Jotunheim:Utgard AAR

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
But the seithkona cannot cast BE on the wyrm, which is the whole point.

BE is range 1, so mages cast it on themselves, then the units in adjacent squares.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Arryn:
But the seithkona cannot cast BE on the wyrm, which is the whole point.

BE is range 1, so mages cast it on themselves, then the units in adjacent squares.

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Good point. Thanks. I keep making the same mistake of interpreting "1" as "0" somehow.

Still, isn't having a caster within range 1 of the SC just begging to lose that caster? In one of the battles I observed, had I placed one of my mages that close to my SC (regardless of the SC's position on the field), she would never have been able to move elsewhere to safety in time after casting the spell. I'm not all that willing to sacrifice 90gp casters. The SC does tend to be a magnet for the enemy ... which is fine with me as the Wyrm is rather hard to kill by mere mundane troops.

One tactic I use often is to leave the SC up front, alone, and the rest of the army behind a ways. The SC draws the enemy to it, taking the brunt of any initial charges and such, just in time for the rest of my army to arrive and dispatch the often-paralyzed attackers the wyrm may leave behind. This saves the lives of many of my giants that would otherwise have to suck up that initial charge or missile volley. I just have to be careful not to do this in a province with strong enough enemy dominion to weaken my pretender's HP (and regen) to the point that it might get killed before supporting troops arrive to distract some of the attackers.

[ February 10, 2004, 13:19: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[licker]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

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Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Arryn:
But the seithkona cannot cast BE on the wyrm, which is the whole point.

BE is range 1, so mages cast it on themselves, then the units in adjacent squares.

---

Good point. Thanks. I keep making the same mistake of interpeting "1" as "0" somehow.

Still, isn't having a caster within range 1 of the SC just begging to lose that caster? In one of the battles I observed, had I placed one of my mages that close to my SC (regardless of the SC's position on the field), she would never have been able to move back to safety in time after casting the spell. I'm not all that willing to sacrifice 90gp casters. The SC does tend to be a magnet for the enemy ... which is fine with me as the Wyrm is rather hard to kill by mere mundane troops.

One tactic I use often is to leave the SC up front, alone, and the rest of the army behind a ways. The SC draws the enemy to it, taking the brunt of any initial charges and such, just in time for the rest of my army to arrive and dispatch the often-paralyzed attackers the wyrm may leave behind. This saves the lives of many of my giants that would otherwise have to suck up that initial charge or missile volley. I just have to be careful not to do this in a province with strong enough enemy dominion to weaken my pretender's HP (and regen) to the point that it might get killed before supporting troops arrive to distract some of the attackers.

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Well you can script the caster to retreat after they put up whatever spells you want. Of course this does lead them to not be with your army if you win. I thought they were looking into fixing that (or changing it for those who don't consider it to be a fix). That is that the winning sides retreaties actually stay with the army if it's victorious...

[Arryn]

Originally posted by licker:
Well you can script the caster to retreat after they put up whatever spells you want.

In the example I cited, my mage would have been killed before being able to retreat. The area around the SC was swarmed. And the SC was neither in the front, nor the very back, in that battle. My army just wasn't big enough to stop the attackers at the front from rushing past. Enemy flyers make it even more imperative that I keep my casters away from my SC. The SC, being a pretender, and size 6, is a priority target no matter where it is.

I admit that it doesn't often happen that quickly, or that thoroughly, that a mage cannot retreat to safety, but the fact that it can happen is enough for me to plan on using different tactics.

BTW, I think the complexion and balance of the game will be dramatically changed if IW allows for the tactic of hit-n-run mages, or as Norfleet might phrase it, drive-by castings.

[ February 09, 2004, 21:23: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Arryn]

Something's been bothering me subconsciously and I finally know what it is. Perhaps someone who's actually tried it can answer this question:

The spell Body Ethereal has an AoE of 1. The Wyrm is size 6, and thus larger than 1 standard square (or at least it looks that way on the pre-battle positioning map). Can a Seithkona still cast BE on the Wyrm, since the target takes up more squares than the BE's AoE of 1?

Bonus question: how many size 2 beings fit within 1 standard square?

TIA.

[Arryn]

Another thing that I forgot to mention in an earlier reply on the subject of why I didn't/wouldn't choose another path, like air, for the Wyrm. Utgard begins with no air gem sites, nor mages with air. Once the game advanced sufficiently to the point where the SC might want to cast a spell that needs gems, or craft an air item, the SC couldn't without consuming large numbers of gems in alchemy conVersions. Or worse, having to personally go search for air sites. The point of using an SC pretender is to have the SC fight. If the SC is off doing something else, then its best abilities are wasted, IMO.

I'm sure that some may argue that having an SC doing site searches isn't wasted time. I'd like for them to explain how site-searching is not a less efficient use of the SC, when that SC could be grabbing more provinces, expanding the nation's gold base and spreading dominion faster?

If you take a pretender who cannot use the theme's gem resources, you are not taking full advantage of the strengths of that theme. This is why much as I like water for a pretender, I've learned to temper my enthusiasm for it when playing Jotun. Only the Jotun Niflheim theme has a water site, and I dislike the mage choices of that theme. It's my least-favorite Jotun theme.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
The spell Body Ethereal has an AoE of 1. The Wyrm is size 6, and thus larger than 1 standard square (or at least it looks that way on the pre-battle positioning map). Can a Seithkona still cast BE on the Wyrm, since the target takes up more squares than the BE's AoE of 1?

Behemoths can be etherealized, so you probably can.

Bonus question: how many size 2 beings fit within 1 standard square?

Three. 6 sizes can fit in any given square, so you can put six hoburgs, or one Jotun and two hoburgs, and so on.