Super-Combatants

[Endoperez]

No, it's Pangaea CW Hero. So it is, usually, unique.

[Vicious Love]

archaeolept said:
point blank Gifts, LOL - this some suicide gambit?

Strangely enough, no. I guess being inches away from hot plasma death motivates a caster to concentrate on his aim.

Re: Blade Wind, Gifts are much, much more effective against heavily armored uberthingies. Blade Wind isn't particularly likely to bring down an Abomination in one go.

[Morkilus]

Gifts from Heaven is quite nice... I threw my two Dwarves against all the big heavy cavalry/infantry provinces the AI never got around to killing, and that spell crushed them. Good thing there were some Einheres to spare to slow them down tho...

[Wish]

you know whats nice, warriors of mist. Computer used this on me and a huge hoard of wolves forced my SC to retreat :/

[Frostmourne27]

I think design of SCs (especially in the late game) is all about the platform not the items. If you are encumberance zero then monolith armour is fine otherwise its probably not a great idea. If you are flying don't get boots that make you fly, if you aren't then flying shoes are an excellent idea. If you're ethereal you dont need an item to do it with otherwise (especailly vs. chaff) you need it quit badly. The other thing to consider is your opponent: vs ashen empire you might want the unquenched sword, and the forrbidon light whereas against jotonheim (unless your a fire astral mage) you might be better off with the summit and a ring of regeneration and pendant of luck.

[Valandil]

I do not think so. Firstly, ring of regen+pendant of luck is WAAY cheaper than fobidden light. Secondly, while some units are virtually scs in their own right (abominations? vastnesses? Doom Horrors?) most need some items, and sevral of these items are usually the same. Granted, this is a thread about off the wall and original SCs, so this post is a bit misplaced, but in general, a supercombatant is not supposed to go toe-to-toe with armies of niefel giants. The goal is a unit that will beat most mudane/minor summon armies. In this case, wished nataraja with unquenched sword/invulnerability/sun slayer/forbidden light is not cost effective. 10-12 decently equipped banes is simply better. What if you get zapped? (stupid Anemonies...) Where are you then. Better 2/10 units die than your single uber killy machine.

Valandil, Prophet of the Word.

[Valandil]

And once the killy machine dies, all its items fall into the hands of the enemy. Ensure that your uber sc works like a combat powerhouse, not an assasin (cost effectivness) or a lame duck. Best way? use simple units with simple items. Granted, I'm not exactly the worlds most brilliant Dominons player, so if someone wants to correct me, go ahead. Do not expect me to take your word as gospel though.

Valandil, Hand of Gods

[Frostmourne27]

allright, i have to defned my position (even if this is kind of going of on a tangent) i wasnt think early game, if you have arcane nexus and a couple of other gem giving enchantements active or have searched a substantial number of provinces it isnt really that much of an expenditure to give your god, or a summoned biggish unit (ice devil sized maybe or possible a king/queen) a few of the cheaper artifacts of lvl 6 magic items (amon hotep for instance is really quite cheap) the problem with the ten banes with rings of regen and pendants of luck is that they will have some problems with anything other than chaff. A few dusk elders casting disintegrate (in the late game) or even (against BE a few nether dart chucking thaumaturgs or (if we can extend this beyong ermor) a couple of starspawn or some abysian fire mages. Its not so much the little stuff (which the banes will beat quite handily) or the big stuff like gods (those are usually a fairly rare) but its the things that are a step up from chaff but arent SCs and are cheap and massable (none of the above cost gems- except summoning the dusk elders (does that count)) although they are all fairly expensive mages. There's also the time consideration- it takes three turns to creat a bane with ring of regeneration and pendant of luck, and if you want more than one the amount of time it takes goes up rather drastically whereas one (wished for if you really want- i didnt sugest wishing for a natarajya) natarajya or even just an ice devil with amon hotep, a ring of regeneration, pendant of luck and a harvest blade (none of those are expensive really) probably will do as well as at least a few of your banes, takes much less time and may well be about the same price- the total cost for a bane w/ ring of regen and talisman of luck is 8 death gems (the bane) 5 astral pearls (pendant of luck) and 10 nature gems (the ring) as compared to an ice devil (77 blood slaves) ring of renegeration (10N) Pendant of luck (five S) harvest blade (20 B and 5 N) and amon hotep (40F 40S <- are these numbers right, i dont have a game going right now where i can forge it and i cant be bothered to look it up) Net costs, (assuming 1B is the same as one of any other type of magic resource) are Ice devil: 197 gems (97 slaves and 100 gems) vs. a bane that costs a total of 23 gems so theoretecally approximatly 10 banes equiped as you sujested should be the same as my theoretical ice devil. If however we discard the price of the ice devil and replace it with something like a nifel giant or a god or even a mid game non unique summon the cost for mine goes down to only about ~120 gems which is about the same as five of your banes, and i think (somebody might want to correct me as im not too sure about this) the forces are about equal. ewww- theres alot of mistakes here and i dont really want to spend twenty minutes fixing them, so plz excuse the spelling and/or grammatical attrocities.

[shovah]

well generally bane lords are more widly used, this is a decent set up:hell sword/blood thorn accursed shield (dont use blood thorn in cb mod) hydra skin armour, boots of flying/quickness, pendant of luck and then something added (or replace hydra with something better)

if your looking for survivability take a nataraja and give it: vine shield, charcoal shield,accused shield, blood thorn, amon hotep/starshine skull cap (magic resistance)/horror helm, boots of flying, then whatever you want or my personal favourite mandragora ettin (expensive): vine shield, hellsword/blood thorn+accursed shield amon hotep, sun helmet, hydra skin armour (already 30 prot from amon) boots of flying/quickness, pendant of luck, soulstone of the wolves. with huge magic resistance, 30 protection, high health ect they only things that can really destroy him are: huge amounts of armour negating hits, fully toolud up mage (focus, runesmasher ect) with high death/astral doing paralyze/desintigrate or (fits into armour negating part) a bunch of guys with flying boots+gate cleaver

[Vicious Love]

Valandil said:
And once the killy machine dies, all its items fall into the hands of the enemy. Ensure that your uber sc works like a combat powerhouse, not an assasin (cost effectivness) or a lame duck. Best way? use simple units with simple items. Granted, I'm not exactly the worlds most brilliant Dominons player, so if someone wants to correct me, go ahead. Do not expect me to take your word as gospel though.

Valandil, Hand of Gods

Vociferously agreed. Particularly when the SC in question is undead. They might be a bargain under most circumstances, but they have too many Achilles' heels to be the lynchpin of anyone's strategy.

Mind you, if you're going to bring high-end unique artifacts to the field, you'd do well to stick them on the most survivable chassis you can afford. But there's still some distance between that and putting all your eggs in one Wished-for basket.

Then again, by the non-blitz endgame, everyone has 999 astral pealrs to spend, so why not sink 'em into a few dozen ettin mandragoras?