Alzorath's Phantasm Guide
Introduction
Ok, we'll start out with the stuff that's not going to be kinda skewed to basic knowledge. Due to the high mana requirements of using elementals (mainly in upkeep - casting them is relatively cheap compared to other ultimates) - it's a good idea to maybe put them off until you have attained middle to higher land (3000-5000 acres range for your minimum starting point with elementals).
With blue, when you get to the 3000-5000 range, you can actually support enough 'real units' to have them act as fodder (several thousand HD and Medusa add up quickly). at 6000 acres, it wouldn't be uncommon to see a solid 10,000 HD and 8,000 Medusa (there's 18,000 units right there - more than enough to take max land off a 3k land mage, throw in some fatigue and add up your bigger units - and you should be able to reach 30-40k easy enough).
The Basics
Now, I'm going to take a step back, and assume you haven't reached this 3000-5000 land mark, and we'll look at how to reach it, and sustain it when you get there. I'll cover 3 points: Gaining Land Efficiently, Defending your land, and 'the metagame'.
Gaining Land
Ok first - gaining land efficiently. at under 3000 acres, this involves a LOT of attacking (if you're thinking less than double digits, you're thinking too small). I know it's hard to see yourself doing 30-40 attacks a day, and still maintaining an army, you'll be able to build up to that over time - test out doing maybe 10-15 attacks in a day while below 3000, doesn't matter if you win or lose, you're just getting used to what it feels like - aim for 25+ the next day.
Another aspect to gaining land efficiently is knowing what to summon to do those attacks, and gain land with it. The metagame plays a decent role in this, but for now we'll stick with a tried and true method - DurableHitter+DurableFodder. This will win less land, but will be more efficient until you have adapted to the metagame. In this some prefer Djinni/Sylph - and nothing else, honestly I find that only works in the first few weeks of a reset before people have whored up (you hit reds/blues with it). For you, I'd recommend Djinni/Sylph/Sprite/Pegasus + cast Gate a few times. You should end up with something like Djinni/Sylph/AA/Sprite/Angel/Uni/Pegasus/Knight and around 30k units or some hodgepodge like that. Most of your power in Djinni, and a moderate amount in sylph.
Now to do the attack with this, you have to choose your targets - personally I like Blues and Reds, they're the easiest for me to pop, and relatively good land for the power. Now you may be wondering when I'm going to mention spells/items - well, right now - When hunting blue you will want to use sleep almost always, because in the current metagame Mono-Djinni and Mono-Leviathan are the most common, get a sleep through on these and your djinni and sylphs will rip them apart. Against reds, I tend to lean towards Mental Thrash - this will take down efreeti and chimera based reds reliably. Now you can go against blacks too - but use paralyze (to stop heavy stacks such as heavy wraith or heavy hd - both enemies). Items are a different matter, as it varies depends on what you think the target may have - if you think a red could be heavy Red Dragon - send in the Head of Medusa, if you think a blue is heavy leviathan the same goes - if you think a red is heavy chimera, slip in a scroll of fire protection, if you think a red is heavy efreeti, throw down the same - if you think a blue is heavy djinni, don't bother with items until you're higher in land.
Now that may be a lot to soak in, but it's just general basic strategy (similar stuff can be said for every other color - just the names of units and spells/items change).
Defending Land
Next we'll be going onto topic #2 - Defending your land. As a hunting blue - this is simple - drop all the disbandables (there is a reason I didn't say vamps and wraiths this early big grin) - and summon up a massive army of djinni, save yourself about 150k mana after casting them. Slap on a solid defensive spell and item (I like Satchel/Lovesick, or Satchel/Feet of Hermes - mechanics about why these work can be found in my FAQ).
This is straightforward - the reason I don't suggest Leviathans, is they are of no use to you on your attack runs this low, no need to use them unless you're forced to explore up (then you disband all levs, build, explore, build, summon levs, and assign a solid defense for them - such as flight/scroll, or lovesick/scroll)
Defending your land down low is simple - simply don't take more than 10% damage, above is one of the easiest methods.
