A few bless and other questions

[MaxWilson]

Mictlan has good access to Wooden Warriors. It's not great but it's not bad either.

P.S. Don't forget to scatter decoys around. Mictlan does cheap chaff, doesn't it? "Archer decoys" should work just as well vs. blade wind, to buy your tough sacreds some time to close.

-Max

[Edi]

1) No. This is in the FAQ.

2) All melee weapons. They get the "bless fire" weapon added to them.

3) Flaming arrows affects longbows, short bows, crossbows, arbalests, slings, chakrams, javelins, shuriken and boulders, not sure about throwing axes. It should also affect banefire bows, but I'm not sure about other magical bows.

4) Units with heavy armor and/or good shields usually suffer less from Blade Wind.

[Kristoffer O]

I'm currently playing MA Mictlan in an MP game. My armies are currenlty being whipped by Vanheim bladewinds. I have come to the conclusion that archer decoys are not necessarily a good thing, as BW outrange your spells and slings and can be used from the rear of the enemy lines to target your rear units, regardless of archer decoys.

Generally the spell AI targets to get maximum dmg output, which means it avoids buffed troops and is more likely to target your large group of archers or other shield less troops. If all rear troops are protected with wooden warriors the front ones will be targeted, but on the other hand, the buffed rear troops will not close for combat until the front chaff are destroyed. Might be better to place all your troops as close to the enemy as possible, together with buffing mages, expect some losses and hope that your troops get to the rear of the enemy before your chaff is dead.

Flying troops can be great to take out rear mages.

[Snacktime]

Thanks again - Edi what is a melee weapon? Is bite/claw/claw three melee "weapons" and they all get flaming weapons?

As for bladewind, the flying units and spreading chaff seem to be doing pretty okay.

[Chris_Byler]

I thought the way to use archer decoys was to put them in front *and to the side* of your real troops, so they don't actually get in the way, but they're still nearer and thus targeted first. Since the slaves have 0 prot and are not buffed, they will take more damage. By the time they break, hopefully your real troops are within a round or two of reaching the enemy (or already have) and the dwarves are tired.

KO, in addition to the wooden warriors suggestion, you might also try mind hunting the dwarves with moon priests.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

From what I hear, the death bless (affliction rate) will affect spells as well. Is this an exploit or an acceptable thing to take advantage of in MP?

[Endoperez]

Everything that isn't a ranged weapon (i.e. doesn't have "range" and "ammo" values) is a melee weapon. Hoofs of the sacred knights' horses will be aflame. A Stone Bird of a sacred thug will be aflame. Ice Blades of Temple Guards will be aflame. The bite of the sacred serpent will also deal fire damage.

[Wahnsinniger]

Well, the affliction rate Does work with normal ranged weapons. Considering the Death bless is considered inferior to the Fire Bless, I'd think that the affliction rate would be acceptable to work with spells.

In reality (for this game, and other fantasy things as well) "Blessing" is the pretender god lending his/her/its power to the sacred unit, so there's no reason why it wouldn't or couldn't buff the units spells also.

[MaxWilson]

Chris_Byler said:
KO, in addition to the wooden warriors suggestion, you might also try mind hunting the dwarves with moon priests.

In principle that's a good suggestion, since Helheim has zero access to astral. But aren't moon priests S2? Mind Hunt requires S4, and I don't think MA can forge astral boosters unless your pretender is specifically made for it.

'Course you can maybe trade.

-Max

[mr_Logic]

appearently its a tough question, as no one has decisively answered it yet. i would assume though, that it only affects a hand held weapon, much like the protection bonus from earth magic, and therefor kick, fist, hoof, claw and such would not be affected. but i have no way to know.