Going down in style

[Saber Cherry]

Summon Horrors like crazy. Send blood mages into combat, have them summon some horrors, then retreat. It's really annoying... you wreak devastation quite cheaply. I put the Lesser Horror Twin Spear on a scout in an MP game with 5xSummon lesser horror, then retreat orders, and he never lost a battle and was never harmed. He did retreat a lot, but gained the province from which he retreated. Fun! Sent horrors cause indy provinces if they win, but are very cheap.

If you have extra air gems, rain seeking arrows on him... everyone hates those.

[Torvak]

Casting Eyes of God is very dangerous in a MP game.

[Starfighter08]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
You dispell global spells by either casting the Astral spell aptly named "Dispell" or by casting the global spell yourself (which creates a little tugowar between your spellpower and the original caster. You don't always manage to win).

Astral spell, I see. That's why I never came across it. Guess I'll try Arco then.

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by Starfighter08:
Astral spell, I see. That's why I never came across it. Guess I'll try Arco then.

Or Pythium. Or Ermor. Or any nation, really - all you need is a pretender with at least 4 Astral, and either access to some Astral sites (for the pearls) or the judicious use of some alchemy.

[ March 10, 2004, 22:09: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

[1000yd_stare]

thank you for the great responses!! Now I have to hope my opponents don't read this thread!

I will take the advice to heart; it will probably take a few turns to implement, but I will post the results here when it happens.
Thanks again!

[Taqwus]

Say, under Astral Corruption -- now that Dispel is a ritual,is the price of failure the risk of being eaten by a horror?

(And if the horror scales with the magnitude of the ritual... perhaps a Doom Horror?)

[Norfleet]

Yup, looks that way. Hope you have a really beefy mage.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
Say, under Astral Corruption -- now that Dispel is a ritual,is the price of failure the risk of being eaten by a horror?

Not really a concern. If he can cast Dispel, he can cast Returning.

To the OP: Astral Corruption isn't really damaging to Arco, as most Arco's mage can easily evade Horrors when casting rituals etc. It will only cost him half a dozen pearls a turn or so. And maybe a few mages in the turn the AC is cast, before he realizes what's up. I even doubt Arco will try to dispel your GE. I'm sorry for you, but I have no good idea to propose as an alternative, bar harassing him with HfH and such.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:
To the OP: Astral Corruption isn't really damaging to Arco, as most Arco's mage can easily evade Horrors when casting rituals etc.

Yes, but if he's casting returning all the time, all of his mages will quickly wind up entirely concentrated in the capitol, and you can try to then wipe them all out at once.

It also depends on how reliant he is on his rituals. If you're being overrun by standard forces, Astral Corruption is going to be more of a nuisance than a threat.

[Norfleet]

If you really want to go down in style, the most important part of going down in style is to ALWAYS FIGHT TO THE BITTER, BLOODY END.

It can actually be harder and more expensive than it sounds, or is even worth, to entirely annihilate you even after you no longer pose a direct threat: As such, he may end up devoting his attentions elsewhere, and allow you to hang on as a persistent thorn in his side. The added annoyance may eventually bring about his downfall. It may even eventually hand you victory, if you hang on tenaciously and long enough.

As I've said before, a victory by refusal to admit defeat is still a victory nonetheless. While total victory is always nice, you can still win through skillful application of guerrilla tactics and simply push your opponent beyond his level of tolerance for pain and frustration. It's worked throughout history, and as a general rule of thumb, it's safe to say that guerrillas usually win guerrilla wars. Make this work for you, not against you.