Hoburgs and Devils

[UberPenguin]

I was playing as Arco (Arcosophrodale or however you spell it, I just call it arco) and I came upon a province in my conquest of the level 9 indies. Citala, 70 units, "made up of about 70 units, mainly hoburg gaurds, hoburg crossbows and devils." When I sent my elite corps there, 75 hoplites with 50+ archers for support, my god, and about 6 mystics, priestesses and astrologers... it turns out that there were three hoburgs, and 67 devils apparently. I'd really like to know if this is common, because it was a real bummer when a walk-over victory turns into a massacre.

[HJ]

So much for the scrying dominion, eh?

There are some nasty surprises in the indie provinces from time to time, but I have so far not encountered anything of this magnitude. It mostly boils down to a few unexpected summons that some mage commanders have as bodyguards, such as dark vines or Jotun giants. Orania has some nasty indies, but I think those are scripted (e.g. victory point provinces, and some other with winter wolves etc.)

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by UberPenguin:
it turns out that there were three hoburgs, and 67 devils apparently. I'd really like to know if this is common,

Hoburgs leaders are known to be fond of magic items, and yes, it's common for a Soul Contract to generate 67 Devils after 67 game turns.

[Yossar]

Were there really so few Horburgs? On Indys 9, having three would only make sense if they were all commanders and the rest of the Horburgs had routed in a previous battle. But don't they also list units present in decreasing amount? Ie, since devils were listed Last they should be the fewest.

[UberPenguin]

I had sent maybe six armies that got utterly destroyed before I actually realized where all my troops were going, I figured it out around turn 40, and sent my elite corps there around turn 45, after gathering for awhile. I think it was a devil leader, rather than the hoburgs, since they didn't apparently have any magical stuff on them. I didn't sift through all the devils but I will now. Does anyone know how to pause? When they are all moving its a tad hard. PS: I never figured out how to use Scry.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by UberPenguin:
Does anyone know how to pause? When they are all moving its a tad hard. PS: I never figured out how to use Scry.

Hit space during a battle replay to pause.

Scry is a passive ability, when you view a province in your dominion, it automatically uses scry. However, *ANY* number of devils is generally a BAD sign in a province, as I don't think I've ever seen a province of naturally-occurring devils. And the longer you procrastinate, the more untenably devil-infested the province becomes.....and there really isn't a good, clean answer to devils, other than "be really buff".