Help with Abominations

[Burnsaber]

Elfbane gives the target a MR roll - so it's pretty much useless against high mr Abodominations.

[NTJedi]

sum1lost said:
A elfbane may be better than a moonblade for that kind of thing, actually. Instakillmagicbeing.

Cast "mass flight" and script to attack large monsters. Your monkeys should be all over them.

As burnsaber mentions the elfbane won't be very effective against high MG resistance. The elfbane is great against vine ogres.

Also as bandar log it doesn't have access to air magic with any of its mages so 'mass flight' won't be easy unless his pretender has good air magic and already summoned some air queens.

[KissBlade]

Aboms have regen. Unless you can seriously outnumber him with mages you won't win in a straight up fight at this stage with Bandar. The problem with your battle mages are, their best spells are all countered by astral magic. Not only do Ryleh summons have good MR, they can antimagic, use their own astrals, etc. On that note, ALWAYS start your big battles with will of the fate and antimagic against Ryleh.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Remeber, of all summons, trolls cost upkeep (60 gold, 4 upkeep apiece). So do the Illithids at 50 gold. If you're seriously outnumbered, consider economic warfare

First, scorched earth tactics. If you can't beat their army, deny them gain. Raze your fortresses and labs in proximity, tax the hell out of things, and tell me they don't have Astral Travel.

Second, use your stealthy Atavi in small teams that won't be instantly detected. Say, 20 apiece. Archers will probably be your best bet, given R'lyeh's generally low protection. If you need more, have them converge on the same province, then disperse afterward. Reclaim the territory faster than they can take it, or force them to break their mega army into manageable chunks. If they're headed for your capital...

Raid them underwater if you can, though it will be risky. You've got cheap mages you can risk scrying for vulnerabilities. Your Rishis and national summons will grant you a few more options than most nations, but almost every underwater summon has poor, poor MR. Kraken might be tempting (if you actually had affordable water mages), but them and Sea Lions need antimagic support to have so much as a CHANCE of survival.

[Edratman]

Lazy_P has offered the best advice. You have got to always remember in this game that you do not have to always defeat a foe in direct combat. Dom3 has multiple options available to achieve the same result. His strategy is easily implemented in one or two turns. The AI will do something similar to you by making you chase a relatively feeble army through a dozen provinces.

One thing that will work is to equip mundane commanders with etheral Xbows. They are cheap and easily forged by bandar and if you get a hit, I am almost positive even an abomination is gone "POOF". It may take a few turns to get most of them, but it is an inexpensive and doable option.

The other strategies are good advice, but they are likely to require several turns to put in place. Better to implment what is immediately available. Most of the time I find that I cannot summon and equip more than 2 thugs a turn, so building a force of 5/6 is 3 turns.

I like Bandar Log, but I wish they had some death access to use my favorite thug, Bane Lords. Bandar can get sleepers and all their national summons (which I think are great) but I am unsure if they are any good against abominations.

[1000yd_stare]

Some good suggestions! I should have given some more info, though. This is a mp game, and its a humie player. My armies are routinely will of fated, and anti magic is up. The 3 life drains and the AoE of 5 square other attack they have makes big holes in my army regardless. This, and another army, is backed up by 2 castings of earth trolls, and about 20 odd normal illithids doing the usual paralyze. And yes, i rarely get into melee, and when i do, its with the little monkeys from PD.
The abominations are cursed (from the past 2 battles where I lost 120-odd and 90-odd monkeys), and each has 2-4 afflictions -none of them disease, sadly.
Longbowmen inflicted the afflictions, but they didnt stick around long enough, and i didnt get any of the abominations even below 150 hps.

The economic warfare has already begun - raging hearts with my one Fire king, baleful star, and locust swarms. Its going to take time, though.

I have tried the Atavis- they cannot get past the 30 plus PD that i encounter, and with no stealthy monkey mages, i just lose them.
I like the idea of the crossbows, and the sleepers. I too wish I had some death magic. I did note that I have access to Bandar blood national summons, but my blood income has just started.

I am waiting for the turn to cycle, and have done some things, but since my opponent checks these (hi Unwise!) every so often, I will hold off on what i have done.

[Edratman]

The army you described sounded unlike any AI army I've ever seen, so the MP game makes sense.

IMHO, your best bet is to declare victory and depart the field.

[KissBlade]

On the topic of ethereal xbows, I should point out, I am relatively certain it is Magic negatable (even though it doesn't say on the item). If that's true, I wouldn't use them because of the fact that your guys already have pretty poor precision.

[Valandil]

the crossbow is definately MR negates.

Here's a really weird idea: living statue wall. They should live through the gaze, and they're lifeless so lifestealing isnt as big an issue. Back up with mages, as always.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Uhmm... 30 PD is nasty for R'lyeh. Ug.

So, beating the abominations is sorta outa the question, is there any way you can take out the support by focusing on the lesser threat?

Trolls & Illithids certainly have enough MR...
Though the biggest creature is often targeted first...

Half-baked ideas:
Arcane Bolt (AN, ignores MR?). Damage is kinda sad, though I suppose a communion might make it meaner.
Stellar Cascades (Stun damage? AoE5, no MR?)... If you can't beat em, sleep em?. You don't really have a price advantage to your mage, though. But you do have a middle-ground in the guru. Still, though, you only are facing how many abominations? You don't need the cascades to take out their entire army, just the big threats.

Swarm- Your available everywhere Gurus can cast it. But your facing two castings, or about 40 trolls... They don't have a MR worth mentioning, but you could easily get 100 on the field in one round of combat. At least you'll keep the trolls off of you?

Howl? Wolves appear on edge of battlefield. Nah... even unarmored Illithids have a base protection of five, and 28 hitpoints. Nine strength just won't cut it.

Breath of the Dragon/Poison Cloud. Only the abominations have PR...

Spam panic? It'll cost you a large number of nature gems using Gurus, though. And while Illithids aren't brave, they aren't in the frontline either. Stupidest idea ever: blink->panic.

If you have Rikshi in the area, w/nature boosters, Creeping Doom could swamp them. I mean, for 12 nature gems (Thistle Mace, plus fatigue cost) you can summon 70 ants. Go for three Rikshi with the right picks or a Treelord's staff, and you could get 70x2x3 or 420+ ants slowing them down.

So take these with a grain of salt. I've never faced abominations or summoned them myself. And, it's after a long day of work, brain cylinders might easily be misfiring. In fact, I'm pretty sure they are. However, there may still be some merit in focusing on the support troops rather than the big bad.