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Some examples of slayers would be: Manticore Astral magic - 6 On entering battle it casts, Body Etheral, Personal Luck, Astral Shield, Astral Weapon, and then attacks.
Wraith Sword, Robe of Shadows, Boots of Quickness, Pendent of Luck, Ring of Regeneration 8.6.1.1.3 SUPERCOMBATANT Supercombatants are built in an attempt to walk onto a battlefield alone and clean house versus any opposition. The potency/penetration of the spell Paralyze has made life a bit tough on Supercombatants and players of Dom2 are using more thugs and slayers than they did in Dom1. Still it's fun to use them, and they can still be effective. Just keep in mind that they are very powerful, but not invincible. An example of a supercombatant would be:
Earth magic - 4 Air magic - 2 Nature magic - 3 Wraith Sword, Faithful, Charcoal Shield, Starshine Skullcap, Robe of Shadows, Boots of Quickness, Anti-Magic amulet. On entering battle it casts, Invulnerability, Mist Form, Personal Regeneration, Elemental Fortitude, and then attacks 8.6.1.1.4 "HIT N' RUN" GOLEM The Golem is mindless and has astral skill, making it a prime candidate for the spell Astral Tempest. The Golem will need +2 astral skill. I usually use a starshine skullcap and a crystal coin, but other items or empowerment will work fine. Cast Ritual of Returning so your Golem doesn't get hurt. [Smile] Place Golem at rear of battlefield. Teleport into an enemy army (living armies, obviously). Upon entering combat cast Astral Tempest - Body Ethereal - Personal Luck - Astral Shield - Twist Fate - then "cast spells". Make sure you have at least 4 pearls on the Golem for the castings. This should get you about 3-7 turns of bLasting versus the enemy army. The more troops in the army the more damage will get done! As soon as the Golem takes a hit, the Ritual of Returning will send it back to the capital. Rinse, lather, repeat. If the enemy has flying troops they may tag the Golem fast and send him home. Avoid that army. If the enemy has a strong astral mage ready to Magic Duel, it's possible to lose the Golem. Other than that this is a tactic that is hard to stop, and will make your enemies pull their hair out. [Smile] 8.6.1.1.5 SPIDERMAN SPIDERMAN DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN The Machakan Black Sorcerer is one interesting mage! Enter combat, cast Summon Earth Power, Invulnerability and Fire Shield, then attack. As soon as the Black Sorcerer takes a hit, he turns into a hunter spider (pretty big!). What's even more impressive is that the spider keeps the extra protection and fire shield! This is more than enough to single handedly beat down weaker independents. Not bad in other circumstances as well. The Machakan Sorceress can pull a similar but slightly less impressive stunt, but at her lower cost is still well worth the expense. If your Black Sorcerer comes with a lucky level of astral, might as well add in Body Ethereal and Personal Luck. [Wink] 8.6.1.1.6 SUPERCHARGED ABYSIAN WARLOCKS For this trick you will need 8 astral mages to act as communion slaves. Warlock apprentices will do, but if you find cheaper ones go for it. You will also need 1+ Warlocks. Have the 8 slaves cast communion slave. Have your Warlocks cast; Communion Master, Power of the Spheres, have one cast Light of the Northern Star (or carry a Banner of the North Star). At this point the Warlocks will have Blood-7 Astral-7 Random-5 If you are willing to cast Hellpower (it horror marks your mages and attracts horrors) you can bring the Warlocks up to Blood-9 Astral-9 Random-7 This is all without magic items or empowerment. Is it worthwhile to go through the hefty effort to get this effect? That depends on you games circumstances. Just keep in mind that it's a potential tool in the toolbox. 8.6.1.1.8 FLYING DWARVEN THUGS One tactic that I use extensively in multiplayer is getting small raiding forces behind the front lines and harrassing my enemy. One of my favorite ways to do this is with "Flying Dwarven Thugs". There are numerous ways to raid, but I find the sheer absudity of this method to be entertaining. Play Ulm. Make Master Smiths. Arm them with Winged Shoes and a pair of Axes of Sharpness. If possible I also make them a Pendent of Luck. Yes the shoes and pendent take effort to develop. It's worth it. Fly them into enemy territory against lightly defended provinces. Upon arrival, have the dwarf cast Summon Earth Power, Invulnerability and Fire Shield. Then dive in for some two axe action! This should be enough to crack the low province defense that most players use. If you know that the province defense is pumped, add in more dwarves. For large battles have a squad of these guys in the back, power up, and attack the rear. Very few players anticipate a squad of dangerous flyers from Ulm. I don't know what it is, but the idea of a super-armored flaming dwarf dropping out of the sky and going to town on surprised defenders is enough to make me smile for hours. [Smile] 8.6.1.1.8 POISON AND THE DEAD Undead troops and poison generating effects go togeher like peanut butter and chocolate. After all, the undead are immune to the poison that would normally make life hard on your own living troops.
