mobile domes?

[WraithLord]

I think I will not be too far off in concluding that most MP players will avoid fielding large armies.
Instead players will use many small armies.

There are some ways in which the game encourages this.
(in)effectiveness of PD, Killer spells (artillery), killer spells (battle field) and SCs are imo among the chief reasons to deploy many small armies.

I guess some people like it that way, but for me it takes some of the epic feeling the game has in many other respects.

Historically wars were made of many skirmishes but usually decided in major clashes of armies.
Now I'm not saying that the game should be an exact reflection of the history of ware fare. I only want to point out that maybe the "scales" are tipped too much in favor of small (TF) armies. So much so that large armies are rarely seen (and if seen have very short life expectancy)

sorry for the long post. My point is that maybe in dom-III there could be spells that would act as mobile domes. This way a mage would be able to somewhat protect armies on the move from deadly artillery spells.
The dome might also exist in the first rounds of battle.

[quantum_mechani]

I like the idea, maybe the best way to implement it would be with magic items?

[WraithLord]

quantum_mechani said:
I like the idea, maybe the best way to implement it would be with magic items?

It's possible. I just wanted to promote the idea. I guess there are many ways to do it.
I hope the devs will also like the idea

[sushiboat]

I think that upkeep and supply are more important limiting factors for army size. I love having huge armies, but that only works well with undead, Vine Ogres, constructs, and similar non-eating, unpaid troops. Perhaps supply should only be a problem in enemy dominion, and even then open supply lines to your capital should increase supply. Perhaps troops could spend a turn foraging for food and build up their own supplies. Upkeep for troops could be lowered without changing commander upkeep.

[Chazar]

sushiboat said:...and even then open supply lines to your capital should increase supply.

Err, taking a high-admin and easy to build castle like the "Wizard's Tower" does exactly that: it increases the available supply in all provinces (up to four provinces away). I am not a fan of making the captial even more important, but I do agree that the supply value of a castle should be of use for this feat rather than the all important admin value. Nevertheless, I keep building wizard towers especially for the reason to provide supply next to my frontlines (and of course it doesnt hurt to have a safe haven for retreating sometimes).

sushiboat said: Perhaps troops could spend a turn foraging for food and build up their own supplies.

Pillaging also relieves starvation, so this is already there as well? Sure, there is the moral loss and maybe a few units get diseased direclty, but there are alwyas a few losses, right? However, the lost turn is much more of a major hassle. A "move and graze"-order would be nice, which does not so much longterm-harm to the province as pillaging and provides only a bit more food...

---

Hmm, actually I must admit that I am belonging to the "no-big-army"-faction. In fact, I think it is much to easy and effective to evade the need for food supply and I believe that this is the reason why people rather use undead and SC's instead of conventional armies. They are much easier to handle, easier to produce (in the sense that summoning and forging requires less mouse-clicks and brain-power than recruiting several units all over your dominion and ferrying them together to one place to make up an army that might stand a chance...

So I would like it if really all units would have some kind of upkeep: Any combination of food, gold, resources, and magic gems should be required to keep up a unit. E.g. the "Behemoth" says that it comes with its own driver, but who pays for that mage? Why is a Demon permanently bound for a fixed price? What about their insatiable lust for blood? The presence of such a creature should diminish the population and it should vanish if there is not enough population nor blood slaves in his pockets! Make some of the summons variably priced like some global spells and allow them to be recast in time just like one has to pay again for mercenaries in order to keep that creature, e.g. paying 50+X gems binds an AirQueen for Y+Z rounds into service...

The only exception I could envision would be for the low-level undead, but just to savour the flavour of AshenEmpire and SoulGate - for the sake of diversity. Cheers!

[Taqwus]

Oh, I've previously suggested necrophagic ghouls, and that should corpses not be available that they go about trying to make some more. (Hm. Do not give Nethgul to a ghoul?)

For some troop types, some maintenance does seem appropriate. For lesser types that don't really require *pay* (e.g. Mechanical Men shouldn't need to be paid), there might still be gem costs to maintain control... or perhaps the mage who's leading them should start with some fatigue or other penalty based on how much of his magical leadership capability he's using.

If one wanted to readily feed big armies, one could mod in supply units (e.g. no combat stats to speak of, some supply bonus, gold cost to require maintenance pay). Unfortunately I don't think you can mod in consumable supplies, or percentage modifiers (e.g. logistics coordinator who cost a lot to train and pay (expenses), but who boosts supply availability by a percentage rather than a fixed value). You'd still be vulnerable to Leprosy, Murdering Winter, Beckoning, and Flames from the Sky, however.

[Chazar]

Taqwus said:(e.g. Mechanical Men shouldn't need to be paid)

Actually I would agree that Mechmen do not need upkeep, but maybe resources? Or they should have "Never Heal" (I wonder that they do not have it, but according to Zen's Quick Ref they do not have it) and hence heal only in Lab-Provinces if there are enough resources around for healing...

[Cainehill]

Mmm - it makes sense that many if not most of the magical summonses wouldn't require upkeep - in fantasy monsters tend to stay in line from fear, and the promise of fresh human blood and meat, or 'intangibles' which the mage or master provides.

However - a set of spells that allowed regular units to be ensorcelled, enchanted so they no longer pined for home and family, no longer expected pay? A nature version should possibly even eliminate the need for food - mortals spent decades in elven halls from just a few nibbles of enchanted food.

Then again, nature already is the only (?) way to provide supplies via magic items. Seems like earth and blood might be other realms that could provide food ( via the earth's bounty, which might be stepping on nature's toes a bit, and blood via magic cauldrons in which bodies of the fallen are turned into food. Maybe something which lowered population of the province the army was in.... )

Still - if Dom3 could have a few ways in which upkeep could be reduced or eliminated for regular troops, that might help keep recruitable troops in play in larger quantities, longer in the game.

Nature, Blood ( a blood binding ), and Astral (which already has Enslavement ) all seem like likely options for such spells / items.

[Dhakhan]

Instead of mobile domes, couldn't mages traveling with an army confer some small amount of protection to incoming arty type spells? A small increase to magic resistance based upon the highest level accompanying mage?

How about having the added magic resistance depend upon whether the mage detects the incoming barrage or not? A new kind of Mage with this a special ability?

[NTJedi]

I like the mobile domes suggestion because right now it's just not feasible to be moving large armies on big maps.