Coming late to the conversation, what with the winter holiday and all, but here's some stuff I said a few months back while trying to stick up for 'vanilla' Yomi, which should certainly come in handy here for a guide:
"Dai-Oni make outstanding battle mages, able to cast all the heavy hitting spells from Fire, Earth, and Death, once you deal with their horrible encumbrance. Get them out of their armor (the lighter the better, but anything, even Steel Plate, is better than their heavy samurai armor), give them some reinvigoration items, and maybe even think about a light Earth bless. Oh, and casting Summon Earth Power at the beginning of battle is a good idea too (all of them can do it).
It helps to think of them as four different units, depending on the random. If you get one with F3, well, Phoenix Power will get you to F4, good enough for Falling Fires spam, etc. Give him a Skull of Fire, and now he can cast every Fire magic spell in the book, including BE spells like Heat from Hell, Fire Storm, etc.. Give him a Flame Helmet too, and well, he'll hand it right back saying he doesn't even need it Oh, and Warriors of Muspelheim will make all your 50% FR Oni 100% FR.
If you get the guy with the A1 random, think Aim plus anything. I like it with Bane Fire, a very nasty spell if it can be cast with any accuracy! Late in the game, with a Death booster, the niche yet powerful spells Wailing Winds and Wind of Death become available. Oh, I almost forgot, with Earth Power or a booster, they can also cast Rain of Stones, a cheap, brutal spell for Yomi to use with its robust demon units (keep the Bakemono and Sorcerers at home for this one).
The E3 guys? Boots get you to E4, Earth Power to E5. And now you can cast every Earth spell too! All those cool buffs - for starters though, think End of Weakness, and your Oni soldiers now have, well, average protection, but still with only an Encumbrance of 1. Blade Wind is nice, but Magma Eruption is better. Petrify, Weapons of Sharpness, and finally, the Army spells.
Oh, and finally, the guys with D4. That's right, Yomi has access to natural D4 mages, so D6 with Staff and Helmet (or if you're super lucky, you just might get a D5 10% random that will get you to D7 without Artifacts or empowerment - I got two of those in my last MP game, used 'em as cheap Tartarian factories!). Darkness is a given (even Bakemono have 50% Darkvision). Judicious use of Shadow Blast can be powerful. Drain Life and Disintegrate for enemy Thugs/SCs. Fear/Terror, Cloud of Death, Plague, etc. etc..
Oh, your E3 Dai-Oni can forge Dwarven Hammers immediately. You should eventually have a lot of them floating around. Site search like mad, get those gems flowing in, and forge away!"
And:
"Remember, Yomi has the paths and gem income to forge all three research boosters (and at a discount with Hammers). That should help out greatly with long term research."
And:
"You can gamble, and go without an awake SC pretender in exchange for excellent scales (you certainly don't need much of a bless, or much help with magic paths).
In this case, Kuro-Oni can make excellent early expansion troops, in conjunction with other forces. Very expensive, yes (hence the need for good scales), but they have MR 15, comparable to other elite recruitables, and thus wont be bothered much by indy priests. They've got ranged fire and poison attacks (both magic attacks, by the way), an Attack score of 14 (with their awesome weapon), Strength 16 and a weapon that does 8 damage (awesome again), and 24 HP - in their first life (their 2nd life is ethereal)! Meaning, they've got staying power, despite their meager 6 Protection and lack of shield, plus the offensive power to hack through the heaviest armor similar to giants.
Yes, they're very vulnerable to missile weapons, so use decoys. Anything will do, but indy infantry with shields are best (meaning, they'll last longest). Place them front and center, with 'hold' orders. Put the Oni on the flank - they'll throw fire and poison as the enemy advances, and then close. Back them up with a pack of cheap bakemono archers to suppress enemy archers. Works against most indy types, and you can mix it around for outliers like barbarians and cavalry.
One downside? You can't lead them with an indy commander, you'll need a Demon General, hurting your early research. But you can make up for it later with your ability to forge all research boosters, and hopefully with building other castles quickly.
Another downside, depending on your foe, is that you may have trouble with an early war (I said it was a gamble). But with luck and good diplomacy, you can still expand fairly rapidly in the early game, and have the good scales to power you into the mid and late game."
All this was from the
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...highlight=Yomi
thread.
Also, I haven't looked at Yomi since the latest patch, but don't they have a bunch of new summons (or is that Shinuyama)?
Re: Yomi 3.21
Breakout Champion!
Maybe I can reduce sloth for death, I like bandit raiders. I'll test, this intrigues me.
Linear Mode
