Summoning vs Forging

Sensori · #1 May 18th, 2007, 05:12 PM

Problem with SCs I've always seen is that they can be killed by magic, no matter how high their MR is. If you go against a Mind Hunt spammer, you need to keep astral mages around - and even that's not a sure fire way for your SC to survive, unless you keep a really high quality mage with your SC, or multiple lower ones... Which kind of turns the SC into less cost effective than it would've been. Even if your SC dies in as many as a dozen Mind Hunt casts... Remember that that's just 24 Astral gems versus your probably used tons of gems of various types.

And that's just Mind Hunt. What about an Earth Attack, Manifestation, Vengeance or somesuch spammer? No way to stop those, and in the case of Vengeance (as Micah reported, Vengeances getting through 22 MR or so) spam, if they keep getting through, you just keep getting more and more kills... And while your great SC will probably get really high in kills and rise up in HoF, he'll also die sooner or later if the Vengeance spam is determined enough! Hit turn 75 and you're screwed.

And hell, I guess that even spamming Seeking Arrow would be effective if you can throw, say, 5 of them at a single SC.

But about the deal in question, I guess I'd go for multiple units with not too expensive items. Sure, I'd want to make sure my investment doesn't die in the first fight, but also I would want to make sure my said investment won't cost too much if (when) I lose it. I really like Wraith Lords because of that, since they're immortal (whee, no losing them!) and relatively tough out of the box.

As you might guess from what I've already said, I don't like putting all my eggs in the one basket called Super Combatants. ;p

Ironhawk · #2 May 18th, 2007, 05:22 PM

You shouldnt put all your eggs in one basket, Super Combatants or otherwise. But that doesnt mean that SCs arent valuable just because the enemy has assassination spells.

IMO, I would always kit out an SC over summoning a new one. With the exception of a chasis that had strong intrinsic magic that I could use to buff them thoroughly or cast some particular spell to support my army. Another concern would be unique SCs. In that case, I would always want to immediately summon more of them -- to lock out that whole class of summons before my enemies could get any.

Meglobob · #3 May 18th, 2007, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Sensori said:
Problem with SCs I've always seen is that they can be killed by magic, no matter how high their MR is.

This is what I find, I have had so many SC's with MR 25-30+ killed by a lucky soul slay, petrify, converted by enslave mind or horror marked to death or feeble minded etc, etc...

Just spam any of those at a SC and you will get lucky pretty quickly. The SC will be lucky to survive 2+ battles. This is a poor return.

Also putting your SC with a army offers no real protection, as spells with a 100 precision seem to directly target SC's and ingnore the rest of the army. I believe this is because SC's are generally large size and spells go for those first.

RamsHead · #4 May 18th, 2007, 05:47 PM

I think spells generally target units with more HP.

SCs should be kept as mobile as possible. The more predictable they are, the easier it is to use anti-SC mages against them.

Shovah32 · #5 May 18th, 2007, 05:59 PM

Flying and stealthy(possibly immortal too, like vampires) SCs are great, as are teleporting SCs like golems. The main reason for this is that they can get somewhere and do some serious damage before being noticed so that even if the enemy does kill them quickly theres a chance for them to justify their cost. Taking a large, high health SC with anti magic equipment to draw hostile magics away from the damage dealers can also work(make sure hes bigger and higher health than others. Give him a lead shield, skullcap, antimagic amulet ect)