Newbie questions, sitesearching + lots more Qs

[binarysolo]

Yeah I just wanted to figure out ways where I didn't have to do that for MP, since then units can be attacked with "fire archer". :/ Oh wells.

Does a commander spamming a skelly trinket count as an archer? And if that guy + guards stay in the back, would the entire formation move? Hrm, lemme test that out...

[Jack_Trowell]

Fact about item spells: not only do they only cost 5 fatigue to cast, but under a quickness effect, you can cast several times on the same turn.

That starting commander with 3 or 4 stars (and the corresponding 13+ precision) that is only used for its command ability and stay behin troops ? Give him a wand of fireball, boots of quickness (if you can afford them), and maybe some reinvigoration item(s) (needed with quickness, as you will take 10 fatigue each turn), and you just got one more artillery.

Cheaper yet : if you happen to have a W9EX blessing, a Shroud of the battle saint will give both a 50% quickness and some reinvigoration for only 5 astral gems.

[thejeff]

I haven't tested the skelly trinket spamming commander and guards, but what I would expect is this:
He and his guards would not count as troops to stay behind. No commanders or bodyguards do.
But, the trick might work anyway. Commanders on "Stay behind troops" try to stay behind the rearmost troop on the field. The most recent skeleton to appear would count.
I've never tried to exploit this, but I've seen it with skelly-spamming mages. Later in the battle after the mage exhausts himself and recovers to cast one more Raise Dead, I've seen commanders turn from the rear of the main line and race back to behind the new Soulless and then follow them forward.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by thejeff

It may be obvious, but they'll stay behind archers if you have any on the field.
X-bows are even better for this, since they'll stay put twice as long.

Hmm. with mictlan I usually form expansion groups of 7 jag warriors. the priest is given orders to bless bless bless hold hold - stay behind troops - and of course they usually run up behind the jag warriors.

*usually* jag warriors will kill things fast enough that its not a problem. Every so often the priest runs to the front and gets killed.

I may have to try adding one slinger with orders to fire.. just so the priest can stay behind him...

[thejeff]

I've actually made use of some of that behavior.

Sacreds with Hold & Attack and a H1 priest on Blessx5,Cast.
If he hasn't caught them all before they've moved out of range, he'll default to "Stay Behind", close and then cast more Blesses.

Usually you're right, he's caught them all and needs something to keep him away from the fight.

[binarysolo]

More questions for the kind vets to answer. Most of these questions pertain to Dom3 under the CBM 1.5/1.6 mod.

17) What exactly does "dome stacking" constitute and why is it banned from a bunch of games? (Is one of every dome okay? Or say, are multiple air domes in the same province acceptable. Does the game even allow you to stack multiple domes of the same type?)

Oh speaking of which, how do you tell which caster cast the dome? Or do you have to rename/take notes to remember... :/


18) I'm playing an MP game and a neighbor goes AI. How much diplomatic memory does it have in regards to declaring war? Does it start considering aggression the turn it turns AI? The turn afterwards? Or is it possible for it to check prior turns and see I've taken provinces, etc.?


19) Do fatigue effects factor into the undead defense/crit chance? Say a Wraith Lord casts a few spells and goes into battle without reinvigoration; does he now have the possibility of being critted due to hanging fatigue?


20) Forge orders -- are they entirely random by forger, or random by side? If I was making the same 5 artifacts as another nation, is it a winner-take-all situation (that would suck ) or do casters get random priority. I guess the same question applies to global rituals as well.


21) Artifact: Nethgul - does it give out horror marks? I seem to be reading conflicting reports on the forums. I read the manual and it didn't say anything about it, and the few turns I've used it in SP haven't given me anything (though it's blinked my precious commander into the middle of enemies before, UGH).


22) Old age - what affects the lifespan number other than nature? I've had a mage vacillate between normal status and old age, pending season of year. (I've given him Boots of Youth a bit late to counter any debilitating effects of him dying from old age, but he's 47-years old and the old age cutoff vacillates between 46 and 48, which is kinda getting on my nerves mainly as to why it's doing that.

[Stavis_L]

Disclaimer - not a "vet".

Originally Posted by binarysolo

More questions for the kind vets to answer. Most of these questions pertain to Dom3 under the CBM 1.5/1.6 mod.

17) What exactly does "dome stacking" constitute and why is it banned from a bunch of games? (Is one of every dome okay? Or say, are multiple air domes in the same province acceptable. Does the game even allow you to stack multiple domes of the same type?)

