Let your pride shine through (Lion armies)

Sparklings are not OP because they are the most fragile and weak units in the game, anything and everything can attack them without much worry because they don't hit hard. There job is to deny my opponent access to elixir as long as they can and blow themselves up when they are in danger of being killed/used for pursuit movement. Maybe i'll blow up a full hp one if theres a enemy unit i really want dead but it's not something i choose to do on a whim. I don't personally use Pyromancer but mostly i haven't gotten round to it. Back a few patches ago they were OP but since then there have been a number of changes that have reduced their effectiveness alot.

My latest build focuses on building a wall of defense and using a support shooter to cause movement issues and a chosen of light to hit my opponent's units from behind the wall. I'm tempted to try to fit a pyromancer in instead of the chosen of light though.

10 Mercenaries:
Arinius
Assault Lion
Chosen of Light
Devotee of Azel
Support Shooter
3x Swordsman
2x Sparkling Flash

now thats a team build.....that force would give wolves a run for their money...

10 Mercenaries:
Arinius
Assault Lion
Chosen of Light
Devotee of Azel
Support Shooter
3x Swordsman
2x Sparkling Flash

im not sure about Arinus alone but all other units are pursuit generators Vs all GoE companies and propably will fail against RAM half zerg supported by 1-2 gargoyles.

I really don't see Swordsmans as usefull units... maybe one T3 guy with tount can be nice with Arinus Strategist 4 and commanding shout - but anything above only generates pursuits...
but still when there is no other alternative i also switched Enchanter (he really lacks of something like guardian angell spell) + his familiar for T1 + T2 swordsman for test purposes.

edit
and i loved PAR based lions when i played Acheron Golem build - one elixir point and half your army have PAR 0/DOD 0 + their tiny TOU value

Maybe i'll admit i haven't come across 3 GOE with this build but i can disrupt Ryskar from being able to take advantage of his abilities entirely. Clip his movement with Incapacitating Shaft and move in on him with Arinius. My opponent isn't going to be happy having to attack Arinius with Ryskar because chances are Ryskar won't come off lightly from it. Swordsman are ok but i agree they can be taken out pretty easily by Wolfen if your not careful. I'm not sure i don't like spending so much AP on a Swordsman but you might be right i haven't really used the soldier of alahan.

I've been running Chimera and Archmage recently and it is quite potent. I think Ring of Mist is probably the biggest weaknees of the build. Otherwise they can trash enemies. It was fun zapping an Emerok Army through the wall in Archeron.

Chimera
Archmage
Sharpshooter
Soldier of Alahan
x2 Swordsman
Sparkling Flash
x3 Familiar of Spark

Alternatively you can squeeze in 2 Sparkling Flash by losing a swordsman and downgrading the sharpshooter into a support shooter.

The way the army works is this. On the first turn your unlikely to get any hits in with the Archmage so get 2 familiar of sparks to devotion Chimera and 1 to devotion the archmage. Have Chimera throw out Guardian Angel on a swordsman or sparkling flash. Against ranged champions and units you will want to keep Chimera and probably more likely your Archmage behind cover. Move your other units to the capture points when appropriate and block pathways your enemy will likely use to move in on your mage and Chimera. 2nd turn comes around and blam, get celestial scourging your opponent, use orb of clarity if you won the capture point to heal your familiars and give your Archmage concience. This setup works quite well in archeron because you can shoot right through the wall in the middle of the area. Even without Concience you can hit enemy units stood up against the opposite side of the gap in the wall.

This is my latest Lion build i've been playing with, just to try to counter lion archers though in typical fashion i haven't found one since i changed to this build. I have beaten a Emerok + 3 Guardian of Equilibrium build with this setup in archeron and i've beaten a bowman heavy Melmoth opponent. edit: i've gone against mostly any kind of composition now and won. Still waiting on a archer lanevar map to happen but the only opponent so far that i've had issues with is one using Kerberos. 11wins/1 loss.

Arinius - No one likes to face this guy in melee combat. He can absorb damage fairly well from all sources and with some extra healing from Regeneration and the Familiar of Spark he can be very hard to remove from the board,
x3 Assault Lion - Main offense, large mobilty to pick and choose who dies with. Prime targets for Raise your Shield!
Devotee of Azel - Regen for Arinius and the Lions.
x2 Familiar of Spark - for healing Arinius mostly.
x3 Sparkling Flash - For gaining elixir.

I have beaten a Emerok + 3 Guardian of Equilibrium build with this setup

how?
its imposible while there are 4 hard war lion counters there ;p

How? Assault Lions can get the first attack with Arinius in the build + Commanding Shout and Raise your shield can make melee attacks very hard to successfully pull off. So they can get in some damage before they get taken down and the opponent was unable to aquire any elixir throughout the match. Also i think the opponent saw me moving Arinius right up to him and decided to try to burn him down with chants. This didn't really work with Arinius recovering 15 hp a turn since Chant of Fate was only doing 7 damage a cast to him if i remember rightly. I don't think Emerok ever managed to use Mortal Insolence either because for much of the match he was stood behind the other units unable to get into melee combat.

indeed Vs this one band (Arinus) Emerok is weaker than the PoB hero.

I currently have a win streak going now i've been running my Arinius and assault lions army against Lions and Wolves and running a Chimera build i'm using against Ram.

I always come up against Kerberos when i go up against Ram so i decided i would run Celestial Scourge heavy against them, Kerberos pretty much can't make a move in without getting torn to bits by Celestial Scourge and the vulnerable attribute. All i have to do is keep my Archmage behind heavy cover for as long i can win elixer for Concience/until a good opportunity appears and i pretty much have all of the control. Chimera doesn't really ever take any damage so Guardian Angel works best on the Archmage which will help keep him from being taken out by an opponent's Gargoyle.

Chimera
Archmage- A second Celestial Scourge >=D
x3 Familiar of Spark- healers and suppliers of Mana to your two mage units and you have Chimera's elixir skill to top up their health when it gets low.
x2 Sparkling Flash- extra Bodies can help getting Elixer.
Soldier of Alahan- taunter.
Sharpshooter- Offensive Stance Aims.
Support Shooter - pesky scout enemy not moved yet? in danger of attack? Impede them! >=D slows down Kerberos too.