What is the path of blood for?

[Question]

Why do national troops become obsolete? Right now im playing Niefelheim, and the best demon summon i can do en-masse are frost fiends.

[Executor]

Originally Posted by Question

Why do national troops become obsolete? Right now im playing Niefelheim, and the best demon summon i can do en-masse are frost fiends.

National troops effectively get obsolete because at a certain point various thugs and super combatians that are capable of destroying large armies became available to everyone (Tartarians, Golems, Air Queens...). This usually happens around turn 40+. Protecting all those armies isn't really an option since you cannot possibly know what will get thrown at you and you might end up losing even more stuff.
So fielding and spending gold on various troop types becomes a disadvantage since they became all too counterable with every passing turn.
Certain troop types are always good of course, Mictlans jaguars, or Kailasa Yavanas and such, but that is usually limited to some gold effective (as in cheap) sacreds.

At a certain point troops are used mostly as chaff, something for the enemy mages to kill while you try and kill the enemy, and as siege weapons, breaking down fort walls of course. But keeping in mind that chaff still costs money and upkeep you don't want to have too much of them, which is why summons are often used to replaced recruitable troops, every gold piece you spend on troops is one less you have for mages and forts and that's what wins the game in the end.

Most common end game strategies consist of using various SCs and remote spells to raid and capture enemy provinces to weaken their infrastructure, and fielding a few large armies backed up by quite a few mages. But even when armies are used in the later stages of the game, they are always protected by various buffs that, and this is crucial, are always cast in the very first round to prevent tragedies like getting anhiliated by rain of stones (which is usually countedred by a mass protection or army of gold), or by master enslave (anti-magic) and so on.

[DeadlyShoe]

It's just how the game is balanced. Troops and mages are at a fixed gold cost, and after you get 2-3 forts up gold is your limiting resource. Mages arn't as good at troops per-gold in the early stages of the game, but as magical research continues they become more powerful to the point of obseleting troops.

Things that affect this balance are the cost/effectiveness of troops, the cost/effectiveness of mages, and the rate of magical research. Setting magical research to difficult or very difficult makes troops relevant far later in the game. The relative effectiveness of troops vs mages for cost depends on nation and era.

Take for example MA Ulm. A Sapper has a Crossbow that fires an armor-piercing projectile every two rounds. At the start of the game, a Priest Smith can cast Flying Shards... which makes him about equivalent to 2-3 crossbowmen at most. With some research in Evocation, though, that Priest Smith can cast Iron Darts, a volley of several armor-piercing bolts each round for as long as the priest remains able to cast. This uprates him to being competitive with about 10 crossbowmen (roughly). With a bit more research, that Priest Smith can cast Iron Blizzard, a similar spell that throws 30 or more bolts, making him equivalent to 60 crossbowmen in sheer firepower....for as long as he remains conscious, of course.

A larger number of sappers still has some advantages, in terms of morale//endurance//being able to soak enemy fire. But it is that point at which you are considering your troops as chaff and your mages as doing the real work. An army with a couple more mages can beat an army that spent that money on troops instead, as long as you have a certain minimum of troops.

****

A good starter blood nation is MA Abyssia, IMO. The 'Soul contract spam' strategy using Demonbreds (it's in the index) really clued me into blood.

[sansanjuan]

Deadly,
Quite well summarized...
ssj