Eternity
From FaitH
Contents |
Overview
With large numbers, good attack power, and some ability to regenerate combat losses in war, Eternity is ideal for multiweek wars. It also generates fairly large spoils though not as much as the high power churches: Rift, Tolkien, and Omega. It also is a great target. Hitting the shadow army can generate a lot of kills and Chaos! points. In practice, it is very similar to Infinity. Both churches share a lot of units in common with the remaining being fairly similiar. The key differences are that Eternity has Charm Chaosbringer, a general with the ability to create new Vampires of the Black Rose after each successful, in range, offensive war; no heal bonus from the church generals; and the superunit, Vampire Priests are more useful in war than the corresponding Midnights are for Infinity.
Units
Starting Units
Goblin Grunt - 0 gold. Close Range: 2, Long Range: 2, Defense: 2 Unit Cost: 40, Building Cost: 12000, Unit per Building: 400 Special Ability: Explores land
13 - 0 gold.
Close Range: 20, Long Range: 20, Defense: 20
Unit Cost: 6500, Building Cost: 12000, Unit per Building: 400
Special Ability: Breeds more 13 in war
The Power Score of 13s is reduced
Level 5
Sorceress of Vayala - 7000 gold. Close Range: 0, Long Range: 4(18), Defense: 5 Unit Cost: 120, Building Cost: 26000, Unit per Building: 400 Special Ability: Gains an attack bonus [if Zorlock >= Sorceress of Vayala]
Zorlock - 7000 gold. Close Range: 0, Long Range: 6, Defense: 17 Unit Cost: 120, Building Cost: 26000, Unit per Building: 400 Special Ability: Gives Sorceress of Vayala an attack bonus
Level 8
Vampire of the Black Rose - 10,000 gold. Close Range: 16, Long Range: 0, Defense: 8 Unit Cost: 225, Building Cost: 22000, Unit per Building: 400 Special Ability: Trampling
Level 12
Dark Monk of Vayala - 15,000 gold.
Close Range: 0, Long Range: 0, Defense: 25
Unit Cost: 4600, Building Cost: 24000, Unit per Building: 133
Special Ability: Negates Towers
Massive Heal [Between 28-36 healing]
Level 17
Destroyer - 25,000 gold.
Close Range: 0, Long Range: 0, Defense: 20
Unit Cost: 1500, Building Cost: 20000, Unit per Building: 133
Special Ability: Destroys a building
[All destroyers are lost in the process]
Level 18
Vampric Priests - 50,000 gold. Close Range: 15, Long Range: 15, Defense: 17 Unit Cost: 325, Building Cost: 40000, Unit per Building: 200 Special Ability: Healing
Generals
Start Up
Army Configurations
The goblin grunt (or gg) is the most useful unit for Eternity.
In the pre-Renaissance eras, the high kill rate of large armies precluded Eternity either from using armies with large numbers of gg or from becoming high PS. This was because troop casualties had to be replaced by hopeless which were replenished at a very restricted rate. Having a lot of high casualty wars quickly depleted the stock of hopeless.
In Renaissance, Era 1 it appears that the best configurations have somewhere around 60-70% gg. This results in the largest armies of the game.
Several other decisions need to be made. First, will the army have 13's? 13's are one of the more powerful units for trinity in general, but you start with 13. So either you enlarge that number to some useful size or you eliminate them. Currently, the only ways to increase the number is either to win in range offensive wars (in such a case, you get 1-20 more 13's for a successful win) or buy them. The 13 is the most expensive unit in the game. They cost 6500 gold, base cost. So another viable strategy is to eliminate 13's altogether.
Will you have sorceresses of Valaya (or sorcs)? Currently, sorcs do not boost the ability of Eternity to win wars. They provide attack, which is already very large due to the large gg presence (if your gg's aren't so great, as was the case in pre-Renaissance armies, then they can be viable in adding needed attack to the army). You will need zorlocks (or zorks) no matter what. There is a point where Eternity choses between the ability to recruit zorlocks or sorceresses. Overwhelmingly, zorks are the better choice. Even though you can acquire zorlocks through trade (swapping sorcs and zorks 1 to 1) and through the slaver's market, you need to plan carefully if you wish to use either source. Large armies will suffer if the slaver's or trade cannot provide enough zorks.
Will you have Phany Bloodfire or Aliel Bloodlover as your general choice. The former adds +10% trample while the latter kidnaps peons even in out of range, offensive defeats. Most people prefer Phany especially since grabbing extra peons is commonly considered useless compared to winning wars by larger margins.
Sorcs weaken Eternity armies somewhat. But in turn they increase damage and spoils for Eternity armies. Many top players don't use sorcs because of this.
Will the army have a lot of healing? Eternity really doesn't have a good healing unit in the dark monk of Valaya (or DMoV). The problem is that there's no bonus to heal from trinity generals. So a common practice is to run barely enough DMoV to overcome tower defenses or armies with low trample. Eternity generates good low heal, high trample armies.
Will the army have Vampire Priests (or VP)? VP are another healing unit unique to Eternity. They are generally considered terrible units. A combination of DMoV and other units provide similar benefits for less cost and greater unit count. The only real benefit to VP is that when used properly in small numbers, they can boost the wounding of Eternity armies by 10-15%.
Example configurations:
An elegant army (due to Cene). There are no sorcs or 13's. In practice, the DMoV were few in number though this can easily be boosted, and the army had significantly more zorks than VoBR, resulting in a relatively low trample army and extremely high troop count (even for Eternity) with good attack and defense. This configuration is slightly suboptimal. The gg can be concentrated on Charm (replace gg with DMoV elsewhere) to boost wounding.
PE general: all DMoV, a few gg
Charm: most gg, all VoBR, all zorks
Chastity and Phanny ample gg
A VP-using army (due to Erodl). This army was intended to attack the Cene configuration above. VP are used roughly in the rate of 200 VP per 120k PS (used 400 at 240k PS). Key characteristics are almost as much heal as trample (army boosted with hospitals). Considerable numbers of 13's were purchased strengthening Phany's part of the army, but at huge cost. The VP in this configuration do roughly 10-15% of the wounding in offensive or at home wars. Their wounding dropped to a few percent (3%) for the shadow army. There were more VoBR than zorks. The idea was that the heal/trample of this configuration would overwhelm the low heal/trample of Cene's and counter the numerical and stats advantage.
PE general: all DMoV
Charm: all VoBR, third of the VP, ample zorks
Phany: all 13's, some gg, third of the VP
Chastity: most of the gg, remaining third of VP, rest of zorks
