Following my Egyptian Myth Unit Guides last year, I'm going to keep up to date with the new Atlantean Myth Unit Guides.

Now, I know that not everyone is a fan of the Atlanteans, but their Myth Units are pretty decent and definitely stand up against the Greek, Egyptian and Norse counterparts.

When AoM:TT came out, the Atlantean MU that interested me the most was the Stymphalian Bird. The reason for this was in Vanilla AoM (apart from the Nidhogg) the only other flying unit with an attack was the Phoenix. As useful as they are, the other flying MUs (Pegasus, Ravens and Roc) never really interested me. Nidhogg and the Phoenix ruled the skies

Now they've not only added a flying healer, the Caladria, but also a bird with a ranged attack: The Stymphalian Bird. Luckily for the Norse, they can now research the Axe of Muspell Tech making it slightly easier for them to fight flying units.. And if that wasn't enough, a Phoenix Egg now only has 300HP compared to the 1000 it had previously.

With the Phoenix weaker (and let's face it, they were never that strong anyway) it left me with only one flying unit that I would actually consider using aggressively.

And recently, I massed these Birds, and I was quite surprised at how well they did.

Here's their stats:

Cost: 180 Wood, 50 Gold, 25 Favour, 4 Pop spaces
HP: 400 Hack armour: 15%
Speed: 3.60 Pierce armour: 30%
Range: 15 Pierce damage: 11

Notes: 3x Bonus vs MUs, 0.25 vs Heroes. Fires three razor-blade arrows each time it attacks. No MU specific upgrades available.

So in general, much like the Phoenix - Slow, expensive, low armour. Interestingly, even the same HP. But unlike the Phoenix, it has a ranged attack, which is the key to its strength.

Well it's all very well knowing a unit's stats, but that doesn't show how it performs in real-game situations.
Let's just see how long it takes to kill a hoplite.

NOTE: All human and hero units used in the tests have Medium upgrades, Heavy upgrades, Copper armoury upgrades and Bronze armoury upgrades. MU' upgrades will be stated.
All attack rates are tested per hit, not second. However, Stymphalian Bird attacks approximately every 1 second.

Test 1: 1 Stymphalian Bird vs 1 Zeus Hoplite.

Hoplite stats:
HP: 143 Hack armour: 47%
Speed: 4.70 Pierce armour: 31%
Hack damage: 11

Stymphalian Bird does approximately 27 damage to Hoplite per hit
Hoplite dies in 10 seconds. (without moving)

Unsurprisingly, the SB doesn't have 100% accuracy like the Petsuchos, and so sometimes one or two of the razor blades does not hit the hoplite. The graphics are deceptive.

From this test we can see that infantry are no problem to SBs, and have no real hope of surviving if attacked by a flock. Obviously ranged units are a much better option.

Test 2: 1 Stymphalian Bird vs 5 Isis Slingers

Slinger stats:
HP: 91 Hack armour: 31%
Speed: 4.00 Pierce armour: 35%
Pierce damage: 5

Stymphalian Bird does approximately 26 damage to 1 slinger per hit.
1 slinger does 4 damage to Stymphalian Bird per hit.

Stymphalian Bird takes 38 seconds to kill all 5 slingers and has 10 HP left.

Hmmmm, even against weak archers like slingers the Stymphalian Bird does pretty badly. My advice: keep the SB's away from large groups of ANY ranged units; they're too expensive to waste like that.

During these tests, I found out that the SB does a small amount of splash damage sometimes when it attacks. By small I mean 4. And it is VERY rare for it to do splash damage. So unlike the Manticore, it is better to micro the SB to the units you want as the splash damage it may do in groups is very small.

The other thing I found was about the SB's accuracy; not nearly as good as the Petsuchos' 100%, but much better than the Manticore. I'd say probably 65-75% of all attacks managed to hit their target. But unlike the Manticore, the hits that missed usually did not hit another unit causing splash damage.

This makes the SB very useful in some ways, but quite irritating in others. The "lost" hits don't even do any damage to other units, and just disspear into the ground.

