Q. about R'Lyeh Mind Blast

[Crazy]

I am playing R'Lyeh for the first time and have a few questions.

Many units have a melee attack and mind blast.

Does this mean that they can attack with their weapon, like trident, AND mind blast??

If I set their orders on FIRE will they stay back and only mind blast?

If I set to attack with they ONLY attack hand to hand?

What is the best tactic? Setting them as far away from the enemy as possible to give them as many mind blasts as possible before engaging?

Also, does mind blast do damage or just kill enemy?

Thanks.

[shovah]

if on fire, as all other units, they will sit back and fire (well people with short range like javelins will try to get into range then fire iirc). Mind blast does damage but often not much, it does cause paralysis though. if set to attack they will only attack hand to hand, no firing. Best tactic is some/quite a few unarmoured illithids (better mind blast) coupled with a horde of lobo guards+slaves.
A question i have is does flaming arrows affect mind blast (i doubt it but would be cool)

[NTJedi]

Not many AI opponents are effective at taking sea provinces... not sure if this has changed with Dominions_3.
You may want to stick with a land nation or make sure Ermor and Atlantis are in the game to keep it challenging.

[shovah]

however if the ai gets the mercs the fishermen and gets a foothold in water they can be awkward to shift (if they get 2-3 sea provinces they just mass tritons and swarm you) but you should be able to handle it.

[NTJedi]

shovah said:
however if the ai gets the mercs the fishermen and gets a foothold in water they can be awkward to shift (if they get 2-3 sea provinces they just mass tritons and swarm you) but you should be able to handle it.

I've always been able to out bid the AI opponents for mercenaries... very very very rarely do they place a bid which steals them. Hopefully the AI will be more effective bidding on the mercenaries for dominions_3.

[Graeme Dice]

Crazy said:
Does this mean that they can attack with their weapon, like trident, AND mind blast??

They can, but not in the same combat turn.

If I set their orders on FIRE will they stay back and only mind blast?

Yes. They will use mind blast until they run out of ammunition, then move forwards and attack with their weapons.

If I set to attack with they ONLY attack hand to hand?

They will not use mind blast unless set to fire, or during the "hold" part of a "hold and attack" order.

What is the best tactic? Setting them as far away from the enemy as possible to give them as many mind blasts as possible before engaging?

This is almost always best, as Illithids are very expensive and aren't that effective in melee combat.

Also, does mind blast do damage or just kill enemy?

Mind blast does one armour negating damage and paralyzes the target if the magic resistance roll fails.