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- Dominions 3: The Awakening (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=138)

- - Mendeha (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45726)

Does this SC autocast Darkness at the start of the battle or do you need to script it.

What I am asking is do I need to waste a casting spot getting darkness up and running.

While we are talking about Darkness, I have read all I can about it but I am nor sure if it immobilizes the enemy (that will be affected by the spell so they can't fight) or just redusces hit points and causes fatigue (kinda like groping around at dusk)?

Mendeha autocasts.

Neither. It cuts the attack and defense by 50%*blindvision%

Demons, undead, blind units unaffected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrispedersen (Post 747556)

Mendeha autocasts.

Neither. It cuts the attack and defense by 50%*(1-(blindvision%/100))

Demons, undead, blind units unaffected.

Corrected.

Darkness also cuts accuracy ofc. I think it's a 90% drop, also affected by darkvision.

75% precision penalty according to the manual. Not tested.

I can't say I remember, but it is crippling to ranged units. Enemy SCs might be a bit of a worry, but no ranged troop is good enough, even boosted with Wind Guide.

Incidentally, the Mendeha works really well alongside the Dvati (or whatever the Air Demon is called).

Just FYI, but it is Mandeha. Not Mendeha. Somehow, people constantly spell this name wrong.

No wonder I wasn't able to find the unit on the wiki, it was spelled wrong

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inindo (Post 747597)

No wonder I wasn't able to find the unit on the wiki, it was spelled wrong

It is consistently spelled wrong in the guides. Here it is: http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Mandeha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knai (Post 747594)

Many people hold that a Mandeha is crippling to precision.
That drastically simplifies the situation. In my opinion the effect on melee is FAR greater than the effect on archery, for a number of reasons.

Yes, precision is reduced 75%*blindfight. However, its still subject to the general rule that what goes up must come down. Huge masses of archers will still put up huge numbers of arrows And the variance is only a function of the range.

So, you absolutely have no chance of hitting soldier A. You will however hit soldier b, c & d.

Also, the chance to hit, increases, and the variance decreases as the enemy approaches the archers. So it is perfectly possible to have whithering deadly archer fire under the effects of darkness.

For example, have screens of thug caliber, timed to advance just in front of the archers. (literally 1-2 squares). You will find archers *just* as deadly.

Now, I believe the effect on combat is much more pronounced.
First, because there are large numbers of darkness immune melee casters: skelly spam, bane lords, spine devils, horrors, Tarts, agarthan units, many underwater units to name a few.

These units get a huge boost under darkness. However, Darkness has an indirect effect as well.

By decreasing attack and defense, it slows combat down, which allows fatigue and spell casting to have a larger effect. Further more, it also generally shifts the balance further against armies and in favor of darkness resistant thugs/scs.

Now, finally, darkness does make a huge difference of course to spellcasting. Some of the same comments applied to archers apply to spell casters - however, in archery, you are can accept average results - and you have rounds for the enemy to get closer.

Spell casting has fewer events, and is therefor more subject to variance - and due to rapid fatigue, the spell casters may well fatigue out (and/or not have sufficient cover) before opposing forces get within effective range.

So, darkness is a great spell - and it has its uses in archery, melee, and spell casting. But for a serious archery counter I'd look more at mist, storm etc.

The reason it is spelled wrong in the guides is because it was spelled wrong in the game due to a typo. Danava was also in the game as "Davana". This was fixed in one of the later patches.

I could almost swear that the manual only states that undead and darkvision units are immune to or mitigate darkness penalty (DV 50%), must be one of those errata things (time to check errata thread), wouldn't make sense otherwise to have mandeha's darkness screwing with himself and all the demons he's suppose to lead.

I'm pretty sure that Demons are inherently immune to darkness.

They are. Also: Mandeha darkness is unusual in that it isn't dispelled by Solar Brilliance, and in fact appears to prevent Solar Brilliance being cast.

Wow, so, what's a good counter vs Mandela demon army? Solar brilliance is out...

Whimpering and hiding in corners is often recommended :P

Banishment still works well enough in darkness, I think. Or, on the flip side, undead swarms. Or get some fire protection and blast the entire battlefield with fire; use high precision fire spells, ...

I like the whimpering solution best!

It's by far the easiest. Prec-100 spells work just fine, though. And enough fire spam will hurt lanka demons well enough.

Hordes of skelly archers is probably a good solution.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finalgenesis (Post 748364)

Wow, so, what's a good counter vs Mandela demon army?

You could say that Mandela is turning the world around him black, but then you're probably going to get strange looks. Especially when you're asking for possible counters to that afterwards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregstrom (Post 748347)

They are. Also: Mandeha darkness is unusual in that it isn't dispelled by Solar Brilliance, and in fact appears to prevent Solar Brilliance being cast.

Are you sure about this, I have seen it dispelled although that might have been due to "forbidden light" or what the +2f2s artifact is called.

I *was* sure about it... Forbidden Light would be okay to overwrite it - I think the Solar Brilliance thing is to fit in with the flavour text. Come to think of it, it'd be sensible if the same effect applied in cave fortresses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lch (Post 748388)

You could say that Mandela is turning the world around him black, but then you're probably going to get strange looks. Especially when you're asking for possible counters to that afterwards.

The easiest counter for a Mandela daemon army is to throw Mandela in jail, which has a similar effect as banishing someone to Kokytos or Inferno. Only problem is that later on, when he gets out of his imprisonment, he will have be in HoF and is likely to become a president and then your nation's bound to be changed in ways you won't like!

In other words, the only way to defeat a Mandela is to win before he gets out of jail!

"By decreasing attack and defense, it slows combat down,"

-that's not very clear. Decreasing attack slows fight down, but decreasing defense definitely should speed up.

Well it was a fairly long post.

I should really say it increases the importances the importance of the DRN, decreases the importance of thugs, increases the importance of chaff, increases the importance of spellcasting, GREATLY increases the importance of undead, demons, etc.

Darkness decreases the difference between elite and normal troops.

14 -> 7
10 -> 5

Difference falls from 4 to 2, making it much more manageable. Thus superior numbers trumps quality in darkness.

True, but protection and strength don't change.
And most thugs rely on protection, magical defenses and area effect attacks.

So elite troops get weaker, but heavies stay strong and many thugs aren't really affected.

Fire brand, demon whip, unquenched sword, flambeau, sword of justice, infernal sword and flame helmet should all give darkvision 25 or 50 imho

Why? Demons can see in the dark. Banefire only shows to darkvision =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kheldron (Post 750205)

Fire brand, demon whip, unquenched sword, flambeau, sword of justice, infernal sword and flame helmet should all give darkvision 25 or 50 imho

Only for melee purposes and for your opponents as well, then.