Following in the footsteps of ChimeraArtemis/ArtemisChimera and ManticoreKiller, I have decided to make my own little guide based on their format. A forumer, Excalibur1022, suggested to do the Promethean, so here goes. Sorry if I had to ask permission for using the format, Chimera and Manticore

The Promethean is available by worshipping Prometheus (well, that’s kinda obvious). It is widely used in Kronos Rushes (aka Krushes) for several reasons, including its crush damage and its okay raiding ability.

The Promethean

Stats:

Cost: 70 Gold, 10 Favor, 3 Pop spaces
HP: 175
Speed: 4.00
Hack Armor: 50%
Pierce Armor: 25%
Crush Armor: 80%
Hack Damage: 10
Crush Damage: 8
LOS: 16

x3 bonus vs. Myth Units
x0.5 bonus vs. Heroes

Special Attack: None
Special Ability: Splits into two Lesser Prometheans when killed (more on them later)
Direct Minor God Upgrades Available:
Alluvial Clay:
Cost: 150 Gold, 12 Favor
Build Time: 30 Seconds (thanks Xentelian)
Effect: Gives Promethean/Lesser Promethean +30% HP (thanks Xentelian). The HP increases from 175 to 227 and from 80 to 104.

It’s as fast as a Pharaoh, has reasonable damage, pretty bad pierce armor, and less HP than an Automaton. Resource-wise, it’s really cheap, except for pop. But does its special ability make up for that drawback? Let’s see the stats of the Lesser Promethean:

Cost: Nothing, 1 Pop space (actually, 35 Gold and 5 Favor more if you want to be literal and say that they spawned from a dead Promethean so yadayadayada)
HP: 80
Speed: 5.50
Hack Armor: 25%
Pierce Damage: 34%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 5
Crush Damage: 4
LOS: 14

x1.5 vs. Myth Units
x0.5 vs. Heroes

Special Attack: None
Special Ability: None
Direct Minor God Upgrades Available:
Alluvial Clay:
Cost: 150 Gold, 12 Favor
Build Time: 30 Seconds (thanks Xentelian)
Effect: Gives Promethean/Lesser Promethean +30% HP (thanks Xentelian). The HP increases from 175 to 227 and from 80 to 104.

In general, good speed and ok LOS (good for scouting), bad attack/armor/HP/bonus damage. Should be about as strong/easy to take out as, well, half a Promethean. IMO, it’s good as an annoyance, sux0rz in any combat situation.

The Tests

The moment you’ve been waiting for…

Note: All non-Promethean units have Copper All and Medium All unless specified. All Buildings have Masons unless specified. All units started right next to each other and the AI controlled the units unless otherwise specified. Damage is per hit, not per second. Prometheans are unupgraded. The player with the Prometheans is always playing as Oranos. You can find out the HP for an upgraded-with-Alluvial-Clay Promethean by using x * 1.3 – y, where x is the amount of HP a base Promethean has and y is the amount of HP the unit(s) took from the Promethean. All players are tested in the Archaic age because I’m too busy/lazy to make a trigger for Classical. I might do that later…

Test 1: 1 Promethean vs. 1 Unupgraded Zeus Hoplite

Hoplite stats:
HP: 115
Speed: 4.70
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 34%
Pierce Armor: 15%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 8
LOS: 16

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Hoplite
Hoplite does approximately 4 damage per hit to the Promethean (between 3 and 5)

Promethean kills Hoplite in approximately 16 seconds with 112 out of 175 HP left.

As any melee MU should, it wins against a single unupgraded Hoplite. Let’s see how it does against a fully upgraded (in Classical at least) Hoplite. The Hoplite now has Copper All and Medium Infantry.

Test 2: 1 Promethean vs. 1 Zeus Hoplite

Hoplite Stats:
HP: 126
Speed: 4.70
Pop cost: 2
Hack armour: 41%
Pierce armour: 23%
Hack damage: 10
LOS: 17

Promethean does approximately 8 damage per hit to the Hoplite
Hoplite does approximately 5 damage per hit to the Promethean

Promethean kills Hoplite in approximately 19 seconds with 85 out of 175 HP left.

