Tricking you into thinking a spell is good: Carrion Reanimation

[Argitoth]

Yeah, I thought it was good until I couldn't cast it into an enemy. There's 0 purpose for that spell now that I know it can't be cast in an enemy province.

The undead it summons (up to 100) is hardly enough to kill 20 heavy infantry (even if 100 are summoned) and is easily killed by lots of militia or defence. Now, since when are you going to have 100 corpses to turn into undead? I thought I could try casting Black Death, but I didn't want to cast it myself.

Conclusion: This spell is worthless to all except Ermor who can generate lots of corpses.


And if anyone hasn't notice, "Army of the Dead" spell is bugged.

[ March 31, 2004, 21:35: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[Nephelim]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
Now, since when are you going to have 100 corpses to turn into undead? I thought I could try casting Black Death, but I didn't want to cast it myself.

When you've just taken a province in a big battle?

When you finally get around to conquering that province that you had your harvester of sorrow sitting in?

When you just pillaged a province?

Imagine you have a harvester of sorrow. Imagine it sitting somewhere for a couple turns. Now imagine that you have an army with 5 death mages who can cast carrion reanimation, and some bane lords to pillage a province.

Unfortunately, you've lost almost all your fodder, and you just manage to take the province. You know you probably won't be able to keep it for long.

5 Mages monthly casting of Carrion reanimation.
a couple bane lords pillaging.

Two turns later, you've got a complete reload on fodder.

----

Maybe it's a province with a fortress, and you know it'll take a couple rounds to breach the walls. (Same above scenario)

[Argitoth]

oh, well in that case...

Thread over, needs to be closed!

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
oh, well in that case...

Thread over, needs to be closed!

I would think that after so many threads like this, where you've said "X is useless" and you've been proven wrong, that you might not say "X is useless" anymore and instead say "how do you use this well?"

But no, here you are again, claiming the developers don't know what they're doing...in possibly one of the most balanced strategy games around.

[Wendigo]

Back in DomI this was one of my favourite spells wen playing Jotunheim.

Now it gives more effects for more gems & less mage time, so no reason why it would still not be good.

What many people might miss is that 50% of those soulless for Jotun will be the extremely strong soulless giants (strenght 24 IIRC). These guys breach fort walls like butter!

A favourite tactic of mine at the time was to round up 50 or so of them, hand them to a Norna with guards orders & a small jotun spears + winter wolves army (basically, her full leadership values filled), and gate on an unsupecting backyard fort of my current enemy (magically move/walk in additional commanders if needed).

50 Soulless giants will bring down a 200 strong citadel walls in just one turn...next turn you storm in.

Gateway is weaker now offensively, but the souless giants can still be used for this purpose in a more conventional way.

[tinkthank]

Originally posted by Argitoth:

Conclusion: This spell is worthless to all except Ermor who can generate lots of corpses.

I think Nephelim was being neither rude nor uninformative. Both he and Wendigo offered good and helpful information on how to use this spell well when playing any race. Battles, pillaging, events, etc. all bring corpses.

But what I find interesting in your original post is the claim that the spell is "useless" to all but corpse-generating nations. But wouldn't one then want to claim that Burden of Time or other really powerful spells would be "useless" for the same reason? Similarly, there are many spells which are all but "useless" -- unless, for example, you are a water nation. But I don't see why you should feel this to be suboptimal.

[Argitoth]

I wanted to cast it in an enemy province.

[Gandalf Parker]

I might be thinking of the wrong spell but I figured it would work best in provinces where combat had just occurred. Not majorly useful but tactical. Is that a wrong assessment of the spell?

I tended to cast it when my army was far from home and had taken major hits getting the Last province they took. Raise up my dead troops (and theirs) which I knew there were alot of to refill my front-line sword-fodder quickly.

If my scouts watched a major battle of another nation taking a province, such as seeing them take a hard province of independents, then I might try casting there.