We have all enjoyed reading the awesome MU guides churned out by ArtemisChimera. I am a big fan of his guides. However, I noticed that he has not written any guides for any Greek or Norse MUs as well as a few Egyptian and Atlantean MUs. In these guides, the first of which covers the Chimera, I'll cover all the Greek and Norse MUs NOT covered by him so far. I'll try to use the same general format used by him as far as possible. Now, lets go to the guide-

The Unit

Special: Fires a Fan of Flames about 8m across as far as 8m in front of the unit doing a maximum of 75(58 +17) hack damage to units in the centre of the blast. Units at the edges take less damage. Takes 20 seconds to recharge. MUs take 3x damage.

Bonuses: 3x Normal and Special damage vs other MUs

Cost: 300G 30Fv 4Pop

From the stats, it is obvious that the Chimera is a typically robust Greek myth unit. It has huge hp, great armour and delivers a sizeable punch. Poseidon players taking Dionosyus in Heroic can research Bacchanalia to make this a genuinie 1000hp MU. Another thing that is obvious is the size of its upgrade. It increases hp by 20%, attack and special attack by 30%. As far as I know, this is the only unit specific myth upgrade in the game that boosts three factors. Most boost two. In addition, the Chimera is one of the fastest Mythic MUs out there. Its speed will leave most of the others for dead. Costwise, it is a great bargain as it only takes up 4 population slots. On the flip side, it is very costly in terms of gold and favour. The upgrade is similarly expensive. On paper this is an excellent unit so lets get to the tests-

Tests
Note: All human units have Medium, Heavy and Champion upgrades, Copper, Bronze and Iron upgrades

1. 1 Chimera Tyrant vs 1 Zeus Hoplite (166hp 13 hack damage 52% hack armour):
The Chimera's special reduces the Hoplite's hitpoints by 39 instantly. Subsequently, the Chimera does 13hp/sec damage to the hoplite. The hoplite does 6hp/sec damage to the Chimera. The Chimera kills the hoplite in 13 secs with 904hp left. Obviously, it would not have any trouble against 1 hoplite. How about in groups.

2. 5 Chimera Tyrants vs 20 Zeus Hoplites (4 rows of 5 each):
This is where the power of the Chimera's special comes through. The initial blast completely wipes out the first row. The second row also sutains some damage. The Chimeras wipe out the 20 Hoplites in 45 seconds without losing even a single unit. The second blast of the special took out another 4 Hoplites. This is obviously a very good unit to use in groups. How about against ranged units.

3. 1 Chimera Tyrant vs 10 Toxotes (78hp 10 pierce damage 38% hack armour):
This is over within 40 seconds. The Chimera survives with 182 hitpoints. It's good pierce armour prevents it from taking too much damage from the archers.

4. 1 Chimera Tyrant vs 1 Gold Collossus (1500hp 20 hack damage 50 crush damage 60% hack armour):
I selected a Gold Collossus to demonstrate how good this unit is against other myth units. A Gold Collossus has more hitpoints than any other unit in the game with the exception of the Titans. The Chimera's special attack does a lot more damage to myth units. The Gold Collossus lost almost 200 hitpoints from the fire blast alone. After that, the Chimera did 31 hack damage per second to the Collossus while the Gold Collossus did just 23 hack damage per second to the Chimera. Net result- the Chimera kills the Gold Collossus in 45 seconds. Even against a titan, a Chimera can take out 300 hitpoints and last for over 70 seconds as a meatshield. This makes for an excellent meatshield since it dosen't make sense to send more than 2 units at a time against a titan as a meatshield given the fact that the titan does area damage to all adjacent units.

5. 1 Chimera Tyrant vs 1 Greek House (450hp 35% hack armour):
The Chimera takes 35 seconds to destroy the house. This is no building killer but it will do the job if really needed. This is really just academic as Poseidon and Hades players each have three great options to level buildings with (Heliopoli, Petroboli and Hetariori/Gastrapetes).

All in all, this proves that the Chimera is an awesome myth unit with an extremely dangerous special. Some points to remember about its special are-
1. It does more damage in the centre of the fan than at the edges.
2. Even heroes caught up in the area suffer a small amount of damage. Heroes cannot be directly targeted by the special.
3. It takes a long time (about 20 seconds) to recharge.
4. The upgrade boosts the special by as much as 30%.
5. In groups, the special stacks up and is very dangerous.
6. It does 3x (225) hack damage to Myth Units. I have actually observed even higher values vs some MUs.

The Chimera loses to the following fully upgraded MUs in a 1 vs 1 contest-
Argus
Medusa
Mummy
Frost Giant
Phoenix

The Lampades chaoses out the Chimera but the chaosed out Chimera kills the Lampades subsequently.
The Chimera beats the following fully upgraded MUs in a 1 vs 1 contest-
Fire Giant
Mountain Giant
Avenger
Fenris Wolf
Hydra (1 head)
Collossus
Hekagigantes

Suggested Usage

vs Greeks- Hades players can use this as a good meatshield for their awesome building killing archers (Gastrapetes, I think). They can be used to take out groups of hoplites, hippkons and MUs. Watch out for those powerful Greek heroes.

vs Norse- Chimerae can be used in groups to rip apart massed norse huskarl attacks. Thier high hp makes them reasonably good against Jarls as well. Just don't let groups of Hersirs or Ragnarok heroes spoil the day.

vs Egyptians- One of the few MUs I would consider using against the egytians. Their high hitpoints and armour makes them more survivable to priests. As long as your own ranged units keep the priests away, this one excells against the weaker units. Particularly strong against Chariot Archers. In groups, thier concentrated special will even seriously weaken War Elephants.

vs Atlanteans- Due to the weak attie heroes, this unit rules the Atlanteans. They will exterminate massed Turmae with no effort whatsoever. Atlantean MUs are like lambs to the slaughter given their low hp. Watch out for Argus and Lampades though. A chaosed out Chimera can be one hell of a headache.

Conclusion
Until the Argus came along this was (in my humble opinion) the wierdest looking MU in the game. Looks apart, it is quite clear that the Chimera is right up there with the best MUs the game has to offer. One on one, it can beat any non flying, non instant kill MU in the game with the exception of the Frost Giant. Its awesome special is a very powerful tool. Used defensively, it can rip the heart out of enemy formations. This unit really has it all- it is tough, powerful, fast and best of all takes 4 pop slots (I really hate building 5 pop units). Going Artemis if you are Poseidon or Hades makes a hell of a lot of sense. As mentioned before- you don't really need the Collossus given the great UUs both get vs buildings. In addition, the earhquake 'WMD' gp is probably the most destructive gp in the game. Going Artemis is really quite an easy choice to make.

Please mention which MU you would like me to cover next in bold (use the

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[This message has been edited by ManticoreKiller (edited 02-23-2004 @ 02:13 AM).]