use of bane lords

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

"I thought Iron Will was Ulm only?"
Nope, thats "Tempering the Will", which affects the entire battlefield (friendlies only). Iron Will affects only one square or one unit, I'm not sure which.

"my mages and top generals (Hangatuns or something) come with air, death, earth and some blood (although i am not using it)"

By any chance are you referring to a Hangadrott?
Are you possibly playing Hellheim, not Vanheim?
Or is it a Vanadrott? Vanheim has the dwarven Smiths, but not much death. Hellheim has the Svartalf (dark dwarf) and sacred flyer Dis. Vanheim has no flyers, but does have an immortal.

[parcelt]

yes - i am sorry, definitely playing Hellheim and my generals are called Hangadrotts. My mages are the great Svartalfs (too bad they seem to be capital only).

With respect to avoiding my bane lords being targeted with magic all the time, how about having a lot of Shades accompany them? (i am swimming in death gems).

I thought the Sword of Swiftness was a good idea against hordes of low-level enemies. Why do people seem to prefer Frostbrand / firesword?

[Meglobob]

parcelt said:
yes - i am sorry, definitely playing Hellheim and my generals are called Hangadrotts. My mages are the great Svartalfs (too bad they seem to be capital only).

No, its very good Svartalfs are capital only. It is too unbalancing otherwise.

parcelt said:With respect to avoiding my bane lords being targeted with magic all the time, how about having a lot of Shades accompany them? (i am swimming in death gems).

Bodyguards are good, I believe bodyguards with more hps or a larger size will be targeted instead of your bane lord.

parcelt said:I thought the Sword of Swiftness was a good idea against hordes of low-level enemies. Why do people seem to prefer Frostbrand / firesword?

They have a AOE instead of just targeting 1 opponent. Try it and see the difference. Shadow brand is good as well.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Sword of Swiftness attacks twice, but only against one target. Fire Brand and Frost Brand have a small (which is what exactly?) area attack. Against size 2 humanoids, you're hitting at least three enemies with the side affect, in addition to the weapon itself. I haven't yet used them myself, so I can't say whether its worth it, but that's roughly the reason why they prefer that.

I would not go with Shades, they don't last too long with banishment going around (area attack), but they do have the decent MR. If you have the ability to summon them in quantity, Ghosts help trim the chaff with their fear, 20 hp, and 15 MR. Alternatively, a Behemoth will trample many units underfoot, and absorb a lot of spells at 104 hitpoints- though they'll go down, for sure. If you can cast darkness, it'll hinder non-dead, non-darkvision units. Most importantly, it cuts the precision the spellcasters will use- unless they've summoned undead spellcasters - easily done with EA Ctis. Banishment may be AOE, but has a precision of 0. If you're cutting precision to a quarter of its original value (Ctis - 10), it'll have trouble hitting a thing.
10/4 = 2.5. 2.5/2-2 - barring experience boni, it'll start deviating before it gets past their nose.

At ten spaces, deviation is equal to about 5 squares. Still within AOE 4, easily.

At twenty spaces, max deviation is 10 squares.

Paralyze has 100 precision, unfortunately. And I'm not certain where spell precision falls in the formula, before or after darkness. But assume the worst, it'll hit.

[Xietor]

You are getting some good advice.

Bane Lord ideally should be equipped with(and this is at constr 4, obviously better items exist down the research tree):

Weapon Fire Brand: This is a no brainer, aoe attack and fire resist

Shield-Charcoal shield or eyeshield are both good. Lucky coin is also good.

Body-something light weight to increase his movement, that also has high protectionin mail displacement or silver hauberk are both excellent.

Helm-Horror helm at const 4 is nice, obviously if you are going against a race with units immune to fear or a fire mage race, you want 100 percent fr over fear.

Boot-quickness are best, but that is const 6. Since you are there in your present game, stick with those. If you were cranking out a bane lord at constr 4, go with brimstone boots for the 100 fr and extra str.

Misc slots:how much mr do you really need? In a mp game when you are being mind hunted etc, it can never be TOO high. But In a sp game, I think you are fine with the luck pendant and ring regen.

A bane lord that is regenerating at 7 per turn is hard to kill with a smites, especially when they have only a 50 percent chance of landing.

But against a race like ctis, with their level 3 priests, or other races with high level priests, then the advice to forego offense for defense kicks in.

I would never discard luck or regen. you need them both in some form in my opinion. Maybe go with faithful weapon, lead shield, brimstone boots, horror helm, chain mail of displacement, and the ring of regeneration and the amulet of antimagic if you are facing a nation with tons of priests that smite.

The advantage of the charcoal shield, especially when combined with the horror helm, is you may be able to win even if paralyzed. Units that strike you take damage and are subject to fear effect of the helm and may rout.

So the long answer is, there is no one best answer. much depends on who you are fighting, and what types of damage and units they are using.

[sum1lost]

One nice item is rainbow armor, although you have to be living to take advantage of the reinvigoration. It provides MR, though, which is invaluable.

[Rytek]

If you are having trouble with magic switch to:

Frostbrand, lead shield, starshine cap, ring of regen, lucky amulet, boots of quickness. dont really need to mess with the armor slot. The starshine cap and lead shield will boost magic resistance. high protection and luck should protect you against most chaff except lances and Ctiss does not have any of those. Frostbrand does area cold damage which is nice vs the cold blooded lizards.

My ultimate banelord at constuction level 6 regardless of gem cost would be:
Head:Wraith crown (etheral)
Weapon: The blood axe that inflicts chest wounds (also gives beserker +2) 5 blood slave cost.
Shield: Charcoal shield
Body: Hydra skin armor (regeneration)
Boots:Quickness
Misc1: lucky amulet
Misc2: amulet of magic resistance

I like the axe because of the beserker. Hate it when they run away. Let their cold aura and fire shild do the killing. Etherealness, luck, regen and armor for survivability. 1 boost to magic resistance which is normally adequate vs the AI.

[parcelt]

I am playing EA. I think I have ok magic: my mages and top generals (Hangatuns or something) come with air, death, earth and some blood (although i am not using it). My pretender is a Monolith W4F4E4A4. I have empowered/equiped various mages to N3 / F4 / D6, and one of those generals has A5.

Basically the only regular units I build are the Huskarls.

What kind of dwarf is that?