MA Pangaea-best starting troops?

[Xietor]

I play Pangaea a good bit. Typically I raise an army of hoplites and centaur longbow men to take provinces near my castle. The war minotaurs seem a bit pricey at 50 gold each.
The revelers have low protection, and cause unrest, which i try to keep down to avoid getting hordes of free troops that i do not want to pay upkeep costs for.

After i build up some income, i tend to use more centaur cataphracts since they cost 40 gold, have good armor, defense, and movement. I do not usually use the blessed white centaurs,
as their low protection and need to be blessed is a pain.

Also, I use the gorgon, but only take 5 e 4n 3 air, so my bless is not a strong one. I really like air with the gorgon for silver hauberk chest piece. Light and stops arrows. Air is nice for mistform, mirror image as well. Plus early in game, air shield is nice for gorgon with only 30 hp.

I also like having arrow stopping item on my pretender to keep calaum and others from killing with that magical arrow spell(seeking heart).

Typically i also take 3 order 2 prod, 1 growth so that prevents giving the gorgon a ton of magic. I sleep the gorgon, but do not imprison(also take 2 heat or cold for some extra points).

[Teraswaerto]

Centaur warriors are very good. Lowish protection is their only real weakness, but berserking and high hitpoints make up for that most of the time. Their resource cost is so low they can produced in great numbers even with Sloth scale. I'd never take Production with MA Pangaea.

[Edi]

Maenads don't cost upkeep at all. Gold cost 0. Even a gold cost of 1 would utterly bankrupt EA Pangaea. They'll eat all of your supplies and then some, though.

Edi

[Xietor]

Pangaea starting castle only has 30 admin. and if you like using the hoplites and centaur cathaphracts you need a prod bonus. Hoplites at 13 gold 16 prot form the backbone of my army, with longbow centaurs sitting behind them shotting down stuff.

I guess not taking 2 prod would give me 80 more points, but low protection troops tend to die fast to ulm ranged troops, the eineire for vanaheim, giants etc. For 40 gold i like troops with 19 armor, even though they do not berserk, with a blessing of courage they do not rout often. And they live longer.

[Teraswaerto]

Yes, if you plan to use Hoplites and Cataphracts then Production is needed. However, I think Centaur Warriors are better, and when using them you'll also get design points from being able to take Sloth.

[Gandalf Parker]

For the first turn I get all centaur longbows (unless the longbow mercs are available). I tend to put some maenads in the frontline to boost the morale, and a couple of minotaurs for extra punch. Once I take the nearby provinces then I concentrate more on anything with stealth so I can quickly get my stealth armies over to my nearest enemies. It works much better to pick one to harrass during their growth period when they cant march a retributing army back at you.

[Sorlakind]

Xietor said:
Pangaea starting castle only has 30 admin. and if you like using the hoplites and centaur cathaphracts you need a prod bonus. Hoplites at 13 gold 16 prot form the backbone of my army, with longbow centaurs sitting behind them shotting down stuff.

I guess not taking 2 prod would give me 80 more points, but low protection troops tend to die fast to ulm ranged troops, the eineire for vanaheim, giants etc. For 40 gold i like troops with 19 armor, even though they do not berserk, with a blessing of courage they do not rout often. And they live longer.

I'm with Teraswaerto here. Forget Hoplites and Cataphracts, take sloth 3 and spend the points elsewhere. Centaurs are great units - somewhat expensive in gold (and upkeep), especially if you go the turmoil route for the Maenads, but definitely worth it. The archers are great and will win most arrow duels. The warriors are also great - put them at fire closest so they throw their javelins. They have > 20 hps, can berserk and have recup (= staying power). And they are stealthy Some people even go a heavy bless route with the White Centaurs, but they are expensive (70g) and capital-only so I prefer to just hand them a few minor blesses. Once you get your magic rolling, boost them with Mass Protection, Legions of Steel, Weapons of Sharpness, Strength of Giants, etc.

Disclaimer: I have little mp experience and I'm not fond of bless strats, so take the above with a rock of salt. Besides, out of principle, I do not blood-hunt, use blood summons, etc. which is another card that Pangaea can play.

[Gandalf Parker]

There is also two very strong strategy lines that can impact Pangaea, the maenads route or the vine-creature route. Both of those can affect pretender choice, and scales quite abit. But since he said he uses Gorgon most of my usual suggesitons dont apply as much. The only thing I could think of there is maybe giving up one of the earth points for another air point so he can get arrow defence on bless.

[SelfishGene]

One interesting thing i read in the manual last night was that the effectiveness of Tangle Vines increaes in Growth dominions...

[lch]

SelfishGene said:
One interesting thing i read in the manual last night was that the effectiveness of Tangle Vines increaes in Growth dominions...

That's in the spell description, too, unless I am mistaken.