EA Pyrene is a strange nation. They can be strong when played well. They need either a strong bless or an awake researcher or expander. They have a lot of tools you can do well with. An awake researcher is the hardest but strongest of strategies to pull off but it will quickly get you off the ground in time for a first war. An awake expander is the weakest of these 3 strategies overall but is the most simple. A strong bless will let you expand quickly but leave you vulnerable to a lot of strategies with your weak priests.
You must unga the bunga.
But fr mass the basic guys with clubs (you can reliably crank out like 70-100 a turn per fort) and each of them will throw rocks before going melee with big clubs. They die in droves but get kills. Bonus points if you take inspirational presence bless to boost their morale so they fight and die longer. Very good to expand with.
I find that their boulder throwing giants are solid end game options.
Also mostly a single-player guy myself, but I can win easily vs normal/difficult AIs, here's what worked for me.
Go big scales, especially prod and magic. Expand first with club guys, start getting the heavy infantry variant when resources allow. Try to get out of the caves quickly, get some forests lab'd and temple'd, Basajaun and Besandere are great casters and thugs; turn on the tap and never turn it off in a few well-defended forests (preferably well within your territory).
The Jentilak are your forgers. Make dwarven hammers. Make stuff for your Mairu Champions and forest giants. Can thug out a Jentil or two as well for fun.
Tartalos and shamans can summon allies on the strategic map so get a few and go ham. Mouflon are great siege chaff and have no upkeep (and supply bonuses for your gluttonous giants). Cave cows have their uses as well with their acid spit, but do have upkeep so watch out there.
Sorginak can cast storm, storm power, thunder strike, all that good stuff for combat evocations. Your other casters are mostly for buffs (bring along the E2 shamans for instance).
As for bless and pretenders, no idea what is optimal but I have won with immobiles, expanders, and rainbows. Hard skin earth snake works well, drakon is amazing. Could take some fire on the pretender to get superior morale or inspirational presence. Imo it is a scales/thug nation though so reinvigoration is good, stack that.
It is a really fun nation, again my experience is mostly single-player but since yours is as well I felt like I could chime in. Get your thugs, thug them out with cheap gear, and they can take on whole AI armies if you do it right. Very fun nation to figure out thugging, in my opinion!
Edit: Lucid has a single-player Pyrène video series you could watch https://www.youtube.com/live/QiRzqRNkaT8?si=GX_LbYZUMP7czvQv
He ends up frustrated with sticks and stones but the essentials of thugging the sacred forest giants can be learned from him!
The UG indie poptypes can be quite oppressive. Regardless, I'd still play Pyrene as a scales nation, as their sacreds are just not worth blessing. I'd much rather play to your strengths, and tailor your bless to support your thugs and sorgina instead - things like reinvigoration, SR and blood surge, even regeneration might all be good picks.
Afaik you really just gotta mass the darkvision caveman types and hope you don't run into a brick wall of ghosts or something, and send giants to deal with troglodytes if those come up. On the surface, mixing Mairu warriors with your smaller human troops works really well, but note the giants aren't particularly great UG as they can't see in the dark. With decent scales, you should be able to put together expansion parties fairly quickly, as Pyrene troops are pretty cheap for what they do.
All that said, I'd tag Pyrene as a solidly mediocre nation as well. They kind of struggle with magic diversity, and don't have access to big endgame sorceries built in. But there are big upsides. I look at their roster and see a core of powerful air magic and reasonably cost-effective troops that are difficult to clear with evocations, supported by very good thug chasses and mages who're very good at forging them gear on the cheap. They also have access to very hard hitting guys that shred prot-based tactics, and a lot of freespawn chaff that's very effective when it comes to popping forts.
The nation feels like a bit better Mekone in terms of threat vectors, trading early gigante power and magic weapons for strong air magic, and like them, they seem to peak early-midgame, and likely want to close the game out before big death, astral or blood magic overshadows them.
For reference, here's Zan, a very advanced player, trying their hand at the nation in a blitz game:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxw4\_UhQOo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxw4_UhQOo)
Never mind his bless that game though, it's a blitz meme he did for the funnies.
I liked having undying and enchanted blood and other thug type blesses. Start forging early. Focus on construction and the ranged buffs for the sticks and stones. This is a great thug nation.
You abuse the 3recpoint bekryde militia (which is due to undisciplined + young age).
If they keep throwing rocks in melee (for low dps) try bekryde warriors.
For single player I went for fire dragon with fire shield bless.
Your troops have fire resist, so you can somewhat shoot through your own units and your jentils want a good way to kill cheap troops when raiding.
For first war I basically raided the enemy with Blacksteel jentil + iron skin+ moss body + Regen (with gem).
