Re: Favorite assassin
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I stopped using Star Children as assasins shortly after the patch... I was losing too many to indie commanders. Which seemed to indicate that I was better off using their research ability back home...

However, your post makes me think that in the mid to late game (when you're doing ok with research). I might start using them against mein enemies.

My personal fave equipment for the Star Child is:

Rune Smasher, Astral Skullcap, Boots of Quickness, Crystal Coin, Spell Focus

Then scripted to Soul Slay.

But Gandalf's tactics make me think that it would probably be fun to give him some astral pearls and script him to (Enslave Mind)(Returning)

EDIT: Oh wait... then the enslaved commander would just flee... good against a lone SC with midling MR, thanks to the penetration bonus perhaps. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's nice setup but it means a lot of gems spend on single assasin. And all it would take do defeat him would be to have few decent bodygards, who would either distract assasin long enough for the main commader unit to kill it, though magic or melee, or who could overwhelm him if they can get to him quickly enough, preventing him from furter casting (flying or fast units).

Personally I like to have my assasins either very cheap (no items, or few cheap ones) or very expensive (with very good battle gear designed to kill some specific and amportant target). But perhaps it's just me. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No, you're right... I prefer the same thing, however the Star Child has become much less effective as a "cheap" assasin since paralyze was fixed... I've only played around with the above setup in SP games, and while it's fun, I don't think it's "competative"(because of the gem investment on a fragile unit).

With the increased astral, however, they can Telport and Return... so you could script them with Returning after a few castings, so that they're not that vulnerable... and just Teleport them back near the front afterwards.

Yossar's suggestion of Lifelong Protection is obviously superior in many regards, but not very achievable for most R'lyeh players I think.

I'm basically just trying to figure out the best way to use them as assasins in the mid to late game... and this is what I've always played around with, but never used seriously.

I would think that a non-flying SC with medium MR could be brought down with lille risk, given the above equipment, with: (Soul Slay)(Soul Slay) (Soul Slay) (Returning).

Re: Favorite assassin
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How long's it take a mounted commander to get over? 2 turns? Although most people don't tend to use mounted commanders all that much.

What about just sticking a skullface on one? Not quite as effective as lifelong protection, especially against mages, but still pretty good and much easier to obtain (A Death random on a mage or priest with a ring of sorcery and a staff of skulls. If you're really lucky you could even get a mage with Death 2). Then you could even throw on an elemental armor, cast resist magic, and not have to worry about mages much. Not sure what you'd script, though. Resist magic, raise skeletons X4, fire? Maybe skip resist magic since you already start with 20. You could throw on an AMA if you're really worried about it.

The funny thing about casting Body Ethereal with Lifelong Protection on is that he seems to always cast it on an imp or two. Not exactly what I wanted but usually actually works out really well.