Fastest way to move a commander long distance

[Saxon]

Howdy,

What would be the fastest way to move a commander with no magic paths? I am talking about moving a prophet with only holy magic across the map in a hurry to preach.

My best solution was to empower him with Astral, then hand him a coin and cap, giving him Astral 3. With that, he can Teleport. Now, I am in single player, having fun, so the 50 gems for empowerment is not the end of the world, but I was wondering if anyone had any better ideas. Better could mean cheaper or it could mean in paths other than Astral.

[rdonj]

Boots of flying if you can live with taking a few turns, or give him the boots of the planes, or the gate stone if you have access to artifacts and can't take waiting. The gate stone isn't cheaper, but you should make it anyway because it's a very powerful artifact.

[Saxon]

Interesting to see that the only items that allow that kind of movement are such high level. Points to the power of movement at a strategic level.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Amhazair]

Yeah, the Boots of the Planes and the Gatestone are amongst the most useful artifacts too if you manage to get your hands on them.

[Stagger Lee]

If you don't have artifacts yet, cloud trapeze would be my choice. Air gems are far more disposable, and you only need 1 booster.

[Loren]

Gate Stone.

[thejeff]

But Air boosters are more expensive and harder to get.
OTOH, 1A doesn't get you magic dueled.

So I'd go with whichever you've got more spare gems in, if you have an A4 mage.
Or more likely the air boots, depending on how far and how urgent...

[iRFNA]

Depending on the map and the locations involved, it may be faster to use a pocket ship than the flying boots. Or both. Water provs have a tendency to be very large relative to land provs, and sometimes there is a path by sea that is shorter distance-wise on top of that, enough to make up for the 1 prov per turn move speed. Of course, it's highly situational.

Another thing I've noticed, and I may not be fully correct, is that flying items will add one to the map move of their unit if that unit's base map move is under 3. So they can't bring you over 3, but they can speed things up beyond simply crossing tricky terrain.

If you have strong air mages or strong nature/astral mages close to your destination, you can move your prophet somewhere alone in a prov then cast either wind ride or flying monkeys (both require conj research). Assuming said prophet qualifies for being affected by either of those spells.

If you're feeling particularly cruel and by luck have your prophet in the hall of fame (there's a tendency for this to happen from all the smiting), strong death mages close to where you want the prophet to be, and a way to quickly murder that prophet (drowning?), you could kill the poor guy then use ritual of rebirth. I'm not sure if it'd still be a prophet, but it would certainly be hilarious.

Oh, and I guess if your capital is closer to where you want your prophet to be, you could give your prophet the armor of virtue then send him into a battle. Insanely, pointlessly risky, especially for the cost, but also hilarious.

[brxbrx]

cloud trapeze? I like that one. easy to learn, easy to use, and cheap to cast.

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by Saxon

Interesting to see that the only items that allow that kind of movement are such high level. Points to the power of movement at a strategic level.

Thanks for the ideas!

Sax,

Indeed movement is crazy important in Dominions for power focusing and random raiding. Cloud trapeze and teleport also occur pre-movement so there are a number of pre-move tricks you can leverage against armies/nations that don't natively have those abilities.

Off topic the uber spells in Heroes 3 are dimension door and town portal for the same reasons as above. Once I have those it is game over in HOMM3 at least.

-ssj