Can a Mage be Both Communion Slave *and* Master?

[Sombre]

That's pretty annoying.

I never really used communions much and stuff like that isn't encouraging me to.

[vfb]

It's not all bad ... it's sometimes possible to micro your casters so that depending on what you are doing, you can have the slaves just soak up fatigue, by having slaves last intentionally (Sauromatia Enarie communion for eternal skelly spam); or contribute to a communion for a boost, but also participate, by having slaves first intentionally (S2 Communion for an Antimagic and some Soul Slays, with the slaves casting Mind Burn or Paralyze).

Sometimes it's tough to get what you want because your communion units are non-homogeneous and you may prefer to have your slaves not casting. They'll usually behave themselves for the 1st to 5th turns at least if you script (Comm Slave, 4*Hold).

It's only when you do want your slaves to cast but they are after your masters (in battle order) that you are really out of luck.

[AlgaeNymph]

Jazzepi said:
If A is a master then B/D will be unable to cast spells, but C will be just fine. Masters never interfere with each other.

And if master C is also a slave?

[Endoperez]

C won't cast, because he is a slave, and a master has already casted a spell that turn.

[Gregstrom]

So basically, a master can also be a slave but the limitations of slave status still apply, often to the caster's detriment.

And the opponent's amusement.

[Yrkoon]

Jazzepi said:
If your combat order looks like this

SLAVE A
SLAVE B
MASTER C
SLAVE D

Then slave A/B will be able to freely cast spells each round. Master C will then cast a spell. And slave D will sit around soaking up fatigue and looking stupid.

If A and/or B cast spells in a turn, do they still count as communion slaves, i.e. are the paths of C boosted, and do A and B take fatigue from C casting spells ? Or are they out of the communion for that turn?

[vfb]

They still count as communion slaves.

[Yrkoon]

So if you make the mages that come last in the unit ID order communion masters, and the unit with smaller ID numbers slaves, all the slaves can cast spells, plus they benefit of the spells cast by the master(s) (say earth power or power of the spheres), plus the masters have they paths boosted by the slaves (on top of earth power and power of the spheres in this case) ?!? Am I getting this right ?

[Meglobob]

I don't know the answer to that.

I do know if you try to be clever and have slaves/masters all casting every round, then by the end of the battle you will have alot of dead mages!

After killing several groups of 8 and 16 mages using communion slave/master, I give up on it!

I would just use communion slave/master in extreme emergency when you desperately need a certain high level spell and expect to lose the mages.

Fatigue = mage killer

[carlosib]

I used lots of communions in my last game and i learned that you have to take in consideration the objective of the communion at the moment of the setup. Communions are rather flexible and they allow some nice strategies, but if you lose the focus and try to cast a bit more than it can handle, then you can have some nasty results.
Just one word of advice, to get it right and dont lose a game to a bad planned communion always try it before in a SP test game. You'll be surprised of how many times you'll blow it just for a little detail and be glad you didnt test it in a MP game.
(I've been hours trying to setup communions to cast Fog Warriors and Doom + Bone Grinding x 2 as Ermor)