Couple of questions

[Electro808]

I was trying out the two headed serpent thing(wyrm?).
i gave him earth and water magic and researched so that i could cast stoneskin, quicken self and breath of winter.

The first question is about fatigue. After casting the 3 spells his fatigue was way up, even though i gave him gems so that fatigue loss would be minimized. I'm pretty sure he didn't use the gems, is this normal?

Secondly, he has two heads which givess him 2 attacks per round. So because the description of quicken self is that it gives the caster 2 attacks i assumed this guy would get 4 attacks per round, but he does not. Is there reason for this? or bug?

[MaxWilson]

In order to make a mage use gems, you have to close your eyes and hope really hard that he won't.

Okay, mostly kidding about that. My observation is that casters don't mind letting their fatigue get up around 50-60, even if they're scripted to go into combat later. If they have gems they'll use just enough gems to keep under the 70-80 range.

What makes you think he's not getting four attacks per round? He should have two Venomous Fangs weapons, each of which gets 2 attacks per round. (I'm not sure if Quicken Self updates the right-click display for # of attacks of Venomous Fangs, but it does double your number of attacks.)

-Max

[vfb]

If you've researched to Summon Earthpower, cast it first for more reinvigoration (he should use the gem if he's just E1). Your protection is only going from 12 (if the Wyrm is E1) to 15 as a result of Stoneskin, so it's really not buying you that much. You might want to research to Alt 3 for Ironskin to get to 20 instead. Casting Summon Earthpower will also reduce fatigue from the skin spells.

You can only attack one combat grid per round, that's why you might not be seeing 4 attacks. He might be killing all the units in a single grid with 3 or less attacks. Is that the case?

Dom 10 is pretty nice on a Wyrm, for the Awe effect. Have you tried that? Doesn't make him tired either.

[Electro808]

I was trying to research spells and get him into battle fast so i only researched alt to 2 and ench to 1, i thought fatigue would not be an issue because of gems but i see now that it's not really viable without some reinvigoration.

I had earth 3 and water 1 because i was planning on researching iron skin next so i think i was only getting a +2 bonus with stoneskin, not really worth it.

About the attacks your probably right, i just saw that he was only attacking twice each round and assumed it wasn't working but i only had one battle then he got killed.

I didn't know about awe at level 10 dom, i had it at 8 anyway so it would have been well worth the extra 2 points.

I'll continue to try and achieve my goal of making a super tough wyrm

Thanks for the info guys, very helpful.

[Cor]

My advice is to drop "stone skin" and Breath of Winter" and just script quickenself and attack. later when you get it, have him cast that 2e boost spell that gives reinvigoration "earth something?"

[vfb]

I've tried the Wyrm once in MP, and I found it didn't really need magic. I didn't take any magic picks at all.

A couple of helmets is nice, but you don't need them right away, just don't solo archers way out of your dominion, and never solo cavalry. Otherwise you might get afflictions.

Dom 9 or Dom 10 is cool because of the Awe, and it also gives you a HP boost because your dominion spreads like crazy.

If you're going for E3, then you might as well go all the way to E4 and get a reinvigoration boost for your mages, they're usually sacred.

It's always fun to try something new, but I think W1 at 50 points is kind of expensive. Drop a Pendant of Luck, a Skull Talisman (for fodder), or an Amulet of Missile Protection on the Wyrm if you really want to solo archers. Otherwise he can just take his time slithering up to melee. Better still, just throw a few cheap units in front of the Wyrm to soak up arrows and lances.

[Electro808]

Don't you think the quickness is worth it though, doubles attacks and i think gives +3 to attack and defence. I suppose 50 points is alot for 2 spells.

[Nick_K]

AFAIK here's how attacks work:

If a single weapon has multiple attacks all of these are directed at the same unit. This means that the gorgon cannot kill more than 1 unit each action with its snake hair, and the hydra cannot kill more than 1 with each of its bite attacks.

A unit with multiple weapons can use them on different units, but can only attack a maximum of 1 square. This means that if each square contains 1 unit only (e.g. jotuns) then even the most powerful SC or doom horror can kill at most 1 unit per turn with weapon attacks.
However, units only make 1 attack animation in total for all their weapon attacks. This is probably why you thought the wyrm was not attacking 4 times. Actually each attack animation represents two attacks.

Each unit has a number of 'actions'. This is usually 1, but it can be 2 if they have quickness or even higher with heroic quickness.
Each action counts as an extra turn in melee combat. A quickened unit can attack two squares - one with each action.

[vfb]

Thanks for clearing things up Nick_K, especially the info about quickness allowing a unit to attack 2 combat squares in a single combat round!

Can you please clarify one more thing? I gave my Wyrm a horned helmet, so it has a total of 3 attacks. Its fatigue went up by its encumberance (2) each combat round.

If the Wyrm had double attacks from quickness, would its fatigue increase by 4 each round?

Electro808, I think the Wyrm's attack is high enough that he shouldn't miss too often. His defense is horrible, and it decreases to zero with all the little peons trying to poke it, so +4 won't help much with that.

Are you starting in the water? If you have a nice water gem supply, you might able to empower the Wyrm to W1 before you start running into serious enemy armies.

[Nick_K]

I believe that encumbrance is added to fatigue each time a unit attacks, so quickness should double fatigue. I don't think that adding extra weapons affects it though.