Help with the Ardent Mages

[Infernal Machine]

I absolutely love the faction's lore and units, but I'm having trouble succeeding as the Ardent Mages. I could use a few pointers, especially for the early game. I seem to fall behind economically rather fast. I tried using pillars every now and then, but it doesn't seem to really help all that much. Am I playing the Ardent Mages wrong?

[Papa Sheep]

I've been playing around with them a bit recently and struggled as well. The pillars are nice, but all the extra tech they get reallly seems to hurt them. They do seem great at conquest, at least early on since with their hero they can output insane amounts of damage on units. They also get 2 free units early on in their quest which helps if you want to rush someone and get a free capital early on.

Afterwards is where I start to stuggle though, do I unlock all their unique units and just try for supremacy win or do I sit back and build up? With units and pillars and parley requiring research though it feels like they can't unlock very many useful buildings and my FIDS output stuggles a bit here.

[Barefoot]

The Ardent Mages are -all- about the pillars. Their optimal city setup is completely different from the norm, for example, with a formation like --+-+-- being optimal. That's 9 districts in a line of five, with four others above and below (or to either side), such that there's one open hex between them. The pillars go in those open hexes where they can cover all 7 hexes as expoited as a primary placement, that you should try to maintain at all times, then in the other four spots where they can cover six hexes, once you're rolling in dust.

If you didn't realize, this means that the central hexes, especially the level 2 districts, are double or even triple covered by pillars, because yes, they do stack.

Due to that, they do need to specialize their cities, but then, city specialization is a good idea anyway.

Ardent Mages are also one of the only factions in which you -do- want to unlock all of their units, though you could get away with not unlocking the Enequa Wing.

As for early game... all early game progression is pretty much the same, unless you're playing one of the races that completely disables certain elements (Cultists, Forgotten, Broken Lords). Otherwise it's the same as ever: Scouting Party -> Alchemist Furnace -> Language Square (unless Necro) -> Resource production to cover any FIDSI you're struggling with -> Science production -> Remaining Resource Production -> Hero Market Unlock, and... by then you should have a really solid economy, regardless of who you're playing, and be into Era II, able to start specializing toward a victory type, and picking technologies accordingly.

[DeadMan_Playing]

i know, weird bumb, but i was struggling too ...

And so about your pillar theory ... sorry but I don't see it.
By turn 90 I still only had the two basic pillar, science and movement, and doing a donut with your city to grab maybe 10 science ? who gives a ???

Next game i ignore the mage tech until i have some sort of basic economy going.

you sure you don't play on a custom-kiddie map, Barefoot ? Because if you have the time to play factorio with your districts, i dunno ...

also, 9 districts ? wouldn't call that early game ...

gaaaah i'm pissed to lose

[DeadMan_Playing]

sent a friend invite, Infernal Machine.

Maybe in 6 years you became a golden god at endless legend ?

lol maybe

[Gilmoy]

Ardent Mages are truly unique. They're not trivial to play. Relish the challenge.

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0. Teslem Warlocks as Cav-likes
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Ardent Mages' Teslem Warlocks are Infantry, but you should think of them as Cavalry.
They're fast, battle speed 3+1 = 4, same as Minotaur. They can sprint to enemy flags.
They're flimsy, almost glass-cannon weak. Keeping them alive is your lasting challenge.

Ergo, you want to assimilate, not a Cavalry minor faction, but a goon Infantry one.
You need serious beef in your front line, like Urces Rumbler or Delvers Dredge.
Also assimilate a healer (but you do that with every faction, regardless).

Later, you can get some mileage out of having battle movement 5 Teslem Warlocks who aren't Cavalry, so that they ignore the other side's nasty Cavalry Slayer bonuses. Conversely, beware of enemy Infantry with Infantry Slayer.

Era I Ateshi Zealot is a decent ranged unit. You can research them and call it done, or research an assimilation tech and assimilate a longbow minor faction for Flying Slayer.

Era II Eneqa Wing is a luxury, which I usually skip. It does none of the tactical roles well:
- it's not fast, to hit flags as a Cav-like (Nidya are better, but they're a bit weak, too)
- it's not beefy, like Kazanji (and even they're not beefy enough to survive in the line)
- its egg gimmick is blah, because it presumes you plan to lose a fight at all

For fast pearl collection, I usually buy merc Nidya from the marketplace, or rarely assimilate a flyer. I almost never can afford to wait until the end of Era II just to fill the flyer role.

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Ardent Mages' city layout + tech plan are totally different from every other faction.
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Don't play Ardent Mages the same way you play Vaulters.
Whatever you can do that way, Vaulters will beat you at it.
Ergo, don't try the buyout economy ("Broken Mages").

For fun, and because you're not here to goof around, go all-in with the Ardent Mages Way.
Trust its power to increase geometrically, and pay off in the long run.

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1. 2xN stick + polyps
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Build concavities into your cities, and put pillars in them.

The simplest shape is a classic 2xN stick, +two 1-tile polyps, 1 on the north edge and 1 on the south edge. Each polyp is 1 Borough Streets (or any other district) that sticks out of your 2xN city, changing its perimeter. Each polyp gives you 2 interior corners. Put 2 pillars in those interior corners, so that they're adjacent to 3 districts each.

