Beware of Ashdod

[zzcat]

Zamzummite is arguably best non-caponly commander in the game. Being great battlemage and great self-buffable thug, it's even cheaper than Vanjarl(250 vs 280). IMO it's seriously overpowered.

[cthulhu]

Zamzummites cost 310 gold, not 250.

[zzcat]

Originally Posted by cthulhu

Zamzummites cost 310 gold, not 250.

So Edi's database contains an error
Even with 310 gold they are too powerful. IMO they are lesser version of Dai-oni which can be builded everywhere, and they are immune to the anti-demon spells.

[Lingchih]

Beaten by Ashdod in last team game. No one dared attack them. They slowly but surely took all VP provs needed to win.

Nuff said

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by Lingchih

Beaten by Ashdod in last team game. No one dared attack them. They slowly but surely took all VP provs needed to win.

Nuff said

Not really slow. Ashdod took its time until it decided to take the world and then it just exploded. It basically took out bless based Jotun in one turn!
(IIRC It had an E9 bless while Jotun had a E9N6 bless.)

Then it just picked whatever VPs it needed to win.

Granted, the game was w/o diplomacy, so trouble makers like myself who always nag ppl to ally against the biggies had to keep their mouth shut, but its true nonetheless that everyone was trembling with fear of attacking Ashdod.

[RonD]

I'd say that the one thing most likely to increase the power of an overpowered nation is "no diplomacy".


Meanwhile, as someone playing against Ashdod currently, I'm all ears for ideas. Has any tried massing banefire archers? Or does their long life span save them from decay?

[WraithLord]

Charm, Enslave mind and/or the likewise blood spell?

Frozen heart spam?

Avoid confrontation and use sneak tactics and spells to ruin his economy?

Find friends?

[MaxWilson]

Okay, I checked and F8W9B9 jags do take out E10N6 Ahimans on a gcost basis. I tried 4 Ahimans vs. 24 jags several times, and the jags won each time with something like 25% casualties. I'm not necessarily suggesting that this would be a good bless to take for Mictlan, but you'd probably get almost as good results out of a F9B8 Smoking Mirror bless and you'd have decent scales to boot. Point being that the Str component of a Blood bless is sometimes quite good even though everybody scoffs at the Death Curse effect.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by RonD

I'd say that the one thing most likely to increase the power of an overpowered nation is "no diplomacy".


Meanwhile, as someone playing against Ashdod currently, I'm all ears for ideas. Has any tried massing banefire archers? Or does their long life span save them from decay?

What are you facing? Blessed troops or regular Bashanites/Amorites? Bashanites have slightly less attacking power than a square of human-sized troops, and are somewhat more expensive, so you may be able to just slug it out. If he's using blessed troops (i.e. it's a small map) you'll have to bring in mages. Stellar Cascades/Destruction/Iron Bane are the way to go, depending upon your magic paths. By the way, what nation are you playing?

Banefire archers will be marginally effective, as you guessed, because of the combination of long lifespans and good shield parry. Not that they might not be worth using anyway, if you don't have anything else you need death gems for more. (Because it's always worth having more banefire bows in play. )

-Max

[AreaOfEffect]

Understood, the Talmai are less efficient to buy, but Gregstrom was referring more to the upkeep cost then the initial cost. If you go back to the Sages, the gold/RP is about 29. Not the best by any stretch, but not the worse either. The point I think people make about their research is that it is simply good enough that it isn't a weakness. People often feel you should trade early game power for late game power. Ashdod doesn't do this by having average research. Plus there are the little things, like the lack of old age and near immunity to remote killing spells and such. Also, once they have the research, their mages are capable of a lot.

I will agree that fear can be a greater killer then your enemy, which is why Don made this post in the first place. His advice is that turtling is not a valid tactic to use against them.

P.S.: Mictlan can only make jaguar warriors at home in the middle age.