Global spell tactics ?

[alexti]

Boron said:
A) Which globals are your favourite ones ?

My favourite is Stellar Focus. It is so apparently useless that nobody bothers to dispel it (and who would want to spend 30 astral gems to have a chance to bring 30-gem worth GE down?). By the time all slots are filled, according to Murphy laws, each next GE cast chooses the strongest existing GE (which is certainly not a Stellar Focus) to contest. Thus, Stellar Focus stays up forever

[Kristoffer O]

It doesn't override yours first. Its random.

[Vynd]

I think that Forge of the Ancients is really cool, primarily because it gives your Forgers a +1 boost in every magic path, even the paths they have 0 skill in. That really opens up a lot of forging possibilities.

Burden of Time is a fun one to cast as Ermor. Of course your opponents will pool their resources and get rid of it within a few turns. But I like to imagine their reaction when they see that you've cast it.

Some day I aspire to cast Utterdark with a ton of extra gems on top of it to keep it from being dispelled.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Vynd said:
Burden of Time is a fun one to cast as Ermor.
[...]
Some day I aspire to cast Utterdark with a ton of extra gems on top of it to keep it from being dispelled.

Burden of Time is merely a mild nuisance for living nations. Utterdark is hundreds of times nastier, this one surely won't Last long whatever you put in it. Ermor can hardly afford either anyway.

[Yvelina]

Nagot Gick Fel said:
Burden of Time is merely a mild nuisance for living nations.

I disagree. When you have very expensive, well equipped, and very fragile mages, like for example Pythium, Burden of Time can cost you thousands of gold in one turn. In a MP game I am still in, Arcocephales cast Burden of Time after he lost a major battle, I guess as a way to get back at his enemy.

The Burden of time got dispelled the next turn, but no less than two artifacts appeared for forging in that turn. Some of my expensive Drotts were diseased as well, although they survived long enough for my Fairy queens to heal them. I had a pact with the player who had Gift of Health up, so I could not take it for myself.

Burden of Time is so devastating for some nations, and such a pain for every living nation, that anyone casting it in a game I am in can not only expect to have it dispelled in one turn but also to be destroyed as a matter of principle in the next few turns.

I do not expect to see it cast by anyone who is still in the running... unless he is firmly on top of the heap.

As for how many gems I put into globals, I usually invest only the minimum if I have no enemies, and the global is not too powerful (i.e. not Forge of the Ancients, Arcane Vortex, etc...)

If it is a gem generator (Gale Gate, Well of Misery, etc...) I throw it with as much gems as I can afford when I research it.

If it is one of the game winners, then I wait until I have at least 500 extra gems before I throw it. After all would you throw a Arcane Vortex with 150 gems, so that someone else has an even chance of dispelling it with 30 pearls?

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Yvelina said:
I disagree. When you have very expensive, well equipped, and very fragile mages, like for example Pythium, Burden of Time can cost you thousands of gold in one turn. In a MP game I am still in, Arcocephales cast Burden of Time after he lost a major battle, I guess as a way to get back at his enemy.

The Burden of time got dispelled the next turn, but no less than two artifacts appeared for forging in that turn. [...]

That's a very extreme case, and as such it doesn't invalidate my point. I've been at the receiving of dozens of BOTs myself (mainly because the AI used to have a great liking for it), and I've never been close to losing *thousands* of gold in a single turn because of it, not even a single thousand. A small hundred would be a more accurate figure.

[Daynarr]

You would be losing thousands only from unrest and population deaths it produces (well, unless you have a small empire). Getting your mages and troops killed is just an insult to the wound. The worst thing about this spell is that your dominion provides no protection from it (unlike WotG).