Ermor is upon me!
 

Hail fellow pretenders,

my current game against my roommate seems lost, and I would like you to give me some advice on how to get out of this alive

He is Soul Gate Ermor, I am vanilla Abysia.
We had one decisive battle where I lost 400 devils, 10 Anathema Dragons and some other stuff. During that battle I learned that Darkness also affects demons, and they were burried beneath a mass of undead.

Now the enemy is standing 2 provinces next to Abysia, and while I have some 100 demons left, I doubt it will be enough.

Any spells you would recommend me to make him rue the day?

I have got all schools up to seven, except blood which is at 9. My god has Earth 4 Water 4 Blood 9 (including boosts), I also have access to fire, Astral and limited nature magic.

Thanks!

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Equip a anathemant dragon with 3 fire boosters(you should have access to the helmet, hopefully the skull and maybe the ruby eye, a ring of wizardry or a staff of elemental mastery), then cast firestorm and watch them burn.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

The Global Purgatory, but I don't think that will kill enough of them quick enough.

What about solar brilliance? Would that work?

SCs with lots of reinvig would be helpful.

Good luck!

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

id go with turins idea probably, or else some sort of massed AoE magic life falling fires

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Purgatory should be one spell you definitely get into the game.... and watch-out for burden of time.
Also Firestorm will work great if you've completed that research level.
Telestic Animations will provide level_3 priest statues for only 5 astral.

Any SC's must have immunity to cold and at least 20 MG resistance.
IceDevils can be used for attacking since ICE is his domain and ArchDevils can be used for defending since HEAT is your domain.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Firestorm sounds like the way to go.

I did not go for SCs yet, as I thought that every good SC needs his lifeleech weapon, and as you can't leach from undead, I thought it better focus on hoarding demons. It worked really well until the darkness came http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thats what I love about Dominions... there is always something to turn the tide!

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

you can leech from soulgates undeads, they aren´t lifeless.

Firekings seem to work particularly well, even without lifedrainers. They make great firestorm casters too.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Dont give up on the Demons just yet either. He cant be casting Darkness everywhere all the time. So make use of the demons' flying ability and send them out raiding. Like 10-15 demons per group should be near unstoppable to any PD/freespawns. Get in there and wreck up his gem supply.

As for undead killer SCs: yeah you can make them. They just need to have regen (and reinvig too if they arent enc 0) items. Demon Whip + Charcoal Shield sounds like a fun combo too - watch all the undead just light on fire.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Raiding sounds good, but he is madcastleing (building fortifications in every province), so there is no real gain - he does not even have PD I could destroy.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Not sure about the map but look for choke-points if they exist.

Can you tell us more about your current position.
Current Globals?
Map being played?
SC's being played on each side?
What's the majority of his armies?
Current gems stored?
Your Pretenders character?
Anything else you think is important?

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Devils are high strength flires, so they are extremely effective at taking down castles. Unfortunately they don't have a magical weapon, so they aren't very effective against Soul Gate troops. The Venomous claws on Fiends are magical IIRC.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

We are playing Orania, so there are not many choke points available. Not that it would matter, as he is three turns away from my capital.

For SCs - He had a large host of wraith lords fully equiped, but they did not survive their first encounter with one of my devil armies. Whats left there is Klakuk the most feared manslayer, a wraith centurion and his prophet, but I don't think that he is much of a threat.

On my part - well, I lost nearly everything in that battle. I have one ice devil taking aquatic provinces on the other side of the world. My pretender is a great warlock, so he has no potential.

The best thing is that he was trying to move his ghost king pretender with some 200 wraiths trough stygian pathes and lost all of them.

Globals: Looming hell on my part
2 enchantments from atlantis noone cares about
nothing from him, as his pretender died. ( He had well of missery and Burden of time from time to time, although I always dispelled it the next turn)

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

I'd be interested to hear how it turns out.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

is he alchimizing to get castles? i think he must be. try to scout his provinces with the most gem income and take them with stealthy armies and flyers, this will cut his summoning and alchemy and allow you to take chunks out of both types of his income. what paths does your great warlock have?

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

That's good I've seen some really ugly SCs from Ermor.

Sounds like there's no SCs on either side... usually I create some for surprise attacks on the armies which are weak swarms.