The Metagame
Topic #3 - the metagame, the metagame changes as the players change, and you have to learn to adapt to it - it is best to start testing your units out in different situations - see how those levs do vs hd, or sals, or chimera, or whatever - find out why. Look at the mechanics if you must (although after a while it is better to do it by gut rather than sheer numbers). I've included some unit tips about the units, but you won't know just how much in any direction you can take them without testing or crunching obscenely large amounts of numbers.
Tips of the Trade
Some unit 'tips'
Leviathans: Weak to fire, and a little bit to lightning too. these are amazing soakers - which are of use even on offense to push down your damage dealing stacks to focus on the soft centers. Just because they're weak to something doesn't mean they can't handle it - you just have to know how to make up for this weakness.
Mind Rippers: Deadly dangerous, and the hardest blue units to manage in general (even harder than Elementals) - these suckers are a kick in the nuts times ten. Use em, use em well, just avoid poison with them.
Elementals: These are your damage workhorses, and really aren't of much use until you can get a solid stack and work with it. Let the water and ice float around mid/bottom stack and rip it out of anything that may wander into their firing path - don't rely on a specific elemental hwen you're summonings - stack to use whatever you get. Air elementals are up higher, keep them behind at least 1 other stack though (I like them 2nd or 3rd) - they can't take a hit, but can outdamage many things that'd hurt them before the other unit even has a chance to strike.
Medusa: Blue FEAR unit, hide these about in your stacks, they can go a lot of places, and can do a lot of damage (especially to other units with FEAR), just avoid letting them get HIT by units with FEAR (units with fear, suffer no accuracy penalty whens triking other units with fear - make it work FOR you). Medusa are also a cornerstone of the blue rushing strategy (along with Djinni and Mind Rippers).
Psychic Wisps: Nice little fatigue unit, although not small enough to be fodder without also being a liability, I usually only keep 1 summon at low lands if any at all - I prefer dryads because they're smaller, durable, and make good fodder and fatigue.
Djinni: Fliers, semi-durable (but have weaknesses), great vs RD and Chims, and can do some nasty work with their Lightning Secondary and Marksmanship. A lot of people use these defensively and never notice their offensive capabilities, don't make that mistake - they're not as durable as AA, and not as offensive as Chims, but they certainly are a godly middle-ground. Avoid Magic or Poison damages with these guys (Phoenix and Wraiths in particular eat these alive - Water Elementals and Horned Demons are also a threat if they make solid contact).
Sirene: Good "Fodder Killer Killers" - don't mess with these if you're a new player, they will cost you battles until you figure out just how to use them. These are best used against specific targets (take that as you will).
Sprite/Sylph: These 2 units are basically twins - Sprite are the tiny, fast, and lower damage/survivability of the pair, they are valued for their 5 init attack of pure magic. Sylph are my preferred units, with 3 initiative, much better survivability and damage, while slower are much more stocky and dangerous (but take longer to summon).
Other Units worth noting:
Nether: Horned Demons - Heavy Ground hitters, very deadly to MR, Djinni, and AA. Vampires - a great black soaker, you can utilize it better as blue than you can as black. Wraiths - Deadly to Djinni, and if hidden can be deadly to Phoenix too. Again, more effective to use as blue than as black. Lich - ground soakers, pop eaters, fairly decent units although you can usually include something better for cheaper. Ghouls - Nice fodder units, you can get them from Blood Ritual (and yes - Blood Ritual is dispellable, try a couple times with 1 mana, will usually dispell on the 3rd-5th try) - these have the same weaknesses as zombies, except these actually deal some damage (at the cost of a higher upkeep).
Ascendant: Unicorns - White offense/defense unit, kinda like what the Djinni is in air units, Uni are a good middle ground for offense and defense - also fun with melee attack modifiers Archangels - White Soakers, widely considered one of the best soakers in the game, keep them away from poison, paralyze, and breath (that means chimera everone).
