How do I fight ermor?

[jaif]

I'm playing the inquisition people (mar-something). I started on one side of a continent, ermor started on the other, and we're both crushing the two unfortunates in the middle (btw, monkey in the middle really stinks in this game.)

I don't think I'll have too much trouble in battle; after all, I have great priests and should be able to banish the hordes. The problem is that my spies tell me his land is depopulated, which means it's going to be very hard to advance (no supplies).

Any suggestions? Oh, bonus question: if a province is at population zero, is there anyway for it to increase?

-Jeff

[Peter Ebbesen]

Dominions I guide (still relevant):
How to Defeat Ermor

This is obligatory reading and answers most of your questions.

[jaif]

I'll look at that. One thing I was thinking, and I'm wondering how well this will work, is building wolfpacks of assassins armed with the exploding amulet thingies (forget the name) and sending them after commanders.

-Jeff

[PhilD]

This seems quite expensive, even if it has a good chance of killing multiple commanders - it will only be worthwile if you manage to send in an attack to possibly rout (actually, dissolve) the army once they have no commanders...

But, with Marignon, you have the best asset againt Ermor: excellent priests. Make large Groups of them, with some solid infantry as bodyguards (not necessarily as "guard commanders"), and banish the whole thing away.

[Taqwus]

Find a druid province or other area giving nature magic. Get to nature 3 preferably (nature 2 + Thistle Mace will do), and Construction 6. A Cauldron of Broth will feed 50 men from a single misc slot.
Repopulating is basically not going to happen unless you abuse Wishing for population in that province.
Medallion of Vengeance and all those assassins will be expensive; plus it's hard to assassinate a Dusk Elder because they'll summon undead like crazy, and in addition depending on how long the game is there may be Wraith Crowns which create more undead.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
Find a druid province or other area giving nature magic. Get to nature 3 preferably (nature 2 + Thistle Mace will do), and Construction 6. A Cauldron of Broth will feed 50 men from a single misc slot.

An endless bag of wine is considerably cheaper than a cauldron of broth. It only costs 5 nature gems, and feeds 25 troops. Which lets you feed 100 troops for the same gem investment as a cauldron. Just put them on scouts that remain hidden with your armies.

[jaif]

Heh, well I was just schooled by Ermor. He hit me with 3 armies, all of which were the same size as my biggest. Worse yet, he marched underwater and then split on the coast, taking multiple provinces very quickly. I've since bLasted them, and the follow-on armies away, and beat up another necromatic pythian army too (I had pythia on the ropes when ermor attack), but I've lost some pythian provinces, and one of my provinces now has population zero.

I have plenty of priests, but now I have a huge upkeep for my size, and I have no idea how I'm going to expand when at least 50% of the world is depopulated.

So, assassin idea is off. I do have a nature province, so I'll save up 400 gold and put a temple+lab there to get a druid or two. The problem is that this is slow, and ermor is quick, quick, quick.

-Jeff

[Taqwus]

If you're not preaching along your border, you probably should. That might help fight the intruding dominion and reduce the risk of massive, essentially unreversible population loss. Another use for excess priests would be "banish/banish/banish/run away!" attacks just to attrit him a bit.
If it's a multiplayer game, a temporary alliance with Pythium might make sense. Presumably neither of you wants your populations completely gone.

[GavinWheeler]

Originally posted by jaif:
Oh, bonus question: if a province is at population zero, is there anyway for it to increase?

-Jeff

From zero, as far as I am aware, only random lucky events (people migrating in) can increase the population.

If you have a non-zero population, a growth scale would help, and I'm not sure whether spells such as "Gift of Nature's bounty" have a positive effect on population or not. But from a flat out depopulated province, only luck will help.

[jaif]

The dominion was solid in my borders. At the edges, it was give and take, and in the Pythian provinces it was coming along (some to my side, some still pythian). Dominion wasn't really a problem. The problem was that when he attacked, he hit an outlying province on an island chain, then hit other provinces up the coast. By the time I tossed him off the coast and fought my way back down the islands, the Last province was completely depopulated.

I'm wonder if I had used the raven-something spell (ravens eat corpses and bring back gems) much earlier if that would have slowed his growth.

-Jeff