Blesses and ranged weapons

[JonBrave]

LOL, OK (though it makes no sense to me). Shows you can think too deeply about this game

[Olm]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

They also have high encumbrance so speeding them up might not be the best idea

That means they need an earth bless.

[legowarrior]

Well, I originally asked because of a mod that Shatner and I put together for a Middle Era Jomon Nation. You can find details here

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by Olm

That means they need an earth bless.

So now you've got a W9Ex bless, on a nation that also needs G3/M1-3 and really thrives on O3/P3/G3 since it's so good at overtaxing & making castles. All this just to make a W9 bless not entirely unviable to use on archers (who are actually crossbowmen, and as such wouldn't even profit that much from the W9 bless to begin with).

You can't see it, but I'm doing my dubious face right now. But feel free to prove me wrong by winning with such a build !

[Olm]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

So now you've got a W9Ex bless, on a nation that also needs G3/M1-3 and really thrives on O3/P3/G3 since it's so good at overtaxing & making castles. All this just to make a W9 bless not entirely unviable to use on archers (who are actually crossbowmen, and as such wouldn't even profit that much from the W9 bless to begin with).

You can't see it, but I'm doing my dubious face right now. But feel free to prove me wrong by winning with such a build !

No I won't
Just wanted to bring up another sacred ranged unit with good melee capability. Never meant to use a bless for sacred archers myself. I think its a waste.
On the other hand the melee Wardens recruitable everywhere could sure profit from a bless. I often thought about that. But I would do it rather in the ME where the Mothers and Crones of Avalon also profit from lets say an earth bless.
Perhaps I will try that sometimes.

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by Olm

No I won't
Just wanted to bring up another sacred ranged unit with good melee capability. Never meant to use a bless for sacred archers myself. I think its a waste.
On the other hand the melee Wardens recruitable everywhere could sure profit from a bless. I often thought about that. But I would do it rather in the ME where the Mothers and Crones of Avalon also profit from lets say an earth bless.
Perhaps I will try that sometimes.

I've been playing with a MA Man build with a water 9 bless, and it's actually quite effective even without an E bless to compensate. 15 Def, quickened wardens + whatever experience they gain can be very, very nasty. 5 of them plus a stealthy preist to bless can reliably take out most reasonable amounts of PD. Making MA Man in CBM one of the premier stealth raiding nations. Sure they fatigue out a little quicker, but they also lay down an impressive amount of damage so the extra fatigue never really comes to bear.

Also works very well to turn your mothers into extremely effective archer support and is probably the best bless I've found for Cu sidhe as well. Give your mothers a lightning bow, or a bow of war, bless, aim/eagle eyes and watch the destruction fly even with just a couple of them.

The LA Wardens with their crossbows are actually better than the MA wardens. And LA man wouldn't have too many problems getting a bless. You don't need an awake pretender as your national troops are fairly strong for expansion plus you have a tolerance for drain so you net an extra 120 design points.

The only real problem is that they're still cap only while the MA ones are recruit anywhere. As cap only you'll just never have enough of them to base a strategy around.