Ghosts and what not

[JimMorrison]

Oh my do you need help.


Okay, Magic Beings - it is just a designation, like Undead or Animal. They do have special concerns, so look for the little Fairy icon on the unit and click on it for a description of the important parts. By themselves, Magic Beings can be hit by any weapon, so it's not an issue for that. This is different than Sacred, and different from Ethereal.

Ethereal is a state, that most units do not possess normally. It makes normal weapons pass through them 75% of the time. You do need magic weapons to be effective against them - it's a powerful tool, learn how to use it effectively as soon as you can (both Ethereality, and tactics for killing Ethereal creatures).

As for items you give commanders, I am pretty sure that they are all, by definition, "Magic Items". Number of attacks listed, is attacks per round, that is to let you know if they deviate from 1/round only, unless it specifically states "this attack can only be used once per battle", or has an "Ammunition" listing.

Ghosts and Spectral Whatevers will definitely be Ethereal. Most normal troops that you can train will be relatively ineffective against them. Number of troops isn't the relevant factor, you'll fully understand this the first time you crush an entire army with your Cyclops alone.

You first need to forget "generic armor" on your pretender. Then you need to discover the dividing line between "crappy armor", and "worthwhile armor", try to only ever put the latter on a pretender.

After that, you need to get him scripting buffs on himself. With his high natural Protection, and with good armor, armor buffs will be of little overall use. Try to get Soul Vortex for him, or at least Drain Life. Buffs need only be cast once per battle, but even if there is a second battle in the same turn, the buffs need to be recast.


Any other questions, and we'll try to help. Though I personally spent a few good months training myself before even coming here, so no one could see me gasping for breath.

[JimMorrison]

Curse you for posting while I'm typing, Sector24! I will get you next time! MuaHAhaHAhaHAHAAAAAAA!!!! O.O

[sector24]

haha, between the two of us I think we covered it pretty well though.

[GrudgeBringer]

Thanks to BOTH of you....that was Exactly the answer I needed!!!

[Renojustin]

Nice Jim, reccomend that the Cyclops buff itself with paths it doesn't have naturally available at all, that'll really explode his head.

Otherwise nice advice.

[Endoperez]

The Cyclops in question has D7, though.

To keep the pretender alive, try to keep his encumberance as low as possible. Avoid shields and armor with lots of encumberance unless they give you worthwhile abilities (Lead Shield and magic resistance boost could be an example of this, depending on what your opponent is doing).

[Executor]

Hey I think I know which game you're talking about, thanks for the info on your pretender by the way, a little help about the ghosts,
attack with lots of priests and some high MR troops for the spectrals.

[AreaOfEffect]

Summon Earthpower is also a good buff for a Cyclops as it will grant you reinvigoration 4, which will partly solve the emcombrance problem. Don't use the spell and then ignore Endoperez's advice though, the spell is no substitute for a low encombrance build.

Also Fists of Iron is a melee range spell, much like Hand of Death and Freezing Touch. By its very nature it is a hard spell to script as your pretender will simply cast another spell if no target is directly next to him. If your pretender flys, then this becomes less of an issue as you can be sure that after one round of flying you will most likely be next to a valid target. The scripting in your example might look like such:

(Barkskin)(Attack)(Fists of Iron)

Rremember, without flying you may need to attack for many more rounds. Attack always advances your commander foward toward the closest opponent. In my opinion, Fists of Iron isn't the ideal spell for this sort of tactic. My favorites are close range area of effect spells like Shock Wave and Flame Erruption. However, it must be noted that I haven't actually seen Fists of Iron in action when using a powerful earth mage.

[Executor]

Hydra skin armor, ring of regeneration and you are invincible, that is my opinion with 30 protection and 20% regeneration you can hardly be killed early on, put in an eye shield and let your enemy blind themselves, but keep in mind that you need to keep reinvigoration above the emcombrance, because when it gets over 100 you're dead.