Countering Master Enslave...

[Atreidi]

I love using master Enslave on enemies then using their weak units on suisidal attacks. Its all fun and games.
I've never seen the computer use it, but I am sure human players do. When they do how do you counter it?

This spell is too easy to cast. On a Big map, late game it is quite easy to havle high level astral mages that can cast the spell. How do you avoid someone casting Master Enslave then retreating? Or how do you avoid getting all your units converted? What to do other than "pray for the random" factor to kick in and not convert them?

[K]

When someone is casting Master Enslave, they use either a Pretender or a communion.

If they use a Pretender, your best best is to kill that unit before it casts. The AI likes targeting high HP and large units, so it's not hard for a defender to kill that guy dead before he can cast on round one if you use the good attacking spells.

If they are using a communion, killing off the communion members with area spells works.

Otherwise, sending thugs and SCs with high MR is a fine way to kill a Master Enslave Army. The spell is MR+, so some Banelords with a few MR boosting items basically means they can't be affected.

[MaxWilson]

Antimagic is an obvious, if not 100% effective, response.

-Max

[sector24]

A wise man once said, "He who master enslaves last, master enslaves best."

[Tuidjy]

Master Enslave does not have the penetration to affect all of the opposing army.
In my last game, I was casting it (among others) with an Astral 12 (native) Seraph,
with an effective astral of 18 (boosters, banner, and shield) and penetration + 4.
Most of the enemy's heavy hitters would resist it, and we would have our little
battle afterwards... make sure that the enslave casts before your army-wide buffs,
so that your new converts do not die from the battlefield-wide enchantments.

Of course, against one of my opponents, who was relying on troops to breach my
castles, Master Enslave + Vortex of Returning by patrolling mages did wonders.
He never stormed a single castle.

[Baalz]

K said:
When someone is casting Master Enslave, they use either a Pretender or a communion.

That's actually not true. Several nations get access to S4 mages (Marverni, Arcoscephale, R'yleh off the top of my head)

S4 + cap + coin + crystal shield + ring of sorcery = S8

Heck, even cheaper is to drop the ring and have a second mage carrying the light of the northern star - bonus he can cast vortex of returning after the master enslave if you want. Slap an eye of the void and rune smasher onto your main caster for +4 penetration. Drop those two where you expect an enemy army to move and they'll act first so no anti-magic and no retaliation at all. Yoink!

Counters: One seeking arrow (or possibly a couple) will sink a lot of your enemies gems. Most assassin spells will work well if you can outguess where he'll be dropping in. If they're dropping in on you a dome of flaming death will also ruin his day. If he's not using vortex of returning using SCs/combat summoning spells (elementals, etc) should work pretty good.

[Cor2]

It takes alot of gems. So when you see an army coming, hit it with every earth attack and such that you have, hoping that the enslver will spend all its gems before the next battle.

[Psycho]

Cast a couple Ghost riders on the army. That will trigger the mages to use gems.

[Loren]

Tuidjy said:
Of course, against one of my opponents, who was relying on troops to breach my
castles, Master Enslave + Vortex of Returning by patrolling mages did wonders.
He never stormed a single castle.

Evil!

How big a communion do you need to leave the caster conscious to actually pull this off?

[Coldshard]

So the primary, and just about only, defense against master enslave is to proactively and send spells and troops out to kill any opposing mage who can case the spell?