End Game Slaughter Moves
 

So as I play more and see how the carefully crafted plans of the early to mid game can mean nothing against SCs and certain patented strategies (Chalice/Tartarians), I wonder what if anything can be done to counter. Here is what I just experienced in Capuchin:

TC attacks my huge Niefelheim army with just his Pretender, the Celestial General, who has cast Ritual of Returning upon himself and holds Unquenched (creates Heat from Hell).

His first action is to cast Mists of Deception, then I am assuming the Heat from Hell damages his pretender so the Ritual of returning kicks him home. There is a message that says TC is routed. Good riddance I say but then to my shock Niefelheim's entire army runs around fighting the illusionary warriors from the Mist for what seems like forever amidst the Heat from Hell. Oh the horror!

Even though TC's pretender vanishes, the Mist and Heat spells remain in effect. The battle goes so long I cannot even bear to finish watching it as my beloved Niefels drop like flies from fatigue and eventually get the message Niefelheim is routed.

Huge Niefel army is slaughtered.

What could I have done to stop this? Is this a well-known end game move?

It seems he can just do this to all my armies one by one...

Perhaps I am just a victim of not having researched and acquired the right artifacts. If the only way to counter these moves is to imitate them, then the game becomes a little less appealing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

The combo of Mists and a damaging battlefield enchant is pretty much just a flat-out bug exploit, and I wouldn't be keen on playing with someone that was abusing it as such.

That being said the only real counters would be hitting him before he casts, preferably with something nasty like soul slay (or magic duel if he has low astral)...failing that flyers would only need to do one point of damage to send him packing with returning and waste his time, but it's just a stall strategy...air elementals can stormfly as well (might also help in taking out enough of the mist spawn to end the battle)

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

I think using combinations of "mists of deception" + some battle enchantment damageing spell (like wratful skies) and then retreating the caster is considered as cheat in some games.

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

From the shortlist :
"CBT Battlefield Enchantments Battlefield enchantments that affect the whole battlefield for the duration of the battle (e.g. Wrathful Skies, Darkness, Solar Brilliance etc) do not end when the mage who cast them leaves battlefield, even though they should."

I do consider that anything used in a game that is on that shortlist to be an exploit, but some people do not.

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

Even just casting a battle enchantment and retreating the caster is exploiting a bug in the shortlist:

CBT Battlefield Enchantments Battlefield enchantments that affect the whole battlefield for the duration of the battle (e.g. Wrathful Skies, Darkness, Solar Brilliance etc) do not end when the mage who cast them leaves battlefield, even though they should.

Using this in combo with Mists of Deception is abusive, and it's explicitly banned in some games for that reason.

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

Thanks, I would likely have lost the game anyway but up until turn 50ish I was in 2nd place by most counts on the score graphs.

With the slaughter move above and incessant mind hunts, I have basically been decimated in a few turns.

Not great ending to a game begun in November. Funny thing to was this was a Newbie game. Maybe some of the Noobs are doing a lot of research these days....

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

Sorry, but what/where is the shortlist?

thanks.

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

One of the sticky in this section :

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...art=1&vc=1

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

I feel the Mists combo is in a completely different league than just a cast-and-run, especially since the in-game spell descriptions say "Caster dies or battle ends" with no mention of retreat ending the spell...the Mists combo OTOH is clearly flat out abusive and much more unbalancing.

Re: End Game Slaughter Moves
 

Wasn't it supposed to be fixed in a recent patch ?