I'll chime in here, too.
My fortress is a mobile one (stats coming when I make the post that has my army's stats in it), which I find to be both a huge strategic and tactical value. I can place my army anywhere in the world in a matter of days, while other armies have to cross difficult terrain, make camps, and rest. Plus I have a large force of teleporting Lantern Archons to scout and communicate. I think that kind of communication and logistical support is going to be huge once casualties start coming up.
As far as battles go, I'm relying a lot on my heavy hitters to get the job done. My character is a Leonal, which gives me fireball, wall of force, and hold monster (among other things) at will; Even if Axorius stays on his ship over the battlefield, he can rain down fiery death and screw up command lines (by paralyzing the commanders).
His 3 lieutenants are Bralani eladrins, who have some nice defensive abilities. They can throw up Wind Walls at will and fly 100 ft. (perfect), which will work wonders to neutralize enemy archers. They also get some weak area effect wind blasts and 2/day lightning bolts, but neither of those are too deadly. With the Bralani at the head of the infantry troops, it keeps the infantry alive for long enough to engage in melee.
Lantern Archons flying around the battlefield, also. They don't do a lot by themselves, but in just a minute or so, the 48 lantern archons can cast Aid on the entire army, which basically doubles the effectiveness of CR 1 troops. They fire ranged touch attacks, and with enough of them concentrated, things go down fast (though it's not as worth it to use the 1d6 attacks on regular grunts, they have low AC's anyways where the touch attack factor isn't as useful, and the archons can't be melee'd anyways). The aura of despair isn't super-powerful, but it's a slight edge, and the archons are pretty tough to kill with their DR and the extra hp Aid will provide, and will probably be passed over for softer targets.
The infantry are still important to the battle scenario, but are selectively placed and carefully defended so they can actually fight instead of being turned into pincushions by rampant magical warfare. A squad of the buffed up level 1 fighters can easily kill a squad of surprised level 3 or 4 spellcasters or archers in that situation. And the enemy grunts are left helpless to fight against the ranged firepower of the archers and spellcasters.
I'm considering putting siege weapons on the ship, but I think that magic will be more effective for the cost. Once a month, I can throw down a storm of vengeance, which is devestating in an army scenario, with the added bonus of possibly killing enemy spellcasters with the targeted 10d6 lightning bolts.
The biggest strength of my army is the surprise attack factor. We can hit hard and fast, before the enemy chains of command are put into effect, causing severe casualties, and then fade away before they can mount a counterattack. Attrition will eat away at them.
In terms of teaming up, the Heavenly Host is probably best as a flanking force. The effects used to defend it simply don't have large enough areas of effect to easily cover other armies, but the quick Lantern Archons will be able to do wonders for coordination of cooperating units.
Also, Axorius is kind of pompous, being both a lion and a high-up in the celestial heirarchy, so while he's extremely dedicated to good, he has little patience.
My fortress is a mobile one (stats coming when I make the post that has my army's stats in it), which I find to be both a huge strategic and tactical value. I can place my army anywhere in the world in a matter of days, while other armies have to cross difficult terrain, make camps, and rest. Plus I have a large force of teleporting Lantern Archons to scout and communicate. I think that kind of communication and logistical support is going to be huge once casualties start coming up.
As far as battles go, I'm relying a lot on my heavy hitters to get the job done. My character is a Leonal, which gives me fireball, wall of force, and hold monster (among other things) at will; Even if Axorius stays on his ship over the battlefield, he can rain down fiery death and screw up command lines (by paralyzing the commanders).
His 3 lieutenants are Bralani eladrins, who have some nice defensive abilities. They can throw up Wind Walls at will and fly 100 ft. (perfect), which will work wonders to neutralize enemy archers. They also get some weak area effect wind blasts and 2/day lightning bolts, but neither of those are too deadly. With the Bralani at the head of the infantry troops, it keeps the infantry alive for long enough to engage in melee.
Lantern Archons flying around the battlefield, also. They don't do a lot by themselves, but in just a minute or so, the 48 lantern archons can cast Aid on the entire army, which basically doubles the effectiveness of CR 1 troops. They fire ranged touch attacks, and with enough of them concentrated, things go down fast (though it's not as worth it to use the 1d6 attacks on regular grunts, they have low AC's anyways where the touch attack factor isn't as useful, and the archons can't be melee'd anyways). The aura of despair isn't super-powerful, but it's a slight edge, and the archons are pretty tough to kill with their DR and the extra hp Aid will provide, and will probably be passed over for softer targets.
The infantry are still important to the battle scenario, but are selectively placed and carefully defended so they can actually fight instead of being turned into pincushions by rampant magical warfare. A squad of the buffed up level 1 fighters can easily kill a squad of surprised level 3 or 4 spellcasters or archers in that situation. And the enemy grunts are left helpless to fight against the ranged firepower of the archers and spellcasters.
I'm considering putting siege weapons on the ship, but I think that magic will be more effective for the cost. Once a month, I can throw down a storm of vengeance, which is devestating in an army scenario, with the added bonus of possibly killing enemy spellcasters with the targeted 10d6 lightning bolts.
The biggest strength of my army is the surprise attack factor. We can hit hard and fast, before the enemy chains of command are put into effect, causing severe casualties, and then fade away before they can mount a counterattack. Attrition will eat away at them.
In terms of teaming up, the Heavenly Host is probably best as a flanking force. The effects used to defend it simply don't have large enough areas of effect to easily cover other armies, but the quick Lantern Archons will be able to do wonders for coordination of cooperating units.
Also, Axorius is kind of pompous, being both a lion and a high-up in the celestial heirarchy, so while he's extremely dedicated to good, he has little patience.
