Re: I hate horrors
 

If you don't mind your pretender going mad, the astral rod that shifts things out of existence is pretty good at getting rid of horrors. I've seen a master lich defeat at least one doom horror with it.

Re: I hate horrors
 

I've had an E9W9 Cyclops with the Summit laugh off the Eater of Gods.

Re: I hate horrors
 

If you are attacked underwater, a mage scripting encase in ice x2, frozen heart, encase in ice, frozen heart, cast spells will kill the horror a high % of the time. Put 5 body guards as well and to avoid your own mage running away from fear aura, items like dragon helm, ring of the warrior, bear claw talisman help, various dragon scale armour, fire plate and fire brand help alot. Place right at the front of the battlefield as well.

Underwater races can happly forge/cast spells with astral corruption up using those tactics.

Re: I hate horrors
 

You got lucky. The insta-death effect of the astral rod is MR negated.

Re: I hate horrors
 

You are a classic troll.

Re: I hate horrors
 

Perhaps I am just getting lucky, but I've seen the Hunter of Heroes at least three times, and I killed him easily all three times with different types of Commanders. (I have yet to see the other scary Horrors that people talk about.) In fact, my Niefel Jarl with an Unequaled Obesity with the Summit one-shotted him. The other two times Pathos with the medusa shield got him, and an Oreiad with the Astral spell spamming artifact also got him. No humongous or flying body guards necessary. The unifying factor for all three commanders was that they all had very high, close to 30-ish MR.

Re: I hate horrors
 

A massive Defence score probably helps a little, too.

Re: I hate horrors
 

I just don't see what the big deal is. The only time I've ever faced one of the uber Doom Horrors was when I cast a global with Astral Corruption up (as an underwater race, with excellent bodyguards - so I survived, barely).

In another game once, I had an Elemental King repeatedly nailed by Horror Mark (7 or 8 times, at least), and over the course of the next 30-40 turns, was attacked by a grand total of one, ONE, regular Horror - and that was it! No Hunter of Heroes, no Doom Horrors, nothing. Made me regret all the paranoid precautions I took that hampered a fully useful deployment, and all for no good reason.

Which makes me believe that you need an insane level of horror marking before you can expect regular visits by Kurgi, the Swallower of Souls, the Devourer of Eyeballs (OK, I'm making these names up at this point, because, well, I've only ever seen that one guy, in that one game, in all this time of playing, and I've forgotten his name already!), etc..

AC is a whole 'nother ball of wax. But if you allow your Pretender, or other prized unit, to become sooo badly horror marked that he's a Doom Horror magnet, then you deserve everything you get, IMO.

Re: I hate horrors
 

When Astral Corruption is up, there is a chance of the Send Horror spell actually sending a Doom Horror.

That being said, there are a number of Horror-based strategies where someone would unintentionally become HMed.

Re: I hate horrors
 

try putting a meat shield of arhcers that wont move forward to attack the horror and then surround them with other soldiers.

Re: I hate horrors
 

Well, kind of. With enough pearls you can Wish yourself a replacement pretender, Gift of Reason him, and Empower his magic levels up to whatever level. :) Plus, then you no longer lose hit points and MR and enemy Dominion, unless you prophetize your new "pretender."

Yeah, I know, not very cost-effective. But if MY liege lord got horror-marked badly enough I would overthrow him.

-Max

Re: I hate horrors
 

Damn, we totally need a Doomie with this name :shock:

-

Totally unrequested opinion - I totally love the whole Horrors thing.
Totally.

Re: I hate horrors
 

I actually have such a unit, and such a commander in my Yomi mod...

Re: I hate horrors
 

Let's see...new doom horror names...

The Doom-Banger
The Skull Emulsifier
The Pain Dimension
It Who Must Not Be Described
Whuppass, Juicer of Worlds
Hell's Garden Service
10-Pin Nation-Bowler
The 9 eyed, 9 horned, Shiny Happy People Eater

Re: I hate horrors
 

Hmmm... The Cindesuckerella One ?

