Very short question on Communion Master and the slave matrix

[onomastikon]

Excuse me, how can they die from fatigue? Do units take physical damage (and thus potentially die) at fatigue value XXX+? And if so, can anyone say which value this is? Thank you.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by onomastikon:
Excuse me, how can they die from fatigue? Do units take physical damage (and thus potentially die) at fatigue value XXX+? And if so, can anyone say which value this is? Thank you.

When your fatigue goes over 200 you take damage.

[onomastikon]

Originally posted by Chris Byler:

The best communion slave, bar none, is Pythium's Theurg Communicant (which *isn't* a mage but gets automatic Communion Slave anyway). Aside from that, any cheap mage with some astral is good, especially if he is also sacred (Lizard shamans; they are available as independents as well as C'tis; also Crystal Amazon Priestesses). [/QB]

why sacred?

[HJ]

Originally posted by onomastikon:
why sacred?

lower upkeep & ability to get bless effects

[onomastikon]

Originally posted by HJ:

quote:

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Originally posted by onomastikon:
why sacred?

lower upkeep & ability to get bless effects

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Well I mean besides that. Those are the benefits for sacred troops no matter what. I mean: why do sacred troops make good communion slaves?

[Jasper]

Originally posted by ywl:
I just tested once. There can be more than one Master. I could have mistaken when I checked it in Dom 1 or there are some subtle difference between the spell and the Crystal Matrix, which I used mostly in the old test. The slaves still sit there doing nothing.

You could have more than one Communion Master in Dom 1 as well. I'm guessing you don't play Pythium much.

[Niefelson]

There are some complex spells like eg. Master Enslave that kicks up a fatigue of -800 which I have not bothered to try. I mean apart from Pretenders, can any normal mage cast a spell that causes -800 fatigue? Surely it would kill him. How does experience affect the ability to endure fatigue?

Has anyone tried a really complex spell with Communion Master? Care to share and comment?

[PhilD]

Originally posted by onomastikon:

quote:

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Originally posted by HJ:

quote:

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Originally posted by onomastikon:
why sacred?

lower upkeep & ability to get bless effects

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Well I mean besides that. Those are the benefits for sacred troops no matter what. I mean: why do sacred troops make good communion slaves?

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Well, I haven't tried the Communion really hard yet, but Communion Slaves are normally mages, and you want them in numbers - anything that lowers their upkeep is going to be nice.

As for the blessing - well, if you have, say, an Earth blessing, all of your slaves suddenly have Reinvigoration, which should help them remain in better shape. One Reinvigoration may not seem like much, but if it's multiplied by 4 or 8, it starts to pile up...

Plus, any spell that the master casts on himself also affects the slaves, so the blessing can be easy to distribute without concentrating the slaves on the battlefield.

Things like Master Enslave, Undead Mastery, Gaia's Blessing and Arcane Domination can be instant battle winners in any particular situation. They are rarely used mostly because they are all Level 9. If you are on in the off chance of a game that Lasts long enough without a clear winner, or try to get one of these particular spells in order to counter another nation (Say Ermor or with Arcane Dominiation, most all other nations late in the game because of their reliance on summons) you can do it.

But they are much less of a 'go for it strategy' and much more of a 'I might as well try this because XXX made me'.

Most of the spells are uncastable by anything but a large communion or high magic pretenders/mages so I give them less thought normally until I'm presented with a situation to use them, instead of the other way around.

[atul]

During Dom1 times I once had some fun using communition in somewhat 'reverse' way. A horde of Marignon's initiates (fire1) with slave matrixes and one Grand Master (random in water) with master matrix.

GM had orders to cast quickness - phoenix power - (that astral spell that boosts all paths one up, forget the name), and what do you know, every one of those weeny initiates was hasted and hurling fireballs and -clouds by third turn. Don't know how feasible it is to use communion like that, but it was fun to watch anyway.