The Hoplite does better in this case and takes away 27 more HP from the Promethean than before. This is a surprising result IMO, considering the fact that the Promethean is a Myth Unit. The Promethean does worse than an Automaton HP-wise but better time-wise. Let’s see how it does in equal-pop situations, shall we?

Test 3: 2 Prometheans vs. 3 unupgraded Zeus Hoplites with Copper All and Medium Infantry

You should know all the stats from Test 1.

Prometheans win in approximately 24 seconds. One has 115 out of 175 HP left, the other has 20 out of 175 HP left.

I was very surprised at how much HP the Prometheans managed to lose. It does pretty well against infantry, though. Let’s see how it stacks up against a pop-equivalent group of CEU (Classical-Equivalent-Upgraded, my substitute for saying Copper All, Medium All) Zeus Hoplites.

Test 4: 2 Prometheans vs. 3 CEU Zeus Hoplites

You should know all the stats from Test 2.

Prometheans win in approximately 32 seconds. One died and split; one of those Lesser Prometheans died and the other had 52 out of 80 HP left. The other Promethean had 85 out of 175 HP left.

The Prometheans seem to do ok-sad against CEU Hoplites. Again, I was very surprised at how much HP they managed to lose. Now let’s see how well they do against a ranged unit. For this test, units started out of each other’s LOS. I manually moved the Promethean so that it had LOS to the Slinger and ordered it to attack the Slinger. Time starts when the Slinger starts to attack the Promethean.

Test 5: 1 Promethean vs. 1 unupgraded Set Slinger

Slinger stats:
HP: ~72 with Set upgrade
Speed: 4.00
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 15%
Pierce Armor: 20%
Crush Armor: 99%
Pierce Damage: 3
LOS: 20

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Slinger.
Slinger does approximately 2 damage per hit to the Promethean.

Promethean wins in approximately 10 seconds with 148/175 HP remaining.

Not bad, not bad at all, though it’s against a ranged unit and the Promethean has low pierce armor, the Slinger’s bad attack made up for it. Now let’s do the second test, but with a Slinger.

Test 6: 1 Promethean vs. 1 CEU Set Slinger

Slinger stats:
HP: 84
Speed: 4.00
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 31%
Pierce Armor: 28%
Crush Armor: 99%
Pierce Damage: 4
LOS: 22

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Slinger
Slinger does approximately 3 damage per hit to the Promethean.

Promethean wins in approximately 13 seconds with 132/175 HP remaining.

Not that bad, again. Let’s see how it does with a pop-equivalent. I don’t have the time to test the units with both UU and CEU, so it’s pretty much random from here on. Sry.

Test 7: 2 Prometheans vs. 3 CEU Set Slingers

Note: I microed the Prometheans against the Slinger that attacked first, then left them to the AI.

Prometheans win in approximately 22 seconds. 1 had 77 out of 175 HP left, 1 had 113 out of 175 HP left.

The Slingers did a fair amount of damage to the Prometheans, but there’s the low pierce armor…

Note: The following Archer tests were added on request by rippy. Thanks for the suggestion!

[U]Test 8: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Zeus Toxotes

Toxotes stats:
HP: 60
Speed: 4.00
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 15%
Pierce Armor: 15%
Crush Armor: 99%
Pierce Damage: 7
Range: 15
LOS: 19

Promethean does approximately 10 damage per hit to the Toxotes
Toxotes does approximately 5 damage per hit to the Promethean

Promethean wins in approximately 8 seconds with 136/175 HP left

The Promethean did impressively against the Toxotes. Due to the Toxotes’ lower armor, the Promethean killed the Toxotes faster than the Slingers. How about in pop-equivalent groups?

Test 9: 4 Prometheans vs. 6 UU Zeus Toxotes

You should know the stats.

