Falling frost vs. AI hordes

[Baalz]

An often overlooked spell is curse of stones. Available quite early and one of the easiest battlefield wide spells to cast, cast it a couple times at the beginning of a fight and it'll decimate chaff/indie hoards with 10 MR with the added bonus of keeping them from fleeing when they break.

Curse of the desert is another very undervalued spell. Spammable by W2 mages (w1 if you pass out gems or boosters), with a huge AOE, have 10 or so cheap mages cast it at the beginning of fight and prepare to be amazed.

Also, don't overlook the effectiveness of a few mages spamming precision 100, AOE-1 spells. Numbness in particular has become one of my goto early spells. Because each casting is guaranteed to affect 3 of the best enemy units (assuming size 2 troops), half a dozen cheap mages can pretty effectively cripple nearly 60 enemy troops in the time it usually takes for melee to really be joined. This may not sound that impressive against hoards of hundreds of guys, but remember that they will unerringly target the higher hitpoint guys...you know, the ones that tend to have higher MR and are otherwise harder to take out? Combine this spell with the above suggestions for more resistant enemies.

Another angle to consider in the non-direct damage category are things like prison of fire and confusion. Basically any spell with a large AOE is probably worth considering when you're looking at facing a lot of troops with lowish MR and morale...

[Meursy]

Well, you mentioned Witch Hunters, so you've got a bunch of F2S1 guys running around. How about you set up a reverse communion with a nice big group of them (say 10), in round one all the ones higher in the unit list cast communion slave, the final two cast communion master. Round two, you script your c slaves to something low fatigue, one master casts Phoenix Power and the other one (holding a pearl or two) casts Power of the Spheres. Round three you have a shedload of guys casting effective F4 level Falling Fires. If you have the capability to forge crystal matrixes you could get the party started round two instead of round three.

In the meantime you've set your blocking troops to hold and attack, and of course the AI isn't going to be clever enough to hold their own troops back or script some sort of fire resistance or, heaven forbid, create fire immune thugs.

If you're facing a truly massive horde of troops you might want to give your masters some sort of bow and script them to start firing after they've cast their buffs, but since they're going to be something like lvl 6 or 7 in fire by then (due to bonus from 8 communion slaves) you can probably just get them to join in the general barbecuing slaughter.

I learned how to do this sort of thing from Baalz's must-read guide on communions, which you can find in his signature from his post on the first page of this thread.

[Bananadine]

Well below Evocation 9: Grip of Winter, Heat from Hell, Rigor Mortis, Foul Vapors. Only the last is reliably deadly on its own, but all can incapacitate or kill large armies pretty cheaply, if you can hold off the enemy while they do their work... and if you can prevent your own side from being significantly harmed.

Summoning a bunch of elementals can be a good way to hold off the enemy for a while (or even for the rest of the battle, if you spend enough gems on it).

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Bananadine

Well below Evocation 9: Grip of Winter, Heat from Hell, Rigor Mortis, Foul Vapors. Only the last is reliably deadly on its own, but all can incapacitate or kill large armies pretty cheaply, if you can hold off the enemy while they do their work... and if you can prevent your own side from being significantly harmed.

I've tried using the battlefield enchantments. The trouble I have is deploying them effectively. If I could get my ubermages in the right location at the right time I can see them doing a lot of damage. But more often than not my mages go *here* while his army goes *there* and I'm playing catch-up.

I've read that Teleport and Cloud Trapeze can work to land my mages on him before he gets a chance to scurry, but that's worked even worse for me -- my mage lands without adequate defense, and gets eaten before the battlefield spell can do any real damage.

[Kadelake]

I'm surprised none have mentioned rain of stones. The path combination needed is really rare but it can really decimate armies.

[thejeff]

Rare, that is, until you reach Tartarians.

[Fantomen]

With witch hunters you can also go for an astral fires communion, which can be pretty devastating.

[Meursy]

That's why teleporting some kitted out thugs/SC's is easier. If possible have one or two of your teleporters cast one of the level 7 mass elemental summon spells, for a round or two, preferably ones immune to whatever you're laying down. In my experience I've found at least Fire Storm works better when you have a normal immune army behind it, it needs a fair bit of time to work. Grip of Winter at least fatigues and therefore weakens the other guys troops, never tried it with just (I suppose ice with Wolven Winters) elementals though.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Meursy

If possible have one or two of your teleporters cast one of the level 7 mass elemental summon spells, for a round or two, preferably ones immune to whatever you're laying down.

That might work. It's not too hard to teleport a second mage in, and if he throws elementals out there, that will slow down the armies I'm trying to obliterate before the mage gets eaten. I'll have to give that a try, thanks for the tip!

[Meursy]

Whoa, a _second_ mage? Yeah, teleporting a lone mage in to cast Rigor Mortis or whatever without any backup is definitely not going to work, though I guess you've worked that out on your own, which is cool. The battlefield wide damage/fatigue enchantments are simply not that powerful afaik. The level 9 evoc spells might work like that though.

I'd be sending in at least two extra mages to spam the elementals, make sure you give em enough gems to cast for two or three rounds, including a few extra to suck up some fatigue. Boosters to get you above the minimum level you need for the spells will allow you to cast longer before fatiguing out if possible.

You could also send some mages to cast other battlefield summons, Rigor Mortis combined with a couple of Undead Hordes followed by skellispam could work.

If you don't need to teleport/trapeze, consider handing out some flying boots to these guys instead. Also give a scout some flying boots and replacement gems, and your mage hit squad can terrorize your opponent for several turns, not as easily/cheaply as a flying thug/SC would but still usable.

You can also just bring regular bodyguards if you use Flying Carpets. And Bottles of Living Water are always an option for self-replenishing mage protection, in and out of battle.