Mass-produced Reanimating Priests: Exploit?

[thejeff]

And if you're doing this to reduce costs on your researchers don't forget to count in the lost research time in getting them to the battlefield and the risk in exposing them to battle. Which, by the way, has to be a significant enough battle to convince the AI to spend gems...

[Twan]

It may be particularly fun if the AI overwrite Life after Death but not the spell used to kill the mages.

[Amhazair]

Good one.

[Szumo]

Takes just one turn, set mages on patrol so they're outside the castle and cast something that summons independent troops there (horrors, ghost riders, etc.).
You can also use Ankh to make sure Life after Death effect works.
And place mages near a poison cloud or chill creature, with orders to hold, so no need to cast any spell either.
Of course, you'll need to something that will kill the enemy, but not too fast.

[PvK]

I was mostly joking. I think it might work. It was reported in Dom 2 that tainted unit blood slaves could get sacrificed (and IIRC there was a way to crash Dom 2 doing that). I don't know about commander blood slaves or what happens in Dom 3 though. I also don't know if it would set off the amulet of vengeance or not (it might bypass that), nor do I know if two amulets of vengeance both explode - the second one was sort of an explanation point on the joke.

Phoenix Pyre, however, seems like another possibility. Though I think you're right that simple cold aura would do it, given enough time - you just need to keep the artificial battle going long enough, which is the other half of the "how to make this an efficient factory" question.