The strenghts of Marignon

[Spacepain]

Pretty straight forward. What are the strengths that I player should use when playing as the default Marignon theme.

The only thing I've seen is strong priests. But, surely to be considrered balance, they must have some other benefit i'm missing.

[Cohen]

Marignong have all around force.

Has crossbowmen, a wide range of infantry from cheaper (flagellants) to elite (man-at-arms ... not so much elite for 14 gold, but 14 gold should be elite troops) and cavalry. It seems an medieval army of mankind.
So you've more possibilities on battlefield.

Inquisitors couts double when preaching in a province with enemy domain.
And their mages aren't bad ...

You can combine the theme Fires of Faith with high scales, to aid you in preaching ...

Flagellants are difficult to rout and are holy so you can bless them.

This is a small overview ... I'm still learning to play Mary.

[mlepinski]

Marignon has incredible sacred units. The Flagellents are the cheapest sacred unit in the game. One effective strategy is to take a high domain, a decent blessing and mass produce them. Also their sacred knights (I forget the name) are potent heavy cavalry (as is the Paladin commander who unilike the knights can be built outside the capitol). Take a few of the sacred knights along with a powerful blessing and you can a calvary unit that outshines any other calvary in the game.

Now I'm not saying that you have to play Marignon with a powerful blessing, but taking advantage of their sacred units is certainly one way to win.

- Matt L. :->

[archaeolept]

I think there are generally two ways to go militarily; three w/ diabolic faith.

either you can go w/ flaming crossbows

or you can go w/ bless effects. Knights seem too expensive to base a bless strat around, at least for the early game, so that leaves the flags. but flags are so truly ****ty, other than morale, that you need to plonk down for a pretty hefty bless.

The cheapest perhaps is the Fire 9 Moloch, who provides a nice bit of artillery as well, though it's magic paths are too pricey for it to be made up as a true supercombattant. Excellent punch but low life expectancy for the flags. Also good for chalice knights.

The ever popular flaming head allows the F9 S9 super flagellants. still got the punch, w/ the flags' major weakness (missiles) fairly protected against by twist of fate. the +4 MR is nice against illithids, as well. However, immobile pretenders are pretty sucky. OTOH, Marignon's ability to produce these everywhere makes this a potent possibility.

If you take ermorian scales you can even play around w/ the marignonian Triple Threat - having W9 added to the above for true craziness. flags like bullets.

[ April 12, 2004, 07:17: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[Jondifool]

Just want to add some small things, about the blessing option.

flagelants have 2 attacks with there flails, meaning that they benefit alot from a offensive blessing boost, (fire in particular)
Luckely for game balance they really need a defensive boost as they are very fragile.
But since the simply are the sacred trop benefiting most from a fire blessing at all I asume that its a good choice

As blessed flagelants have very good morale, they don't need to be hoarded in big squads comparede to other units. This can be used togethere with small lines of Marignons decent heavy infantery in the front to suck up(defleckt) the intial charge. And then flagelants making an hard hitting counter attack.

Small arrangement like this can cut alot down on the causalitys. But the key is to use the heavy inf as well

if you bring crossbows they will result in frindly fire losses, but as they are slow shooting and armour piercing, you still want it to be crossbows and not normal shortbows (from a conqeurred indy) there are bLasting your flaggelants. It takes good judgement or experience to know when to bring /and not bring archers/crosbows. Sometimes you don't wan't to bring the flags as the heavy inf/archery combo is simple better suited for the job.

By the way I have a question ? is there any advantage to use flaming arrows spell on crossbows than on shortbows? The question is does the flames be treated as a seperate attack or is it benefiting from the crossbows armourpierce?

[Kel]

Originally posted by Jondifool:
The question is does the flames be treated as a seperate attack or is it benefiting from the crossbows armourpierce?

I believe I have seen it stated that it is a separate 8(?) AP attack. Thus, it doesn't benefit from crossbows in that sense (though it will benefit from the improved precision).

It may not be as effective on x-bows as faster, normal bows but, since it effects the entire battlefield, if you have massed x-bows, it's still going to add up to a ton of damage. Especially with the somewhat improved precision in 2.11, I, personally, would base it more on how many missile weapons you plan to use and what you are using them against, rather than what kind.

- Kel

[Tricon]

Marignon has decent mages. In SP I tried a very successful summoning / forging strategy. A beefed up palladin is a force to be reckoned with. The inquisitors are a major asset, but to use them efficiently, you have to understand that dominion is the alpha and omega of dominions 2. They are not just priests with fire magic, they are the means to destroy any dominion based strategy of the opponent.A high inquisitor turned prophet is holy 5, and has access to smite, another very usefull spell (not to mention that you have a regular unit that can constantly cast fanatacism - marignon is very hard to rout) I haven't tried a flaggelant strategy yet, so far I use them fast flankers (which also helps them to keep out of the way of your xbows).
A baphomet pretender worked well for me in the past. He's immobile but very cheap. Fire9 and astral9 is a good choice, and give access to all kinds of nasty spell combos.
One other thing to mention is, that marignon is mayvbe the only nation that has a chance of defeating ermor one on one (SP, haven't crossed swords with marignon against ermor in mp yet).

[wolfkinsov]

A lot of the things mentioned are great ideas, but someone said that Blessed knights are not good early game strategy, but I have found that just 5 of them backed by 30-40 crossbows and I wipe most independents up to scale 6.

Plus the Witch Hunter is a good combat mage and only 110. Cast ethereal and 2 Fire can really deal damage. Best thing about Marigon is there are many ways to play it.

[archaeolept]

yah, that can be done, but your knights will take heavy friendly fire damage unless the bleesing you took is very high air (8 - 10)

[ April 12, 2004, 19:16: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[Tricon]

Originally posted by archaeolept:
yah, that can be done, but your knights will take heavy friendly fire damage unless the bleesing you took is very high air (8 - 10)

then don't use'em. 5 Knights, a witchhunter and a few heavy inf. are usually enough for indy 5-6 (except indie-provinces with knights and other exceptional indies with mages like f.e. amazons)

edit: and if you have an astral 9, fire 9 pretender your astral bless effect will negate quite a bit of friendly fire (though I'd rather have it for when it counts)

[ April 12, 2004, 19:47: Message edited by: Tricon ]