1 vs 1 MA mictlan

[earcaraxe]

Hi!

im looking for some ideas to not suck big time in 1vs1. My last two games was vs one of my friend, he played MA marignon, i did MA mictlan. It was on silent seas, and i managed to get in an unhopeful situation by turn 16 (again). His main army of 100 consisted of crossbowmen, pikeneers and a dozen knights of chalice. I had only 1 extension fort (he had none), and I couldnt defend it: crossbowmen just made sieves of the jaguar warriors and the mercs i bought, and those knights proved practically invulnerable (it was a series of 3 battles).

Nearest mountain (not-1200ish fort) from my capitol was 5 provinces far.

I basically didnt buy any other units, perhaps it would have made a little difference, but im not sure it would have been enough, those shieldwearing guys seem pretty weak against this kind of army. perhaps the naked slingers... but those guys have the tendency to shoot down the jaguars too.

I went for an F9 N4 B4 bless (and O3S3H3M1), his scales were better financially (O3P3G?M1 F4W4S4).

obviously no substantial research could have been carried out.
I bought a lot of priest kings for smiting, and one of them casting fanaticism as prophet.

I chose that bless bc i think its quite good for the eagle warriors (of which i had no time:S).

I have the idea of going with dom10, only jaguars, no new forts, B8F9W9 or something, awful scales, no magic research at all, and rush him straight. I wonder if any other strategies are viable tho.

thanks

[13lackGu4rd]

1v1 in a small map definitely favors a heavy bless strategy. so yeah, even with MA Mictlan I'd go for a heavy bless despite Jags being cap only for MA, game should end relatively quickly... however, against a crossbow heavy army I'd say ditch Jags for some Eagles as they can fly right into the crossbowmen and rip them apart. let the Jags in front hold off the Knights of the Chalice and his weakling infantry and you're golden. oh and you might wanna get an additional fort or 2 quickly, as your expenses won't be that bad just recruiting sacreds and mages(Mictlan Priests to start with, not the more expensive fellows) so you can let your cap pump pure Jags and your additional forts support with Eagles.

[LDiCesare]

Hi. F9 N4 B4 is really weak for Mictlan.
You have 2 main sacred units: Jaguar and eagle warriors. Jags are cap only. Eagle warriors are GREAT. If you have only 1 fort, namely your capital, you should probably produce some of them rather than only jags.
Eagle warriors fly and should slaughter enemy crossbowmen with ease. Divine blessing + attack archers.

Now this: dom10, only jaguars, no new forts, B8F9W9
Dom10 yes. Only jaguars no. No new forts: You certainly can use 1 fort with a temple. B8F9W9: Why?
You want an army of jaguar warriors + eagle warriors + eagle warriors + chaff (slingers, slaves, whatever as long as they catch a few arrows/bolts instead of your sacreds).
What do you want Blood for? + Strength? That's rather useless. F9 already deals additional damage, you don't need that unless you're facing Abysia, in which case F9 is overkill as you only use the +att.
W9: Great for jaguars to reach enemies faster, and dodge in melee. Unfortunately, they'll be turned into pincushions by crossbowmen before you can use them.
I'd rather go F9S9 with an additional N4 or E4 if you can spare the points. N4 is to reduce the number of afflicted jaguars, and E4 to provide reinvig to your casters. S9 saves your eagle warriors once, making them much more resilient.
Slaves can make nice arrow decoys. They cost nothing, die immediately, but can distract the first bolts easily. Particularly considering the crossbow shoots only every other turn, removing the first volley with worthless free chaff is interesting.

In terms of research, you have N2+ with priests and nahualli. This means Wooden Warriors will become available at some point, and this can help your troops a bit. Thaumaturgy can also be useful as you've got lots of astral mages ready for communion. Body ethereal by a few nahualli (or moon priests) can also help boost your eagle warriors on hold+attack rearmost.

[chrispedersen]

Read my guide for MA mictlan; its in one of the threads about MA mictlan.

