Abyssian chain suicide

[Soulfreezer]

Hi, I'm rather new to Dominions 3 and currently playing a SP game as EA Abysia.
I've accepted that my Anointed sometimes insist on wasting fire gems to summon worthless fire elementals that don't manage to reach the enemy before the battle ends. But what my Anathement Salamanders/Dragons did during the last big battle against Niefelheim was utter madness.

I attacked the home province of Niefelheim with 65 Buring Ones and 11 Mages (2 of them were well equipped HoF Anointed). The attack was supported by 3 castings of Flames from the Sky from Mages equipped with Shroud of the Battle Saint for additional Afflictions from my Death Blessing. The attacking Anointed were fully scripted with Phoenix Power, Divine Blessing and Fire Storms. The other Mages had simple scripts of Phoenix Power only. I expected Niefelheim to rout shortly after the fire storms started.

But something went horribly wrong during the battle: After casting their scripted Phoenix Power all of my mages casted Phoenix Pyre in the next round. Niefelheim had a few Vampires which were apparently scripted to attack rear, one of them managed to kill a mage. Phoenix Pyre triggered, several of my Mages were injured by the explosion, one got killed. This triggered the next Phoenix Pyre explosion and a chain reaction started. My Anointed, who hadn't cast Phoenix Pyre, got killed instantly, the other Mages reappeared all over the battlefield right next to some unfriendly giants. All of them except 3 got killed during the same turn, 8 of 11 Mages dead before casting a single attack spell.

In the end my Buring Ones managed to win the fight, but I lost 38 of them in a battle where I expected to lose no more than 10.

So how do I stop my Mages from casting Phoenix Pyre again? I probably can't, right? And why did my fire immune Mages take damage from the explosion, apparently it isn't fire damage? Is there any other way to protect against the damage?

[Sajuuk]

Yes, Phoenix pyre deal physical damage instead of fire damage, so maybe heavy armor will protect against it.

And what you have meet is not the worst--in a multiplayer game i use about 50 mages in a communion, and one of the master cast phoenix pyre, then some devils manage to reach one of my mage......

To deal with such condition, if you don't have too many mages, seperate them so that the explosion of one cannot affect others. If you use dozens of mages, then put them in rear, and use your army to block every way to them. If you still feel unsafe, then take a staff of storm

But the ultimate way your enemy can use on your pheonix power is spells like rain of stone or earthquake, which will ignore all your previous effort. Yet you too have a ultimate solution:fog warrior and/or army of gold so that one explosion nolonger fatal.

As for "not cast", perhaps if you script 5 spell, they will be too exhausted to cast phoenix pyre, but i wont count on it

[TheConway]

The AI _loves_ phoenix pyre. The best way to avoid a repeat is to simply have them fully scripted for 5 turns. At least that way you get to delay the AI taking the reins for a bit.

[krpeters]

Sometimes I swear that the AI is written intentionally to be as annoying as possible.