I've been focusing on actually playing rather than posting this time around, and I'm having fun again. I'm back to one of my favourite strategies: Horsebowmen with Omniscient and Heavenly Light. It's still an absolute powerhouse, and it's highly reliable for both short-term and long-term advantages.
Setup:
3x Life (Heavenly Light, Holy Weapon)
2x Chaos (Flame Blade)
1x Nature (hoping for Resist Elements, Web, Water Walking, Nature's Eye - got Resist Elements, Nature's Eye and Call Centaurs)
Omniscient
Cult Leader
Spellweaver
Warlord
It's February 1409 now, and these are my stats:
12 cities
114 population
346 net gold per turn (103 army upkeep)
607 power (3 medium Arcanus nodes)
Casting skill 120 (+8 from the Druid)
Heroes: Chosen, Beastmaster and Druid
Spells
Life: Incarnation, Raise Dead, Heavenly Light, Astral Gate, Just Cause, Divine Order, Endurance, Holy Weapon, Holy Armour, Heroism, Planar Travel, Invulnerability
Chaos: Hell Hounds, Wall of Fire, Warp Wood, Flame Blade, Shatter, Warp Creature, Mystic Surge, Fire Bolt, Raise Volcano
Nature: Resist Elements, Nature's Eye, Earth to Mud, Earth Lore, Call Centaurs, Sprites
Basically Nature gives me Resist Elements and +2 pop for my cities. Resist Elements is huge, though. I'm facing many sprites, and it's a life saver there. My armies get so much stamina from this one spell, and it's cheap with no upkeep.
Chaos was both for extra power and for Flame Blade. I get a lot of added utility, Warp Creature in particular has been used on numerous occasions. I just recently got Mystic Surge and it's extremely potent. Flame Blade has been used a lot, letting me field deadly Horsebowmen very early on.
Life is as awesome as always, giving me a large complement of unit buffs for my units. Picking Holy Weapon as a starting spell may seem questionable, but I feel it was the right choice. Endurance and Heroism are also great, but Holy Weapon does far more for Horsebowmen. Heroism gives me +2 attack, on a unit with 7 attack that's far less than Holy Weapon gives me. I also get armour, health and crosses but those matter a lot less to me. I just want heavy ranged damage early on, giving me critical mass to punch through things and take out enemies at a distance of 3 before they can hit me.
Big Picture
I started next to Horus, and picked a fight with him early on. He took the nearby High Elf and Orc neutrals, leaving me with just 4 cities. That was way too little, and I had the forces to take the fight to him. My cities all had minerals, letting me buff my horsebowmen quickly. I also took 2 Sorcery nodes defended only by Nagas, only needed around 5 horsebowmen to take out 9 nagas in two battles. Horus was fielding mostly War Bears and Sprites against me, neither posed much of a threat. He did, however, use Guardian Wind to great effect against me so I started investing in Priests as complementary units. I was getting ready to take out his capital guarded by 9 Sprites (all with blue buffs, probably Focus Magic and possibly Guardian Wind as well), and that sounded like an expensive proposition even for buffed horsebowmen. I traded for Astral Gate in the meantime and was able to plop next to Sharee. I had just acquired Catwalk the Chosen One, and with him I mowed through her on Myrror. She has 4 visible cities left + various riff raff elsewhere, and I can take it at will. I'm hoping she will respawn so I can take more spells from her.
I've made peace with Horus, but will take him out shortly with a stack of buffed priests. Tlaloc is roaming my lands with a bunch of werewolves, they pose absolutely no threat if he decides to attack. My cities are all reasonably well stacked with horsebowmen and priests, not going lightly on defense this time. It also seems to deter attacks heavily, maybe a bit too heavily.
Prediction
I'm snowballing big time now, and I have the units and spells needed to win. If I don't research anymore spells (which I am, of course) I think I'll be able to cruise to victory. The biggest threat is probably Dispelling Wave, since I rely so heavily on buffs. Guardian Wind won't be a big problem anymore, my armies are starting to be more mixed. And with the Chosen One, I should be able to chop through anything. Crossing fingers that this prediction isn't too confident, I don't really have much late game experience and I do have two powerful enemies left still. I'm going to keep playing aggressively while I have momentum, I don't want to see them tossing rare and very rare spells all over the place.
