MA Man Advice Needed: Proper Use of Units

[jscott]

I am playing as MA Man on a large map against 10 AI players and I am having a bit of trouble countering Arcoscephale hordes in the later portions of the game. I managed to destroy C'Tis and Caelum without much difficulty and am beating Jotunheim very slowly (sieges against their fortresses take forever).

However, I can't seem to counter armies of 200+ Arcoscephale units that are made up mostly of light infantry or worse.

My armies consist mostly of knights, tower guards, and longbowmen led by daughters of Avalon and supported by more daughters of Avalon, plus the occasional Crone. The spells I'm primarily using are aim and air shield (or other protection spells after I learned that daughters will die very easily when hit with enemy missile weapons). I haven't used many summonings, save for the occasional sleeper hero or wyvern.

I get the feeling I will beat Arcoscephale eventually since he is wasting so many units crashing against my PD 25+ provinces, but I'm not sure that will really teach me much about playing the game effectively. I feel like there must be a way to use magic and a good unit mix to really destroy these huge Arcoscephale armies of attrition units.

Does anyone have any tips?

PS. My pretender is a rather worthless enchantress with Earth 4 and Astral 4, Dominion 8, and strong scales.

[Endoperez]

More longbowmen. Try armies that consist mostly of Longbowmen, with just enough infantry/cavalry to keep the archers safe and to counter your enemy's archers. To help your archers, cast Arrow Fend and Wind Guide. Nature has little in the way of battlefield spells, but Panic, Vine Arrow or later Storm of Thorns, and if you're short on units Swarm. Swarm is also good to tie up enemy forces while you warm up, because those insect fly straight up to the enemy.

As for your Enchantress: do you have Astral/Earth income? You should, if you haven't known what to do with her, because searching for sites (manually or via spells) is always worth it.
If you've researched Construction, Forge Dwarven Hammer (E3, constr 4), and with it Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Earth Boots (for total +2 Astral, +1 Earth), then Rings of Wizardry and/or Sorcery for your mages. The latter two are quite expensive, being Astral 5 and 6 items IIRC, so if you can cast Forge of the Ancients. It might let your other mages to forge new stuff as well, so check them out as well.
EDIT: Oh, and she must be the Great Enchantress, who also GENERATES gems. One of the best rainbow mages there. Now, if you had used a bit more points into getting her, say, F1D2 you could make Flaming Skull and Skull Staff for +1F+1D, add in Ring of Wizardry for total of F3D4, which allows for Skullface, for further +1 to either... And there's Flame Helmet waiting you at Fire 4, if you get Forge of the Ancients up... /EDIT

If you've research Conjuration but not Construction, summon Troll King's Court. You get regenerating infantry, few Moose Knights and other nice specialty units, and an E3 mage. He can cast Blade Wind, which devastates light infantry. Blade Wind scales with level and the fatigue drop also helps a lot, so cast Summon Earth Power and/or equip the Troll King with Earth boosters, such as Earth Boots or Ring of Wizardry. Your pretender can do the same things in battle, but she shouldn't have to, and she's much too valuable. Even one death-and-recall will mean she needs both Astral boosters to forge Ring of Sorcery, and that to forge Ring of Wizardry, instead of just forging RoW.

[Zeldor]

You can use practically longbowmen only. But they are LONGbowmen, so you should manually place them at the end of battlefield, they will be in range and enemy archers won't [do not forget to move commanders back too]. Add some pikeneers against cavalry and you should beat everything AI can offer.

[jscott]

My pretender and several empowered Crones have been doing nothing but searching for sites and my gem income is enormous (I have hundreds of pretty much every gem except death stored, showing I'm playing the game by relying too much on my armies). /edit

[Endoperez]

There's no need to put your archers farther from the enemy if you use infantry screens, as you can do because you have already recruited lots of infantry and knights.

Nature gems could be used on some expensive spells, like Gift of Health and such, but in this case I suggest summoning. Summon several Ivy Kings and make them monthly cast Awaken Vine Ogre or Vine Men. Earth can be used up for Trolls and items; multiple Dwarven Hammers are very nice. Your Astral storage will probably dry up just from the forging lots of Rings for your other mages. If you don't have any Air 4 Crones yet, empower one comparatively youthful A3 Crone to A4, give her Dwarven Hammer and start churning out Air boosters. Winged Helmets and Bags of Wind stack, so you can get +2 Air on any of your military mages.
Water is a bit hard to use. I guess you could summon Sea Kings, conquer the seas and start spamming Falling Frost. It scales very nicely with levels in Water, so forge them both Water boosters if you can afford it (Water Bracelet, W1, Constr 6; Robe of Sea, Constr 2, W3). As for fire... perhaps just Elixirs of Life? That'd let you try all kinds of crazy stuff with your pretender without losing magic on her, and as it stops aging it can also help your Nornas.

You're in a powerful position now, so start experimenting. You could try equipping some Ivy Kings or Sleepers as thugs if you want to, to try that facet of the game as well.

[thejeff]

No need to empower. Just throw a ring of Wizardry on the A3 crone and make an Air booster from that.

[K]

The easiest AND most powerful tactic is to get a Fire mage and cast Flaming Arrows. Combined with your Longbowman, this is a devastating combo.

Make Fever Fetishes and pass them around scouts so that your forward armies always have fire gems to cast the spell.

If you haven't gotten Fire mages, you'll need to make one. Empower a young guy(since Fire magic ages casters) and make items like Flaming Skulls. Make sure to script Phoenix Power, and don't forget that with an extra gem you can cast a spell one level higher.

[jscott]

Great tips here, thanks.

Some of it is over my head at the moment, but I'm sure it will make more sense as I play.