A guide to buffing

[Chazar]

I would use Zen's mod more often if there would only be an updated version of Zen's Quick Reference Guides for summons and items...I wonder why Zen is incompatible with himself?

[Graeme Dice]

ioticus said:
I would guess most people are in the same boat. Why on earth he increased the power of the Vine Ogre, for example, is beyond me.

He did that because they are usable only as meat shields, and not particularly effective ones in the standard game. A high protection unit with a charcoal shield can kill dozens to hundreds of vine ogres without suffering for it at all.

[PDF]

Graeme Dice said:

He did that because they are usable only as meat shields, and not particularly effective ones in the standard game. A high protection unit with a charcoal shield can kill dozens to hundreds of vine ogres without suffering for it at all.

That's a weird rationale : using VO as meat shield is a means to allow other, hard-hitting units (mages mostly) to slaughter the enemies caught in the VO mass.
And vanilla VO are already unbeatable in terms of cost effectiveness...
And tell me how any non-lifeless unit can stand hundreds of VO without succumbing to fatigue.

[Reverend Zombie]

FrankTrollman said:
I would like to point out that I personally play multiplayer without Zen's Mods. I agree and disagree with Zen's choices and rebalances in roughly equal measure, thereby making the addition of that mod a complete waste of time on my part.

-Frank

It is perhaps time, then, for a Frank's Zen's Conceptual Rebalance Rebalance Mod.

[The Panther]

Truper said:
If you'd prefer a less expensive and somewhat quicker-out-of-the-gate pretender, we can take a look at the Astral Wyrm QM mentioned: one of my favorite pretenders. Play most any nation. Slap a few astral on your Wyrm. I like 3. Research to Alteration 1. Position him fairly close to the front of the battle board, have him cast Personal Luck, and attack closest. This works against most anything except heavy cavalry or large numbers of crossbows. The Wyrm is a nice choice for this sort of pretender since he has regeneration, which reduces the chances of afflictions, and has 2 attacks per turn without needing quickness - and therefore without needing water magic. His attacks do a lot of damage since he has great strength, and are also very poisonous. Once you're out conquering, begin Researching enchantment. When you hit 2, you can add Astral Weapon to his script, and when you hit 3, add Astral Shield.

Hey! Did you steal this from me?

I must agree that the astral wyrm is extremely powerful, most especially with Broken Empire Ermor (who has the national spell 'Body Etheral' which gives mundane troops only a 25% chance of actually hitting your wyrm). My son discovered this in the first King of the Hill battle. You do not need anything else to use this beast attacking blind on Turn 1 against 9 level indies! For other nations, the alteration 1 research and personal luck is necessary against 9 level indies.

I would only quibble with one thing here, you need to go to Astral 4 on your wyrm if at all possible, for this allows your sacred mages to get an additional point of magic resistance when blessed. It also helps a lot with the dueling later on.

[Truper]

The Panther said:
Hey! Did you steal this from me?

Not unless you've been playing since Dom1
Actually, I stole it from Alex Poger from some discussions on usenet years ago.

I would only quibble with one thing here, you need to go to Astral 4 on your wyrm if at all possible, for this allows your sacred mages to get an additional point of magic resistance when blessed. It also helps a lot with the dueling later on.

The reason I often end up with only Astral 3 is that moving from 3 to 4 costs 32 points - nearly enough for a scale. I don't think a single point of MR is worth all that much - if you even have sacred mages. Astral 4 would help with dueling, but not enough to matter that much, unless you are in a position to provide communicants. One of the main attractions of the Astral Wyrm is that he's cheap, as well as effective. He's also a nice way to get into the water, which is otherwise tough to do early - especially if you can forge him a Horror Helmet

[WraithLord]

Truper said:
...
Astral 4 would help with dueling, but not enough to matter that much, unless you are in a position to provide communicants.

AFAIK for the purpose of magic duel only the base astral level counts. Empowering through items or communion doesn't count.

[Alneyan]

Empowerment proper does work, as it raises the basic level, but I believe it is what you meant. Everything else will be void.

I believe the Banner of the Northern Star might work too, as one of my mages survived a lot of Magic Duels with this item in hand, and +6 in base astral; he could have been very lucky though. On the other hand, a +5 mage with the Banner and Power of the Spheres will get killed very quickly.