Best sacred units?

[Gandalf Parker]

I did alot of tests on maximized bless. Such as getting three lvl 9's, or all lvl 4's with one or two lvl 9's. Even though you have to take maximum negative on every other scale it actually turned out to be a playable tactic. Not a win-every-game one but an interesting one. It should be an old thread around here somewhere on it.

Gandalf Parker

[Zooko]

I love bless strategies. In our family vs. family game right now there are two teams, each with two nations. Three of the four nations have strategies involving two level-9 blessings. :-) Marignon -- 9 Fire/9 Astral, Mictlan -- 9 Fire/9 Water, and T'ien Ch'i Spring and Autumn -- 9 Water/9 Earth.

That last one is me. You're probably wondering what the heck I do with *that*... ;-)

[GriffinOfBuerrig]

Yes, i really wonder: Black Spiders are also my Favs with N9 and F9!

[Zooko]

Yeah, those Black Hunters and Black Hunter Lords are sure something. It's hard to afford their gold+resources in addition to getting good blessings though...

[jeffr]

I'ved used Pan's White Centaurs effectively. The only real problems (other than losing in the middle/end game ) I have had are with Machaka's Black Hunters and Mictlan's Jaguars Warriors.

I overcame the Hunters because I could outproduce them. If the Hunters could have been fielded in something approaching similar numbers, I probably would have lost.

I couldn't beat the Jaguars one on one and had to resort to a combined arms approach of softening up the Jaguaur hordes with ranged fire. Preferrable lots of ranged fire. The Jauguars are very tough, I think.

These latest battles were in a Zen modded game using Sabre Cherry's unit mod (which gives the White Centaur the light lance). But the White Centaurs were never defeated by any normal troop (sacred or otherwise) in any unmodded game I've played in the past that I can remember. Summoned troops (Mass Ghost Riders, Mass Devils, etc.) and Super Combatants are another matter entirely

[Zooko]

I think perhaps Flagellants with Fire-9/Astral-9 dual blessing are the best. The reason is that they cost only 10 gold and minimal resources each, and they can be recruited in any fortress. And when you throw them into hand-to-hand combat, they deal out great damage before falling.

You can find evidence of this in Saber Cherry's battle simulator. It appears to me that if you spend X gold and Y resources on Fire-9/Astral-9 flagellants, then the resulting team of flagellants will decisively win in hand-to-hand combat against other national troops that you could have bought for X gold and Y resources, even if you get a dual-blessing of your choice on sacred troops.

Am I wrong?

Note: flagellants are susceptible to missile fire. An Air-4 blessing might be valuable, or else battlefield tactics to protect your flagellants from being decimated by missiles before they get into the fray.

Also note that your supply of Flagellants has to be continually replenished. They aren't like Vans or Daoine Sidhe or Niefel Giants who are intended to slay enemies and keep going. Rather they are intended to slay enemies, then die themselves, and then be replenished by a new wave of even more Flagellants.

[Zooko]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Marignon can use The Baphomet, which starts with 2 Fire, 2 Astral, and is cheap (since he is immobile), which means you can get 9 Fire/9 Astral blessing for your Flagellants for fewer design points than almost any other popular dual blessing. And you can also recruit White Knights if you prefer expensive, durable, capitol-only sacred units.

I rarely recruit White Knights. They cost -- what -- 90 gold? and they don't dish out as much damage as nine Flagellants would. However, they do have their uses, such as being heavily armored (and thus safer against missile fire), being able to flank attack, and lasting for more battles.

I once had a White Knight or a Paladin or two successfully flank attack and chop up the enemy's entire leadership of half a dozen mages and bodyguards. That was fun! (The enemy was C'tis, played by Argitoth.)


Okay, just to recap:

Marignon, Baphomet, 9 Fire/9 Astral, Flagellants:

1. Cheapest sacred units period.
2. Among the best hand-to-hand fighters available at any price.
3. Plenty of design points left over for dominion (you need it to recruit more Flagellants per round), scales, etc.

[Zooko]

P.S. And don't forget the +4 Magic Resistance of the Astral-9 blessing. I'm currently playing a team game where my team-mate is doing this dual-bless-Flagellants strategy and my enemy is R'lyeh. It turns out that blessed Flagellants are resistant enough to mind blasts that they can go ahead and destroy the R'lyehn troops despite being under a barrage of mind blasts.

[PDF]

Wardens are not listed either, though they are relatively good .
Lava Warriors are not that great, they fatigue at an incredible rate even in non cold-climate !

Celestial soldiers should be out of the list, as they are not recruitable (and neither summonable easily by TC mages :roll: )

[Nerfix]

Lava Warriors also have terrible defence.