Wind ride

[Tichy]

Question: Hopefully not answered somewhere else. How in the heck do you actually use wind ride? I've tried to use it to capture enemy commanders in AI games, but after casting it a dozen or so times on enemy provinces I only ever get the "so and so cast wind ride" message and nothing happens. (I've never tried it as a rescue mission, or to ferry my own commanders about.)

Thanks.

[MaxWilson]

Well, there have to be enemy (non-E4? mage) commanders in the province in question. The easiest way to ensure that they're there is to cast Wind Ride on a province you've just watched a battle in. (Technically it's possible that an enemy commander could Teleport out before you cast Wind Ride, but he certainly couldn't move out normally.)

Caveat: I've never actually cast Wind Ride so maybe there's a detail I'm overlooking.

-Max

[Micah]

The ai cast it on me once, my commander only went about a province or two from where he started, so maybe the whirlwind is just dropping off your opposition somewhere else within their own territory?

[Manuk]

did someone used this in Dom3? ive seen failed too. im sure that normal commanders were in that province.

[Ironhawk]

I havent tried it, myself. Its path cost puts it out of the category of general-use. And there are far more cost effective assassination spells available.

[Tichy]

Thanks, I'll have to try the battle reconnaissance trick, and target a province closer to the province from which it's cast. I thought it was like cloud trapeze, without a move-limit.

It seems like the use for it isn't assassination (provided you can get it to work) but to drop the enemy in the midst of a bunch of N-mages scripted to charm and steal him/her. But you may be right Ironhawk. I've only ever tried to use it when I've got an AI on the ropes already. No idea if it's got a MP use.

[Gandalf Parker]

Thats my favorite use. Dropping him into the middle of charmers. Get a commander you cant recruit, equipment you didnt have to make, AND you strand his troops in mid-march possibly even making them susceptable to an easy rout by attacking them with a scout.

If a large army is marching toward you then using this spell can stretch it out all along the marching path. Yes there are other ways to assassinate but this has nice double-advantage of taking from them and giving to you at the same time.

If you are real lucky you could pick up an extra prophet. It used to be that you could snag a pretender but they fixed that pretty quick back in Dom2. They may have fixed the prophet by now, havent used it in awhile.

[Foodstamp]

It seems like a very poor way to grab a commander if the province they get dropped in is random. Seems like it would take a lot of 3nature mages placed all around the target province.

Honestly, I can't imagine the strategy being used in multiplayer games. Setting it up, and then executing it would be close to impossible. Actually, it seems even in single player pulling this off would be about as likely as winning the lottery. Am i missing something on how the spell works? I haven't used it all because I rarely take air magic in any of my games. Is there methods to predicting the province the commander gets dropped in, or directing him your charmers?

[Gandalf Parker]

Unless its changed it wasnt a random drop when I did it. The description says that it will find a commander in the target province and drop him at the mage that cast it. For 10 air gems and being able to target anyplace on the map its isnt bad.

It also mentions that it doesnt work well on large commanders and powerful earth mages if that helps the original poster.

[Foodstamp]

That sounds pretty awesome. I am going to have to make use of that spell in the near future http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Tichy]

Thanks everybody. I knew there were some kinds of commanders immune to it (big and/or earth mage), but I cast it a good number of times and kept coming up empty. I was having trouble believing I was constantly getting unlucky...but then again I've had the AI cast it on me numerous times and never seen it work -- I always get the 'picked him up but couldn't carry him off' message.

What's your yield on it, Gandalf? (# of casts/successes)?

[RamsHead]

I believe ethereal commanders are immune as well.

I haven't used this spell yet in Dom 3, but in Dom 2 I had no problems using it. It is quite an addictive spell.

[Gandalf Parker]

Like I said, havent used it in a long time. What I remember is that it worked pretty much every time unless there was an obvious reason.

You arent playing on one of the no-indepts maps are you?
Also keep in mind that you cannot pick up Province Defence units.

The game Im playing now just got up to being able to cast it. Maybe I will try a few. It was supposed to be a quicky game to test if turning down the resources would improve the AI's like people suggest (it apparently does) but like always I cant seem to do a quick test game without getting so caught up in it that I keep going "just one more turn" (yeah, like THAT works!)

[Wish]

i tried to use it for ferrying, and it kept dropping light weight communicants into the ocean. not one got all the way to their target... and it was being cast by an air queen.

[RonD]

In a recent MP game, the Mictlan player tended to not have very many commanders. His opponent could cast 1, 2, or 3x Wind Ride, and defeat the leaderless devils with a scout. Useful regardless where the commanders landed.

[Tuidjy]

At the very least, Wind ride fails on:

Pretenders.
Etherial commanders.
Earth 3+ mages.
Size 5+ commanders.
Commanders with glamour.

