Horror Marking as a battle tactic for a non-Blood nation

TwoBits · #1 July 24th, 2009, 01:52 PM

So how effective is Horror Mark and/or Astral Geyser in rendering an enemy unit hors-de-combat if you yourself have no way of summoning Horrors (you're Astral only, no Blood)?

(Yeah, yeah, not very subtle regarding a certain MP game I'm in at the moment, but it's supposed to be a learning experience anyway, so hey, I'm trying to learn!

)

I did a search of the Forum, and found a few old threads from years back. Apparently back in '06 there was a nerf to horror action? What's the current state of Horror-Marking?

Back then, someone speculated that there were different "tiers" of Horror Marking (in this thread, in which KO also talked about a nerf: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...ht=Horror+Mark ), in that 'regular' horror marking, via the spell of the same name, didn't really achieve much, even if a target was hit numerous times. But that casting Astral Geyser, or using certain magic items (Kurgi stuff, etc.), could somehow make things worse by an order of magnitude.

But I think there was a guy back in '07 (OK, found that thread here: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...hlight=Horrors ) who complained that getting his pretender horror marked pretty much ruined his whole Dominions experience! Damn, now that's what I'm talking about (as I'd certainly like to ruin someone's experience right about now

)! Is that level of incapacitation still possible, and if so, how?

All that was olden days speculation though. What're the latest thoughts on the matter? Can you mark up a unit enough to where it gets visited by Doom Horrors every other turn? If so, how much marking are we talking about?

Is the difference between Horror Mark and Astral Geyser (and say, using certain magic items, or being hit by horrors in combat) just a matter of number/level (meaning, 1 Astral Geyser = 2 Horror Mark spells), or is there something else going on?

I'm just wondering if it's worth my time trying to make this a strategy, or would I just be wasting my mages' energy (and perhaps their lives)?