2 small questions about horror mark

[Boron]

if a unit is horror marked does anyone know the percentages of a horror attack . further how are the odds that you are attacked by a lesser horror , a horror , the king of world horror , a doom horror .
do horror marks stack :
if you put e.g. 2 soul contracts on your leader does he have double chance for a horror attack ?

are 5 devils on guard enough to defeat a lesser horror attack ?

[spirokeat]

yeah I have wondered the same thing, I have used the contracts and had a horror marked commander present in a game that has gone on into a hundred turns and I have yet across any of my games to see an unprovoked horror attack.

But I always want to make use of the incombat horror spells but am never quite sure just how compelling a horror mark would actually be ?

Spiro

[Sheap]

Being horror marked mostly just encourages horrors in combat to attack you, it doesn't draw that many horrors by itself although it can happen. If you're doing something that encourages horror attacks, like casting spells in Astral Corruption or living under a Dome of Corruption, a horror marked unit is more likely to be on the receiving end of the spell, and is more likely to get a meaner horror.

I'm not sure if being in magic dominion increases the odds of horror attacks or not. They're so rare it's hard to prove it.

Some horror marks are "worse" than others although it doesn't show it. The one you get from the spell is relatively mild.

Lesser Horrors are extremely feeble and can easily be defeated, but if the horror marked unit is extremely weak they might be able to kill him before they are themselves destroyed. "Normal" horrors are strong enough to wipe out most mages or national commanders and Groups of bodyguards unless they are SC's. Doom Horrors and Kings of the World rarely appear unless wished for, but there's not much hope of defeating them.

[Boron]

thnx for the answers sheap .
does someone know hard numbers ?
or if you can get attacked even by a king of the world / doom horror if you are "only" horrormarked and do nothing but sit around to produce devils ? of course if astral corruption is not in effect .
edit : oh yes and do the percentages from 2 soul contracts stack ?
perhaps the model is percentagewise and with 1 soulcontract you can only get rarely attacked by a lesser horror while with 2 soul contracts the percentages stack and you now can get attacked by a lesser horror with a higher chance + get rarely attacked instead of a lesser horror even by a horror ?

btw is there any very fast and easy way where you need no programming knowledge but simple a small program with which you can find such hardcoded things even as a novice like me in short time ?

[ July 27, 2004, 14:28: Message edited by: Boron ]

[LintMan]

The one time I was attacked by a horror, it was on a soul contracted mage casting some ritual spell.

The horror that showed up wasn't a small one (I'm not sure if it was a Doom Horror, though: I'm thinking it was a regular Horror), but I felt confident because the target mage had a bodyguard of 5 Iron Dragons, one of my favorite units.

Combat begins, the dragons fly over and all attack the horror. The horror lives, and immediately flies past the dragons and attacks my mage, killing him instantly. End of battle.

IIRC, Iron Dragons have a decent bite attack, but I might have done better with bodyguards specialized in doing regular attacks rather than trampling. But I think the horror mark makes the horrors prioritize the marked being, even when already surrounded by enemies. So unless your bodyguards are going to kill the horror immediately the first round before it can move, I suspect you're a goner unless the target victim is tough enough to hold up for a few rounds against the horror.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by LintMan:
The one time I was attacked by a horror, it was on a soul contracted mage casting some ritual spell.

The horror that showed up wasn't a small one (I'm not sure if it was a Doom Horror, though: I'm thinking it was a regular Horror), but I felt confident because the target mage had a bodyguard of 5 Iron Dragons, one of my favorite units.

Combat begins, the dragons fly over and all attack the horror. The horror lives, and immediately flies past the dragons and attacks my mage, killing him instantly. End of battle.

IIRC, Iron Dragons have a decent bite attack, but I might have done better with bodyguards specialized in doing regular attacks rather than trampling. But I think the horror mark makes the horrors prioritize the marked being, even when already surrounded by enemies. So unless your bodyguards are going to kill the horror immediately the first round before it can move, I suspect you're a goner unless the target victim is tough enough to hold up for a few rounds against the horror.

Nah. Target victim should summon something first round, and you should give him gems if needed, unless he can kill horror in first round with spell. Also tramplening is indeed one of the worst possible attacks against horrors, since they got to make two checks - 75% of faliure because of they are etherial, AND good chance of failure becuse of horror's high defense (all tramlening attack made as attck 10 vs unit's defense). I would suggest next time to try something with magical attack as a bodyguard, so it could hurt etherial units.

[Vicious Love]

I always want to make use of the incombat horror spells but am never quite sure just how compelling a horror mark would actually be ?

To the furthest of my rather meager knowledge, a horror on a battlefield will ONLY attack horror marked units until:
A) All horror marked units are dead, or inaccessible(No empty spot to fly into beside them)
B) A horror has made its move, killed a horror marked unit, and been left with one or more unused attacks and no marked units within range.

I'm even less sure of B than I am of the whole hypothesis. It SEEMS to hold true, but I've only seen horrors attack armies after summoning those horrors myself, usually after sending a few vampires into hand to hand with Shields of the Accursed the month before. Consequently, with such a ganerous marked->unmarked unit ratio, making any sort of conclusive observation was... tricky.

Update: A few questions of my own, by the way.
1) We know that casting spells and forging items is more likely to attract horrors than just kinda lounging around, even in high-magic provinces. The question is, how much more likely? Do multi-path spells or items check for horror attacks twice, as with Astral Corruption? Are more powerful spells more likely to attract horrors, or to attract bigger horrors?
2) More powerful mages seem to attract more powerful horrors. Are horrors keyed to mages' path levels, or does it simply seem this way because powerful mages cast powerful globals(And the gem cost of the spell results in bigger horrors) or end up getting more powerful horror marks?
For instance, if the Forbidden Light, which presumably incurs one of the most powerful marks in the game, were given to a scout, would that scout attract doom horrors, or would he just be very, very likely to attract the usual lesser horrors?
3) I don't suppose anyone knows the relative strengths of various horror marks? Is the Oath Rod of Kurgi's horror mark powerful enough to actually be useful without Send Horror or Call Horror? Do higher-penetration castings of Horror Mark result in stronger marks?