Man: A Bless nation in CBM 1.92?

[Shangrila00]

Originally Posted by Torgon

Phoenix is good. It just seems like that build makes man just as much of a one trick pony as the bless option. And its a trick thats much more easily countered than just a load of heavily armored, high damage, high stat stealth wardens.

Well, it's countered by researching to evo 5, or more completely enchantment 6 for nations with air magic. Nations without air magic are kind of **** out of luck if they rely on mass armies and isn't Abyssia. By the time you get to Evo 5, sacred troops in the direct combat role are pretty much obsolescent anyway against most nations, except for Eagle Warriors and EA TC's Wot5E, and as stealth raiders, they have until evo 6 and mind hunt for full effectiveness.

I see it as basically the same as high bless Man. Weaker year 1, though Man's still a terrible rush target, but otherwise high power to roughly the same point. Better against nations without air magic but with strong astral, like Bandar Log, worse against someone like Eriu, but overall even. However as mentioned, even after flaming arrows gets countered, the Phoenix does have some solid uses, more so than a high bless pretender in Earth or Water at least.

Regarding Song of Power, it's no game changer obviously. But you'll have diseased crones not worth rejuvenating. Script mirror image, mistform, flight, attack, Song of Power for some shenanigans against high value sacred armies. Later in the game, N3 mothers plus fog warriors can do much the same thing on a larger scale. Easy enough to counter, but good for a surprise.