Troops vs magic, what am I doing wrong?

[Gregstrom]

That's not an exploit, it's a small communion. Against anyone bar Abysia, getting the Master to do PoTS and Phoenix Power followed up by everybody spamming Falling Fires would cost less gems and quite possibly do more damage.

[Rookierookie]

Originally Posted by krpeters

Typically AI troops are poor quality, starving, etc., so if I come at an AI army of 100 troops with my 60 Principes I'll lose about 10. With the Sidhe Lords, I was losing about 1 every 2-3 battles. They're not indestructable until you give them the shield and sword combo, which pumps up their cost a bit.

As long as you attack where the enemy is weak and run away where he is strong, you really don't suffer too many casualties. The trouble is that when you're surrounded by 6 AI opponents all gunning for you there's few places to run and hide from his strength. Maybe I really should take up raiding.

That's why we play on 300 supplies.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Gregstrom

That's not an exploit, it's a small communion. Against anyone bar Abysia, getting the Master to do PoTS and Phoenix Power followed up by everybody spamming Falling Fires would cost less gems and quite possibly do more damage.

I like the extra range on astral fires, it allows me to hit the archers the AI parks in the backfield. The AN damage seems a nice bonus too, along with slightly larger area effect.

You're right, though, that I could get away with one gem instead of three. Am I right in thinking that two gems won't work, because the AI will waste both on the first casting and have none left for the second? I guess I should just give it a try and see what happens

[Rookierookie]

Try these thugging options with E9N6 Sidhe Lords:

Option 1: Vine shield + Rainbow Armor. That's 20 gems.
Script Blessing, Air Shield, Mistform, Resist Lightning, Soothing Song, Cast spells

With Con-4, Alt-3 and Evo-2, your Sidhe Lords will cast Shock Wave which will wipe out AI chaff. You should have enough reinvig and regen from the bless to survive a long time, but you can also slap on the Ring of Regen and the Amulet of Resilience to help, or put on a Ring of Tamed Lightning and skip the Resist Lightning part, which brings the gem cost up a little. But the above setup can be mass produced and is quite survivable.

Options 2: Snake Bladder Stick + Vine Shield + Rainbow Armor. 25 gems.
Script Blessing, Resist Poison, Air Shield, Mistform, Soothing Song, Attack Closest.

Needs Con-4 and Alt-3, is a little easier on the fatigue, and will do bad things to non-poison immune troops. You can slap on a snake ring and spare yourself Resist Poison for another 5 gems, or additional reinvig/regen in a misc slot.

All these are achievable with relatively little research, can be mass produced, and the vine shield is the only thing that cannot be forged by the Sidhe Lords themselves (and you always have mages who can forge them).

[Gregstrom]

Originally Posted by krpeters

I like the extra range on astral fires, it allows me to hit the archers the AI parks in the backfield. The AN damage seems a nice bonus too, along with slightly larger area effect.

Don't forget that Astral Fires is MR-negates, which can really cut down its effectiveness. But yeah, the range is great.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Gregstrom

Don't forget that Astral Fires is MR-negates, which can really cut down its effectiveness. But yeah, the range is great.

I also just discovered that it's precision 100. SWEET!!! I think I'm sold.

Oh, BTW, it's official, the AI is an idiot. I decided to try and see what would happen if I gave my communion master only two pearls. Yup, he blows both pearls on casting PotS, and doesn't have a pearl left to cast LotNS. So three pearls is the only way to go with this strategy.

Nice thing about pearls is that they're plentiful -- it's cheap to turn any other gem into them!