EA Arco - Are Wind Riders or Myrmidons worth it?

[ncarr99]

I've never really played EA Arco much, but am interested in trying them sometime soon, one thing that I question is whether Wind Riders are worth blessing. I figure that it's nice to have a few wind riders for raiding purposes whether heavily blessed or not, but I don't know whether it's worth committing to a major bless for the Wind Riders.

They seem good in some basic tests I've done, but they are very expensive. I've looked up several EA Arco guides, and gotten contradictory answers as to whether they are worth it or not. So I'd like to hear from others here whether they consider Wind Riders worth the time.

Similar question about Myrmidons. They are statistically better than Cardaces, but they are also much more expensive and difficult to mass.

[oldrocker99]

Well, without trying to be snotty, the best way to learn about EA Arco is to just play it. You've gotten differing advice on how to play,so split the middle, and play your own way.

[CHI LONG QUA]

I haven't played the nation, but I think a Wind Rider oriented bless wouldn't be that expensive, it would be at most something like atk skill, str, mweps, undying, bloodsurge. So why not?

[ncarr99]

Originally posted by LINUXoldrocker99:

Well, without trying to be snotty, the best way to learn about EA Arco is to just play it. You've gotten differing advice on how to play,so split the middle, and play your own way.

That's fair, I just don't want to commit to an MP game only to find out a few weeks later that I made a bad call that screws me over a bit if I can help it.

I should also say that the guides I read were a bit outdated, as in Dom 4 era, so part of the reason I'm asking is to get a second opinion from an updated source.

[Torgon]

A build that I absolutely love for EA Arco includes a bless for the wind riders but it's not really for them. It's more for a great early expansion with an powerful/thematic titan. Great wind riders are an added bonus!

Titan of War Wisdom (which is also VERY thematic!)

A4E6S4- Shock Res, Hard Skin, Magic Weapons
Sloth 2 (for your philosophers), H2G3D1

Titan is a beast from the beginning (give her some armor and a helmet)
Wind riders are great with this bless, can pretty much raid anything
Philosophers will research like crazy getting you very high up very fast for your mystics.

Titan eventually falls back to being a summoner (she can get a crap ton of gargoyles to leverage flying even more)/forger/big battle caster.

Basically -

Early game - your titan kicks everyone's ass and you can raid like crazy with a few windriders
Mid-game - Doesn't really exist since your research is so fast with philosophers
Late Game - Massive communions of mystics behind simple armies kill everyone at way earlier point than anyone will have effective counters. While wind riders continue to raid like crazy.

With this setup wind riders are definitely worth it. 55g for a 20 protection flying knight that hits the rear like a ton of bricks that you can also freely drop lightly spells from oriads around with impunity. Plus since most of your research is coming from philosophers your not that gold strapped in the early game.

Myrmidons not so much. I generally think cardaces are just fine as line holders. All your damage in big fights is coming from mystics and oriads. You just need lots of meat shields.

[Mali Belizec]

I played EA arco a bit and tried 2 aproaches.

1. Sloth 2 build is great for research but you have fewer cardaces. In this build I used dormant Athena with her paths set to 4. Weaker army is helped by Athena. Research is second to none.

2. Production 3 build with all scales put to high values and imprisoned pretender. This gives stronger economy but worse research.

In both builds I used wind raders heavily. 5 wr in squad led by wind lord put to guard duty. Wind lord bless 2x and then attack rear.

[Shinuyama]

wind riders are typically used by every single ea arco in dom5 ever

usually a repel bless (atk surge)

you expand with them and then later they raid
you phase them out mostly because you can't afford to stop oreiad production for wind lords later on, although if you find flying indies or can afford air shoes they can still be perfectly viable

[mazirian72]

One of the things I like about arco is there are different viable ways to play them. I’ve had success both with and without an emphasis on wind riders.

[Alias]

Originally posted by ncarr99:

I just don't want to commit to an MP game only to find out a few weeks later that I made a bad call that screws me over a bit if I can help it.

tl;dr: Take imprisoned rainbow.


