Following on from that thread on unit combinations. Has anyone use a Mace, ERK, AK combo? (All ranged infantry).
In theory, it's quite powerful because you get great LOS, you can provoke opponents & seige buildings from a distance with the AK, and, if someone comes at you half-heartedly and has to withdraw they'll get punished because they have to withdraw under fire.
I'd probably go light on the AKs (unless there's artillery) and build Mace and EK around what the opponent has.
Had the pleasure of building such a force once, and was looking forward to advancing with it, but my opponent resigned .
Mace & AK hold their own against skirms (and the AKs greater range is useful). I think their upgrades & FP together make them similar to civs with good skirms. You'd just have to watch you ERKs, which would die like HI to skirms.
In that sit, I'd still prob throw some Coyotes at him .
About the coyote/jaguar combo -- you might know this -- although its fun, generally you never want melee + melee units as a combo. One or the other should be ranged.
I just love the cyote/jaguar combo especially if I used the shipment to allow them to go stealthy. That way they can appear right before the enemy and get atleast 2 hits off each before the enemy can fight back, and thats if the units are standing still or the other player notices it quickly.
Though in games that tend to reach age 3 I tend to go heavy on jaguars with thier stealth ability since eveny if the enemy has skirms with 10 warrior priests doing the dance to boost combat ability I find that the jaguars can get an average 2 kills before they die(can't remmber if this is before most of the upgrade cards for units from the noble huts are played.) Another reason why I like the jaguars knights is with all the card upgrades they get 100 siege!!! I can't think of many units who can do this and have stealth and can destroy calv and HI.
AKs don't do bad against skirms. With 40% RR and war dance, they can rain misery on rifle-armed guys :mad: I know from playing Mac that AKs are a royal pain for my needle gunners!
I remember when I was new just as I was starting to test out the aztecs I was playing a 3v3 game and my team was losing. I was spain and the other team for some reason had a problem with me and were all focusing thier attacks on me. So I was forced to hide in my allies base. Though my aztec ally he was only making AKs though he was saying, "man arrow knights pown, I'm just killing the other guys." At that point he was defending his base against 1 guy as the other 2 focused on me and my other teammate.
Advantages
(1) Massive LOS
(2) You can use them to take buildings down at range in relative safety - although not particularly quickly.
(3) You can use them to take artillery out at range
(4) You can provoke your opponent's army with them. AKs can hit them at range and cause them to either withdraw or advance. People tend not to like having their army taking fire even if it's not doing masses of damage.
(5) They're fairly resilient at taking ranged fire.
(6) In some situations, you can fire on your opponent without your opponent being able to see you.
Disadvantages
(1) 2 pop space for what you get is a killer.
(2) Their regular damage is very weak. It's a little like having a skirmisher with no bonuses against HI, LC, etc.
(3) They move slowly
(4) They get mowed down by Heavy Cav, or any other unit that can take them in melee. They're bad against HI because it can engage them in Melee, and, frankly they don't do enough damage to be able to stop it getting there.
Can you imagine if AKs took only 1 pop space. With 40% mining at age 3, etc. you could mass them cheap as chips. Ah... that would be heaven.
Viper's using AK as a fighting unit now, not just anti-Art. He keeps the opponent fighting the coyote/mace etc, so the AK can get LOADS of free shots with their epic 30 range. Works a treat.
Chaos don't forget that wardance comes into play too.
Colossus wouldn't it be more efficient if he spent the resources on more maces and coyotes? I mean, some AK's are good to counter any falcs that show up but their damage is like 10? with a weird ROF isn't it?
Colossus wouldn't it be more efficient if he spent the resources on more maces and coyotes? I mean, some AK's are good to counter any falcs that show up but their damage is like 10? with a weird ROF isn't it?
Yes that's right. An AK does the damage of a Mace - without the HI, LI bonus! And you know how cheap a Mace is in comparison. It's just not worth it unless artillery is around.
Plus, with the FP bonus thing: If you have 100 settlers + 10 WP on firepit, that leaves you with 90 slots. If you start filling up those slots with AK, it leaves you very little left to get a proper army in.
(And yes, I'm aware of BBs letting you go temporarily over 200 pop, and Native TPs, and such things ).
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