Endgame Diversity Mod - v1.2 released

[Valerius]

Ok, I ran some tests and here are the results.

First Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Eye Shield, Dragon Helmet, Rainbow Armor, Bracers, Pendant of Luck
Script: Bless, Barkskin, Mistform, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Pendant of Luck
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi killed
battle 2 - Shishi routed
battle 3 - Shishi routed


Second Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Vine Shield, Dragon Helmet, Rainbow Armor, Bracers, Pendant of Luck
Script: Bless, Barkskin, Mistform, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Pendant of Luck
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, Flight, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi routed
battle 2 - Shishi killed
battle 3 - Shishi routed


Third Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Vine Shield, Dragon Helmet, Rainbow Armor, Bracers, Pendant of Luck
Script: Bless, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Pendant of Luck
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Sidhe lord killed
battle 2 - Sidhe lord killed
battle 3 - Shishi killed

The one win for the Sidhe Lord was very lucky - he was down to 1 HP but managed to survive and all of a sudden started scoring hits on the Shishi. The lesson here is that without barkskin the Sidhe Lords protection is too low.


Fourth Test

Skratti
Equipment: Sword of Swiftness, Eye Shield, Horned Helmet, Green Dragon Scale Mail, Boots of the Messenger, Pendant of Luck
Script: Quicken self, hold, hold, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Pendant of Luck
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi killed
battle 2 - Shishi killed
battle 3 - Shishi killed

No surprise on these results. General pattern was that the Shishi scores some hits but soon enough the Skratti kills it.


If anyone wants to run their own tests on Shishi's or other diversity summons I've attached a saved game and the mod I used for testing. The mod is a CBM 1.6 base, with changes made for the ThreeFort game (the relevant one being that most spells are level 0), Diversity mod added with summons costing 1 gem, and several globals and wish set to cost 1 N gem so you can easily summon and equip units.

Edit: Shishi's, Sidhe Lords and Skratti are positioned on the left of the map, ready for battle.

[Squirrelloid]

Why mistform? It absorbs only one hit before popping because both sides have magic weapons.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Why mistform? It absorbs only one hit before popping because both sides have magic weapons.

True, and I have sometimes gone without it when facing troops with magic weapons. But in a 1 vs. 1 situation I'd be inclined to use it. 15 HP doesn't leave much margin for error and mistform can save you from that first hit that the RNG rolls huge damage for. So it was more for the benefit of the Sidhe Lord than the Shishi.

The other thing is of course that I have both parties waiting 5 rounds before attacking and attacking without fatigue. I did try a test where I had the Shishi cast Flight and immediately attack. This disrupted the Sidhe Lord/Tuatha's (not sure which it was) buff routine and caused damage several times but the Shishi still lost. I was kind of surprised at that.

[NooBliss]

Now give that shishi a ring of frost resistance against frost brand for a change.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by NooBliss

Now give that shishi a ring of frost resistance against frost brand for a change.

Sure, here are the results.

Fifth Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Eye Shield, Dragon Helmet, Rainbow Armor, Bracers, Pendant of Luck
Script: Bless, Barkskin, Mistform, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Ring of CR
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi killed
battle 2 - Shishi killed
battle 3 - Shishi killed

This is where the Shishi's limited slots become a real disadvantage since I gave up the Pendant of Luck in order to get Cold Resistance. Note that in two out of three of the above battles the Shishi was blinded relatively quickly, despite still having the AoMR.

[NooBliss]

And what's the bless for these sidhe lords? Judging by bracers, its heavy earth bless + something else.

I wonder how would they fare without heavy blessing; imho Eriu cant really afford a heavy bless strategy with such a limited magic on nationals. Same goes for MA Vanheim - at least I think so.

[Gregstrom]

As far as blesses for Eriu go, read this. For that matter, E9/Xx works pretty well for Vanir too.

[NooBliss]

Since nobody managed to win with Eriu using this guide nor this bless yet, I guess having no endgame magic paths doesnt pay off around turn 60 or so after all.
I have no doubt it works like a charm on Sidhe Lords tho.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by NooBliss

Since nobody managed to win with Eriu using this guide nor this bless yet, I guess having no endgame magic paths doesnt pay off around turn 60 or so after all.
I have no doubt it works like a charm on Sidhe Lords tho.

Well keep in mind it doesn't have to be an absolute thing: you can get an E9N4 bless and still have magic diversity if you choose something like an Arch Druid (in CBM). Vanheim is a different situation and the idea of skipping a bless is quite possible with troops like Skinshifters and Einheres and access to blood magic. Alternate approaches are certainly possible but I'd recommend at least an E4N4 bless. All your mages are sacred and even if you don't think a major bless worthwhile Sidhe Lords are your best recruit everywhere mage and thugging is what they're designed for.

Having said that, I ran a test with the Sidhe Lord not casting bless. I had to swap out some of the equipment; Black Steel Plate to help with protection and an Amulet of Reinvigoration in the now open slot where the Bracers were. I actually tried to really help the Shishi with this test: the Sidhe Lord used a Vine Shield instead of an Eye Shield, the Shishi cast flight, and the Sidhe Lord didn't have even minor regeneration.

Sixth Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Vine Shield, Dragon Helmet, Black Steel Plate, Amulet of Resilience, Pendant of Luck
Script: Barkskin, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Ring of CR
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, Flight, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi routed
battle 2 - Sidhe Lord routed
battle 3 - Shishi routed

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Well keep in mind it doesn't have to be an absolute thing: you can get an E9N4 bless and still have magic diversity if you choose something like an Arch Druid (in CBM). Vanheim is a different situation and the idea of skipping a bless is quite possible with troops like Skinshifters and Einheres and access to blood magic. Alternate approaches are certainly possible but I'd recommend at least an E4N4 bless. All your mages are sacred and even if you don't think a major bless worthwhile Sidhe Lords are your best recruit everywhere mage and thugging is what they're designed for.

Having said that, I ran a test with the Sidhe Lord not casting bless. I had to swap out some of the equipment; Black Steel Plate to help with protection and an Amulet of Reinvigoration in the now open slot where the Bracers were. I actually tried to really help the Shishi with this test: the Sidhe Lord used a Vine Shield instead of an Eye Shield, the Shishi cast flight, and the Sidhe Lord didn't have even minor regeneration.

Sixth Test

Sidhe Lord
Equipment: Frost Brand, Vine Shield, Dragon Helmet, Black Steel Plate, Amulet of Resilience, Pendant of Luck
Script: Barkskin, Mistform, hold, hold, hold, attack
vs.
Female Shishi
Equipment: Girdle of Might, AoMR, Ring of CR
Script: Mirror Image, Mistform, Flight, hold, hold, attack

battle 1 - Shishi routed
battle 2 - Sidhe Lord routed
battle 3 - Shishi routed

By the way, sidhe thugs should never be going up against shishi without an ideal weapon at minimum, because they just plain have no need not to. They can't be jumped on by the shishi, but they can return the favor easily. So all these tests where the sidhe were using frost brands were really suboptimal. Something like a sword of sharpness would make much more sense for these tests.