Another quick on on astral Corruption...

[FAJ]

I had to try it

out of 8 lessers sent, 3 turned into larger horrors. I don't know if the percentage has anything to do with the level of the blood caster. About half the casters were B5 or higher.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by vfb

Chris, if you leave the dome up, how do you prevent the mages researching in the domed province from being eaten by horrors? If you let the dome expire, how do you prevent the magic scale in the province from reverting to your dominion scale? If you do not have positive dominion in the province, your researchers will not get positive benefit from any scale.

I don't vfb. No mages (or few mages) in the province I cast it in. Sometimes two - one to cast the spell, the other to destroy the lab (although I forget if I have to do that the next turn or not).



Castle DomeProvince Enemy.

So, suppose you've sent horrors, or previously horrormarked some enemies... you know he is going to hit the province.
Casting dome.. may well way more horrors than you could afford to cast directly.

its highly situational.. but where's the downside. If you cast it for 12 or 20 turns.. usually end up with magic 3.

[vfb]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

I don't vfb. No mages (or few mages) in the province I cast it in. Sometimes two - one to cast the spell, the other to destroy the lab (although I forget if I have to do that the next turn or not).



Castle DomeProvince Enemy.

So, suppose you've sent horrors, or previously horrormarked some enemies... you know he is going to hit the province.
Casting dome.. may well way more horrors than you could afford to cast directly.

its highly situational.. but where's the downside. If you cast it for 12 or 20 turns.. usually end up with magic 3.

You end up with Magic-3 where? In the domed province where you don't have a lab? What is the benefit of having Magic-3 in a province without a lab?

Are you trolling?

[chrispedersen]

Its a niche spell that has several uses.

The first, it can act in a manner similiear to a well of pestilence. Even passing through the province will horror mark enough units usually to make summoning horrors safe in an ensuing combat.

Secondly, if you have dominion sculpting, like I said in my original comment, goingn from drain 2 to magic 3 is well worth the cost of losing one turn of research for each mage.

[vfb]

The "going from drain 2 to magic 3 plus dominion sculpting" is the thing I don't understand.

You are going to magic-3 scales only in the province that has the dome, right?

Either:

1) you are researching while the dome is up, your mages inside get eaten.

or

2) you wait until the dome is down, but your dominion scales kill the magic-3, if you have positive dominion

or

3) you wait until the dome is down, but you don't benefit from the magic-3, because you don't have dominion


Is there some alternative that I'm just not seeing?

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by vfb

The "going from drain 2 to magic 3 plus dominion sculpting" is the thing I don't understand.

You are going to magic-3 scales only in the province that has the dome, right?

Either:

1) you are researching while the dome is up, your mages inside get eaten.

or

2) you wait until the dome is down, but your dominion scales kill the magic-3, if you have positive dominion

or

3) you wait until the dome is down, but you don't benefit from the magic-3, because you don't have dominion


Is there some alternative that I'm just not seeing?

Yes. With one candle of dominion your chances of having a scale flip are small. Several nations can easily get one candle of dominion, mictlan, lapythium, ea arco. I've lasted 22 turns at a go without losing one scale.

Even if lose dominion in the province, you still lose your penalty (in this case) of -2 drain.

Finally (and this is a tiny bonus)... many events seem to key off scale not dominion.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Yes. With one candle of dominion your chances of having a scale flip are small. Several nations can easily get one candle of dominion, mictlan, lapythium, ea arco. I've lasted 22 turns at a go without losing one scale.

Even if lose dominion in the province, you still lose your penalty (in this case) of -2 drain.

Finally (and this is a tiny bonus)... many events seem to key off scale not dominion.

Actually, do you need to have positive dominion to get the benefit of the scales, or will neutral dominion (no candles of either color) suffice? Because if you've got heretics/stone idols, getting zero candles is (relatively) easy.

I could maybe see doing this if you had side-by-side castles, and were willing to leave a low value commander or two in the horror domed province to prevent someone sneak-popping your lab.

But it's a lot of micro.

[chrispedersen]

you need one candle, except for growth.