Range in Assassinations/Death Matches

[chrispedersen]

The range varies according to a few factors.
In my opinion, if you are set to the rear, under usual circumstances the range in an assassination attempt will be 15.

If you are set to moderate the range will be 10-12, and if you are set to front 5-8.

However, if you have a wraith crown I believe the range can expand.

[Illuminated One]

Range is certainly smaller in assassination battles. I had an assassin that would always hit with Gifts from Heaven (-5 precision or so) no matter how the enemy was placed..
I don't remember the exact size, though.
Ctrl-U will let you insert units, Ctrl-K will kill them again, but this shouldn't affect placement. Maybe guards do, you'll have to try yourself.

[SciencePro]

Yeah i've been wondering about that too - i recently got beat down by some low-MR thugs because my blood mages knocked themselves unconscious casting summon imp instead of hellbind heart which was out of range.

How big is the field where each side gets to position their troops? How many squares apart are the edges of these fields? Are assassination, regular combat, and siege battlefields different sizes?

Are the range numbers listed in the spells the same as the units on the map grid? Do they represent the radius of a circle around the mage?

Does anyone know these numbers or am i just going to have to test out some battles and start counting?

[TwoBits]

I've looked at a saved game, and the distance for an Earth Attack assassination, according to "W" (to get rid of the background animation and set up the 'grid') is 11. But the Earth Elemental on its turn only moves 7 spaces, even though it has 14 AP.

So does each grid square take 2 AP to cross? (I guess this is part of the movement mechanics I've never learned or paid attention to previously)

And do all assassinations, whether directly or by remote spell, all occur at the same distance? 11 'grid squares'? And do bodyguards and auto-summons change that?

SciencePro was asking about regular battlefield size, and how troop numbers effect that, and I'm pretty sure greater troop numbers expand the field (so a LA Ermor battlefield should be pretty huge, right?) - does that expansion still apply to assassinations, and the few extra units that might take place in that?

And, without running a boring test game and waiting for it to happen, does anyone know the starting distance between combatants in Death Matches?

[thejeff]

I assume size is based on number of units coming into the battle, not on changing with summoned units, even ones autosummoned on the first turn. I don't think the handful of bodyguards one side can bring to an assassination are enough to bump the size up.

Even less so with Arena battles.
I'm not sure of the size there, but you wish for an arena fight using the Debug mod. I expect I'll be experimenting with that this weekend.

[TwoBits]

LOL! Perhaps I should keep my research to myself, at least until after a certain Death Match is complete

Nah, that wouldn't be sporting So, goofing around in SP until a death match happened, and after turning on the grid and counting the squares, I got a battlefield 23 squares wide and 18 high. Assassinations (at least those caused by Earth Attack) occur on the same size field. Units start 6 or seven squares in from the side, or about 11 squares apart (I'll have to goof around in SP some more to see if tactical placement can affect that). And unless someone else specifies otherwise, I'll assume that bodyguards and such will not alter that.

So I guess I've got one last question, that I alluded to earlier - watching an Earth Attack, I noticed that the Earth Elemental, on its turn, only moved 7 squares, even though it has 14 AP. Can someone explain what's going on there (takes two AP to move one square? a unit can only use half its APs the first move in a combat? something else?)? *Uh, see below*

Oh, BTW Illuminated One, thanks for refreshing my memory on the method for inserting extra units into a combat replay! Now I just need theJeff to explain how this Debug mod thingy he speaks of works

*Ah, well what do you know! Decided I might as well check the manual before hitting the "submit reply" button, on the off chance it might contain relevant information, and got this: "A move of one square on the battlefield costs 2 action points to one of the four adjacent squares" (3 to a diagonal square, FYI). Earth Elemental question answered! Who ever said the manual ain't useful

[thejeff]

There's a Debug Mod around somewhere. Check the Mod List sticky.

All spells researched - lvl 0. Wish & GoR at 1S cost and a spell to summon a mage with 9 in all paths. Possibly other things as well.

[TwoBits]

Damn Where has this been all my life! Hundreds of hours (OK, as least a few dozen) wasted in ignorance! TheJeff, although I will most certainly crush you and claim victory in Mists of Time ( ), I still think I may owe you my first born, or something of similar value

You know, I've seen the Debug Mod referenced several times, but never gave it much thought (I think I kept reading "Mod" as "Mode", and figured it was some kind of esoteric coder thing only practicably usable by Dominions nerd-mystics.

I don't know how many SP games I've started in the past, and played for hours just to get to the point where I could test out the spell or whatever I wanted to test. Crap, this should be stickied, or somehow be made common knowledge...

[thejeff]

I only found it a few months ago. Used it first to figure something else for the same game.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by thejeff

And as someone always replies when you post this: It only takes provinces against indies. 1PD keeps the Maenads from taking the province.

Well, to be fair, 1 PD will *usually* keep leaderless Maenads from taking a province. They do have berserk, and could potentially berserk to keep from routing and then kill the PD.

-Max