Low Cost Tactics

[Makinus]

I was reading the thread about unlikely and niche tactics and had an idead: what about cheap tactics? cheap meaning low gold/resource/gem/research costs that are efective...

I´ll start with a very commom one:

- build the cheap independent scout and equip it with a skull talisman for skel spamming, it´s a good acessory in battle and can be used as a patroller in border provinces... i stack of 5 of these can defeat the majority of early AI attacks and is more effective than the PD equivalent...

So, anyone have a cheap tactic to contribute?

[Edratman]

Quick suggestion. Can you rename thread to Low Cost tactics? This is a great topic but I thought it would be another MP rant because of the "Cheap Tactics" title.

[fungalreason]

Faced with an incredibly strong independent province that would take a large army to defeat?

Send in a scout set to retreat to see how many commanders & what type there are. Then equip a few assassins capable of taking them out (Indy commanders won't have guards). After you've killed all the leaders, the scout can take the province alone since the remaining army will rout when the battle begins.

[llamabeast]

Title changed to reduce confusion (confused me too). To those who haven't come across the term before, "Cheap tactics" would generally mean underhand or cheesy ones rather than low cost ones.

[thejeff]

Indy commanders won't have guards

They might. Priests often do.

It's a good tactic, but not foolproof.
Skeleton earrings are good for that type of assassin.

[Edratman]

Originally Posted by fungalreason

Faced with an incredibly strong independent province that would take a large army to defeat?

Send in a scout set to retreat to see how many commanders & what type there are. Then equip a few assassins capable of taking them out (Indy commanders won't have guards). After you've killed all the leaders, the scout can take the province alone since the remaining army will rout when the battle begins.

Personally I hate to waste castle turns making scouts or assassins. I try to use each castle turn to make the best commander unit I can, or need. Indy assasins would do, but they are quite rare. By the time I am at the point where I can think about building assassins, indies do not pose much opposition.

Then I'll try to get mages or maybe even a weak pretender chassis with the assassins. Assassins die a little too easily to waste on idies. Also strong indies also have strong leaders making assassinations at best a 50% proposition.

Now units with seduce are a whole other issue.

[SlipperyJim]

Originally Posted by Edratman

Then I'll try to get mages or maybe even a weak pretender chassis with the assassins. Assassins die a little too easily to waste on idies. Also strong indies also have strong leaders making assassinations at best a 50% proposition.

That depends on the assassin. Abysia has some mighty-fine assassins....

[Baalz]

Ethereal + lucky tramplers. I once took an awake rainbow pretender with LA Arco in order to research up to alt-3 very quickly, at which point 1 mage + 1 elephant was an effective expansion party vs most indies. You could do similar things with other nations.

Speaking of buffing others, don't forget the other small AOE buffs which can be very effective on national recruits or low level summons. A Kraken is ok, but a Kraken buffed with iron warriors & quickness is suddenly a 3 gem thug who can take out light PD by himself (well, with his buffing mage), and is even pretty good at squishing other early thugs.

Speaking of singlehandedly taking out light PD, earth and air elementals are great ways for modestly powered mages to turn raider. Air elementals will take out light PD from unprepared neighbors when you cloud trapeze in to unexpected locations, while a pair of earth elementals (any E2 mage can get two after summoning earth power) will take out fairly heavy PD from many nations.

Speaking of elementals, fire elementals are a great way to take out SCs when you're on a budget. So long as the SC doesn't have 100% fire immunity, the heat aura will quickly pass him out once he's surrounded by a few fire elementals - their multiple forms will give them the time they need to live long enough. In a cold climate you can do the same thing with ice (water) elemetnals. Living fire/water is nice, but in a pinch just use several low level mages to summon a bunch of small ones.

Speaking of cheaply killing SCs, sprites are a great budget way to deal fatigue damage. Most people know that spamming enough MR check spells will overcome almost any MR, and few SCs would be willing to drop in alone against 20 concentrated astral mages....yet that's effectively what they're doing when 20 sprites are firing at them. Just one failed MR roll and they're even better than paralyzed - they're passed out. 0 defense, and a huge chance of critical hits means even the toughest SCs will get hacked up any reasonable troops. This is great not just against SCs, but against any super tough concentrated group (super blessed sacreds, etc.)

[Executor]

So far I have absolutely never successfully used seduction with national units, or in game at all on that matter. I don't know weather it's just my bad luck but about 9/10 times I failed even with indie commanders.( Usually try it with Arco)
Succubus is supposed to have a bigger chance to do it, but I think it's a waste of blood slaves, she's very bad 1 on 1, there are cheaper ways to get commanders, charm, hellbind hearth, enslave mind.

[SlipperyJim]

I like Hoburg Crossbows. They're cheap and low-resource, so you can pack an enormous number of the little guys into your army. They're small, so you can fit 50% more Hoburgs into the same space on the tactical map when compared to human crossbowmen, and that seems to translate into greater missile density.

The only downside is the map move of 1. If you have a way to overcome that issue -- or if you just don't care -- then Hoburg Crossbows can be a cheap way to add a lot of firepower to your army.