Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

Help in understanding what happened in a battle

So I've got a problem that I don't understand and I was hoping someone could explain to me what is happening.

The game background is as follows:
* Early Age
* CBM 1.84
* Dom patched to the latest version
* Llama's patch to CBM 1,84 (to cater for the latest version) has been applied.

I am playing EA Ermor. This is a battle with Kailasa.

I've got a mage with F3. He's kitted out with:
* 5 fire gems
* one astral pearl
* ring of fire resistance.

He's also got some fire immune followers, and some chaff.

My battle plan is to cast the following spells:
1) Power of the spheres (100 fatigue - burns the astral pearl)
2) Phoenix Power (20 fatigue)
3) Fire storm (500 fatigue - burns the five fire gems)

Part 1) works as planned. After casting power of the spheres my mage goes to F4, and uses the astral pearl. He still has the fire gems.

But with Part 2), when he casts Phoenix Power, he burns 4 (!) of the fire gems. He does indeed go to F5, however.

At this point of course, he no longer has enough gems to cast Fire Storm and it all goes to heck in a handbasket.

I'm really not quite sure what is happening here, and I'd love to get some help in working it out.

I am happy to provide my turn file if that is of use (as long as you aren't directly fighting me in the Statue of the Art).

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

Mmm if I were to guess your mage is getting too much fat from PotS, try giving more fire gems and scripting PP and then FS (he's gonna get huge fat either way) :)

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

Yeah, I think you are right Slobby.

My revised plan (after talking it over with some other guys) is as follows:
* Do phoenix power first (when he has no fat, in the hope it won't inspire him to burn gems)
* Do power of the spheres second, and make sure he has a spare astral gem to burn
* Then lay down the fire storm

Of course, my dude is actually dead due to the failure of my last attempt, but in my next game this is what I will do :D

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

why would phoenix power take four gems? that doesn't make sense to me.

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

I thought you couldn't raise you magic level by 2 in a battle. or is it that you can't use gems to raise it a 2nd level?

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

I understand it as only 1 gem usable to raise spell level, the rest will each halve the fatigue used, total gems used up to caster's path level.

I think if you're above 50+(?) fatigue the AI will burn as many gems as it can casting spells. I always calculate gem use as using to his max path level in gems when casting spells at 50+ fatigue (or if a spell will put him over 100+) and give him gems accordingly, or basically give him the max possible gems he can spend.

It's hugely inefficient as we've all come to expect from battle casting AI, but at least you can work around it. In your case it would be easier, cast phoenix before sphere, you might pass out for a round or two before getting to fire storm if you only have 1S.

Re: Help understanding what is going on in a battle
 

It would be nice to start with an F4 mage anyhow, and boost to F6, expecting to use six gems for Fire Storm. That would help, if you've got the items and free slots for it. Fire Storm is hard to cast! Since the mage has astral skill, you might also make him a communion master, both to distribute fatigue and to boost his effective skill.

An extra pearl or two for Power of the Spheres is a very good idea. Or, you could skip that casting altogether by putting a crystal shield on the mage. But that might encumber him too much to do whatever he's supposed to do next.