Gate Stone

[RonD]

Easy enough to test with Boron's test map.

And - Gate Stone does nothing in 3.06 (or 3.04, for that matter).

Stygian Paths is still way too borked to use. I tried it once in 3.04 and once in 3.06 with a wraith lord + skull staff and skullface, leading 100 or so mandragoras (lifeless, mindless undead). In 3.06, all the madragoras survived and made the jump, but the wraithlord died. In 3.04, the wraithlord survived (though with an affliction: disease), *but* he was still in the starting province, while about 85% of the madragoras survived and made the jump (winding up leaderless, of course). I'm sure neither result had anything specific to do with 3.04 or 3.06, and many other random (bad) results would happen with more trials. In each case, as with dom2, the message reported that some random-looking number in the 14 millions of troops had died during the journey.

[Nick_K]

I've never tried stygian paths... I'm not sure if undead /are/ immune to the soul slay effect though. If so this might have implications on SC counters.
Anyway, if undead are not immune then sending ermor freespawn through the gate would seem pretty wasteful: their very low MR would lead to massive casualties.
Actually, for a high-research, high-path spell, stygian paths seems a bit too risky. There are plenty of obviously underpowered spells and items though... having underpowered things that add flavour and/or have niche uses isn't really a problem, I guess.

[Wish]

as of 3.06 Gate stone does work, but apparently only on independant commanders. (I had one on one of those nexus knights forever, and I tested in a recent game - my good troops (mages etc) couldn't use it, but a commander from an indy province could.) this may require further testing.

Stygian paths does work, but in a buggy way - when someone dies the numbers are still astronomical. I used it in one game (a lich transporting a bunch of demons) The lich died, the demons lived, and the number killed was like 1456320 but really it was just the lich. Also I had a wished for fallen angel use it once and he got through fine. (maybe demons are the only ones that make it.)

[mivayan]

Nick_K said:
Actually, for a high-research, high-path spell, stygian paths seems a bit too risky.

Yes, doesn't seem usefull too often, but might be your best/only option compared to the other army transporting spells:

For offensive army dropping:

• Faery Trod! Only ench5, Nature5, 20 gems. Only forest to forest. Sometimes lands in the *wrong* forest, which would have the enemy god you were trying to attack laughing his pants off.
• Stygian paths, Thaum8, D5, only 15 gems. But a non-stealthty low-mr low-hp army might die horribly.
• Astral travel, Thaum9, S5, 25 gems. No limitations.

For transport within you empire there is:
Gateway, thaum5, Astral4, 10 gems. Only to friendly labs so doesn't compete with stygian paths.

[Ironhawk]

Oh man! The Gate Stone doesnt work? That makes me so sad. I love that artifact

[Potatoman]

The gateway spell does work and does not appear to be bugged.

[Nick_K]

That's a good point. I guess if you don't have astral 5 mages it might be the best option. I don't think I'll bother in SP though.

[Wish]

Ironhawk said:
Oh man! The Gate Stone doesnt work? That makes me so sad. I love that artifact

it works in the hands of an indy recruited commander.

[NTJedi]

Wish_For_Blood_Slaves said:

it works in the hands of an indy recruited commander.

So it just doesn't work with national troops/commanders?
Does the object work with summoned mages/commanders?

[Wish]

okay, I've been trying to re-create the conditions and it just aint working. Sometimes I can get it to work - but in this last game, it wouldn't work, even for indy commanders.

dang.