Spirit Warriors - great for hunting mid-stack undead in a black army, nice holy damage, but are a little more fragile and fat than Unicorns, use at your own caution but they can be dangerous. Soul Speakers - Nice little ranged fodder/fatigue, don't use in large quantities though, they will cost you battles much like Psychic Wisps. Angels - if you're all flying, these will go with 1 summon down low, they're better than wyverns at least - but these won't win any awards for being actually 'good'. Pegasi - nice little animal fodder units, and let you differ some of your upkeeps onto gold. Use them wisely though, they die like any other flier.
Verdant
Nymph, Dryad - great ranged fodder/fatigue units, I love them both - you'll probably use Dryads at lower land, and Nymphs at higher land. Nymphs are far more durable and damaging, Dryads are smaller and better able to pack in the numbers you want.
I don't use green averages/complex, but I have heard of some blues utilizing werebears as a 'suprise' - just not worth the mana to me. Griffons are rarely if ever used by blue due to the high mana upkeep and a not so fun geld upkeep accompanying it (they eat mana like noone's business, so you're not deferring to gold, you're just eating it up alongside mana).
Eradication
Oddly enough - eradication has many great units for a blue to use at higher lands.
Efreeti - Great units, 4 init primary, fire attack type (an attack blue natively lacks, that is very useful). I usually start incorporating these around 4k land if possible and wouldn't even think twice about the mana cost of getting them. They tend to stay low in my stacks until very high land, but even there they are worth it (especially when pushing fodder ranged down a bit).
Chimera - Useful for blue all flying - 1-2 summons will usually place these relatively low in your stack, but a small stack of chimera in 6-8th stack will wipe out a lot of fodder units (and since you're likely all-flying while using these - they usually won't be targetted if they're at the very bottom unless your opponent is using a carpet, or all-flying themselves).
Salamanders - lovely little fire units, but they do crumble a bit easily, consider them from time to time, but you can usually find something better.
Hydra - useful if you're high land and fighting other blues, gives you that 3rd (or 4th if you buy assassins) poison stack to hunt down those MR or Djinni.
Think that covers most of the units, although I left some out, feel free to experiment with them, just because I don't have a preference for them, doesn't mean they're 100% useless, it just means I haven't had success using them in my personal strategies -------
Now with all that aside, lets get onto the stacking - so you've gotten to 4000 acres. You want to summon a real deepstack so you can see where blue REALLY shines. Going through your options above, it may be a bit overwhelming to think of where to begin, but with some practice and little show of preference you can get the stack you want for just about any situation.
Now there are 2 ways to stack as blue - offensively and defensively. Before you try and choose one, let me ask you a question: If you can't outdamage on defense where all the cards are in your favor (barriers, spells, item, and mystery of your stacks) - what makes you think you can win on offense? This is why I only cover OFFENSIVE DEFENSE.
For an offensive defense, you want to outdamage your opponent, and almost completely ignore your losses in power. This involves looking through that list of the units above and seeing your options - you should come up with a list somewhat like: Djinni, Elementals (all 3), Mind Rippers, Medusa, Horned Demons, and maybe Unicorns and Wraiths.
Now to protect that power you do need to setup to soak some damage - your Djinni and Mind Rippers are fairly solid units, and so are unicorns, although you may want a little more - so you can drag Leviathans into the mix.
To get numbers, well - you look at your Horned Demons and Medusa for 1, and possibly even include some Dryads, Wisps, or even Archers to round out the numbers (tip: keep 1 barrack, and always set it to recruit 2 archers per turn - even if they're 11th stack, should one of your stacks die - they'll jump in as additional fatigue in the next battle).
Now you may want some fatigue - Efreeti, Dryads, Wisps, Archers, etc. all make good fatigue - 3init or higher, and they have the perk of not getting countered.
Now you have a huge list, but notice the overlaps: Djinni, MR, HD, Medusa, and 'sometimes' Unicorns and Dryads.
These are a good core set of units to look at in your stacking, and interestingly enough - these all can be used against EVERY COLOR in at least 1 form or another - and they're also all relatively cheap both turnwise and manawise to get into your army.
So lets say we want to arrange it a bit, to protect our softer spots in these units, this will move us to something like Djinni/Uni/MR/HD/Medusa/Dryads - ionly 6 stacks, this won't do for deep stacking, and considering Dryads are only there as 'filler fodder' and 'fatigue' - you probably don't want a whole ton of them.
