EA Ermor Strategy and Tactics--Critique and Embellish

[Verjigorm]

Keep in mind I have read and have access to the guides. These are just a few things that I do. I'm wondering how well any of these would fare in MP (which I haven't done except in 1v1 since Dom2).

1. Augur Elders can be recruited from every province, so I make a habit of hiring LOTS of them. However, they are weak and old. When in siege against castles, they frequently die from arrow fire and various other ranged attacks. To protect them...

I leave an unconquered province within range of my production centers, cast Twiceborn and run the Augur's to the province. Not only does it significantly improve the mage's statistics and prevent them from acquiring afflictions, but it has a chance to give them an additional book of Death magic for just 10 gems. Wight mages are nice.

2. Since my cap-only's are the lovely Equite of the Sacred Shroud and Arch Bishop of the Sacred Shroud (*sarcasm* What's that you say? There's a regular Bishop, too? I didn't know that!).. I hire an Arch Bishop EVERY TURN non-stop except on turn 1 when I hire an Augur Elder. These Arch Bishops form the core of my early armies and provide me with access to a lovely tactic in the future as well (Keep in mind I don't like them as much as the summonable H3 priests that other nations have, but hey... they're good Smiters).

The basic setup with my current scales is to create 4 Arch Bishops, combine with an indy mounted commander, and then as many Equites as I can produce--filled out by Hastatus depending on Holy/Resource ratio, and then Hastatus production for 2-3 turns from two other castles as well as 4-6 Augur Elders. These are nice forces and produce 1 every 4 turns from my main centroid. Keep in mind I make other things, but I find this grouping formidable. My bless is A6D6 which isn't great, but it protects my Arch Bishops later when...

I found that the Arch Bishops FREQUENTLY find their way onto the Hero's board and, thus, I like to make mummies out of them. Keep in mind that having your PROPHET die once he's on the board is a good thing because when you mummify him and reprophetize him, he gets 5H which is bad ***. Once mummified, I use the priests as thugs since Smite loses some of its punch late game and a thugified mummy 3H priest has Holy Avenger spreads leprosy and is an all around great guy especially if they get HP boost as their red coin ability.

As for what I put on the thuggy mummies...

Frost Brand, Scutata Volturnus, Wraith Crown, Red Dragon Scale Mail (to reduce fire vulnerability), Boots of Quickness (because 2 AP isn't enough), Ring of Regeneration, and then...

I put void eyes on some without thinking and then realized that I wasn't using them to Smite anymore, but to thug... and decided to use Amulet of Anti-Magic or Pendant of Luck instead. They seem to have lowered magic resistance but they get +3MR with the bless, so I think I favor Anti-magic, but not sure.

My research targets were:

Enchantment 2 for Skele-spam.
Conjuration 2 for Dark Knowledge
Evocation 2 for Arcane Probing
Thaumaturgy 2 for Site Searches
Enchantment 4 for Behemoth and Twiceborn (I went heavy on the Enchantment because I picked up a Nexus (Ench-20%) early on).
Conjuration 8 for Well of Misery
Construction 6 for magic boosters and thug equipment.
Enchantment 8 for Lichcraft, Eternal Pyre, and Stellar Focus (that I put up just because it's hard to pass up for 20% off).
Construction 8 for Dimensional Rod, Sceptre of Dark Regency, and the Chalice all of which I made within 2 turns of reaching Con8. I might have needed to do this earlier in MP...

Now I'm contemplating:

Enchantment 9 for Arcane Nexus
Thaumaturgy 8 for various battle magic, Black Death and Stygian Paths
but I think
Conjuration 9 is probably the best way to go for Tart gate especially since I have the Chalice and GoR already.

I like the Behemoths when they only cost 8 gems, whereas when they cost 10 gems, i was reluctant to take them. I'm sure that those gems would probably be better spent on tarts or liches instead, though...

Liches + Thaumaturgy seems like a powerful defensive combination since my dominion is pretty good, and tarts are so "usual". The wight mages and non-upgraded augurs are pretty good, too though and more versatile.

Thoughts?

[chrispedersen]

I think its well written and considered;
I think that I would prefer to retain twiceborn rather than the extra level of death.

I prefer the everywhere mage rather than the old elders. Good value for money.

It is of slight benefit to build forts in swamps. Cheap for you and you have access to swamp natives.

[Maerlande]

I think that I would prefer to retain twiceborn rather than the extra level of death.

This confuses me. If they are already reborn how do you retain them? Perhaps I need to brush up on my ESL.

It is of slight benefit to build forts in swamps. Cheap for you and you have access to swamp natives.

My favourite are the swamp beavers. Supposedly the most effective seducers in the game. But remember to shave.

