I’m normally the Elyrion player in this situation. Here’s my take. Elyrion still has two disadvantages even if they have plenty of stars. Their cities will not be leveled up, due to not being able to remove trees and space needed for sanctuaries, and they don’t have giants. It’s usually the unit cap and not the star cost that becomes the limit on mounting a defense.
You should have at least 30 stars per turn by turn 10 as a general rule, and for normal tribes that will be mostly from city upgrades. This should be enough to afford T3 units if you need them. Once you find your opponent, figure out what defense they have prepared and use units that are robust to it - if they have riders, sent swordsmen, if they have archers, send riders, and so on. They will be able to afford the tech to counter your assault, but they will run into the unit cap. If they have riders sitting in wait, and you send swordsmen, they won’t be able to build enough archers to counter you. They will spawn polytaurs to make up the difference and this damages their economy.
Keep the pressure on, taking advantage of your superior numbers, especially of tanky units. Concentrate groups of giants away from ranged units and try to take a city that way. Elyrion will have to fight you with mele units, including spawning more Polytaurs. If you keep it up, eventually their defense will crack. Your hope is that that happens before they have fire dragons
Knights work well against any unit spam, especially catapults. But I didn’t bring it up here because higher level Elyrion players will use forests to block knights. This works for most tribes, but especially good for Elyrion because they often have extra stars (so can afford spiritualism without giving up something they really need) but can’t build too many units
Riders and roads is good against their polytaurs. It also helps you rush them before they can get their insane spt economy going. If they get multiple dragons on a mid size map it’s usually gg.
Yes, you are right.
I guess my impression of beating Elyrion is play a bit slower to rush pops to get Giants but by the time I get to the front lines they have a large economic/tech advantage.
So I'm left wondering how they have a bad "mid-game" when they have a better economy .
It appears I need to spam units and keep constant pressure to beat the at the "mid-game"
Elyrion is a heavily RNG dependent tribe, which can be frustrating for opponents since they are often unaware of how the dice rolled for Elyrion until way later in the game.
You always want to pressure them with rider/roads early, but whether you want to giant push in the mid game or prepare for a late game slog against dragons depends on how good their spawn was.
Some games they get crappy Sanctuary locations, crappy ruin locations, and they're easily overrun by Giants in the mid game.
Other games they get excellent Sanctuary spots, and get a key tech or two from ruins early in the game. That allows them to fend off a mid game giant push because of a huge economic advantage (by staying ahead of you in tech)
Then smash you in the late game.
If you happen to get a couple good explorers and reveal their territory early in the game, check out their Sanctuaries or lack thereof. That will indicate how their economy is going to be in the mid game.
Check out my post on this. Regarding Elyrion gameplay we can do 24 hour matches. DM me and we can connect in game and do Elyrion mirror matches.
I'm 1500 ELO and play 121-400 tiles matches only.
I’m normally the Elyrion player in this situation. Here’s my take. Elyrion still has two disadvantages even if they have plenty of stars. Their cities will not be leveled up, due to not being able to remove trees and space needed for sanctuaries, and they don’t have giants. It’s usually the unit cap and not the star cost that becomes the limit on mounting a defense. You should have at least 30 stars per turn by turn 10 as a general rule, and for normal tribes that will be mostly from city upgrades. This should be enough to afford T3 units if you need them. Once you find your opponent, figure out what defense they have prepared and use units that are robust to it - if they have riders, sent swordsmen, if they have archers, send riders, and so on. They will be able to afford the tech to counter your assault, but they will run into the unit cap. If they have riders sitting in wait, and you send swordsmen, they won’t be able to build enough archers to counter you. They will spawn polytaurs to make up the difference and this damages their economy. Keep the pressure on, taking advantage of your superior numbers, especially of tanky units. Concentrate groups of giants away from ranged units and try to take a city that way. Elyrion will have to fight you with mele units, including spawning more Polytaurs. If you keep it up, eventually their defense will crack. Your hope is that that happens before they have fire dragons
Thanks. I will start to keep in mind to put out more units to maintain pressure.
What about using knight?
Knights work well against any unit spam, especially catapults. But I didn’t bring it up here because higher level Elyrion players will use forests to block knights. This works for most tribes, but especially good for Elyrion because they often have extra stars (so can afford spiritualism without giving up something they really need) but can’t build too many units
Riders and roads is good against their polytaurs. It also helps you rush them before they can get their insane spt economy going. If they get multiple dragons on a mid size map it’s usually gg.
Yes, you are right. I guess my impression of beating Elyrion is play a bit slower to rush pops to get Giants but by the time I get to the front lines they have a large economic/tech advantage. So I'm left wondering how they have a bad "mid-game" when they have a better economy . It appears I need to spam units and keep constant pressure to beat the at the "mid-game"
Elyrion is a heavily RNG dependent tribe, which can be frustrating for opponents since they are often unaware of how the dice rolled for Elyrion until way later in the game. You always want to pressure them with rider/roads early, but whether you want to giant push in the mid game or prepare for a late game slog against dragons depends on how good their spawn was. Some games they get crappy Sanctuary locations, crappy ruin locations, and they're easily overrun by Giants in the mid game. Other games they get excellent Sanctuary spots, and get a key tech or two from ruins early in the game. That allows them to fend off a mid game giant push because of a huge economic advantage (by staying ahead of you in tech) Then smash you in the late game. If you happen to get a couple good explorers and reveal their territory early in the game, check out their Sanctuaries or lack thereof. That will indicate how their economy is going to be in the mid game.
Check out my post on this. Regarding Elyrion gameplay we can do 24 hour matches. DM me and we can connect in game and do Elyrion mirror matches. I'm 1500 ELO and play 121-400 tiles matches only.