Dome stacking is casting lots and lots of (cheap in CBM) domes over a province, so that the likelihood of a spell getting through is negligible. I believe a recent patch made it less worthwhile, in that domes of the same type do not "stack" in this regard (if one fails, the rest remain up, but are not applied until the next attempt.) Multiple types still "stack".

The real offender is air domes, with 80% chance to stop and no "time-out" on the casting - multiple "stacked" air domes is pretty close to invulnerable vs. ranged spells.

Originally Posted by binarysolo

Oh speaking of which, how do you tell which caster cast the dome? Or do you have to rename/take notes to remember... :/

It depends on whether the dome "times out" after a while or not. The ones that indicate you can add more gems to make it last longer "time out" after a while; in that case, you get a ritual icon on the caster. The others (air and forest, IIRC) do not, and are essentially permanent until dispelled by a spell getting through (caster is irrelevant after casting, IIRC.)

Originally Posted by binarysolo

18) I'm playing an MP game and a neighbor goes AI. How much diplomatic memory does it have in regards to declaring war? Does it start considering aggression the turn it turns AI? The turn afterwards? Or is it possible for it to check prior turns and see I've taken provinces, etc.?

Not sure.

Originally Posted by binarysolo

19) Do fatigue effects factor into the undead defense/crit chance? Say a Wraith Lord casts a few spells and goes into battle without reinvigoration; does he now have the possibility of being critted due to hanging fatigue?

Yes, they factor in. However, in the wraith lord example, assuming it is fighting living foes, it is well advised to cast soul vortex, which will regenerate the fatigue rapidly (at the expense of the opponent troops, no less!)

Originally Posted by binarysolo

20) Forge orders -- are they entirely random by forger, or random by side? If I was making the same 5 artifacts as another nation, is it a winner-take-all situation (that would suck ) or do casters get random priority. I guess the same question applies to global rituals as well.

The go in the order of unit numbers, either top to bottom or bottom to top (which direction is determined randomly.) So, assuming you've got a relatively even distribution of forgers over time, you'd statistically each end up with around half. It's not "random", but it's not winner-take-all either.

Originally Posted by binarysolo

21) Artifact: Nethgul - does it give out horror marks? I seem to be reading conflicting reports on the forums. I read the manual and it didn't say anything about it, and the few turns I've used it in SP haven't given me anything (though it's blinked my precious commander into the middle of enemies before, UGH).

It casts horrormark spell on opponents.

Originally Posted by binarysolo

22) Old age - what affects the lifespan number other than nature? I've had a mage vacillate between normal status and old age, pending season of year. (I've given him Boots of Youth a bit late to counter any debilitating effects of him dying from old age, but he's 47-years old and the old age cutoff vacillates between 46 and 48, which is kinda getting on my nerves mainly as to why it's doing that.

Probably fire boosters in this case. Or mods. Fire magic decreases max lifespan, and does so in a dynamic way (so adding fire boosters to a fire mage can "flip" them over the old age line because the cutoff gets closer. Removing the booster can make them "not old age" (they don't get younger, but they don't feel the effects of old age.)

The other option that comes to mind is an updated mod that has changed the maxage of the unit in question. If a mod has updated mid-game, this can affect existing units.

[Tolkien]

One of the most effective uses of the quickness-item spell effect may be the Standard of the Death+Boots of Quickness. With that, your ordinary commander is turned into an effective anti-thug.

Also: I never figured fire magic decreased max lifespan. Hmm.

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by thejeff

This I wasn't sure of, so I tested it.
A commander will not stay behind his own bodyguards. With "Stay behind troops", he and his bodyguards closed to behind the rearmost other troops and when they broke and ran, moved to the front line.

Keep in mind this can be really tricky when employing elephants and other tramplers. I like to put all my elephants on the south side and my troops/commanders to the north so that fleeing elephants don't trample my commanders. But this doesn't work if commanders with "stay behind" decide to stay behind the elephants.

This is particularly funny when an elephant in retreat is behind your lines -- and all your commanders rush to catch him and get squished

[thejeff]

Worst case is Oceania's damn lobsters. At least elephants will retreat or attack.

When the rider gets killed, they don't move forward or retreat. They just sit and try to squish anyone who comes near them. Which, when your enemy routs leaves them sitting in the back. Your commander then runs right up to the closest one and hides behind, only to be squashed seconds later.