Re: Routing bug
 

I got replay and took a look at it. In 2.12 Vanheim expertly takes out Pythium's mage who carried Staff of Storms with a blade wind in a first round (he must have practiced right from the birth...). After that Vanheim's flying tramplers wreak havoc amongst Pythium's fodder, in the end Pythium route. In 2.14 Staff of Storms carrier remains alive and with fliers neutralized Pythium mages have little troubles slaughtering Vanheim's army.

Well, yet another reason not to trust Staff of Storms to weaklings...

Re: Routing bug
 

can dragons not move if storm is in effect since they are flying? they should at least move on the ground,
and the trolls still just stood around. the storm also I guess nerfed the wind guided/flaming crossbows.
so the verdict is that the 2 films are just 2 possible outcomes of the same battle? if so, then some of these spells are too strong if they sway an entire battle this significantly. (12 of 13 dead leaders & most army dead vs. overwhelming victory? due to one spell/magic item <staff of storms> not working?)

Re: Routing bug
 

Or it is the flying trampler that are too powerful. Or the bladewind that kills the carrier of the staff of storms.

There are plenty of spells and items that affect the outcomes of battles. Storm is powerful, but so is flying, trampling and shock resistance (if you face wrath of the sky and storm). There are counter measures to most strategies, but some are more difficult to find or utilize.

Re: Routing bug
 

well, I would say that storm/SoS is too powerful for it's cost; but that is true of a large number of spells/items, naturally. It does sound like the army wasn't prepared to deal w/ the standard SoS wielding pythium army, and so the original result seen was likely the flukey one.

As to why the trolls were sitting around, didn't you say they were being hit by stellar cascades? was there fatigue 100+?

Re: Routing bug
 

Very True... the Staff of Storms should be held by nothing weaker then a Spectre which is ethereal by default. Also I'd recommend finding a way to raise his protection just to be safe.

Re: Routing bug
 

Iron dragons were moving, but the pace of their ground movement isn't very impressive. Trolls got stellar-cascaded, and so they were way too tired to move.

Right.

Yep, some spells are quite strong, especially against narrowly-specialized army. Though blade wind is not one of those. You can't rely on hitting the right mage with it. And Pythium wasn't supposed to let weak mage carry the SoS. Especially when he had spare AQ.