An intial try at a Pythium strategy guide

[Huzurdaddi]

Now, I wonder how ethereal elephants will perform

Indeed this is how I started with this tactic. I tried it on Arcosphale elephants and was quite happy with the results! The only problem was that the elephants would break once in a while and squish my expensive casters. It was also expensive as both the casters for Arcosphale and the elephants cost a nice amount of coin.

But other that the money consideration it was amazing to watch!

I also tried it with chariots. Seeing as the only problem with chariots is the lack of decent protection I figured this would work nicely. And indeed it did.

Ahh, and here I was thinking that 'body ethereal' was a 'self' spell.

Shocked me too!

[PDF]

I made a few test runs, Ethereal Elephants aren'that good, their ever-crappy morale makes them rout pretty easily even if Ethereal . Hoplites are a better choice.
Apart from Pythium and Arco, a good Ethereal candidate is Abysia, with their strong, human-sized infantry.
Beware Etherealizing Nature blessed troops, the regen effect is nice but you also get Berserk, and it makes units charge uncontrollably.. Bless them after the mages are finished with Body Ethereal !

[tinkthank]

By the way, has anyone noticed this "bug"?

I noticed it when building wizard towers and communicants: Recruiting a communicant *does not require a temple*. Communicants are sacred, however, and normally you need a temple to recruit sacred units. Not so for communicants.

Odd, no?

[Teraswaerto]

Sacred units can be recruited without a temple. Only priests require a temple.

[tinkthank]

Thanks for the heads-up on sacred commanders, me stupid.

That blood spell you are referring to is currently broken. It does not even restore fatigue to the caster himself. I believe this is a known bug for quite some time.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
That blood spell you are referring to is currently broken. It does not even restore fatigue to the caster himself. I believe this is a known bug for quite some time.

The reinvigoration spell was fixed in patch 2.11

[Huzurdaddi]

Ethereal Elephants aren'that good, their ever-crappy morale makes them rout pretty easily even if Ethereal

Yeah that's pretty much what I found. And boy did it suck when they trampled those expensive mages!

Hoplites are a better choice.

Ahh fond memories. They used to be my favorite infantry until my current infatuitation with Principe! Actually I also liked the Hypaspist. I think that on cost basis I actually liked the Hypaspist better. But they are both good.

a good Ethereal candidate is Abysia, with their strong, human-sized infantry.

Ohh that is a good one. Their infantry would be quite nice etherial. (hehe I still like the principe better!).

The thing is that this does require quite a number of casters to make it work. So you really need ( IMO ) really cheap casters that are sacred that leaves you with:

1) Pythium has these in mass.
2) Ctis ( yay Shaman ).
3) Marignon has the Witch Hunter ( same as the theurg ).
4) R'lyeh has the starspawn ( but really don't they have better things to do! ).
5) Ulm's Illuminated One ( ok they are not sacred but they are CHEAP ).

Most of these races are usually considered real "contenders." Well all of them except for Ulm Black Forest.

[HotNifeThruButr]

Hoplites were always a big no-no for me. Hypaspists are easier to build with a closer gold to resources ratio and they have two strat move while still being able to mop the floor with almost all other heavy infants

[Chris Byler]

Sacred *units* require a temple.

Priests require a temple.

Sacred commanders that are not priests don't require a temple.

There aren't very many sacred commanders that aren't priests, but there are a couple.

I just had another interesting thought about communions: you know that Blood spell that allows you to sacrifice a blood slave to remove the caster's fatigue? If you cast that as a communion master, does it also remove your slaves' fatigue (following the general rule about self-only spells and communion slaves)?

[olaf73]

So body ethereal isnt a self spell? The description sure sounds like it is. 'The caster's body becomes hazy and transparent...'