A Few Questions From a Newb

[Nightfall]

Yeah, in general I find the demon lords to be pretty underwhelming as SC's; probably the best SC chassis in blood is the Lord of Ill-earth.

That said all the blood 9 troop summons are incredibly good, as long as you use the right ones for your situation.

Given that, once you have a healthy blood income I found it a better idea to focus on the leader summons that will give you the best battlefield magics to work along with your current choice of demon troops.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by ChaosReigns

Thanks for the advice guys. Okay, a couple more questions:

First of all, what are some good ways to get recuperation or regeneration? I seem to be particularly unlucky when it comes to my units picking up afflictions.

Also, if I empower the Fallen Angel with Astral 1 (which is apparently what's required to cast Body Ethereal according to the Wiki) I could theoretically have the Fallen Angel cast Body Ethereal and then Blood Vengeance which seems like a pretty good combination (normally he won't get hit, on the off chance that someone manages to hit him he is much less likely to take damage). Or maybe Fire Shield is a better option because a unit just has to attack him to take damage, rather than actually wounding him also?

I suppose then I should have him attack and cast Soul Vortex (sounds like a pretty awesome spell).

As for items, I was reading a LA Marignon guide earlier today that mentioned the Fallen Angel have an "in-built brand weapon" (fire brand, I suppose). Am I missing something? This doesn't seem to be the case currently, was it removed in a patch or something?

Also, how about the Horror Helmet to enhance his feat aura?

If I'm equipping him with a Fire Brand (assuming his Dark Fire Sword does not provide a brand effect), I could also give him an Eye Shield to further decrease the effectiveness of (nearly) anything that strikes him.

As for armour, I was thinking two pieces. There's one suit of armour (Astral Plate, or something to that effect, anyway it's a white breast plate) that sounds like it causes awe. The only problem being that it also mentioned something about whisking the wearer away from battle if he's wounded. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What's the actual effect of this item?

And then there's the Dragon Scale suits. I could always give him the Green Dragon Scale armour to give him resistance to poison. Red seems to be less useful because he's already immune to fire damage.

As for trinkets, what works? Do the Brand Weapons factor your unit's strength and accuracy into their damage?

Are there any other items that confer quickness? Unfortunately Water casting doesn't seem to be an option at the moment.

I'm not necessarily going for an optimal build for the record, just trying to choose the best of what is realistically available to me at the moment.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys. This is my first game besides the tutorial, so I'm not exactly the most competent player out there.

You can't get recuperation, but regeneration you can get by forging one of several magic items... artifacts aside, there's just hydra skin armor or rings of regeneration. Both require a nature 2 mage to build them.

Under no circumstances should you empower the fallen angel in astral... with just astral one he'd be magic duel bait, and that would just serve to make it more vulnerable to getting killed (well, in multiplayer anyway. The AI is generally not intelligent enough to take advantage of that weakness). Fire shield is a much safer bet, and yes it works as you said.

I'm not sure about the dark fire sword offhand, so I can't help you there. The astral armor is the armor of virtue, and what it does is whenever your commander takes damage in battle, it teleports him to your capital (as per Returning). It does indeed cause awe as well.

Brands factor in strength and etc to the point where they do a normal attack, but the AoE attack they cause in addition to the sword swing are unaffected by your commander's stats.

Jade armor and boots of quickness are your choices for quickness gear.

As for what sorts of equipment to use, that's all situational depending on what you're facing. There's some things that are pretty universal though. Antimagic amulets are almost a necessity to have on everything that dares call itself an SC. And luck is very popular, as a form of limited immunity. Beyond that there's no one blueprint that can be given. Sometuimes you need elemental immunities, sometimes you need that one weapon that will let you kill the enemy SC. Eye shields are almost always useful, but sometimes it's more important to have high parry or an air shield or the like. As far as shields go though, generally golden shields, eye shields, vine shields, charcoal shields, and lead shields are the most versatile.

[earcaraxe]

U can "get" recuperation by getting a healer unit, such as summoning a faerie queen, or choosing some pretender with that ability like the mother of serpents, or play arco or forge the chalice.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by earcaraxe

U can "get" recuperation by getting a healer unit, such as summoning a faerie queen, or choosing some pretender with that ability like the mother of serpents, or play arco or forge the chalice.

Heal and Recuperation are different. Recuperation works even when you're moving.

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Heal and Recuperation are different. Recuperation works even when you're moving.

Which raises an interesting question: when does Healing happen in the turn resolution ? If you move an army from A to B and want to heal them along the trip, should you heal in A, in B, or are they not getting healed either way ?

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

Which raises an interesting question: when does Healing happen in the turn resolution ? If you move an army from A to B and want to heal them along the trip, should you heal in A, in B, or are they not getting healed either way ?

Healing happens in B. So troops that moved from A to B will get healing checks on the turn they moved.

As far as Riches from Beneath is concerned, I've cast it once and it more than doubles your resource production.

[ChaosReigns]

Another question for you guys.

I'm playing Middle Age Marignon, and I'm trying to get a Grand Master (who has Fire 4 and lots of Fire Gems) to cast Flaming Arrows at the beginning of a battle, but he refuses to do do, despite the fact that I've set up everything in his orders etc. Now, I know the spell inflicts a hundred fatigue, but is there a problem with that particularly? I don't have him doing anything before or after casting Flaming Arrows, so what's up? If a spell inflicts more than a hundred fatique (through encumbrance etc.) will the mage refuse to cast it, or something to that effect?

[tratorix]

Originally Posted by ChaosReigns

Another question for you guys.

I'm playing Middle Age Marignon, and I'm trying to get a Grand Master (who has Fire 4 and lots of Fire Gems) to cast Flaming Arrows at the beginning of a battle, but he refuses to do do, despite the fact that I've set up everything in his orders etc. Now, I know the spell inflicts a hundred fatigue, but is there a problem with that particularly? I don't have him doing anything before or after casting Flaming Arrows, so what's up? If a spell inflicts more than a hundred fatique (through encumbrance etc.) will the mage refuse to cast it, or something to that effect?

The Ai either decided it wasn't a good idea due to the enemy force not being imposing enough or decided he would be better served casting something else. What is he doing instead?

[thejeff]

Almost certainly, if you've scripted it, the AI has decided that the enemy force isn't worth wasting gems on.
Try fighting a bigger army.

If that doesn't work, or if you're already facing a serious threat, lots of troops & enemy mages, there may be more complicated going on. Let us know.

[ChaosReigns]

but he refuses to do do

Woops, I meant to say he refuses to do so.

The Grand Master is doing what my other mages are doing, which is casting Flare or Fireball and then switching to Holy Pyre and Falling Fires when the enemy gets within range.

Anyway, it may well be that the AI has decided it's not worth expending the gems because I've been fighting small and medium-sized armies.

If it still doesn't work when I'm fighting larger armies, I'll post again.

Thanks for the help guys.