E9 Bless & protection + 4 on Sacred Serpents

[Herode]

Hi gentlemen,

I'm trying some pretenders for C'tis MA. Never played C'tis, never played MA, it's hard to find a good combo

I am presently testing a pretender giving the E9 bless : reinvigoration +4, protection +4. During the battle, the units screen for the Sacred Serpents (blessed) displays the +4 bonus for reinvigoration, but the +4 protection bonus is not mentionned anywhere (excepted in the blessing details screen of course)... Did I miss something, or is it just a display bug ??????

[llamabeast]

The protection bonus only works for units with armour.

I believe the consensus is that the sacred serpents aren't worth a strong bless - they're not very good even with one.

[Folket]

I would say that sacred serpents are good but not for fighting.

[Herode]

For what are they worth the investment, then ?
Their initial attack skill is correct. OK, I forget the earth bless since protection is no use in this case. But what about WF blesses ?

[Twan]

For Ct'is ME I recommand very good income scales + high domininion more than a strong bless (the miasma bonus being in %, combined with order 3 it usually make ct'is the richest nation) and positive magic (so shamans become very cost effective researchers). Then the pretender may be prismatic to diversify the nation or a combat one, eventually with a little nature or water bless to give the snakes some chances to survive longer (they are really vulnerable units).

No need of an awake god, for initial expansion massed light infantry/city guards with snakes for morale do the job very well, then skeleton spaming marshmasters, assassins with skull talisman or heavy lizards can take most strong indie provinces.

Be careful with the pretender choice : you need a cold blooded or poison resistant pretender to avoid to see him affected by the miasma effect.

ps : snakes worth the investment for their standard ability only, several in all squads + fanaticism/sermon make C'tis armies very hard to rout.

[Cor2]

My thought on Ctis is forget about keeping your sacreds alive, it can't be done. Go for a strong offense. I had some luck vs AI with a death9 water9 bless and a high dominion. I still suffered medium casualties but the sacreds have low resource and gold costs and the dancers are non-capitol so you can afford to take losses.

A side bonus is that death and water combo works well later in the game for Ctis. You could sub fire for death and get a similar or better results, but youll have to pay more points and get less synergy mid to late game.

[HJFudge]

The Sacred Serpents should not be fighting...they should be behind the line or mixed in and simply empowering the morale of nearby lizards. You wouldnt try to use an archer to fight a melee...dont try and use the Sacred Serpents for a role they arent meant for.

[Folket]

Place the serpents in their own group behind your battle group so that do not run in front of your lizards.

[Herode]

OK, i tried them as standard/support for front units, without any bless. Works fine : combining them with a Fanaticism spell as Twan suggested results in the C'tis armies routing only when they are 90% destroyed

I noticed regular losses amongst the Sacred Serpents when mixed with other units, mainly due to ennemy archery. But as they're pretty cheap, that's not a great deal. Nevertheless, putting them in rear area units is an option I might consider.

So : no bless strategy for C'tis... Well, that will be my first "no-bless" game also