MA Argatha - go punch a mountain

[JimMorrison]

EA has better bless prospects due to recruitable anywhere Sacreds. MA wants to tailor the bless for their statues (thought I argue N4 really is a powerful tool for MA Agartha), and there's almost nothing that works well with them.

Fire - Minor is a no brainer, Major won't play well with geared Oracles.
Air - No seriously? Major has niche use, can't imagine worth the points, and Minor is a joke for Agartha.
Water - Minor is nearly useless on such low Def units, Major could be fun, but is a weak path for Agartha to invest so many points into.
Earth - Minor is excellent for mages, Major is no good for statues.
Astral - Minor is good for statues, Major will largely be wasted on Oracles who will want more than 18MR.
Nature - Minor is great for recruitables, and for path access, Major would be silly.... can Mindless Constructs go Berserk...?
Death - Minor could be powerful, but it makes Earthquakes dangerous to you as well, Major is also bad for geared Oracles.
Blood - Minor could be alright, Major, no.

So really taking into account the entire picture, the ONLY Major bless that even makes any sense for MA would be W9, but it's hard to justify the expense for that. That is, unless statues can Berserk, in which case, running an N9 could almost be worth it, as Berserking would turn these critters into juggernauts.

[Trumanator]

The pikeman thrust his weapon at the statue with all his might, carving a flake from its chest. Suddenly, the statue's face somehow contorted, and it began to slash and thrust with abandon, seeking to overwhelm him with sheer ferocity. The hapless pikeman wondered, "how on earth do you make a Statue angry?

[Meglobob]

Good guide Baalz.

However, I would like to point out a fatal flaw with this Ma Agartha guide and that is Ma Caelum. If I was playing Ma Caelum and was next door to a Ma Agartha with cold 3 and lots of statues I would be laughing all the way to Ma Agarthas capital and that very pleasent E income it has.

Lightning will wipe the floor with most of the golem cult and the mechanical men will be defeated easily by Caelums troops in cold 3 dominion.

So if you use the build you after be very friendly with Caelum, hope its not in the game or starting along way from you. Even other nations like Eriu, Vanheim, Man and T'ien Ch'i may well fancy there chances in the early to mid game vs this Ma Agartha build. Also, Jotunheim may do okay with its CR and heavy hitting power.

Ma Agartha has a hard time of it in the Ma, as there are so many nations in the same age as you that can exploit the one dimensional nature of Ma Agartha.

[alhorro]

The main problem I see with this strategy is absolute lack of mobility. All that constructs and mages (except golems, but golems alone can't win the game for you) will be just crawling around, while majority of nations can easily outrun them. Who wants to fight that stone park if one can just avoid it with flighting/teleporting/stealthy/remote stuff until it'd be possible to destroy it with a proper SC? And if you want to push your mobility, you'd have to trade/alchemize/invest most of your E income.

[Nasser]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

The pikeman thrust his weapon at the statue with all his might, carving a flake from its chest. Suddenly, the statue's face somehow contorted, and it began to slash and thrust with abandon, seeking to overwhelm him with sheer ferocity. The hapless pikeman wondered, "how on earth do you make a Statue angry?

Gisuppe surveyed the field, two armies prepared to do battle in the early morning light. Infantry wielding pikes and bows, flails and spears all streamed from the camps into formation facing the Agarthans on the other side of the valley. Gisuppe squinted in the rays, he knew it would partially blind his men for most of the battle, but on the other hand the Agarthan infantry would have to make a fatiguing hike up the hillside in order to reach his own lines. In the distance a monstrous and ancient Pale One waved its oversized hands about the air in blasphemous reverie to its heretical godling. Suddenly, the valley grew twice as bright as the sunlight bounced and shimmered off of the smooth, polished marble bodies of hundreds upon hundreds of colossal statues. They moved ponderously out from amidst the woods in which they must have been waiting. At the bottom of the hill they formed ranks and, with precision Gisuppe knew mortal infantry could never match, began marching lockstep up and toward his own troops. All around him his men fell silent, the only sound audible was the rythmic thumping of tonnes of marble striking the ground in unison. The cold, detached army moved steadily up the hill. Its silence was deafening.

[chrispedersen]

Interesting. Both Brilliance and Darkness can help Agartha. Darkness due to darkvision - and brilliance because Blindness affects agartha less than others, since they hit so badly all ready...

[Tolkien]

How do you blind a statue?

[chrispedersen]

well... first you make him very very angry....

[Trumanator]

Do statues' afflictions get healed when they visit a friendly lab, along with their HPs? Also, you'd think that statues would be blind...

[Dragar]

If a statue with boosted hit points wanders into enemy dominion he keeps his HP because he doesn't heal, as baalz stated. Should you capture an enemy province with a lab, would his hit points then drop back to their base amount?

That would be a cunning trap, seed a lab into a province to be invaded, then attack the weakened army