How do I fight ermor?

[Taqwus]

Growth is, what, 0.3% per turn per point of Growth? Even if there's a 1000 people left rather than 0, well, that's not much compared to an Ashen Empire dominion that kills up to 50% population per turn depending on strength. It's wrecked.

You'd be better off with Luck +3 and praying that the random number generator blesses you with an immigration event, then waiting the eternity it'd take to get something back up. Basically the pop drop is a one-way trip unless that happens, or you're using a mod to dramatically boost Growth scale power.

Ravens might have helped; they eat corpses, which might be helpful if he used Carrion Reanimation (reanimates up to 100 corpses per cast) or stops to reanimate, or used his own Raven Feast to eke out a few more death gems (not that this normally yields much IIRC).

[Alexander Seil]

An Arcocephalian Priestess and a medium-sized phalanx with adequate flank support will butcher an Ermorian skeletal legion three times its size...

[PvK]

So can just about any heavy infantry group with an independent priest or two attached.

PvK

[Kelan]

To clear up a few things below:

The Enormous Cauldron of Broth is actually construction 2, not 6 (based on the Magic Item Quick Reference). The Endless Bag of Wine is construction 4.

Some advantages of the Cauldron of Broth is you can get it quicker research-wise, and in some cases you need to use them. If you put 2 Endless Bags of Wine on one commander, the effect is not cumulative. In cases where your commanders are leading large armies, the Cauldron of Broth can become crucial to prevent starvation.

Another thing that helps supplies a little is any mage with some nature magic. Each point adds some to supply (+5 I think).

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Kelan:
Some advantages of the Cauldron of Broth is you can get it quicker research-wise, and in some cases you need to use them. If you put 2 Endless Bags of Wine on one commander, the effect is not cumulative. In cases where your commanders are leading large armies, the Cauldron of Broth can become crucial to prevent starvation.

Which is why you use scouts with your winebags, as you are wasting a large number of nature gems if you use cauldrons.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Kelan:

Some advantages of the Cauldron of Broth is you can get it quicker research-wise, and in some cases you need to use them. If you put 2 Endless Bags of Wine on one commander, the effect is not cumulative. In cases where your commanders are leading large armies, the Cauldron of Broth can become crucial to prevent starvation.

Which is why you give Endless Bags of Wine to scouts (1 per scout) rather than your battle commanders. This has the benefit that your battle commanders do not have a miscellaneous slot used up for food and the added benefit that the supply-generating items are never lost in battle as your scouts are stealthy troops that you can keep away from the fighting while still marching with the armies.

There are many good reasons for not having your commanders lug Cauldrons around when you can have scouts carrying bags of wine.

[jaif]

Hey all, thanks for the tips, especially about the scouts & winebags.

FWIW, I think it's obvious how to beat the undead in any given battle: pikes (eg solid inf) & priests, season to taste. The problem is that the undead can win wars simply by taking empty provinces and depopulating them, and at the same time there's little you can do to hurt them back.

It's a fun problem. In the meantime, I think I'll just keep them out of my single-player games. The solution in multiplayer is simple: always kill them first.

-Jeff

[Taqwus]

Pikes may do for a while. You can't repel a Wailing Lady's wail (length 6, area 1, save or die!), however, and undead archers may attrit you via the decay effect, and IIRC Behemoths will ignore the repel as well due to having incredible morale. A set of Behemoths can breach a line fairly quickly.
You'd also want to patrol sufficiently to keep out the Harvesters and, say, Black Servants with Bane Venom Charms.

[Teraswaerto]

Repel works only if the unit being repelled has low morale, otherwise they just take the 1 damage and attack anyway. Repel is of little use against the undead.

[ March 22, 2004, 16:01: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[jaif]

Fine, not pikes, but I stand on the fact that once you have the hammer (priests) and an anvil (solid infantry), killing undead isn't too hard. The trick is dealing with many, many armies marching through your provinces depopulating as they go.

-Jeff