Alexander's ever-expanding Tome of Knowledge

[Nagot Gick Fel]

TOO MUCH MAGIC DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF NO RETURN (edit: new title) (edited again)

This is really an endgame trick as it relies on a high-level spell, and is best used if you have access to many other high-level spells. It is also extremely expensive to setup (both in gems and items, which also cost gems) but when you can make it work it can lead to really hilarious results. Plus it rarely works twice, so it's not very useful as a workable strategy - but as I said, it's lots of fun and you should try it at least once.

The key spell is Vortex of Returning, you get it at Thaumaturgy 7. There are many ways to use VoR but I'll concentrate on (what I think is) the most deadly one.

The second key spell is - actually there are 3 of them: Summon Lammashas, Call Lesser Horror, and Call Horror.

Note this trick relies a lot on the fact that most of the mages accompanying enemy armies will spend their first round "powering up" with spells that don't directly threaten you - eg, Quickness, Communion Master/Slave, Power of the Spheres, Summon XXX Power, etc... But when you've used the trick once on them, they'll try to adapt to cope with the threat - so try to hit hard on the first attempt!

What you need:

- a fair number of teleporting/trapezing mages who can summon those "unfriendly" allies: Lammashtas and/or Horrors. Abysian Warlocks, Grand Thaumaturgs, Harab Elders, Hangadrotts, Moon Mages or Galdermen with a random in death and Skull Staves, are examples of this.

- a few teleporting/trapezing mages who can cast damaging enchantments that cover the whole battlefield. Eg, powerful astral mages can cast Astral Tempest, or if you lack astral power you can have some of your mages cast Communion Slave and follow with Astral Tempest, but you'll have to give a Crystal Matrix to your mage. Trapezing mages can of course cast Wrathful Skies. If you find an Jade Amazon sorceress with a pick in astral or air, you can give her the stuff she needs to teleport or trapeze in and cast Foul Vapors. The possibilities are virtually endless.

- finally, at the bottom of the mage list, there's your VoR caster. Make sure he casts Last, and give him every piece of equipment he needs to survive. If he dies, your other mages might be in serious trouble. You can script an extra mage with VoR to minimize the risks.

The only real threat your mages will face is missile fire and fliers. But you can counter that with air shielding gear, a Staff of Storms, and a few Wraith Crowns (for the undead meatshields). The Wraith Crowns are expensive but are only needed if you notice fliers in your target - beware of spells like Howl, though.

Still, this trick is best used if you add a Master Enslaver in your hunting pack. Imagine this scenario:

0 - you teleport your mage pack on top of the main enemy army.

round 1, enemy phase - the enemy mages power-up or cast battle enchantments that will take effect only 1 round later, the enemy infantry and cavalry charges, the enemy archers fire but fail to hit your air-shielded/lucky mages, the enemy fliers are engaging your undead bodyguards.

round 1, your phase - most of your own mages summon Lammashtas and/or Horrors, some may cast Communion Slave to help the Crystal Matrix bearers, some cast Foul Vapors or Wrathful Skies or Astral Tempest or whatever, a couple mages can Curse and Horror Mark the enemy Titan pretender, your Master Enslaver converts half the enemy army, and the VoR caster sends everyone back to safety, including your new recruits.

round 1, "ally" phase - the Lammashtas/Horrors engage the depleted enemy army, preferably the horror marked units.

round 2+ - well, do I need to say more? Enjoy the replay!

Final note: the Horror Harmonica (with boots of Quickness) is a great tool to use with Vortex of Returning.

[ January 13, 2004, 04:22: Message edited by: Nagot Gick Fel ]

[Truper]

For this one you might consider... THE VORTEX OF NO RETURN

You might want to put it as the "TOO MUCH MAGIC DOWNWARD SPIRAL"

Edit: Btw I call Truper "THE JAVA TROOPER"

[ January 13, 2004, 03:55: Message edited by: Zen ]

DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY!

This is for later games when you're massively outnumbered by undead and want a cheap and effective way of dealing with masses of them.

Use this with any Astral/Fire mages

Before Battle have your mages cast Inner Fire.

First Spell in Battle, cast Phoenix Pyre (or Phoenix Power depending on where you place your mages).

Send the mages in for close combat (or fly if you are T'ien Ch'i to the back row)

FIREWORKS!

The Phoenix Pyre will hit any type of creature, while the Inner Sun burst will fry all low hp undead (Up to Longdead Horsemen and sometimes banes) and possibly higher end, depending on their MR.

The Pyre up and are ready to die for their country again, and take out a few boneys in the process.

They can do this until they run out of fatigue then death will be final, but 2 or 3 of these guys can take out huge numbers of those pesky undead, even if they have Antimagic on them.

Try it with Sacred Troops with a high Earth Blessing, some reinvigoration items, or Relief, for fun.

Beauty of this is you can send them in close to cast up close and personal banishments (which cost 0 Fatigue) while they blow the britches off of those who come to kill them.

[ January 13, 2004, 08:24: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Zen:
DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY!

This is for later games when you're massively outnumbered by undead and want a cheap and effective way of dealing with masses of them.

Nations this is easiest and most useful for: Abysia, Marignon, Mictlan, T'ien Ch'i.

Hmmm, if this is for later games and you're Abysia, you can also use Alex's "Supercharged Abysian Warlock" routine to good effect - a Solar Brilliance will come handy in that scenario ;-)

These work well to teleport into back undead provinces, since commanders don't use food and most undead provinces don't have much supply.

[ January 13, 2004, 08:38: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Keir Maxwell]

Lots of entertaining stuff!

My favourite C'tis unit is Serpent Dancers. With a water9 blessing you can really cause havoc with these guys. Haven't tried fire9 with them yet but it could be interesting.

You can support Serpent Dancers with City Guard as Arrow catchers. City Guard may not be much good vs real troops but they have a strat move of 2, prot 14 and will do fine in the early expansion in a support role on hold and attack. Later they do better than you would think in BIG units to compensate for low morale and they do have good MR's. As they play such a light role in expansion you get alot of veterans with a decent def and they have a spear for repelling - its not their job to win the battle.

One of the things I really like about this approach is how light casulties are during expansion if you get it right. This means you get a really good ramping up of military strenght.

The other key advantage is that the cost work well together. With the Serent Dancers costing 20gps 5 res and the CG costing 10gps and 13 res its easy to build up a mixed army fast.

The Shamans are great fun with 50% quickness. If you can abuse them normally . . .

Alex will you be putting out a text/word copy of your Tome?

Cheers

Keir

[ January 15, 2004, 06:37: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]