Blood SCs

[Samhain]

JonBrave,

I've see the same difference between blood and non-blood casters and "gem" usage. I assume this is because the non-blood castors fatigue out before depleting their gem stockpile while blood mages cast Reinvigoration to allow themselves to keep casting. I haven't really watched that closely (or read the logs) to determine if this is correct.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Samhain

JonBrave,

I've see the same difference between blood and non-blood casters and "gem" usage. I assume this is because the non-blood castors fatigue out before depleting their gem stockpile while blood mages cast Reinvigoration to allow themselves to keep casting. I haven't really watched that closely (or read the logs) to determine if this is correct.

After I posted I wondered too whether that might well be a factor.

While talking about the "Summon Imps" my blood mages seem to like, what are imps for, what do they do well, and how can I help them?

[Samhain]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

What happens if your caster is an Abysian warlock or has a stronger aura of another sort? Bye bye, blood slaves.

True, the difficulty of employing blood magic on the battlefield without killing your own blood slaves is one of the significant challenges of playing Abysia. They also burn indy recruits and nearly all summons and have horrible magic diversity, nothing but fire mages from non-cap forts. And yet, EA Abysia is one of my 2 most favorite non-mod nations. Go figure.

Originally Posted by JonBrave

While talking about the "Summon Imps" my blood mages seem to like, what are imps for, what do they do well, and how can I help them?

As lab summons, imps' bread and butter is the removal of poorly armored units from the battlefield, such as archers or mage communes. If they go hoof to toe with infantry, they are generally toast. Non-fire area affect spells are not their friend either.

When I am concerned about keeping them alive, my preference is to mix them with something beefier to demand the attention from whatever they are fighting. Flying thugs are the best. But, devils work OK too.

They also make effective, 0 upkeep patrollers for blood hunting. Especially nice is that they don't die when patrolling for EA Abysia and an enemy scout discovery triggers a battle where they mix with that nation's heat aura radiating PD.

The main utility of the battlefield spell, Summon Imps, in my practice is to tie up an assassin so the mage has a few turns to take him down with Blood Burst or another attack spell. When used via AI, I find it generally to be a means to finish off any leftover blood slaves so you have to replenish before the next fight. Just hope you don't have two battles the same turn.

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by Samhain

True, the difficulty of employing blood magic on the battlefield without killing your own blood slaves is one of the significant challenges of playing Abysia. They also burn indy recruits and nearly all summons and have horrible magic diversity, nothing but fire mages from non-cap forts. And yet, EA Abysia is one of my 2 most favorite non-mod nations. Go figure.

This is hardly a large issue with proper spacing.

[brxbrx]

Originally Posted by Redeyes

This is hardly a large issue with proper spacing.

You can't really keep your warlock away from your slaves, though. Or your warlock's bodyguard.

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

You can't really keep your warlock away from your slaves, though. Or your warlock's bodyguard.

One warlock's effect doesn't really matter.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Samhain

When used via AI, I find it generally to be a means to finish off any leftover blood slaves so you have to replenish before the next fight. Just hope you don't have two battles the same turn.

I was only talking of this: not choice imp summons but, exactly as you say, the fact that on the battlefield my blood mages like to get to casting this. So given that I'd like to understand what to make of them, if I can.

@thejeff
[It's not so easy to quote different posts here!]
Precisely as you say, gem mages can do useful stuff without using gems, but there are very few blood spells available which don't use slaves. Which I guess means (which you already knew!) that you have to be that much more careful about scripts, slave allocation & location with blood mages.

[jotwebe]

Originally Posted by Redeyes

One warlock's effect doesn't really matter.

It does force you to hand out more slaves than you would otherwise, since a wounded slave isn't a usable as a sacrifice anymore. So any that catch fire are useless.

It also means you're constrained to not give him bodyguards with heat aura, which is another annoyance.

It's true though that the main thing with blood slaves is that you should have a scout along and hand out slaves as needed, but that's the same with normal gems.

Concerning imps: they have two attacks, so they profit somewhat more than others from Blood Lust/Rush of Strength, but they won't if they're summoned after the buff was cast. Mostly I see them as a Summon Swarm that's not as good a distraction but with a small offensive potential.

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by jotwebe

Mostly I see them as a Summon Swarm that's not as good a distraction but with a small offensive potential.

Oh, man. This takes me back to the days when Swarm was an almost full-proof SC killer. Don't actually quite remember how it worked, (Something with doing 1AN damage each, so not really counterable?) but boy, was it fun.

[brxbrx]

Originally Posted by jotwebe

It does force you to hand out more slaves than you would otherwise, since a wounded slave isn't a usable as a sacrifice anymore. So any that catch fire are useless.

It also means you're constrained to not give him bodyguards with heat aura, which is another annoyance.

It's true though that the main thing with blood slaves is that you should have a scout along and hand out slaves as needed, but that's the same with normal gems.

Concerning imps: they have two attacks, so they profit somewhat more than others from Blood Lust/Rush of Strength, but they won't if they're summoned after the buff was cast. Mostly I see them as a Summon Swarm that's not as good a distraction but with a small offensive potential.

You know, you would think that Abysians would have virgins of their own to sacrifice.