Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

True, Jim. In fact, I'm not saying that Death bless is unuseful. ;)

I just think Fire's and Water's high blesses' first (+att, +def) and second effect (flaming weapons, quickness) seem to stack better than Death's ones the most of the times. Of course SCs are a notable exception - while you don't see usually lots of SCs in the first turns, where the high blessed sacreds mostly shine, as you know :)

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

I don't think D9 bless on sacred troops is actually much use at all against SCs. The AN damage is stopped by mr and a standard SC will be largely immune to attacks from lowly sacreds.

Thugs, perhaps.

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

I seen two games where Mictlan wins with D9W9 bless (imprisoned PoD).
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...=37587&page=26 - one of this games. With this bless ozelots and jags eats even good SC for breakfast. Too many attacks.

And D9 has one more undokumented effect - disis.

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

I think Sombre has the right of it -->

Depends. Taking a mid level death bless with a nation that wants access to death and has combat mages who can use spells like bladewind to maximise that affliction bonus makes sense. It's just something to be factored in.

I also think it means that paying the loads of points for the 9 bless isn't worth it. I don't say it won't do anything but I'm pretty sure, even for mictlan, other blesses would be better for melee troops (I'm thinking fire for example) I think that combining death with either fire or water would be overkill and that usually another bless to provide more durability would benefit sacreds better (or mages me being a believer in the earthbless)

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

Natpy:

I won with MA Mictlan with single S9 bless too, strange things happen :)

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

Here's an additional complication. What about spells like The Wrath of God and Purgatory? Would a death bless apply to them too?

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

Death bless has some non-evident benefits. The first and the main one is that you will hardly be pushed by any sc in the early-mid game (maybe, in the late game as well). If anyone still wishes to use sc's against death-blessed nation, this sc will gather afflictions really fast if your troops have decent attack skill. And that's the point! for the best effect you should combine death bless with minor fire bless and the little jags will be able to hit even well-equipped sc's and nearly each hit will mean affliction.
Second benefit, is, of course battle magic.
Third one is the fact that it is really easy to protect an sc from fire but it is impossible to protect him from increased affliction chance.
Fourth one is what Natpy mentioned - death blessed units are more likely to cause disease than any other affliction. Not very pleasant indeed).

It was me who won a big game with W9D9 blessed EA mictlan a year ago or so. And as I wasn't satisfied with jags' and eagles' hitting capability, after that I added F4 and result was excellent. Mictlan sacreds do wonders and hit really hard with this +2 attack bonus.
So, I strongly think that most of you underestimate death bless. It is very good for good-stat sacreds you can amass.

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

I tend to prefer death bless over fire. It is clearly better for sacred (or shrouded) mages. It is nowhere near as effective for melee sacred against regular recrutiable troops (you want them dead, not afflicted), but is a useful weapon against thugs and SCs.

Further, in terms of rituals, summons and global enchantments, I'd much rather have a D9 than F9 pretender.

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

I still don't see how it works against SCs. The AN attack is mr negates so where is the damage coming from? Lucky rolls on crits? That doesn't work so well if you're facing the usual SC combo of luck and ethereal on top of off the scale protection and no fatigue.

Re: Death Bless and Seeking Arrow
 

How do you reliably kill extremely well-equipped SCs on the battlefield? Is a comparable SC or a group of thugs the only counter?