What combinations have any of you found which have just been SO powerful that you have decided that it MUST be a mistake?


Soul Forge + The Order + Free XP Sources (Dies Diei/Altar of Luonnotar/Form of the Titan/Civics)
Units come ready loaded with XP, so they yeild even MORE production than normal, plus half of the XP is granted to another unit in the city.
If there happens to only be 1 other unit in that city...

I always thought vampiric archmages were a bit beyond reasonable.. 3 archmages all with max promotions..

That hippus RoK+Go9 thingy looked pretty overpowered...
And the empyrean hero obviously is :p. Sidar using shadows as GP farms is pretty strong aswell (or building the altar and letting your disciple units get to 26 exp, even stronger with unrestricted leaders (charismatic)!). And there's always the old ToC+infernal trick (200 specialists ftw)

Teach Raise Skeleton + Slaves or Mercs

Instant huge army.

Soul Forge + The Order + Free XP Sources (Dies Diei/Altar of Luonnotar/Form of the Titan/Civics)
Units come ready loaded with XP, so they yeild even MORE production than normal, plus half of the XP is granted to another unit in the city.
If there happens to only be 1 other unit in that city...


But how do you go about killing the disciples?

What xienwolf said, plus Mokka's cauldron. That way when a unit dies it also creates a flesh golem of the same strength. You are allowed to graft other units to the flesh golem, and I belive that their sacrifice may count as another death, giving you more production and more golems.

Oh, it might also be better to change Order to AV (for the demon's altars so you get free research too and an easy way to kill the units) and specify that the civ should be the Elohim, since all units built in cities with Reliquaries get the Spirit Guide promotion for free.


I really don' t think that the wonder should give flesh golems. I never liked that change, but it has gotten worse since BtS. It minimizes the body III spell. Since they are permanent summons if you have more flesh golems from any source (the cauldron can be a source of infinite flesh golems) than body III casters you can't get more, plus the free ones wouldn't get the free mobility and empower promotions like the summons would. Thematically, it should really create undead units still. I'd rather it just give skeletons (or some new almost identical unit so it wouldn't count against the permanent summon limit) with their strength adjusted.

I had thought about adding Mokka's Cauldron to the list, but then you run the risk of getting stuck with your XP going to the Flesh Golem. The real point of mine was to stack up XP from sacrificed units on a single other unit. (I had thought that Soul Forge allowed you to sacrifice a unit, but was confusing it with the Demon's Altar. Only game I used Soul Forge I had been following AV and had altars in all my cities :))

Teach Raise Skeleton + Slaves or Mercs

Instant huge army.

...of strength 4/move 1 units with no promotions that you have to pay upkeep on :\

If the person raising the skeletons has combat V and spell extension II, and you have the Tower of Elements, those skeletons are suddenly 7 strength / 3 movement. And most Amurite spell casters have those promotions.

Even without them, though, it is very difficult to take a city when the person defending it can summon a new army every turn.

Yes, but the complaint was about being able to raise skeletons with all your units (many of which are workers and slaves). Most of these are not arcane, and cannot get extension promotions. (Of course, you could just train it to raise the number allowed, and then only cast it with the strongest units)

um... vampiric baron duin? that was kickass

I don't consider that so overpowered; it is just a really good reason to get lots of units with subdue animal. It really isn't hard to capture your rival's Duin and the lesser werewolves (all unitcombat_animal), at which point the tables really turn.

Maybe I'm just unlucky, I believe that an AI has captured by Baron every time I built him, often before she spawns anything. Sure, I always get him back, but still this strategy isn't hard to counter (then copy :p )

Has anyone tried the Mokka/Soulforge combo with Balseraph arenas?