Is black plate worth it?

[Sombre]

In what sense do you get 1.4 smiths? That's a gross oversimplification. You haven't even shown that you get more gold or castles by building black plate over chainmail after the first couple of turns. You say you save gold, but you admit they aren't as good for quick expansion. I could argue that quick expansion nets more gold, which means more castles and smiths, therefore I have 1.4 (Since we're going to apply this figure to everything apparently) smiths to your one and it would make just as much sense as what you're saying.

[Baalz]

Well, if I spend 2000 gold on infantry and you spend 2800 then I can afford 5-6 more smiths or an extra castle. 40% more troops is not going to equate to 40% more expansion of your map move 1, more fragile troops, and most certainly not 40% more staying power when you start fighting tougher foes. This is compounded by the lower upkeep cost if I'm buying castles as I suggested.

Look, I'm not saying there aren't situations where the chainmail is useful, and you can certainly use them effectively. I'm just answering the original question as to if black plate infantry is worth it. I think so in many situations.

[B0rsuk]

I can field about 1.4 chain for every plate. Does the plate make up that difference? I haven't seen it.

-Jeff

Black plate is better in some cases, yet still overpriced. Still, I need to point out a few things:
- 1.4 chain mail costs 40% more gold to recruit
- 40% more gold in upkeep
- 40% more supplies (probably never an issue considering you're going to have small number of troops anyway)
- you need 40% more water breathing items
- you neede 40% more flying carpets, pocket ships etc.
- 40% more space on battlefield (this cuts both ways: easier to block enemies from reaching your mages, harder to get all guys enchanted, but also harder to get all of them wiped out with a single panzerfaust, I mean, fireball)
- alas, black plate are 40% more vulnerable to low MR abuse. You need smaller number of mages to enchant them.

By the way: am I the only one who dislikes built-in vulnerabilities for mass buff spells ? Is there any reason players should be discouraged from using hordes of cheap units creatively ? I can see why personal buffs were changed in Dom3 to have downsides, but mass spells ?
I think horde strategies are underpowered in Dominions3 . It's very very hard to overwhelm your enemy with masses of cheap units, because those cheap units ... cost much more gold. I'd say Black Plate should actually be considered the cheaper unit, and it makes sense it's overall less useful than more expensive chain mail.

[jaif]

I just noticed something. There's an alt-6 spell called "Iron Bane" that destroys all armor on the battlefield except magic armor. Is black plate "magic"? This would be a dang handy spell if so.

-Jeff

[Lord_Bob]

- alas, black plate are 40% more vulnerable to low MR abuse. You need smaller number of mages to enchant them.

Is it worth it having low level astral mages spamming mind burn/paralze/soul slay?

And yes, Ulm can have Astral on it's pretender for antimagic. Unless it's very high, if I'm playing an astral race, I'm going to Magic Duel him to death. Kill his pretender! Kill him! Plus, Ulm can only have one pretender, and having the requirement of very high astral and awake or sleeping really kills the points. Summoned astral casters are going to get off Antimagic and then die. On defence. On offence, they are just going to die.

And people who don't think flails can "do killing" has never witnessed the little death machines in action. They do 14 damage twice a round. 18 damage with Strength of Giants. Each one. They hit more because they lower Defence. After Weapons of Sharpness? I know it's a very high level spell, but Ulm WANTS Constr-6 for the Lightless Laterns. So Constr-7 is one, now much cheaper, step away. With Weapons of Sharpness and Strength of Giants you have a unit that deals 18 points of AP damage twice per turn. Each and every one of them. It laughs at feeble "dual bless" troops. As well it should, for they are nothing before it's wrath.