This is best used when applied too a large/living enemy army. Delay with the undead, kill with the poison. With a bit of skill/luck this sort of engagement can cause horrific losses to the opponent. 8.6.1.1.9 GIRLFRIENDS FROM HELL Sometimes I find myeslf in a dire situation and have a few death mages to spare. It is during those times that I consider the very risky tactic of using the spell Summon Lammashtas. Each casting gets you two Lammashtas. They are ethereal, hard to hit, and carry wraith swords. These are some scary women! The spell description says that they will probably not attack the caster at the start of the battle. This is a load of hooey. They will disembowel your mages first chance they get. Anytime you use this spell it's a suicide mission. Count on it. If you are just sending in mages, give them one death gem and cast. The girls will slay your mages and then go to work on the enemy. Each Lammashta seems tough enough to kill about 5-20 infantry. A lot depends on the quality of the opposition and if they have magic. The Lammashtas are not under your control and go back from whence they came at the battles end. If you can put your mages inside packs of junk troops, it's possible to get a second casting while hoping that the troops will delay the Lammashtas for the turn needed. Possible and hope being the key words here. If you attempt a second casting your death-3 mages will need another gem, and death-2 mages will need two more. I have tried sending in mages casting Lammashtas at the front of my army with real troops holding in the rear. The idea being that perhaps the girls will become involved with the advancing enemy and soften things up for my troops . I've had about as many disasters as I've had successes with this. Use it at your own risk. I always keep this tactic in mind when I find "raptor" provinces that produce Harab Seraphs. Since these are flying death-2 mages, I can use them as a fast reaction suicide squad. It's not the cheapest defense (by a longshot) but it's saved my bacon a few times. 8.6.1.1.10 FOLLOWING THE LIGHT Anytime I have many astral mages on the battlefield I always try to have a character holding a Banner of the Northern Star, or I have a mage cast Light of the Northern Star. Either way all my astral mages get an extra point of astral skill. Extra skill means that astral spells cause less fatigue, and that means more casting. Yummy. Also this is often important in order to get easy access to better quality spells. With the "light" in effect: Astral-1 mages can cast Paralyze Astral-2 mages can cast Soul Slay Astral-3 mages can cast Enslave Mind
8.6.1.2 Nice tricks 8.6.1.2.1 Feel the burn Fire magic in Dom2 is fairly weak. Many of the fun sounding spells just don't hit often, and it's very hard to use fire magic during rain or a storm (which many nations bring to battle). There are very few fire spells that I find worthwhile, however there is one worth writing about... Incinerate! Why do I like incinerate? 1 - Precision 100 2 - 18 damage 3 - Armor Negating
If your mages are fire-2, have them cast Phoenix Power first in order to bring them up to the skill level needed. In fact always use Phoenix Power as it will lower the fatigue for more skilled mages. Line up a bunch of fire mages and it's a vertible "Firing Squad". It's not as flashy as some other spells, but the fact that you're drilling in armor negating damage with precision is a wonderful thing. Note: Also check out the magic item Rod of the Phoenix. This item allows any commander to cast (you guessed it) incinerate! The 20 fire gem cost seems high, but I assure you that it's a great effect. Don't think of it as a rod, think of it as a sniper rifle. Give it to a low encumberance commander and flame away!
