Beware of Ashdod

[JimMorrison]

That's what I was thinking, D9 Eagles. Maybe W9D9, or D9/B8..... Change the meaning of the word "attrition". Actually, D9/B9, sooooo many Eagles, poor Ashdod will be swimming in Horrors.

[cthulhu]

I can't say enough good things about Soul Vortex. Best spell an SC can have--chaff-killing + reinvig + regen all in one neat little package. You'll need a death booster or a death gem to cast it w/ Malkim.

Hm... what exactly does Soul Vortex do? I've never actually cast that spell. My impression was that it was basically an instant combat evocation comparable to a zero range area of effect drain life spell, and thus only minimally useful to an SC no matter what the damage was since spells can only be scripted in the first 5 turns and it would the sort of spell that you'd want to cast over and over again after the enemies were near to get good results from.

[rdonj]

Soul vortex is basically a life drain aura that lasts the entire battle. Not too shabby.

[Zeldor]

It's uber uberness of self-buffs. It is AoE drain life every turn that gives you life and reinvigoration [lots of reinvigoration, like tens a turn]. And you can get over max HP with that.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by cthulhu

I'm pretty sure that 5 jaguar warriors with F8W9B9 could easily take an anakite. The problem is that the jaguar warriors would be easy prey to any indie archers backing up the anakites, and would tend to suffer serious attrition even against weak forces.

F8W9B9 jaguar warriors are rather special-purpose units with a special purpose bless, whereas E10N6 or E9N4F4W4 or whatever anakites are good for almost any purpose and the bless helps their spellcasters and SCs too.

As I've written many times, F9W9 and then AX or SX
I know that probably the standard counter for jags are archers. An A bless defeats that strategy.

You can, with many variations, make a Dominion 7 pretender. And 7 jags with that F9W9A9 bless will take no losses against virtually any independent. The only time you will lose is when your mictlan priest gets killed via an archer.

Additionally, Mictlan can afford that 999 bless - affording an E9N4F4W4 bless with ashdod is *much* more difficult. Ashdod *needs* a +3 +x scales. You can play a e9X4 bless with ashdod but I am far from convinced its optimal strategy.

I think it would be thematically interesting to balance ashdod by making its castles the equivalent of ermorian - something like 10 admin, available everywhere. These would but a severe damper on ashdods gathering of resources, and hence its ability to produce units.

Again, ashdod is very money and resource intensive. All of its units are expensive. So if you force it to defend against dominion death you are significantly reducing its ability to research or act offensively.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

A death bless is probably quite good vs. any giant nation. Afflictions easily build up to make your blessed giants rather useless.

Nah. With Niefle I just rotate the SC's out. Set the afflicted SC to research.

With an Exn6 bless, its relatively easy to get a fairy queen to heal afflictions; plus some of the giants have healers native.

[Kristoffer O]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Nah. With Niefle I just rotate the SC's out. Set the afflicted SC to research.

With an Exn6 bless, its relatively easy to get a fairy queen to heal afflictions; plus some of the giants have healers native.

You are all so peaceful! You should not consider the game after research lvl 7. If you haven't won by then you will never win Beat Ashdod about early, when they can't heal themselves with fairy queen. You can never plan for late game victories and hope to win. If you do you're a bore

[cleveland]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

You can never plan for late game victories and hope to win. If you do you're a bore

This should be in the manual.


Oh, and KO, please ignore any disparaging remarks about Machaka that may have surfaced in the "Machaka = least played nation" thread I started. I've been playing with them since that original post, and I've got to say, WOW. They are friggen awesome.

I don't want to tip my hand per my upcoming MP game, but you want to know how to kill Ashdod? Send an equivalent $$$ worth of Spider Riders at them. In fact, send $.

*skulks off to write Machaka guide outline*

[Wrana]

Yes! Machaka guide is long overdue!!! All glory for you (and I hope you win with them )!

[Kristoffer O]

> All glory for you (and I hope you win with them )!

Of course I will

Mbaba is still inhaling. In a few turns she has inhaled long enough to snuff out every candle there is.