I hate horrors

[Nick_K]

IIRC from Dom2 Horrors fly, but they can fly during storms

[Ranger]

I don't have a problem with horrors taking out a powerfull magic user, but gods (pretenters) should have some defence against them, other wise it's just game. Who would follow a god that get's killed every two years and comes back weaker each time!

[Nick_K]

If you're going to have pretenders appearing as physical units in the world, and you're going to have physically-average pretenders such as archmages in the game then you have to accept the possibility of regular death. You can get the same result if you capture the enemies home province and simply kill them as soon as they're called back, for example. I'm sure you can also regularly kill a pretender with spells or assassination.
There are a number of ways which a pretender can protect itself which have been mentioned here. Primarily by casting returning or by not getting horror marked in the first place. I've played around a half-dozen SP games and the only horror marks I've ever received have bee nfrom items. It is something that the player has a lot of control over.

[mivayan]

normalphil said:
Turn 1 (me): Contract-holder either casts Astral Shield or Fire Shield, depending if he's an Anthamat or a Warlock. Size 10 Bodyguard squad travels forward their full movement trying to come to grips with the Horror.

If it's a strong mage that can kill a horror with a few casts of incinerate or frozen heart, 10 archers might be better. They'll not harm the horror but they wont move either.

Otherwise - oh well. The guy is dead, but at least he got to live in the palace while his friends died in war.

[normalphil]

mivayan said:

If it's a strong mage that can kill a horror with a few casts of incinerate or frozen heart, 10 archers might be better. They'll not harm the horror but they wont move either.

Otherwise - oh well. The guy is dead, but at least he got to live in the palace while his friends died in war.

That's a thought. It even gives me something worthwhile to do with the odd scorpian man.

[Vicious Love]

Ranger said:
Who would follow a god that get's killed every two years and comes back weaker each time!

People have followed gods that get killed every year. And the whole path loss thing isn't something you advertise, unless you feel like guilt-tripping your followers. "Your SINS are why I can't cast Master Enslave anymore! Go, find me an S1 booster, and I might forgive you your wicked trespasses."

[Tuidjy]

Have horrors changed this much from Dominions II? I just got my copy
and have not even installed it yet, but in Dominions II, horrors were
only a minor annoyance for a tough pretender in the late game.

I also remember having to protect an empowered Arch Theurg, whom I was
using for forging. I gave him the ring that let him have ten oversized
bodyguards, and a bunch of blood slaves. This gave him at least two
spell casts, and he was a high earth mage... :-)

Quickness, the horror gets close and eats three slaves, and then the four
petrifies always do the trick. Hell, usually the first one did.

Now that I think about it, I remember that on the supercombat tournament
someone fielded an empowered horror, to pathetic results. Should be
in the archive. Ah, memories...

[Edi]

Yes, they have changed. The doom horrors are all uniques now and each one of them generally eats most armies for lunch.

The doom horrors of Dom2 are pitiful mewling kittens compared to the Dom3 ones. Your arch theurg and his bodyguards would last into the second round against the Hunter of Heroes. Maybe.

Grab the unit DB for Dom3 (link in my sig), look through the unit display list for the following monsters and do a comparison:
Eater of Dreams
Maker of Ruins
Hunter of Heroes
Eater of Gods (3 versions, the 2 physically weak ones are truly terrifying)
Slave to Unreason

There could be a couple of others, but you can start with those. They're pure murder, each and every one.

Edi

[SlipperyJim]

Tuidjy said:
Have horrors changed this much from Dominions II? I just got my copy and have not even installed it yet, but in Dominions II, horrors were only a minor annoyance for a tough pretender in the late game.

As Edi wrote, Horrors have gotten a lot tougher now. Also, Horrors will horror-mark their victims. And each successive level of horror mark means that you'll get bigger and nastier Horrors who attack you more and more frequently....

It's a vicious cycle.

[Aleph]

Or a happy cycle, if you're on the right side of Astral Corruption.