Mage/Commander Numbering Questions

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Yes. They are shown in order, even for combined attacks.

The numbers for new units are not strictly incremented. I believe dead units numbers are reused, except for those who can be brought back, like pretenders and Hall of Famers.

Great concise answer!

So, bear with me... I would like my Battlefield "Storm" spell to come as early as possible, so that subsequent mages can help themselves to "Storm Power" first round.

In practice, that tends to mean it works best with the "Storm"-casting mage being one of the very earliest guys I built. If I build a powerful mage later on, he's more likely to be stuck number-wise behind other built guys.

Is that about right?

[Starbelly Geek]

The auto-cast thing is the advantage for Crystal and Slave Matrix, and for the Crystal Shield, too. As with anything, it has to be balanced against the mage-turns and gem cost, but it's handy to have a communion kitted out in a way that doesn't require anyone to spend a round casting Communion Slave or Master, or Power of the Spheres. The banner that autocasts Light of the Northern Star can be similarly useful. Assuming a bunch of astral-earth mages, you can then go right into casting Gifts from Heaven and Master Enslave and whatnot.

Originally Posted by JonBrave

If I build a powerful mage later on, he's more likely to be stuck number-wise behind other built guys.

I haven't noticed that this is the case. Commander positioning seems to be tied more strongly to something other than time-since-built. Has anyone tested this out with, say, 20 to 30 commander builds? I guess it's complicated by the AI killing off commanders in the mean time, but that could be controlled for by setting up a multiplayer game with two players and playing both positions.

Non-commander units seem to end up pretty reliably in the order in which they were built, but commanders seem to go all over the place.