What to do about Ermor ....

[magnate]

Wow - thanks Boron and Lintman - two completely different ideas! Watch this space to see how it turns out ...

[Arryn]

LintMan's suggestion(s) have much merit. Since Ermor destroys population, unless you have positive growth scale you MUST take Ermor down as fast as possible or the lands that fall under Ermorian dominion will become a near-useless wasteland. The longer you take, the uglier the results will be. Wiping out any foes that have death scales should, IMO, be a player's #1 priority (unless they are playing a death nation themselves).

[magnate]

4. Finally, what's the spell that causes independents to attack a province? It's happened three times in the Last four turns, but it hadn't happened at all before. There's no "event" message, just a battle message giving the result.

I think this must be either Raging Hearts or Imprint Souls - can someone explain the difference to me? The former must be Abysia, but if it's the latter it could be Caelum or Pythium ....

CC

[Boron]

LintMan's suggestion(s) have much merit. Since Ermor destroys population, unless you have positive growth scale you MUST take Ermor down as fast as possible or the lands that fall under Ermorian dominion will become a near-useless wasteland. The longer you take, the uglier the results will be. Wiping out any foes that have death scales should, IMO, be a player's #1 priority (unless they are playing a death nation themselves).

i couldn't disagree more . as long as you are not the direct neighbor of ermor and don't threaten your mainlands they are not so bad .
this is sp discussion so here wiping out ermor quick is good. but in mp in lategame ermor is still dangerous but not a top 5 nation because they can't bloodhunt and are not the best clamhorders .
a strong mictlan , abysia or a strong clamhorder like r'leh is more dangerous imho .

finally for me population doesn't matter too much only when i want to bloodhunt and early-midgame for income .
lategame the only resources which count are clams and magic sites for me . in this 2 areas ermor is good but not top .

so in sp killing ermor quick is good in mp it is not recommended imho . lategame it is much easier with your magic anti undead toys

[Sheap]

There are many things that can cause independent attacks:

* Random events: Vampires, Knights, Barbarians, Bogus the Troll, Vine Men, Caspar of the Cave (who doesn't attack himself, but unleashes independent monsters), rogue mages. There are different independent attacks underwater. Some of these events are rarer than others.
* Horrors (can be caused by horror mark, or by the Send (Lesser) Horror spell), and Ghost Riders. These disappear after combat.
* Raging Hearts (I believe Imprint Souls is controlled by the caster although not sure)
* Unfettered Eater of the Dead
* While not exactly an attack, there is also a rebellion random event.

Maybe others. This is just what I can think of.

[Sheap]

Back on the main topic:

If you treat Ermor like a natural disaster that you have to kill you will probably make yourself lose. If you fight Ermor, and while you are doing that empire A kills empire B, then you will find yourself with a huge wasteland which doesn't much increase your strength, and empire A will then be twice as good as he was before. (Not to mention the risk that Ermor might kill you instead). Thus empire A is likely to win. Containment is a much better strategy against Ermor than direct assault. This is assuming MP, of course. In single player you have to kill Ermor immediately because the AI cannot handle Ermor.

Ermor isn't much good at clamhoarding, with no native water income and no ready supply of water mages. They've also got no blood income. Late in the game they have many weaknesses, not the least of which is their one-dimensional army and their poor quality SCs.

[magnate]

There are many things that can cause independent attacks:

* Random events: Vampires, Knights, Barbarians, Bogus the Troll, Vine Men, Caspar of the Cave (who doesn't attack himself, but unleashes independent monsters), rogue mages. There are different independent attacks underwater. Some of these events are rarer than others.
* Horrors (can be caused by horror mark, or by the Send (Lesser) Horror spell), and Ghost Riders. These disappear after combat.
* Raging Hearts (I believe Imprint Souls is controlled by the caster although not sure)
* Unfettered Eater of the Dead
* While not exactly an attack, there is also a rebellion random event.

Maybe others. This is just what I can think of.

But for random events you get the "something unexpected happened in province X" message. I get no message, just a battle report. So I think it must be a spell, I'm just trying to work out which one.

CC

[Agrajag]

The spell I meant is called "Bone Grinding", according to the spell thingy its alteration 7 with 7D required to cast it.
HOWEVER this is a massive combat spell which, from my expirience, can kill an entire AE army with one cast.
As its name suggests, it grinds the bones of all units on the field.
Sadly for AE, that means that skeletons are being grinded (ground?) completely.
Ive expirienced this spell being cast at me in SP in the retail Version, it might have changed since then, but I believe not...

[Molog]

If your enemy gets a random event with attacking independents in a province and you attack that province in that same turn, then you can end up getting attacked by the independents.

[magnate]

If your enemy gets a random event with attacking independents in a province and you attack that province in that same turn, then you can end up getting attacked by the independents.

True, but if you already own the province then you would get the random event message. Ergo, they cannot be random events, 'cos I'm getting attacked by indies in provinces I already own. Must be a spell.

CC