Unused Units

[I like Serena]

Right. But 9 sprites attacking one by one takes out a wyrm with a single Cracks Call per battle is P=0.93 (93% in 1 turn) – LOL

Although I remember reading that cracks call does not affect merging any more. Was that 1.40n?

Nice!
I had to puzzle a bit before I understood, but yes, this is a very valid tactic to conquer wyrms.

Pretty sure that's Insecticide. But yes, you can use sprites plus crack's call to clear a wyrm/war bear node (vs wyrm/sprite or wyrm/spider you usually can't be cost effective).

Versus wyrm/sprite it means that our sprites have to survive 1 attack by all sprites present.
Surely we can do something to improve the survival of our sprites?

[Anthony]

Versus wyrm/sprite it means that our sprites have to survive 1 attack by all sprites present. Surely we can do something to improve the survival of our sprites?

Sure. You can use more sprites than the defenders have, or you can cast resist elements for +3 vs magical ranged attacks (your combat simulator doesn't seem to recognize resist elements). You still tend to take quite a bit of damage, but it might be worth it (against a node with 1 wyrm/behemoth/earth elemental and 6 war bears, 2 sprites and 4x cracks call will probably clear the node in 6 turns. If instead it's 4 sprites, you need about six sprites and a web spell in addition to the cracks call).

[I like Serena]

(your combat simulator doesn't seem to recognize resist elements)

Oh yeah, I still have that listed on my TODO list and in the known BUGS section.
I did implement the +3 to resistance if the opponent is green or red, but the +3 to defense was tricky.
Resist elements works against the firebreath of a draconian, but not against its regular melee.
The combat simulator has the same problem with elemental armor, bless, and righteousness.
Let me see if I can fix that now. I have been researching the melee sequence recently, so I think I can make it work now.

Anyway, since we know the bonus applies, we can simply give the unit a custom +3 bonus to defense in the simulator.
Checking now.
A unit of sprites in a node does 3.3 damage against another unit of sprites, meaning that on average it can only take 1 hit (with 4 hp total).
Against resist elements that becomes 1.6 damage, allowing 2 hits.
So that is a bit tight, probably meaning that you have to go in with 2 or 3 units and sacrifice them.

Sure. You can use more sprites than the defenders have, or you can cast resist elements for +3 vs magical ranged attacks. You still tend to take quite a bit of damage, but it might be worth it (against a node with 1 wyrm/behemoth/earth elemental and 6 war bears, 2 sprites and 4x cracks call will probably clear the node in 6 turns. If instead it's 4 sprites, you need about six sprites and a web spell in addition to the cracks call).

Elemental armor would do the job, allowing about 10 hits, but is a bit expensive and difficult to get.
Resist elements and holy armor together reduce the damage to 1.0, allowing 4 hits, so that's starting to look like it.
And of course magic immunity.

Whether it is worth it...

[Anthony]

Elemental armor would do the job, allowing about 10 hits, but is a bit expensive and difficult to get.
Resist elements and holy armor together reduce the damage to 1.0, allowing 4 hits, so that's starting to look like it.

At a certain point, 'more sprites' is more cost-effective. Also, if you have all those rare spells, you probably have a flying unit that's a bit tougher than sprites, a unit of gorgons with resist elements can probably clear 8 sprites by itself.

[I like Serena]

At a certain point, 'more sprites' is more cost-effective. Also, if you have all those rare spells, you probably have a flying unit that's a bit tougher than sprites, a unit of gorgons with resist elements can probably clear 8 sprites by itself.

Yes. Moving in with 18 sprites would probably be cheaper and quicker than giving a number of protective spells to 9 sprites.
And gorgons do sound like a pretty solid way to do it.

Still. Let's see.
Cracks call is an uncommon spell, while elemental armor and gorgons are rare.
We can get cracks call at the beginning of the game, but not rare spells (discounting the 11 book strategy).
So I think we should limit ourselves to uncommon spells.
The next best flying green unit is cockatrices. Can they survive?

[Anthony]

The next best flying green unit is cockatrices. Can they survive?

They're tougher, but not enough tougher to make up for the extra time spent crossing the battlefield. For myrran races, nightblades and swarms of draconians work.

[rakenan]

I almost never build any units except Warships and Engineers from Orc cities. That is because their units are inferior to everybody else's, or are unit types so common I can build them almost anywhere. The only exceptions are Engineers and Warships (which are actually good) and Wyvern Riders, which are a sad excuse for a specialty unit, and depend on expensive structures I never build in Orc cities.

I rarely build Swordsmen or Halberdiers for most races, because they're just not enough better than Spearmen to be worth the added expense to build and maintain them. I find standard Bowmen to be more useful in nearly all situations, and standard Bowmen are barely worth building either.

Other than that, I can usually find a use for most units, at least as a temporary measure.