[delacroix]

Originally posted by mivayan:
Anything trying to attack the Medusa in close combat gets petrified (instant death), unless it succeeds a magic resistance check.

ahh I did not notice that with my in-combat watching of the Medusa pretender . (Well I probably figured a unit died due to the claws or snake hair). Though like you said it is a somewhat fragile melee fighter at times which I noticed moreso hehe. Thanks for the heads up on that one .

Medusa is a gorgon. One of three sisters, IIRC the other two sisters did not petrify onlookers. I only remember the names of one of the other sisters at the moment, Euryale.

For some background info if anyone was interested and it piqued their curiosity, a summary about the Gorgons from Hesiod's Shield of Herakles :

"Their names were Stheno, Euryale and the third was Medousa, the only mortal one: thus it was her head that Perseus was sent to bring back. The Gorgones' heads were entwined with the horny scales of serpents, and they had big tusks like hogs, bronze hands, and wings of gold on which they flew. All who looked at them were turned to stone".

Actually there is another Version of the story that says the Gorgons had the ability to turn to stone anything that the gorgon looked at, versus 'anyone that looked upon the gorgon was turned to stone'. The latter is Hesiod's interpretation. So there are some interesting variations to the story. But, unless there is yet another Version (which would be less popular), I would assume all gorgons had the ability to stone, and not just Medusa .

*****


But the reasoning for my medusa unit was to add a melee unit that influenced the enemy shield vs. non-shield army composition (without ranged fire nor armor being a factor). A melee unit that could easily eliminate non-shielded units, yet at the same time be very ineffectual vs. shielded units. Which I find there to be a lack of melee units that are so extreme in effectivess in regards to shields. The actual name of the unit or exact abilities don't particularly have a huge degree of significance for me, as long as it's semi-logical. Hence why I picked medusa as the name, since everyone recognizes at least the turn to stone part of it, and may identify shields as a way to bypass the petrification.

Thats why I like trample units; they creates a unique size vs. size matchup. Or the poison inflicting, poison resistant army. Also like the concept of the machaka spider due to their web entangle ability. Same with HotNife's catapult unit he posted earlier in the thread, unique from most other units present in the game. Units with unique abilities are more alongside my preferences, but maybe not everyone elses preferences.

I like the fact that most nations/themes have a unique flavour to them and play out differently, just wish some units of a particular theme had some different strengths and weaknesses while keeping with the idea of the theme as well. Many are well done, but there are a couple themes like normal themed Ulm which is a notorious example of cookie-cutter units (barring commanders). I wouldn't mind for Ulm to have all generic infantry if 1 ulm infantry was decent against large enemy monsters (immune to trample), 1 infantry good against enemy archers (maybe an inherent air shield, or less armor + faster speed to reach enemy archers faster = higher risk of death when meeting enemy HI instead), 1 infantry good against cavalry, etc. And Ulm would still be a primary infantry theme with magical weaknesses, but now rather than building 1 or 2 types of infantry exclusively maybe 4-6 become feasible depending on the enemy army composition.