Any good strategies for C'tis Poison Slingers

[Thilock_Dominus]

At the moment I'm playing the C'tis race, and to be honest I can't figure out how to use the Poison Slingers 'correctly'. I can't seem to make them work as I wish. It ends up with I'm poison my own army though most of them have a res 50 or they get slaughtered because of their laughable fire range. It could be cool if anyone could give me a hint how to play them right. At the moment they are useless for me, and why sacrifice bows and cavelry for something useless.

Thanks

with best regards
Thilock_Dominus

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Thilock_Dominus:
At the moment I'm playing the C'tis race, and to be honest I can't figure out how to use the Poison Slingers 'correctly'.

Poison slingers + undead, nothing else.

[licker]

Yes slingers are a bit difficult to use, and some would say not worth their cost in the first place.

However...

If you play the standard theme (not Miasma, DT doesn't get slingers does it?) then realize that your sacred water dancers are 100% immune, and if you go for the right blessings (9water is my fav along with some fire) you can have a decent army of slingers and dancers. Try to add in some undead for fodder or for other purposes or use the drakes bog beasts and other 100% immune summons to add bulk or power or whatever you miss.

Though I usually find myself only using slingers in smaller armies or raiding Groups with small amounts of undead or constructs, I don't think they are particularly viable (on a cost basis) for your main army, though a small group of them placed properly could help, but as things degrade in the heat of battle you will wind up with your 50% troops getting poisoned.

[Gandalf Parker]

As with most shooters (archers, longbow, crossbow) you can lessen friendly fire by putting the slingers to the flanks of your army.

Also they work well in the bait-and-gauntlet tactic. Having hvy units do hold-and-attack closest, then have the slingers do a fire-and-flee. They will run forward, hit units with poison, then run back thru your holding line.

[Thilock_Dominus]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
As with most shooters (archers, longbow, crossbow) you can lessen friendly fire by putting the slingers to the flanks of your army.

Also they work well in the bait-and-gauntlet tactic. Having hvy units do hold-and-attack closest, then have the slingers do a fire-and-flee. They will run forward, hit units with poison, then run back thru your holding line.

ummm...I will try that and see how it works out.

[stiger]

The problem with fire-and-flee for archers (or slingers in that case) is that they do actually... well... flee after it. So after each battle they end up in another province (or even scattered in three different provinces) and you have to spend turns geting them into your army again. Hope it will be fixed.

As for poison slingers, I've had hard time using them even with 100% poison immune army. Their range of fire is just too small... A sauromancer using breath of dragon or, with some beefing up, poison cloud/foul vapors will have much more impact on any battle (provided the army is resistant of course) then a couple of slingers for the same price.

[Thilock_Dominus]

I tried the strategy Gandalf Parker suggested. It works okay. But somehow a big investment for an units to fire & Flee.

Here is how I played them in one of my main forces(new game, turn 15):

- My Pretender god a green dragon, placed in front, first two turns casting luck and twisted faith. Set to attack rearest enemy.
- Poison Slingers unit, placed left flank front, set to fire and flee on closest enemy.
- Heavy Infantry, placed in center, hold for 2 turns before attacking nearest enemy.
- Light Infantry, placed on the right flank between center and front, holding 2 turns and attacking nearest enemy.
- Small armies of Swamp Guards are protecting the pretender guard, leaders, priests etc.
- Leader: Lizard King, placed rear, casting fanatism etc.
- Leader: Marsh Master, placed right flank rear, casting offensive spells and raising dead.
- Leader: A commander wich name I can't remember(the one with rainbow armor), placed with the light infantry.
- A unit of snakes, placed behind the heavy infantry, hold 2 turns and attacking the nearest enemy.

The Pretender is decoying all enemy arrows, big deal the dragon have nice protection, so no harm is done. I have manage to scare the enemy units after 6 or 7 turn with the poison slingers and the dragon so it seems to work quiet nice.
As 'Stiger' says about the fire & flee I agree 100%, but I would also hope they do something about the poison slingers range. Not am I saying they should have range like the archers, but a little more would make them ideal.
Another thing is the fire & flee command, why don't make it optionable to set how many times they will fire before flee.

[ January 10, 2004, 11:04: Message edited by: Thilock_Dominus ]

[Wauthan]

I'm not a big fan of C'Tis but I've ran a "Toxic Avenger" campaign were poison was the whole point of the army. Undead and Vinemen to attract arrows and tie up the infantery. Bogbeasts on hold and attack closest behind them. Poison Slingers with fire archers on the flank. Serpent Dancers on hold and attack next to them. Three nature casters (druids I think) on 2*attack 3*breath of the dragon on the other flank. Green dragon pretender on fire closest in the rearmost position. Right next to Lizard King prophet with antipoison gear put on.

Worked very well. Nature 10 gives the Serpent Dancers less staying power than Water 10 but their whole role was to tie up the enemy in case things went badly. With Slingers on Fire Archers they ran past the melee and tossed their grenades right on the commanders. Pretty often the infantery would break pretty fast and run right back trough the clouds of poison.

As game went on I kept adding poison related spells, items and beasts (Horned serpents, Wyverns and whatnot. There's a whole cadre of venomous and resistant beasts) until the enemy simply drowned in toxic ichor. Unfortunatly it took a lot longer to make this army really effective than say a fire/cold theme. Poison simply doesn't drop units fast enough and attrition in the ranks was pretty high. Still with a strong nature pretender I had quite some luck with Transformation, Gift of Reason and Gift of Health.

Hmmm... Now that I think about it, it was actually pretty fun. If a bit inefficient. Guess I could try it out again now that I know a bit more about the game.

[ January 10, 2004, 13:07: Message edited by: Wauthan ]