Help with Commanders casting in battles please!
 

I'm new to D3 and have started my first game past the tutorial. I've read the manual and believe I have a beginers grasp on this game....

However... I am getting _very_ frustrated with D3 and am hoping some veterns out there can help me out!

I'm playing Vanheim Early Age.

I've tried battle after battle to tweak the orders given to my commanders that can cast spells but the end result is the same. I feel like the ignore the spells I've told them to cast, then they just sit in the back and do about jack nothing. Especially when I tell them to cast spells that require them to be in close range.

1) How can you get your commanders to actually get in there and cast the spells you want?

I have some fairly high damage death magic spells for single targets but you must get up close. I've tried queuing (attack) (attack) then (hand of death) (hand of death) (hand of death) and my Svartalfs still seem to sit on their but and cast self buffing spells which don't really matter since they never attack anything anyway!

Is the AI just that bad or am I missing something? Why can't I just tell my commanders to cast (hand of death) and they should know they need to get in range first to cast it???

Thanks in advance for your help!

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

My thought is that the range-0 spells are fairly useless, and you should use your Svartalfs for something else. IIRC, when a mage is in melee combat, they will only have a 50% chance of casting a spell anyway. Killing a single unit every other turn is not a very good deal when you consider the terrible danger your valuable mage is in.

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

Hand of Death can be useful for assassination, or against assassins, but that's about it.

Do your Svartalfs ignore the "attack" commands? If so, that's strange. If not, my guess is that they are not close enough to any enemy to use Hand of Death when the script tells them to do it.

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

I haven't had any success trying to cast 0 range or heck, 5 range spells, so this won't really help with your spell scripting problem, but here's something to help you feel less frustrated...

Since you are playing EA Vanheim, try this:

1. Research Evocation 4
2. Recruit Vandrotts every turn
3. Script them to: Thunder Strike, Thunder Strike, Thunder Strike, spells (save it using ctrl+#) Only 3 becauses that's all you will be able to cast due to fatigue, without other reinvigoration items/spell/strategies.
4. Send them into battle with some chaff units, preferably with glamour for stealth (basic huskarls will do fine, but mounted hirdsman is better because of movement) set to: hold and attack
5. Tag a few Fay Boar in the back of the army set to: guard commander
6. Send them around the world conquering everything in their path.

You'll probably dominate the entire map with the above set up... (half a dozen Drotts, is utterly devastating to everything but specific human strategies designed to counter it.)

For more fun, try researching some construction to forge Bags of Wind for your Drotts... the bonus to air and the Air Elemental that comes with it synergizes very well with Thunder Strike (Air Elemental are immune to shock, and will fly forward to hold the enemy army down for you to blast them to smitherines). You can also try using a Staff of Storms and Summon Storm Power for more devastation. All without needing a single gem in battle.

Hopefully that will ease your spell casting frustrations, at least until you trying playing something not so dominating...

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

I'll try that.

So what you are saying is researching the early tier spells is not worth it if all you are going to get out of it is casting close range spells?

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

I'd agree with that. The close range combat spells will occasionally save a mage who's in trouble with an assassin or a flanker, but don't rely on them and don't base strategies on them.

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

Yeah, thats fair. But the real question is: why are you only getting close range battle spells out of early research? There are plenty of low level spells that are quite useful. Fire Flies, Lightning Bolt, etc.

Sounds like you are trying to use Death mages for something they weren't intended for. Death is a very strong summoning path. Its battlefield attack spells are pretty wimpy, compared ot the battlefield kings of Fire and Air. With death, you should be doing one of two things:

1) Sitting in a lab summoning something
2) Spammnig skeletons via Raise Skeletons in battle

There is of course a great deal of subtlety in using any path of magic. I list the above generalization only because you are new to the game.

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

Raising skeletons can be useful? I have yet to have them do jack squat in any battle I've fought... What is the key to using them effectively?

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

You spam them out in dozens, hundreds...overwhealm the enemy. Its a powerful strategy, early-mid game.

Re: Help with Commanders casting in battles please
 

doh! Im an idiot heh I thought I was playing Vanheim when in fact I'm playing early age Hellheim! I guess that strategy won't work with them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gifSorry about the mistake