One of those moments
 

So, there I was, attacking an indie province containing 300 undead, lead by a demilich with some cool items and loads of gems, and his friend the bane. Everything is going great, Wither bones at its best, to which he replies with Cloud of death and Undead horde. I'm getting an upper hand but I'm not sure if I'll manage to kill him in the end to get his Robe of invulnerability. And then, when his hordes were almost exterminated, one of my Kings of the Deep casts Breath of winter for no reason. Next to him was a Coral Queen who had cast Holy Avenger earlier. On the subsequent turn, BoW damages her, and at the same time demilich routs. And what do you know, Holy avenger gets activated, and hits and kills him just as he was about to exit the field, while none of my troops would have been able to catch him otherwise. He got smitten and I got his robe, and the poor thing wasn't even responsible for the wrath that was his doom. One of those moments indeed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: One of those moments
 

so you are saying holy avenger was activated by FRIENDLY FIRE

but Holy Avenger did not hit FRIENDLY UNITS, it instead hit the ENEMY COMMANDER?

Re: One of those moments
 

I have these moments too, like when I read the description for Atlantian Scouts and see my archers rushing into the melee with orders on fire.

I say, that's friggin' bugged

Re: One of those moments
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I love this game.

Re: One of those moments
 

Hilarious, but that should probably be fixed...

(Hmmmmmmm. Does Holy Avenger also affect Communicants?)

Re: One of those moments
 

Whoa! Thats actually pretty bad. Holy avenger could become like a "poor man's smite" if you can set it off with friendly fire and have it kill enemy units. Whats to stop you from repeating this scenario you've listed indefinitely? And furthermore outfitting your queen (or whatever unit) with a cold resisting item so they only take a minor wound?

Wait is Holy avenger activated by damage? or death of the unit in question? If its death then this is a nonissue.

Re: One of those moments
 

That's an interesting idea. Slap a regeneration item on a suitable patsy that then casts holy avenger and stands inside of a BoW effect. Watch as he bLasts his enemies with holy revenge. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: One of those moments
 

I thought it was the death of the unit, but it would seem that you get one "smite" for each instance the priest is damaged. So, if he/she is hit twice, you get two bolts even if the priest is still alive. At least that's what I've concluded from casually watching battles, i.e. without doing extensive in-depth testing.

I already thought of giving Coral queens cold resistance (not immunity) items and regeneration rings, and trying it out with BoW. A bit costly and risky, but could be fun. Sort of like holy berserk in a way - the holy protector gets angry at the sight of priest's blood, regardless of how it was drawn. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: One of those moments
 

I have tested this Holy avenger / BoF combo with some odd results.

I played as Pythium, with the idea of recruting lots of theug comminicants and use them with 2 masters with appropriate random paths.

- one with a random path in nature and the battle orders: cast "communion master", "personal regeneration", "holy avenger", hold, hold, stay behind troops
(he is placed at the far back in a pack with all the communicants, who is set to hold, hold, hold, etc)

- one with a random path in water (so he would have WW) and the battle orders: hold, hold, "breath of winter", hold, hold
(placed in the same pack as the others - the first two holds are there to delay the BoF)

In front of this holy mob i placed a screen of fodder.

The reults: Precisely one(!) unaccounted smite pr. round not more, not less, even though the communicants clearly took damage (not from fattigue, so it must be from the BoF).

I would consider it kinda buggy if this scheme had produced the 10-15 smites pr round I was hoping fore, but exactly one smite pr. round is a little strange. It should be none or all.

Re: One of those moments
 

Are you sure they all got Holy avenger as part of the communion? Maybe you were just getting the smite from damaging the master (the one who actually cast it)? I guess I should be testing it myself instead of giving advice, but if you place the master with holy avenger away from the pack and get no smites whatsoever, that would mean that the avenger is not shared through communion.