Setup:
3x Life (Heavenly Light, Holy Weapon)
2x Chaos (Flame Blade)
1x Nature (hoping for Resist Elements, Web, Water Walking, Nature's Eye - got Resist Elements, Nature's Eye and Call Centaurs)
Omniscient
Cult Leader
Spellweaver
Warlord
It's February 1409 now, and these are my stats:
12 cities
114 population
346 net gold per turn (103 army upkeep)
607 power (3 medium Arcanus nodes)
Casting skill 120 (+8 from the Druid)
Heroes: Chosen, Beastmaster and Druid
Spells
Life: Incarnation, Raise Dead, Heavenly Light, Astral Gate, Just Cause, Divine Order, Endurance, Holy Weapon, Holy Armour, Heroism, Planar Travel, Invulnerability
Chaos: Hell Hounds, Wall of Fire, Warp Wood, Flame Blade, Shatter, Warp Creature, Mystic Surge, Fire Bolt, Raise Volcano
Nature: Resist Elements, Nature's Eye, Earth to Mud, Earth Lore, Call Centaurs, Sprites
Basically Nature gives me Resist Elements and +2 pop for my cities. Resist Elements is huge, though. I'm facing many sprites, and it's a life saver there. My armies get so much stamina from this one spell, and it's cheap with no upkeep.
Chaos was both for extra power and for Flame Blade. I get a lot of added utility, Warp Creature in particular has been used on numerous occasions. I just recently got Mystic Surge and it's extremely potent. Flame Blade has been used a lot, letting me field deadly Horsebowmen very early on.
Life is as awesome as always, giving me a large complement of unit buffs for my units. Picking Holy Weapon as a starting spell may seem questionable, but I feel it was the right choice. Endurance and Heroism are also great, but Holy Weapon does far more for Horsebowmen. Heroism gives me +2 attack, on a unit with 7 attack that's far less than Holy Weapon gives me. I also get armour, health and crosses but those matter a lot less to me. I just want heavy ranged damage early on, giving me critical mass to punch through things and take out enemies at a distance of 3 before they can hit me.
Big Picture
I started next to Horus, and picked a fight with him early on. He took the nearby High Elf and Orc neutrals, leaving me with just 4 cities. That was way too little, and I had the forces to take the fight to him. My cities all had minerals, letting me buff my horsebowmen quickly. I also took 2 Sorcery nodes defended only by Nagas, only needed around 5 horsebowmen to take out 9 nagas in two battles. Horus was fielding mostly War Bears and Sprites against me, neither posed much of a threat. He did, however, use Guardian Wind to great effect against me so I started investing in Priests as complementary units. I was getting ready to take out his capital guarded by 9 Sprites (all with blue buffs, probably Focus Magic and possibly Guardian Wind as well), and that sounded like an expensive proposition even for buffed horsebowmen. I traded for Astral Gate in the meantime and was able to plop next to Sharee. I had just acquired Catwalk the Chosen One, and with him I mowed through her on Myrror. She has 4 visible cities left + various riff raff elsewhere, and I can take it at will. I'm hoping she will respawn so I can take more spells from her.
I've made peace with Horus, but will take him out shortly with a stack of buffed priests. Tlaloc is roaming my lands with a bunch of werewolves, they pose absolutely no threat if he decides to attack. My cities are all reasonably well stacked with horsebowmen and priests, not going lightly on defense this time. It also seems to deter attacks heavily, maybe a bit too heavily.
Prediction
I'm snowballing big time now, and I have the units and spells needed to win. If I don't research anymore spells (which I am, of course) I think I'll be able to cruise to victory. The biggest threat is probably Dispelling Wave, since I rely so heavily on buffs. Guardian Wind won't be a big problem anymore, my armies are starting to be more mixed. And with the Chosen One, I should be able to chop through anything. Crossing fingers that this prediction isn't too confident, I don't really have much late game experience and I do have two powerful enemies left still. I'm going to keep playing aggressively while I have momentum, I don't want to see them tossing rare and very rare spells all over the place.