Quote:
Originally Posted by BewareTheBarnacleGoose
This is an interesting question. The wiki mentions that poison damage does not trigger BV, so you could throw a horde of milita (atlantis has poison spears), cast Antimagic to reduce the chance of BV, and hope that a couple make their saves, and cause some extra damage from poison. The wiki also says that Paralyze does not trigger it, so you could try spamming it, although the Vastness' MR is very high. If it has been GOR'd, then Magic Duel will work too. Unfortunately, any of these strategies force you to loose much more resources than your enemy, so it's a sort of a phyrric victory for you...
Of course, someone more clever than I probably has a better way...
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Early vastnesses are inconvenient at best. That said, we have two big situations, each of which has a few options. These assume limited magic, and none are that great.
1) GoR vastness. This is the difficult one. Magic duel is possible, but you will probably lose troops in the process. If it's on its own though, there are other options. Spamming horror mark could work, as the Vastness isn't anywhere near the level of the better generic horrors, let alone things like the Eater of Gods. Poison damage can also work, particularly if you have a cloud of poison of some kind. Still, odds are this will be expensive.
2) Troop vastness. This is actually much easier. Murder the commanders in a province it is in, hit the province, watch it run away. Some preparation is required, but if you can make sure it doesn't have friendly territory, this is probably the easiest option.
Now, these assume that you are pretty limited magically. You might have a few more options, but these are highly dependent on nation and pretender.
1) Enslave Mind/Charm. This and some MR boosters will be pretty expensive, but its not a Pyrrhic victory when you come out of it with a Vastness and only lose a few troops.
2) SC pretender. The vastness's primary line of defense is BV. An SC pretender should have a pretty solid MR, should have more hit points than the vastness, and could easily have regeneration if you have decent magic.
3) Vengeance of the Dead. Normally, I prefer Mind Hunt, but Mind Hunt and BV on enemies do not mix well. However, penetration items are easy for remote casters, and Vengeance of the Dead is great at simply overwhelming enemies with numbers, particularly as retreats aren't a worry. The Vastness lacks staying power.
4) Sleep, Stellar Cascades. As far as I know, damage that goes through fatigue isn't affected by BV. Knock the vastness out and hit it with enough fatigue, and even it will collapse. Moreover, it makes it easier to kill with troops, though it will still be expensive (unless you are using Raise Dead or similar).