A pillar in such a concavity is (self-)adjacent to 3 districts + 3 exploitations = 6 city tiles.
That math does pay off. Trust its power. Late-game AM goes absolutely parabolic with radius-2 pillars.

Don't build a donut. It trashes your Approval.
Trust the basic 2xN stick with minimal protrusions.

The polyps inevitably saddle every AM city with -10 Approval * number of polyps, because they're always extra end-districts that cannot ever level up to L2. That's why I suggest only 2 of them. -20 Approval per city is tolerable in the midgame.

Anyways, your midgame goal is to Conquer the World, by invading, capturing, and keeping 20-40 cities all Fervent. So you're already handling -200 to -400 Expansion Disapproval via the usual mechanisms, namely 2 techs * -25% each + the Era V legendary deed for -50% + Era V +Approval techs. In that light, an extra -30 to -40 Disapproval for polyps sticking out of your 2xN stick is a minor detail.

N.B. when you're racing an AI to win that deed by getting to 30 pop or 15 districts first, spam 3-5 of your radius-2 +food pillar on a large city, and you'll easily earn 5k-10k food per turn, which means +1 pop per turn, food bar remains at same %, and any excess food above that you shrug and discard. No other faction can pump +Food like this.

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2. Dust for multiple pillars
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In early game, you can afford 1-2 pillars at a time.
In mid-game, you can afford 3-5 at a time.
In late game, you can buy 10-12 at a time, all the time, and they're radius-2 over big cities.

Pump dust by the same means as other factions. That means:
+ trade routes (and those techs)
+ Era II Alchemical Armor for the +2 dust/pop accessory on certain governors
(in cities you devote to all pop in dust)
+ Eclipses

The cost per pillar goes up, but that's what your dust is for.
Get here once, and see for yourself the true splendor of a midgame AM empire.

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3. All AM Techs, All the Time
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Research all 7 pillar techs you don't start with.
Diligently finish your faction quest. (But you do that with every faction.)

3 techs give you Pillars of Influence, Dust, and Food. All 3 are very good.
Seriously consider not researching the equivalent Era I/II techs.

The starting Pillar of Science is good. You still want Public Library, for the +% boost.
Skip Era II Glory of Empire. Trust your +Influence pillars to replace it.
Skip Era III Plow Factory. Use your +Food pillar.

Skip the +movement pillar. It's so rarely useful, you can ignore it and still win.

4 techs give you +1 Arcana Level each, to arcana level 5.
Near the end of your faction quest, you get +2 arcana levels, to a maximum of level 7.

High arcana level is a game-changer.
Arcana level 3 gives you radius-2 pillars. Then you earn get 2^2 = 4x as much.

At arcana levels 1-4, your Incantation of Enervation stuns for only 1 round, but lasts 2.
That's deliberate. You get to pin-stun a hex-ring of up to 7 enemies, every other round.
On rounds 1, 3, and 5, they don't move, act, nor counterattack.
Your cav-like Teslems land free hits, and don't get Disease from a necro's counterattack.

Enervation works in sea battles on Tempest ships
Your ships don't get lit on fire by Endless Flames' AoE counterattack.
It also works vs. Guardians, because (haha) it's not a debuff, and vs. Urkans.

At arcana levels 5-7, your Incantation of Enervation stun-locks for 2 rounds out of 2.
Yes, that's exactly as sick as it sounds. If you want to flex your massive Dust income and pay 3 times, you can stun-lock a ring of defenders for the entire battle.

Their Disease means nothing.
Their Neros' Tidal Charge means nothing.
Their Serum of Iteru means nothing.
Enervation trumps it all. There is no defense against it.

Corollary: If you're playing against Ardent Mages. kill them before they get this far.

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4. All Enervation, All the Time
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Cast Incantation of Enervation. You might cast it 300 times in a 120-turn win.

All other Incantations you might cast 1-5 times, total, combined. They're that blah.
Tiny buffs/debuffs, or tiny heals, don't move the needle for me.

This is one part of the AM design that probably didn't come out well.
Amplitude should have made the other incantations more worthwhile.

There was 1 time in ~3 AM playthroughs where my Boarding Vessel was nearly dead, and it had to take an enemy's Endless Flames counterattack 1 round and not die. That was the only time I've ever cast the healing Incantation. (Yes, it works on Tempest ships. It might be useful for that reason alone.) I normally bring my own assimilated healers, but there are no ship-healers in naval fights. I didn't really need to win that ship battle, but I was flexing my dust.

AM is dust-heavy, to pay for pillars. So you must be already experienced/good at building up to the Era III-IV +dust economy. That means long trans-oceanic trade routes, so it embeds successful seaborne invasions as a subtask.

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Ardent Mages are one of my favorite factions, after Cultist and Kapaku. What Kapaku do with volcanoforming, Ardent Mages do with pillars. Get 10 radius-2 pillars in play at once, scroll out to wide view, and bask in their soothing pulsations as they sweep their effects over your vast cities. Urkans totally stole that pulsating effect from Ardent Mages.