Dominions 5 Wiki

This is a guide about early-midgame Daibakemono Archer armies, how they work, the unique nature of the units, and how to protect them. by CyborgSellout

Start building up daibakemono with bows around turn 8; you'll want at least 30 to fight in post-expansion battles– basic early/midgame needs Ench 3 Constr 3 Conj 3. Requires:

• 20+ Daibakemono with bows Line
• 20-30 Bandits with bows Line just in front of daibakemono bows
• 30-40 Undisciplined spear bakemono-sho in front (will die)
• 1 x Shuten-doji or Daibakemono leader (Just behind daibakemono bowline)
• 2 x 2 Uba skelly spamming (just behind edges of line)
• 1 x Bakemono Sorcerer (just behind center of line) to cast Earthpower, Strength of Giants x 2, Legions of Steel x 2.

Any other leaders are placed behind the center of the line, so the shuten-doji or daibakemono commander with bodyguards can protect them. This diagram shows a sandwich version– it's a little safer.

					Example Layout

Dai Bakemono are a fairly unique troop type. Troops with heavy armor, bow/crossbow, and a 2-handed weapon, are pretty rare, and most nations do not have access to them. They allow you to leverage early-game aoe buffs much more than normal. This army focuses on Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants (Constr3, Ench 3). Enemies who use heavy infantry are forced to run across the field through longbow fire and get bad contact on a well-buffed army of heavily armored extremely heavy-hitters.

Other things to note are that they have longer range than other archers, they have bigger arrows, and strength of giants helps their ranged attacks, as well.

Since they are expensive, most of the rest of the army is built around keeping these guys from facing too much attrition– replacing the Dai Bakemono archers takes more time and resources than all of Shinuyama's other troop types, and also a lot of money.

Bakemono Sorcerers are 2 + %25 1, Even without Earthpower, they can always gem into Strength of Giants and Legions of Steel as soon as Constr3 Ench3 are finished. Get a few more spells out of them with Reinvigoration or Unaging bless, but that won't affect the Ubas.

They're cheaper, but still have armor, helmets, and melee weapons, so they'll draw a bit of fire, screen any lances that come through, and hopefully protect the Dai Bakemono archers from attrition. You don't want so many that the Daibakemono archers rout if all of these guys die, just a few because they have similar behavior and are cheaper to replace.

Cheap screen infantry to break up the enemy's formation and reduce attrition. They're going to die, so make sure to have another 20-40 sneaking up with the army to replace them. They're very hp-dense, so they draw ranged attacks away from the daibakemono before they have buffs. They are also attack-dense, so they can do decent damage, too. The general idea is that you have enough Bakemono-Sho to make sure the skeletons get on the field and the enemy front line loses formation, but not so many that they contribute to an early hp rout before your Dai Bakemono run out of arrows.

Skelly-spam. Skeletons help bolster the army hp-rout threshold, and they add some flank protection against heavy cavalry. Also, skeletons won't die to foul vapors, so they can cause enemy infantry on “attack close” to move back and forth /across/ the field, instead of closing on the main formation.

Flaming Arrows Right after Ench3 gets you Strength of Giants, Ench4 gives you Flaming Arrows. If you know you're going to fight someone who is vulnerable to that, it can be a good idea, but remember that most of your troops can't get fire resistance until Ench5 Flame Ward. So don't let any 2 Ubas cast Wooden Warriors off script– that can be very dangerous.

Foul Vapors Requires Constr4 for Thistle Mace on an 2 Uba. This represents the high water mark of this build, and it's worth going into some depth on it. Mostly it's just that 5AN poison is good, and it tends not to kill Dai Bakemono. Shinuyama has access to Poison Ward, and you can also script Heal, it's somewhat reliable. If you want to, you have a luxury of time to cast Poison Ward, and probably only need 4 casts to blanket all your good troops.

Bakemono-sho will still die, but they're probably dead to other things before that matters. But skeletons made by an Uba will be immune, and if the enemy infantry is having ai problems (or are on attack close) the enemy may just move vertically back and forth across the field between your two skelly summon paths before trying to actually close ground to melee the archer line.

Since your troops are stationary for 12 turns, all those range 25 evocations that are normally hard to leverage become very usable. You do have to make sure you script your mages correctly, though. Give them some low-fatigue spells or free time at the beginning, or they'll go offscript and burn their fatigue before the enemy gets close enough for Web or Frozen Heart.

More than other troops, Daibakemono face an interesting set of edge cases

• most of the time they can 1-hit infantry over a shield
• most of the time they can deal damage through a shield

A few points of hp, prot, or def can change these calculations drastically. The low attack density of size 3 troops means that base stats are even more relevant since harassment will occur less frequently. The Daibakemono swordsman is admittedly better, but cannot stand still for 12 turns, so can't really leverage the buffs that make it immediately more effective. Enemy heavy melee troops also cannot stay still for 12 turns, so they will be also be less effectively buffed, despite the daibakemono archer losing 1hp, 2dmg, and 1attack to the daibakemono with swords in already slim margins. The xp the daibakemono archers gain (if you don't attrite them) is more significant than normal due to their reliance on stats, as well.

Also, as a side note, when your troops run out of ammo and advance, they won't advance in a line, so it's kind of advantageous to have the enemy hit you before you run out of ammo. If you do run out of ammo, that's probably a good sign, though, as the daibakemono should be fully buffed.

Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants are the basics, but Wave Warriors, Marble Warriors, Wards, Weapons of Sharpness, or Quickening are next. Most of these come a little later, but can be included in your armies if they'll be effective. These are only for enemies who are trying to fight you with brute army; many players will try for fatigue plays or wipes, instead, so Enchantment is probably safer, most of the time.

Mossbody, Quickness, Iron Warriors are the big ones. Takes a lot of mages, but if you are desperate enough to throwa lot ofmages into the armies to do this, it can make a difference.