is partially starving. Pay attention to the terrain and leverage your mobility to control when and where the fighting happens. Hit and run, hit and run, causing afflictions all the way, then blamo that huge army chases you into a wasteland and promptly breaks and is killed to a man with hardly a friendly casualty.