Better Know a (Bad) Pretender: the Terrible Three

Squirrelloid · #37 April 23rd, 2010, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablomatic

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablomatic

In CBM Jomon is much easier to play, and should probably take the Celestial General (with auto-spawn shield bearing troops to complement the samurai archers, and mounted archers to complement samurai cavalry).

Samurai archers? Ew. Do not buy. Useless, and more dangerous to you than your opponent.

Go-Hatamoto, Aka-Oni, cavalry, and Yamabushi basically cover all your truly worthwhile units. Samurai with naginata are an ok replacement for Yamabushi away from your capital. Everything else is crap.

I like pure scales play with Jomon. Although you can also bless your yamabushi - 7 W9 yamabushi expand just fine. I've certainly never had a real problem expanding with them.

Well, there are different ways to play them. I agree Go-Hatamotos are good. Never tried a major bless with them, doesn't seem right, and I am surprised 7 yamabushi can do anything even with a bless. What if the enemy has archers?

Samurai archers are OK, and useful for many situations, just be careful with placement of your un-shielded infantry, or better yet use all archer or all infantry armies in the early going.

How are you summoning your Aka-Onis with no death mages and they're conj 3 I think in vanilla? I suppose you could have your pretender start summoning them, but 3 for 10 fire gems?

Pretty sure Aka-Oni is the unit you can buy with red armor.

Samurai archers are not OK. They cost too many resources for a weapon that is crap against 85% of the units other players will be fielding, because armor is heavier in LA. Longbows don't cut it anymore. And as with all archers, massing is key, and at 20+ resources each, you just can't mass them acceptably. I'd take shortbows at 3-4 resources apiece over those, because they'll be much more effective with flaming arrows since they're far more massable.

Regarding yamabushi vs. archers
I might have archer pulled in the games i tested them with using a couple ashigaru.

It may also be the case that they were simply fast enough to not notice/care about archers. Indie archers are shortbows after all.

I'm not saying i would normally take a major bless for Jomon, I like pure scales. But it can work for a smaller game.