WindRide, CloudTrapeze and MindHunt???

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Chazar said:
-WindRide: [...]I think my spells should come first before they are able to hide and sneak away again? Right or wrong?

Depends on the spell. IIRC Wind Ride works on sneakers (I may be wrong), while some other rituals (eg, Seeking Arrow) don't.

I have found someone mentioning that Etherealness is also good for stopping WindRide? Why?

Try WR-ing one of your own ethereal commanders, the reason why is fully explained in the message you'll get - something along the lines "the attempt was unsuccesful because the whirlwind couldn't get any hold on the incorporeal commander".

Are they immune or is it just unlikely?

Immune.

Do those Magic Penetration Amulets that I already use affect the chances for these ritual-spells at all?

No effect on Wind Ride (this isn't a 'resistable' spell - one of those that reads 'magic resistance negates').

Also, what are the rough chances for WindRide with respect to Size and EarthMagic? (e.g. is it already almost hopeless to target size 4 creatures?, etc.)

Earth @4 should make you immune.

Not sure about size - for some time I believed size 6 was required to get WR immunity, but now I think it's more dependent on HPs than size, or it has changed since the time I tested it. Eg, I remember WR-ing size 4 Jotun Herses (that was in Dom 1), but the size 4 hero Bogus is unaffected by the spell.

-CloudTrapeze: CloudTrapezing onto the sneaking thugs, just after they unhid themselves by attacking, didnt work either, for the thugs were ordered to retreat. What I wonder though is what happens to those retreating thugs orders? They retreat during the magic-phase,

By 'retreat', I assume you mean they sneaked away to an adjacent province? If so, your Last statement is wrong: they 'retreat' (move) during the normal phase. They were still here when you Trapezed in, only you didn't see them.

so would they carry out their orders after the retreat if they can?

Which orders? When you order a stealthy commander to 'sneak', he will hardly do anything but 'hide' on arrival.

Are they even capable of still moving, provided that their former destination is still within reach?

Sure they can.

-MindHunt: Are mindless creatures immune to MindHunt?

Yes. Or at least, they should be.

Or is the only defense an astral mage?

Or high MR. Or Domes.

[Chazar]

Nagot Gick Fel said:
Try WR-ing one of your own ethereal commanders, the reason why is fully explained in the message you'll get - something along the lines "the attempt was unsuccesful because the whirlwind couldn't get any hold on the incorporeal commander".

Great!!! That means I just wasted all those precious Air Gems for nothing! When casting it on enemy commanders, I just got the report saying: "XYZ has cast wind ride." Nothing more... And why should I ever try it on my own if I can cloud trapeze anyway...

By 'retreat', I assume you mean they sneaked away to an adjacent province? If so, your Last statement is wrong: they 'retreat' (move) during the normal phase. They were still here when you Trapezed in, only you didn't see them.

No! I meant retreat from the battle that occurred due to CloudTrapezing onto the thugs: The CloudTrapeze triggered a Battle, but my opponent might have forseen something like that, thus his armies where ordered to retreat via tactical army setup orders (which he can do, since its the turn after the attack of the previously hidden sneaking thugs).

Thus the battle occurs before the thugs could carry out their own ordinary strategical non-battle orders (provided that they are not casting a spell themselves), but they moved thereby to an adjacent province before the normal movement phase. So what can they do in the normal phase after that combat?

Example: Hideous Hillary is unhidden in province X, ordered to sneak to province Y. Now magically mighty Mike CloudTrapezes onto Hillary in province X and a battle happens at X, but Hillary retreats from the battle to province Z (by any reason, maybe rout). So we know that Z must belong to Hillary's employer. If Y=Z will she be hidden or be visible; and if not, will she still sneak to Y if Z is adjacent to Y? I assume that Hillary will sit unhidden in Z defending it, but I am not sure and this game is obviously full of surprise!

---

Anyway, thanks for your quite helpful insights so far!

[archaeolept]

No! I meant retreat from the battle that occurred due to CloudTrapezing onto the thugs: The CloudTrapeze triggered a Battle, but my opponent might have forseen something like that, thus his armies where ordered to retreat via tactical army setup orders

heh lol. well, your oppponent just needlessly lost his troops (unless he actually had someplace to retreat to) when instead he could just have set his troops to sneak or hide, which would have immediately made them hidden to your cloud trapezing units.

[Chazar]

archaeolept said:
heh lol. well, your oppponent just needlessly lost his troops (unless he actually had someplace to retreat to) when instead he could just have set his troops to sneak or hide, which would have immediately made them hidden to your cloud trapezing units.

No, they had a place to retreat and are still wreaking havoc upon me...

BUT you say that stealth troops cannot be nailed down by cloud trapeze, for they hide even before cloud trapezers may arrive? So this is also an unusable option to catch stealthy skirmishers?

[archaeolept]

yup. stealth is a real pain.

[johan osterman]

Nagot Gick Fel said:
...
Earth @4 should make you immune.

Not sure about size - for some time I believed size 6 was required to get WR immunity, but now I think it's more dependent on HPs than size, or it has changed since the time I tested it. Eg, I remember WR-ing size 4 Jotun Herses (that was in Dom 1), but the size 4 hero Bogus is unaffected by the spell.

...

IIRC there is a decreasing likelyhood to get windrode from size 4 to 6, where you are immune at size 6.