Prometheans win in approximately 18 seconds with all alive. Hitpoints are as follows:

14/175
111/175
116/175
121/175

I was very surprised at the outcome of this small, quick battle. Prometheans, in spite of their low Pierce Armor, seem to do magnificently against Archers. Now let’s try those two tests again, but with Arci.

Test 10: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Kronos Arcus

Arcus stats:
HP: 60
Speed: 3.75
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 15%
Pierce Armor: 15%
Crush Armor: 99%
Pierce Damage: 6
Range: 20
LOS: 22

Promethean does approximately 12 damage per hit to the Arcus
Arcus does approximately 5 damage per hit to the Promethean

Promethean wins in approximately 9 seconds with 139/175 HP left.

Now this test was even more surprising than the first Toxotes test. The Promethean did more damage per hit to the Arcus than the Toxote, even though their armor levels are the same! Also, the Arcus did the same amount of damage to the Promethean, even though its attack was 1 less than the Toxotes’! The Arcus’s increased range let it have about 2 more chances to strike (both of which somehow missed :O). Let’s try that large-scale battle.

Test 11: 4 Prometheans vs. 6 UU Kronos Arci

You should know the stats.

Prometheans win in approximately 20 seconds with all alive. Hitpoints are as follows:

10/175
35/175
98/175
175/175

I attribute the lower HP to the AI (some of the Prometheans just tried to stumble around the Arci to hit a specific one…ugh…) and the increased range of the Arci. However, not bad, not bad at all.

Atlanteans have a tendency to use Turmae much more often than Arci, mostly for raiding. Let’s see how the Promethean, a good raiding unit, counters raids themselves.

Test 12: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Kronos Turma

Turma stats:
HP: 80
Speed: 5.00
Pop cost: 2
Hack Armor: 5%
Pierce Armor: 30%
Crush Armor: 99%
Pierce Damage: 4
Range: 12
LOS: 18

Promethean does approximately 12 damage per hit to the Turma
Turma does approximately 6 damage per hit to the Promethean

Promethean wins in approximately 11 seconds with 139/175 HP remaining

When I saw the damage the Turma did to the Promethean, I thought that was because the Turma didn’t attack every second. If anyone knows, please post an answer. The attack anim doesn’t look like once every second…Anyway, the Turma’s higher HP but way lower armor were major factors. The HP seems to counteract the armor difference, therefore letting the Turma live a bit longer. The Turma did as much damage as the Arcus did (and didn’t miss all the time). Group test time!

Test 13: 4 Prometheans vs. 6 UU Turmae

Fortunately, the pop-equiv group is about the same as a good raiding party, but the Prometheans…I dunno, maybe the player had extra gold…

You should know the stats

Prometheans win in approximately 27 seconds. The AI decided to be smart this time and focus-fired on one Promethean, therefore killing it. HP are as follows:

Promethean Offspring:

20/80
80/80

Prometheans:

163/175
172/175
175/175

Not much to say about this test…Cavalry time.

Test 13: 1 Promethean vs. 1 CEU Poseidon Hippikon

Note: they’re back to starting right next to each other.

Hippikon stats:
HP: 150
Speed: 5.50
Pop cost: 3
Hack Armor: 10%
Pierce Armor: 25%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 10
LOS: 8

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Hippikon
Hippikon does approximately 6 damage per hit to the Promethean

Promethean wins in approximately 19 seconds with 71 out of 175 HP remaining.

The Promethean did okay here. I expected more from it because of its high hack armor, but as it turns out it lost quite a bit of HP. Let’s see how they do with…Villagers!

Test 14: 1 Promethean vs. 1 Greek Villager (no upgrades, since Villies don’t get armory ups)

Villager stats:
HP: 65
Speed: 3.80
Pop cost: 1
Hack Armor: 25%
Pierce Armor: 35%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 8
LOS: 14

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Villager
Villager does approximately 4 damage per hit to the Promethean

Note: I microed the Villager to attack the Promethean, since he would just run away otherwise.

