Pocket Lich gone Wild

[Lingchih]

Saw something strange last night. I was playing my first game with 3.10, Formorians (a totally bad *** race, btw, but that deserves another thread).

Anyway, I went to take a tough indy province. The commander there had in his possession... Caracator the Pocket Lich! I have never seen an artifact on an indy commander before. But I thought, well, that's kind of cool. Makes it possible to get an artifact early on, without the need to research construction 8. That's kind of a cool change, I thought.

As the battle was winding down, my giants went chasing after a straggler, but I could not see who. Then I noticed an odd looking softball bouncing around the battlefield. Lo and behold, it was Carcator, on his own and running (more like bouncing) like hell.

He wasn't very fast, one of my Giants crushed him. When the turn was over though, one of my commanders had Carcator in his misc. slot. Very cool, I thought, got him.

When I went to battle with him equipped though, his behavior was very odd. He never casted spells, like Carcator usually does. His first action would be to jump out of the commanders bag, and rush into battle like some crazed softball. He always died very quickly, since he had no attack. So his behavior was, I guess, like the Pocket Knight, except he's not much of a Knight.

Weird, eh?

[Ironhawk]

Thats interesting. If indies really can have artifacts tho that could be overpowered. Imagine finding Aegis or the Soulstone or something on turn 3!

As for Carcator's behavior: perhaps you had no spells researched that he could cast so he decided to go for melee?

[archaeolept]

heh how are you going to get the soulstone, unless you already have an army that can take it...

however, i would need more reports to think things have really been changed. Once, in a DomII game w/ norfleet's ermor neighbouring, a nice independent provice bordering my start had lamias and a lamia queen.

the lamia queen had the soulstone.

it stayed indepent for a long long time. though i did try assassinating her (f9s9 marignon bless) for funsies

[Lingchih]

Ironhawk said:
Thats interesting. If indies really can have artifacts tho that could be overpowered. Imagine finding Aegis or the Soulstone or something on turn 3!

As for Carcator's behavior: perhaps you had no spells researched that he could cast so he decided to go for melee?

No, I don't think so. I had plenty of death magic researched, since I was playing the Fomorians. He never casts spells in battle though. I'm still playing the game, and the commander still has Carcator. I'll let you know what he does when I get back to it.

[Lingchih]

I should probably mention that I am playing the Mac 3.10 patch (the one that masquerades as 3.09), so that could make things a bit dubious.

[Lingchih]

Ahhh. He does cast spells. You must be right Ironhawk, I must not have had any death magic researched when I was first using him (he does have a Bite for 2, so he can attack). I just played a new turn, and he skelly spammed for the whole turn.

[RamsHead]

archaeolept said:
heh how are you going to get the soulstone, unless you already have an army that can take it...

however, i would need more reports to think things have really been changed. Once, in a DomII game w/ norfleet's ermor neighbouring, a nice independent provice bordering my start had lamias and a lamia queen.

the lamia queen had the soulstone.

it stayed indepent for a long long time. though i did try assassinating her (f9s9 marignon bless) for funsies

I had the lamia thing in one of my Dom 3 SP games. Except it was wearing Fenris' Pelt.

[Morkilus]

I love stories like this

I've never seen an artifact on an indie, though. It's not a specials map?

[IndyPendant]

Hmm, interesting. I got him too, but I haven't checked to see what he does in battle. He curses everyone, so I've currently got him on a solo commander perma-parked in an out-of-the-way province until I figure out what to do with him.

Got him from an indie myself--but I was playing EA Caelum, and this happened *before* I patched to 3.10.

[Cor2]

I have seen the Pelt of Fenris turn up on an Indy in mp 3.08 .I guess it happens ocassionally that indies get artifacts, not sure why or what causes it.