Some combat spells are never used?
 

it seems to me that some combat spells, especially close combat damage spells are almost never used, because if a mage gets in close combat he is dead anyway.

is this a trend or does it change maybe late game? It seems there are a lot of these spells that are never really used for that exact reason.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

This is largely true, but occasionally the close combat ones are invaluable. e.g. the puny touch ones may sometimes enable a mage to kill an assassin. The larger AOE ones can come into play if enemy troops manage to sneak round your front line to attack your mages - sometimes one of your mages may take the initiative and fry the lot of them.

They are hard to script though - it's very rare to successfully use them deliberately. I suppose you could have an SC who's got high fire or air magic or something, and script him to attack/attack/Flame Eruption/Flame Eruption/Flame Eruption. Could be quite effective.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

good idea llama. does anyone here have experience with scripting close combat spells or at least some good stories of how the "spell you never saw used before" saved the battle?

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

I use them alot. The Agartha Oracle is for instance a good close combat mage, just give him protective equipment. The thing to remember though is the fatigue issue that comes with most armor. Why? Because critical hits can be a real killer in close combat even for the most protected mage. There are shields and armor suited for the job though.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

do you have a scripting example?

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

There was a past thread that evolved into the best ways to use the caelum seraphs(?) as SCs. Couple buffs, attack once, let rip with the short range ligthtning spell.

If you search creatively you might find it, no idea what the thread name was. It had quite a few good ideas on touch spells (or short range)

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

I dont have a script but I have seen Flame Eruption scripted against me. My enemy put some fire mages at the front of his army and placed them just right so that they blew away my whole front line just as they were about to slaughter them. That'll teach me to use the same formation twice!

Also, I have occassionally scripted close range spells during siege defenses. Its one of the only times you know with some degree of assurance that you can put a mage on the front line and he wont be killed immediately. The only problem is that there is a decent chance he will hit your own troops guarding the gate. Orb Lightning works like a charm in that situation tho!

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

I always speed up my early expansion when playing Agartha using the Risen Oracle pretender (and sometimes also regular oracles) scripting the low level spell (alteration 1) "fists of iron". With high strength and high earth magic you can obliterate loads of enemies in one sweep. Can be very useful for taking out those pesky independent heavy cavalry units for instance. Though you have to take up the initial charge with some chaff first.

A rule of thumb when scripting for close combat is to learn how battlefield movement works. Great help here is the combat grid (activated by pressing "g") and the manual. Another thing is to use scouts to observe your enemies scripting (especially human) in combat. Some players never change their scripts and that is something you can use against them. It is a gamble of course, but then again, so is everything in this game.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

so Q's: if both sides start furthest forward. how many grids will be between the fronts? is it 2 AP per move? meaning Light infantry with 10 ap move 5 grids? does attacker move first? how many AP for casting a spell?

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

Not sure about the rest, but here's an answer to two! Defender moves first and casting a spell ends the mage's "turn" even if he had full APs.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

I've scripted close combat spells to good effect before. E9N4 EA Caelian Eagle Kings. Have one priest to bless 3 of them(all placed right at the back) while the kings are scripted to mistform, stoneskin, attack, shockwave, shockwave(Summon earthpower at the start if I get any E2 kings).
With very high protection(stoneskin+good armour+E9), decent reinvigoration, minor regeneration to avoid afflictions and 100% shock resistance they are very tough and an A4 mage casting shockwave point blank can cause alot of hurt.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

Some other tips for your close combat mages:

*Reinvigoration is extremely valuable. High fatigue will soon kill even the best protected mage.
Some drawbacks of high fatigue:
Lowered attack (not always an issue for close combat spells)
Lowered defense (you don't want this!)
Much higher chance for a critical hit leading to halved protection, leading to more damage, leading to afflictions and even death.

*Never enter combat with high fatigue.
For example:
Don't cast too many buff spells as this can actually work against you. A nice balance is best. There are some spells and items that let you regain fatigue in combat that can help to counter this problem.

*Armor is good but not if it raises your spell casting encumbrance (different from regular encumbrance) too much. That could lead to a quick fatigue death.

*Check the temperature of the province you are attacking. A +2 in encumbrance may not be much for regular close combat, but this could quickly add up when casting spells. A fatigue 10 spell could suddenly turn into fatigue 15 (with regular encumbrance) meaning less defense and possibility of critical hits on your mage.

*A rule of thumb is to try and stay below 15 fatigue as long as possible as this means that no critical hits can be made. So don't enter close combat with more... or try to stay below 30 at least ("only" -2 in the DRN for critical hits). More on this can be found in the manual.

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

Dedas, you are very true.
I would add that some close combat spells must not be used without a 100 % protect to the element of the spell.
I remenber a vanadrott killing himself with an unscripted shockwave. ( he used it so as to get rid of 5 raptor...)

Re: Some combat spells are never used?
 

great thoughts dedas..thanks for sharing!