Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

I'll have to give that a try-thanks Endoperez!

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

The Tupilak never impressed me. It might be cheap, but the att/def stats give it very low odds against anybody who isn't pretty feeble.

Didn't see any mention of the Strands of Arcane Power or Astral Corruption, both of which might be fun given good circumstances.

I suppose that if you're hard-pressed by a mage-heavy attack, it -might- be interesting to spam blood domes across your empire, but that's rather double-edged.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

Its not hard. Just copy earth attack as a start. Then code dive see if you can see the code for earth elemental - change it to something else. or somethings elses

It would be fun to send a swarm of dragonflies.. Queen Maub's irritation, or the little elf faeries that shoot stun ....

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

So it'd be fine against the average human mage then :) It can even take a hard-hitting attack spell or two, which might be useful.

Astral Corruption is okayish. It'll knock out low-level forge mages on a semi-regular basis, but it's a late-game spell and by then important ritual-casting mages can be well-enough bodyguarded to survive a Horror attack. It won't touch battle mages in invading armies.

That said, about 20% of horror attacks from this spell will be upgraded by one notch, so any mages spamming Wish are likely to get eaten by Doom Horrors sooner or later.

I think Strands of Arcane Power would be most useful defensively, unless your domain is so deep in enemy territory that you've effectively won anyway.

I haven't dared use the Blood domes.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

I used astral corruption to great effect by casting it the turn after declaring war. When someone starts a war, players generally respond by having their mages pump out various summons, magic items, and rituals in an attempt to pump up their power. I believe that I took out a huge number of mages with this, since the magnitude of rituals cast at me dropped sharply after that turn, and stayed down even after AC was dispelled.

Thus, it can work wonders if timed to do maximum damage.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

well inside a battle where the enemy has alot of mage support (i'm sure most of us know this can be very deadly mid/late game) rain of stones is one that seems to come up quite useful, though you will need some way to protect you're troops/mages and if the enemy mages have high hp like R'lyehs illithids, the big shambler mages atlantis has (basalt kings, angakoks...etc) or whatever they may survive the spell and need you too go through more risk and batter you're remaining troops yet again to get at them.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

Concur. Rain of Stones + Fog Warriors = glee.

-Max

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

I prefer seducers. Not only knock out one of their mages, but gain one at the same time.

Altho the seducers have been greatly increased in number, they seem to have gone down in effectiveness. A failed seduction becomes a 1-on-1 combat, like an assassination. So you can deck them out with lots of equipment so they can kill the target.

But the BEST thing I have found is combining the two actions. With Arcos Oreiads for they often have 3 nature magic so getting Charm is great. Set their script so that if the seduction fails they do 1 attack (to move forward) then 2 Charms, then move into kill mode. An advantage is that it will also work on females. If you charm the target then a combat will occur in that province with your new commander fighting their old comrades.
If its the last commander in that province then you get to watch the commanders old troops rout which gives you the province.

With Succubus you can do the same taking advantage of their blood magic and using Hellbind Heart spell.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

Dude that's evil. I love it so much, taking advantage of you're enemies reactions - now that's real strategy.

I salute you.

Re: Best ways to poach mages...
 

Nice tactic, though Astral Corruption is banned in most MP games, I believe.