Just Man's Cross?

[Stryke11]

Hey all,

In a recent game as LA Ulm against LA Ermor, I figured a good strategy would be equipping all of my little commanders (commanders of Ulm, indies) with the Just Man's Cross weapon. The thing is, from what I can tell watching the battles, they never ever used them. I had them all set to fire rear, and I figured that maybe the distance was too long and rather than get closer the AI turned them off, but then I tried fire (x5) and then fire closest, and that didn't do anything either. Is this a bug of some kind or is there something obvious I'm missing? The enemy armies were mass undead chaff, and my armies were Zweihander, Ranger, Infantry of Ulm combos.

[Nick_K]

I'm not sure what the problem is for you about not firing, but I don't think the just man's cross, which fires only once every other turn, is very good against undead chaff. Unless there's some way I don't know to get the commanders to target important undead you'd probably be much better off with a bow of war

[Shovah32]

Herald lances would probably be better vrs undead due to the spell they let you cast. One of your knight commanders with a lance, charcoal shield(to keep him safe from chaff) and a lucky pendant could also be used to charge down enemy banelords ect while not being a huge investment and has quite a good chance of taking the enemy out if he gets to charge

[Stryke11]

Thanks! I'm about to face Ermor again in my LA Marignon game so I'll try out the lances.

[solo]

Having many priests casting banish works better than Just Man Crosses, too.

[Rathar]

10-20 indy priests are my favorite nod nod.

Rathar

[Saxon]

Eyes of aiming can really pay off for your active priests who are banishing all the time. The indy priests are not normally that precise and you will see their hits all over. Throw in an Eye of Aiming and they get better. With the hordes of Ermor, that means they hit almost every time. Next thing you know, you have hall of famers and, if you are lucky, heroic precision.

That said, if you have higher holy values on your national priests, give the eyes to them. The number of banishment strikes is higher with the higher holy values, meaning more undead hit each time it is cast. I don’t remember the details, but Marigion should have some pretty holy units in this area.

[thejeff]

Back to the original question...
Are you sure they weren't firing?
Commanders with range weapons fire during the regular missile phase, so if you had other archers they may just have been lost in the hail of arrows.

[Stryke11]

My commanders with the JMC's were in different locations from my rangers. I was also watching them like a hawk during the battle. I never noticed an "attack" motion with any kind of projectile coming away from them, though I will admit since the graphics are a bit rough if it was just one teeny arrow it may have gotten lost in the background.

Good tip on the eye of aiming with a priest...I didn't know it worked with banishment. In my experience, though, banishment only gets rid of soulless and skeletons, while the undead legions and the unholy knights (or whatever they're called) resist it superbly.

[Saxon]

I have found that the spell casters often escape these battles and they are the real problem. So, with Ermor I put a bit more effort into letting them advance, then I cut them off. Then I go after the main force and I do not care if the spell casters or prophet escape the battle, as they have nowhere to retreat.