Alexander's ever-expanding Tome of Knowledge

[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.

[deccan]

Do communion slaves fight? Don't they just stand around doing nothing?

[alexti]

Communicants can do something useful if they're not exhausted by their masters, Fatigue should be less than < 100. That's why masters must be scripted to buff and attack.

Communicants won't rush into melee, but if the enemy comes within the range they will fight him (that's why I suggest positioning communicants in the front).

Oops, Peter Ebbesen's post I was replying to has disappeared... I guess he's realized how I scripted them. Though his point about hydra skin is probably valid. Regeneration shows on stats and master will cast personal regeneration (usually mages wouldn't cast spell which wouldn't work), but with the soul vortex and life draining weapons it's hard to say if regeneration works. My guess would be that it probably doesn't work, which makes my strategy vulnerably to the army of undead with a lot of wither bones spellcasters. I wonder if any healing spells would work on undead Tartarians. If regeneration doesn't work hydra skin should probably be replaced with rainbow armor.

I've attached replay of the battle. It's not perfectly setup (suboptimal equipment and the spell sequence could probably be better), but it demonstrates the strategy well (password is "fire")

[Peter Ebbesen]

alexti said:
Oops, Peter Ebbesen's post I was replying to has disappeared... I guess he's realized how I scripted them.

Yes, sorry about that. I wrote a long post, then realised that I was dead wrong under the right circumstances, i.e. slaves placed right in the line of fire. I still think Hydra Skin Armour is a poor choice due to fatigue issues, but that does not invalidate your strategy.

You might want to add to your original post the point about how the slaves get activated and actually fight. Since many people use communion slaves in the rear row, the most common experience is that they do nothing at all no matter how you script them.

[alexti]

Peter Ebbesen said:

Yes, sorry about that. I wrote a long post, then realised that I was dead wrong under the right circumstances, i.e. slaves placed right in the line of fire. I still think Hydra Skin Armour is a poor choice due to fatigue issues, but that does not invalidate your strategy.

Fatigue management needs to be tailored to the custom situation. If the enemy has a lot of living troops fatigue problem doesn't exist due to soul vortex and life-draining weapons. With masters going into melee the usual fatigue issues of communion disappear, so slaves suffer fatigue only from their own spells. There're several ways to deal with situation: have a slave scripted to relief (uncertain after round 5), minimize encumbrance, wear reinvigortion items (rainbow armor is a primary candidate to replace hydra skin),script slaves to 5 spells and attack. It is also possible to ignore the problem. Without masters casting, slaves only need to deal with their own fatigue, which starts to restore after it gets over 100. With Tartarian staying power and multiple aura effects, falling unconcious for few turns may not be a big deal, especially when different slaves use different strategies. And the only reason for hydra skin was to provide regeneration vs non-resistable damage, so if it doesn't work it should not be used.

Peter Ebbesen said:
You might want to add to your original post the point about how the slaves get activated and actually fight. Since many people use communion slaves in the rear row, the most common experience is that they do nothing at all no matter how you script them.

Thanks, I've added explanation about that to my original post.

Actually, I think placing communion slaves in the back is impractical in many regular communions as well. Spellcasting slaves can add quite a bit of firepower, so in many situations I'd place them to have enemies within the range of spells I'd like to use.