Ermor Themes

[regret]

Hi all,

New to game but got a question to ask

i am trying Ermor themes at the moment
Can someone explain to me what the difference is between the different reanimates and call spirits options?
like which uses population or corpses or no requirement?
and roughly what i will get using the different options?
i roughly know that dominion effects and unholy rating of the summoner is how much you get
and that longdead doesn't require anything
and of course the 2 tips they show saying reanimate souless needs corpses and ghouls need pop.

thanks in advance

[shovah]

soul gate:
dispossesed spirits require corpses
shades require nothing
apparitions require 100 people per summon

ashen:
ghouls need 10 people
not sure what others need as i usually play soul gate

[regret]

Thanks!

I was trying soul gate
how do you normally set your scales?
and once you run out of pop you just stick to summoning shades? or are shades generally good enough?

I think i may have made my game too violent since i set death 3 and have starting domain at 8 plus i was happily pillaging. my provinces emptied out really fast. am i missing out if i do not summon dispossesed and apparitions?

also as long as i have a temple in the province, does it matter make a difference than summoning from capitol? cos it seems to make a diff for ashen empire.

thanks again

[quantum_mechani]

regret said:
Thanks!

I was trying soul gate
how do you normally set your scales?
and once you run out of pop you just stick to summoning shades? or are shades generally good enough?

I think i may have made my game too violent since i set death 3 and have starting domain at 8 plus i was happily pillaging. my provinces emptied out really fast. am i missing out if i do not summon dispossesed and apparitions?

also as long as i have a temple in the province, does it matter make a difference than summoning from capitol? cos it seems to make a diff for ashen empire.

thanks again

Normal scales are full turmoil, sloth, cold, death, luck either way, full magic. Don't worry about emptying population, that is what dead Ermor is all about. Just playing SG Ermor will kill population much, much faster than full growth scale could cure, even if you could take that. As far as ordering commanders to reanimate, it does not matter where they are. For auto summons that don't need commanders, it is based on the dominion level, plus you will receive better spawns on fort provinces.

I would advise not paying as much attention to reanimation and instead spend gems on mages.

[Turin]

How to easily win with soul gate:

Pretender design:
Choose a lich queen with dominion 10 and several rainbow paths: you will want fire 4(for alchemy), earth 3+(to find money sites) and death 6(for well of misery) ,spend the rest as you see fit, but don´t put anything in blood.
Scales are: turmoil 3, sloth3,cold 3, death 3, luck 3, magic 2 or 3. Of course you choose the cheaper and superior castle.

How to play:
prophetize the wraith centurion, research with your lich queen until you have enough gems for a dusk elder. After the elder summon 3-4 wraith centurions for expansion, then mages for research.

How to expand:
Send out the wraith centurions towards provinces under your domain, the prophetized one should be able to take them alone, the other wraith centurions should work in pairs.

Script them to hold 5 times and then attack, positioning them at the far end of the battle field. Don´t use your freespawns for expansion, you will need them to patrol.
After the lich queen has summoned the dusk elder send her out to find magic sites.

As soon as a province is conquered, build a temple there(summon a priest if you get unlucky and don´t get one early as a freespawn), unless it´s a border province. Don´t bother building forts in the beginning, your freespawns will take care of early game raiding forces(just don´t forget to buy 1 PD everywhere) .
Fortresses seem to diminish the quality of your troops. In provinces with temples you get apparitions, ghosts and wailing ladies(all awesome) in provinces with forts you only get your mostly useless spectral legionaires.

All your money should go into temples. Soul gate ermor is all about dominion. To get money pillage provinces with special income sites(arenas etc) to 0 population as soon as possible, so you can get the full 200% taxes with no unrest.
Alchemize all the fire gems you can get. Use raiding parties consisting of a spectator and freespawns.

Research conjuration to lvl 8 as soon as possible, this will give you ashen angels and the well of misery, which are probably the most important spells for you. Continue to lvl 9 for ghost riders, or research conjuration 4 first to equip your centurions. Other important spells in the conjuration path are summon spectre, king of banefires and harvester of sorrows.

[Molog]

Soulless need corpses for reanimating.

Ashen empire gets better undead at castles.

Soul gate gets free priests at temples sometimes.

There should be a table in your manual displaying how much each undead and what kind each kind of reanimating gives you.

If you make make an arch bischop your prophet with ashen empire, he'll reach level 5 unholy and can cast power of the sepulchre and reanimate cencors.

[Chazar]

What are the weaknesses of Soul Gate? Does one defend against Soul Gate like one would defend against Ashen Empire (drive-by priesting, etc.)?

[shovah]

well soul gates units are etheral but i think there are fewer of them than ashen (dont play ashen much but still think they get more) and their units generally dont do too much damage but have paralyzing abilities (pretty sure). not sure if this is different to ashen but in provinces with temples they often get free priests so wipe out temples asap

(try some priests with flying carpets and either a fire 9 blessing on sacred troops or some toher form of magic attacks)

if your in an mp game try and team up with someone to take them down and units that dont eat are good on then since their lands have low supplie and if you ignore them they will get way too strong (beware the tartarian factorys of doom) and also watch out for all their dusk eldars as they can really put a hurting down with the right spells (or with a few boosters can spam bane lords)

[Vicious Love]

Chazar said:
What are the weaknesses of Soul Gate? Does one defend against Soul Gate like one would defend against Ashen Empire (drive-by priesting, etc.)?

Drive by priesting is a tad less effective, what with their comparatively high MR. Artillery spells, excepting the few that don't count as magic weapons, are even more effective, as few units have more than zero protection. Heavy armor is only effective against relatively few of Soul Gate's units, whereas high MR will protect against nearly all. A few high-MR, high-HP thugs with Charcoal Shields(or fire shielded Black Sorcerers) should be tremendously effective, but you are likely to lose one or two of them, once one fails his paralyze MR roll.

Soul Gate's dominion is technically less dangerous than AE's, but the distinction becomes meaningless within a few rounds. Ph34r it, as you would AE.

Also, should a wraith centurion wind up in your dominion, kill with an assassination spell before he can get back to the immortality zone. Don't assume this'll immobilize his army, though; Soul Gate still gets free commanders. As with AE, worthwhile commanders like centurions and Dusk Elders are still prime targets, if difficult ones.

Update: Also, be Caelum. Even your troops are useful against these guys. Without the ethereal edge, SG's troops are ultra-light infantry. Most of their units have less than 10 HP. Dispossessed spirits only have 1.

Yet another update: Keep in mind that most of Soul Gate's units aren't mindless. Morale aside, this means they'll have a lot less trouble capturing and defending forts. On the other hand, where AE Ermor gets wicked awesome knights of the Unholy Sepulchre(and the occasional censor), Soul Gate gets only marginally better troops. Therefore, while I'd advise you demolish your own fort rather than let AE Ermor take it, less drastic measures might be in order with SG. Then again, forts protect temples from raids, and temples are an even more important target than before, providing both dominion and some truly worthwhile autosummons.

[Jurri]

Soul Gate's critters are not lifeless, either, so life drain works nicely. (Which is why Soul Gate is in my opinion much worse than Ashen Empire. Alongside of course SG having less hp in the horde and less damage potential.) In fact, they aren't mindless either, so fear and awe should work against them, too.

Also, in theory a dude with high attack and a magic weapon should repel the dipossessed spirits to death when they swarm him, right? Could be considered, in case you don't happen to have fireshield available.