How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

I am R'lyeh and am being raided by Living Statues and Tartarians.
This end game stuff is a little new to me. What is my best counter? My mind blast, enslave mind and soul slay are powerless against them.
I could teleport Starspawn and nether dart. Or do I need to go with control or arcane bolt? Arcane Domination seems drastic for raiders, it is difficult to pull off, especially when he rain of stones my communicants.
Thanks
Aristander

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Living Statues as I recall don't have immunity to the elements, so attack them with troops with high strength or a big weapon, or any spells that deal high damage. All you really need to do is beat their protection (astral has armour negating damage spells).

Tartarians are trickier. You're Rlyeh, so astral is your strong point, water being mostly useless against them.

If it's got astral magic itself, teleport several astral mages in with gems to cast "Magic Duel". Might lose a few of your mages, but worth it. If the tart doesn't have astral and there aren't other astral mages with them, Mind Hunt them with S4 mages and as much penetration as you can supply for each mage casting it. They'll die eventually.

In battle, try Soul Slay with astral, again Pen boosted, with plenty of chaff to soak up the Tarts attention to give time for one to work. Mind blasts will probably paralyse a Tartarian eventually if you can get past its MR. Again, penetration boosts will help your mages.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

GolemzzzzZzz!!!

Also, soul slay is by no way powerless. Just bring enough mages with spell-penetrating items, any MR is bound to fail eventually. Mimd control is, of course, even better. Also, read Baaltz's guide to communions. You can teleport entire communion on his head, if you are feeling especially nasty. With a golem up front to tank, and maybe one or two bottles of living water as well.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Hm, yeah, should have made clear.

Your average Tart probably has items to give it MR over 20, if not nearly 30. Your chance of beating its MR with an unboosted spell or mind blast will be well under 5%. Add penetration boosters (Eye of the void, rune smasher, stellar focus etc.), and if in battle use communion to get additional astral level. You can easily get +5 penetration or better, which will double your chances if not better. After that, it's simply a case of firing so many that eventually one works.

Also try mind control instead of soul slay. Then you'll have your own Tartarian.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Equip a golem or 2 with the following:
Flambeau
Flying Boots
Jade Armor
Astral Cap
Burining Pearl/Ring of the Warrior/Stone Bird

Set to 'Attack large monsters' then teleport onto a tartarian.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Darn, statttis beat me to the punch. I was gonna say Flambeau spam against the tarts with your own thugs/SCs. As for living statues, I think (could be wrong on this) they are magic beings, so I would go with Moon Blades/Elf Bane on your counter thugs/SCs.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Living Statues probsbly don't like AN weapons either, so Dusk Daggers or Gate Cleavers might be worth a look.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Or gloves of the gladiator, CBM.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

If you get s1 mages up to s2 they can cast the spell that increases fatigue (forgot the name it's in evocation).
5 of them spamming the spell and your chaff should probably work.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Underwater you may be able to Encase in Ice instead of Stellar Cascades. Also try Shark Attack if you can fight on the defensive, and force him to retreat, while cutting off the neighbor provinces.

Give your mages some Stone Armor or Boots to survive the Rain of Stones, or on the defensive you can try a Crystal Matrix and:
- Communion Slave,...
- Communion Slave,...
- Communion Slave,...
...
- (Crystal Matrix) Ironskin, Power of the Spheres, etc

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Golem vs. Tart: Holy Scourge would be a better choice. With the Golem's base ST of 25, the extra 9 points of damage (AP) is less important than the Scourge's 2x attacks. Suppose the Tart has Prot 28. Flambeau will do (25 + 13)x3 - 28/2 points of damage on average, for 100 points of damage on average. Holy Scourge will do (25 + 4)x2 - 28 points of damage for 59 points of damage on average, twice, for a total of 118 points of damage. That's 18% more damage for 1/3 the cost (Holy Scourge is 5 gems, Flambeau is 15).

-Max

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Hmm, good point.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Yeah, Flambeaus are good for any particularly prized SCs due to the extra defense, but if you're just trying to lay down the hurt the scourges are much better, and cheaper, and lay on more of a multi-attack defense penalty, especially with multiple thugs.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

I just want to thank everyone for your suggestions. You have given me much to think about.

What if I do not have any fire for the flambeau?

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

As R'lyeh you can forge herald lances, which also do 3x damage vs undead.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Herald Lances are also one-handed so you can have golems dual-wield them.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Yea Baby! Duel-wielding Herald Lances I like the sound of that!

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Won't dual-wielding Herald Lances cause an Attack penalty? Golems have a pretty lousy Attack rating without any penalties....

