A Guide to the Petsuchos - Age of Mythology Heaven Forums

posted 03 April 2004 02:12 PM EDT (US)

A Guide to the Petsuchos

I hoped you enjoyed ManticoreKiller's great Einherjar Guide last week. This week I'm starting the Egyptian Myth Units again. After the new and exciting Atlantean MUs, it feels good to be back at home with my favourite culture - Egypt. And what better than to start with the Petsuchos.

Here are there stats:

Cost: 200 Gold, 15 Favour, 4 Pop Spaces
HP: 480
Speed: 3.60
Hack Armour: 40%
Pierce Armour: 44%
Crush Damage: 12
Pierce Damage: 55
Range: 20

x 2 Bonus vs MUs
x 0.25 Bonus vs Heroes

Special attack: None
Special ability: 100% Accuracy
Upgrades available:
Crocodopolis - Increases the Petsuchos' Range and LOS

So mega attack, reasonable HP, slow and weakly armoured, but the cost! Only 15 Favour!
In terms of favour alone, the Petsuchos is the cheapest Heroic MU - even beating the Satyr. Heck the favour cost in the same as the Anubite's and Wadjet's, and cheaper than the Sphinx. So surely this means there's got to be something about the Petsuchos that makes it different from the other ranged units which cost more. Is it easily massable like the Automaton? Or a nice meaty unit that can survive a lot of damage from other units like the Mountain Giant? Let's see how it does against a basic Greek Hoplite.

NOTE: All units have been upgraded with Medium and Heavy line upgrades and Copper and Bronze armoury upgrades. All buildings have been upgraded with the Masons and Architects upgrades. Any other upgrades will be stated

All attack rates are tested per hit, not second. The Petsuchos attacks every 3 seconds, so its base pierce attack each hit is an incredible 165. Or is it?

Test 1: 1 Petsuchos vs 1 Hoplite (Zeus)

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

Petsuchos does approximately 39 damage to Hoplite per hit
Hoplite does approximately 8 damage to Petsuchos per hit

Petsuchos kills Hoplite in 10 seconds.

No real surprise that the Petsuchos won, but the amount of damage it did is interesting. Taking that the Petsuchos' base pierce attack per second is 165 (which is an extremely large amount for any MU), then with the Hoplite's armour, the Petsuchos should in theory have an attack per hit of 116 (115.5) - which it clearly doesn't.

By doing some boring maths sums, I've worked out that the Petsuchos' base attack per hit is approximately 55; not 165 like the stats would have you believe. It's no real surprise that it wasn't as high as 165, and 55 is actually a very decent amount - well it would be if the Petsuchos attacked per second. But it doesn't, and so the real base attack has to be divided by 3 (it attacks every seconds).

This makes the Petsuchos' base attack per second 18.

Unfortunately for Petsuchos fans, it does not have a 55 pierce damage per second rate like the stats say it does: either ES are fooling us, they made a mistake, or I made a mistake. I am personally hoping the second option is correct

That said, 18 is not too bad an attack, and considering that the Petsuchos has 100% accuracy all the time and only costs 15 favour, I suppose we can take it with a pinch of salt and check out how well the Petsuchos does against other units.

Test 2: 3 Petsuchos vs 4 Chariot Archers (Set)

Chariot Archer stats:
HP: 108
Speed: 5.00
Range: 20
Hack armour: 43%
Pierce armour: 35%
Pierce damage: 11

Petsuchos win with all 3 still alive.

Due to the Petsuchos' long range, if you are attacked by CAs or Arcus who also have the same amount of range, simply attack back. Don't let the Petsuchos lose too much HP by pesky, long ranged archers while it is busy attacking mel�e units.
The Petsuchos also has much better accuracy than the CA and Arcus, so while their arrows are missing, the Crocs' sunbeams will always hit their targets.

But what about more "beefy" units?

