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Dedas said:
Yes, but they are a quite easy prey for massed archers with the "fire at large creature" command. Combine them with javelin equipped skirmishers with shields to damage and fatigue them some and you will see the critical hits rack up. Also, as they cost 40-50gp a piece you can't afford that many and still have a chance at building fortresses to expand your research and economy. Practically you only got one shot, if you fail that you will be far behind the competition and also wide open for an attack. Another thing, if you rush, go all way, you don't want to sit with a plentorae of high upkeep units that you can't effectively attack with.
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Well, I wouldn't be that sure about that. I'm herding those minotaurs that are giving DryaUnda so much trouble and he's done pretty close to what you suggest as it turns out. He's playing EA Ermor and his very capable infantry armed with tower shields, javelins and good defense just destroyed my initial reveler forces I was using for indie expansion (to save gold for fortresses). Seeing where that was going I switch to minotaur power and B-lined to enchant-4 massing up my minotaurs out of my two castles over a couple turns while my stealthy revelers raided and stalled him. It's sick how effective it's been. The really decisive battle we had was something close to 200 javelin equipped Ermorian infantry (counting PD) plus 10 or so Aurgur elders vs around 50 minotaurs backed by a few pans casting haste and then panic. (going from memory here so the numbers may be a bit off but that's about the right scale)
Round 1 - Ermor's mages cast phoenix power and the infantry advances (out of range of javelins yet)
Round 1 - Pans cast haste and minotaurs charge all the way across and into the front ranks of Ermor's infantry, causing minor casualties as they used most of their movement to close rather than trample.
Round 2 - Ermor rains down fireballs and whatnot, doing almost as much damage to his own troops as the minotaurs are now mixed into them. A seriously large javelin volly causes moderate damage, but because of the minotaur's hp few of them go down and friendly fire is significant.
Round 2 - Minotaurs trample straight through all the way to the Ermorian mages destroying close to 1/3 of the Ermorian army. Just devastating damage to deal to fairly elite infantry.
Round 3 - another volley of javelins and evocations causing most of my casualties of the fight, though again friendly fire is high as the minotaurs are now deep inside the Ermorian forces.
Round 3 - Another massive trample and cumulatively about 50% of the Ermorian army is now destroyed including several of their mages. They break and I take a few more casualties as the routing forces are trampled for a total casualty rate around 75%.
I don't really think that would have played out any differently if he'd had a large mix of archers - other than the first round pretty much every one of the javelins was launched at my minotaurs every turn, the battle was just over too fast to overcome their hitpoints. He probably could have fared a bit better if he anticipated me charging straight across and gotten another turn to rain fireballs down but those hasted minotaurs are faaaast!
I guess we'll find out though as his capital is now seiged and he massed some archers inside in anticipation.
