So giants vs humans.

[Kyso4ek]

So are they better or worse in combat? Cant decide rly. They have a very nice damage and can 1shot 10 prot humans but they are 1 per square instead of 3 per square.

[Unrelatedpants]

Depends on the giant, and on the human (of course!).

You've touched on one major issue of giants in melee in that there are fewer of them (both per square and usually overall in the fight). They squish one guy, but then they get 3-6 attacks back at them each time, which means they will be hit several times a round, especially once you factor in the -2 def per additional attack received.

It's not a massive disadvantage by itself, but definitely something to keep in mind when making your plans.

[Syzy]

Depends what giants you are playing. Argarthan EA Giants are sacared and can gain blessings like nobodies business, and require no supply while having 40 hp and 18 strenth, with good armor and weapons, just poor precsion and attack skill. Go with Hammon, they have either astral or blood throught all ages, and nature magic, which you need for supply

[Shinuyama]

Gold for gold, always worse.

The exceptions to this are blessed sacred giants, who with reinvig and prot and regen can live forever if you have enough of them to hold a line.

And in rare circumstances, well armoured giants when you have enough of them to hold a line will win battles vs less gold of humans but without taking casualties.

Against actually good human units, or those with buffs or evo support, giants fare very poorly.

[Kyso4ek]

Well thats what i thought when i tried giants yes they rly dont seem good. But first i heard someone mentioning "giant rushing" so i thought right so giants must be super good melees early what could that mean?

[commiesocialist]

Perhaps they mean niefel giants? Or to a lesser extent any of the sacred giants that Shinuyama referred to. Giant HP with N9 (E4+ doesn't hurt) is somewhat difficult to handle with just basic troops and no battle magic.

[tiavals]

It really depends entirely on who you're fighting. Heavily armored foes with poor weapons = giants rule. Poorly armored foes with good weapons = giants stink.

Also, it depends on what sort of spells you can use to give the giants more power. Some spells favor giants, others favor scores of weak units.

Late game evocation spells tend to do low damage to a large area, which kills weak units easily, but won't kill giants in one shot. This can be a huge advantage, or not, depending on a million things! :)

Overall any giant with low Prot is very weak. Giants with high Prot tend to be worth their price. (This of course varies depending on who you fight and what spells THEY can cast).

[Tomsdeli]

they were refering to some sacred gaints. early game a 9N blessed gaint is hard to kill. they can easily wipe out many times more gold then what they cost. they dont lose many (any?) to indys and have a large stack of sacreds that go from expansion into invasion force.

you basically need magic support to drop them. a equal gold number of humans will have a near impossible time killing them. like everything in dominions this isnt always true but is a fair assumption.

but consider the major trade off here. your looking at cap only sacreds that you pumped a whole lot of your pretender points into. if you should lose a major battle you basically cant replenish your forces for many many turns. gaint rushes use a hard to kill N9 blessing to try and eat a neighbor quickly and just be bigger then anyone else.

[Shinuyama]

tiavals, 'gold for gold' means gold cost vs gold cost. The vast majority of your advice is very wrong. You are probably thinking of battles where you brought 2 or 3x the goldcost in giants that the enemy brought in human troops.

With equal gold cost giants only win vs very inferior human troops that no decent player will be relying on. They are also vastly more vulnerable to most magic paths than properly spread out human troops.

[Tomsdeli]

nope. as hes talking a rush im fairly confident im right.

most players dont have counters up so little to no mage support. you have what a 3/3 research going? maybe a hair more and if you went const it gets much harder.

the other thing is its a rush. while most nations have a fair amount of attrition. N9 gaints dont. just having a equal cost of troops is very hard vs a gaint nation. considering all players are compentent the only real differance would come in farmlands or scales. a couple gaints worth of gold. this is the main factor as you have to muster enough troops and its still just to early.

few nation recruit units that stomp gaints for their expansion force. this might also lead to a disparity overall as your forces are not set for a war with gaints but indys.

i guess when i write it out your prob right here. disparity in expansion force losses as well as low research on top of what can be unoptimal troops. factoring it up it does look like several small factors for a sharp advantage in a rush. not so much them being signifigantly weaker.

[Shinuyama]

if your name isn't tiavals i'm probably not replying to you specifically

I said there was an exception for super-elite giants

also people often don't buy mages, don't build forts etc in order to power a n9 sacred giant rush, so they often still outgold their opponents

[Tomsdeli]

sorry thought you meant trivial. m bad.

[MrMurLock]

Like the others have stated, giants are the kind of unit that you really need to understand well to use properly.
I highly recommend you try Nifelheim if you wanna dabble in giants. Their spreading cold dominion and Nifel giants are incredibly fun to play.