Stack Warding for Archons

[magian]

The name says it all folks.

I don't see many heroes with leadership these days. I often reject archon allies, and groan when they show up in ruins. Once upon a time they negated all the hero's skills. That day is long gone and these glowy guys could use a boost. Stack warding makes a lot of sense thematically as the protective auras of these angelic beings. So, why not tack some warding on there to make those assassins wet their ninja-diapers!

[KGB]

Personally I wish the Archon ally would change from the Lesser to the Grand Archon after a certain point (say turn 15 or turn 20).

With heroes arriving at L4+ at turn 15 the +6 bonus is almost pointless against HL/Valk/Ranger and is even starting to become useless against the DK.

Of course the ally cost would increase accordingly but at least then you'd be excited to get an Archon ally.

I'd also like to see Green Dragons be added to the Ally list. Maybe replacing the Elemental around turn 15.

KGB

P.S. Incidentally I'm not against giving Archons a small group warding bonus for the reasons you mention. Maybe 10 for the Lesser Archon and 20 for the Grand Archon.

[magian]

Archons having group warding just makes more sense (both thematic and practical) to me than Mammoths. Mammoths are a defensive unit, and they are already effective their role (living wall) without any warding. Ambush is most problematic when used to defend cities, so we really need an aggressive units with some warding.

[Moonknight]

Seems like a solid idea to me...

[magian]

Yeah, I'd like to see green dragons on the ally list too. Elementals often aren't worth getting if they are too far back from the front lines.

[piranha]

We could add some warding to archons, but the main problem with ambush seems to be cities with lots of units and ambush and giving archons group warding seems to be a way to prevent attacking ambush to be effective since the benefit from cities is that you can have many units and use all bonuses.
How about a few agressive units with really high personal warding. Say elemental and green dragon for example. Then those could be effective against cities guarded by lots of crap with a bunch of ambush units in the back.

[magian]

A big city smashing unit with a bunch of warding sounds like a good alternative. I fondly remember the earth elemental from warlords 3. It was painfully slow, but it had 4 wounds and was totally immune to assassination (ambush). He looked great too. I'd like to see a few more late game ground units. Maybe instead of changing the elemental or GD, could we get a new unit? A golem or earth elemental wound be a good fit for a warding unit (they are made of stone/metal so they have no weak points).

I still think the archons could use a boost, but yeah, group warding may not be the way to go.

[KGB]

We could add some warding to archons, but the main problem with ambush seems to be cities with lots of units and ambush and giving archons group warding seems to be a way to prevent attacking ambush to be effective since the benefit from cities is that you can have many units and use all bonuses.
How about a few agressive units with really high personal warding. Say elemental and green dragon for example. Then those could be effective against cities guarded by lots of crap with a bunch of ambush units in the back.

Correct.

Even a high personal warding unit will eventually be killed since a 70 warding vs 50 ambush still leaves 15% chance to die per unit faced so it will on average die by the 3rd or 4th unit faced. So it will have to be a 2 turn unit as opposed to the Elemental/Green (who both already have value now) because it's going to still die from ambush.

The most obvious 2 turn unit to me is the Crusader. His very name evokes the idea that he would be the kind of unit making the ultimate sacrifice. Replace the +3 morale with +60 personal warding and increase his strength to 25 and his moves to 17 and make him cost 475 (he's not quite as good as a Hv Calv but he's slightly better than a Giant).

Then another unit can get the +3 morale bonus. There are always plenty of suggestions for new units, so one of them would become the new 2 turn +3 morale unit.

KGB

[magian]

I like KGB's version of the crusader. With those changes, I'd also like to see the crusader's UL return to 2 (since it would be more of a niche unit). 17 movement seems too high for a guy on foot wearing plate armor. 14 or 15 wound make more sense.

I'd still like to see a big monster unit that would be totally immune to ambush (or very nearly immune). What about a 4 wound unit, with some warding and a special ability that makes it only take 1 wound from a successful ambush hit?

[Moonknight]

Yes! Crusader needs some help, I rarely ever produce him/keep him in cities I take over.

Still would like a Treant of some sort added to the game at some point too as a city damager (maybe small siege plus extra strength in cities). Warding could also be applied, but this would need to be a 3 turner...