MA T'ien Ch'i - a little of this, a little of that and BAM!

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Sombre

8 gold and 9 resources for pikes? In CBM? I can't check right now but that doesn't sound right at all. I was playing MA TC the other day and I don't remember them being that cheap.

And do the light horsemen have lances or light lances. There's a pretty big damage difference.

The pikes are the leather armor guys, your second cheapest unit. I'm at work right now, but had the game up when I typed my original response, and it was with CBM 1.5.

They have light lances which according to Cleveland in the "Did you know" thread do more damage than heavy lances under strength of giants:

Originally Posted by cleveland

1) Did you know that the "Charge Bonus for First Strike" that Lances receive is a damage bonus equivalent to 30% of the unit's action points?

So for example, a Lance-wielding indy Heavy Cavalry (20 action points, 16 damage, strength not added) will deal 16 + 20*0.3 = 22 damage. If he is Quickened, his action points will double to 40, so he'll deal 16 + 40*0.3 = 28 damage.

2) Did you know that with Strength of Giants, a Light Lance 1st strike becomes at least as deadly as a Lance?

Light Lances are 3damage plus strength of the wielder, while Lances are 16damage, but strength isn't added. The weakest Light Lance wielders are 9str (Jade Maiden, Nightmare, and Pegasus Rider), so after SoG they deal 9+3+4 = 16 damage before the 1st strike bonus, same as a Lance. Actually, most Light Lance wielders are stronger than 9, so Strength of Giants generally makes the Light Lance 1st strike more deadly than a Lance.

At any rate, number crunching aside they do plenty of damage from actual testing with no buffs at all with the numbers you're fielding. As I mention though, they don't hold up too well in toe to toe fighting.