Personally I am not very impressed with MA-Marignon - you should have no problems.

Personally, I would look at a completely double major bless, comprised amongst F9 S9 W9 or A9.

No one likes Air bless but if you know he's going crossbow it will work fine.

Personally I'd go F9 W9. You will probably not get to the end game - so I like the strength of all combat F9W9 fight. Go with a Dominion of 8, or so, preferably with Magic 1, Order 3, sloth 3, heat 3.

You should be able to field one expansion force a turn. Ie., one priest and 8 jagwarriors, two slingers per turn.

You should VASTLY out expand him in the early game. Make sure to bid on the mercenaries - not because you want them, but because you don't want HIM to have them.

Finally,. very few people realize the power of the nahuli. Make magic duel your first target, and cast it in your second form. With map move three, flying, You should be able to have mage supremacy any time you wish it.

Against the royal guards, use tanglevines, bond of fire, etc, although your jags will eat em for lunch.

If you are using a random map you definitely want to turn border mountains off. If you can build a 2nd for on turn 3ish you should, regardless of the tax rate required.

[Rytek]

In a 1v1 its all about the big bless or an awake pretender.

Since Mictlin has such great sacreds, lets go this route.

One of the very unique features that Mictlin has is flying sacreds. We are going to utilize this with their dual wield capability.

Try an Awake Great Sage with S9, F9. You have to trash your scales to get this, but thats ok. Dom 8, Sloth 3, Turmoil 3, Death 3, Luck 3, magic -3.

This puts your great sage at 44 research. you will recruit nothing but eagle warriors straight fron the start for your sacreds. 15X8= 120 g every round. A Nuahi when you can and rain priets if you get any good gold events. round out your recruits with slingers.

Alt 3 should be your research goal. Which is easily done before the first year is done with your great sage researching. Find your enemies capitol and head straight for it. Put your slingers up front with hold and attack closest enemies. Your mass of eagle warriors will be at the rear with hold and attack archers.Nuahi's change to turkeys and fly in to support major battles. Every Nuahi and rain priest you have should be casting Body ethereal and quickness on the eagle warriors. 5 Nuahi's can get 15 blocks of eagle warriors ethereal. Which is 45 eagle warriors. Even 1 rain priest casting quickness can get quickness off on 9 of those eagle warriors before liftoff.

Add a few of the air mages behind your block of slingers up front casting eagle eyes and flase fetters X3 to tie up calvary and pikes at the center of the fight.

With this build you want your mages out buffing your army.Let the great sage do the researching. And the turkey form really allows flexibilty.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

What do you want Blood for? + Strength? That's rather useless. F9 already deals additional damage, you don't need that unless you're facing Abysia, in which case F9 is overkill as you only use the +att.

Just for the record, there are definitely cases where the b8 bless is better for damage than f9. For example, e9 knights of the chalice would be more or less immune to the 6ap damage that f9 gives you. 6ap damage is more or less only useful on things with up to maybe 16 prot. Anything higher than that and the b8 is easily better. The +attack from fire is always useful though.

Anyway, there seems plenty of good advice in this thread, and I think next time you fight a duel against marignon, you'll do much better. Just remember if you're fighting a duel and you have good sacreds, to tailor them to the enemy you're fighting. There's no reason not to!

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Finally,. very few people realize the power of the nahuli. Make magic duel your first target, and cast it in your second form. With map move three, flying, You should be able to have mage supremacy any time you wish it.

Nice tip! I guess usually you'll get an affliction from a lost magic duel but that's better than a dead mage.

[chrispedersen]

No, not usually. But usually I script them for 2xMagic Duels.
If you're fighting marignon - who cares if they get afflicted. Magic duel still works unless you got feebleminded with a headshot =).

[earcaraxe]

thanks for the geat ideas guys! I managed to claim a decisive victory before the end of the first winter, then he gave up. using a variation of Rytek's startegy.