Guide: MA Man - Making the best of a bad deal

[Verjigorm]

"Massed" Mothers of Avalon are quite powerful without equipment. The problem is that you have to sacrifice research to use them in combat. They spam buffs, lightning bolts, soothing song (to keep themselves firing continuously), and breath of the dragon depending on type. A mix of them makes for a good attack force--mix them in with the longbowmen who act as their screen.

I use bards extensively. At least one of my many castles produces one a turn. I insert them into enemy lands just to watch in provinces that are not going to be heavily patrolled adjacent to castles. Then, whenever I'm ready to go, swarm them onto the castles and Incite. 5 Bards can shut down the enemy capitol in 1-2 turns and can remain hidden even under relatively aggressive patrols.

As for the Knights/KoA, they have a tendency to create money problems. I like the long spearmen and tower guards. I love the KoA, and hire lots of them. Rejuvenation means that when you get injured ones, you can pull out the wounded ones ("w" hotkey in army setup) and let them recover--operating as guards until they're better. I use the N3s to summon.

Foresters: They have 12 Precision. I put magic bows on them and add them to my armies set on Fire Rearmost to take out back-line mages. Vision's Foes and BBOB can easily take out SCs with extremely cheap units.

Crones: You can recruit them early on. When they get diseased, stick a Lycanthropos' Amulet on them. Easier to get in Man than Boots of Youth when you don't have a blood economy. The other option is Elixir of Life. Both options are more expensive than Boots of Youth, granted, but using scouts or indie commanders to hunt blood slaves takes forever and it's kind of a waste of time to hunt slaves for boots with your pretender. If you're making a crone a turn, you won't be able to handle the necessary output without tying down your pretender until you empower someone which probably won't be efficient until after you start making dousing rods.

By the time you add up all of the ramp-up time, you've been avoiding your best mages for a very long time just because they don't pop out immortal. In Abysia, 90% of your mages are always old even the little ones, but that won't stop you from hiring them. Not hiring crones because you don't have boots of youth is a bad idea.

[thejeff]

Soothing Song is really nice for large battles. I used bards to spam it, since they have less other options once the script runs out.
Crones can Thunderstrike pretty much indefinitely if they've got bard backup. Better (for fatigue) than communion slaves. Good for quick recovery after dropping the big battlefield buffs too. Fog Warriors this round, Thunderstrike the next.

[aaminoff]

Just because I enjoy being pedantic, Oreiads are not self-blessing either. In both cases, you can use a Shroud of the Battle Saint. Or forget the bless and just use Rainbow Armor, which I think is a couple more points of protection: 3air,3nature gems vs 3astral. Both Man and Arco have Air & Nature aplenty, though Air gems are always precious, and it depends on what bless you get with your shroud.

Anyway, I agree that it is a very niche strategy, but it seems like MA Man has a remarkably narrow range of things it can do, so diversifying your bag of tricks by any means available is worth considering.

[Verjigorm]

I also wanted to mention... I don't have much use for monks in terms of stealth preaching since they're only H1. That means 30% - 5%/candle which means that they cannot harm any dominion 6 candles or stronger and are abysmal against even small dominions..

They are, however, stealthy and can be used to bless Wardens in the field if your pretender is set up for a bless.

Now, I will say this...

Man can use a bless strategy. Wardens are not their only blessable unit. Cu Sidhe and Barghests are also sacred and can be easily massed. The former can be summoned by most Mothers of Avalon and the latter by staff-wielding revenants summoned by your pretender. Both are quite nice and Cu Sidhe, being summoned with nature gems, are easy to mass especially since Man can take the Mother Oak very early in the game provided Oceania or Pangaea is not involved. This, in fact, is going to be the subject of my next Man experiment...

Man... Blessed?

[thejeff]

And in CBM Wardens and Lord Wardens are recruit everywhere. So definitely blessable there.

I'm not sure about with just capital Wardens and the summons. They might be to few and too late.

[Rookierookie]

Originally Posted by thejeff

And in CBM Wardens and Lord Wardens are recruit everywhere. So definitely blessable there.

I'm not sure about with just capital Wardens and the summons. They might be to few and too late.

Really? I've been playing CBM for a long time now, but I never thought the Wardens were recruitable everywhere.

[Verjigorm]

Well, Barghests are stealthy, so they can be combined with Warden forces. The cap-only Lord Warden is ambidextrous, so he can use double brands as an option, but coming from the capitol is bad since I want crones.

[chrispedersen]

Playing man with an earth (and possibly nature) blessing is very strong, and the only way to play man as far as I'm concerned.

It essentially gives man a huge (and fun) stealthy, recruitable, thug army.

Personally I think man is much stronger than people give credit for. I know that people consider man one of the weak nations in MA, I rate it about 3rd.

The elements for success, afaiac is: stealthy lords and wardens with blesses. Stealthy priests. Stealthy bards for incite etc.
And *lots* of castles.

[Festin]

The cap-only Lord Warden is ambidextrous, so he can use double brands as an option, but coming from the capitol is bad since I want crones.

I just checked, and Lord Warden is definitely not cap-only. Still, I wouldn't give him double brands.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Festin

I just checked, and Lord Warden is definitely not cap-only. Still, I wouldn't give him double brands.

That's a CBM change, in case anyone's referencing this for vanilla.