Post by samt on Oct 27, 2015 22:32:22 GMT
Hand over your money before things get ugly
Nation Overview
In the northeast of the world there lies a gate to the Netherworld, home of the Oni. Near immortal demons of great magical power with insatiable hunger and greed. In order to feed their desires they aim conquest of everything with the gate as the center of their empire. They have enslaved the indigenous Bakemono, a race of green skinned and ghostly goblins as well as enlisting the aid of humans through fear, greed, or respect. With the growing horde spreading to make the lands ready for them, the oni themselves ready to enter the world and wreak havoc on all that opposes them.
Why Play Yomi
You play Yomi because you want to play a nation that is thematically similar to the forces of chaos in Warhammer Fantasy but plays more like Skaven relying on their weight of numbers and the careful application of a few specialists to achieve victory. You also play them because leading a horde of overweight and pudgy demons that are lazy and greedy to victory is an underdog's tale worth talking to your buddies about.
They line the horizon as far as the eye can see and the scariest part is that's just the first wave
Army Overview
Yomi's army is a horde based one relying on large numbers with a solid backbone, excellent commanders, and reliable mage support to win the day. If you're ever heavily outnumbered playing as Yomi you've been significantly outplayed.
Bandit
Ah the humble bandit is an interesting point of interest for Yomi as he is elite infantry for your nation despite having average stats of medium infantry, if the implications of that does not terrify you then you must be new to the game. Lorewise they are part of Yomi either because they fear Yomi's power or they want to be on the side that gives them the best loot, scavenging equipment from slain foes to improve the odds of their survival ever so slightly. They come in two flavors, the archer and the spearmen. The archer being better suited for ranged based armies and the spearman being better suited in melee based ones. My personal suggestion would be to design formations to put them at minimal risk as a sort of last line of defense/offense for your army as they improve greatly in effectiveness when they become proper veterans as they are one of your few disciplined troops (i.e. they can take formations and you can give them target priority orders before battle).
Bakemono-sho
The weakest and ugliest of goblins used as basic slaves to the oni as well as undisciplined chaff in battlefields. An interesting goblin unit as most people tend to avoid him. Don't make the same mistake. They may not have great stats or morale for melee combat but your mages can buff their strength and your commanders put Ermor's legates to shame in leadership ability. With these flaws now taken care of lets look at these enslaved goblin's advantages. First they are cheap in terms of resources making them very easy to mass. Second they have dark vision making them useful in even in caves and battlefields where spells have blocked out the sun. Finally they are stealthy letting them join raiding parties. They won't win any awards but they can do a lot more damage and hold the line a lot longer than most people would expect. I would personally recommend the spear variant over the club variant when enemies are not pierce resistant as it does more damage and has the added benefit of repel making each unit last longer in melee.
Bakemono Archer
A Bakemono-sho with a bow. They are incredibly cheap and easy to mass and I've heard many sing high praises up and down about them. I however find them effective but not a keystone in the army. While shortbows are useful, they lack a lot of the damage you would need to make them devastating against armored opponents even in large numbers. The spells needed to make it amazing are rather difficult to get in a timely manner making it expensive in terms of opportunity cost to rely on. Many of your own troops are also lightly armored so the chance of slaughtering entire divisions of your own forces is rather high. They also lack decent armor so they can be killed quite easily with counter archer fire. Overall an effective unit that will likely be in at least one of your armies but not one you should depend on heavily due to the ease many opponents will have in countering them.
A primer on oni: the next units talked about will be oni troops. I am going to say from the very start that many people fall for the trap of relying on these demons to compose their armies in games from start to finish. I will tell you right now to avoid doing that. These units are expensive quickly massed specialists used for specific purposes and are actually rather poor on the offense without plenty of support. Also all oni troops they have four mechanics embedded in them: chaos recruit, chaos power, deathshape, and need not eat. Chaos recruit gives you a small based gold rebate based on the amount of turmoil in the province and the amount of unrest. Chaos power will make them gain a point in defense, strength, and attack skill in turmoil and unrest but lose a point from their base total for each scale of Order. Deathshape means they will have a second ethereal form after dying in their physical form (which regrows after the battle) making them even harder to remove. Need not eat is interesting since they will never starve but Oni in particular will eat at least two people's worth of food when they can leading to starvation among other troops.