Promethean wins in approximately 8 seconds with 147/175 HP remaining.

No surprise here, the Promethean is a good raider. How about against the Atlantean Citizens?

Test 15: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Kronos Citizen

Citizen stats:
HP: 160
Speed: 3.25
Pop cost: 3
Hack Armor: 30%
Pierce Armor: 34%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 8
LOS: 16

Promethean does approximately 9 damage per hit to the Citizen
Citizen does approximately 4 damage per hit to the Promethean

Note: I microed the Citizen to attack the Promethean, since he would just run away otherwise.

Promethean wins in approximately 21 seconds with 95/175 HP remaining.

The Citizen’s higher HP lets it get more hits in, but the Promethean still won. Not bad at raiding Attie, but you’ll have to wait a long time to kill the Citizens.

People have probably noticed that you can turn Citizens into Heroes. Now…

Test 16: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Oranos Citizen (Hero)

Citizen Hero stats:
HP: 180
Speed: 3.45
Pop cost: 4
Hack Armor: 30%
Pierce Armor: 34%
Crush Armor: 99%
Hack Damage: 8
LOS: 18

Promethean does approximately 5 damage per hit to the Citizen (Hero)
Citizen (Hero) does approximately 10 damage per hit to the Promethean

Citizen (Hero) wins in approximately 60 seconds with 66/180 HP remaining (the Promethean Offsprings did a bit of damage, around 2 per hit)

The damage bonuses on both sides are evident in this test. Hero Citizens get a x2.5 bonus versus MUs. Prometheans and Promethean Offsprings get a x0.5 bonus vs. Heroes. The Promethean Offsprings were included in the test, though their birth anim is so long that they can’t do much anyway…

Some tests against buildings follow.

Test 17: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Oranos Manor

Manor stats:
HP: 1000
Hack Armor: 30%
Pierce Armor: 95%
Crush Armor: 5%
LOS: 9

Promethean does approximately 17 damage per hit to the Manor

Promethean wins in approximately 69 seconds, or 1 minute 9 seconds

Doesn’t seem to be much of a quick building killer. Let’s see how it does against a weaker building, say a Guild.

Test 18: 1 Promethean vs. 1 UU Oranos Economic Guild

Guild stats:
HP: 400
Hack Armor: 34%
Pierce Armor: 95%
Crush Armor: 10%
LOS: 9

Promethean does approximately 17 damage per hit to the Manor

Promethean wins in approximately 30 seconds

Surprisingly, the +5% Crush Armor and +4% Hack Armor of the Guild don’t seem to affect the Promethean’s attack at all…It destroyed the Guild about twice as fast. What about a group test?

Test 19: 5 Prometheans vs. 1 UU Oranos Temple

Temple stats:
HP: 1200
Hack Armor: 30%
Pierce Armor: 95%
Crush Armor: 5%

Prometheans win in approximately 17 seconds

Not too bad for a Classical unit. If used properly, it could keep your enemy’s free Classical MU from getting out. Now for the big one…

Test 20: 5 Prometheans vs. 1 UU Oranos Town Center

TC stats:
HP: 2100
Hack Armor: 44%
Pierce Armor: 95%
Crush Armor: 10%
Pierce Damage: 9
Range: 18
LOS: 24

TC does approximately 12 damage per hit(s) to the Prometheans

Prometheans win in approximately 41 seconds. 2 Prometheans died but the spawns were alive. Two alive Prometheans had full HP, the other had 121/175 HP. 1 Promethean Offspring had full HP, the other 3 had 77/80 HP.

Nice, the Promethean does extremely well for an Atlantean Classical MU against TCs. If your enemy isn’t very smart and decides to garrison all his units inside somewhere, then it’s bye-bye TC for sure. They seem to do better than Automatons (see ChimeraArtemis’s review for details) and obviously the Caladria

OK, here’s a special bonus test which shouldn’t really be a bonus test.

