Devil Review

incognito · #1 September 29th, 2004, 01:14 PM

I'm playing Abyssia in a MP game with some friends using a blood pretender and wondering about options for devil summoning. Specifically, I'm curious to the possible uses for different types of devils/demons and what a good mix of devils/demons looks like. For instance, storm demons and the demon knights are both hard to acquire in bulk, and so I have no idea about their relative effectiveness versus standard devils/ice devils/etc. I never read much about anyone summoning these guys, but maybe that's because there are better things to spend on at that level.

For devil/demon mix, this is more a question of how/if you pair the various types of summons together and for what strategic gain.

Finally, thoughts about support mages for devil forces, capable leaders,and countering anti-devil strategies would be appreciated.

Abyssia has such good national troops that I am not sure how heavily I will dive into the summons space (in the short term), but not having familiarity with blood, I still wanted to inquire.

Thanks

YellowCactus · #2 September 29th, 2004, 01:24 PM

Yes!
Give us N00bs some answers!
-Yc

Soapyfrog · #3 September 29th, 2004, 01:25 PM

Have a 5 blood mage use a dwarven hammer to build soul contracts and give them to scouts. Set the scouts to hide and let them pump out and endless supply of devils.

I would not waste blood on anything else except Ice Devils and Arch Devils, and a few select blood items such as blood stones, armour of souls, blood thorn and brazen vessel.

You will not need your national troops at all after turn 50 or so. The devils are better in all respects, can fly, and consume no supply or upkeep. Go devils!

Huzurdaddi · #4 September 29th, 2004, 01:54 PM

As long as you are playing on a somewhat large map ( anything larger than Aran with 8 players or ) then what Soapyfrog said is pretty much the way to go: make soul contracts. And make lots of them. Blood goes into Ice devils, arch devils, equipment for the ice/arch devils, soul contracts. Pretty much in that order.

As for leading all of those devils well you have a lot of options. Those arch/ice devils are decent leaders ( and you are giving those ice devils boots of flying right? right! ). Your demonbred if you are playing base Abysia are fine leaders as well. Banes/Banelords are also fine leaders ( agains with boots of flying ). Vampire lords are superior undead leaders ( 125 if I remember correctly).

As for counters to hoards of devils, you need SC's and tough one. Wimpy SC's need not apply. And wraithful skies helps a lot. One SC who can tank the devils and one caster at the back who casts wrathful skies and retreats works wonders.

But other than that ... there ain't a whole heck of a lot that can be done to devils.

Vynd · #5 September 29th, 2004, 02:45 PM

Storm demons are nice because they can fly through storms. And the Staff of Storms and the Storm spell are a popular way to try and slow Devils down long enough to kill them with magic.

Soapyfrog · #6 September 29th, 2004, 02:50 PM

Storm demons are great, but generally only once you hit blood 9 and can summon them in batches, otherwise you wont have the mass you need and they will die all too often. Other problem is the combination of Air and Blood is rare on a mage, and you will often find you need them to forge air items instead of summoning storm demons.

BTW I would make soul contracts even on fairly small maps. The fact that you are going to be getting free, very strong troops, every turn in increasing numbers generally outweighs any "need it right now" blood summons, although I will, in emergencies, go for the most efficient blood summons like crossbreeding if I need mass. Also horde from hell can be very handy. But for sure, Ice/Arch devils and Soul Contracts get priority by rule of thumb.

deccan · #7 September 29th, 2004, 07:33 PM

Quote:

incognito said:
Abyssia has such good national troops that I am not sure how heavily I will dive into the summons space (in the short term), but not having familiarity with blood, I still wanted to inquire.

Abysian national troops are good but slow (strategic movement 1). At a certain point, you NEED devils if you want to achieve anything.

Huzurdaddi · #8 September 29th, 2004, 07:52 PM

Quote:

BTW I would make soul contracts even on fairly small maps.

Well base abysia is the only nation that has a somewhat cheap caster who can actually summon them: the demonbred. They could potentially need 20 devils right away ( although you would need a buttload of demonbred to cast that many ).

incognito · #9 September 30th, 2004, 08:42 AM

Huzur - you mention Arch & Ice as important summons. What about Helio's? Any good on a relative basis or stick with vamps? Also what about the demon lords? A lot of blood slaves to be sure, but the stats look effectives.

Also, what are good equipment combos for the arch/ice? Do you equip all the same or is there a plan for variety & counters to certain anti-SC strategies?

Thanks for the great tips. Not sure I'll survive long enough to get these guys en masse (Van has launched an attack already), but it's sure nice knowing.

Soapyfrog · #10 September 30th, 2004, 09:57 AM

Out of the heliophagus, I try for Gorilon usually since that will allow easy summoning of Vampire Lords and access to good death magic.

Demon Lords at 150 a pop, I fear you are better off building 2.5 soul contracts with that blood... however I have (just for fun) summoned Belial once and thought his ability to steal commanders was great fun

Not very cost effective since you can get a succubus to do the same thing for less than half the blood.

Other problem with Demon Lords is that they do not have all the item slots so they are tough to equip properly...