Alexander's ever-expanding Tome of Knowledge

[Jarkko]

apoger said:
"HIT N' RUN" GOLEM
-snip-
Cast Ritual of Returning so your Golem doesn't get hurt.
-snip-
Upon entering combat cast Astral Tempest - Body Ethereal - Personal Luck - Astral Shield - Twist Fate - then "cast spells".

Could somebody please elaborate to this n00b why it is better to cast Twist Fate (which negates first hit but doesn't do anything else useful if I am correct) and not go directly for "Cast spells"? If I understand it right the first hit going through will teleport the Golem back. If there is somebody able to hit the Golem, wouldn't it be most likely that somebody has either several attacks or friends along, so twist fate doesn't actually give a round more of spell-casting? Or are there some close-range spells one should hope the Golem casts by waiting one round (ie casting Twist Fate first = delays the bLasting for one turn)?

[Wendigo]

Jarkko said:
(ie casting Twist Fate first = delays the bLasting for one turn)?

The bLasting is being done with Astral tempest, any further spells by the Golem afterwards are just extra, but you want to prolong your battlefield bLasting for as long as possible:

Without Twist fate the golem would teleport to the capitol as soon as it suffers any damage, with Twist fate (assuming Twist fate triggers before Ritual of returning) you might gain some extra rounds of Astral tempest damage to the whole enemy force.

[Jarkko]

Wendigo said:
The bLasting is being done with Astral tempest

Ok, thank's for the clarification

[Jack Simth]

Vicious Love said:
** This strategy has never been tested, and may well be bollocks.

The strat can work (haven't tested the blood reinvig addition at all), but it can have some issues:
1) a great many of the critters most easily used for communion slaves are NOT immune to soul vortex, and so tend to die of fratricide from each other's vortices.
2) Many of the critters most commonly used for communion slaves are cheap (and therefore have little health) and so die of fratricide when their copy of Pheonix Pyre goes off - killing attackers, sure, but also killing any other communion slaves that are nearby. With the ordering of the Pheonix Pyre's Explosion/Random Repop, it's actually possible to lose half your communion slaves from chain fratricide in a single combat round if you are unlucky.
3) The effects of 1 and 2 can stack. If too many of your communion slaves gather too closely together, they ALL DIE.

Mind you, it can be EXTREMELY amusing to watch....

[Taqwus]

Regarding reinvig, Summon Earthpower, IIRC, is the only spell which provides constant reinvigoration. There are one-shot spells which reduce fatigue, such as Relief (which affects all friendlies, including communicants, to some degree) and Leeching Touch / Leech / Drain Life. It wouldn't surprise me too much if the draining spells went through a separate code path and didn't affect the communicants, but if it did...


Oh, and yes those chain-exploding Phoenix Pyre'd communicants can be quite a sight to behold. Especially if it was the spell-casting AI that chose Phoenix Pyre instead of it being listed in a script.


On weirdness involving communion, it might be noteworthy that at least one stock nation gets not-terribly-expensive -stealthy- astral mages -- the Star Children of R'lyeh, available at any underwater or coastal fort. They don't get other magic, however, which limits what they can do (although a stealthy Communion + Doom + Vortex of Returning might be irritating).

[alexti]

Vicious Love said:
2. A billion communicants. Scouts or thugs with matrices will do

Communicants must have magic skills (at least 1 in some magic path)

[archaeolept]

well, other than pythian commies, that is.

[alexti]

COMMUNICANTS FROM TARTAR.

This communion strategy is devised to eliminate traditional weakness of communion - fragile communicants. Only Tartarians are allowed into this elite communion.

In Tartar communion, slaves are expected to both spellcast and fight while masters will quickly go into melee.

Few Tartarians with interesting paths become communion masters or communion masters and slaves at the same time. Others become communion slaves. 2-3 slaves per master should be enough. Communion slaves are equipped with hydra skin armor and boots of messenger. Other items are intended to maximize battle their melee potential. One of masters should have crystal shield, they should be able to cast quickness, fire and lightning protection, hell power, earth power, mistform, invunerability, personal luck, astral shield, astral weapon, mirror image, soul vortex, breath of winter, fire shield and resist magic. Someone (preferrably slave) should be able to cast other useful spells: doom, darkness, wrathful skies and any other batlefield-wide destructive spells.

Important points:
- every slave is expected to get +3 in every magic path (crystal shield + hell power) and +4 in earth, therefore they should start their script on hold, so that they don't start casting until empowerment.
- masters should be equipped to provide uncovered resistances.
- every masters should be scripted to attack after casting buffs (they're the main danger for the slaves).
- Tartarians should be placed so that the slaves are close together and in the front of masters and other troops (except, maybe, some fodder) This is necessary, because the slaves won't rush into the fight and they will only go to melee if the enemies comes into the range. Apparently, they will not advance to get within the spell range either.

Expected slave stats:
HP - 200 and growing...
regeneration - 40 per turn
Att/Def - in mid twenties
MR - 30-35
protection - 30.
resistance to pretty much everything resistable

Weapons:
breath of winter, fire shield, soul vortex, astral shield + melee weapon.

Edited: Clarified how to get slaves to fight.

[deccan]

Do communion slaves fight? Don't they just stand around doing nothing?

[alexti]

Communicants can do something useful if they're not exhausted by their masters, Fatigue should be less than < 100. That's why masters must be scripted to buff and attack.

Communicants won't rush into melee, but if the enemy comes within the range they will fight him (that's why I suggest positioning communicants in the front).

Oops, Peter Ebbesen's post I was replying to has disappeared... I guess he's realized how I scripted them. Though his point about hydra skin is probably valid. Regeneration shows on stats and master will cast personal regeneration (usually mages wouldn't cast spell which wouldn't work), but with the soul vortex and life draining weapons it's hard to say if regeneration works. My guess would be that it probably doesn't work, which makes my strategy vulnerably to the army of undead with a lot of wither bones spellcasters. I wonder if any healing spells would work on undead Tartarians. If regeneration doesn't work hydra skin should probably be replaced with rainbow armor.

I've attached replay of the battle. It's not perfectly setup (suboptimal equipment and the spell sequence could probably be better), but it demonstrates the strategy well (password is "fire")