Help with Abominations

[1000yd_stare]

I am facing off against a couple really nasty forces of abominations with the usual ryleh squidies. Its middle age, I am bandar, and dont have the astral income to get my S3 mages to the front lines quickly and in enough numbers to spam SOUL SLAY and eventually have the abominations MR 20 fail.
Anyone have ideas on how to deal with packs of 4-6 abominations, backed up by lots of trolls and illithids?
I have already tried lots of longbowmen - the abominations have 260+ hp. And wave upon wave of F9 blessed White One monkeys has not succeeded so far - I lost 130 monkeys to 10 trolls backed up by the abominations in my last battle.

I have some indirect attacks, like assassinating the commanders, but I was thinking more along the lines of oppostion (hasn't worked yet), and arcane bolt, which I cant hit the side of a barn with.

And does Master Enslave work on magic creatures, or only the Arcane Control? MR 20 will probably shrug it off anyway.

[lch]

You could try defeating the Illithids in magic duels with lots of Gurus. The Abominations require magical leadership.

[Jazzepi]

You might want to try forging spell foci, eyes of the void, and if possible, rune smashers. These will increase the difficulty of the MR check by the abomination.

Also, I would recommend casting the conjuration spell, whose name I can't recall off the top of my head, that gives every astral mage on the battlefield +1 astral. This should make it easier to spam soul slay.

Jazzepi

[Baalz]

You may want to think more along the lines of SCs. Sending in 1 guy with a good MR and high defense should make him pretty resilient to what the aboms can throw down. Bandar has some pretty good national summons, don't remember the name but there's one for 35 pearls which has 4 arms and a map move of 10. Not too hard to get that guy into the upper 20's (or lower 30's) defense, and equip some swords with real bite - and you won't have much trouble getting him to the front lines. Script resist magic, mirror image, personal luck, body ethereal (for the trolls), mistform and I bet you'll dance around unscathed until you whittle them down. He's a priest to, in case you've got a good bless.

[lch]

Baalz said:
Bandar has some pretty good national summons, don't remember the name but there's one for 35 pearls which has 4 arms and a map move of 10.

Has astral. Will die to magic duel by the Illithids the second time he ever attacks. Losing all his expensive gear.

[CUnknown]

As far as relatively cheap counters go, I am a fan of moon-blade weilding thugs. So, something like a Sleeper or a Bane Lord (10 or 12 gems) with a Moon Blade (3 gems w/hammer), Boots of Quickness (7 gems w/hammer), and a Amulet of Antimagic (3 gems w/hammer).

So, that's 10 or 12 + 3 + 7 + 3 = 23 or 25 gems a piece. That is what an abomination costs, and I believe they should be able to take down at least one before they die:

They've got about 15 strength, right? + 11 damage from Moon Blade x 2 (magic being) = 52 damage x 2 (quickness) = 104 damage.

Maybe 2-3 rounds and they will kill an abomination each. I don't think the abomination can kill them in 2-3 rounds because abominations don't have that great of an attack skill from what I remember, and these thugs will have 16-17 something defense.

Also that Ether Warriors spell would be great because all of them have moon blades, although that is 90 gems.

Edit: of course a real SC would be better if you got it.

[Lord_Bob]

I'm not sure if Abominations can get afflictions.. but since they are big and they rely on life drain to handle the damage they take you might as well spend some yogi's next time you fight them cursing every last one of them. That isn't a solution, but it's easy, and it helps.

[Shovah32]

CUnknown - I think Abominations have 3, high strength lifedrain attacks at 15 attack each. High strength+AP+good attack=dead sleeper/banelord.
Even if he died, a teleporting 4 armed guy with boots of quickness and 2 moonblades might(probably not but maybe) be able to get a few kills in before dying(consider adding strength/attack boosters).

[NTJedi]

1000yd_stare said:
I am facing off against a couple really nasty forces of abominations with the usual ryleh squidies. Its middle age, I am bandar, and dont have the astral income to get my S3 mages to the front lines quickly and in enough numbers to spam SOUL SLAY and eventually have the abominations MR 20 fail.
Anyone have ideas on how to deal with packs of 4-6 abominations, backed up by lots of trolls and illithids?
I have already tried lots of longbowmen - the abominations have 260+ hp. And wave upon wave of F9 blessed White One monkeys has not succeeded so far - I lost 130 monkeys to 10 trolls backed up by the abominations in my last battle.

I have some indirect attacks, like assassinating the commanders, but I was thinking more along the lines of oppostion (hasn't worked yet), and arcane bolt, which I cant hit the side of a barn with.

And does Master Enslave work on magic creatures, or only the Arcane Control? MR 20 will probably shrug it off anyway.

That's a nasty mix you're fighting... sounds too organized to be from an AI opponent.
First use Doom to curse all of them.
Second make sure you're casting anti-magic in battle for better protection against those Aboms.
Third organize an army to do master enslave... it will work on enough enemy troops to keep them fighting amongst themselves for the first three rounds of combat. This allows those 120 monkeys to get close... I imagine most previously died marching toward the enemy. Make sure the caster of master enslave has eye of void, spell foci, and rune master for better results.
Fourth create a group(4 or 5) thugs to support your army. Have the thugs equipped with some nasty weapons such as the moon blade... you've created a good group of thugs when most of them survive big battles.

[sum1lost]

A elfbane may be better than a moonblade for that kind of thing, actually. Instakillmagicbeing.

Cast "mass flight" and script to attack large monsters. Your monkeys should be all over them.