old age question
 

I'm playing my first game of Dominions and have searched the forum for any information about "old age" but I haven't found anything on the topic... but I'm wondering if someone can explain what exact effects the old age has and if it's possible to limit it in scope? :

"Old age plagues our troops. XX units have suffered badly. x have died."


* more details follow

In my current game I ran into this msg at about turn 25-30ish or so and every single turn since it seems I have 20-29 troops getting "old age suffered badly" each turn. My total military size is about 330 troops, so effectively close to 10% of my army suffers from old age each turn http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif . I dunno who recruited these old men into my army but it sure is getting annoying lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif . Is it normal to have old age *every* turn once it starts? Also, does "old age" add a random affliction on each unit it affects?

From my experience, I seem to have troops missing an arm or an eye or feebleminded or whatnot and they haven't even fought a battle. And my troops are stationed in various provinces (so it does not seem to be some sort of localized thing nor am I at a war with anyone else for a dozen turns now so I wouldn't believe any enemy is causing this). Some of the special cases are a newly created High Inquisitor or Goetic Master (I can't recall which) had an affliction on his creation turn... 4 Royal Guards that are set to guard my pretender god who have not engaged in a battle that were created 5 turns ago, well 2 have 2 afflictions and the other 2 have 1 affliction a piece. I'm wondering what the heck is going on here. One of my devils, a couple soulless have some afflictions as well which are generally new units, stationed in various provinces, and having fought no battles. And never figured a devil could suffer from old age either.....
Or am I completely misinterpreting something here? It just seems ever since the old age message came up, have I noticed widespread affictions on my troops. Currently about 1/2 of my units have some sort of affliction (some from battle of course), but is it normal to have such a high frequency of afflictions? And with 20-29 old age cases a turn, over the course of more than a dozen turns and it does make sense that approx half (150ish) of my troops would have an affliction by now if old age was randomly distributed.... Is the old age to blame for this or something else?

Re: old age question
 

Go to the "Global Enchantment" screen that is associated with the lab. ( I believe it is the 2nd from the Right ). It should list the spell "Burden of Time".

Then look up the spell "Burden of Time" in the spell index. You should find all your answers there. In order to stop the rapid aging and death of your troops you will need to dispel the Global Enchantment, or defeat the pretender who has cast the enchantment.

Re: old age question
 

It's a GE(global enchantment) "Burden of Time".
Check your manual P117.

Re: old age question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">wooo...post at the same time ^^
chitchating..

Re: old age question
 

thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I apparently was braindead cause I did not notice Burden Of Time being cast turns ago, but there it was in the enchantments list when I checked. I'm ashamed lol.

But I guess I got a cause to go to war now at least... Just hope its not me that gets killed off http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Re: old age question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Unless this changed in patch 2.06, defeating the pretender is not enough to stop a global enchantment. You must actually kill the mage that cast it, or dispel it. This can be tough to when the mage was a sauromancer that did not die, but was removed from play when the god's dominion was brought to 0.

Re: old age question
 

who cast that?
in SP,it's rarely cast by ERMOR,but usually created by Jotun/T'ien Ch'i just because they have ENOUGH amethyst.

If the caster belongs to ERMOR, assemble 1x priests to kick it out. if the caster belongs to jotun/t'ien ch'i, let it be, Burden of Time strucks their living army too.

Re: old age question
 

Yes, as Graeme stated, you have to kill the caster of the spell or dispel it. Though in SP, I personally have found that killing the pretender/prophet is usually the one who casts the spell. Though on the off chance you arn't able to kill them and kill a pretender via Preaching, you will be up the Gangi's without a paddle if you can't dispel.

Re: old age question
 

If you don't have the actual Dispel spell, you can try to "force it out" by casting other global enchantments. If 5 are in play and a 6th is cast, the new one will have to contest with an old one to see which takes effect.

That approach is hardly efficient, but it is still a possible emergency effort.

Re: old age question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What do you mean by that? 'Assemble 1x priests to kick it out'

olaf