Tactics (against communions)

[lwarmonger]

In a current EA game I was recently crushed by an massive communion army of Gift of Heaven spamming Marvarni druids (skillfully managed by vfb) as Neifelheim. Now in a different game I am looking at facing off with another player playing Marverni who also likes the massive communions of death (and the accompanying Gifts of Heaven), this time as Sauromatia. I've got some ideas about how to deal with them (Sauromatia has some unit and thug flexability that Niefelheim didn't), but was wondering if a guide had been done up about it, or if any of the more experienced players have some advice for a relative newbie.

[Micah]

rain of stones!

[chrispedersen]

Rain of stones, blade wind,... or.. big dummy bait.

Got some large useless schmuck with lots of hp.... put him in front and body ethereal him. They usually chace the big guys...

[archaeolept]

spellcatchers in front; any battlefield damage spells - rain of stones, earthquake, being classics; seeking arrows, assassins; your own communion, casting buffs; fliers

[OmikronWarrior]

Fog Warriors would be highly effective in this case, I believe Gifts of Heaven are mundane, meaning only 1 damage to whatever it targets with mistform. However, even if they magical damage, the first hit would still only do 1 damage, meaning much effectiveness.

Beyond that, go after the communion mages. Remote spells like Murdering Winter or battlefield wide stuff like Earthquake should do a lot to shut down communions.

[MaxWilson]

Gifts From Heaven is not mundane, but yes, Fog Warriors will prevent the first one from doing more than 1 point of damage, and with its low Prec it may not hit twice. I've got to second the idea of attacking the communion mages, especially during the magic phase (Cloud Trapeze + Mistform + Rain of Stones). Even if you can't do that, communions tend not to be very strategically mobile (more like an anvil than a hammer) and you should potentially be able to raid around them.

Rigor Mortis is also good against communions because it usually prevents any non-reinvig'ed mage from ever coming back online once he's gone unconscious. The masters will go unconscious (from encumbrance if nothing else) and hopefully the slaves will die of fatigue. Actually if you can just get a few good thugs in there the communion may start popping off its own slaves from fatigue damage if you hang in there long enough; it depends upon how smart he is about master/slave ratios.

-Max

P.S. I bet raise dead spam would work too. Communions, like banishing priests, prefer to target for a lot of HP damage. A sufficient number of death mages raising dead should keep the masters casting until the slaves pop, just like thugs would. The problem here is that an army of necromancers is not any more strategically nimble than a communion is.

[BesucherXia]

I guess the biggest problem of Communions is lacking mobility. Artillery spells always work perfectly since they must move step by step, and entering new provinces usually means they gain no protection of Dome.

[cleveland]

Foul vapors!

[Gandalf Parker]

For getting the rear units Ive found this tactic helpful.
I place most of my forward units high on the formation screen (left side of the battlefield). And sometimes some sort of a charging unit (wolves, cavalry, flyers, etc) set to Attack Rearmost. This tends to draw the enemy army to that side of the battlefield.

Then I place another charging unit (hvy cavalry, tramplers etc) on the very bottom and slightly back from the lead units (my far right of battlefield) set for Hold and Attack Rearmost. The enemy swarm shifting toward my left flank seems to clear the right flank so the second group of chargers gets a "clearer view" of what is meant by "rearmost". They seem to get farther back and a large enough group will hit the casters fairly early.

But Im sure that better testers than I will have specific numbers on whether or not thats a real tactic.

[KissBlade]

If you keep your battlefield wide spells unpredictable, you can quickly flatten communion attempts. Most communion's effectiveness comes from them deciding when and where to fight. Take that away and they're going to be losing lots of mages. Also, next time, just rush the crap out of Maverni.