EA Arco - uncle moneybags

[rdonj]

[quote=Baalz;750648]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Nah, you can eat them up just fine if you're prepared for it.

Option 1: vine shield + fire brand + thug gear/script and you can chew through skellies all day long until the enemy mage passes out. You just can't count on your awe obviously.

Option 2: Earth boots/random. Summon earth elemental. That's a 1 gem (2 gems if your mage is level 2E) earth attack that'll squishify a fairly arbitrary amount of skellies.

Option 3: No equipment summon air elemental. This one is a bit riskier but can certainly be plenty effective depending on who you're attacking.

Option 4: (depending on your opponent) use some blockers then spells that don't effect undead. Swarm, poison cloud, poison cloud. By the time the undead

Oops. I should have said: "Skelly spam *will* eat oreiads set to cast spells alive...". The elaboration doesn't hurt though.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Option 4: (depending on your opponent) use some blockers then spells that don't effect undead. Swarm, poison cloud, poison cloud. By the time the undead

... by the time the undead what?!?

Oh no! It seems Baalz got eaten by a horde of zombies!

[Verjigorm]

I think they can take a rush provided you don't take the standard, Sloth-3 and can actually build a good group of troops. The Sphinx I suggested above still has Sloth, but that could be exchanged out especially since I took that extra gravy point of Astral magic and I didn't touch Misfortune. Mis-2 could be exchanged for the Sloth-2 for respectable troop production.

EA Arco has some very nice units. The only reason they are ever subpar in early game is because of the Sloth scale. 17-prot Myrmidons, Flying Cavalry, Trampling Chariots? Come on... They can defend themselves.

[rdonj]

Mm... myrmidons are a bit iffy. Their insane encumbrance value makes them tricky to use effectively other than as pure arrow catchers. The flying cavalry looks awesome on paper, but it is also tricky to use effectively, because of the way flyers seperate from each other and build up fatigue super fast. But I have only ever used them against the AI. Against a human, definitely they would be much better.

The archer chariots are pretty good though. And peltasts can be surprisingly effective.

[chrispedersen]

slingers for glamour
chariot archers for (almost)everything else.

You know, it seems to me, if you're flying you shouldn't' be trampled.

[Verjigorm]

Well, I tend to use a diversified army...

Icarids are excellent anti-archer and can be quite effective against infantry as well provided you outnumber them because in large numbers, they tend to flank opponents which, for a group of archers, results in a very, very quick death.

As for the flying cavalry, if you don't have a large number of them, for some odd reason the AI tends to spread them out and you get 1 vs. 27....

[Mightypeon]

Some points I would like to review:

Under current CBM, a number of pretenders work differently, are costed differently and have slightly different synergies, even though the rough approach is still the same.

Imho, Awake Pseudo SC to kickstart expansion with a minor bless, sloth 3 and ok scales still works nice, but I would like to offer the following thoughts:
Acrosephale has access to Heretics, and, with Sloth 3, still good early research under a moderate drain scale.
Given that Drain 2 instead of Magic 1 saves a lot of points, and can be partly mitigated. Basically, one is getting 120 design points but pays significantly less in opportunity (compared to nations without heretics) for it. It can be very worthwhile to invest those in either even better scales or in an improved Pretender chassis.
Likewise, Acrosephale is quite good at mitigating Death (Healers) or Misfortune (Barbs) too, although it is not neccesarly wise to take both of them together.
In my opinion, the Forge Lord is a quite good choice for this.
In CBM, Forge Lords and White Bulls have the same base cost, but a Forge Lord needs Awe for early expanion. With the Forge Lord itself, there are a number of choices apart from E4 for the obvious bless.
Fire 4 would open Fire quite nicely, and gives a "usefull" bless to your both Oreiads and the Sacred Cavalry, although imho an N bless is neccesary for Oreiad thugging.
Some points in Astral can get very cheap access to Rings of Sorcery/Wizardy /Scullcaps etc. One could also go for 4 points of nature, even though that can get expensive.
I think that either Astral or Air are needed, since Air allows a First turn Midget Masher and Astral allows a First turn enchanted pike. The Repel from the Pike backed by Awe allows the Forge Lord to deal with non scary indies. Although the Midget Masher (+ Air Shield from the Air pick) is better in the short term. Choosing this kind of Forge Lord is not advisable under more than 5 independent Strength, as what he can solo (be aware of Wolf Tribe Warriors in addition to other early game nasty indeps) drastically depends on the indep power. However, one should not hesitate to simply back him up with some Mercs (EA Acro should have a crapton of money, we are still only recruiting Philospohers for most of year 1) or some supporting troops.

[PriestyMan]

Likewise, Acrosephale is quite good at mitigating Death (Healers)

healers dont heal old age afflictions btw

[Mightypeon]

Source?

[Anaconda]

....and, when they dont, if you manage to lower your hero's age, will them healers be able to get rid of the old age afflictions if hero's current age is under the treshold of beginning of old age?