Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

I think you had your reverse communion wrong, basically, spells get casted in the way your mages appear in the tactic-setup screen, with the mage on top being the first one to cast etc.
One thing to note is that, after a communion master cast a spell, all slaves can no longer cast in this turn, if you want to use a reverse communion, the master always needs to be at the very bottom of that list.
So, if you wanted to setup a situation in which one (non communioned guy) casts the general +1Astral battlefield buff (Light of the northern Star), a communion master casts Power of the Spheres, and the rest of the communion fires away with +2 Astral boosted Soulslays, you were doing it wrong because your communion master was like, the 4 mystic if counting from the top. All of the communion members below him never cast a single spell in that battle. You could even see some trying to get into mellee.

If you have 4 mystics, and those mystics appear like this in the tactics screen:
Mystic A
Mystic B
Mystic C
Mystic D
remember to let the communion master be Mystic D, so that the other 3 Mystics still can cast spells, note that "target caster" buffs your master casts effect all communion slaves, and that he still gets the communion path bonus even if his slaves already cast soemthing. So, if you have a Mystic with earth somewhere down on the tactics screen, use him to cast "Communion Master, Power of the spheres, Summon Earthpower" the reinvigoration is very worth it.

I also wondered what your Oreiads were doing, their seduce is basically an assassination attempt that once in a green moon gets you a free commander, and an Oreiad can be scripted/equipped to be capable of dealing with Agarthan Orcales scripted to cast Blade Wind.

Other stuff you could have done:
-Layered castings of "Swarm". Agarthan boulders are quite capable of hurting other Agarthans, and Swarms are awesome for provoking friendly fires.
-Thunderstrike/Storm. Any A2 caster under power of the spheres, or even A1 casters under Storm/power of the Spheres can cast it. It does not care about MR, deals additional fatigue damage and is propably better than Soulslay for comparably High MR Agarthans.
-Penetration boosters: From memory, Acro can forge a number of penetration booster naturally. Those help a lot with Soul Slay/Paralyze etc.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

But doesn't the master need to cast Communion Master and then have all the others cast Communion Slave afterwards and therefore needs to be at the top of the list? I had them casting first, then casting buffs while the slaves held a turn, then had the masters hold while the slaves cast spells? I need to check out the guide again.

I thought the seduction was pretty slick, actually. I knew he was scripted to go crazy with blade winds and earth melds, so I sent my oreiads to wipe out his casters before the battle even started. I set them to mistform/aim/lightning bolt so that he couldn't hurt me with his blade winds and then blasted him away. I succeeded in killing 2 of his generals and seducing 2 other weak ones away while one of my oreiads fled after she went of script and started casting useless spells. Also they don't have astral so I was not able to communion them to cast thunder strike, so I figured they would be more effective in taking out his area of effect casters than casting single lightning bolts in battle.

My biggest problems in this game were forging and researching. I don't really know what to forge ever and I tend to be more reactive than active; spell focuses probably would have helped a ton against Agartha. Also I took way too long to get to Thau 5 and then had some useless const 4 and conj 3 that I barely used. Oh well, I am still learning the game. Unfortunately I can't say that I'm enjoying it too much, as I got wiped pretty badly in this game and am getting killed in the other game I am in too.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

Well after all my complaining and actually putting up a competent battle (still lost), I'm going on AI. Sorry guys and good luck to all, even Excist who was gracious in victory and taught me a lot! Play with me again in the future, I promise I'll play better and TRY to whine less (this game just frustrates me so bad because it takes a lot of thinking and planning and it just sucks when you don't get any payoff).

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

Nope, there is one communion, and you can very much start with casting the slave spells.
If you want a communion that only buffs the master, you usually put the master first,if you want a communion that buffs the slaves, put the master last.
If you have the master as last, the slaves will not be boosted in the second turn, but imho the trade off is much worth it.
I think you have been confusing 2 types of common comminions.
There is the normal communion in which the slaves simply act as fatigue absorbers for the masters. Like, Pyhtium likes to do. There is also the reverse communion where the master simply casts buffs, and the slaves thus cast improved spells. In you case, mystics are way to cool to be used as communion slaves for another mystics, so reverse communion is a nice idea.


Something else one can do with Blood nations is having a mixed communion of Astral on Blood. Reinvigoration from the Blood school can in some cases reset fatigue on the entire communion to near 0.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

Wow, I'm learning some good stuff too. I might want to give an astral nation a swing next game. Mightypeon, you are indeed a mighty font of information for us noobs. :)

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

Communions are powerful and confusing, to be sure. Baalz wrote an excellent guide for them (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37499) which I would recommend for everyone to read at some point or another.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

Hehe, I learned that stuff by failing very very badly in another game ;)
I wont share those other lesson from that game though, as they funnily enough were about how to deal with cloud trapezing Formorian Kings without any magic school higher than 4 ;)
But basically, Sauromatia is propably among the best for reverse communions with reinvigoration for fun an profit.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

T'ien Ch'i is running our new King Maker Special. We will forge, for anyone, artifacts. To our knowledge, we are the only people who have reached construction-8. However, we are certain that we are the only people capable of forging any non-blood artifact in the game.

We reserve the right not to forge certain artifacts that are "too hot" (gate stone, scepter of dark regency, the chalice, Soulstone of the wolves, etc.) but beyond that, we will forge on demand. Want the Aegis? The Unquenched Sword? The Armor of Virtue or the Crown of Overmight? There are many artifacts and we will forge them for you.

We charge our usual price (cost of item plus 1 extra gem per five it cost, extra gems can be of any variety) plus an extra 1 gem per five for artifacts. However, if you are willing to pay in fire or nature gems, we are willing to negotiate a little on that price.

To place your orders, PM T'ien Ch'i. Get these literally one-of-a-kind artifacts quick; if you don't, someone else will.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

I would love to set the schedule to 36 hours, as we imho reached the mid game.

Re: new NoooB Game, (Running)
 

The hososting interval it´s set to 36 hours. Do you mean 48?