Priests and LA Ermor

[Lord_Bob]

-Regarding spells, Solar Rays (Evo2 S2) can be very effective.

This statement indicates you are another ra-ra Dominions player. A mage killing 3 undead per turn is not great. It is pathetic. It is so pathetic that there are no words to describe it's patheticness.

-Dust to Dust (D1, Thau1)
Dust to Dust was designed to kill the Vampire Queen and other super-powerful undead. It is USELESS against legions of dead.

-Something you might want to consider is the 'priest raiding strategy'where you send about 20 priests into an Ermorian province scripted with Banishx5 then flee.
Yes, I can see this working.

[llamabeast]

You sure are aggressive with your opinions Lord_Bob.

[cupido2]

Hey Lord_Bob, those people try to help you, they save you time making up strategies and list all the things that could be helpful against those undeads so be at least a bit polite. If you think solar rays is useless, just write "I think it's useless" instead of "This statement indicates you are another ra-ra Dominions player". No need to be so rude.

[K]

Lord_Bob said:

- Crystal Shield(E1,S1 for for +1H)

Crystal Shield costs 25 astral. So I'm certain you're joking about using this. You are joking, right?

Heck no. Take a Prophet, and a Crystal Shield(only 11 earth and 7 Astral with a Hammer), and a four slave communion, and you've got a Holy 6.

I don't care who you are or what you have seen, because you will be impressed when you see a H6 cast Banishment.

Lord_Bob said:
-Power of the Spheres(S1 spell and one pearl for +1H)

Mages that cast "Power of the Spheres" refuse to cast banishment after Turn 5. They instead elect to pass out casting "Blade Wind" against units with tower shields. I'm sure other national priest/mages are similiarly pyscho.

Odd. I find in general the AI choses the available spell with the highest AoE. Can you field a non-Earth Holy mage?

Lord_Bob said:
-Works! Communions:

I used "Crystal Matrixs" to get a Communion going, and the priests went insane, cast Banishment twice a turn, and charged the undead. I suppose I'll pen them up so they can't charge, and use this ERROR IN CODE on Ermor.

Do you have a Nature 9 or 10 Bless(making holies Beserk), because casters are not supposed to do stuff like that. Also check your scripting: communioned mages should be set to Cast/Cast/cast/cast/cast spells.

Also, watch out for the danger of putting to many masters in a Communion. Each time a master casts a spell, each slave also get's their own spellcasting fatigue, meaning a slave with 4 masters anf a spellcasting fatigue of 4 and casting their own Banishment will get 20 fatigue a turn on top of their portion of the master's fatigue.

[VedalkenBear]

Any money this degenerates into another flame thread. Can we just all ignore him?

And Lord_Bob? If a 15:1 kill ratio is not enough for you, I'd suggest finding another game. As you say, an Ermorian Castle can spawn about 25 undead a turn. Surely you can get 1.667 guards for your priests in the same time period? It's not like you are losing the priests, no?

If you have a high dominion, there's also Purgatory. Wrath of God can also work. Yes, they are Globals. If you can't guard them, don't use them.

>I made sure every battle I fought I had darkness, rigor >mortis and protection of the sepulchre up. This meant I >would often destroy far more of the enemy or equal >numbers, which of course means Ermor wins given its huge >freespawn every turn.

Responding to a different poster, you were able to put these up, every battle, with every army? This sounds a little hard to believe. That's also two level 6 battle enchantments that cost a total of 5 death gems every battle. This does not sound like a 'pre-level 7' issue that needs to be responded to, which is what Lord_Bob specified.

[vfb]

VeldalkenBear wasn't suggesting that you (Lord_Bob) have mages cast Solar Rays. His suggestion was to build herald lances, and give them to your non-mage commanders. If they are hasted (W9 bless or equip) then I think the Solar Rays fire faster. And the lances give a morale boost to your front line too.

Anyway, it's better than having your commanders just sitting there doing nothing.

What nation are you playing? You could always hope for this guy. He's not even in a communion! With 16 communion slaves, you could get him up to H14. That should help with your banishment .

[VedalkenBear]

I was actually suggesting both. If you have Astral mages who aren't priests, they're more damage. Of course, if you have Thaumaturgy spells, then you might be better off trying to use those, or making use of them in other ways.

To take the magic types in order:

Fire:

Battle Evocations. Falling Fires is probably the best I can think of offhand pre-7. With a high-level mage, this will work very well against Longdeads. There are several other options. With Marignon/Flambeaus, Holy Pyre is an option.

