Random horror attacks on soul contract wielders

[Kuritza_Dru]

Can anyone clarify this to me - are these attacks truly random, or do they depend on luck scales somehow?
And one more question, is there some way to defend commanders from horrors? For example, I've given soul contract to a dryad - should I also give her some troops and order her to cast tangle vines, or just pray that horrors ignore her for as long as possible?

[Huzurdaddi]

Well the person holding the soul contract is horror marked so don't expect the Horror to leave him/her along for very long.

I've always put my contracts on scouts and expected them to die by the time the horrors come.

I can not remember if you are attacked by a Lesser Horror or a Horror. If it is a lesser horror then there are a number of somewhat sturdy chassis that can survive. If it's a Horror then I doubt that there is a cost effective chassis to hold the contract.

Perhaps an astral mage with the ritual of returning?

[BigDaddy]

If you're forging soul contracts, you really won't be all that picky when putting them on guys. 2 a turn or more you know. You can't churn out the sort of survivable units that fast. For instance, if you're Abysia, the Dragons and Warlocks are pretty survivable, if protected by a couple of devils, but after 5 turn of this sort of equipping dudes, you won't be able to recruit as many of these powerful dudes.

If you've got time (48hr host), I reccommend that you put devils on all the dudes with soul contracts. 5 devils can take a horror. Otherwise, just hope for the best. Be prepared to make a couple SC's, Dragon, and Warlock squads to protected your devil investment. The devils will wipe any normal army (except MAYBE Van's, and Ether warriors, HUGE vine ogre squads) off the map. Don't worry, anyone with a soul contract can command a handful of devils. If you have the spells, a group of wights will be more effective against the horror attacks. Again though, if you're hording, this is going to be almost impossible. Don't forget the domes.

[Ironhawk]

I've never really used contracts much. Exactly what happens when a horror attack occurs? Is it like a province attack? Or an assassination type attack?

[Kuritza_Dru]

Its assassination type attack, with a random horror (i've seen both lesser and normal ones) against your commander and bodyguards. I've seen lamia queens killing horrors, but I don't remember how have I scripted them. Technically, tangle vines may actually do the trick by lowering horrors insane defense.

[Oversway]

Horrors don't have elemental resistance so incinerate works well, if you have the research.

Arn't stealthy units somewhat immune to the attacks (possibly due to a bug)? It seems like every puts contracts on scouts for this reason.

Otherwise I think bigdaddy is right, you just expect to lose one every so often. Its the price you pay http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Huzurdaddi]

Kuritza_Dru said:
Its assassination type attack, with a random horror (i've seen both lesser and normal ones) against your commander and bodyguards. I've seen lamia queens killing horrors, but I don't remember how have I scripted them. Technically, tangle vines may actually do the trick by lowering horrors insane defense.



Horrors have more than insane defence, they also have insane prot ( both 20 ). What they don't have is high HP ( 28 ) so as Kuritza_Dru pointed out elemental attacks work very well. In particular incinerate works well as does orb lighting. The trick would be surviving the attack by the horror as it can put out some pretty solid damage ( attack 18, 3 attacks, str 15 ).

[BigDaddy]

I've had assasins attacked by horrors (hey they where just standing there to assasinate enemy storm troops so I put a contract on them), so stealth units aren't immune.

Really, if I can summarize for everyone, if you're hording, you can't protect all the contracts. If you just come by a contract (or make just a few), put it on someone who can cast spells, is stong and undead, or can easily kill stuff with 28hp and 20prot., and give him the first 5 devils for defense.

[quantum_mechani]

BigDaddy said:
I've had assasins attacked by horrors (hey they where just standing there to assasinate enemy storm troops so I put a contract on them), so stealth units aren't immune.


Are you sure he was sneaking or hiding?

[BigDaddy]

He was actually sneaking when he was attacked (99% positive), he was walking into hostile territory with an army, to provide montly reinforcements when he was horror attacked. I've also had scouts attacked, but I am less certain about their status, they may have been set to defend.

[deccan]

I have hidden scouts with soul contracts get attacked by horrors all the time, so I'd think that sneaking doesn't make you immune.

[Agrajag]

deccan said:
I have hidden scouts with soul contracts get attacked by horrors all the time, so I'd think that sneaking doesn't make you immune.


Same here.
I don't horde contracts often (I don't like blood magic at all), but my defense would be giving a robe of shadows and that sword that does extra damage to magic creatures to a jotun scout holding the contract =P

[The_Tauren13]

There used to be a bug that stealthy units couldnt be attacked by horrors, but it was fixed in 2.15.