July 22nd, 2017, 09:41
(This post was last modified: July 22nd, 2017, 09:45 by Seravy.)
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Edited the above post. Definitely losing this one.
PS : I could probably stay in game through spamming lizardmen javelineers - 3 cities are already able to produce them. However, with only 2 books in each realm, I have no late game - and all the cities I can conquer are lizard everywhere. That's not going to give me units that can fight the Myrran wizard and I won't have a very rare summon.
Also, Javelineers aren't that good against confusion and possession either.
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While it does appear you successfully performed rush-attacks to set a very strong foundation to get your economy going, how would you use it for late-game, even mid-game?
Lack of resist magic is a big problem here from early on. I figure eventual mass-production of wraith-form warships (higher-resistance) is the end goal of the barbarian cities, but how would you protect your barbarian cities with the troop choices available?. The early kick-start to economy may not grow well without advanced spells either.
In the end, it reinforces the thought that rush strategies are risky and should reward the players that can perform them best while planning ahead for later-game strategies, especially for the harder difficulties.
July 22nd, 2017, 10:08
(This post was last modified: July 22nd, 2017, 10:23 by Seravy.)
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...might as well give it a go anyway - I'm not in a bad position, it's just that I have so few books and I don't really like playing that way.
Forget rares, I don't even have most commons - 2 books only get me 4 of those in a realm.
I'm going to keep berserkers away from wizards and use them to get more nodes and lairs, and use javelineers to expand.
First, Sky Drake and many Phantom Beasts. Shouldn't be hard...well, there are two drakes. Ouch. Or not, they get killed as if they were just fire elemental. And I don't even have buffs or a Bard. 1200 treasure, and two medicore items. But I didn't lose a single Berserker. Yes, attacking wizards was a bad move, at least the one with Sorcery and Death books. I should have used other units for that.
I manage to trade for Holy Armor. Finally something useful to cast on Berserkers. Endurance is not bad but it's not worth 70 on a 3 armor unit unless the extra move is absolutely necessary to reach a target in time.
A node with 4 Storm Giants and an Air Elemental. This one costs me 5 Berserkers but...I can produce 5 more in 5 turns. Yeah, nodes are definitely the way to go with this setup. Astrologer was a good pick.
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Yup. Although, I always try for 4 life books. With lair/node killing of bezerkers, I never want to give up the opportunity to find very rare spells.
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Indeed 4 books are important. Not sure what can be dropped though.
2 Sorcery
2 Life
2 Death
2 Warlord
1 Alchemy
1 Tactician
That's 10. So I guess dropping Astrologer and Omniscient allows 4 books in one realm. I would most likely do Sorcery - Life is amazing but Magic Immune berserkers...chance to find Sorcery very rares early...Djinn, Sky Drakes, Time Stop, etc...Life has High Prayer though. Death is not a bad choice either - opens up the path to use combat spells and curses to win if the military approach can't deal with an enemy.
Meanwhile, researched Unicorns. I could use those with Berserkers to be less vulnerable to spells but even with that, 7 resistance is not very safe.
July 22nd, 2017, 10:39
(This post was last modified: July 22nd, 2017, 10:50 by Seravy.)
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No wonder there was no wizard to attack in the early game. There are 2 Myrran wizards. The only thing on Arcanus is...a bunch of lizardmen and me. Been a while since I last saw a map like this.
6 Lizards and 3 cockatrices in a Nature node. Lost 2 berserkers...
The Healer hero...and a Blazing March sword...
July 22nd, 2017, 15:35
(This post was last modified: July 22nd, 2017, 22:44 by Nelphine.)
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Bexerkers beat EVERYTHING militarily - bezerkers with life very rares best everything even when the enemy has spells. Bezerkers are also relatively cheap. Life also has best economy support. Other very rares are awesone... But bezerkers just brute force all of it. You get time stop? Who cares when I kill up to 6 cities per normal turn anyway?
July 23rd, 2017, 04:41
(This post was last modified: July 23rd, 2017, 04:46 by Seravy.)
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Found green's capital...lizards and magicians, that crap is no match for my berserkers. I've cleared 6 lizard nodes without losing a unit before. No confusion or possession either, green doesn't have those books.
Well, lost again. They had city walls and prayer on their side, and a Soul Linker hero (only +2). Even with my Blazing March, my Berserkers had a hard time dealing enough damage. Having poor defenses of their own, if they don't kill everything in one hit, the damage adds up and they die. And those Lizards with 11 shields and +2 To Def were definitely too hard to damage. Dragon Turtles are hard to kill too, less To Def but more shields.
I see how this strategy works, but I was too slow at the beginning and the map wasn't in my favor (not enough Arcanus wizards, both having the strongest early military race for AI, the nearest having confusion and possession both). I have to conclude however that it takes top level understanding of the strategy and all game mechanics to succeed - it's pretty hard to play correctly - which means it's not overpowered fortunately.
It is, however, a gamble, all or nothing. If you ever reach the point where 9 berserkers are not enough to take out enemy stacks (capital or otherwise), that's it, as you don't have anything better.
I could still compete by researching Lionheart and spamming it on the berserkers, but it's 1410 and I haven't beaten any wizard yet. I only have one city to produce berserkers, the rest makes javelineers. So it would be too slow and would eventually get overwhelmed by rare spells, probably sooner than later.
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Nelphine, it took me a while to realize that your barbarian strategy is so lair reliant. Essentially it's the sprite strategy in new clothes. My experience there was also that I kept getting good results until lair defenders were changed. How do you spot lairs without Earth Lore? Do you take risks based on knowing what the primary defender is and count on being able to run away if it's dangerous?
Also, could you make a small list of which lair defenders you expect to take out easily with barbarian cavalry?
July 23rd, 2017, 05:10
(This post was last modified: July 23rd, 2017, 05:14 by Seravy.)
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I'm also not sure about using Omniscient.
Death does nothing for this strategy aside from Wraith Form on the warship. Nature does nothing except Earth Lore. Both are amazing but 4 picks on that? Nah.
Astrologer on the other hand was amazing - I was able to hold my nodes significantly easier as enemies had to deal with spells being countered while mine worked. Sorcery feels almost required - for Resist Magic mainly. If you have Sorcery, you can rely on Floating Island instead of Warship for naval transportation, while on land, Berserkers are already fast.
2 Warlord
1 Alchemy
1 Tactician
1 Astrologer
3 Sorcery
4 Life
Opening up rare and very rare Life is definitely amazing. The extra Sorcery book allows starting with both Resist Magic and Floating Island, so the lack of Wraith Form doesn't matter, and unlocks rares.
Picking Heroism was a mistake - I didn't use it on anything except heroes. Instead, Heavenly Light, Holy Armor, Endurance, Healing, Bless, Just Cause, even Holy Weapon would have been more useful.
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