Beware of Ashdod

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

Actually, D9/B9, sooooo many Eagles, poor Ashdod will be swimming in Horrors.

This leads me to believe you've never actually tried B9 bless. The enemy can kill /droves/ of your sacreds without worrying about horrors. The effect is pathetically weak, to the point where it can be ignored entirely.

[MaxWilson]

B9 bless is MR-resistable, so... wouldn't it be interesting if the horror mark/curse effect kicked in on a *hit* by the sacred as well as from its death? This might be too strong, but OTOH +4 Str. and horror-marking weapon (MR resists) isn't all that different from +350% afflictions and 2 AN weapon (MR resists) with unresistable disease, which you get from D9. Neither is probably quite as desirable as F9 or W9 but it would make the B9 bless non-laughable.

Naturally, you may choose to take B9 for reasons unrelated to blesses (as the FAQ points out, strong blesses often correspond to weak paths and vice versa), and really I'd rather have KO/JK working on their new project than on Dom3, but as a thought experiment I sort of like this idea.

-Max

P.S. I would also make an A9 bless grant Flight in combat. Hey, if it works for eagle warriors...

[Slobby]

I was actually thinking death bless to, wasn't it Meglobob that did the f9d9 bless (or some variant thereof)? If I recall eagle warriors have 2 attacks so that's probably an affliction per eagle warrior! Pluck out their eyes and rip off their arms! lol

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by cleveland

I don't want to tip my hand per my upcoming MP game, but you want to know how to kill Ashdod? Send an equivalent $$$ worth of Spider Riders at them. In fact, send $.

Have you tested this? In my quick test game, E10N6 Ahimans (which Ashdod can get and still have positive scales) demolished spider knights. (I assume spider riders per se are not critical to the strategy? Spider knights are harder to mass and have no bows but I thought the increased Prot justified the choice.) 3 Ahimans (450 gold) routed 16 spider riders (800 gold) with zero losses. One of the Ahimans got ahead of the pack and got swarmed, resulting in him taking 4 points of damage per turn from poison, negating all but 2 points of his 6 HP regen. Still I think it's safe to say that the combination of high regen, high defense, and high Prot triumphed over the spider rider poison that time.

Just in case, I tried it again with Black Hunters instead of Spider Riders (10 Black Hunters = 1250 gold) led by an F4E4 Scorpion King. Result: 1 dead Ahiman. 10 routed Black Hunters (actually I think 4 of them died) and 1 dead Scorpion King.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Slobby

I was actually thinking death bless to, wasn't it Meglobob that did the f9d9 bless (or some variant thereof)? If I recall eagle warriors have 2 attacks so that's probably an affliction per eagle warrior! Pluck out their eyes and rip off their arms! lol

Not going to work as well as you think. Affliction chance is proportional to *damage* inflicted, relative to HP, and D9 doesn't change that. Eagle Warriors are not going to damage an Ahiman with high frequency, and when they do the Ahiman's high HP is going to mitigate the D9 bless. I'm not saying D9 won't do anything--he'll probably come out of the fight with assorted Limps and Chest Wounds, but it's way less than an affliction per eagle warrior. Call it 1 affliction per 10 eagle warriors expended, at a wild guess. Most of those afflictions will come via the Death Weapons effect, which Ahimans resist only about 90% of the time, and not through the regular old daggers.

-Max

[Zeldor]

MaxWilson:

I'd rather see a precision boost for air bless. Making it more a bless for mages than troops.

And I think cleveland was thinking about nets. I remember fighting Machaka with MA Ermor, nets totally owned shadow vestals, but I doubt they'd work well enough against sacreds [but someone can try that - webs to hold sacreds, some other troops to do the harm].

Lighting should be also a good weapon against Ashdod, they cannot get that protection easily [so don't let them grab that merc with A2 ].

[sector24]

I thought Cleveland was kidding. Like he was kidding about the "sorcerer/sorceror" thing. But everyone seems ultra-serious lately.

[Nikelaos]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

Have you tested this? In my quick test game, E10N6 Ahimans (which Ashdod can get and still have positive scales) demolished spider knights. (I assume spider riders per se are not critical to the strategy? Spider knights are harder to mass and have no bows but I thought the increased Prot justified the choice.) 3 Ahimans (450 gold) routed 16 spider riders (800 gold) with zero losses. One of the Ahimans got ahead of the pack and got swarmed, resulting in him taking 4 points of damage per turn from poison, negating all but 2 points of his 6 HP regen. Still I think it's safe to say that the combination of high regen, high defense, and high Prot triumphed over the spider rider poison that time.

Just in case, I tried it again with Black Hunters instead of Spider Riders (10 Black Hunters = 1250 gold) led by an F4E4 Scorpion King. Result: 1 dead Ahiman. 10 routed Black Hunters (actually I think 4 of them died) and 1 dead Scorpion King.

-Max

to be fair black hunters are sacred aswell you know? try it again but give the black hunters a major bless, earth is a no brainer with high protection, a bit o nature also works well after the rider dies, but experiment a bit.

[Sombre]

Well he was simply testing that 'spider riders are a counter to sacred giants' theory, not seeing how effective dual blessed black hunters are.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

+350% afflictions and 2 AN weapon (MR resists) with unresistable disease,

The Disease effect of Death 9 only kicks in if the 2AN(MR) damage gets through magic resistance in the first place. So it's actually 2AN+Disease (MR negates).