Ko-oni
Little demons that are surprisingly strong for being so small. They can make incredibly dense mobs that can kill most enemies assuming good conditions. They are absolutely awful in order dominions so do not bring them into such regions unless you want a lot of them dead or you can give them a lot of support. They are also have one of the best gold to value ratios among the oni troops. They generall
Ao-oni
These are green-skinned demons that wear tigerskins thongs (you can thank the game for that imagery). Along with their big clubs that can hit hard, they also can freeze enemies they are attacking, fatiguing them greatly. Best used when you want to stop elite units well cold -_- they are still weak in order dominions so you have to use spells to increase unrest in territories to make up for it. In addition they have cold resistance so they suffer few penalties when hit by certain water magic and fighting in cold regions. These will drain you treasury faster than if you threw the gold itself at the enemy.
Aka-oni
Red-skinned demons that are similar in many aspects to Ao-oni. They instead throw flames at ranged that does little damage against most foes. This makes them the ranged variant of the lesser oni, so they do make a decent second wave troop. They also do not have cold resistance but fire making them more likely to survive abysia's usual fireball volleys.
Oni
Big and mean these red-haired monsters can throw javelins rather well but that's not what makes them useful. Their Javelins allow pseudo scripting since they will charge when they run out. Expensive resources and gold, recruit them when you have the need for something tougher than the norm.
Kuro-oni
Black skinned oni similar to your normal oni with the exception that they throw flames and spit acid. They are a little more useful in ranged combat but a lot more expensive. Their big deal is that they can deal armor piercing and armor dependent damage while also being semi-scriptable similar to the other oni. Other than that he has poison and fire resistance making him a little more durable.
Karasu Tengu
Samurai birds that throw a volley of lightning bolts before attacking, flies in storms, sacred, and are also considered harbingers of war at times. Great in many respects but difficult to summon due to you lacking natural access to air/nature mages. One thing to note is that they lack protection making them vulnerable in extended conflicts. You also can get a number of them when summoning a Tengu king.
Konoha Tengu
The city slicker version to wandering ronin Karasu Tengu. While not as good they can be summoned in larger numbers and you have natural access to the air/earth needed to summon them. Remember that they are rather frail, so avoiding large pitched battles unless you have a specific goal in mind would be advised when using them.
Tengu Warrior
Personal retainers of a Tengu king. More armored than the Karasu and more skilled than the Konoha variant, the only real downsides of this unit is that you can only get them by summoning their king and he will only have ten in his command.
Kappa
Scaled humanoids with turtleshells on their backs. They are constantly getting more fatigued on land due to lore reasons but they are deadly in the water due to their claws and bone breaking skills. Overall they are decent at fighting and conquering independent water provinces. You won't be able to summon any easily though due it requiring water/earth a path combination you do not have natural access to. Still they're not bad for teenage mutant ninja turtles.
Shikome
Awesome crazy ladies that in the lore are hags that chase down souls escaping from the land of the dead. They have an important niche in being able to deal with ethereal units easily due to their claws which paralyzes the undead and the fact they are berserkers.
Ox-head and Horse-Face
These are Yomi's equivalent of sorts to Tien chi's Celestial Soldiers. They are sacred and are equipped with solid weapons that can paralyze targets as well as being tough demons. Their biggest issue by far is that they cost death gems, a gem type you will often be in short supply of due to Yomi's heavy death magic focus.
Even in death I still serve
Commanders
Bandit Leader
In essence a scout that can lead troops. He is better equipped than lesser bandits but that's not putting to many points in his favor. An average leader that needs exceptional ones, his other big ability is pillage making him better at raiding other provinces and pillaging the one he is in. Not a fantastic unit with the biggest benefit being that you get two at the beginning (at the cost of a solid commander to lead your early expansion of course.)
Demon General
The heart and soul of most Yomi armies. This commander is amazing, having the ability to lead better than an Ermor Legatus Legionus as well as the ability to lead large numbers of undead and demons. His leadership morale bonus also makes the Bakemono-sho into a legitimate fighting force rather than merely provincial militia. When his description mentions that the Oni value him greatly enough to armor him over themselves, they were not joking.
Sorceror
An old magician that decided he would aid the Oni to gain more power. This unit is incredibly versatile and useful due to the spread of random paths he can get. Air 1's can cast Wind Guide making your archers incredibly accurate. Earth 2's can cast Strength of Giants making your bandits and bakemono a threat to more armored targets. Fire randoms can cast Bane Fire Dart which is effective in the slow grueling battles of attrition that often define Yomi's playstyle. Death 2' can cast Shadow Blast and Bolt of Unlife which are both effective spells due to the way they slow down and distract the enemy. Additionally with Alteration 4 you gain Blight which taxes your enemy's economy in a province and makes it more comfortable for your oni troops. This is more your toolbox battlemage than your artillery.
