Losing Commanders in a rout

Darryl · #1 March 9th, 2004, 12:33 AM

Okay, I'ver just lost an important commander for the second time in a rout of the enemy. In both cases the enemy troops never pass the center of the battlefield and the commander in question is against the back wall with guards around him. In the first case, he just sort of died. Watched the replay and it went according to the battle report except that it said "one commander died". Never saw how, and it didn't make sense because I annhililated the other army. Just had it again and the commander "vanished" right before the enemy routed. He was there with 10 hit points one minute surrounded by trolls and a troll king (while my army was on the other side of the battlefield routing the enemy) and he vanished. Checked his stats right before and hten he was gone. No arrow, message, or anything. No enemy troops near.

Now I know there's a problem with the battle replays, but this one has me baffled since the whole battle was basically a mismatch before it started. ANyone else see something like this?

fahdiz · #2 March 9th, 2004, 12:48 AM

What race are you playing? Did your commander possibly have Flying, or have the Flight spell cast on him?

Psitticine · #3 March 9th, 2004, 01:21 AM

Or an underwater swimmer, such as a Triton?

Darryl · #4 March 9th, 2004, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fahdiz:
What race are you playing? Did your commander possibly have Flying, or have the Flight spell cast on him?

He wasn't flying. He had 5 Sea Trolls and a Tarrasque as bodyguards. Right before the rout he just vanished from the battlefield. He was at 108 fatigue though, which was kinda stupid as he continually cast protection spells with no enemies on his half of the field. Did I mention the tarrasque guarding him?

And this happened on land, so no tritons.

[update]
Ok, ignore what I said. He did have boots of flying on. Amazingly I was shuffling around items and just "stored" them on this commander until my scout came back to take them. Did he "Fall" from the sky or something?

FYI the other commander this happened to definitely wasn't flying.

Darryl

[ March 08, 2004, 23:39: Message edited by: Darryl ]

PvK · #5 March 9th, 2004, 01:41 AM

Was he in an aura that causes fatigue or damage to him?

As I've mentioned before, I lost my wonderful mummified death priest by trying to guard him with Devils. Heat plus dry ancient bandages and imbalming fluid is a bad combination.

PvK

Darryl · #6 March 9th, 2004, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PvK:
Was he in an aura that causes fatigue or damage to him?

As I've mentioned before, I lost my wonderful mummified death priest by trying to guard him with Devils. Heat plus dry ancient bandages and imbalming fluid is a bad combination.

PvK

Nothing he shouldn't have been able to handle normally. He had a snake ring on, so the poison from the tarrasque wasn't affecting him (did that one before though). Although I do remember screaming at the screen when the Sea King casted "Breath of Winter". Seeing no enemies near I didn't understand that one (the Sea king was right next to the mage that died). Hmmmm....maybe that was it? The mage definitely wasn't cold resistant.....oh you've gotta be KIDDING?!?! (I just read the spell description) Again I say there were no enemies past the halfway point of the screen, with the Sea King and mage on the left side of the screen, and my troops routing the enemy on the right side (the rout message came a few seconds after the mage "vanished") Don't tell me the spell casting AI killed my mage with no enemies close enough?!?

Ok, I just did a search on "Breath of Winter". That was probably it. If so, it's pretty idiotic. I know people say more control is unbalancing but man! I went to all the trouble to protect my mage from the tarrasque poison only to find I should have protected him against ANYTHING my mages can cast! Beautiful. I thought water magic kind of lagged behind the others. Now I'll never use a water mage again unless ALL of my units are immune to cold.

By the way, anyone know how much damage that spell does? The mage had 10 HP and Prot 16 right before he vanished.

[ March 09, 2004, 00:03: Message edited by: Darryl ]

PvK · #7 March 9th, 2004, 02:05 AM

Chalk up another dead mage to friendly Breath of Winter.

I tend to think the AI should be made smart enough to avoid deadly auras areas.

PvK

Psitticine · #8 March 9th, 2004, 02:22 AM

I agree. Aura spells have their place, but that place should be comfortably away from friendly troops.

Darryl · #9 March 9th, 2004, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Psitticine:
I agree. Aura spells have their place, but that place should be comfortably away from friendly troops.

To be honest I didn't understand 90% of the spells the AI cast in this battle. I had about 6 tarrasques and 4 abominations along with an Ether Lord and 14 "Ether troops" or whatever they're called. My mages were basically there to ensure a stray arrow didn't rout the army. The AI KEPT casting spells which basically did nothing since no enemies was CLOSE to the left side of the screen. It seems to just cast some spells with no regard to how effective it would be against the enemy. I mean it wasn't like they were being attacted when Breath of Winter" was cast.

johan osterman · #10 March 9th, 2004, 03:03 AM

In general it is allways a good idea to spread out mages, both for outflanking missile and aura spell reasons.