Some hints on LA R'lyeh vs LA Ermor?

[Saxon]

Damn you for bringing this topic up, I stayed up three extra hours last night and am now a sleepy mess! I had lots of fun though�

A couple of things I noticed. Your chaff is weaker than their chaff. Those undead legionaries will run over your mad farmers. However, you do have access to body ethereal and luck. I suggest starting a way back and spreading your communioned low level S1 mages through your force, buffing the chaff. Hold and attack is the command. I know, it is not fashionable to buff chaff, but it will help them stand up long enough for your banishments to hurt Ermor. The point about insane prophets is a good one. Look for them and keep moving them to the front, that H3 really helps.

The other point already made, that your Illythids mind blast only troops with minds is well taken. It can be tough to find the cash to do it, but keep a fair number of these guys in your army. They are a good solution to those damn Lictors and will eventually work their way back to the commanders who keep raising more undead. This is how I usually killed off the commanders. Combined with heavy banishment and some chaff buffing and you can deal with the more normal armies you will face.

Of course, you are fighting a human, so they will have some special plans, but with the volume of chaff they have, they will send some of these armies against you, even if it is not their main plan. Given that they will beat your chaff armies one on one, you need to plan for it.

Another point. Since gold was tight, I was not spending on PD. However, putting a single gold in each province is wise, so you get a commander to help use your auto-summon chaff more effectively. It is a bargain and will fend off some small incursions. Nothing serious, but for the price, why not.

I had a tough time getting enough S1 troops together for a really powerful communion, but did find that even just a few made a difference on my prophet. The penetration bonus and increased area of effect was quite noticeable. Given they can also spam other spells while being slaves, it is a worthwhile effort. It is also a way to get fanaticism on a commander who is otherwise too low in H power. Granted, most of the madmen are unlikely to run, but it is occasionally nice to be sure that all your troops will stay for the entire fight. Ermor does tend to inspire fear and you can now easily counter it.

Please note that none of these ideas are particularly uber. I would love to hear some ideas of how to really power the nation up against another death dealing dominion nation. I did not finish my game and am having a hard time putting Ermor down. On the other side is C�tis, but I am sure their undead will rapidly fall once I figure out Ermor.

I found Vengeance of the Dead to be of no use, as the Ermor commanders don�t do the killing personally. I would like to assume that their commanders going insane is annoying them, but can not see the result. Since they have the same cash issue I have, I am focusing on keeping my temples standing and burning theirs. I can lose most provinces with no real loss, but the temples I really defend. They cost both of us relatively more than with normal nations and my dominion will hurt him, so I want to use it. With some stealthy preachers, courtesy of some Starchildren who went insane and declared themselves the prophet, I am currently preaching in their capital. A dominion kill is not out of the question. Also, keeping their dominion down reduces their chaff recruitment, which makes your life a bit easier.

I was just thinking, the Starchildren Assassins might be useful here. The Ermor commanders are critical to their nation. If you self buff with ethereal and luck, then mind blast, you might be able to beat skelly spamming commanders. Worth an experiment perhaps.

[Taqwus]

Vengeance of the Dead won't help -- it doesn't work on undead.

As for Star Children as assassins -- they may luckily survive against Mound Kings, but I'd expect skellispamming (or Disintegrating...) Dusk Elders to kill 'em pretty easily. Better to keep 'em as communicants than to go solo after death mages.

[Saxon]

Good to know. Given how tight cash is, I won't risk them as assassins.

Does master enslave work on undead? Or at least undead commanders?

[Tichy]

"buffing the chaff"

Shhh! This is a family forum...

But I would like to see one of the nation modders take on a "mad farmer" nation. Please make Willie Nelson a national hero, and "Hold 'Farm Aid'" a national spell...

[Jazzepi]

Saxon said:
Good to know. Given how tight cash is, I won't risk them as assassins.

Does master enslave work on undead? Or at least undead commanders?

My understanding is that ME works on everything, magical beings, undead, constructs.

Jazzepi

[ologm]

Banishment's are of effect increases quadratically with holy level. Getting a level 9 holy priest would be murder against undead.

ME doesn't work against undead.

[Taqwus]

R'lyeh also, if memory serves, has randomized access to death magic on illithid mages. A communion spamming Dust to Dust or Wither Bones is not a pretty sight for LA Ermor.

[Saxon]

Your memory serves you well and using Death magic against Ermor does have a certain ironic satisfaction, particularly after they Rigor Mortised my pretender worm into an early grave. Oddly, he died with E3 and came back with N2.

There is also a national hero with D and I suspect many people play with high luck and turmoil, so you may get him regularly. Given the cash problems I have been facing, the random events are all that keep me liquid, so they are very useful. That is another small tactic to note. Since you are going to kill off the population anyway, make sure to tax them heavily.

[Amhazair]

ologm said:
ME doesn't work against undead.

I thought it did work on undead, but not on mindless beings, which unfortunately includes most of ermors chaff. Or am I wrong?

[ologm]

I meant mindless units.