[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I still can't imagine that you would find 10-15 or so doom horrors to be less useful than a single vampire queen, since that's the relative cost involved here.

Well, I ran a rather straightforward test: I started a game with two nations. On one, I produced 15 Doom Horrors. It took awhile. My lab exploded regularly. On the other, I produced the Uber-VQ.

Then I smashed them together in straight-out, head-to-head. The Vampire Queen won. I think that settles that question.

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That's right, Vampire Queens. You can't beat Flying+Ethereal on an immortal chassis.

Sure you can. Quickness + dust to dust, wither bones, drain life works wonders as well. Push your dominion so you only have to kill them once.

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Navrunner did, in fact, attempt to use Wither Bones. It failed to have any appreciable effect, although it did do an excellent job mowing down fodder. It seemed like my VQ was actually IN the area affected, and went unharmed. I think it could be the combination of Etherealness, which is supposed to reduce the effectiveness of spells like Wither Bones, Mistform, Mirror Image, and Personal Luck. I lay them on pretty thick.

So the basic chassis isn't unstoppable....but can you find a BETTER one? What would you choose instead? I get flying, I get immortality, etherealness, flight, cold immunity and zero encumberance. This is on a standard 7-item slot chassis...with stealth!

Here's the list of stuff I like to have:
Mirror Image/Glamour, Mistform, Ethereal, Lucky, Flying, Quickness, low-to-no encumberance, a damage shield, immortality. Immunities are good, too.

The VQ gives me *4* of these, plus the cold, poison, and disease immunity. Some of these you simply can't get from any spells or items: No spell or item lowers a unit's encumberance, and encumberance is the severe bane of any aspiring SC, in my book: An SC needs to be like an energizer bunny: It keeps going, and going, and going. Note that any encumberance counts once quickened. An encumberance 4 unit will need no less than 8 points of reinvigoration per turn, a combination which will take at least two normal items or an artifact.