help EA Mictlan : middle game troops and research.

[cohenfr]

Hi everybody.

I am playing my first MP game in a french forum on "Cave and Corners" map, and I randomly got EA mictlan, that I had never played before.

I think I've already read all guides for this nation (thanks for them), and I have few specific questions. I went with the classic F9 bless, and turmoil/sloth/luck/growth/heat (I won't say too much because of the game).

So in my test games, the beginning goes usually well. Jaguar warrior dies, but kills independants a lot. My problem is that they seem to be very weak against ennemy archers/mages. When I start fighting ennemies, it is usually when I start blood hunting and thus can summon low level demons.

here are my questions :

-I research like this : thau2 for magic sites, then cons4 for Sanguine Rod, then go on to blood. Is blood absolutely a must here, or sould I do other research at the same time, to get my jaguar stronger for example? (or anything interserting I haven't noticed yet). I am bad at research with this nation (even with magic 1; I only use mictlan priests for research). And I don't use my mages on the battlefield, because of the research, so I lack of "fire" power I think (no archers nor mages..)

-Should I continue to produce jaguars, and how to use them properly? (with buff spells for example? they cost a lot of gold and die a lot, and I didn't take water or astral9 bless). Should I spend gold on indy archers?

-Which demons are best to invoke to protect my lands? I'm speaking of low level demons because I have not done the research at this time.


Then for the late game I think that I will use Ice/Arch devils as SC, and hordes of demons. And what about the spell improve cross breeding? I found it fun because it enables to get many troops for few blood slaves (and "good" troops because of my luck dominion). Is it a good idea to sacrify these troops to make the ennemy tired, or is this spell useless?

I think that's all, sorry for this long/full of mistakes post.

[JimMorrison]

2 things that you might find immensely useful to add:

First, slingers become a big deal against humans, first to provide support and shield cover, and then when you can manage it, to use with Fire Arrows to devastate the enemy ranks.

Second, Wooden Warriors could go a long way to increasing the survivability of your Jags, when they are receiving less support. For obvious reasons, the "Wood" series isn't necessarily compatible with the Fire Arrows.

[Tifone]

Are you using archer decoys, yeah? Mictlan has good units for that, but you can even use indies.
Also you have access to many interesting flyers - beast bats and Blood summons. They'll die in packs, probably, but with Hold and Attack archers, they'll gain you several turns and do some damage.

Improved cross breeding is absolutely not bad if you took high luck. It will bring you a lot of chaff, some with immunities which go very well with your demons (i.e. the cold immune ones will be good in an army with Ice Devils and Frost Fiends, hot immune ones... you can imagine) and some occasional big boy with high HP and many attacks.

A spell you should make good use of: Ritual of the Five Gates. Check Baalz's guide about it. You will find yourself plenty of specific demons for thematic armies.

Low level demons to protect your lands, mmh. Putting 2 or 3 spine devils in a Jaguar team can be a pointy surprise to your enemy But if you are using blessed Jaguars, you should be able to have small and mobile squads of elite troops which can do a nice job both attacking and defending.

[Psycho]

Against archers put a small squad (like 5 of them) of warriors with shields up front on hold and attack and jaguars behind them and to the side. Archers will continue to target warriors even when jaguars run in front of them. Also use eagle warriors and/or any flying summons on hold and attack archers.

Against mages you can do the same. Some regular warriors to act as targets and eagle warriors and/or flying summons starting from way back to the sides and set on (hold and) attack rearmost. For more concrete counters you should say what exactly you are facing.

I don't think you need indy archers as all your warriors are also slingers, so you buy doubly useful troops - slingers and arrow decoys. And like pointed above you can get flaming arrow for them.

IMO the best Mictlan summon is ozelotl. Flying and three attacks with 19 attack each with F9 bless. They will slaughter most opposition.

[cohenfr]

Thanks for your answers!

I've never used slingers yet, I'll take a look at these.

And Tifone, what do you mean by "archer decoys"? These are the little shielded squads in front of an army to catch arrows?

By "low level demons to protect my own land" I meant that I couldn't stop AI huge armies with my jags, so they invaded my lands before I could get ritual of the five gates or other high level spells..

And I will try ozelotls, I have never made many of them yet.

[archaeolept]

ozelotls are broken and should be banned as an exploit

EA mict can murder Hinnom any day of the week.

[Tifone]

Yep.

Against mages it doesn't work so well though. The AI of the mages aims to make the most damage possible.

[Psycho]

Here is a tactic against the AI huge armies: castles and disease demons. Make castles with a good defense rating preferably in some chokepoint places. Let the AI come to you and siege them with his huge army. Then spam disease demons to kill of the commanders. Take the surrounding provinces with small jaguars squads (you will try to build those castles in provinces with fewer neighbors) and attack the commanderless army with a scout and watch them retreat into death.