I hate horrors

[Edi]

Yes, it is, so it should only work on magic beings.

[Aleph]

Claws/Prison always work - at least, I've never seen them fail. And if you can't beat them, join them - come over to Blood.

I've been trying to enslave horrors with Hellbind Heart, and it doesn't work - the battle ends when the spell goes off successfully, but you don't get to keep the horror. I think it's more about the assassination format, though - I've definitely gone for the Dreams of Rl'yeh / Enslave Mind combination in the past, and the same result - you're considered the victor, but you don't get the commander.

BUT I too have been having a great time in a LA Mictlan game with Astral Corruption - I beelined straight to it after a slight diversion for SDRs and Jaguar Toads. Then I finished out Blood Magic so I could have access to Claws of Cocytus and Infernal Prison. These work 100% of the time on horrors, just like they do everything else (at least, I've never seen them fail, and that includes on Kurgi and several other Doom Horrors). Trouble/opportunity is, horrors are tough - especially the kind of horrors (like, say, Kurgi) who show up looking for trouble when you have cast a 100+ gem global spell under Astral Corruption. So they eventually find their way out of Inferno, and once they do they are regular units in the world. So at that point you've got a shot at enslaving them.

I haven't pulled it off yet - one time I brought too large an army and my commander decided that it would be a waste of resources to hellbind a horror, and fighting Kurgi my placement was off and my commander didn't advance into hellbinding range. But I'm convinced it's possible, and I think blood magic is the way to do it - it's the lowest level domination spell in the game in terms of path requirements, therefore you can get the highest amount of bonuses for going above and beyond, and bloodslaves are accessible in much larger numbers than other gem types. They also make a nice human shield around your spellcaster.

I haven't yet gotten to the point of casting Send Horror at my own army, but I'm getting there. Since that's a battle format, not assassination, and yet the horrors normally go away at the end, I'm not sure what the net result will be.

[Nick_K]

Actually, whether the mage bane instakill works against your commander or not is pretty irrelevent... if the fatigue gets redirected onto you from blood vengeance while you're fighting a doom horror then you're dead meat anyway I'd imagine.
Interesting about Infernal prison. I haven't used in yet in DOms3. Where do the horrors return to when they get out?

[PvK]

Yep. I've played hundreds of hours (at least) of Dominions 3 and just recently experience what was I think my first horror attack due to a horror-mark. A Lesser Horror showed up to punish one of my necromancers for using wicked magic items. The necromancer raised over a dozen undead, who took care of the horror before it reached the necromancer.

Of course, there is the point that human players can use various horror magics to evil effect... but there are lots of other very evil uses of magic in Dominions, too. Nature of the beast.

If one really wants to play without worrying about horror marks, though, just mod the horrors into something that's just a nuisance (like a black hawk or something), as was done when the Hunter of Heroes bug was active.

PvK

[Xietor]

I think most SC's with good items can beat Horror. If you are horror marked keep 5 elite body guards. I think staff of storms will prevent horror from flying up to you.

If that premise is correct(it stops most things from flying)
then your sc has time to buff with spells and your body guards may be able to slow it down a good bit, if not kill it.

[Taqwus]

SoS isn't all that helpful, except to do lightning damage (to which, if memory serves, they're generally not resistant). And if you're interested in doing elemental damage, Phoenix Rod might be a better pick as incinerate is 100-prec.

[Edi]

Cheaper to make too and air gems have a wider variety of uses than fire to boot.

[Xietor]

staff of storms prevents flying units from flying. that keeps them from flying up to you in 1 turn.

[Graeme Dice]

Horrors, storm demons, elemental air queens, and Caelum Storm Guard and Storm Generals can all fly in storms. I might have missed someone else that can fly during a storm.