A crapload of questions
 

1: Would being in Canada at all affect shipping the full version?

2: Do the Pale Ones have any redeeming qualities? Any at all? At the moment I'm only using them so I can start with a Death Gem supply, and even then there aren't many.

3: Whenever I'm attacked in a province with a fortress, only the provincial defense fights back at first. Would this be solved by setting my military to 'patrol'?

4: What's the deal with Sabbath Slave and Sabbath Master? I don't really understand how they work...

5: Are Succubi any good at seducing officers? I've seen it tried with an Oriad, and the success rate means it's only really good for assassinations. Against really low-rank officers, too.

6: On a similar note, does Hellbind Heart have a good success rate against the more powerful foes in the game? (Obviously not Pretenders, or anything)

7: It seems there's much more to the 'summoning' ability certain Pretenders get than your dominion strength. Is there an element of randomness to when new units appear, or am I just imagining things?

I know this must be a pain to sift through... Sorry about that.

Re: A crapload of questions
 

2) They have a buttload of hp and late era have among the best battlemages in the game.
3) Yes
4) For every two slaves, master gets +1 path. I think the amount of sabbath slaves may be exponential, I'm not sur I don't usually use slaves beyond four.
5) No, think of them as assassins. Try equipping them with bottles of living water and other "free army" items.

Re: A crapload of questions
 

The skullface item is a monster on assasins, if you can afford it try a succubus with:
bottle of living water, soul contract, skullface, some armour/shield if you need/can afford it.
She gets a nice water elemental to start with, gets free imps every turn AND can cast raise skeletons.

I thought sabbath slave/master worked like communion:
+1 for 2 slaves
+2 for 4 slaves
+3 for 8 slaves
+4 for 16 slaves
maybe +5 for 32, dont know how far it goes

As said, pale ones have lots of hp. They also: are amphibious, have great national spells (all era's), have siege bonus, have dark vision (dosnt sound like much but when your fighting in your own forts its amazing) and have great sacreds (all era's) and mages (mainly middle and late but early are nice too).

Re: A crapload of questions
 

1- Don't know really, it may be you have to wait for your supercustoms patrol to read through all the manual http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

2- Well, they make rather good arrow catchers, but shouldn't hit the broadside of a barn with 8 att, and get killed fast with 9 def when against any "good" unit.
But they sure can handle indies ..

3- Yes, "patrol" puts the troop outside castle. But no way to have your mages join an "outside" fight if they make research or anything...whereas they do if they're no castle !

4- It works like Astral Communion !

5- Succubi are better than Oriad, but don't seduce that much. they make really good assassins though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

6- Yes, it's a nice spell, it can give you valuables units. There's a standard MR save, so it's hard to have really powerful units with it.

7- Some pretenders gets summons based on something else than Dominions (ie the Niefel Giant gest Wolves according to cold scale), but maybe there's some randomness too...

Re: A crapload of questions
 

2) In early era they get Troglodytes as commanders. That's a high morale trampler who can wear prootective equipment. Easy hall-of-famers. Troglodytes are awesome. In the late era you get great magicians and summonings to go with a solid troop base. In the middle era you seem to such though. I can't make middle era Agartha work at all. It seems like you're missing the good units of early and late and don't have anything to make up for it with.

6) Hellbind Heart is a magic resistance save. If you can caus a target damage with a mindburn, you can steal them forever to join your army of the wicked.

7) Vampire Queens and Ghost Kings indeed have a chance of generating a unit each turn. Practically speaking, by the end of the ganme a Vampire Queen probably won't have generated as many vampires as a single casting of Blood Rite. So seriously don't count on those.

-Frank

Re: A crapload of questions
 

The hellbind heart question is a tough one, it can work well against any unit with a fairly low magic resistance.

There are various different factors in what summons you get, i think certain pretenders get more than others but generally its tied to dominion strength/scales.

Re: A crapload of questions
 

Vampire queen and ghost king unit summoning is related to local dominion strength. I think 5% chance per dominion.

Re: A crapload of questions
 

But they sure can handle indies
That depends on whether those indies are Knights of the Chalice or not. Bad memories...

Thanks for the responses, all. I never knew Troglodites were so useful, I'll make more when I have the gold. I'll also keep in mind to weaken a tough foe's resistance before I try to Hellbind Heart him.

Two more questions: Is there a way to make succubi better at seducing, (Such as experience or equipment) and is there any particular stat that determines their resistance to it? Magic Resistance again? (Yes, I'm addicted to stealing units)

Re: A crapload of questions
 

Its either magic resistance or morale afaik that determines whether or not seduction works, i dont think there is a way to increase a succubis success rate other than making more http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: A crapload of questions
 

Alright, that's it. Once again, thanks much for all the answers, everyone.