Test 3: 3 Petsuchos vs 6 Raiding Cavalry (Thor)

Petsuchos win with all 3 alive.

Although one Petsuchos was close to being killed, it was an easy victory for the Crocodiles. With micro, these laser-gators can make easy work of raiders attacking your gold villagers, although I wouldn't advise you use them for this.

Notice that the Petsuchos has 12 Crush Damage? I tested out 3 Petsuchos against an Oranos Manor, but it really wasn't worth the effort. The crocs do more damage then a Manticore or Satyr would, but it's really not worth using them for seige unless you're finishing an enemy off or you need ranged seige to take out nearby buildings while you're at a stand off.

Unless you have the:

Crocodopolis upgrade:

Petusuchos are now called Petsuchos Ra
+ 6 Range
+ 4 LOS

This now gives the Petsuchos a masimum range of an impressive 26. Not only does this give them an advantage over long ranged units like the CA, Arcus and Chieroballista, but it means they will outrange towers and other fortified building such as the Palace and Migdol Stronghold.
This gives the Petsuchos a great new way to harrass the enemy. Because the Egyptians don't receive any ranged seige weapons until the Mythic Age, the Petsuchos can actually be used as a sort of seige. In a stand off, keep the Petsuchos behind your towers and buildings, and attack the enemy's towers or fortified buildings. Against the Norse it may not be wise due to the fact that their infantry will rebuild the damage done easily, but against Greece, Egypt and Atlantis it could work well; that's if there are no heroes around.

How Eclipse affects the Petsuchos:

Original stats:
HP: 480
Speed: 3.60
Hack Armour: 40%
Pierce Armour: 44%
Crush Damage: 12
Pierce Damage: 55

Eclipsed stats:
HP: 480
Speed: 4.32
Hack Armour: 49%
Pierce Armour: 44%
Crush Damage: 12
Pierce Damage: 82

Now that's one beefed up unit. An amazing 82 attack per hit, or 27 per second; not too shabby at all. Eclipse is definitely worth saving for the Petsuchos, instead of getting it just for Ancestors. If you've massed a few of these crocs, I'd definitely say you should cast Eclipse with a large assault with your army and Petsuchos. Without a lot of heroes (especially ranged) you should do some serious damage to your enemy with these lazer-crocs

Further Notes

The Petsuchos defeats all Heroic and Classical units one on one except for:
Jarl (even though it was very close)
War Elephant

The Petsuchos is defeated by all Heroic heroes (including all Atlantean heroes and the Heroic Priest)

The Petsuchos defeats the following Heroic MUs one on one:

Manticore

Dryad

Satyr

Stymphalian Bird

The Petsuchos is defeated one on one by the following Heroic MUs:

Battle Boar

Hydra

Frost Giant

Mountain Giant

Scorpion Man

Nemean Lion

Behemoth

Scarab

But with Eclipse, it defeats all other Heroic MUs one on one except for:

Nemean Lion

Frost Giant

Petsuchos are affected by:

Medusa Stone Gaze

Perseus Stone Gaze

Mummy's Minion Change

Argus' Toxic Acid

Lampades' Chaos

Frost Giant's Ice Breath

Suggested Usage

Petsuchos are much more versatile than Scarabs, and a lot more powerful than Scorpion Men. Using them as backup is their main strength, and with a meatshield of elephants or Sphinxes they're nearly unstopabble. With ther extra range that Crocodoplis gives them, they can really sort out the CAs or Toxotes harrasing your infantry units, and can also take care of mel�e units pretty well themselves.

They also can be used for raiding and a weak form of seige, although Roc drops are probably a better option. They can raid pretty nicely though. It only takes a few hits to kill a villager, and with a group of these gators you're opponents gold miners will be in chaos.

A few Petsuchos around your main base is handy to deter raiders or scouts. But only having one or two doesn't really show the power of the crocodile at its full strength. When massed, Petsuchos are incredibley hard to touch without heroes, and can stand up to most units.

