Alexander's ever-expanding Tome of Knowledge

[Yossar]

Does high level blood magic make blood vengeance harder to resist? I tried casting it with a Blood-5 caster and still got Blood Vengeance +0.

[st.patrik]

Time to add a humble addition to this august thread.

This isn't a new strategy, but something fun to do with THE PERFECT STORM.

People in the past have complained about the unique item 'sandals of the crane' - saying that they cannot conceive of a use for it. Well it seems to me that the sandals of the crane and the perfect storm go together like hand and glove. The problem with the perfect storm is that sooner or later the opposing troops are going to get to you - especially if you're facing fast-moving units. Equip your death dealing commander with the sandals of the crane and a couple of items to give high protection/defense and then sit back and enjoy the show, as the opposing army runs first one way and then the other, trying to catch up with your teleporting mage; meanwhile the wrathful skies is slowly (or not so slowly) destroying his army. Since the effect of the sandals of the crane is automatic, your handy-dandy mage can cast other things, either to speed the killing process, or to buff him or herself.

I tried this with a Virtue pretender equipped with a robe of invulnerability and said sandals, and the result was quite pleasing, although I'm sure that it would work with a crone as well.

needless to say this would also work with foul vapours, or any other damaging battlefield enchantment. one hint though - load up on reinvigoration items

[Pocus]

FORWARD, MARCH:

Not a combos per se, but something rather interesting to know:

The common behavior for troops with melee and missile weapons (ex legionaries) are to use them as infantry, and order them to hold&attack or attack closest.
It results often in the troop engaging the enemy, and firing a volley of pilum in a suboptimal manner (sometime they dont, sometime only the Last line fire, etc.)

Now use them as archers. Order your legionaries, or javelin thrower to fire. Just that, fire.
What will happen? If they have ammo and an enemy in range, they fire. Each time. Its a great improvement compared to the standard behavior.
If they dont have enemy in range, or dont have any more javelins, they move to close and engage the enemy. For archers it is somehow problematic, for legionaries, its what you want.

So try this order, you will see that you get far more pilums and javelins thrown, and they still act as infantry after.

As I said, a very small trick...

[archaeolept]

time to bump this classic. I checked who was Online, and it indicates what threads they are currently reading, and two were reading this thread...

[Vicious Love]

FLAMING EXPLOITS

Ingredients:


Thaumaturgy 1 OR Blood 1 OR COnstruction 4(Or was it 6?), Alteration 7, Conjuration I forget how much and am too lazy to check

1. One or more mages with (Astral OR Blood OR Communion Matrix) AND Fire

2. A billion communicants. Scouts or thugs with matrices will do, but astral/blood mages will likely be feebleminded ere the battle is through.

Optional ingredients include a relief-casting nature mage, Medallions of Vengeance and Inner Sun rituals, and a communion master capable of casting Breath of Winter, Soul Vortex, Invulnerability, Mistform, Mirror Image, and so on, and so forth. But especially BoW and Soul Vortex.
Sandals of the Crane on the communion master would be a beautiful, if potentially catastrophic, addition.


Instructions:


Script mage/s to Communion/Sabbath Master(Or give 'em matrices, to save precious time and queue depth), Phoenix Pyre, Summon Earthpower(Reinvigoration 4!), Fire Shield(Or Phoenix Power, then Fire Shield), Blink, then either cast spells or attack, depending on lifespan and number of communicants, and on whether a nature mage casting relief/communion master casting Reinvigoration is present*.
Spectate.
Avoid confrontation with 0 encumbrance, cold-, fire-, and Soul Vortex-immune foes.**



* Hold on, would this WORK? Would ALL communion slaves recover 100 fatigue?
Also, are there any spells beside this and Summon Earthpower which reinvigorate the caster?

** This strategy has never been tested, and may well be bollocks.

[Jack Simth]

Vicious Love said:
** This strategy has never been tested, and may well be bollocks.

The strat can work (haven't tested the blood reinvig addition at all), but it can have some issues:
1) a great many of the critters most easily used for communion slaves are NOT immune to soul vortex, and so tend to die of fratricide from each other's vortices.
2) Many of the critters most commonly used for communion slaves are cheap (and therefore have little health) and so die of fratricide when their copy of Pheonix Pyre goes off - killing attackers, sure, but also killing any other communion slaves that are nearby. With the ordering of the Pheonix Pyre's Explosion/Random Repop, it's actually possible to lose half your communion slaves from chain fratricide in a single combat round if you are unlucky.
3) The effects of 1 and 2 can stack. If too many of your communion slaves gather too closely together, they ALL DIE.

Mind you, it can be EXTREMELY amusing to watch....

[Taqwus]

Regarding reinvig, Summon Earthpower, IIRC, is the only spell which provides constant reinvigoration. There are one-shot spells which reduce fatigue, such as Relief (which affects all friendlies, including communicants, to some degree) and Leeching Touch / Leech / Drain Life. It wouldn't surprise me too much if the draining spells went through a separate code path and didn't affect the communicants, but if it did...


Oh, and yes those chain-exploding Phoenix Pyre'd communicants can be quite a sight to behold. Especially if it was the spell-casting AI that chose Phoenix Pyre instead of it being listed in a script.


On weirdness involving communion, it might be noteworthy that at least one stock nation gets not-terribly-expensive -stealthy- astral mages -- the Star Children of R'lyeh, available at any underwater or coastal fort. They don't get other magic, however, which limits what they can do (although a stealthy Communion + Doom + Vortex of Returning might be irritating).

[alexti]

Vicious Love said:
2. A billion communicants. Scouts or thugs with matrices will do

Communicants must have magic skills (at least 1 in some magic path)

[archaeolept]

well, other than pythian commies, that is.

[alexti]

COMMUNICANTS FROM TARTAR.

This communion strategy is devised to eliminate traditional weakness of communion - fragile communicants. Only Tartarians are allowed into this elite communion.

In Tartar communion, slaves are expected to both spellcast and fight while masters will quickly go into melee.

Few Tartarians with interesting paths become communion masters or communion masters and slaves at the same time. Others become communion slaves. 2-3 slaves per master should be enough. Communion slaves are equipped with hydra skin armor and boots of messenger. Other items are intended to maximize battle their melee potential. One of masters should have crystal shield, they should be able to cast quickness, fire and lightning protection, hell power, earth power, mistform, invunerability, personal luck, astral shield, astral weapon, mirror image, soul vortex, breath of winter, fire shield and resist magic. Someone (preferrably slave) should be able to cast other useful spells: doom, darkness, wrathful skies and any other batlefield-wide destructive spells.

Important points:
- every slave is expected to get +3 in every magic path (crystal shield + hell power) and +4 in earth, therefore they should start their script on hold, so that they don't start casting until empowerment.
- masters should be equipped to provide uncovered resistances.
- every masters should be scripted to attack after casting buffs (they're the main danger for the slaves).
- Tartarians should be placed so that the slaves are close together and in the front of masters and other troops (except, maybe, some fodder) This is necessary, because the slaves won't rush into the fight and they will only go to melee if the enemies comes into the range. Apparently, they will not advance to get within the spell range either.

Expected slave stats:
HP - 200 and growing...
regeneration - 40 per turn
Att/Def - in mid twenties
MR - 30-35
protection - 30.
resistance to pretty much everything resistable

Weapons:
breath of winter, fire shield, soul vortex, astral shield + melee weapon.

Edited: Clarified how to get slaves to fight.