Flying assassins

[Beorne]

Is blink spell useful vs flying Assassins? LA Ermor is spamming me with something like death angels (I don't remember the spell name) and my Starspawns without death magic are dead fish. Is blinking + mind blast useful?
I've never used blinking, is a one time blink or I blink every round?

Thanks!

[Edi]

Blink every round.

[vfb]

It's Manifestation. S2s should script Returning. WS and ES could do with some Mind Blasting bodyguards, if you've gotten some immobiles (Things from Beyond) from your gate.

I wouldn't try blink, he'll just fly up and whack you.

Put up Astral Domes if you haven't already, if your mages are mostly in just a few provinces, and you can spare the pearls. You can hire some indy commanders too, and sit them with your Starspawn. Sure, they'll go nuts, but they'll eat up some of the Angel attacks. And some of them will even turn into extra Prophets. Always nice to have versus Ermor!

[NTJedi]

vfb said:

I wouldn't try blink, he'll just fly up and whack you.

Yes, blink has very limited uses... and it's no good against flying assassins.

vfb said:

You can hire some indy commanders too, and sit them with your Starspawn. Sure, they'll go nuts, but they'll eat up some of the Angel attacks. And some of them will even turn into extra Prophets. Always nice to have versus Ermor!

Buy the scouts and have them 'Move' with your Starspawn... he'll soon feel the loss of death gems on scouts.

[Beorne]

vfb said:
It's Manifestation. S2s should script Returning. WS and ES could do with some Mind Blasting bodyguards, if you've gotten some immobiles (Things from Beyond) from your gate.

I wouldn't try blink, he'll just fly up and whack you.

I have an army outside the castle. my castles are most uw so invulnerable to that damn spell.
I fear returning because I'm moving and if I cast it with an army leaader he disappears leaving behind all my mindless chaff.
What is ES? You know, four years of Dominions and I haven't learnt all the acronyms yet.

[vfb]

ES = earth 1, astral 1 starspawn.

Manifestations are pretty tough, with 35HP and 16 MR. Astral spells from an S2 caster aren't going to do much good on their own. Solar Rays is only AP, for just 4 damage against the angel. Star fires is worse: 6 AN damage, but only 2 precision instead of 100 means you'll probably miss.

But, I did have a recent battle where I cast Earth Attack (also a 16 MR summon) and the defending mage summoned sprites, and won the fight. You could try Illithids as bodyguards, if you've got enough to go around. 5 Illithids on each starspawn commander would be a good plan. I'm pretty sure Illithids on "Guard Commander" will fire at assassins. Can anyone confirm?

I did test Illithids on "Guard Commander" in a regular battle, and unfortunately they just mill about the commander without firing at anyone, which seems kind of weird. So they'd be inactive in the fight you're heading into, anyways.

[Saxon]

Linked to this, can anyone help me understand the mechanics with Manifestation? The way I read the spell, there is a 50% chance the enemy commander will not be chosen and thus, there is a 50% chance your caster will be attacked. I have never risked it. Am I missing something here?

Thanks!

[vfb]

If there is more than one (non-hiding, non-sneaking) enemy commander in the province, and the 1st commander is not attacked, then it will try the 2nd commander, again with a 50% chance, and so on. So the chance of your own caster being attacked is just 1 in 2^N, where N is the number of non-hiding, non-sneaking enemy commanders.

And if any of those commanders are horror marked, the chance of them being attacked is 100%.

[Saxon]

Then it would be sensible to target provinces with lots of commanders, who are non-stealthy. And it is another use for horror marking, which I did not know, so many thanks!