Set: animal-supported early pressure — Retold
By Ajax (compiled) · retold
Use animals for scouting and support while Egyptian counters and hero units handle the opposing army.
Give animals a role in the opening
Set can use animals for scouting and military support, but keep the Priest and Pharaoh abilities distinct: converting wild animals and summoning Animals of Set are different actions. Compare their current costs, requirements, and available unit types before choosing which supports the attack.
Give the animal group a role that matches its practical value: observe an approach, support a controlled engagement, or contribute to an economic plan permitted by the rules. Do not assume every creature has the same combat value or that a group can bypass the counter system. Keep ordinary troops selected for the opposing army and preserve hero support.
Scouting has to lead the pressure. Vision can reveal whether an exposed resource remains vulnerable or whether the opponent has already prepared counters. If the target is no longer useful, move the plan rather than sending animals and Pharaoh into concentrated defense. Preserve the core economy and the next gold route so an unsuccessful first probe does not end your ability to play.
Choose a specific resource to contest, use Vision to check its defenders, and bring the human counters needed for the fight. Keep the animal group in support so its movement does not pull the Pharaoh or the main army away from their jobs.
Decide what you need to learn
Set’s starting power reveals an area; its value depends on the question you ask. Find the opponent’s production, check whether an expansion has started, locate an exposed worker group, or confirm where the main army is moving. Revealing a familiar center while the important threat develops elsewhere wastes an information opportunity.
Set combines Barracks troops, Vision, and animal support. Use information to choose a vulnerable resource, then build the human counters needed to contest it. Animals can support that army, but they do not replace its counter units or hero support.
Turn scouting into a production decision
If the enemy is building infantry, identify which infantry and what supports it. Axemen are specialized against infantry, but can struggle when opposing ranged units deal damage safely behind a screen. Slingers and Spearmen have different jobs. Build the unit that answers the actual source of pressure and enough support to keep it alive.
Watch the next wave rather than treating the first scout report as permanent. Set’s information tools are especially valuable when they let you notice a composition switch before your own production becomes inflexible. Keep an affordable main-line formation while adding the appropriate counter.
Give animals an assignment
Use animal-related options for a deliberate purpose: additional scouting, a timed supporting presence, or an economic plan consistent with the current rules. Check the exact abilities and costs on your Priest or Pharaoh before assuming that converted, summoned, and age-granted animals are interchangeable.
Do not send your Pharaoh into an unsupported forward position just because it can contribute another unit. Losing empowerment and hero support can outweigh the extra bodies. Likewise, an animal scout is useful while it observes a route; sending it into concentrated fire for no new information simply removes that coverage.
When using a mixed force, keep the ordinary counter troops doing their jobs. A supporting creature cannot make an unsuitable human composition efficient against every enemy. Retreat valuable units before the formation breaks and rebuild around what scouting now shows.
Make pressure contest an outside resource
Choose a reachable gold mine, food area, or reinforcement point. Move together and keep a short enough route for new troops to arrive before the opponent’s next wave. If the enemy retreats behind defenses, occupy the useful approaches rather than attacking the center with a force built for unit combat.
Keep your own replacement resources visible. Egyptian gold dependence means successful pressure can still fail if the home mine expires and no safe alternative exists. Use the space you create to prepare that move. Continue worker and army production while the opponent reacts.
Budget favor as an income stream
Egyptian monuments provide passive favor; you do not assign Laborers to pray at them. Buy additional divine infrastructure and myth units with a clear purpose, considering the ordinary resources and attention those purchases also require. Any god-specific monument benefit should support working production or a useful defended location.
Avoid spending all available resources on a speculative future age while the present counter army is too small. Conversely, if pressure has pinned the opponent and scouting confirms stability, use the window for a planned transition rather than fighting indefinitely outside the same fortified position.
Replay drill: connect information and action
Find your first meaningful Vision cast or animal scout report. Within the next production cycle, did your troop mix, destination, or resource plan change in response? If the information produced no decision, choose a more specific scouting question next game. Then review the first retreat: did the army leave with support intact, or did separate groups continue fighting after the useful objective was gone? Set rewards a repeatable information-and-pressure cycle more than blind aggression.