Hooooooooooooooooooo, yes, I confess : I love Horrors :angel

Re: I hate horrors
 

Yeah! Me too! Think, my ex-gf was called the Maker of Ruins. That's what she made of our relationship :D

Re: I hate horrors
 

I am unsure why this thread is so long. If I understand correctly:

If

1. the Pretender scripts Returning
2. and has two astral gems on hand
3. and is not at his home province (so keep him elsewhere)

Then

as defender he gets to cast Returning first, and no horror (or any other assassination attempt) can touch him under any circumstances. So no death, additional horror marks, or any other negative consequence. There is the one turn penalty of having to move back out of the home province next turn, after restocking Astral gems.

Is this correct? If so, then problem solved, so I can't understand why one would worry about bodyguards or any other less effective method of protection or evasion. If not, can someone enlighten me?

Re: I hate horrors
 

Well, it does mean you can't use him on the battlefield: scripted Returning isn't very helpful in battle.

Though your solution is fine if you just want him casting rituals/forging etc.
In fact, it's even easier. IIRC, special battles, like assassinations & horror attacks take place in a special province, so Returning works even if you leave him at home.

Re: I hate horrors
 

You can get attacked by horrors more than once in the same month, if AC is up and you are horror marked or are in the HoF, and you cast/forge non-blood.

But most of the time if you are forging/casting rituals, and you god/mage has astral, it's safe to script returning. That's what I do usually, because you never know when something really nasty will show up.

Re: I hate horrors
 

This is a very old thread you unburried... there's plenty of very long threads which are dead.


Your suggestion works if the pretender has astral magic... not all pretenders will have astral. Second problem is your suggestion permanently prevents the pretender from being available for any battle on the map or even on the border for pushing dominion.

Re: I hate horrors
 

Can someone confirm the part about always being able to return from assasinations/horrors?
How much time did I loose just by moving my pretenders away from the cap for that reason only.

Re: I hate horrors
 

You did the right thing, I think: you can cast returning from assassinations and horrors, but you have to be away from the home province.

If your pretender has astral or air, if you wanted to Dom push or something, you could move him out with teleport or cloud trapeze, and hope he lasts a while before there's an attack that he returns from. Although if the god was unable to defeat likely attackers, planning to replace him (empowering a mage, building temples) in some way might be a cheaper alternative than perpetually spending gems dodging bullets.

Assassins and assassin spells can be effectively neutralised with extra commanders as chaff, assassins can be removed by heavy patrolling/PD, and spells by shields.

Re: I hate horrors
 

Why do you need to cast returning? Unless it's a human-sized pretender, Ritual of Returning should be good enough, and still lets you participate in battles.

Even a Doom Horror isn't going to kill a Titan or a Cyclops in one hit. And he's a pretender (Morale 30), so you don't need to worry about him catching Fear and running away to his death.

-Max

Re: I hate horrors
 

Actually the Doom Horrors are likely to kill most pretenders in one hit.
Many of them have multiple instant death attacks.
Even without that, there are also the horror mark boosting attacks just to increase the chance you'll die soon.

But it might be worth risking for a major battle.

Re: I hate horrors
 

After all this talk about horrors I feel like making a strategy with them.

Here is a funny Idea. Imagine The kingly ones and astral corruption being used at the same time.

Re: I hate horrors
 

I love horrors :)

Re: I hate horrors
 

You know, there is nothing that says you actually have to bring hm back. He's perfectly safe in the nether world. Don't Call God.

Re: I hate horrors
 

Watchers are great against horrors if no one else has mentioned it yet. I think they're nearly perfect accuracy at the range horrors start out on during attacks, and they do a pile of AN damage.

Anyhow,they'll even take out some of the doom horrors if you get lucky. I think I beat Kurgi and the scarab guy (ruin something) with watchers. Watchers or scorpion men. Got lucky on the scarab because I crippled him on the opening salvo.

Re: I hate horrors
 

The Maker of Ruins, I think. That one was one nasty SOB.