Carrion Woods ideas please

[Agrajag]

I wasn't saying the helmet is better than other alternatives, I just responded to the part about it costing too much by saying that if you haven't got anything better it can be worth its price. I did not say it was the best/ultimate option.

[Saxon]

New problem. Last night my Carrion Dragon retreated from a battle that he would have won naked, in his sleep, with his claws tired. It was in friendly dominion and one carrion critter had spawned. Mitlan attacked, killed the critter and the CD retreated. Thing was, there was nowhere to run and he was killed…

Any way around this sort of problem? I suppose some PD would have helped, but Carrion Woods is low on cash and I was expecting to lose the province. I only took it to destroy the temple, as I am counting on a lot of dominion in this game.

[archaeolept]

only solution is to send in sufficient troops (at the rear, on hold and attack, or fire if archers) that they are not all killed before he wins the battle. Unhappily, the retreat rules mandate that commanders retreat if their troops do; or that commanders retreat if there are no other troops and one of the commanders dies.

also, guarantee yourself a retreat path

[Gandalf Parker]

Did you have minor troops attached to him? Maybe bodyguards? Were they scripted or did they rush in to the attack?

The basic AI pretty much has to have a "if I have bodyguards, and they die, then Im in trouble and should retreat" type of thinking.

[Cainehill]

Sounds like Saxon did what is normally the smart thing to do with a single SC in a province: he didn't recruit, didn't buy any PD, so there usually wouldn't have been anything to rout and cause the SC to retreat.

But, at the beginning of the turn, before movement, a carrion beast was auto-generated by his friendly dominion. That single carrion beast was killed, causing his pretender to retreat.

It's one of the frustrating things about Dominions, and sadly I don't expect it to change in Dom3, since troops causing retreat is nominally part of the balancing of SCs.

Hmm - maybe if retreating couldn't be caused by the death of mindless units? A militia event could still cause you to retreat / get you killed, but carrion / undead freespawns, etc, could not.

[shovah]

or just take 1 or 2 centaur archers way at the back set to fire.

[ologm]

Some ideas: http://www.the-battlefield.com/forum...?showtopic=426

Growth and magic will increase the quality of randomly generated carrion critters.

[Saxon]

Cainehill has hit the situation on the mark, I did not have anyone attached to the CD.

At least I have lots of units who can call the god. That way I get it back in two turns. Then, I have it attack a province at the same time C'tis has Orion's Knights attack the same province. Those Flambeau make very short work of an undead dragon, buff spells or not...

Three deaths now, his magic is going to be nearly wiped out and his absence has allwed Vanheim to start eating into my heartland. Once you start losing temples and dominion, it can be tough to recover. Wish me luck!

[shovah]

set all your unholy priests (the undead dyrads are the best per gem for pure reanimation iirc) to reanimate, make an army of around 500 carrion beasties (the undead centaurs rock with cb), back up with a mass protection mage and hordes of unholy priests. If only there was a battlefield wide spell to increase attack, then carrion critters would be amazing.

[Arralen]

The carrion critters don't need any increase in attack: most have multiple attacks, and every attack means -1 def for the target ...

You need:

Vinemen - those can't be banished, are cheap, upkeep-free and can be mixed with your carrion critters speed-wise without problem

(Mass) Protection - to keep arches from killing your unshielded troops too easily

Mound Kings (ench-2, death-2, 3 gems) - to command your armies and gather all the freespawns