Lets get some units in to round this out. You have to think about what you're going to hunt, and also you'll want to amp up that damage a bit, on both offense and defense, but you also likely want to get those softer units in a more secure position still than what they are - because they are still prone to heavier stacks aiming at them (especially Mind Rippers - which are luckily easy to push down due to being ranged and able to put more power behind a melee or flying stack).
So we grab one more of our soakers to protect our more fragile units, lets go with Leviathans this time since they're on-color and quick to summon. And we decide to grab one more 'offensive' unit, this time an elemental - still on color, and still deadly.
This gives us 8 stacks - which will likely look soemthing along the lines of: Djinni/Leviathan/Uni/MR/HD/Water or Ice Elemental/Medusa/Dryad
now...with these 8 stacks, we're doing much better - we have a solid offensive nature to our stacks through the Djinni, Uni, MR, Elementals, HD, and Medusa, and we have those softer units protected with the much better soakers Leviathan and Uni, and djinni to some extent.
Now we still have exposed weaknesses, as every stack does, this is impossible to avoid, but we could use those last 2 battle slots to hinder that a bit - so lets throw in one of our trump cards from red - the Efreeti, these things are 4 init, so will even go before most other fatigue units, since they're red though, they're a pain to summon - so lets just get them up right behind the Medusa for now (at higher land we can move them up a bit if we want). and lets go ahead and throw in some SW to round it out at 10 stacks, this will also give us a little fun vs blacks undead.
This tosses us into the 10 stack of:
Djinni/Leviathan/Uni/MR/HD/Elemental/SW/Medusa/Efreeti/Dryad
Now...you may think - that's gonna be hell to summon, honestly, it's not - notice how much on-color spells you have, and how many off-color spells you have - and how often you'll need to resummon each of the stacks.
You attack with all of the stack intact, disband Leviathans and Elementals (and depending on the numbers - Djinni) and build/mp charge a bit to build up that mana storage and then you resummon and cast Levs/Elementals last to round it out (if you get air elementals, they sit nicely behind djinni or behind Leviathans).
This stack is quickly adaptable to any situation - lets say you're needed for hititng a blue who's the target of tonight's BBQ and know they have MR third, it should only be 2-3 casts of HD (100-150k mana, + upkeep for the turns) to push those HD up, and slap those MR silly, let the Hd drop back down and you're home free.
By keep the stacks as tight as possible in key areas (such as Uni/MR/HD/Elemental, or SW/Medusa/Efreeti - you let your stacks change as you're hit, letting you become unpredictable, while also still dealing out your massive damage).
Ideal defensive assignments for offensive defense, should be offensive in nature - spells like Sleep or Double Time are terribly great damage enhancers for your higher power stacks *higher chance of hitting htem*, although if you're worried about Wraiths or HD, it's not uncalled for to use Slow or Paralyze to protect your softies and rely on your item to either stop them completely or allow your hitters to easier outdamage them.
Blue should try and run full barriers to maintain it's advantage in spell and item - without barriers a blue's position becomes much weaker as it allows the enemy a massive advantage over the battle. (the more you make the enemy work around YOUR rules, the less able they are to protect against you, or deal damage to you).
Candles and Webs are your main tools of the trade with an offensive blue stacking.
---Special Note: You shouldn't have to summon up after a defense, to do an attack run - if anything you should have to disband, nothing else. You want to be able to run as soon as you log in, as much as possible. Never log off with under 300k mana if possible (250k is acceptable, but it's pushing it), and always save Elementals for LAST in summoning, they are an 'augmenter' not a cornerstone, get them when you can.
Hopefully that helps. (the stack I gave is by far not the only stack, I was merely using it as an example of working through your stacks - metagame comes into this train of thought - and also your preferred style of play, but you should always have a thought process of 'how can I do enough damage', 'how can I keep from taking more damage', 'how can I take max land', 'what can I do to compensate for weaknesses if anything', and finally 'what items and spells will work best with this?' - if you hit a major snag in any of these, you will want to loop back in steps to find out where you can fix it and proceed onward).
