Need Help In a game.

Sp game. Remergence of Urgia I am pythuim and control all of south east cornor of urgia, vanhiem controls rest of the map. I am stopping vanhiem from invading me because I control a chocke point where I have many theurgs and soldiers and a doom horror. My god is an oracle who has 9 in everypath. I have researched level nine in all schools of magic, so I can cast every spell.
I am afraid if I invade, I will be overwhelmed because vanhiem has many many huge armies. So, what should I do to win?

[Endoperez]

So, you want to be able to defend a choke point as well as you can, but still be able to attack?

You could go for superior defence and then either attack with your forces or just raid him so that Vanheim gets weaker and weaker. One good way to do this (vs AI) are the spells that kill population and/or conquer them. Also, you should try killing Vanheim's armies with spells like Flames from the Sky, Leprosy, Murdering Winter. Use MW in cold provinces and versus non-cold-immune or resistant troops, FftS versus units in moderate or warm provinces and Black Death if time is not needed or if you have Demiliches.

Wish is never cost-effective. Wishing for Doom Horrors devastates the AI, and they are almost so overpowering that ruin the game (single-player is too easy if you use Wish in cheasy ways). Wishing for a few Sphinxes and putting *them* to frontline will give you quite defending force (but as I said, is not cost-effective). Natarajas excel after they get some equipment, so they have to be Gift of Reasoned. However, against AI Wraith Sword (life drain) and a few other toys like Demon Whip (AoE fire), any length 4 or more weapon (repel) and Scultata Volturnus (shield, attacks with lightning) or Charcoal Shield (gives Fire Shield). Remember to add reincigorating items or he will quickly pass away, especially if alone and/or with Boots of Quickness/Jade Armor.

Have you already conquered the seas? They offer great mobility, but unfortunately Water summons tend to have upkeep, suck and/or cannot be summoned on land. Try some undead to get started, they can also attack on land. Also utilize your Arch Theurgs and astral spells like Astral Travel: give them Whip of Command and Crown of Leadership, and use misc. astral boosters like Crystal Coin.

Raid. Don't even try to hold the provinces. Take them, leave, take another. Unrest will go up with each battle, and you can raise the taxes to 200% during the turn you own it. Also utilize spells like Ghost Riders, Call of the Wild (especially if you have it for free through Soulstone of the Wolves) and Imprint Mind, possibly together.

Summon all high-level uniques you can. Air Queens, Earth Kings, Anthrax (Lord of Banefires), Ice Devils... Lots of magic, lots of physical strength and lots of possibilities.

If you have money problems, forge Alchemist's Stone and Alchemize. If you have gem problems, forge few boosters of every path and go through *all* your provinces with your mages casting Auspex, Dark Knowledge etc. site searching spells. If you want, you can also try to hoarding gem-generating items like Fever Talisman, or unit-generating Soul Contract/Vampire Lord.

[Taqwus]

Wrath of God, Arcane Nexus, Strands of Arcane Power, Fata Morgana and Forge of the Ancients come to mind. If you've got the magic, might as well use it. Plus, the AI doesn't seem to good at shutting down globals for some reason; perhaps it prefers empowering commanders?

Also, summoned troops and forged equipment... against Vanheim, you'll face lightning attacks, so don't forget lightning-immune troops (notably Mechanical Men and Iron Dragons in addition to the air-type units such as queens, elementals and sylphs) and Rings o' Tamed Lightning.

If you want to try something impractical, wacky but possibly still fun, try something oddball like a Gift of Reasoned Gargoyle with a Snake Bladder Stick, Charcoal Shield or Lead Shield or Luck Shield, Spirit Helm (for the MR), perhaps Bone Armor or Rime Hauberk, Boots of Quickness, Ring of Tamed Lightning, and either a luck or antimagic item. Since the tactical AI isn't too good about units not running into clouds of poison gas, and Vanheim isn't inherently huge in nature magic IIRC, these should do some damage... bane lords are more cost-efficient, I'd think, but this is a game, not a retirement account. Iron Dragons have certain similar properties regarding speed, immunity and 0 encumberance, but they're far less equippable.

Tartarians are another obvious path. Best used with Gift of Health so their afflictions get healed, and devote a Fairy Queen to GoReasoning them. A human will probably be able to counter even Tartarians reasonably well if the game's taken that long and it dominates the map that much, but the AI will have trouble... so long as you cover the lightning immunity. Some Tartarians don't need that much additional gear to be nasty, although the earth-4 Tartarians get all slots in addition to high hp and other stats so they can be rather obscenely decked out. Other Tartarians can heavily supplement your mages, and some might be brutal communion leaders given a Crystal Matrix.

More troops can be had from Legion of Wights, as well. Ghost Riders is efficient against opponents that don't build fortresses, or for pushing back besiegers; and building a few Stone Spheres will let you systematically recon the map from a safe location. At that point you can do something evil like assign several casters to monthly cast Earth Attack or Seeking Arrow on the enemy's capital.

[deccan]

Taqwus said:
Wrath of God, Arcane Nexus, Strands of Arcane Power, Fata Morgana and Forge of the Ancients come to mind.

I find that against the AI, mechanical militia is an extremely useful global to hold on to provinces.