Tip: Counter to Darkness?

[Saxon]

Depending on the game, you may find that the other player is having a tough time keeping the death gems arriving in his army. Also, there is probably only one mage scripted to cast Darkness and that mage may only have enough gems to cast it once.

So, try to force them to cast when they don't want to. Cast a spell which attacks the army during the magic phase, just to make them cast. Call of the Winds, the undead horsemen spell, things like that. Then attack with your real army in the same turn and they won't have the gems to cast it again. Alternativly, just keep forcing battles, so they burn up gems. An army on the march, without labs, can run out of gems relativly easily. If nothing else, it will force them to use gems on this, instead of summons or forging.

Obviously, if you have a good and organized opponent, this is not a sure fire counter. But it does increase the pressure on them and create a chance you will get an opportunity.

[Endoperez]

Mandahas autocast Darkness, so that doesn't apply to this situation.

[K]

GreenAris said:
Hi there, would be grateful for any help.

I am currently engaged in an entertaining MP game playing EA Tien Chien against Lanka. But I am struggling against Darkness, specifically the Big Lanka Demons that scare the sun away. We are on turn 70 or so, I have loads of Celestial mages and the ability to cast virtually any spell, but my armies are falling back in disarray from armies of 500 or so demons with darkvision. Help!

Many Thanks

If you can get 5-6 Bow's of War on some Demon or Undead commanders set to Fire Large Monster, then cast Flaming Arrows, you should clear youtr Mandanha problem right up.

Failing that. Mass casters who can cast Drain Life. They should auto-target the Mandaha's and kill them, dropping the Darkness.

[Tifone]

Wow so the situation with Darkness isn't so bad as I thought I retret my previous statement about "Mass Darkvision", I'd prefer finding imaginative and tactic-intensive ways like these ones to solve a problem like this when I face it, I don't wanna become lazy

[Gregstrom]

As a footnote:

The AI is apparently reluctant to cast Solar Brilliance against Mandaha darkness, even when scripted

I can see a few options:

1 - The AI has a weakness in this area.
2 - Solar Brilliance and Darkness are actually mutually exclusive in the sense that once one has been cast the other cannot ba cast over it.
3 - Mandaha Darkness is special in that (as per the unit flavour text) you specifically cannot cast Solar Brilliance against it.

Any thoughts?

[Jazzepi]

I know for a fact that solar brilliance does indeed cancel out darkness. I've had it cast against me, and seen it work. That said, this darkness was the kind cast by Ermor.

Jazzepi

[AreaOfEffect]

It is possible that the AI didn't consider the opposing army to be a threat. In which case the AI prefers not to use gems in battle. Was the force you were fighting much smaller then the army you brought?

[Psycho]

I know for a fact that 2 is not true. I've been casting solar brilliance over darkness when fighting Ctis as Kailasa. I don't know about mandahas though. You could try forbidden light if that's in your reach - it autocasts solar brilliance. Or you could try to surprise him with skelly spam - forge some skullfaces, boots of quickness and some reinvig. items and give them to commanders (best undead ones, no additional enc.).

[Kristoffer O]

Green lions have unresistable AoE dmg. Might shoot a bit off target during darkness, but should hurt the demons good..
With W/F they are a bit difficult to get, but as TC you should have access to them.

[Ironhawk]

I dont think #3 is valid. I've never seen an instance where a battlefield enchantment was not cast due to the presence of another BE (which was not the exact same enchantment).