If you do plan to mass them, the favour shouldn't really be an issue if you have enough monuments up. But don't get too carried away; at 200 gold a unit, you can end up spending a big chunk of your gold supply which could have been put to better use building TCs or Migdols.

Another drawback of the Petsuchos, and I think their main flaw, is their recharge time to attack: 3 seconds may not seem like a long time, but when the pressure's on and you have Jarls charging towards your crocs it can seem like an eternity. If you do see enemies coming towards the gators, don't leave them to fire slowly and die, try and get back under tower fire and put them in a Roc and move them to a better position; even though the Petsuchos are quite tough and withstanding units, they still need a meatshield to be used at their full potential.

Conclusion

Don't be fooled that Petsuchos are undefeatable; they're not, but IMO they are definitely Egypt's best heroic, and aside from the Mummy, possibly Egypt's strongest MU alltogether. When massed and used as support units they can cause nightmares for your enemy, who is trying to shoot them down with all the ranged units they can find. When used to raid, you can say goodbye to the enemy's miners and wood choppers. When used against towers, the crocs do ok, and you might as well take advantage of the undefended buildings when their arrows are out of your Petsuchos' range.

Just don't think that Petsuchos will be able to defeat anything the opponent throws at you. Heroes will eat them up for breakfast and most other units will do the same if they get the chance. Luckily due to the Petsuchos range this shouldn't be too much of a problem against units like the Scorpion Man or Battle Boar if there are units blocking the enemy's path.

Against Greece: Mass them to take care of their heavily armoured and high-HPed units. They also work nicely against Hades' Sentinels and Poseidon's Milita. Just mind out for Bellerophon, Perseus and the Greek ranged Heroes unless you want your crocs to turn into handbags.
Against Egypt: Not the best civ to use Petsuchos against due to their ranged priests who can take them out easily. Also War elephants are extremely hard to take down with Petsuchos. Use them to take care of weak infantry and archer units, but don't mass too many.
Against Norse: Perfect against Loki/Heimdall tower spammers, and very nice to raid Thor's dwarves. Also use them for great clashes between your armies for extra support. Just mind out for fast Jarls, Trolls and high pierce armour Huskarls
Against Alantis: Nice to raid a small group of Atlantean wood cutters who have strayed too far from home. But if the Atlantean opponent has a Valor or decides to start massing ranged heroes, your crocs are in BIG trouble.

Costing only 15 favour you'd think the Petsuchos would have a major flaw; well it does have a few - slow, recharge time - but balancing that against their amazing attack and accuracy, there's no contest. Along with Rocs, Petsuchos are the main reason for choosing Hathor as a heroic god. Is it worth having a few techs which improve the already powerful Egyptian seige or having getting an army of units that are slaughtered by heroes and only last a minute when you could use these lazer-crocs for pretty much any task you want your MU to do? I'll let you decide

Thanks for reading the guide guys.

Next week ManticoreKiller will be doing a guide on another Greek or Norse unit. The Shade is winning so far which certainly will be an interesting read. The week after I will be continuing with the Egyptian MUs

Please vote for the Egyptian Myth Unit I should do in 2 weeks:

EDIT: Changed a few colours, and a big thank you to HeavenGames for the pictures!
Also changed stupid mistakes and added the range. I had it written down on my bit of paper but forgot to add it in Thanks RazyCay for noticing.

ESO user name - ChimeraArtemis
Favourite Major Gods: Isis, Hades, Gaia, Loki, Ra, Thor

Creator of the Egyptian Myth Unit Guides - Phoenix, Wadjet, Scorpion Man, Scarab, Petsuchos
And the Atlantean Myth Unit Guides: Stymphalian Bird, Satyr, Lampades, Heka-Gigantes, Man O'War, Dryad, Automaton

[This message has been edited by ChimeraArtemis (edited 04-05-2004 @ 06:59 AM).]