Sauromatian units

[Dedas]

Someone found any use for Soothsayer and Hydra Tamer yet? They seem pretty superfluous to me.

[Dedas]

My current pretender (I'm quite happy with it):

Dormant Lady of Springs

Dominion 7

Magic: 9W; 5N

Scales:
Order 3
Production -1
Heat 1
Misfortune 2
Magic 1

[llamabeast]

Soothsayers are good communion slaves. Powerful in combo with enaries.

[Dedas]

Didn't think of communion. Good catch.

[Baalz]

Errr, I'm at work now and can't look at the stats, but it seems like when I looked at the Androphag and Oiorpatas the Oiorpatas had a little better stats for the money, and 1 or 2 points in defense and protection really make a difference when they're high. Plus they have higher movement which gives a bonus to the lance first strike (and easier flanking). I did, however, forget about the free lizard so maybe I'll have to take another look. Are they sacred?

For communion slaves I'd recommend considering Enaries over Soothsayers. If Enaries (or Witch Kings don't - forget sabbath master) are the communion masters you're going to end up with a lot of death spells cast (raise dead in particular after your scripting runs out), and the Soothsayers with no death paths are gonna pop pretty fast. You're better off having 2 Enarie communion slaves than 4 Soothsayers under those conditions...4 Enarie slaves and you can raise undead until the cows come home.

[Dedas]

The free lizard is sacred.

The Androphags have 2 more hp and 2 more strength. So they pack more punch but have less protection, although they come with the free 28 hp sacred lizard. They also cost less resources but more gold.

[Dedas]

And what about the leg troops? You have the Amazon, a pretty stable unit, and also the regular archer with composite bow and precision 11.

Then you have all all the other cavalry:
Raider
Lancer
Sauromatian Raider
Sauromatian Lancer
Sauromatian Cataphract

The hydras (both capital only):
Hydra spawn (is this unit worth its points?)
Hydra (a good solid unit)

This nation has pretty varied choices.

[Kristoffer O]

> Hydra spawn (is this unit worth its points?)

Unlikely. It gets a cost reduction in the patch. Also hydras are made wierd. So I have no clue if they will be more or less effective than before.

[Ironhawk]

I've never played Sauro but just from looking at the description you list, the Soothsayer is valuable in giving you scale points. Don't stop at misfortune 2, push all the way to misfortune 3 and then place the soothsayers in your key provinces. Of course it will not protect you completely, but from what I recall, these misfortune bonuses stack. So you can do a lot to offset a 40 design point gain just by choosing your researchers accordingly.

[HoneyBadger]

I don't know that the hydra-tamer is really especially useful-in my opinion, he could use a net to go with his trident, and default to hydra-skin armor (someone else's good idea).

BUT-I will say, he *looks* very cool! Enough that I regularly try, and usually fail, to field atleast a small force of these guys.

I kindof visualize him as a Conanish figure (As seen on the cover of the original novel-swarthier than Howard had intended, but a great pic-and definitely not the Gubernator.).