BONUS TEST: 10 Prometheans vs. 1 UU Greek Titan

Titan stats:
HP: 7000
Speed: 3.75
Pop cost: 20
Hack Armor: 89%
Pierce Armor: 94%
Crush Armor: 89%
Hack Damage: 70
Crush Damage: 70
Range: 2
Special Attack:
Hack Damage: 60
Range: 0.5
LOS: 25

Titan does a lot of damage per hit to the Prometheans

Titan wins in approximately 18 seconds with 6805/7000 HP left.

Well, you won’t be delaying a Titan for long with these guys, but you’ll be doing 195 damage to it and distracting it away from your main army. How about with a larger group of Prometheans?

BONUS TEST 2: 30 Prometheans vs. 1 UU Greek Titan

Titan wins in approximately 32 seconds with 6426/7000 HP left.

Well, you would be doing quite a bit more damage to the Titan. The Prometheans died quickly because of the splash damage and the Titan’s special. However, if you have units circling a Titan, the Titan can’t move, therefore buying you time.

On Dax105’s suggestion, I have decided to set up a typical Classical Age map for 2 players. Below are my results, plus a screenie.

BONUS TEST 3: 12 Prometheans vs. 1 typical Zeus Classical Age Town

The enemy town has a quite a few Hoplites and Toxotes. The attacker has 3 Murmillo, 2 Cheiroballistae, 4 Turmae, around 7 Prometheans and 3 Hero Oracles.

Let’s say we don’t have the Prometheans or Oracles. What would be the outcome?

The Process: Units attack Wood Villies + storehouse, Turmae and Cheiroballistae get killed by a Minotaur, Valor used on Murmillo, Murmillo kill Minotaurs and some Hoplites, Murmillo get killed by other Hoplites after killing Jason.

Not very nice, is it?

Let’s try that again, shall we? This time all the troops are included + the Oracles and Prometheans.

The Process: Turmae + Cheiros attack Wood Villies, Valor used on Murmillo, Murmillo attack and kill Jason, Prometheans attack and kill Hoplites + Toxotes. All units attack + destroy TC.

In a nutshell, Prometheans make a large difference in tests. I bet that even without the other troops, the Prometheans would win or at least seriously damage the enemy town. BTW, I know that the number of Prometheans I added could be unreasonable, but…

Other tests

Note: the Promethean has a x3 bonus vs. MUs.

The Promethean wins one on one against the following UU MUs:

Automaton
Automaton SPC
Carnivora
Centaur
Dryad
Fimbulwinter Wolf
Minion
Sea Snake
Serpent
Servant
Tartarian Spawn
All Walking Trees

The Promethean loses one on one against any UU MU not listed above. Some that deserve special mention because they only just barely win are:

Anubite
Behemoth

Note: Theris is counted as both a MU and a Hero.

The Promethean wins one on one against any UU Human Soldier not listed below.

The Promethean loses one on one against the following UU Human Soldiers:

Jarl
War Elephant

The Promethean loses one on one against any UU Hero except for the Oracle Hero and the Folstag Flag Bearer (for obvious reasons).

The Promethean wins one on one against the following UU Siege units:

Ballista
Catapult
Cheiroballista
Siege Tower

The Promethean loses one on one against the following UU Siege units:

Helepolis

The Promethean is affected by:

Arkantos Boost
Arkantos God Fling
Arkantos Uber Fling
Argus Toxic Acid
Anubite Jump
Avenger Whirlwind
Carcinos Blood (I think)
Centaur Accurate Volley
Chimera Flame
Einherjar Boost
Fire Giant Fireball Hurl (I think)
Frost Giant Freeze
General Melagius Boost
Lampades Chaos
Manticore Barbs
Medusa Stone (no Offsprings appear)
Mummy Convert (Minion appears next to two Promethean Offsprings)
Nemean Lion Roar
Nereid Fling (instantly kills Promethean, normal attack instantly kills Offspring!!)
Perseus Stone (no Offsprings appear)
Polyphemus fling
Satyr Javelins
Scarab Blood (I think)
Theris Jump

