Help with Darkness

[Burnsaber]

"Executor" is a forum member. Don't know why chris mentioned him as he hasn't posted in this thread. He seems to be a pretty good player, so you could try searching his posts.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Il Magno

I have illusinists and crysal mages also at my disposal

A clarification please: what's the "Executor" you mentioned?

Executor probably wrote one of the Darkness guides.

Blade Wind, Destruction, Gifts from Heaven and other such spells would be very useful if you could get them off before Darkness is cast. In the dark, they'll devastate your own army. When defending, you can cast them on the first turn, but script the mages for something precise after that. Mind Burn and other Astral spells from Thaumaturgy have prec 100, so they should work even in the dark.
If you already have Evocation 5, consider using Earthquake to damage his undead horde and, some of his human mages if you get lucky.

[vfb]

BE Spell scripting (like Darkness) is really broken in assassination defense. Even though it would be way better not to cast it, the mage foolishly follows his script.

If you can cast a bunch of Disease Demons, or Earth Attacks, or Manifestations on his army, whatever mage he's using to cast Darkness is going to get killed. I've killed a pretender god before that was scripted to cast Darkness, using a Disease Demon.

[Baalz]

As Utgard I say don't counter darkness, benefit from it. Utgard is well positioned to work under darkness. Depends on what specifically you're fighting in the darkness and what you've got researched, but here's some things to do in the dark:

Drain life, leech, soul slay, etc. Precision 100 spells don't care that it's dark. You've got many great options for dealing with demon/undead SCs.

Skellispam, summon imps. Throw in blood lust/rush of strength, battle fortune/will of the fates, quickening. Summon water elementals, which are hopefully ice elementals. Not too many nations can out battlefield-summon you. Better yet, forge lifelong protections and bottles of living water to stick on the guys doing the skellispam. >

Grip of winter/rigormortis/soul drain if your enemy isn't undead. Standard undead counters (Dust to dust/wither bones/undead mastery) cast by undead mages (mound fiends, liches, etc) if he is.

Demon cleansing - great way to make buffed skellispam > demons if that's what you're facing.

....ok, more specifically, looks like you're facing blindfighters and undead. That would be low level undead being skellispammed mostly, right?. Simple imps in sufficient numbers should dominate that, the blindfighters are going to tire out quickly and the undead shouldn't be able to build up critical mass with fliers pouncing turn one. Equip a few lifelong protections, have some B1 hags scripted to summon imps, reinvigoration, summon imps, reinvigoration, summon imps with a Skratti casting bloodlust every couple turns. If they're fielding tougher undead have a Gygja drop light of the northern star and have a bunch of S1 hags spam solar rays. If you're looking at larger numbers of skellispam make sure you're in a cold environment (wolven winter) and drop several ice elementals. Combo this with the imps (so the elementals don't get focussed on) and you'll squish right through almost unlimited longdead. Supplement with quickness and haste as appropriate, and etherealness/luck wouldn't hurt either.

[Il Magno]

Originally Posted by Baalz

As Utgard I say don't counter darkness, benefit from it. Utgard is well positioned to work under darkness. Depends on what specifically you're fighting in the darkness and what you've got researched, but here's some things to do in the dark:

Drain life, leech, soul slay, etc. Precision 100 spells don't care that it's dark. You've got many great options for dealing with demon/undead SCs.

Skellispam, summon imps. Throw in blood lust/rush of strength, battle fortune/will of the fates, quickening. Summon water elementals, which are hopefully ice elementals. Not too many nations can out battlefield-summon you. Better yet, forge lifelong protections and bottles of living water to stick on the guys doing the skellispam. >

Grip of winter/rigormortis/soul drain if your enemy isn't undead. Standard undead counters (Dust to dust/wither bones/undead mastery) cast by undead mages (mound fiends, liches, etc) if he is.

Demon cleansing - great way to make buffed skellispam > demons if that's what you're facing.

....ok, more specifically, looks like you're facing blindfighters and undead. That would be low level undead being skellispammed mostly, right?. Simple imps in sufficient numbers should dominate that, the blindfighters are going to tire out quickly and the undead shouldn't be able to build up critical mass with fliers pouncing turn one. Equip a few lifelong protections, have some B1 hags scripted to summon imps, reinvigoration, summon imps, reinvigoration, summon imps with a Skratti casting bloodlust every couple turns. If they're fielding tougher undead have a Gygja drop light of the northern star and have a bunch of S1 hags spam solar rays. If you're looking at larger numbers of skellispam make sure you're in a cold environment (wolven winter) and drop several ice elementals. Combo this with the imps (so the elementals don't get focussed on) and you'll squish right through almost unlimited longdead. Supplement with quickness and haste as appropriate, and etherealness/luck wouldn't hurt either.

WOW! Massive

it will take me days to get deeply in this so detailed answer but I will start NOW
Thx a lot

[thejeff]

Note that the last paragraph would apply to MA Jotunheim. Utgard can do most of it with Siethkonar and Norna instead of Hags and Gygja.
You lack the cheap B1 casters, but Skratti can summon imps with less fatigue and can (and will) burn extra slaves to reduce fatigue even further.

[Baalz]

Ah, my bad, got them mixed up. For LA Utgard all the above should be workable, but also add Norna reverse communions w/ skellispam and a master for reinvigoration. You can check out my guide to communions to see what I'm talking about, basically grab a bunch of norna, have them all effected by power of the spheres through the communion mechanics, then have them all repeatedly cast raise skeletons then have their fatigue wiped out by a Skratti casting reinvigoration. Naaaaasty skelispam potential, you should definitely win the skellispam war if you go that route.

[Il Magno]

@ Baalz, your guide(s) are in the list of my favourite readings of this forum (congratulation, for the well job done).

I have read the comunion one, still to be honest the few times I have put the comunionn in practice (with sauromantia) it was a disaster
Ok it was a solo game, were I was testing the tactics but I am still not confident on that one.

I will give it a try in any way.

thx again

[Il Magno]

Originally Posted by Il Magno

@ Baalz, your guide(s) are in the list of my favourite readings of this forum (congratulation, for the well job done).

I have read the comunion one, still to be honest the few times I have put the comunionn in practice (with sauromantia) it was a disaster
Ok it was a solo game, were I was testing the tactics but I am still not confident on that one.

I will give it a try in any way.

thx again

a doubt

sabbath and comunions: can I use a Skratti with sabbath to be the master of communion nornas?

[ano]

Yes, of course. Communion and Sabbath are totally compatible.