Noob Question: Capture Enemy Castle

[Taqwus]

Halancar said:
Wow, a Sphinx is about the hardest pretender to kill in the game... in combat at least. In fact, short of using some high level spells or summons, I doubt it can be done. Bad luck getting that one in your very first game !

That's what a Black Bow of Botulf and a lizard shaman casting Curse are for.

[OmikronWarrior]

If you've got the Pretender bottled up in a castle in a 1 vs 1 game and can't for the life of you beat it... dominion kill. Build temples in neighboring provinces, and have several priests preach on the capitol.

[Ewierl]

As an aside, I believe Aim doesn't stack with Wind Guide; WG is basically casting Aim for everyone.

If you were playing a nation with stronger priests, an alternate option can be just sitting on top of the castle and preaching away until the hostile dominion vanishes. With Man's cheap temples, you can speed the process greatly by conquering and building temples in all the adjacent provinces.

[NTJedi]

das123 said:
I then give the order to storm the castle but invariably the Prenteder God is way too powerful for my units and even though I can wipe out all other forces, the God is practically impossible to defeat.

Give us the details about the enemy pretender and we can provide more lethal methods of taking him out in battle.

[Gandalf Parker]

das123 said:
There is still enemy Dominion (about 4) in the target province.

Someone should mention that the name of the game is "Dominions". One basic answer is that you out-dominion him.

Having his province keeps him from doing alot. And you can tax it to worthlessness.

If you bring in priests and preach real hard then you can kill an enemy god without ever entering the castle. Or at least remove his extra hitpoints.

[das123]

Well, that ended up being easier than I had originally thought. Thanks for all the advice.

I built a temple next to his fortress which depleted his Dominion.

I also set the tax rate to 200 in his province.

My Pretender God was close by and so I set him to cast elementals and moved him and the retreated armies back (I still had some troops without a commander maintaining the siege). I hadn't researched Lightening so couldn't use this spell.

As it turns out, the AI sent his forces out to break the siege and the elementals and Wardens killed the pretender easily.

Next turn I stormed and there was only one mage defending so it fell easily.