HA nows my chance to beat one of Dap's giant paragraphs
____________________________________________________________ _
Let's see:
# Hops have 8 attack, dryads have 15 attack. That's almost double.
# Hops have 115 hp, dryads have 275 hp. That's more than double.
# Hops have 35% hack armor and 15% pierce armor. Dryads have 40% hack armor and 50% pierce armor. That's hugely better.
# 2 hops cost 180 resources together, a dryad costs 150 resources. That's cheaper.
# 2 hops occupy 4 pop. One dryad occupies nothing.
So when you compare one dryad to two hops, the dryad is better by default. If you properly upgrade the hops, you will perhaps come close to a break-even for cost-efficiency. But dryads never offer you less for your money, and they still need no pop space. So when you say that dryads are too expensive, then you must also consider hops as overpriced.
The mindset is important here: Consider dryads as infantry units, not as myth. Both their stats and their use is that of conventional infantry, and they do that job well. But still they cost no pop, and you do not have to pay any money for the buildings that create them.
You can also compare dryads to mercs. Both cost only gold, both are expensive, and both are limited in number, but both are powerful. However, mercs can only be spawned from TCs, the location of which is not yours to decide, and mercs die voluntarily after some time. Dryads have neither of these drawbacks.
____________________________________________________________
1,2 and 3 That is BEFORE UPFGRADES, that wont apply for long
4 True but they cost gold and I rather spend food than gold, + once Hops are fully upgraded no way does 1 Dyrad = 2 hops
Dyrads are myth units meaning that they have a fatal weakness vs heroes
Trees can also be captured which is not too good
You shouldnt really treat them as infantry since they have no bonus vs calvary + theyre slow
If your winning and gaining more land than your dryads will have to walk farther just to get to the battle and youll have to always go back to that tree to que up more dryads. And if you are losing your tree will be taken
Im not saying that the Hesperides tree is the worst GP ever just that its NO WAY better than most of the other Heroic GPs especially Flaming weapons Id say its better than all atty heroic gps
They are better in Mythic when you have more resources to spare and need a little edge
But still I think that any permanent GP will give you a little more edge, Citadel(+10 pop), Healing Spring (Healing) Plenty Vault(more resoures)
[This message has been edited by Superusername (edited 11-12-2007 @ 05:25 PM).]