Help me survive against Ermor

[Coffeedragon]

I am playing Man/Tuatha against a nmber of difficult AIs on Urgaia, been at war for half a dozen turns with Ermor/Broken.

Even though I have twice as many provinces as they (~11-14 against ~5-7), it looks like I can´t win. It´s not so much their Undead but their Human troops that seem invincible. Longbows can´t hurt them, Knights don´t fare so well against the Legionaries, even Daoine Sidhe occasionally falter. A couple Troll mercenaries were my only unit that could really pound the Legions, but they are gone now, and Ermor replaces their losses with phenomenal speed. It looks like they may win the war of attrition, and time is running out for man.

Heeeeelp!!!

[Saber Cherry]

Time to quit with the conventional troops, and start using magic

Summer Lions and Fall Bears are pretty good. Flaming Arrows will make your archers viable. Orb Lightning and phantasmal summons should make good use of Man's Air mages. And mass protection is always a good idea...

[Coffeedragon]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Summer Lions and Fall Bears are pretty good. Flaming Arrows will make your archers viable. Orb Lightning and phantasmal summons should make good use of Man's Air mages. And mass protection is always a good idea...

I have no Fire skills and no Earth Gems; Summer Lions, Fall Bears and Flaming Arrows are out of the question.

And I´m at Evocation2, so it´s a long way to Orb Lightning.

Anything that is low level, useful and Air/Nature?

[Bossemanden]

Priests, priests and more priests

[PvK]

Horned serpents are ok, combined with other troops. Black hawks (see Call of the Winds) on Hold and Attack Rearmost. Howl, cast repeatedly, can completely disorganize and overwhelm even a large and powerful enemy army, since the wolves keep coming from all directions.

Make sure every battle has one or two priests in it, to banish undead.

PvK

[Coffeedragon]

Originally posted by Bossemanden:
Priests, priests and more priests

Useless; my problem is with their living.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Coffeedragon:
And I´m at Evocation2, so it´s a long way to Orb Lightning.

Anything that is low level, useful and Air/Nature?

Phantasmal wolves and soldiers, lightning, howl, swarm... and possibly vine ogres + poison spells. You better get on the ball with research! Forge lots of owl quills - you're already on the way to destruction

[Coffeedragon]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
...- you're already on the way to destruction

I know. Much better, though, than if the game were too easy.

Ermor, however, always gives me more trouble than the other nations combined. Do I simply not "get" them, or are they objectively stronger than everybody else?

I could be at Thaumaturgy3 in 4 turns. Is the Panic spell worth it? On paper, this looks like just what I need to disperse the Legions... [Undead are not a problem; my masses of Longbows take care of the Ghouls -but the Principes are another matter!]

[Coffeedragon]

Ok, here´s my plan:

I am researching Panic and building lots of cheap Bards. Each Bard gets a few Green Gems. With a Nature Gem, a Bard can cast Panic (I think).

I´ll try to move around their large armies and isolate one at a time. Then the Bards move in, demoralize everybody, and when they try to retreat, they are dead.

If you're playing Tuatha I'd suggest:

3-5 Bards

2-3 Sidhe Lords (Or if you can afford it, Tuathas, or more)

A staff of storms (or if you can't forge one, someone who can cast "Storm")

Bards orders: Soothing Song x5, cast spells

Sidhe/Tuatha orders: Summon Storm Power, Eagle Eyes, Orb Lightning x3, cast spells


Position your Bards around the Sidhe Lords singing recovery songs (and usually will keep doing it unless they are near someone who is routing, then they will cast healing song or song of bravery.

If you have a storm going, you will usually get 3 Lightning Bolts per Sidhe Lord or 4 Lighning Bolts per Tuathat, per cast of Orb Lighting.


Or alternatively if you are feeling spicy. Give your Tuatha/Sidhe Lords a magic weapon (or two), have them cast Air Shield and Mistform and have them run in.

This is of course using a complement of Tower Guards in order to hold the backbone while you start.

The top strategy will let you decimate much of his force. If you find that you are positioning your Sidhe close to your enemy you can start with Air Shield to protect from Javelins.

*Edit: Just noticed you were far away from Orb Lighting (WHY?!) so you can use that with Thunder Strike (It's Evocation 4, not really all that far). Or alternatively use only Tuathas (unless you have a SoS) and chaincast Ghost Wolves and use recovery song with the Bards, they will churn out a good factory of them.

[ January 30, 2004, 02:27: Message edited by: Zen ]