[Verjigorm]

I use the Wight Mages on excursions outside my own dominion frequently. For inside dominion attack and defense, I have Lichs which are much more expensive, but permanently immortal. Twiceborn is wasted if my Augur Elder dies in enemy territory, and I would prefer to take a 2F1S4D Wight Mage that only cost 10 (8 in the current game with my nexus) gems into enemy territory than a lich who can't die in my dominion that cost 30 (24) gems. Also... I found that Teleporting to your own province when it has a Dome of Flaming Death up is also a convenient way of transforming Twiceborned mages, but since you lose all of his gear in the process, it's more money than it's worth (Yes, I wasted a Starshine Skullcap).

The other recruit-everywhere mage, the Augur, is FS, and while useful for research and a bit of Evocation (in reverse communions especially), pales in comparison to the raw power you get with an Augur Elder which can be used in the same fashion.

I selectively transform my Augur Elders with Twiceborn when an Augur Elder comes up with 3D because the transformed Wight Mage with then have 4D which means he can go into battle with 5D or 6D depending on equipment which he doesn't really even need to be awesome.

I build fortifications opportunistically to defend multi-site provinces, recruit larger numbers of interesting indy units or for strategic positioning. I rarely base the choice of location on the cost or build time of the fort. "Swamp" or "Hill" terrain would be a far-off 4th ranking criteria after:

1. Special Site
2. Interesting Independent Unit
3. Strategic Position

With those three criteria in mind, I usually don't have the extra money to build forts purely on the basis of terrain type.

[chrispedersen]

Well, if you check my earlier ermorian advice.. I am usually swimming in money;

Death is usually so easy to advance in (moundfiends, skull staff etc) that I use twiceborn solely as a safeguard against death, rather than a method to gain a path.

[Verjigorm]

Yes, I did notice my giant money pool... I'm massing Augurs (FS Mages) now for a Reverse Communion test.... I get 4 augurs for about the same price as one Augur Elder, so that's...

Or I was massing Augurs... something is corrupt and I can't open the save game. It says that the high memory block is corrupted.

Do you find the Augurs much more cost effective than the elders?

Augur Elder gets 6.1 paths for 250, but Augur only gets 2 for 80. They seem to be rather expensive to use as communicants for the elders since they have no death paths and elders favor death paths, so I don't think an Elder/Regular combo communion would be favorable past 5 turns...

Which is why I was going for a reverse commune which is basically 2F2S x 3 (1 Master--lowest on the list, 2 Slave communion) for 240 instead of 2F1S2D x 1 for 250, so it seems on the surface to be more efficient in terms of evocation spam.

[chrispedersen]

a lot of people depend on elders for expansion, a path I don't like.

Under this scenario, you research evocation and support an army with mages and go to town.

Against independents, I expand quite reliably using the national troops, and using gladiators as shock troops.

I prefer the augurs, as they have a *much* better research to upkeep ratio, iirc.

The real trick for ermor is what do you do midgame. You have no recruitable thug or SC chassis. Therefor your entire strategy has to revolve around what you are going to do midgame.

To me, that means you need a research advantage - and a very strong one. Which I address by forts, and research augurs everwhere.

[OmikronWarrior]

Man, I tried to write a EA Ermor guide. Namely because I had already picked an awesome title, "Grand Strategy of the Ermor in the Early Age." Unfortunately, I couldn't find much to work with. EA Ermor really feels like it was thrown together with disparate thematic themes that aren't fully developed. This is simultaneously a Fire nation, a Death magic Nation, a Communion dependent nation, and a "new faith" nation (though oddly these units are all capital only).

They have two thing going for them, from memory. First, cheap mages. Use those Augurs to get a lead in research by building numerous forts and having positive magic scales. Later combine with Light of the Northern Star to get some combat potential out of them. Second, solid infantry that can expand on its own. Problem with this is its the age of heavy dual blesses. The soldiers might be able to take on indies, but thats as far as its probably goes.

This nation simply has none of the terror of its later descendents. I guess unlike Rome, Ermor got scarier after its fall.

[Humakty]

Having astral and death on national mages is a good thing. Astral reversed communion augurs must be a frightening sight to those dual blessed (and very costly) sacreds/thugs/SCs.

[chrispedersen]

I quite enjoy playing ermor. And considering I usually enjoy playing bless rush nations - that should say something. Ermor is by no means hopeless; especially if you read my responses on how to play ermor in the other thread (shameless plug).

Ermor has everything you need to defend against a rush.
Glamoured units: slings
High Defense units: One shot gladiators with nets
Elephants: Frighten.

Combine these things with swamp native troops,
(swamps slow the enemy down, make them easier to hit); and add flaming arrows.

And ermor has both death and astral giving you great endgame possibilities. Your expansion against indies is fine.

One of the things that is different for ermor is that a player needs to get good at gauging when to use gladiators. If you are going to take X losses in a fight, you want to arrange to take them in gladiators - rather than in experienced troops.

And transporting gladiators around is a skill in itself. I'm rambling - but gladiators also make pretty darn good siege defenders....