Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Playing Ermor and having shadow vestals is a lot of fun until you encounter mage spam using Solar Rays...

While I usually have all my undad protected witht he usual Unholy Protection, Antimagic etc so Banishment becomes only a minor annoyance, Solar Rays in the other hand seems to be the achilles heel...no resistance roll ... dammage is automatic...plus it decimates units with no armor/protection such as the shadow vestals...

Anyone can suggest how to protect shadow vestals from Solar Rays?

Thanks,

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

You can try setting them to guard commander, and have the commander hold on the back of the battlefield for 5 turns then attack. Hopefully then by the time you engage the scripts will have run out and you will get much fewer rays. Another option is using reanimation undead as decoys, but you have to be careful not to get so many longdead killed the vestals are forced to route.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Solar rays is an awesome anti-undead spell, basically custom made to fight tougher undead. The answer is something universally applicable - you need to use different units when your opponent is clearly dominating what you're fielding. Instead of leaning heavily on your shadow vestals when your opponent has effectively countered them throw some other stuff in. One route, obviously, is to go with non-undead units. Another is to add in a bunch of undead chaff to take the damage. Solar Rays starts looking a lot less impressive when there's several hundred longdead and pale riders.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Try to use S9W9 bless (mb with minor B-bless for additional damage) on imprisoned oracle. This works well even against some mages spamming Solar Rays

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

There is a spell even worse than solar rays vs shadow vestals which is Holy Pyre, fortunately a Marignon only spell. My poor shadow vestals which ran into that...:hurt:

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Dust to Dust is also a nasty spell to watch out for, if you're up against a nation that can spam it consistently.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Ok... thanks. So basically no protection at all other than...not using vestals there, using other undead as decoys or killing the enemy mages fast I supose.

Regardingt he holding 5 turns suggestions, I have noticed in the last battle Ive seen that solar rays kept on being produced even after scripted orders run out...

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Regarding undead chaff, I have my mages reanimate longdead or souless but sometimes they barely reanimate 1 or 2 each.

What is the more efficient way to produce chaff undead in significant amounts quickly?

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Cleansing Water is also even better than Solar Rays, especially if you have powerful Water mages.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

As the Ermors, try producing Longdead Horsemen with your Holy 3 priests.

They aren't quite chaff in that they are a powerful force on their own but if you set a new priest at reanimating every turn you will soon be capable of filling armies that fill the whole battle-field.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Just reanimate longead with H2 and longdead horses with H3 and your numbers will grow very fast. I think that they only reanimate 1 or 2 is that you are trying to get soulless in a province without corpses.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Yep. That's the formula for MA Ermor. Just reanimate all the longdead horsemen you can. Of course, use the vestals early... they are unbeatable early on. Later on you need lots of longdead horsemen.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

I like your new icon Hadrian. What is it?

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

SPQR, that is the Roman Golden Eagle.....

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

Ashdod and Gath has it too, but slightly different paths and more damaging :hurt:
The Flambeau sword can also be used to cast the spell.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

That's true... it depends a lot on what other paths the enemy mages have and how much research they have done. Even if they cast solar rays after 5 turns though, that's 5 turns worth of spell casting fatigue they have wasted if you were not in range.

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

the SPQR i liked most when i googled it:)

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

I think the largest threat from astral casters towards the Undead is when they combine holy levels with communions. A Banishment cast at holy level 5~ is really nasty, due to how its damage, area and penetration all grow with levels.
So consider yourself lucky that you haven't run into that, yet :)

Re: Trust me on the sunscreen
 

And the only priest in a communion double casting bug!