OH MY WORD !.... yes that spell is busted. Last time I used the spell it told me I lost 9_million units. Obviously busted since the game can't have that many units which can exist on a map... with that spell only my pretender(bog_mummy) survived at 1_hitpoint remaining and he had over 100_hitpoints before casting the spell. Yes on the global map it showed him with 1_hitpoint inside my domain. Never use that spell.

If your domain candles are still high and strong then Purgatory can really kick his armies in the balls. Also finish researching to the unique construction items... some of these uniques will give your kingdom a second gust of strength. Also Flames from the Sky can also kick his big armies down... once you reach this spell.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

the unquenched sword is fun, watching all those little guys go on fire is fun

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

So, we have come to a standoff. The charcoal shields work great, I have some thuggs patroling the borders to ensure he wont cross into my territory.

Neither him nor me can advance.

He has fortifications in every province - I got the mobile troops to destroy each of his armies if he should enter my domain.

I tried to attack him, but he got so many undead in each castle that my demons were not able to damage it. Then I tried to outpreach him in order to get purgatory to burn his forces in the castle - but this forced me to make my mobile army a sitting duck, and he launched a strike to wipe them out.

The situation has not really changed, but I have no idea how to advance. Are there any spells to destroy fortifications?

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

i think the spell crumble can reduce its defence and let you storm it (crumble is e3 or something i think). use crumble then send in a mage or 2 and do a battlefield wide spell to wipe him out completely

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Crumble doesn't do a lot of damage though, and will probably not work if he really has *that* many more undead. If you can start breaking down his gates, then Crumble is a very good option; if not, it will probably not work, as the defenders get the opportunity to repair their walls after the spell has been cast.

There is no other spell to help breaking down the forts themselves, and no event will destroy a fort. The good thing is, the two spells increasing fort defence do not work, so you won't have to worry about that.

I can't say I have any specific advice, though, beyond Flames from the Skies and similar spells (the more, the merrier). Additionally, you might wish to play a bit with Mind Hunt: even Immortal commanders can be annoyed with this spell, and it may disrupt his plans. If he used Stygian Paths, he probably doesn't have easy access to Astral magic, so you might be able to use this spell to good effect.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

if you can mind hunt/assassinate all his commanders then you can just crumble those undead. make a weak point in your line and when he pours in troops mind hunt his commanders away (and on the battlefield use mind burn)

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

Soul Gate's undead aren't mindless, so they won't crumble, they'll just rout, and 1 point of PD is all it takes to prevent that. For that same reason, Mind Burn and Soul Slay won't work nearly as spectacularly as they do against the Ashen Empire.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

good point, then just stick with battlefield wide spells

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

PrinzMegaherz .... now the next phase:
You need scouts/spys to locate his largest armies... use Succubus ladies if you don't have any good stealthy units. Don't use the Succubus for assassinations in your scenario because necromancers usually win. Once your Succubus finds a huge force... Blast it with Flames from the Sky !

If you're worried about Defense:
Summon more of the ARCHDEVILS if you're worried about him attacking... keep them out of cold provinces. Keep popping down those telestic animations(5_astral=lvl3_priest)... good deal.

If you want to pursue Offense: Mind Hunt if possible, Earth Attack will even kill low necromancers. Build up flying units... until you feel ready to take a castle.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

also if you can empower some-one to a high earth make some seige golems, they each count as 100 men for besiegeing purposes

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

What you need to do here, then, is destroy the gates to the fortress in a single turn. First what you need to do is look at the fort you are going to attack and take its fortification (probably watchtower? or maus? so not too much) value and add on the seige strength value of the defenders. Once you have this number, subtract the seige strength of the force you are planning to attack with. Then, whatever is left over is what you will need to make up with items. Just divide it by 50 and that is the number of Gate Cleavers you will need. Equip them on your commanders and attack and the gates will fall that same turn. He will need to *immediately* counterattack you to prevent you from storming.

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

and remember that every flames from the sky reduces the amount of guys there to repair

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

PrinzMegaherz .... where's the game stand?
you making a comeback ?
or
are you burried beneath the feet of undead?

Re: Ermor is upon me!
 

We haven't continued playing yet, as we had the idea to try out the older Star Wars Rebellion game in multiplayer. Even though I have lost every major space battle so far, it's still great fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif.
But I hope that we return to dominions soon, I need some victories to buff my ego