Man: A Bless nation in CBM 1.92?

[Shardphoenix]

However, with a weaker nation you may actually want to play to the high risk strategies.

Man going high-bless seems to be a high-risk low-reward strategy - Man already has very good knights (not only Knights of Avalon, but regular knights too) and great archers. Adding another hard-hitting high-prot unit doesn`t seem to add much tactical flexibility even in the beginning, besides knights and wardens have similiar counters.

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by Shardphoenix

Man going high-bless seems to be a high-risk low-reward strategy - Man already has very good knights (not only Knights of Avalon, but regular knights too) and great archers. Adding another hard-hitting high-prot unit doesn`t seem to add much tactical flexibility even in the beginning, besides knights and wardens have similiar counters.

There are multiple differences between knights and wardens.

The biggest one is stealth. Stealth is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. And the warden is one of the most powerful recruit-able units with this ability. Only one that I can think of that might beat them out are revelers. A few lord warden led raiding parties can be a huge pain in someones side during a war.

Second, they're sacred, this gets you the bless but almost as important it gets you cheap upkeep. If your relying on knights and archers alone your upkeep is quickly going to become a serious problem.

21 vs. 18 standard damage. May not seem like much but it's important vs. higher protection units. True knights have the lance strike but that can be easily countered with a screen of cheap chaff.

Higher MR. 14 vs. 10.

Knights of A do have the magical Alicorn attack, which is pretty important, but then you don't have to choose between knights of A and wardens. You can have them both.

Additionally, as long as you leave your regular knights and archers out of the mix you have entire armies with forest survival, which depending on the map can dramatically increase you're flexibility.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Torgon

The biggest one is stealth. Stealth is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. And the warden is one of the most powerful recruit-able units with this ability. Only one that I can think of that might beat them out are revelers. A few lord warden led raiding parties can be a huge pain in someones side during a war.

It's worth mentioning that mothers of avalon can add some punch to your raiding parties. The sacreds probably won't need it, even with just a light bless, but it's a nice boost for woodsmen raiding parties.

[rdonj]

If you really want stealth, there's nothing preventing you from buying some wardens even without a bless and using them for the stealth aspect. They don't even really need a bless to be decent PD raiders. They'll suffer more attrition that way though.