Super-Combatants

[Vicious Love]

archaeolept said:
the problem of course is making sure the gifts hit, and, even more difficult, making sure they hit something valuable. Given the low accuracy, and not really that great an area of affect, I've seen gifts from heaven do nothing of consequence more often than not. Other spells are more... dependable.

Nothing the right sort of commander can't get around. Precision -3 really isn't all that problematic at point-blank range, and it's nothing a single turn of casting and a smidgen of air or nature won't remedy.
Also, consider the above "army of devils" scenario. They'll hit something. The gifts may only have an area of 1 each, but anything in those areas is dead, dead, dead. Unless it's mirrored, lucky, or has a Tarrasqueload of HP.

I'm not saying the spell is particularly cost-effective against mid-level hordes, unless your caster has two or three extra earth levels. But I am saying that, given the proper circumstances, it can be a lot more reliable than more accurate Evocation spells.

[Valandil]

Fungus, Anemone, Whatever.
and yes, you can wish for an ettin mandragora, although I wouldn't except maybe in SP.

Uhh... point blank gifts would be good, but sort of pointless. Blade wind would work at that range too.

[archaeolept]

point blank Gifts, LOL - this some suicide gambit?

[Wish]

man i was mispelling mandragora this hwole time.

so I havce this SC ettin mandragora kickin ***, basically totalled the largest army nearly single handedly... (I decided to seige a capitol and just fight the attacking forces) he had 675 kills.

hes decked out for AoE killin'. ember, that poison sck on a stick, the twin spear (death,) amon hotep, sun helm, robes of callius, boots of quickness and an amulet of antimagic...

what should kill him? he gets hit by "maggots" and dissapears at the end of combat.

I guess theres a big downfall to making an SC of an undead.

[Kuritza_Dru]

I keep hearing about these Mandragora ettins. But how do you get them normally? Is it a very lucky Pangaea CW free summon?

[Endoperez]

No, it's Pangaea CW Hero. So it is, usually, unique.

[Vicious Love]

archaeolept said:
point blank Gifts, LOL - this some suicide gambit?

Strangely enough, no. I guess being inches away from hot plasma death motivates a caster to concentrate on his aim.

Re: Blade Wind, Gifts are much, much more effective against heavily armored uberthingies. Blade Wind isn't particularly likely to bring down an Abomination in one go.

[Morkilus]

Gifts from Heaven is quite nice... I threw my two Dwarves against all the big heavy cavalry/infantry provinces the AI never got around to killing, and that spell crushed them. Good thing there were some Einheres to spare to slow them down tho...

[Wish]

you know whats nice, warriors of mist. Computer used this on me and a huge hoard of wolves forced my SC to retreat :/