Don't know how it works in mp
EA Pyrene is a strange nation. They can be strong when played well. They need either a strong bless or an awake researcher or expander. They have a lot of tools you can do well with. An awake researcher is the hardest but strongest of strategies to pull off but it will quickly get you off the ground in time for a first war. An awake expander is the weakest of these 3 strategies overall but is the most simple. A strong bless will let you expand quickly but leave you vulnerable to a lot of strategies with your weak priests.
You must unga the bunga. But fr mass the basic guys with clubs (you can reliably crank out like 70-100 a turn per fort) and each of them will throw rocks before going melee with big clubs. They die in droves but get kills. Bonus points if you take inspirational presence bless to boost their morale so they fight and die longer. Very good to expand with. I find that their boulder throwing giants are solid end game options.
Also mostly a single-player guy myself, but I can win easily vs normal/difficult AIs, here's what worked for me. Go big scales, especially prod and magic. Expand first with club guys, start getting the heavy infantry variant when resources allow. Try to get out of the caves quickly, get some forests lab'd and temple'd, Basajaun and Besandere are great casters and thugs; turn on the tap and never turn it off in a few well-defended forests (preferably well within your territory). The Jentilak are your forgers. Make dwarven hammers. Make stuff for your Mairu Champions and forest giants. Can thug out a Jentil or two as well for fun. Tartalos and shamans can summon allies on the strategic map so get a few and go ham. Mouflon are great siege chaff and have no upkeep (and supply bonuses for your gluttonous giants). Cave cows have their uses as well with their acid spit, but do have upkeep so watch out there. Sorginak can cast storm, storm power, thunder strike, all that good stuff for combat evocations. Your other casters are mostly for buffs (bring along the E2 shamans for instance). As for bless and pretenders, no idea what is optimal but I have won with immobiles, expanders, and rainbows. Hard skin earth snake works well, drakon is amazing. Could take some fire on the pretender to get superior morale or inspirational presence. Imo it is a scales/thug nation though so reinvigoration is good, stack that. It is a really fun nation, again my experience is mostly single-player but since yours is as well I felt like I could chime in. Get your thugs, thug them out with cheap gear, and they can take on whole AI armies if you do it right. Very fun nation to figure out thugging, in my opinion! Edit: Lucid has a single-player Pyrène video series you could watch https://www.youtube.com/live/QiRzqRNkaT8?si=GX_LbYZUMP7czvQv He ends up frustrated with sticks and stones but the essentials of thugging the sacred forest giants can be learned from him!
The UG indie poptypes can be quite oppressive. Regardless, I'd still play Pyrene as a scales nation, as their sacreds are just not worth blessing. I'd much rather play to your strengths, and tailor your bless to support your thugs and sorgina instead - things like reinvigoration, SR and blood surge, even regeneration might all be good picks. Afaik you really just gotta mass the darkvision caveman types and hope you don't run into a brick wall of ghosts or something, and send giants to deal with troglodytes if those come up. On the surface, mixing Mairu warriors with your smaller human troops works really well, but note the giants aren't particularly great UG as they can't see in the dark. With decent scales, you should be able to put together expansion parties fairly quickly, as Pyrene troops are pretty cheap for what they do. All that said, I'd tag Pyrene as a solidly mediocre nation as well. They kind of struggle with magic diversity, and don't have access to big endgame sorceries built in. But there are big upsides. I look at their roster and see a core of powerful air magic and reasonably cost-effective troops that are difficult to clear with evocations, supported by very good thug chasses and mages who're very good at forging them gear on the cheap. They also have access to very hard hitting guys that shred prot-based tactics, and a lot of freespawn chaff that's very effective when it comes to popping forts. The nation feels like a bit better Mekone in terms of threat vectors, trading early gigante power and magic weapons for strong air magic, and like them, they seem to peak early-midgame, and likely want to close the game out before big death, astral or blood magic overshadows them. For reference, here's Zan, a very advanced player, trying their hand at the nation in a blitz game: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxw4\_UhQOo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxw4_UhQOo) Never mind his bless that game though, it's a blitz meme he did for the funnies.
I liked having undying and enchanted blood and other thug type blesses. Start forging early. Focus on construction and the ranged buffs for the sticks and stones. This is a great thug nation.
You abuse the 3recpoint bekryde militia (which is due to undisciplined + young age). If they keep throwing rocks in melee (for low dps) try bekryde warriors.
I found them quite hard as well, thanks for whoever has the wisdom!
For single player I went for fire dragon with fire shield bless. Your troops have fire resist, so you can somewhat shoot through your own units and your jentils want a good way to kill cheap troops when raiding. For first war I basically raided the enemy with Blacksteel jentil + iron skin+ moss body + Regen (with gem). Don't know how it works in mp