Golden Age Arcoscephale

[Blitz]

I've played this theme extensively in SP, but in my opinion it loses far too much over vanilla Arco to be a viable choice in a competitive game. The theme is very appealing at first glance, but many of it's units are overcosted and underpowered. Let's take a quick look at some of the changes over regular arcoscephale.

1) Loses Hoplite, Hypaspist, Elephant, Philosoper, Strategos, Heavy Cavalry, Bad Chariot, and the Hoplite and Hypaspist Commanders.

2) Gains Myrmidion, Icaryd, Wind Rider, Wind Lord, Chariot, Chariot Archer, Engineer, Philosoper, Icarid Champion and Sceptic

3) Also has access to two new heroes in the Daiadalos and Asterios. Their starting site no longer produces SSSSN, but rather AAEES.

So we see that GA Arcoscephale loses all it's good military troops (Elephant, Hoplite, Hypaspist, Heart Companion), and these are replaced with the Myrmidion, Chariots, and Wind Riders. Chariots are just plain bad. The attrition rate is awful. Those, and Myrmidions are terribly resource-intensive under a sloth forced theme. The chariot archer has perhaps the worst precison of a ranged unit while being one of the most expensive. The wind riders are good units, but they are not much better than Valkries, while twice as much.


Wind Rider 13hp 17ar 12mr 11str 12at 16df
Valkrie 12hp 13ar 14mr 11str 13at 15df

The wind rider has the additional bonus of a lance, but the other stats are comparable. Also note the Valkrie has 25 stealth and that slightly good ability called glamour. IMHO these are two comparable units. The Wind Rider is superior, but not by a large margin, yet costs 125 to the valkrie's 60

The icarid is much cheaper than the Valkrie, but is extremely difficult to mass, costing 28 resources and being capitol-only. It's stats are also not comparable.

The myrmidion isn't a bad unit, but again it's very difficult to mass due to it's high resource cost under sloth. Additionally they are armed with short swords. Combine that with a whopping 8 encumberance, and it's unlikely they can stand up to commparably priced infantry.

Myrmidion 12hp 17ar 10mr 11str 12at 11df Short sword
Man at Arms 11hp 15ar 10mr 10str 11at 12df Broad Sword
Blood of humans Abyssan HI 12hp 18ar 11mr 11str 10at 9df Morningstar
Swamp Guard 12hp 18ar 12mr 10str 11at 10df Falchion
Ermor/Plylithum Triarius 10hp 18ar 10mr 10str 11at 12df Long Spear
Tien Chi Imperial Guard 10hp 15ar 10mr 10str 11at 12df Falchionh
Zweihander 12hp 19ar 9mr 10str 10at 6df Great Sword
Hirdman 10hp 15ar 10mr 10str 11at 12df Broad Sword

All of these units are comparably priced. Only the Zweihander costs even close to the same number of resources and has the same 8 encumberance... yet costs only 10 gold. Every unit on this list has a better weapon, deals more damage, and has more staying power than the myrmidion. It's not even worth comparing them to the three exceptional hoplites that he replaces from standard Arco.

So in addition to losing our good infantry and elephants, we gain basicly nothing for regular army troops. The Myrmidion is a poor heavy infantry unit. The Wind Lord costs far too much. The Chariots are far too expensive to use against independants, and are of only limited use in large battles. Therefore we must gain something magically, right?

Wrong. We lose the Astrologer, the cheapest 3-astral mage available, and we gain no new mages. The philosopher is without question the best researcher available to any race, yet is only slightly more efficient than a sage, and cannot cast search spells or forge lesser magic items. The Engineer and Skeptic both have limited usage. Both are unique units with potential, but certianly cannot hope to have the game impact of bonus troops that other themes get. You can give me a laundry list of usages for these two units, and I will tell you that I'd rather have a Seithkona, Tuatha, Master of the 5 elements, Fortune Teller, or Galderman. I'd sure as heck rather have my Astrologers back. These units have a niche role, yes. However, they do not compensate for the loss of Astrologers in any way, shape or form.

Golden Era Arcoscephale is far too weak. I hope the developers choose to strengthen this theme in their next patch, as they did Blood of Humans and Desert Tombs in previous patches. While I concede that realisticly a Bronze-age myrmidon should not be able to stand up to iron infantry, there must be some magical compensation. The philosopher is a wonderful unit, however it is the only notable addition to this theme. Sadly this does not make up for losing the very strong hoplites and elephants... and certianly not the philosopher, who is nearly as powerful as an Arch-Seraph in my opinion.

Obviously these ideas haven't been thoroughly tested, and yes Zen, I'll mod it if enough people like the ideas.

1) Give the wind rider awe +1. The only national troops which cost more than a wind rider are the Hydra, Black Hunter, and Neifel Giant. This ability would boost their survival rate considerably, and probably make them one of the best national troops in the game. Since they are one of the most expensive, obviously that's what they should be. Massing them would still be prohibitive, due to them being capitol-only and expensive... but this boost is both thematic and greatly enhances their power.

2) Raise the cost of the myrmidon to 18. Boost hit points by one (13). Boost morale by two (15). Boost both attack and defense by one (12). Most of you have seen the movie Troy. Their portrayal of the myrmidons is somewhat generous, but there is no doubt the Mydmidon is supposed to be an elite fighter. These bonuses would reflect the power of the unit, while not losing the thematic short sword and bronze armor. There's no way these changes would bring them in line with einheres, or other top end infantry... but hopefully the myrmidons would resemble the expensive elite units they are supposed to portray.

3) Raise the cost of the Wind Lord to 350 gold. Add two levels of Air magic and the same +1 awe that the wind riders get. This would not make the Wind Lord the recruitable SC that the Tuatha or Drotts are, but would still be an extremely powerful unit. This is thematic, as Arcoscephale gets air gems with Golden Era. While he would be very expensive as compared to Drotts and Tuatha, the lance, awe and flying abilities probably compensate for the glamour, priest, and better magical powers of the others. This would be a difficult unit to balance, but I think it would be a good addition to the theme.

I'll see what I can do about whipping up a mod. It's 2:30am out here on the West Coast, but I'm off tomorrow and possibly by the time you read this I may have whipped something up. Let me know what you think of the ideas.

[ June 18, 2004, 10:27: Message edited by: Blitz ]