Suggested Uses:

Against Greek: The Promethean, as mentioned several times above, is an OK raiding unit, except for its speed. Watch out for the uber Greek Heroes, cause you’ll have a really hard time trying to escape. Note: it takes 3 UU Prometheans to defeat one UU Jason. Now think about Bellerophon…It might do well against an early Hop/Tox rush. As seen from the above tests, Prometheans do pretty well against Infantry and are excellent against Archers. One potential problem is that you might not have the Favor to get many Prometheans before he gets to your town. As you should know already, Centaurs fall to Prometheans, so it’s wise to use them to counter a Centaur Strangle. They’re good for an early Krush as long as you (again) watch out for Jason (and possibly Odysseus). Also, don’t try to counter a Hop/Mino rush with them, because they fall badly to Minotaurs. Summary: If you avoid the Heroes, Prometheans can be a pretty good choice against Greek.

Against Egyptian: See the above raiding statement. Prometheans are not an extremely good choice against Egyptians if they have many Heroes. Your Promethean(s) will be able to outrun Priests (and SoO) but not the Pharaoh. Also, as seen from the above tests, one UU Priest can beat a Promethean! That’s a mere 2 Pierce Attack plus a lot of bonus damage! Whoa. Now think of a FU Pharaoh going at your Prometheans :O. Again, they do pretty well against Archers, but they’ll never catch (especially Ra’s) Camelry or be able to stop any War Elephants. However, if your opponent doesn’t have many Heroes, you can take down his Temple(s), Barracks, and Houses fairly quickly without taking much damage yourself. Also watch out for auto-upgraded Egyptian Towers, they’ll be a great pain in the, uh, posterior. Summarized, use Prometheans rarely or not at all against Eggy.

Against Norse: See the above raiding statement. Prometheans are best used defensively against Norse. As you know already, Prometheans fall to both Hersirs and most MUs really badly. As evidenced by the aforementioned tests, the Promethean fails to beat a single Classical Norse MU. In fact, it falls to all Norse MUs except for Fimbulwinter Wolves and Walking Trees. Not a very long list…Since the Promethean does so well against UU and most CEU Human Soldiers, it’s a good choice to defend against RC raids. Summary: See the second sentence in this paragraph.

Against Atlanteans: Prometheans are not quite as effective at raiding Atlanteans than other civs because of the Citizen’s toughness and the Citizen Hero’s ability to kill a Promethean pretty easily. Your Prometheans will do pretty well against any Military units your enemy has, unless he gets the chance to convert them into Heroes (which he probably won’t since Attie Heroes cost so much). Turmae are a unique case; if your Prometheans can catch the Turmae, you’ll do great against them. If not, the Turmae can just shoot-run-shoot-run as much as they like. The Promethean Offsprings will catch Turmae but are too weak to be of use. As you can see from the above tests, the Promethean does OK against Oceanus’s and Leto’s units and Dryads and even manages to almost kill the Behemoth, but generally does horribly against Attie MUs. If your foe goes Leto, however, you’ll have a good fighting chance against Automaton armies and Automaton rushes.

Against all (notes): The Promethean is good in early game against most civs, but like some other Classical MUs, it sucks in Heroic and Mythic. If you keep spamming them, they’re a cheap way to delay Titans, but don’t rely on them. The Promethean Offsprings are pretty much useless, unless your enemy’s unit(s) have about 10 HP left…

Thanks for reading this way too long guide. Please vote on a Myth Unit I should do a guide on next (choose any one that doesn’t have a guide yet). Look for my soon-to-be Campaign Heroes Guide/Info database Jason Guide!

Feel free to correct me on anything I got wrong. Constructive criticism is also welcomed.

Thanks to the forumers who contributed ideas and encouraged me.

BBSam, your spelling has improved a lot! Keep working at it and you’ll get it completely right someday.

I will add more to this guide if I have the time.

[This message has been edited by mzhao (edited 01-22-2005 @ 02:27 PM).]