Everything I said about incinerate pretty much goes for the spell Frozen Heart as well. This is the cold Version of incinerate. It does less damage, however it has less fatigue cost and requires much less skill. You only need water-1 for frozen heart! This is a great way to make any water-1 mage very useful. Playing Atlantis? Those Initiates of the Deep are Frozen Heart casters for a mere 60 gold! Playing Caelum and your enemy has lightning protection? Show them that you have another way to make them cry. Hey! Any mage that can cast Frozen Heart can also cast quickness. Why not spread the pain even faster? Yes getting to Alteration-6 is a pain... but it's worth it. 8.6.1.2.3 THE ARCHERS BEST FRIEND The only offensive fire spell besides incinerate that I really like is Flaming Arrows. It takes a gem, and researching Enchantment-4 might not be very synergistic with your other needs, however this is a fantastic way to crank up your damage potential. This makes any archers/crossbows you have into death dealing machines. They'll carve swaths straight through armored enemy ranks. Your enemies will stare dumbfounded as they mumble "I just got my ass kicked... by shortbow". If you are playing Abysia, Marignon, Machaka, or Mictlan I suggest that you consider making a research beeline for this spell. Yes, this spell also works on sling bullets and javelins. Be careful of enemies using storms, as this will ruin your day. [Frown] 8.6.1.2.4 SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS As always I'm on the lookout for techniques that allow me to raid behind enemy lines. One of my favorite tricks is to send in mages that cast summoning spells. I call these mages "Summons Raiders".
High Seraphs : Flying in (or Cloud Trapezing) and summoning Air Elementals Demonbred : Flying in and summoning Fire Elementals Arch Theurgs : Teleporting in (or Cloud Trapezing) and summoning Air Elementals Crones : Cloud Trapeze in and summoning Air Elementals and/or casting Howl
Abysia has hard choices to make in choosing it's magic paths. One of the paths that I am fond of utilizes the Demonbred mages. First play Abysia in whatever way you find to be best for your style. Add in the Demonbred strategy as lightly or as heavily as you feel the game warrents. Make 5-10 Warlock Apprentices. Have them do your research. First do whatever needs to be researched to help your god. Then research any combat spells you intend to use, if any. Then research blood to level 3. Once you have done the research send the blood mages out to 7-12K population provinces. Lower the taxes to 0% and start hunting for blood slaves. Only place about 5 hunters per province. If unrest gets out of hand, either patrol the province with troops, or rotate the hunters to a fresh province (crop rotation). As long as unrest is low, the blood income should be pretty good. If you have the gold, make labs in the hunting provinces for easy slave pooling. If you can't afford labs, then make a scout (or three) and have them run around moving the slaves. Always consider making ordinary scouts and adding them to the blood hunt. They don't do very well, but they are dirt cheap and will provide a reasonable amount of slaves considering the cost. From this point on make Demonbred mages at the capital. The Demonbred have the correct skill to cast Bind Devil. They also have the command skill to lead devils, and can fly. This makes them perfect devil squad leaders. Have the Demonbred start binding devils. If you run dry on slaves have them aid in the hunt. Devil production should ramp up fairly fast. There is however a few turns where you have some mages, some demonbred, some devils, and you wonder why exactly are you doing this. After a while (about the time you are making 7-10 devils per turn) you will suddenly find that you have some serious devil power. At this point much will depend on the circumstances of the game. If nothing pressing is happening you can continue building up demonbred and devils. If it's time to fight, send out some demonbred leading packs of devils. If you have been reading these strategies you will have already seen that I am an advocate of raiding my enemies. Devil squads are awesome raiders. Once production gets going you will be able to send out a demonbred with 10+ devils every turn. Shotgun these squads all over your enemies territory. Then concentrate them for big fights and fort assaults. The mobility and strike power is very impressive. Many players out there will compare this with other blood strategies, and rightly so. The Devil Squad strategy is similar to the summoning of Hordes from Hell. I find the Hordes are a bit slower to get started and are a bit weaker. On the other hand the Hordes can be summoned anywhere. Plus they have greater numbers, which has benefits. This strategy can also be compared to pumping out devils via the creation of Soul Contracts (as I'll discuss shortly). The contract route is a better investment over the long haul, but is weak at the start. The Devil Squad strategy provides firepower early, but is not a growing investment. Even though both techniques involve pumping out devils, they are effectively different paths. One of the major distictions of the Devil Squad strategy is that the Demonbred act as a fast reaction force while the blood machine is ramping up. Remember the Demonbred fly, have slaves, and devils. If there is any trouble they can fly right out with whatever devils you have. The Demonbred can be very effective on the battlefield by casting Summon Imp. If you have done the research they may also be able to summon fire elementals or cast incinerate. The Demonbred are expensive mages, however they are very flexible and mobile. The Devil Squads become explosive in the mid game. It's not uncommon for me to lash out with 5-15 squads at once. [Smile] I not saying this is an ultimate strategy, but it is a strong one that can get good results. Try it. Frankly, I just love flying the devils around. 