Blessed troops should get bonus if priest present

[Gandalf Parker]

Explain how to get your frontline troops blessed by low level priests without the priests getting smacked? It seems to me thats the definition of a low level priest. Short range.

Now the possibility of the pretender giving auto bless to everyone in the province, that I could see as being thematic.

[Cor]

First I want to say I would not be for the idea of autobless. It would unbalance the game, and make preists overpowered. It would take away alot of the stratagy.

However it does make sence from a role playing point of view. The battle is not a suprise, so couldn't the preist just bless them before the battle while they are getting into formation?

[lch]

Then mages should be able to cast summon earth/phoenix power, flaming arrows and all other kind of buff spells, too - No.

[Xietor]

Try playing ulm and tell me that smite is not the best priest spell! I guess it depends on the race you play and even what specs your god has.

When I play pangaea i do not even use the blessed troops, so it also depends on play style. When I play acrosphale, the backbone of my armies are heart companions with 9f blessing and regeneration. So with them divine blessing is crucial(but they have good priests anyway).

really the only race i play i use blessed troops and find it a pain to bless is man. But it is micromanagement to have 3 priests scripted to cast bless 5 times. And really, from a rp perspective, if you have priests in the battle, you should not have to worry about them blessing your sacred troops.

[lch]

If I play Ulm, then Sermon of Courage is the best priest spell there is because I can't cast it and my troops are routing at the first chance they get...

[Taqwus]

Battles can, in fact, be surprises. Nobody really expects a Gift of Kurgi'd flying Devourer of Souls to fly into town, unless they're playing a really twisted enemy. Vastnesses and some other units can move 10 provinces a turn; and magical movement can go much further. Never mind attacks that were unexpected backstabs...

As for blessing -- in practice I see little need to script it with pure priests; they're blessing-happy already, even if they're being accompanied by a Divine Blessing-scripted prophet who's been doing this first turn for battles over the last few game-years.

A mage-priest, however, can be worth scripting (especially a prophet for Divine Blessing), because the additional options from his other magic paths may distract him.

[Xietor]

I have played Ulm more than any other race and never had any problem with them routing. I start with 3 prod, 3 order, 1 growth, with couple heat /cold.

I like high income/production. The troops i buy are mostly ranged crossbow men and black knights. I usually clog up the area right in front of my ranged troops with guardians/pikemen mix. Pikes have 11 morale and are cheap, and the guardians have an even higher morale which mixed in helps pikes.

But with ulm the calvary/ranged units are the way to go. I forget the morlae of calvary but they do not rout often, so i am not sure what units you are getting that rout? Never buy basic 10 morlae infantry. No need to go there.

[normalphil]

Moving further off topic, I wouldn't mind seeing Ulm getting a 'banner' unit or commander. It's kind of odd that they don't have one, actually.