priest mage as communion master

[WraithLord]

I had a strange thing happen to me in an MP game. Not for the first time...

So, I have a host of communion slaves and two theurgs that lead the communion as masters. They lead a large Pythium army vs a host of fire blessed vans.
As the battle progresses they start to cast only fanaticism.
They are quickened so they cast four times fantaisicm round after round after round.
Naturally they get the slaves to nearly die from exhaustion while wasting many opprutinities to cast useful spells.
Unless I misunderstand something, fantisicsm effects all the soldiers so casting it four times in the same battle round is equivalent to casting it only once.
This specific battle Pythium lost. I count this behavior as one of the factors.

I want to know if other people experienced something similar.
Also, if indeed this is not supposed to work that way, it seems like it can be easily fixed.

[Manuk]

didnt see the battle yet but It´s great news for me.

[WraithLord]

Manuk said:
didnt see the battle yet but It´s great news for me.

I neglected to mention that a certain annoying pretender got the soul slay treat
Seriously, it is a fun battle to watch. Sort of the clash of two antithesis. Van with great fire bless and a most potent spell caster pretender and Pythium with crap army and magical might.
The theurgs command such vast magical power through the circle that the battle seems like a long party full of special effects. Thunder strikes and souls are ripped from bodies while the vans burn a path of destruction. yammi...

This kind of battle is not common in MP games what with earthquakes etc making this startegy suicide for Pythium.

[Cainehill]

izaqyos said:
Unless I misunderstand something, fantisicsm effects all the soldiers so casting it four times in the same battle round is equivalent to casting it only once.

Nope. True, it affects all soldiers, but each casting simply increases morale / decreases morale loss somewhat - from what I understand, Sermon of Courage actually gives a greater effect, but only within the area of effect. So if your army was suffering sufficient morale loss, it may have seemed reasonable to the AI to chain cast fanaticism. ( If it hadn't, your army might well have routed quite rapidly. )

[WraithLord]

Cainehill said:

Nope. True, it affects all soldiers, but each casting simply increases morale / decreases morale loss somewhat - from what I understand, Sermon of Courage actually gives a greater effect, but only within the area of effect. So if your army was suffering sufficient morale loss, it may have seemed reasonable to the AI to chain cast fanaticism. ( If it hadn't, your army might well have routed quite rapidly. )

I understand. Thank you for the explanation.
Shame on me, for thinking such bad things of the AI...

[Evil Dave]

Huh. The in-game spell description says that Fanaticism is just a bigger Sermon of Courage. But if it isn't, if would certainly explain some problems I've been having w/ morale collapses when using it.