Fighting Commanders and Equipment.

[quantum_mechani]

Molog said:
The regeneration of the amulets stacks with the native regeneration.

There is a chance for the werewolves to be transformed into skinshifters. Rather weird.

I thought perhaps he was referring to the skinshifters as werewolves (there are so many units in the game it can take a while to learn the terminology ).

Anyway, the amulets do stack, but if you already have regeneration there are better options for your misc slot (and your gems).

[Oversway]

But I can't help but feel that maybe the lower commanders should be able to interact with items against other normal troops with a little bit of survivability. Its not just their base stats I don't think.

Yeah, I agree. Part of the problem is that groups (much less a commander) don't stay together if they have differing moves. This can be helpful sometimes (elephants, etc.) but other times its a problem. It can be difficult to use units and commanders with the Standard ability (the one that helps morale) because of this.

The other half would be you usually have a lot more normal units than commanders, and they get overwhelmed, even with some ok equipment.

[Edi]

The Van and Tuatha commanders can get pretty impressive with the right equipment, and any mounted commmander can make for a decent thug as long as you're fighting regular units. Slapping both fear and awe on them (horror helmet and gold shield) really ruins the average grunt's day, especially if the unit also has luck.

Most infantry commanders however are not good for combat, they die too easily. I like putting lightning bow, black bow or longbow of accuracy on them.

Edi

[shovah]

or bow of war

[sushiboat]

You get what you pay for. Basic commanders are cheap and frail, so they aren't good candidates for expensive equipment or hand-to-hand combat.

A non-mage commander can be good for holding a spell-casting item. He can't cast any other spells, so if you set him to Cast Spells, you can be 100% sure of what he will cast. Item spells cause only 5 fatigue, so he will be fully active for the first 20 turns.

I am not sure I understand the problem. Any particular unit can't do everything well. There are commanders who can fight well (e.g., Bane Lord, summoned uniques). Basic commanders can't. So it goes.

[spirokeat]

Its not that there is a problem, thats not what I mean. But usually by the time you can summon a suitable commander to fight (and I dont mean a full blown SC). Its that you have usually bypassed the need to give them things like the trinkets.

Its like there is a whole band of basic equipment that is non-functional due to commander frailty and unit cohesion. And more to the point I'm trying to discover if its something I'm simply missing and they can be used.

In regard to the lycan amulet. Well it adds some good strength too as well as jacking the werewolf (call of wild) regen to 4 per turn not two.

I usually just give basic commanders items like others have said they do, bows or spell casting items.

Spirokeat

[quantum_mechani]

spirokeat said:

Its like there is a whole band of basic equipment that is non-functional due to commander frailty and unit cohesion. And more to the point I'm trying to discover if its something I'm simply missing and they can be used.

In regard to the lycan amulet. Well it adds some good strength too as well as jacking the werewolf (call of wild) regen to 4 per turn not two.

That sort of basic equipment is primarily used by expander pretenders. Items like the thorn staff are greatly useful for pretenders that start with some junk weapon or even 'fist'.

I'm not saying the lychantropos' amulet is 100% useless, but items like barkskin amulets or girdles of strength seem a better deals in this situation.

[shovah]

if you want to make a survivable commander give him 2 weapons with high defence and some tough armour and then if you can some sort of spell casting/regenerating/fatigue curing item ( use that last one with heavy armour such as black plate of ulm ) and give him some heavily armoured bodyguards with decent morale

[sushiboat]

spirokeat said:
Its not that there is a problem, thats not what I mean. But usually by the time you can summon a suitable commander to fight (and I dont mean a full blown SC). Its that you have usually bypassed the need to give them things like the trinkets.

Its like there is a whole band of basic equipment that is non-functional due to commander frailty and unit cohesion. And more to the point I'm trying to discover if its something I'm simply missing and they can be used.

In the early game, gems are few and far between. Spending gems and a mage turn on something that will soon be obsolete seems a waste to me. As for items that don't seem to be worth forging, I think that's true even at higher levels. Sometimes I can't imagine an item making much of a difference. Sometimes an item is OK, but another available item is better for the same purpose or is a better value for the cost.

You probably know that commanders can hold for up to five turns before attacking. You can play around with various delays and unit placements so that everyone starts fighting at roughly the same time. Those formations will have to change with the speed of the anticipated opponents.

[Chazar]

I feel very much the same about low-level items on commoners. It might be fun, but it isnt even remotely cost effective and takes too much time. It is a shame that all this is wasted...

Here is my solution: Alter the mapfile and add some simple commanders to all provinces, each having the random-equip flag set at low-level. Those certainly do not make it more difficult to conquer the independents, but cause that there are many trinkets around waiting to be won in battle. So one can have some fun discovering some unusual items...
However, it is a shame that there is not a single setting allowing to give random trinkets to all independent commanders...


Another option is probably the difficult research option, where the usability window for low-level items is prolonged...