The winner of last week's poll was the Lampades. I looked forward to testing out these mystical witches, and seeing if they actually are "the best Myth Unit in the game".

Here's their stats:

Cost: 250 Gold, 25 Favour, 5 Pop spaces
HP: 350
Speed: 4.30
Range: 10
Hack armour: 40%
Pierce armour: 50%
Crush damage: 10
Pierce damage: 12

x2 bonus vs MUs

Special Attack: Invokes chaos in an enemy unit, making it enemy to every player in the game.

Specific Upgrades available: Asper Blood - Lampades does damage to units in area when it dies. (see further information on special attack and upgrades later)

So in general, quite expensive, particularly in terms of Pop, but not as expensive as some other Mythic MUs. Reasonable speed, reasonable armour, weak pierce attack and strangely, a crush attack. Special attack seems to be quite powerful, and more intersting than an instant kill.

First of all, let's check it's "regular" attack, without it's Special.

NOTE: All human and hero units used in the tests have Medium upgrades, Heavy upgrades, Champion upgrades, Copper armoury upgrades Bronze armoury upgrades and Iron armoury upgrades. MU' upgrades and other upgardes will be stated.
All attack rates are tested per hit, not second. The Lampades attacks every two seconds, so it's base attack is doubled
Chaos has been invoked on a Pegasus before the Lampades attacks the Hoplite so it does not affect the results.

Test 1: 1 Lampades vs 1 Hoplite (Zeus)

Hoplite stats:
HP: 166
Speed: 4.70
Hack armour: 52%
Pierce armour: 38%
Hack damage: 12

Lampades does 17 damage to Hoplite per hit
Hoplite does 9 damage to Lampades per hit.

Lampades kills Hoplite in 20 seconds with 119 HP left.
(Chaos was used on another Pegasus during the battle as it had recharged)

The Lampades normal attack is not great, not too bad either.

But what about that crush damage? Is it really worth using them against buildings?

1 Lampades does approximately 20 damage to an Egyptian house (with masons and architects upgrades). It takes 1 minute for a Lampades to destroy the house.

Maybe not the best building killer, but not bad when there are more than one Lampades attacking the buildings. Maybe you should stick to Behemoths and Fire Siphons.

Now for the interesting part; Lampades special attack.

There's so much information about it's special attack, I think that it would be easier to understand (and read) in a list of facts and figures.

1. The Lampades special attack recharges every 20 seconds
   
2. The Lampades must be within 8 range of the unit to invoke the special attack
   
3. When invoked, the special attack tranforms an enemy unit into a chaosed unit; making it an enemy to every player in the game, including you.
   
4. When chaosed, a unit will lose all previous upgrades. e.g. a Norse Raiding Cavalry with medium upgrade will become a Norse Raiding Cavalry with no upgrades. This includes MUs, land and water units.
   
5. When chaosed, a unit will attack all other units except other chaosed units
   
6. MU special attacks are immediately recharged after being chaosed. e.g. if a Chimera invokes it's special attack and is chaosed by a Lampades, the Chimera can invoke it's special attack immediately.
   

The Lampades special attack does work on:

All human units. Including Jarls and Greek Unique Units.
All regular Myth Units including Phoenix Eggs
Some God Power Myth Units - including:
Carnivora
Ancestor Minions
Walking Wood Trees
Fimbulwinter wolves
All water units
All water Myth Units

The Lampades special attack does not work on:

Heroes
Villagers/Caravans/Fishing Ships
Seige weapons. e.g seige towers, heliopolis
Titans
Niddhogg
Anubis serpents from the Plague of Serpents GP (strange I know, but true

I was quite impressed to see that the Lampades can use it's special on flying and water units. Shame about the seige. I suppose having seige that was owned by no-one would be a bit strange.

After running many tests, I found that chaosing an enemy Myth Unit is a verypowerful move. Particularly ranged MUs when there are no heroes around.

But my favourite was the Chimera:
A line of of Murmillos+1 Lampades vs a line of Hoplites+Chimera.
The Chimera used it's special, then was chaosed. It then used it's special again, damaging many of the enemy units.

Here are the Myth Units I feel that you should definitely use Lampades on: (not in any real order)

1. Chimera
   
2. Battle Boar
   
3. Hydra
   
4. Frost Giant
   
5. Mountain Giant
   
6. Stymphalian Bird
   
7. Scorpion Man
   
8. Cyclops
   
9. Collosus
   
10. Phoenix
    
11. Avenger
    
12. Heka-Gigantes
    

I'd say not to bother trying to chaos a Mummy or Medusae since by the time you have got the Lampades near it, it could have used its special and you'd have lost a very important unit. Also, you run the risk of that unit using it's special on your other units when chaosed.
However, if you are very quick and your opponent is not paying attention, it's a very evil and effective thing to do.
Argi may be better because they are not ranged, but even when chaosed they could kill your Lampades, so be careful.