Add a Ring of the Warrior and a Burning Pearl if you can.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Problem with that of course is unless there's ambi, it's a -7 attack for each lance compared to Holy Scourge's +3 attack. So a -10 attack difference, with 20 Astral Pearls v. 5 Fire Gems. So It's not as effective. Course there is a +2 damage for the lance over the scourge, but it's a minor +8 damage total. So averaging 126 damage (including quickness) compared to 118 damage, assuming all attacks hit. The problem is, Golems start with 8 attack base and -5 attack just doesn't help, I mean 2 attack? So if you can get a F1 mage (by any means, I don't know, wish or summons, do it. Buy them from someone).

Actually, I noticed a small error (or maybe just a typo) with your calculations ((25+4)x2), so I'll go over them all over again. As for other items besides these weapons, I'd put on a quickness item most definitely, and extra strength/attack skill items (and a flying or berserk item if you can fit it in) to make the golem an effective anti-tart. In terms of non-uniques, the only ones that'll really help you are Horned Helm and Spirit Helm (both for damage), as we're only concerned about doing maximum damage in one turn, and MR generally isn't an issue when countering tarts (and fear will do nothing). With boots I would go with either Flying Shoes or Giant Strength (+5 str) (with flying especially good if you are going to disrupt their buffing cycle). With armor I would go with Jade Armor for your quickness, and for items I would go with Bear Claw Talisman, Lychantropos' amulet, Girdle of Might, Burning Pearl, Ring of the Warrior, and Stone Bird (and maybe , with the first three for extra strength and the fourth and fifth if you want extra attack (you probably do, since Golems have horrible attack to begin with). Your Golem then can get a max of +14 strength (boots, Bear Claw, and Lychantrops', not including berserk strength) or +9 attack +5 strength, not including special effects (berserk, lightning bolt, Gore, +4 attacks from Stone Bird and +3 attack, +3 defense from quickness).

Flambeau
+4 attack, +2 defense, 13 (AP) damage, fire on target, 15 Fire Gems (11 Gems with Hammer)
If all hits (with quickness), ((25+13)x3-28/2)x2=200 damage+fire (not sure how much that is though, and it depends on fire resistance)
So your golem can have (quickness already factored in):
15-24 attack, 10 defense, 25-39 strength, lightning, gore, 4 attacks, berserk, flying, FR (not relevant), morale, and 200+ damage (with strength bonuses factored in, 284 damage, not including other bonuses)

Holy Scourge
+3 attack, -2 defense, 4 damage, x2 attacks, 5 Fire Gems (3 with Hammer)
If all hits (with quickness), ((25+4)x3-28)x4=236 damage
So your golem can have (quickness already factored in):
14-23 attack, 6 defense, 25-39 strength, lightning, gore, 4 attacks, berserk, flying, FR (not relevant), morale, and 236+ damage (with strength bonuses factored in, 404 (!) damage, not including other bonuses)

Dual-Wielded Herald Lances
-7 attack (ouch), +2 defense, 6 damage, x2 attacks, 20 Astral Pearls (14 with hammers)
If all hits (with quickness), ((25+6)x3-28)x4=260 damage
So your golem can have (quickness already factored in):
4-13 attack, 10 defense, 25-39 strength, lightning, gore, 4 attacks, berserk, flying, FR (not relevant), morale, standard effect, and 260+ damage (with strength bonuses factored in, 428 (!) damage, not including other bonuses)

So yeah. Get a fire mage if you can, because two Herald Lances don't quite cut it because of the loss of attack. Keep in mind all of these damage calculations are based on ALL of the attacks hitting, so you might want to ensure that happens, and it's based on a 28 Prot Tart (which Max previously used), without other bonuses. :)

EDIT: The same basic item set (minus the weapons) can be applied to Living Statues. As I'm running under the assumption Living Statues are magical (I haven't been corrected if I'm wrong yet), use Moon Blades (x2 attack against Magic Beings) or Elf Banes (MR check for auto-death).

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Well, 2 length-4 weapons= -8 attack + 1 attack for each lance so -7 attack per attack. That means 1 attack for the golem without bonuses (ooooouch).

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Yeah, that's what I thought. You might as well blindfold the poor Golem, give it a stick, and then tell it to whack the giant piñata.... :)

I like the Holy Scourge + Burning Pearl idea. At least the Golems will have a prayer of hitting the Tartarian. If they DO hit, it'll hurt. And the equipment is pretty cheap, so you won't lose much if the Tartarian wins.

Re: How do I Deal with Living Statues and Raiding Tarts?
 

Having 400+ damage done to a tart is enough to put a dent in a person's confidence, eh?