Hannya
Ma Girl! What you have a problem with me liking a 170 year old snake witch? The Hannya is a witch that made pacts with the Oni kings who in return gave her magical powers along with a tail and fiery aura to remind her who's in charge. That said these are expensive pure power evocation mages that are really damn accurate. They are already above the average 10 precision being at 12 but with the Alteration 1 spell Eagle Eyes they become sharpshooters. Their two early spells are Fireball and Bane Fire Dart. Later on with a skull staff they can cast Bane Fire and Blast of Unlife with excellent accuracy. Their big weaknesses are their cost and coldblooded (this can be countered by them casting resist cold) which makes them tire easily in cold weather. With them being one of your most expensive mages you likely want to phase out of using them heavily once you are able to in order to fund your expensive oni.
Demon Priest
He's pretty pathetic and only useful for preaching, building temple, and giving out the occasional blessing. Lorewise he's a priest that joined out of greed, he doesn't warrant any lore past that. Remember to get independent priests outside of forts and you'll rarely have to waste time recruiting him
Bakemono chief
These are similar to the Bandits in terms of utitlity with the big difference being the lack of raiding meaning they are less efficient at pillaging and can not raid adjacent provinces. Still they are recruitable in mountain provinces so you don't have to waste a fort recruitment slot to train one making them consistently useful and available scouts and leaders of stealthy armies.
Oni General
The biggest and strongest of oni's that are acknowledged by the Oni kings. A battlemage that's cheaper than a Hannya and does not need to eat. He is however sacred so you need a lab, temple and fort to recruit him. He has access to many of the same paths as sorcerors and Hannyas while having good armor (better than most Abysians in fact) but often comes up short due to less access to higher battlemagic. They do however hold the advantage in being tougher and stronger, increasing their survival chances and allowing them to become cheap thugs to capitalize an a major victory by conquering many regions now poorly defended by splitting off from your main armies. Alteration 6 and construction 4 is what is needed to make them useful in this aspect as it gives them soul vortex, and invulnerability. Additionally iron will is also useful for earth randoms and you'll likely have access due to your need for earth sitesearching from Gnome lore. Remember that they are rather vulnerable to counter SC and thug tactics, so be prepared to lose more than a few should you use them aggressively. As a sidenote they get free wolves that come to their aid at the start of the battle.
Dai Oni
In one word, monsters. These are the biggest and baddest Oni to ever walk the face of the earth and they know it as they are self proclaimed kings of the oni with the other oni too busy browning their own loincloths to argue with them. They might be terrible researchers but they can lay the law down with serious smackdowns. They can be used in mainly two ways: as Supercombatants or casters for big battlespells. Supercombatants are simple as they can cast basic self buffing like temper flesh, summon earthpower, soul vortex, invulnerability, Phoenix pyre, air shield, etc. They can also bless themselves and hold most items you can give them. Feel free to send them into areas that are well defended but away from armies. The other way is to have him cast big spells like flaming arrows, curse of stone, Darkness (really useful as your demons and bakemono can see well in the dark), marble warriors, armies of gold or lead, etc. This very useful for winning the major fights that allow your supercombatants and raiders to conquer large swathes of territory almost unopposed. The only real downside is their cost which like most oni is prohibitive until you have a strong economy. They also suffer from the usual oni weaknesses listed above.
Shura
Shura are generals called from the underworld to serve once more this time with enough strength to fight and win against armies on their own. They serve a similar role to Oni general lone raiders that take provinces on their own but they don't cost gold, only death gems. Making them an alternative when the budget is tight. Considering that Yomi is a nation constantly plagued by budget issues, that should tell you how valuable they are. They are ethereal with fear so the goal when equipping them is to clear out enemies quickly and limit the number of blows actually thrown at them. The most common equipment used is a firebrand (construction 4) and shield of gleaming gold (construction 6).
Nushi
A swamp spirit that understands the easiest way for men to trust her is by appearing as a beautiful young woman rather than a withered old hag with claws. She is mainly used for forging and ritual spells as she will die in five turns outside of her homeland (where she was summoned). This requires both a swamp with a lab to summon her, access to nature/water, and 25 water gems, something you won't have naturally. Unless you have a specific strategy for her in mind when designing your pretender, you won't likely have her in a game as Yomi does not have natural access to water/nature or the access to large quantities of water gems.
Dai Tengu
The king of the Samurai birds and useful as he is an air 3 mage with nature and earth. He can summon tengu or give air buffs such as arrow fend which is incredibly useful to the low protection armies of Yomi. He is worth getting in many games but he requires an air 2/earth 1 mage which Yomi does not get naturally, making it rather hard to work in many builds for this nation.
Laugh at my glorious lanterns and see what happens one day when you enter a dark alley.
Yomi's main strategy (in stages)
Stage 1: The Hammer of The Oni Kings.
