Need help dealing with Sidhe Lords

[Phonics]

hey.

I'm currently playing MA Ermor vs Eiru and getting slaughtered by the Sidhe Lords.

They keep stealing my provinces and taking out any armies I throw at them at the moment.

They cast body ethreal, luck, resists etc and start spamming thunderbolt (?) that absolutely destroys even the largest stacks of chaff i can throw at them. I dont have any real thugs avaible except Wraith Lords soon.

This is my own idea and I have no idea if itll work:

Wraith Lord powered to A1 with Starshine Skullcap, amulet of magic resistance and Shroud of the Battle Saint for the A9 bless I have on my pretender. I have no idea what weapon would work since the Sidhes are cold resistant Frost Brand is pretty much useless. Maybe Doom Glaive? Boots of Flight to get to them fast before they start pounding me.

Thinking of scripting Resist Magic, Personal luck, Astral shield and hoping for the best.

This is just my noobish take on things so I have no idea if it'll actually work.

Any help is appriciated and sorry for the nooby question

[Sombre]

Got the astral for mind hunt? I don't think they have astral, do they?

[thejeff]

I'm slightly confused by the description of the problem. He's got Sidhe Lords casting astral buffs and spamming Thunderstrike.

Normally against Sidhe lords, using Wraith or Bane Lords, you don't need AoE weapons like Frost Brands, you want AP/AN multiple attacks - maybe Swords of Swiftness or just use 2 weapons. If you can make Boots of Flight, you can make Copper Armor or Lightning resistance rings. That's what you really need.

MR, which you seem to be boosting on your Wraith lord won't help against lightning spells.

[Phonics]

Originally Posted by thejeff

I'm slightly confused by the description of the problem. He's got Sidhe Lords casting astral buffs and spamming Thunderstrike.

Normally against Sidhe lords, using Wraith or Bane Lords, you don't need AoE weapons like Frost Brands, you want AP/AN multiple attacks - maybe Swords of Swiftness or just use 2 weapons. If you can make Boots of Flight, you can make Copper Armor or Lightning resistance rings. That's what you really need.

MR, which you seem to be boosting on your Wraith lord won't help against lightning spells.

Oh my bad, it was my own commander casting body ethreal
Thanks for the help.

I hadn't even noticed that I can make Copper Mail. Ugh.

[Illuminated One]

Hmm, I find empowering anyone is always the worst choice (sure if that's your only way to get into a path, but never just for a little more combat efficiency).

I suppose you need the Astral1 (?) for buffs - in that case some of your astral mages should be able to cast Luck and Body Ethereal on him if you put them in the same square.

Also I don't know if the Shroud is such a good idea, since it has no good prot. When engaged in melee the Sidhe will strike back.
If you don't have air for lightning res stuff the prot issue can be fixed by spells (Iron Warriors) or Boots of Stone.

[Agema]

Outside battle, you should have S3 grand thaumaturgs. Give them an astral cap to S4 and penetration boosters if you can, and start mind hunting raiding thugs. Even sneaking enemies are hit by mind hunt. Just make sure he doesn't have an astral mage on the province you target.

In battle, enough mages spamming long-range attacks like mind burn, soul slay or paralyze, some will stick whilst he pounds your chaff, and should hopefully preferentially target high HP commanders. If you have a few spare mages to summon more chaff, it will help keep them busy. They will fatigue out eventually - thunderstrike is exhausting - and become vulnerable. Communions can be your friend here. Soulless are also better chaff. The wider AoE of the thunderstrike will probably kill low-HP longdead, so he'll need to fire a lot more if he's hitting 16-HP soulless.

* * *

Here's an interesting little option I haven't tried but might be worth a laugh, using holy magic. Check out Baalz's communion guide (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37499), in particular how "Reverse Communion" works. Set one up - communioning increases holy magic as well.

S1D1H2 Thaumaturgs will do, no harm in the odd Grand Thaumaturg as well. If you can get to H5, (Power of the Spheres from the master should help) you should get a penetration bonus on H3 spells. You then have two options. Firstly, Smite. This is a bit like Mind Burn, but probably even better because it will likely kill the Sidhe lord in one hit. The second devious ploy would be Apostacy, a unique H3 spell for Ermor. Apostacy converts an enemy sacred (e.g. Sidhe Lords) to your side. Whilst it's an easy resist (MR+4), if it works, you'll get that Sidhe Lord and all he's carrying. Imagine 10 H5 priests or more spamming apostacy every turn: at least one if not more Sidhe Lord should fail his MR test. That Sidhe Lord will start fighting on your side immediately, and hopefully will survive the battle and permanently be yours.

[Psycho]

Don't empower. Send along a thaumaturg to cast luck and body ethereal on your thug.

Depending on how sidhe lords are equipped you have a variety of options. If they spam thunderstrike they will tire eventually, so good old skellyspamming will take them out in the end. For wraithlords just script soul vortex. That will take them out in the end and focus your equipment on staying alive. You can also do drain life with grand thaumaturgists or give standard of the damned to a thug. It should take them out in two shots (first one takes out mistform).

Also, mind hunt them. That spell kills them even when they hide.

[TheDemon]

They're hard to catch since you can't really adequately counter-drop. If they sneak away, you miss them. Mind hunt is the best choice I think, but you'll need penetration boosters and you'll need to spam it like crazy.

If you're engaging them in army vs army battles, I always found just overwhelming them with undead to be a pretty effective solution (I was playing Eriu at the time). Longdead horse in overwhelmingly large ammounts, so many that a round of lightning makes no dent in them at all, will be able to charge in and attempt a lance strike. Even if you don't win due to melee, you aim for winning due to fatigue or round limit. AoE fatigue-causing spells are what you want here. My favorite is Ghost Grip, but you need to be in range and again you really need to spam it. I think there may be a more effective astral spell but I can't recall it at this time.

[Agema]

You are probably thinking of Stellar Cascades for fatigue damage. If he deploys his thunderstrikers at the back of the map, I'm not sure Stellar Cascades will have the range.

Ethereal on your thug is useless if the Sidhe lords have magic weapons. Luck will be useful. Other ideas for battles: you've got water on grand thaumaturgs boosted from communions. Mist will drop precision, which will affect your 100 precision astral/holy not at all, whereas his thunderstrikes will be much more likely to miss.

[MaxWilson]

Stellar Cascades is probably the astral fatigue-causing spell you're thinking of.

-Max