Newbish question

[GrudgeBringer]

I have got most of the mechanics of the game down (I didn't say I had them aced, just understood!!)

However, there is one aspect that I just am not getting,

Either I am too dense, have a mental block, or am reading things wrong.

Its magic and things like Summoning...

I know what summoning is in the usual sense but I get the feeling that it is SO much more in this game.

I have read Baalz's Excellent Guide to Summoning but it seems it is directed to those that have a basic knowledge of the subject.

It talks about Masters and 4 slaves ect and the combinations that you need ect. I am sure that to someone that understands the terminology that it rocks....

But its Greek to me.

I have played nations with magic of all kinds to try and force myself to learn but I just keep getting more frustrated and playing MP seems a LONG way off if I am the only one trying to fight a ground war.

Is there ANY WHERE that explains the nuances of the magic game in all aspects that a dummy can understand?

Thanks as always...you guys are great when it comes to supporting new people!!

[sansanjuan]

GrudgeBringer said:
I have read Baalz's Excellent Guide to Summoning but it seems it is directed to those that have a basic knowledge of the subject.

I think you are referring to Baalz excellent guide to communions. If so I recommend setting up a hot seat SP game where you control both players. Choose a nation with astral mages and the other with blood mages. Experiment. Sometimes it is useful to save the savedgames directory pre-battle, play the battle, check results, copy savedgames backup over the current savedgames, try new spells, formations, replay battle, rinse, repeat. Try those nine astral mages casting solo and then with an 8:1 communion (leveraging those more powerfuls spells they would not normally be able to cast because of fatigue and/or level.

-SSJ

[thejeff]

I think you mean Communions, not summoning.

Communions are a way to boost a mage's power during a battle to cast more powerful spells and to spread out and reduce the fatigue.
Play around with it. Take a bunch of Astral mages, have one cast Communion Master and the rest Communion Slave, then have the Master cast big nasty spells.
With 2 slaves, the Master gets +1 to every path he has.
With 4, +2
with 8, +3, etc.

Fatigue for the Master's spells is divided up among the slaves and the master doesn't stop casting when they go unconscious, so he can quite easily kill them in a long battle, especially if there is more than one master. The more slaves you have the less likely they are to die, both because the fatigue is split more ways and because their paths are boosted as well, but only for the purpose of reducing fatigue from the master's spells.

There are all sorts of nuances, exploits and variations, but that's the basics.

[MaxWilson]

Grudgebringer,

It might help if you could give an example of how summoning confuses you. Do you understand ritual magic? (Have you read the manual's sections on magic and ritual vs. battlefield magic?) Summoning spells are just ritual magic spells that create troops as opposed to e.g. raining fire on enemy armies. Like all ritual magic spells, they cost gems instead of gold.

Communions (masters/slaves/etc.) are a totally different story, and I presume that's what you mean by Baalz's Guide To Summoning. They have nothing to do with summons, but apply to the Thaumaturgy (Astral) spells Communion Master and Communion Slave. Since the manual is pretty sketchy on what they do, Baalz's Guide To Communions tries to flesh that out, but it assumes you've already read the manual descriptions of those spells. That could be why it's so confusing--or it could be the fact that communions are a fairly confusing subject anyway.

-Max

[GrudgeBringer]

If I have 21 PD and 15 archers in a province is there any way to set up the archers so that they are behind the PD forces?

i looked at battle orders but didn't see how this was possible. Thanks

[MaxWilson]

The PD will always appear in the default, center position. Set your archers to be toward the back, and the PD will appear in front of them.

-Max

[thejeff]

You'd need a commander for them. An actual one, not the PD commander.

Then you can just position the squad in the back half of the field.

[GrudgeBringer]

I was reading the Magic Path Booster Guide and actually am starting to understand it.

One thing it keeps mentioning that I don't understand is it keeps mentioning you will have to 'Empower' something.

Is empower the same as Summon?

It seems like it is saying "in order to get another level in this Magic Path you have to Empower this ot that"

Now to me as a NOOB that makes no sense as Empower suggests I cast a spell on my own 'Mage' to make him a level higher.

It makes much more sense to 'Summon' a beast that has say E3 and then give him an article to make him E4.

Can someone clear this up for me please...

Thanks

[MaxWilson]

A mage commander has a list of possible commands. He can Move, or (if he's a priest) Preach, or Construct (Lab), or Pillage, etc. If he's at a lab he has extra commands including Alchemy, Cast Ritual Spell, and Empower. Empower permanently boosts his magic path but costs three or four times as much as building a path-boosting item.

Note: unlike a path-booster, you can Empower to give a mage access to a completely new path. This costs 50 gems. If you have lots of pearls (for example) but no Astral mages you may burn some of those pearls to Empower somebody to S1 or even S2, but after that point it's usually cheaper to have him forge himself booster items than Empower himself further.

-Max

[Loren]

MaxWilson said:
A mage commander has a list of possible commands. He can Move, or (if he's a priest) Preach, or Construct (Lab), or Pillage, etc. If he's at a lab he has extra commands including Alchemy, Cast Ritual Spell, and Empower. Empower permanently boosts his magic path but costs three or four times as much as building a path-boosting item.

Note: unlike a path-booster, you can Empower to give a mage access to a completely new path. This costs 50 gems. If you have lots of pearls (for example) but no Astral mages you may burn some of those pearls to Empower somebody to S1 or even S2, but after that point it's usually cheaper to have him forge himself booster items than Empower himself further.

Yeah. If you need to break into a path you don't have there are only two routes: indies and empowerment. I'm in a MP game now as a water nation. I've found indies once--water mages! To get into a path I have no access to the only route is empowerment.