Guide: Guide to communions

[Baalz]

Good points DrP, I updated the original post to include this info.

[Agema]

I've got a query.

In a game I set up three masters (two S3E1, one S1W1E1F1) and at least four slaves (S1-2; E0-1; W0-1). I set the S3 masters to earthpower, then blade wind, the other master to cast acid rain. They were placed about mid-way in the set-up area. Instead of doing what I ordered, they cast other buffs and then stuff like mind burn.

I thought I might have been out of range as my enemy was set up at the back of the battlefield, so I put my mages very close to the front. Then, same situation second battle, they just cast buffs and troop buffs.

Is a 25-30 range spell still unable to reach the back of the battlefield from the front of my setup area, or is there another problem?

[Drake49]

I THINK that each player has a 20 square long field with 10 squares between them. I think the field gets wider with huge numbers of undead and such.

[Baalz]

Yes, this behavior is consistent with the mages either not having appropriate targets or not being able to cast the spells you have scripted. I assume earthpower went off correctly? Most of the mid line evocation spells have ranges that make them mostly useful for hitting swarms of guys charging forward to meet your own infantry halfway.

[DonCorazon]

So in the Classic Communion, do you generally have communion slaves casting spells? I imagined they would be scripted to cast Communion Slave and then to Stay Behind Troops and absorb the fatigue, but the guide sounds like in many cases the slaves also make good spellcasters.

[sector24]

Depends on the spell mostly. If you're spamming low level evocations your magic path (boosted through the communion) is high enough, you may only be giving your slaves like 4 fatigue. In that case it should be fine for the slaves to cast themselves to 100 fatigue, and then it will still be a long time before they get to 200 and start taking damage.

On the other hand if you're casting battlefield wide spells that have several hundred fatigue attached to them, you probably don't want your slaves casting additional spells.

[Baalz]

Having the slaves in the classic communion cast spells is a dangerous move best reserved for battles you're not sure you can win otherwise. The reason is because going 15 turns before slaves die will take you through most battles, but if you can only last 10 turns you'll often find your slaves dying as your masters try to hit the fleeing remnants of your enemy. Not much more annoying than that...

[Jazzepi]

Baalz said:
Having the slaves in the classic communion cast spells is a dangerous move best reserved for battles you're not sure you can win otherwise. The reason is because going 15 turns before slaves die will take you through most battles, but if you can only last 10 turns you'll often find your slaves dying as your masters try to hit the fleeing remnants of your enemy. Not much more annoying than that...

I think this really just depends. When I was playing Arco I was able to always have my slaves spamming soul slay. Since my communions were built around a Banner of the Northern Light + Power of the Spheres, a guy who already has 3 astral isn't going to be paying much fatigue to cast Soul Slay.

Jazzepi

[Meglobob]

I have been using communion slave, banishmentx4, stay behind troops on a big communion. It works very well vs undead armies and is no real danger to your slaves because banishment is 0 fatigue. So why not cast it?

Works with any 1S 1H mage/priest.

[Zeldor]

Jazzepi:

But problem is that you can just script for 5 turns, in late game when you have expensive spells researched masters will cast them, even if they are totally useless [for example enemy slowly routing]. And casting 100+ fatigue spells every turn is exhausting. Especially when you add Phenix Pyre to that you have nice effect

Baalz:

Many nations can access higher level battle spells only through communions, so hard to avoid them or use just low level spells.