Quote:
Rathar said:
I got utterly schooled there. How does one protect against master enslave?! Mightve helped a bit if my guys had cast the spells they were supposed to but no they just stared in horror at the debacle.
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I've been on the receiving end of master enslaves when storming an enemy castle twice now. The first time I didn't see it comming, and the result was pretty much the same as here, total annihilation of my attacking army. The second time was just this past month. I knew I would be hit by it, and I thought I had prepared well for it. I had a massive army, with a big communion of my own, and I hoped to use master enslave myself to get some of my troops back and steel my opponents too. I had several mages capable of casting massive damage spells, battlefield buffs, and enough pearls to cast master enslave 5 times. And the communion had enough endurance for my slaves to survive all that spellcasting without passing out. Or so I thought. What happened was that I got hit by the first enslave and when it was my turn, instead of hitting back with everything I had prepared, my key mages decided to melee with my own enslaved troops. (Which is what happened to your army too. Mages in melee have 50% chance of attacking instead of casting spells, and with so many of your troops enslaved, every one of your mages was probably engaged in melee. ) The result, despite all my preparation was, once again, total annihilation.
As to how to defend against master enslave? Difficult, very difficult. Antimagic/army of lead helps a lot, but not if the defender manages to get off his enslave on the first turn. In this particular situation, I see no way you could have conquered the castle with a regular army. (which doesn't necessarily mean there is no way of course) What would probably have worked was you sending in a SC and/or several thugs with really high MR (end 20's, preferably begin 30 if you can manage it) so they could not only survive master enslave, but the inevitable soul slays as well. With a MR like that I would have been very unlikely to kill them, and they would have made short work of the few troops and many mages I had in the castle.