By the Mythic Age, opponents upgrades should be plentiful. Using the Lampades special on a fully upgraded Jarl for example, would be a good idea; unfortunately, the chaosed Jarl will not have those upgrades, and so will not be as powerful as your opponents. But it will still attack the enemy's units (and yours if you're not careful)

Asper Blood

Asper Blood is Hekate's only Myth Upgrade that affects the Lampades alone. I ran some tests to see how this tech affected them; as I had heard many rumours surrounding whether it works or not.

When a Lampades (with the Asper Blood upgrade) dies, all units within 8 range of it will receive 10-15 damage.

This may not seem a lot, but if the Lampades is surrounded by units with very low HP, it's quite useful.
However, I wouldn't reccommend getting it unless you are playing a long game where you plan to mass Lampades, and already have Myth techs such as Celerity and definitely Rheia's Gift.

This ability is similar to the Scarab and Carcinos, but in this case, you have to spend 200 Wood, 225 Gold and 25 Favour on it, which could have been spent on another Lampades. IMO this tech is not worth it unless you're massing Lampades.

Further notes
The Lampades is defeated by all Mythic MUs one on one except for the Phoenix. However, every unit is chaosed except for for the Mummy and Medusa who use their instant kill before they can be chaosed.

The Lampades does not have 100% accuracy. I make it to be about 90-95% when the units are still.
Lampades cannot hit units above 5.00 speed when moving using her regular attack. However, she can chaos units at that speed when they are moving.

Lampades are affected by:
Medusa Stone Gaze
Perseus Stone Gaze
Mummy's Minion Change
Argus' Toxic Acid
Other Lampades' Chaos - now that is terrying, especially when there are more than 2 of them...

After using it's special, the chaosed unit will attack the unit nearest to it. This means that if your Lampades is the only one around, she's likely to be attacked.

Here's something interesting:
If used on a Roc which contains units, the Roc will become Chaosed, but the units inside will all go to the ground as if they were ungarrisoned

Suggested Usage

Definitely against MUs. Stronger and more expensive the better; there's nothing worse than seeing your Collosus stolen, and then start attacking you.
Micro your Lampades! If you see ranged heroes or Bellerophon, make your Lampades run as fast as she can backwards. Keep her safe. Put her in her hotkey and make sure she only uses her special attack when you want her to, and on the right units. Be careful not to click on the wrong unit. Making a mistake where you invoke chaos on an TA when your opponent has a Fire Giant attacking your buildings could cost you the game.

Conclusion:

I was impressed by the number of units the Lampades can chaos, and in real games this is very useful. When massed, the witch-type nymphs can cause your opponent some serious trouble.
They require a meat-shield, and with their short range, it's important to keep them near the back - in between your melee units and your archers. However, your opponent is likely to want to kill your lamp ladies, and so they will become meatshields.
A surprise attack by a Lampades while your opponent is not really paying attention is best.

Against Greece: Probably the best Culture to use Lampades against out of the 4. Hydrae, Chimerae and Nemean Lions are probably your best units to chaos. Just watch out for ranged heroes, Bellerophon and Perseus.
Against Egypt: Probably best not to mass them against Egyptians. Priests will take care of them too easily. Maybe against Phoenixes, Avengers and Scorpion Men though.
Against Norse: With no ranged heroes (like most ranged myth units) Lampades do well against Norse. Use them to Chaos Battle Boars, Frost Giants and Fire Giants.
Against Alantis: Like most MUs, it really depends on how the Atlantean player's economy is - if they can afford heroes, then it's not so wise. If they can't, use them against Heka-Gigantes, Stymphalian Birds and Argi.

Well I was impressed with the Lampades. Not all players will be able to use them though, because of the amount of micro needed to use them correctly. Practice with them in editor battles and you'll soon learn how powerful (and annoying) they can be.

However, I wouldn't call them the "best" MU in the game, but defintely the 2nd or 3rd. Mummies are still number 1!

Here's how to use Lampades in 3 words:

HOTKEYS --> CONCENTRATION --> MICRO

Thanks for reading guys, please vote for the MU guide I should do next week from the following MUs

Promethean
Caladria
Servant
Carnivora
Automaton
Nereid
Behemoth
Dryad
Argus
Heka-Gigantes
Man-O-War

EDIT: Chaos is permanent. Unlike the lifespan of minions, or the breath of the Frost Giant, The Lampades' special attack makes a unit chaosed until it is killed by enemy units.

[This message has been edited by ArtemisChimera (edited 01-31-2004 @ 08:00 PM).]