RoRlum (Late Caelum)

[Nerfix]

Anyone tried them out yet?

I've been tinkering with them today, and while I see their advantages but, ah, how to say it, somehow I can't make it work.

I've been trying out stuff like a E4 A4 Titan, Blue Dragon, Imprisoned PoD with D9 E4.

Early expansion has seemed to tick along as well as it can as Caelum without Wingless/Mammoth combo, but usualy when I have gotten enough resources to mass those sacred tincans I've started to really tick with them, especially with that PoD.

But then I hit a point where I must invade my closest neighbour or then I get invaded and suddenly my plans don't seem to quite work out.

I've tried meeting enemies on the field with a mix of archers, tincans & mammoths and Iron Crows with hold & attack rear, I've tried sending skelespamming squads protected by IC's to enemy rear but...it doesn't quite work. Usualy it ends with IC's getting slayed in massive numbers, but I'm quite sure it would happen with every Caelian unit, the winglesscans excluded.

Perhaps it has been just bad luck, or then I am a bad player.

How would you play RoR Caelum? What would you aim for in research? I've been doing Evoc 2 - Ench 3 - Conj 2 routine for start but I feel rather underpowered with it for some reason. How many D2 Harabs you'd send against an enemy province to skelespam, or would you send any at all?

Help plz.

[Belcarl]

I don't usually play Caelum.

But usually, sending in anything but Mamoths of their standard troops in melee is trouble. Since their infantry is quite fragile compared to their cost.

So use archers, and a _lot_ of Caelian seraphs. With evocation level 2 you should be able to spamm lightning all over the enemy turf.

Later on, add one or two Harab elders with Thunderstrike (lvl 4 evo) to this.

I haven't tried this yet, but placing a storm general a bit ahead of your serapths with a couple of earthbounds set on guard commander should give you 2-3 more combat turns for your archers and mages to take down any even sized enemy. Their protection is high enough, 19, that they should be able to withstand enemy archer fire.

[Archonsod]

Haven't tried LA yet, but with any era Caelum the best strategy is usually to use the troops as a speed bump and add plenty of wizards scripted to bring the sky down on the enemy (quite literally in some cases).
Of course, the fact that your own troops are usually immune or resistant to the more indiscriminate spells (lightning or cold) helps, though I'm not sure if they still get this in LA.

[Quietly]

an idea I had with ranged heavy armies ... you can make them hold/attack for up to 5 turns instead of 2, if you assign the army to guard a commander and have the commander attack after 5 turns... this lets you fight the battle much closer to your archers. anyway this is also complimentary with just loosing up to 5 rounds of arrows and retreating. I cant say it would solve all your problems, but it does give you a much finer control over the units.

[Nerfix]

Belcarl said:
I don't usually play Caelum.

But usually, sending in anything but Mamoths of their standard troops in melee is trouble. Since their infantry is quite fragile compared to their cost.

So use archers, and a _lot_ of Caelian seraphs. With evocation level 2 you should be able to spamm lightning all over the enemy turf.

Later on, add one or two Harab elders with Thunderstrike (lvl 4 evo) to this.

I haven't tried this yet, but placing a storm general a bit ahead of your serapths with a couple of earthbounds set on guard commander should give you 2-3 more combat turns for your archers and mages to take down any even sized enemy. Their protection is high enough, 19, that they should be able to withstand enemy archer fire.

I'll try that, the Groundbounds are excelent units.

Feels a bit of a downer that as RoR I must use Caelian Seraphs to succeed. Ah well.

[Humer]

Anyone tried Corpse Man Construction (AD, 1 gem)? RoR has mages (Harab Sepaphs w/ AD) and gem income to produce them using the Lightning Rod (E, 5 gems). Can't remember what it was in dom2 (never used!) but now 1 air gem nets you 4 of them buggers.

[mathusalem]

you have also a bonus with Corpse Man Construction with a staff of storm, and another with an unique book (5A 5D I think)

Corpse Man are a good cannon fodder, immune to poison lightning and good morale : they are pretty useful mixed with mammouths

[Morkilus]

Holy crap, a 13-month-old thread. I thought Nerfix was back