You have some of the easiest to mass armies in the game and a commander that can lead your low morale Bakemono into battle without fear of a full rout early in the fight. Get a demon general and as many Bakemono as you can recruit in the first turn and attack the weakest province on turn 2. Remember to take full advantage of your Oni General's leadership by spreading your bakemono out into three subformations with the bandits behind them. Next recruit sorcerors to research Alteration 1 and Evocation 3 for your Hannya in the eventual early wars that will occur. Also continue to train Bakemono along with bandits and build oni generals to lead the forces when you feel confident in the size of the army. Continue to expand and build up your fortresses by recruiting commanders at high resource provinces you conquer. Remember to send out someone to build labs and temples (say an oni general) to fortify and increase your mage count. In one of your border fortresses start to stockpile Hannyas.
Stage 2: Lay waste to your foes
It's time for war. This will be because someone attacked you or your upkeep is starting to hurt. Hannyas with eagle eyes and either fireball or Shadow bolt (if fire resistant) will become precise artillery that will make up for their lack of numbers by the number of hits they score. Otherwise you are using similar strategies with bakemono and bandits, relying on numbers to let you win. Also make sure the enemy does not get uppity by focusing on your weaknesses as a nation by incorporating oni in some armies to counter a given threat (like aka oni to eat Abysian fireballs). At this point you should be branching out and trying to figure out what you will need in terms of magic. One solid goal is conjuration 4 and Construction 6 for Shuras to capitalize on any victories you may have had. Another path would be conjuration 3 and enchantment 3 to get strength of giants for your melee armies. To boost up Hannya's you can go for construction 4 and evocation 6 for precision Banefire. IF you really want to and you have the money for it you can go for Construction 4 and Alteration 6 to get Oni Generals into the fray. At some time you should also get Thaumaturgy 4 for Gnome lore (i.e. a way to find every earth site in a province) and Alteration 4 for Blight (to disrupt their economy and allow you to use oni troops offensively).
Stage 3: The Oni Host spills forth
At this point your goal is to get use out of your Dai Oni by casting big battlefield enchantments or devastating solo rampages. Ideally you would have the gold to support more than a few of them along with your armies. Reality is usually not so kind so you must be careful and switch how you use them accordingly. If you can't get anything more than a stalemate in a straight up fight, take them piecemeal with your Dai Oni, Shuras, and Oni Generals while your sorcerors Blight their lands. If they are spread out to keep you from raiding, hit them with your main forces with likely enough income to hire platoons of Oni picked to counter their tactics and Dai Oni to cast your big spells like Darkness and Curse of stone. This is your late game and it can arrive faster than others due to your reliance on gold rather than high research goals for your big battle casters and SC's while also scaling higher and higher in terms of power due to durable high path level casters in your Dai Oni.
A Treatise on Turmoil
Turmoil seems like a natural fit for Yomi and to an extent it is as your units are more powerful in high unrest and high turmoil. But this is not quite so as your nation relies on gold to get its big hitters out rather than gems. Order/turmoil is on of the two scales that affects your income the most with turmoil giving you a 5% income penalty for each point of it. Therefore I would suggest to you only to look towards turmoil for Pretender design points rather than for the benefits for your oni troops. Additionally your non demon troops are viable in large numbers as well as there being easy access to Blight later in the game to boost your oni. What wins the day for Yomi is that it uses gold as opposed to gems to quickly get many of its specialists in the mid to late game, turmoil eats into your ability to gather gold so adding it in any amount should be carefully thought over.
Basics for Yomi's Pretenders
As a general rule, I like to avoid pretender design since it is highly dependent on a person's playstyle, but there are a few things to consider when playing Yomi. As far as scales go you will want to consider growth heavily due to your sorcerors being old age, meaning that outside of a province with growth they will have a good chance of getting afflictions due to old age, eventually making them dead or a burden on your nation. Much has already been said on turmoil in this guide but it should be said that your starting point for order/turmoil should be neutral rather than 3 in turmoil. Heat is also useful for your Hannya but it hurts your income making it less desirable. If you do get turmoil you could also consider luck to try and get some helpful events. Misfortune is usually a bad idea since you will likely not be taking heavy order.
For paths consider fire, nature, water, or air as those are paths Yomi has access to but either needs a pretender to get the necessary summons for it or needs higher paths to exploit it.
As far as role goes, Yomi is pretty open to most pretenders due to its lower levels in paths early on, limited magic diversity, and need for gold.
Conclusion
So if you want to play a nation of strong demons that fights by swarming a land with expendable infantry and wins by turning your foes' home into barren wastelands, Yomi might be the nation for you.