A relatable sentiment. As the winner (and in one case the late game sub) of half the reported multiplayer victories of EA Arcoscephale in Dominions 5, I can offer some advice. Let's review your options:

1. Fullest Scales aka Light bless with imprisoned pretender. I've seen this win one game, and it's fair to say it would have been the end of another if the admin hasn't gone AWOL, so let's say two victories. Both times the player relied heavily on favorable diplomacy to survive the early game when he'd be super-vulnerable otherwise. Recommended for diplomancers, non-expert games, and for generally IRL lucky people.

2. Awake Expander. Pros: you get more provinces early, you have somebody scary at home. Cons: massive Scales tradeoff, bless can't translate over to national thugs, and last but not least: having lots of provinces makes you a diplomacy target, while having poor Scales in them means you could have done just as well with less and better Scales. I've seen this played, but I haven't seen it win.

3. Awake Stay-at-home-Pretender. Expand and war with Incarnate-blessed wind riders. The pretender offers extra protection for the homeland while contributing to research or sitesearch, then aids to a throne rush via E-spells and claiming. These used to work really well during the first year of Dominions 5, when the publicly-available meta was behind the curve of what it took to stop them. Known victories: 3.

4. Scales aka imprisoned full rainbow. This is what I used in my last victory, and what I'll use when I feel like playing with EA Arco again. Expansion is fast, early war capability is decent, research is very high, staying power of sacreds is reasonable, and it offers all crosspaths on the pretender.

Finally, some advice on what being ahead is like:

- you'll have tons of gold and recruit a lot of oreiads, as well as high numbers of wind lords. You won't have capital time for philosophers.

- you'll have a research edge to critical spells, which you can translate to conquest or even...

...a midgame throne rush. EA Arco midgame is its high point.

- eventually you'll face a coalition trying to stop you from winning.

- late game is less awesome for EA Arco due to others hitting critical research, and lack of troops that readily damage Army of Gold size 4-6 enemy troops. Nevertheless, it's still very winnable.

[Big Dog]

Myrmidons are ok, them and the flying troops are your only "good" troops unless you count the chariots which are much harder to mass in dom5 compared to before due to recruitment points.

if you are not in need of mass siege chaff, you could always recruit the Myrmidons slowly and mix them in with your armies. My biggest problem with the Myrmidons is that they cost 15 gold, but they are one of the higher protection units in EA and when boosted with iron skin (easy for EA Acro to cast) become quite hard to kill.


Blessed Windriders are pretty much required at the start of the game to be able to expand and fight off early rushes as they are your only great unit till your research gets higher and your mages become more valuable. Even simple blesses like rainbow stat boosts make them worth the cost and allow them to do more. I think STR+ and ATCK+ on them is great to let them kill good enemy troops.

[Twogun]

[
"That's fair, I just don't want to commit to an MP game only to find out a few weeks later that I made a bad call that screws me over a bit if I can help it. "

this is literally the description of every MP game i've ever played.

but it's still a blast!

[Telos]

I'd recommend strong scales over investing much in a bless for wind-riders. Even without much of a bless, wind-riders can still be worth recruiting just to diversify your threats and to scare your opponents into positioning armies to defend against flying raids. The Icarid-flying men can work for this purpose too.

Myrmidons are great in small-to-mid-size battles. In large battles their heavy encumbrance becomes really notable. Still they're one of the best EA units for holding a line while your mages do your actual killing.

[BoboYagga]

Originally posted by Alias:

Originally posted by ncarr99:

I just don't want to commit to an MP game only to find out a few weeks later that I made a bad call that screws me over a bit if I can help it.

tl;dr: Take imprisoned rainbow.

I agree with this. Basically start by using them to expand VERY quickly with a strong rainbow bless, Mid game you will want to get Mother Oak up as fast as possible so that you can begin to rely on vine ogres.
The wind riders will always be great shock troops, but you will not want to rely on them in late game or even in mid game. but by then you should have been pretty well set in regards to your economy.
Your main attack spell will probably be gifts from heaven, which ea Arco is great for. Just have all of your troops set to guard various mages so they don't get in the way and let the enemy slog through giant meteors.
The rainbow will also be vital for late game spells.

or... don't, this is just a strat that's worked great for me, but their are a lot of ways to use them! Enjoy!

The main issue is that Ea Arco has great spells but garbage troops to hold the line, so a bless on their only viable troop is a solid strat. but transitioning into a summonable unit is a good way to avoid their otherwise garbage troops