Air:

Air is better at smaller, quality-based armies. Still, Wrathful Skies is probably just as good as other options. Thunderstrike is also pretty good for area effects.

Water:

This is probably the weakest magic type vs. Undead. Ice Strike is okay, I guess, but it's Evo7. If you have Water/Fire mages, Acid Rain is a good choice. At Evo-6, you get Cleansing Water.

Earth:

Blade Wind against the real chaff (i.e., the ones without shields). As others have said, Rain of Stones can be effective. Magma Eruption is also a good choice. A somewhat cute trick would be to use something like Destruction followed by Blade Wind. Probably not too practical, though.

Astral:

Magic Duel against opposing Astral Dusk Elders. Solar Rays, as mentioned before. Astral Geyser is pretty cute, especially if you back it up with summoned Horrors.

Death:

Dust to Dust. Counterspamming (depending on number of Death mages you have; it at least buys you more time for your priests). Control the Dead can be interesting as a delaying tactic. Wither Bones. Naturally Undead Mastery, but outside the scope of this discussion.

Nature:

Storm of Thorns can be effective against Ethereal Undead, and also to delay the horde. I'm not sure if Polymorph works on Undead, but it's also Alt8. Conj8 has Wild Growth. Hm, maybe Nature has it worst for Battle magic answers, anyway.

Blood:

Hellfire. Presumably, Bloodletting would also be effective.

This is a quick analysis.

[Lord_Bob]

Lord_Bob said:
-Works! Communions:

I used "Crystal Matrixs" to get a Communion going, and the priests went insane, cast Banishment twice a turn, and charged the undead. I suppose I'll pen them up so they can't charge, and use this ERROR IN CODE on Ermor.




Do you have a Nature 9 or 10 Bless(making holies Beserk), because casters are not supposed to do stuff like that. Also check your scripting: communioned mages should be set to Cast/Cast/cast/cast/cast spells.

Also, watch out for the danger of putting to many masters in a Communion. Each time a master casts a spell, each slave also get's their own spellcasting fatigue, meaning a slave with 4 masters anf a spellcasting fatigue of 4 and casting their own Banishment will get 20 fatigue a turn on top of their portion of the master's fatigue.

This is a known bug. After experiencing it, I looked it up in the Bug List. Search for "Communion"

You've got a good point about the super-boosted Prophet.

[Lord_Bob]

Any money this degenerates into another flame thread. Can we just all ignore him?

And Lord_Bob? If a 15:1 kill ratio is not enough for you, I'd suggest finding another game. As you say, an Ermorian Castle can spawn about 25 undead a turn. Surely you can get 1.667 guards for your priests in the same time period? It's not like you are losing the priests, no?

If you have a high dominion, there's also Purgatory. Wrath of God can also work. Yes, they are Globals. If you can't guard them, don't use them.

>I made sure every battle I fought I had darkness, rigor >mortis and protection of the sepulchre up. This meant I >would often destroy far more of the enemy or equal >numbers, which of course means Ermor wins given its huge >freespawn every turn.

Responding to a different poster, you were able to put these up, every battle, with every army? This sounds a little hard to believe. That's also two level 6 battle enchantments that cost a total of 5 death gems every battle. This does not sound like a 'pre-level 7' issue that needs to be responded to, which is what Lord_Bob specified.

That is without buffs or tactics of any kind. Ermor destroyed Marignon, played by a new player, with an army of over 1200 undead on turn 25-26. 1,200. For me to keep this ratio(ignoring the fact that Ermor IS going to buff his army) I would need 40 priests. FORTY. With buffs, SIXTY OR MORE.

I'm curious, how many priests do you have on turn 25?

20? 60? 100?

The point is, telling new players to use "Indy Priest" is TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY WRONG.

[Lord_Bob]

Hey Lord_Bob, those people try to help you, they save you time making up strategies and list all the things that could be helpful against those undeads so be at least a bit polite. If you think solar rays is useless, just write "I think it's useless" instead of "This statement indicates you are another ra-ra Dominions player". No need to be so rude.

Solar Rays kills 3 undead per turn. Only 3. If MA Ermor rushes you with some longdead calvary, then it's a working Desperate Measure. For LA Ermor, it is totally garbage. The person was suggesting a strategy he clearly hadn't thought about at all. I have run real tests. Many, many real tests, and I don't need to be dismissed with "solutions" people clearly haven't thought about at all.