8.6.1.2.6 ATTACK OF THE CRONES This is an expansion of the "Perfect Storm" from the Last post. Play the nation of Man, and make Crone mages. Add Snake Rings to all mages. Wait for a Crone that comes with water skill. Reserach Enchantment-5. Do the attack just like "The Perfect Storm" from the Last post. On entering battle send the the water crone also, and have her cast Foul Vapors. Now the enemy will have to deal with a battlefield full of poison on top of the lightning. What do you think the odds are that your enemy will be immune to both? Probably pretty low. 8.6.1.2.7 DEVILS O' RAMA
For everyone else that wants devils but who don't get Demonbred mages... there is my old friend the Soul Contract. [comment: You're writing Diabolists and Goetic Masters off too easily. Give them flying boots and you can use exactly the same tactic with Marignon/Diabolical Faith, except you can add some cheap Harlequins to the mix too. An incentive to pick a Pretender with some air magic on your pretender, besides finding air sites and forging boots of flying, is the dreaded xbows/Flaming Arrows/Wind Guide combo. ]
I am not a fan of the Goetic Masters.
]
You will need a blood-5 mage and Construction-2 to make Soul Contracts. It is a cursed item and it will horror mark the character you give it to. Your goal is to get at least one if not more contacts made per turn.
Each contract costs 80 blood slaves. Devils have a summoning cost of 7 slaves, so effectively it takes 11 turns for the contract to "pay off". After that it is effectively an income of 7 slaves per turn (in the form of a devil). It takes a while for the production to really take off. During this wait time you will have spent resource and won't have reaped benefits. This is the dangerous time for the Soul Contract strategy. It's a bit of a long term investment. If you can afford the time to ramp up for the payoff it is awesome. If you need power fast, convert your slaves into something that will get you power faster. Consider things with care when making long term plans.
8.6.1.2.8 THE PERFECT STORM This is one of the most abusive combo's in the game. It takes a bit of effort but it's worth it for the brutal effect. Research Evocation-6 and Enchantment-4. Locate and enemy army that you want dead... Take two Air-3 mages. Give one 3 air gems and the other 2. Give both rings of Tamed Lightning.
Mage 2 casts Storm. With no other nonsense this will often expose the enemy army to 3-4 turns of armor negating lightning strikes. The mages will eventually get smacked, but the damage done will be tremendous. Afraid of flyers getting to the mages before Storms goes off? Then get rid of mage 2. Research Construction-4 and make a Staff of Storms. Send in one mage with the SOS and 3 gems (you can get away with 2 sometimes, but don't risk it). Have that mage cast Wrathful Skies (then mistform and mirror image if you can). What's that you say? Don't want to lose mages at all? Ok, just send in more air mages and have them cast air elementals. The air elementals will clog the enemy advance and will expose them to further rounds of lightning strikes. Unless the enemy army can lightning proof itself, this technique will savage them. If you don't have air-3 mages you can take a Titan pretender with a bunch of air skill. Pile on some magic items to beef the Titan up into a serious combat threat. Trapeze, Storm, Wrath, [defensive spells], and then either fight or cast orb lightnings. The Titan starts lightning proof, and can easily be cultivated into a instant army buster. During the days of Dom1 I made quite a fuss about this combo being unfair, and I asked Illwinter to increase costs to fix it. Nothing has changed. I beg you guys to limit the distance on cloud trapeze, or make the SOS unique, and definitely raise the cost of wrathful skies! It's really not fun to be on the recieving end of this technique. Not at all... PS- How long did you think I could go without complaining about something? [Wink] 8.6.1.2.9 LIZARDS GONE WILD! 8.6.1.2.9.1 Comments [comment: I've found Falchioneers to be also effective with that kind of berserk strategies, and they're cheaper, do more damage (7+7 vs 8+3), and have better prot and defense. On the minus side, Falchioneers are supposed to be ambidextrous, but their attack rating is only 8x2 with falchions. ] [comment: The Falchioneers are good troops, but I have found the Elite Warriors to be better even at the higher gold cost. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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