Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

I believe each Mage/Commander has a number, and during battle rounds they act in increasing number order (hope that bit is right...)

When I plan in the army screen, are the leaders shown in that order, i.e. the order they will act each round?
If I do the 'Y' key for combined attacks, are they also shown there in action order?
Does every new leader born get an incrementing number, or is there any wrap-around?

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

every unit has an id nro, even non-commander troops. Otherwise it would not be possible to keep track on their unique stats, like afflictions.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

I'm trying to understand if the order leaders are shown on map and in army screen is the same as their number/order they will act in battle.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Yes. They are shown in order, even for combined attacks.

The numbers for new units are not strictly incremented. I believe dead units numbers are reused, except for those who can be brought back, like pretenders and Hall of Famers.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

This is correct.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

I thought that throughout a battle, the ids are traversed either increasing or decreasing (but the order is kept throughout a specific battle).

At least I think there is a recommendation to have all Communion Masters shown close together in the middle and Communion Slaves in front and after the masters, so that at least half the slaves can still act for themselves (Communion Slaves only act if no Communion Master has acted yet in that Battle round).

If the order would always be increasing, then one would prefer Communion Masters always to be at the end or start (depending on whether it is desired to have the Communion Slaves acting on their own).

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

In battle the order is always top to bottom.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Confirm that the order commanders act in battle is allways from top to bottom. (So for communions you can allways be completely certain who will still get to act and who doesn't.)

It is during ritual spellcasting that casting order can start either at the top or bottom, which might be where Chazar's confusion comes from? This is occasionally important if you want to nail (a) teleporting unit(s) with mind hunts or other remote attack spells.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

I believe there was a discussion on this, and this is indeed correct. It is the "ritual spells" which can have forward or backward order.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Great concise answer!

So, bear with me... I would like my Battlefield "Storm" spell to come as early as possible, so that subsequent mages can help themselves to "Storm Power" first round.

In practice, that tends to mean it works best with the "Storm"-casting mage being one of the very earliest guys I built. If I build a powerful mage later on, he's more likely to be stuck number-wise behind other built guys.

Is that about right?

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Yes. Though you can work around that if you can build a Staff of Storms and give it to the first guy in your combat order.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Oooooooooo! What exactly does a Staff of Storms do, please?

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Autocasts storm at the start of battle. (So it doesn't actually matter who you give it to from a casting order perspecive.)

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Yes, thank you!

I only discovered this as a result of reading here. I have barely any A4 mages, I only just noticed the innocuous icon for the Staff of Storms they can forge! Icon should have some sparks on it!

That is great, I won't have to cast Storm!

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

The best part is that Storm will be active even on offense before your opponents turn.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

In that case I also recommend looking at the Ankh and sword of Aurgelmer. They are constr8 but give mass luck & LaD on the first turn even when you attack, which helps tremendously especially during castle storms.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

The auto-cast thing is the advantage for Crystal and Slave Matrix, and for the Crystal Shield, too. As with anything, it has to be balanced against the mage-turns and gem cost, but it's handy to have a communion kitted out in a way that doesn't require anyone to spend a round casting Communion Slave or Master, or Power of the Spheres. The banner that autocasts Light of the Northern Star can be similarly useful. Assuming a bunch of astral-earth mages, you can then go right into casting Gifts from Heaven and Master Enslave and whatnot.

I haven't noticed that this is the case. Commander positioning seems to be tied more strongly to something other than time-since-built. Has anyone tested this out with, say, 20 to 30 commander builds? I guess it's complicated by the AI killing off commanders in the mean time, but that could be controlled for by setting up a multiplayer game with two players and playing both positions.

Non-commander units seem to end up pretty reliably in the order in which they were built, but commanders seem to go all over the place.

Re: Mage/Commander Numbering Questions
 

Unique identifiers, unit numbers (unr) are recycled, so your commander can get almost anything from among the free ones. When you recruit units in bulk, they get assigned from free blocks and each recruitment gives as consecutive numbers as possible to the units, meaning they will also appear in that order in the squad you assign them to.

If you want to do specific types of mixed unit formations, recruit the in the order you want them (e.g. alternating shield maiden/steel maiden to get a little bit more durability without sacrificing to much offensive power from the squad as EA Ulm)