Monkey Question

[bbz]

Hello all, I joined my fist MP game using Single Age mod and the new CBM 1.81 so I was wondering which monkey nation has the strongest late game (by late game I am thinking of something like turn 60-70 onwards).
Is it Kailasa with awesome recruitable thugs and sacreds but lagging behind in the magic department?
Is it Bandar log with decent communion mages and cheap but extensive armies of white ones?
Or is it Patala with the crazy nagarishi and not so good sacreds?
I would include Lanka but it was already taken and I am not that familiar with blood nations.

As a side note, which other nation would you classify as nearly-unstoppable late game(In cbm post 1.6)?

Thanks in advance for the response.

[brxbrx]

they've all got some pretty tough summons. Hindu god things, that can move through seven provinces a turn.

[thejeff]

Except without clams, you'll never be able to afford enough of them to make a difference. Astral gems are just too useful. You'll be using a bunch to power the reverse communions and battle spells. More for Mind Hunt gear, luck and antimagic gear, etc, etc.

Patala fits my play style best. Heavy Earth mages for buffing and forging. The loss of hammers in CBM 1.7-8 weakens that.

Bandar Log probably has the best mages. Rishis are very nice high end astral. Low in diversity though.
Bandar Log and Patala can expand nicely with elephants, so there's no real need for a troop bless. Maybe a minor one for the mages and sacred thugs. Kailasa has more trouble early, so may justify a strong bless. I was never able to do well with them, so take that with a large grain of salt.

Unless you're putting all your points into a heavy bless, I'd suggest taking some blood on your pretender to get at Lanka's sacreds, particularly Dakinis. For 50 blood you get a serious thug who's also a 3B hunter. You can bootstrap yourself to one a turn pretty quickly once you get the research done.

[bbz]

Thank you for the answers,
And yea it seems that the astral summons aren't that easy to obtain. Do you know which nations are the powerhouses late game? I read that MA Agathra is qute strong late game (Tested them in single but they didn't seem that strong, probably coz I'm used to Bandar Log and hence comparing every1 to them), as well as LA Marignon. Are there any others?

[Debaser8]

I haven't played Patala in MP, but between BL and Kailasa I think Kailasa is easily stronger early and mid-game, late game BL is probably stronger, but that assumes that they are still around and have enough resources to matter.

Kailasa has awesome recruitable anywhere sacreds with awe that can be quickened by a lvl 6 astral spell. Kailasa has recruitable thugs. Kailasa has better starting magic diversity. All of this means Kailasa is better right out of the gate.

Late game however BL probably has a more SC/Caster/Thug oriented E/N bless, plus better blood magic, plus better astral.

For a late game powerhouse maybe Ashdod, Pythium & Marveni.

[thejeff]

And Patala, for reasons that are obscure to me, doesn't have the national quickness spell. Bandar Log does.

Bandar Log and Patala have elephants to get started,
then ...
then high end summons and plenty of Astral for the late game.

[bbz]

yea I am testing a f9w9 bless and it works ok on a small scale for Bandar log and their tigers event though it might not be as usefull for the white ones still does quite well against armies of chaff or small elite armies.But recruitability is a problem.

And about the then... gap can't it be filled with apsaras(only against non archer armies) and gandharvas or they are just not competitive enough in a big game?

on a side note: is there anything Ashdod is not good at?

[Finalgenesis]

Ashdod is very bad at playing meek and appearing harmless (what a huge handicap!).