A few random Queries

[Alneyan]

Without any kind of addendum, here comes a few questions I have been having while playing Dominions:

1) Do the various Quickness effects (Boots of Quickness, Quickness spells, blessing) stack, or is the best bonus the only one applied?

2) Do squads risk losing morale if they are hit, even if no actual damage has been done? An example would be an archer attacking a high-protection unit. Or is the archer basically doomed in this case

3) How should I effectively use cavalry? If I only use a few of them, they do not stand a chance while attempting to strike in the rear of the enemy army. Or should I only bother with the elite cavalry, such as the Knights of Avalon and their ilk?

4) Has there been an interest for games played with a high or very high research cost? I am under the impression that normal research cost is the norm, but then, I have only seen a few MP games.

Edit: I knew I had forgotten something:

5) When playing a stealthy game (hide, hit'em hard, run like the winds, repeat), how would direct strikes against the enemy forces be made? Going the stealthy way seems to mean having several smaller armies, and possibly weaker than their enemy counterparts. Or is the purpose to weaken the enemy so much that recruiting new units or even upkeep becomes a problem? In other words, how should a stealthy army finish the enemy off?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[liga]

As far as I know, concerning the question number 2:

A unit is called to make a "morale check" when wounded, when a squad member dies, when hit by fear inducing weapons, spells and fear auras, when repelled (but this will not induce morale loss IIRC). Perhaps when other squads rout. Not sure about that one.

.. and ..

A squad starts to rout when the sum of the morale loss is higher then the squad size (or something like that) and fails a squad morale check (average morale of squad members + some kind of bonus for squad size).

So, it seems that to be hit but not wounded doesn't make any morale check (and so any morale reduction, and so no rout).

bye bye
Liga

[Wendigo]

Speaking from my faulty memory, so take with a pinch of salt:

1.-All these basically do the same thing: cast the quickness spell on the user, so they do not stack (the spell would be even ignored by the spell Ai for example if you were wearing the boots.

One exception: I believe "heroic quickness" stacks with the others.

2.- Only damage suffered & fear auras cause morale checks I believe. The lone archers still has a chance to deal damage to a high protection critter because of 2 factors:
-The open ended nature of damage rolls (if you roll a 6 you roll again for extra damage)
-The fact that the target's fatigue can result in armour piercing hits.

3.- I frankly barely use them except for specialized roles, as the most expensive elites they benefit the most from spell buffs, but they also cost you the most for every casualty they take.

4.- Players will flock to the most bizarre settings NP, there are always people waiting for somebody else to start (and/or host) a game.

5.- Players might choose to go with guerrilla tactics due to the following:

-They cannot face the opponent's main stack/pretender, so choose to fight elsewhere rather than lose their forces in a doomed atempt.

-They are trying to prevail in the economic field: by striking at your opponent's backyard you are not only reducing his monetary & gem income, you are also gaining such income for yourself until he claims back those provinces. Some of the damage takes time to recover from even when ownership changes back (say, unrest reducing the income), and some of the damage is even permanent (population loss).

If by doing so you become twice as big as your opponent, you can win by sheer force of numbers by being able to muster more troops & summons.

-Related to the above: trying to push the enemy dominion back by temple-smashing: having your enemy's dominion intruding your land is usally not a good idea: causes population loss from Death themes, loss of income if weather scale is different, causes unrest, gives morale bonuses to the enemy & penalty to your troops....

-Encircling an enemy army can result in its total anihilation, thus cutting retreat paths by surprise is always a reasonable move. Even the most powerful pretender will die if he routs and has nowhere to flee to.

[Alneyan]

Wendigo said:
1.-All these basically do the same thing: cast the quickness spell on the user, so they do not stack (the spell would be even ignored by the spell Ai for example if you were wearing the boots.

One exception: I believe "heroic quickness" stacks with the others.

What about the Quickness blessing (Water-9)? It is labelled as being a 50% only Quickness in the manual; does it mean it is useless if the blessed unit already has the Boots of Quickness? Or is it equivalent to the Quickness spell/Boots of Quickness, and as such does not stack?

2.- Only damage suffered & fear auras cause morale checks I believe. The lone archers still has a chance to deal damage to a high protection critter because of 2 factors:

My mistake; I had forgotten to specifically exclude such a scenario.

4.- Players will flock to the most bizarre settings NP, there are always people waiting for somebody else to start (and/or host) a game.

Thanks; I may attempt to host (or at least crate) such a game then.

5.- Players might choose to go with guerrilla tactics due to the following:

Speaking of guerilla tactics, how often is the Plunder option used? If you take an enemy province, but cannot hold it, plundering is effective, but wouldn't your own army be very vulnerable to an enemy counterstrike then? Or am I missing something about when to plunder?

Thanks for your answers!

[Arryn]

Alneyan said:
What about the Quickness blessing (Water-9)? It is labelled as being a 50% only Quickness in the manual; does it mean it is useless if the blessed unit already has the Boots of Quickness? Or is it equivalent to the Quickness spell/Boots of Quickness, and as such does not stack?

As best I recall, the only quickness that stacks with another (and with itself, BTW), is Heroic Quickness. Placing Quickness boots on units that have the W9 blessing is sort of a waste (the boots give 2 actions per turn, while the blessing gives only 1.5 actions per turn (in a 1,2,1,2 pattern)). In such a case, the "best" quickness (that of the boots) would be in effect.

[archaeolept]

hmmm i thought blessing quickness and spell/boots quickness stacked, though I could be wrong.

[Arryn]

From Graeme Dice's post #258109 of 14 March 2004:

All magical quickness effects, such as that from the boots of quickness, the jade armor, the quickness spell, and the champion's trident give you an extra action per round, but do not stack with each other. Heroic quickness does stack with these items, as I have a 125% heroic quickness unit with a jade armor that gets 5 attacks the first round, and 4 attacks the second round.

EDIT: furthermore, the stacking is multiplicative, not additive. As GD's post states, his HQ of 125% (2.25x) plus the armor's 100% (2x) = 4.5x (5 on 1st, 4 on 2nd pattern), and not the 225% (3.25x) of a simple additive stack. IMO, this makes the HQ HoF ability hands-down the most valuable award you can get on a leader.