Indie Battle Question
 

My troops are about to win an independent battle. The Last routed enemy troop leaves the field and there's a sound effect, like a mindbLast, and one of my troops goes poof. There's no mention of a spell being cast and there are no enemies to be seen on the field, battle ends. This has happened twice. Once to a unit who was chasing the Last enemy off the field and now to a casting Commander far to the rear of the enemy rout. She was a standard Machaka Witch Doctor who had just earned her first medal, full health with no diseases or afflictions. Can anyone clue me in to the cause of this? I have screenshots of the battle's end if it would help. Thanks in advance.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The only things I can think of are poison or decay. At the end of a battle (or when a unit retreats) those effects run to completion (which, in the case of decay, is invariably fatal to non-lifeless non-undead - that reminds me, do bane blades work on demons now?). But there may be other similar effects that get "fast forwarded" at the end of a battle.

I might be able to tell you more if I had the battle replay - do you still have the .trn file that has the replay in it?

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

Thanks for the reply, Chris. I didn't save the turn file unfortunately. There was no indication of her being spelled on her character stats just prior to her going poof within the battle animation. The only thing I can think of is that she was lost due to supply loss in the conquered province, if that is normal. Does a unit go from full health, no prior starvation or disease, to eradication at the end of a battle animation due to low supplies in the newly annexed province? If so, I didn't realize the attrition factor was that immediate. I thought they went through a starved turn before being lost.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

Leaders consume supplies, but never starve.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

I think that something like this can also happen through fatigue overload due to the heat/chill auras. It would make less sense for that chasing unit than it would for the caster, though. Also, aren't there spells that also overload fatigue over time, but don't show any animation at the same time?

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

I had a similiar experience too...

One of my favored generals got caught up in a minor skirmish..she was my prophet and gift of health and a strong dominion were running..so she had close to 80 hp and rather buffed up stats all around..

I watched the battle closely...it was mostly a bunch of miltia and a few border patrol troops against 60 or so undead. Being ulm my side crushed them rather quickly but right as it said they lost, my commander dropped dead..and I swear NOTHING touched her the entire battle as I was keeping tabs....watched the replay again and I still didn't see anything hit her.....all she casted was a few banishes to boot. Course I got pissed after this and restarted ;p

It also happened after ermors commanders took off, and she was full health....so no clue what happened.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

Yes, Dekent, sounds exactly like what occurred with my troops. My enemy was a low level threat, a Druid and a few of his woodsmen and blowpipes. Nothing that I believe could have been responsible for the unit's mysterious disappearance. She did cast heat shield as her Last living act, so HJ may have the explanation. I've posted the shots of her final moments maybe they will help. battle pix

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

On the battle pix it looks like your Godess has cast breath of winter or maybe is wearing a rime hauberk. Those thing will kill nearby units who aren't cold resistant.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

This was pretty early on in the game, turn 14 or so. The highest magic level researched was 2, so I think the 'cold' graphic representations were from the Goddess's Last act, casting a cold bolt. Could that casting have interacted with the Witch Doctor's fire shield? Thanks everyone for trying to help with this. I wasn't at all happy with her disappearing act just after her medal award.

Re: Indie Battle Question
 

I had a similar thing happen, and I didn't understand it at all until I read Chris Byler's post. I was using a Dragon pretender, won a battle handily, and at the very end, my Dragon suddenly went *poof*. He had something like 152 hit points left before he dissapeared, and I was at a total loss to understand it. But IIRC, the battle was against Onyx Amazons, who probably used Decay. And if Chris is right that the effects of Decay inevitably lead to death eventually and that the effects run to completion at the end of battle, then Decay, at Death 1, 20 fatigue, no gem cost, Thaumaturgy *one* is one mighty potent spell.

[ November 19, 2003, 19:18: Message edited by: Truper ]