MP Rothfuss- Running - Page 10

NKIcan · #91 January 29th, 2009, 02:39 AM

Star Fires I believe, or that one astral spell that sets undead on fire without an MR check. That'll totally crush em

Trumanator · #92 January 29th, 2009, 02:41 AM

Solar Rays. Definitely would work.

zzcat · #93 January 29th, 2009, 02:42 AM

Shadow vestal has shield. so archers may not be very effective vs them. IMO your best bet is gathering your mages and using elemental evocation to destory them as quickly as possible. Essentially Your normal troop can't do any damage so buy chaff instead of elite units to hold the line. MA Ermor is somewhat imbalance vs many nations. Even if you can deal with shadow vessels, you may still be swarmed by their free undead horsemen if you can't get AoE spells quickly.

Trumanator · #94 January 29th, 2009, 03:28 AM

Well the rationale behind archer swarm was to try and get the greatest concentration of fire on them. They only have like 5 hp, so all it takes is one hit to get through the etherial and shield. 75% of 20 arrows is a lot more than 75% of 3 attacks.

zzcat · #95 January 29th, 2009, 07:08 AM

Even if a square is filled by SVs(so the size point is 6) and a missile can always hit the square accurately, there is only 4.5% chance to hit anyone( (size 6 + attacker DRN vs 2+shield parry 4*2 + defender DRN)*25%). Considering twist fate, the damage is almost negligible. With flame arrow, the chance to hit will be increased to 30% so missile fire will be much more effective. If Machaka has reached Enc-4, maybe he can outnumber those ethereal maiden with cheap archers.

IMO an easier way is mass death mage and spamming dust to dust. Killing 3 twist-fated SVs with 2 casting is quite acceptable(Solar ray has better range but Machaka doesn't have any astral mage). You may need 10+ death mages and sevaral priests to make sure you can kill them fast enough if your enemy mixes SVs and undead horsemen. But Machaka has 3 forts so I think it's not too hard for him...

Trumanator · #96 January 29th, 2009, 12:51 PM

Yeah, magic is almost always the better way. Flaming arrows is Ench 5 in CBM though.

statttis · #97 January 29th, 2009, 02:30 PM

Well, I think I'm in big trouble. My research is nowhere near ench-5 or evoc-5 (for AOE evocations). I already tried using Dust to Dust, but the problem is that the spell has poor precision. About half of the castings miss, and the shadow vestals tend to spread out so I only hit 1 or 2. With 6 mages casting Dust to Dust I killed something like 3 vestals.

Fire drakes might do some damage, if I can research and summon some before I lose my capital. It probably won't matter though, Ermor already has 2 big armies of vestals and more are probably on the way. Looks like an early exit for me

Trumanator · #98 January 29th, 2009, 03:02 PM

Don't give up!

Redeyes · #99 January 29th, 2009, 03:17 PM

The legions of Longdead Horsemen you are bound to see soon will likely be an even bigger problem

If you aren't up against a fire or death bless, high protection troops work great (shadow vestals only deal 14 damage) and Machaka has it both for its units and commanders to thug with and a nature+earth to buff.

statttis · #**100** January 29th, 2009, 03:34 PM

I've actually faced quite a few longdead horses already. They don't scare me much, because I can at least kill them.

Unfortunately the vestals do indeed have a death bless, or I could hold the line with buffed up Bane Spiders and thug out my Sorcerers with Stoneskin and magic swords. Instead I have to recruit a bunch of chaff and hope my magic can kill them.