Four Armed Pretenders and EA Kailasa

[OmikronWarrior]

I'm messing around EA Monkeys, and am trying to put together a viable MP strategy for them. Hoping to get other people's experience and input. This isn't meant to be a guide, though the thread may very well become one. Just my own observations and thoughts...

Troops:

Three castes for three types: Chaff, stealth, hp heavy infantry. Except for Bandar swordsmen, they are all resource light. Atavi Archers (9g,3r) can be easily massed to beat up on low protection indies right off the bat. Unfotunately, for such an archer heavy nation it lacks easy access to the best buffs for archers: wind guide and flaming arrows. Stealth units are weak, and the stealth commander only has +0, meaning he can only pick on weak PD. An OK use, and giving your +50 scout a crown of command strikes me as maybe worthwhile for larger stealth forces. Meanwhile, they're sacred units have all sorts of problems. OK HP (20+), but despite a recruitable everywhere sacred they're priests are capitol only... and only H1. That, and the sacreds have really low protection. Two attacks and reasonable defense, so maybe W9 might work, but then again they're all magic units making using them even tougher. Long story short, I think you need an awake SC.

Pretender Design:

Right now I'm experimenting with the four armed pretenders. 3 weapons and a shield strikes me as the way to go, and with 2N2S2E income natural, they'll have the gems to build some good equipment after a few turns. However, only 1 of the 3 four armed chasises comes with fear and reasonable protection, so using them to attack right off the bat appears problematic.

Scales:

With a 80 gold sacred mage, magic seems like a good pick as these guys can become the engine for your reasearch economy. As a bonus, they're astral amd can be used in communes later on. No reason not to take Order 3 and Hot 2. If you want to amass Bandar Swordsmen (r17), than maybe breaking even on the production seems to be the sweet spot. Otherwise, sloth-3 for sure. With no old age mages, death 3 is an option, but then you start detracting from your gold scales and supplying your large armies of monkeys becomes a problem. Also, you'll pretty much have to take luck if you take death, which isn't the best synergy with order.

Mages:

The 3E1N1? and 3W1N1? mages are expensive and capitol only, but can provide some nice path diversity with their randoms. Unfotunately, no fire or air. Blade Wind, Gifts from Heaven, and Falling Frosts are achievable. To make best use of the lesser, astral mages you'll need Light of the Northern star. Then spamming Stellar Casscade and Paralyze becomes an option.

Summons:

I haven't tried out any of their later summons, though they seem thuggable, especially with air and astral magic for mobility purposes.

[Hadrian_II]

There where quite some threads about kailasa, one recently so you should be able to find it.

Also reading lord bobs "Monkey PD" thread is quite funny.

OmikronWarrior said:
Troops:

Three castes for three types: Chaff, stealth, hp heavy infantry. Except for Bandar swordsmen, they are all resource light. Atavi Archers (9g,3r) can be easily massed to beat up on low protection indies right off the bat. Unfotunately, for such an archer heavy nation it lacks easy access to the best buffs for archers: wind guide and flaming arrows. Stealth units are weak, and the stealth commander only has +0, meaning he can only pick on weak PD. An OK use, and giving your +50 scout a crown of command strikes me as maybe worthwhile for larger stealth forces. Meanwhile, they're sacred units have all sorts of problems. OK HP (20+), but despite a recruitable everywhere sacred they're priests are capitol only... and only H1. That, and the sacreds have really low protection. Two attacks and reasonable defense, so maybe W9 might work, but then again they're all magic units making using them even tougher. Long story short, I think you need an awake SC.

Kailasa can go for a heavy bless, and i would not reccomend water, as with celestial music you will get quickness for free. Also when you use archers, you will cause much friendly fire on your sacreds, so i would only use archers to counter enemy archers.

OmikronWarrior said:
Pretender Design:

Right now I'm experimenting with the four armed pretenders. 3 weapons and a shield strikes me as the way to go, and with 2N2S2E income natural, they'll have the gems to build some good equipment after a few turns. However, only 1 of the 3 four armed chasises comes with fear and reasonable protection, so using them to attack right off the bat appears problematic.

Kailasa does not need an SC, as blessed yavanas can take care of almost anything. You can start all 2 or 3 turns a new expanding party. (As kalasa, its easier for you to take on Elephants and Cavalry than archers, so provinces others wont take are free for you to get)

OmikronWarrior said:

Scales:

With a 80 gold sacred mage, magic seems like a good pick as these guys can become the engine for your reasearch economy. As a bonus, they're astral amd can be used in communes later on. No reason not to take Order 3 and Hot 2. If you want to amass Bandar Swordsmen (r17), than maybe breaking even on the production seems to be the sweet spot. Otherwise, sloth-3 for sure. With no old age mages, death 3 is an option, but then you start detracting from your gold scales and supplying your large armies of monkeys becomes a problem. Also, you'll pretty much have to take luck if you take death, which isn't the best synergy with order.

Mages:

The 3E1N1? and 3W1N1? mages are expensive and capitol only, but can provide some nice path diversity with their randoms. Unfotunately, no fire or air. Blade Wind, Gifts from Heaven, and Falling Frosts are achievable. To make best use of the lesser, astral mages you'll need Light of the Northern star. Then spamming Stellar Casscade and Paralyze becomes an option.

You have good access to air magic later in the game, as most of your summons will have high air magic.

OmikronWarrior said:
Summons:

I haven't tried out any of their later summons, though they seem thuggable, especially with air and astral magic for mobility purposes.

Gandharvas are of the best troops you can get in the game, so i would summon lots of them.

Kinnaras are able to cast arrow fend on your armies to guard against your bigges weakness.

Also the latest summons have quite some SC capability.
Rudras for example have A3F3D3, so they can cast Soul vortex, phoenix pyre, fire shield, mistform before they kill everything that moves around

[Shovah32]

Also, Kailassa is one of the nations who actually has their bless pay off even more later in the game than in the start.

Gandharvas buffed with celestial music and lead by national summoned commanders.

The summoned commanders are good mages, good priests(you complained about priests), good leaders and good combatants/raiders(access to teleport and cloud trapeze depending on unit).
I can't go over specific blesses/SCs builds ect not, but I will say that I agree with Hadrians comment about the awesomeness of Rudras.
Great magic, storm power and storm flight and 4 arms makes them great SCs.
Cloud trapeze+the previous makes them great raiders. 4 arms, flight, high attack, nice strength and cloud trapeze makes them great SC killers - hit the SC before he buffs with 4 high damage weapons or cast phoenix pyre first if he buffs several times and you are worried about dying(if you get the first strike you really should be killing most SCs and basically all thugs in the first run).