[pole_shift]

Pole_sift: forget about "Initiate of the Deep" (Acolytes?). Consorts or land-based priests usually work equally well versus the undeads and they're expendible. Is you opponent using Soul-Gate or Ashen-Empire?

Yeah "Acolytes" = "Initiates of the Deep"

My opponent is using Soul Gate.

Consorts instead? Not a bad idea but I have to tell you - Initiates with Herald Lances are VERY effective. 2 Solar Rays per combat round and the fatigue hit is not too bad.

But even if I went Consorts and they were as effective that wouldn't solve my problem of getting hit by 2 VotD per turn and having only one survivor so far (7 attempts, 1 MR save, 6 lost nightmare battles).

I play one-on-one with my brother. The winner of the previous game has to choose a race first then the loser chooses.

I chose Atlantis this game. He chose Ermor-Soul Gate to counter. I decided on a heavy Astral Pretender to counter his choice (thinking of Teleporting around and hitting big ethereal armies with Solar Brilliance but I was inexperienced with the spell and it wasn't as effective as I had planned (still an intersting spell though)). When that didn't work out I switched up and starting pumping out Initiates with Herald Lances (also some Fathers of the Sea from a special site which are also good with Water*2, Holy*2 = Quickness+Banishment). Very effective strategy until my opponent countered with the above mentioned (I mean below! ) VotD.

Ok. So maybe the spell isn't overpowered. But it does seem a bit cheap to cast (4*Thaum, 3*Astral/1*Death, 3 Death Gems) for its extreme effectiveness vs. opponents who have killed a lot of "fodder". Its true that I'm annoyed and my perspective may be a bit skewed but does anybody think I have a leg to stand on here? Maybe raise the cost to 5 gems? Slightly weaker nightmare undead? Or maybe the penetration is too high. All my commanders had MR of at least 14. Seems to get through more frequently then it should but it could have been bad luck.

One more thing: Any breaking ideas on a possible counter-strat?

[ February 25, 2004, 15:34: Message edited by: pole_shift ]