about turn 220, i just killed the sheaim and rested up my army, i knew the dragon horde was nearby cause several of my new conquests were completely enveloped by barbarian culture, i thought i would take my veterans and go wipe out acheron since the bulk of my army was sitting right there. Should have been more than enough to deal with the beast.
Bam, eight fire elementals show up, fortunately just out of reach of attacking any of my cities or armies. I look around and locate the dragon sitting on 8 sons of bit... wait, thats not right, sons of something anyway. all spawning heavily promoted very powerful fire elementals with 30 percent collaterial damage. They were going to get atleast 2 turns worth of pain on any army i sent after them, who would then be faced with the task of felling the sons, and mundane defenders, plus the wee little dragon.
My first thought was maelstrom, since i knew everyone had fire resistence so the fireballs would be a waste. 3 mages did a whoppin 14 percent combined damage max to one guy(most guys were hit for around 6-8 tops) so they appear to be sporting some serious magic resistence, so that didn't look like it was going to work, they'd be rested by the next turn while fire elementals slammed into me
I hurled a couple of fireballs for fun. basically accomplished nothing.
I thought about catapults, but at one move, that gauranteed 2 turns of pain would be more like 5.
I didn't have any good summons.(and no summoner trait), or the free promotions to get them, that might have done some good.
I was at a loss. anything i sent was going to be slaughtered before it ever reached acherons front porch to fight. And it was going to be so bad that sending in a hero or heavily promoted guy would practically gaurantee his loss. It was looking like overwhelming numbers of throw-away green recruits was my only real option.
Thankfully for me, the amurites hadn't used their world spell yet, and cast it right then, i was able to rush about a half dozen catapults into production with the few existing i had, and use the 20 turns to station a massive army one tile away without worrying about the elementals, taking him and his whole family out just before the world spell ended, still with heavy losses, but no where near the massacre i was looking at.
This is not about whether acheron is too powerful now, rather i'm looking for hints and tips on how to deal with him. As i got lucky. It would have taken a long time to build up a sufficient throw-away army or raise some descent summoners, and i'm still not sure that would have worked too well.
Anybody got a tactic or two i overlooked, something that worked for you.
Bam, eight fire elementals show up, fortunately just out of reach of attacking any of my cities or armies. I look around and locate the dragon sitting on 8 sons of bit... wait, thats not right, sons of something anyway. all spawning heavily promoted very powerful fire elementals with 30 percent collaterial damage. They were going to get atleast 2 turns worth of pain on any army i sent after them, who would then be faced with the task of felling the sons, and mundane defenders, plus the wee little dragon.
My first thought was maelstrom, since i knew everyone had fire resistence so the fireballs would be a waste. 3 mages did a whoppin 14 percent combined damage max to one guy(most guys were hit for around 6-8 tops) so they appear to be sporting some serious magic resistence, so that didn't look like it was going to work, they'd be rested by the next turn while fire elementals slammed into me
I hurled a couple of fireballs for fun. basically accomplished nothing.
I thought about catapults, but at one move, that gauranteed 2 turns of pain would be more like 5.
I didn't have any good summons.(and no summoner trait), or the free promotions to get them, that might have done some good.
I was at a loss. anything i sent was going to be slaughtered before it ever reached acherons front porch to fight. And it was going to be so bad that sending in a hero or heavily promoted guy would practically gaurantee his loss. It was looking like overwhelming numbers of throw-away green recruits was my only real option.
Thankfully for me, the amurites hadn't used their world spell yet, and cast it right then, i was able to rush about a half dozen catapults into production with the few existing i had, and use the 20 turns to station a massive army one tile away without worrying about the elementals, taking him and his whole family out just before the world spell ended, still with heavy losses, but no where near the massacre i was looking at.
This is not about whether acheron is too powerful now, rather i'm looking for hints and tips on how to deal with him. As i got lucky. It would have taken a long time to build up a sufficient throw-away army or raise some descent summoners, and i'm still not sure that would have worked too well.
Anybody got a tactic or two i overlooked, something that worked for you.