Devil Review

[Gandalf Parker]

Stormbinder said:
That's nice setup Gandelf and I agree, it is certanly fun. But I think it can only work once in MP if you are playing against good opponent, since the next turn you will likely to get a Ghost Riders/other magical-summon/teleport attack on your "Christmas present" province. If it has just bunch of amazons set on "hellbind" and air 5 mage, as your described, it'll not stop this attack, and your mages will be killed/routed. If your opponent would also block all retreat routes than all your mages will be lost.

I admit that I dont remember being at the other end of windride. I suppose it does say where the commander went.

Having troops or defence there tended to kill the sucker before I could convert him so I knew I was taking chances with no troops and no defence. I usually had my windmage set for a couple of actions and then retreat or some sort of safety transport. It was the only piece of importance. Taking back the province is no big deal.

It might not be an ultimate strategy but its a fun one to keep in the carddeck just in case you get the chance to use it.

[Cainehill]

Gandalf Parker said:
I think a bind-heart assassin is an ultimate strategy ...
You follow [enemy armies] and snatch commanders one by one chopping his army into

Problem is that you have to snatch a commander; move the next turn, guessing which way the enemy is going; if lucky, snatch a commander, else guess which way the enemy is going and try again.

Does Bind-Heart leave the target as a commander, or does it steal the willpower? I haven't played enough blood to know, but I find that Nature's Charm is somewhat superior to the Astral Version for that reason. In which case, one of Pangaea's big stealthy mages with flying boots and the black heart might be even more effective than the demon, since you get (for instance) fully equipped banelords and such on your side.

[Gandalf Parker]

Cainehill said:
Does Bind-Heart leave the target as a commander, or does it steal the willpower? I haven't played enough blood to know, but I find that Nature's Charm is somewhat superior to the Astral Version for that reason. In which case, one of Pangaea's big stealthy mages with flying boots and the black heart might be even more effective than the demon, since you get (for instance) fully equipped banelords and such on your side.

Bind Heart does leave him as a commander. And seems to work more often than some of the others. Pangaea has stealthy gods which make for a fun assassin. Pandemoniacs make good bind-heart assassins also.

Another advantage with Pangaea for assassins is that even without a charm they speed up taking provinces ALOT! A Pan assassin tosses Maenads each turn. So you assassinate a commander then there is an attack by 3 or 4 loose maenads. It makes it easy to know when you get the Last commander, and the province is yours automatically without having to take another turn to do an attack.

[Boron]

Gandalf Parker said:

Bind Heart does leave him as a commander. And seems to work more often than some of the others. Pangaea has stealthy gods which make for a fun assassin. Pandemoniacs make good bind-heart assassins also.

Another advantage with Pangaea for assassins is that even without a charm they speed up taking provinces ALOT! A Pan assassin tosses Maenads each turn. So you assassinate a commander then there is an attack by 3 or 4 loose maenads. It makes it easy to know when you get the Last commander, and the province is yours automatically without having to take another turn to do an attack.

The black heart is construction 6 . So to make your Pans assasins you need construction 6 but by that time there won't be too many indy provinces left on not too big maps or other very special settings .

So you mean using them against other players ?
This is very nasty i think because the pan should be not easy to kill during an assasination . I didn't play pangenea often can you give the pan a few FoDs as bodyguard and they participate the assasination ?

What happens if you are in enemy lands , no way to retreat and you charm an SC ? Does he then attack the defenders of the province as well or does he die because of nowhere to retreat ?

[Gandalf Parker]

Boron said:
This is very nasty i think because the pan should be not easy to kill during an assasination . I didn't play pangenea often can you give the pan a few FoDs as bodyguard and they participate the assasination ?

Yes they arent weak and the magic helps alot. Given the right items they Last in the field well which is good considering they are very expensive. Pandemoniacs are capital only but Pans can be made in cheap towers. I love playing Pangaea as sneak armies. Seank them in, take some small province off in the corner, no dominion push to draw attention to your location, crank out sneak units and spread them all over the map. A few spots like that can wreak havoc on some of these "unbeatable strategies".

FoD? bodyguards dont help in assassination but are nice in case you are spotted. Trinkets that summon do assist in assinations such as that skull talisman. Self-fighting items like the stone dove help also.

What happens if you are in enemy lands , no way to retreat and you charm an SC ? Does he then attack the defenders of the province as well or does he die because of nowhere to retreat ?

He attacks the defenders but I think its a seperate battle. I dont remember.

[Cainehill]

Gandalf Parker said:
Another advantage with Pangaea for assassins is that even without a charm they speed up taking provinces ALOT! A Pan assassin tosses Maenads each turn. So you assassinate a commander then there is an attack by 3 or 4 loose maenads. It makes it easy to know when you get the Last commander, and the province is yours automatically without having to take another turn to do an attack.

Hrm. I'm watching the maenads spawned by the Lord of the Wild just now - they attack the province, and immediately rout despite being berserk. I had thought that berserkers kept fighting without any commanders, but it seems not.

This tends to make the maenads less than useful when spawned in hostile territory, since they can probably rout quicker than even leaderless troops in a province.

[Graeme Dice]

Cainehill said:
I'm watching the maenads spawned by the Lord of the Wild just now - they attack the province, and immediately rout despite being berserk.

Maenads don't start out berserk, they have to be damaged and succeed a morale check to go berserk.