Invisible Swarm 4: started!

[Jurri]

You're quite welcome, Whollaborg! I fear I haven't been all that I could be against you, but I hope you realize the crucial difference between fighting a human and a machine...

You really should give that Ice Devil something else than that Wraith Sword: It always stings my heart when I see that bastard coming with his boots of strength and weapon that doesn't benefit from strength at all. Well, his tail can use the exercise!

If Ermor and Marignon join Pan, you could stand a chance, I think. Better yet, salvage what's left of Arcos and make him a forge-***** to grab those artefacts away from Turin once he loses 'em. With the same going for the elemental royalty, of course.

[Turin]

oh sorry I was mistaken Jeffr. I thought we had an agreement, but actually we hadn�t. Well after my patrollers caught 20 white centaurs(and got a sound beating from them) I figured you�d be up to no good .

Those treelords are really quite fun.

Especially since you can easily give them flying strategic mapmovement 3 with flying carpets.
I wonder if that�s also the case in the base game, or a result of the #clearspec command used in the mod.

[jeffr]

You know, I never thought of sticking a Tree on a carpet. What a great idea!

I wonder if that works for all immobiles?

Just my 2 cents, but my thought is that flying is too powerful as it is and should be restricted to a few units. Or, ideally, you should be able to fly between provinces you own, but not "paratroop" into an enemy province. Maybe only some special units should have the "paratroop" ability. I think I remember something like this being on the Dom III wishlist so maybe the flying rules will be changed a bit.

I think there is more strategy in maintaining lines of defense and only being able to breach those lines (via paradrops, amphibeous assaults, teleporting, etc.) with a limited set of special ability units. But hey, I'm a bit old school

[Cainehill]

Yeah - if nothing else, immobiles shouldn't be able to fly, imo, certainly not from a non-unique item. (All other means of movement for immobiles are unique items or spells like teleport, astral travel, fairy trod.)

[Cainehill]

Turin said:
Those treelords are really quite fun.

Especially since you can easily give them flying strategic mapmovement 3 with flying carpets.
I wonder if that�s also the case in the base game, or a result of the #clearspec command used in the mod.

Having just done a test with the unmodded game, it definately appears that the #clearspec needs to be removed from the treelords - they're not supposed to be able to fly around, not even with the flying ship.

[Ygorl]

Imagine a monstrously gigantic flowerpot on a flying carpet/ship, with a treelord planted in it. It could work.

[Cainehill]

Like I say - maybe on the flying ship. But a flying carpet? We're talking a huge old Oak Tree, maybe 50 feet tall and a trunk as wide as a carpet. More, from the play balance side, Illwinter made immobiles, well, immobile for a reason.

[djo]

Ygorl said:
Imagine a monstrously gigantic flowerpot on a flying carpet/ship, with a treelord planted in it. It could work.

They're skroderiders!

[Turin]

A new turn. Featuring a very close battle between pangeaea and me. I really shouldn�t have invested in those water demons.

[jeffr]

Well, I just had a chance to briefly look at the turn. To sum it up, Adios Pangaea

Turin destroyed all 3 of my armies and effectively has beaten me. I can fight a bit of a guerilla war from here on and try and stall him a bit, but I have no forces left. And what I had before the last turn was insufficient anyway, so it's only a matter of (a short) time, anyway. He'll get the 4 victory points that I have currently.

The gory details (from a brief look and from memory). Mabye this will help someone figure out a way to beat him

Battle 1
Turin lifted the sieze of his castle by sending in 1 Air Queen and the Djinni against about 40 of my White Centaurs. The Air Queen had a Staff of Storms, cast Wrathful Skies and retreated. The Djinni stayed and trampled what was left of my forces (after the lightning) to death.

I actually thought he might try to Wrathful me and I had intended to get to him quickly (which I did) with my Weapons of Sharpness WCs. But I messed up somehow I think, and my WCs went in without Weapons of Sharpness and maybe even without being completely blessed and only managed to bring the Djinni down to about 45 hitpoints before they died.

Battle 2
I was going North with about 30 White Centaurs and inadvertenly ran into Anthrax and others leading what seemed like ~150 Vine Ogres. I think I killed maybe 10.

Battle 3
This is the close one Turin referred to above. Except I don't think it was close at all, but rather a clear victory for Turin.

I had about 40 White Centaurs, 100 Centaur Archers (flaming arrows), 50 maendads, 10 Trolls, 10 Banes and 17 commanders. He had a load of Vine Ogres, River Demons, lamias and Air Elementals plus an Air Queen, Tree Lord, Blue Dragon pretender and Celestial Masters.

I lost all my army including my Moloch and commanders(a bunch of Pans, a few Dryads, Lamia Queen, Bane Lord) except for a few that retreated, and he lost his entire army except for his Air Queen and Blue Dragon pretender. In other words, he lost, in my opinion, basically a lot of replaceable units while I lost irreplaceable units and items. He did lose, I think, his Tree Lord and the commander carrying the Luck Sword (what a great item! might have been the difference maker).

I cursed his Air Queen and Dragon (take that! ). I intended my Pans and Lamia Queen to cast Petrify, Relief and Drain Life, but somehow I got a bunch of Tunes (of death, fear, etc.) and Panics after my script ran out. Nothing like casting Panic on the beserking Demons.

I wanted to send my Moloch with the Tartarian Chains and Aegis against his Air Queen, etc., but I sent him in to0 early maybe and he ended up attacking mindless Vine Ogres before getting paralyzed. I was really counting on Petrify to slow his SCs down, but ah well.

All in all a good game. I'm not out yet, and you never know what can happen, but at least one of the battles was fun to watch at the end, even though it didn't turn out well for the good guys