Anyway, following this "accuracy" investigation, I decided to test how accurate the SB was against moving units.

Test 3: 1 Stymphalian Bird vs 1 Thor Raiding Cavalry

RC Stats:

HP: 131 Hack armour: 35%
Speed: 6.00 Pierce armour: 47%
Hack damage: 11

SB does approximately 16 damage to RC when still
Cannot hit when moving

Hmmmm, not great against moving units.
Like the Wadjet and other ranged MUs, the SB has trouble against fast units like cavalry and fast MUs

From more tests involving Anubites running in circles and a very dizzy Bird, I discovered that the Stymphalian Bird cannot hit units with a speed equal to or faster than 5.00

This is not really a surprise, but it means that the Birds are definitely better against infantry and archers, particularly infantry when they're engaged in battle.

Another surprise to find was that the Stymphalian Bird defeats every single Heroic MU 1 on 1. Obviously, the non ranged units don't stand a chance, but it also beats all other unupgraded heroic MUs.

The only Heroic Mu it is defeated against is a Petsuchos with the Crocodopolis upgrade. In my tests, I found that the extra range helped, but also the bird was a little inaccurate, so it could win if you're lucky.

Unfortunately, it's not invincible. The SB dies to 1: Arcus Hero, Turma Hero, Heroic Pharoah, Heroic Priest and Greek ranged hero one on one. Not surprisingly as they're heroes, but still not too shabby against other units.

Further Notes:

Stymphalian Birds are not affected by:
Medusa Stone Gaze
Perseus Stone Gaze

Stymphalian Birds ARE affected by:
Mummy's Minion Change
Lampades Chaos

And the moment you've all been waiting for - 1 Stymphalian Bird vs 1 Phoenix. Heroic MU vs Mythic MU.....

*sigh* The Atlanteans rule all. The Stymphalian Bird wins with EASE. Not even close. I feel for the Phoenix, it's the ranged attack that really let's the SB do it's job well.

Suggested Usage:

The Stymphalian Bird, being ranged and flying, has many uses. Support, siege, raiding and scouting all work, but I feel that the SBs best usage is the support infantry, archers and cavalry during large battles. If your opponent focuses all their ranged units on the Birds, then you could swipe them up with regular units by using them as a meatshield.
Saying that, massed they are very powerful, and by attacking infantry units with them, it will only suffer attack from ranged units who must come closer towards it (once again, the SB's range comes into play), which will leave your troops to eat up the archers.
Another suggestion is raiding, although slow, they're quite handy against large numbers of villies, mining for example. Only raid with them if you're sure they won't be attacked by ranged heroes or towers.

Conclusion:

Stymphalian Birds are powerful, don't let their stats fool you. Although expensive in terms of resources and pop, they're massive attack makes up for it - sure 11 may not seem too much, but times it by 3 and you have a strong unit. Have 5 of them and you have a formidable army.

Against Greece: Very plausible - just keep them away from Odysseus, Hippolyta and Chiron.
Against Egypt: Bad idea, those Priests will take it down in no time at all.
Against Norse: Yep, good - watch out for Axe of Muspell, Ballistae and Fire Giants though.
Against Alantis: hmmmmm, not such a good idea. massed hero turmas will be the end of your birds. If there are no turmae around, go for it, just don't be surprised when they arrive.

In general, I was surprised with the Stymphalian Bird; in the editor tests and in game. Much better than I expected, and fun to mass. The sight of them sniping off pesky hoplites is worth their high cost IMO.

Because Rheia and Hyperion's GPs aren't that great, it's likely more and more people will be going Theia and getting Stymphalian Birds.

Whether there are 1, or 10 of them, they'll be flying around, killing Phoenixes and squarking about it too.

EDIT: Which Atlantean Myth Unit would you like me to cover for my next Guide? The mysterious Lampades? The bizarre Dryad? Or maybe the juggernaut Heka-Gigantes? The MU with the most votes will feature in my Atlantean Myth Unit guide next Saturday

[This message has been edited by ArtemisChimera (edited 01-18-2004 @ 04:20 AM).]