Too many people try it a few times, fail, and give it up. It is a wonderful
spell for disrupting an army before an assault, and for stealing a mage that
you need. Of course, you better make sure that the province where you
charmed the victim can withstand the retaliation that is bound to come.
Don't forget that the enemy knows exactly what to expect. I remember that in a
game in Dominions II Man charmed one of my commanders in his sage province. On the
next turn, 30+ commanders were stoned and baked at the cost of two recruitable
commanders of mine. Unfortunately the charmed guy was amongst the survivors...

[Manuk]

tuidjy, did you cast this in dom3 succesfully?
i did cast it several turns with the following message.
(name of the mage) casted wind ride on (province name).
(that's the message more or less)
yet, no one was brought to the caster's province.

[Tuidjy]

I have cast Wind Ride four times that I can remember in Dominions III.
Twice it worked as expected - the enemy came and got charmed. Once
it failed, and I learned on the next turn that the enemy commander was
a spectral mage. Once it failed and I was not sure why. I did not get
a message, and I decided that there must have been a Van-something in
the province.

[lch]

Wind Ride has been my most favorite spell in Dom2. I am not sure if I have tried it in Dom3, but I know about the limitations that Tuidjy listed above.

[mivayan]

In a solo game I haven't touched since 3.06, against MA vanheim who has air mages, I got this message from a spell, not an event:

Suddenly a whirlwind appeared out of the sky and snatched away Benim and anyone standing too close. But about a hundred feet up the wind lost it's grip and Benim fell to the ground.

Sounds like a failed wind ride. A commander named Benim is in the province shown with (goto province).

[SelfishGene]

Doesn't one of the boots (Boots of Trampling?) confer resistance to Wind Ride?

[Kristoffer O]

I think it is bugged. At least it is reported as such in the beta forum.

Unless someone recently has seen it work I would consider it broken.

[Xietor]

It works-inconsistently. But if you have the air mages and air gems to waste-it does work at times.

If the commander is over size 2 though, when it does work it only moves him 1 or 2 provinces. So if you are trying to give a big size commander a ride, make sure you do not drop him in a province you do not want him in.

[PyroStock]

Please let us know if the wind ride works on friendly commanders. It seems to be broken vs enemies. We would like to get some info on this.



I had Wind Ride fail on a my Ivy King (no items) which didn't have anything of Tuidjy's list above. Is there a chance Wind Ride will fail even if the commander is wind-rideable? Otherwise it seems broken.

Edit: Ok, since Ivy King is size3 distance was the problem.

[Xietor]

A fun use for a friendly size 3 or 4 raiding commander in enemy land is to wind ride him every turn. He would have no way to predict what province would be hit next!

[Gandalf Parker]

I was not able to get it to work on anything. Enemies, independents, my own units. Im very unhappy (and did report it in the beta forum)

[Cor2]

Gandalf Parker said:
If you are real lucky you could pick up an extra prophet. It used to be that you could snag a pretender but they fixed that pretty quick back in Dom2. They may have fixed the prophet by now, havent used it in awhile.



You can still steal Prophets. I just did in a Sp game. So UI was curious and cast gift of reason, he did not have any magic/preist paths.But had a really cool perpetual bless going on. I wonder if he also spread my dominion?

[Kristoffer O]

I had forgotten thet it might move units a few provinces. That might explain erratic behavior.

[Meglobob]

I used wind ride to kill enemy leaders/thugs/Sc's. It picked them up and deposited them unfailingly into a ocean nearby. They then drowned, was great for me LA Caelum and sad for LA Arco... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Its just a expensive assasination spell.

[NickW]

I absolutely love me some wind ride, it's one of the best assassination spells around because it's so hard to defend against. Most nations don't have easy access to big mages, E4 mages, or ethereal mages.

I really like to use in when playing Lanka since Lanka also has access to infernal disease. It's a one-two punch of assassination magic that can really scramble an invading army if they aren't ready for it.

[Xox]

Curse you meglobob!!!

you must have used about 500 gems is various assasination spells and attacks on my poor damaged LA Arco. The rain of seeking arrows was truly impressive. Actually I thought it was an inefficient use of all those gems to take out my by far weaker nation in that way at that point in the game. But perhaps you were using your main armies on another front?

Of course an attack by you is the gratitude I get for holding LA Agarhta to a standstil all that time til you decided to kill him, then me in succession.

[Xox]

By the way, wind ride seems very broken to me also, Has not worked for me at all in DOM III as it used to in DOM II.

And, this one or two province distance limit i hear in this thread is news to me, undocumented anywhere, and was not a limitaion for wind ride in DOM II. Wind Ride, despite its high cost, used to be a favorite of mine in DOM II, now I don't use the spell. looking forward to seeing it fixed.

[SelfishGene]

Thanks for the insight.

Hey, NickW, close your eyes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif!

[Meglobob]

Xox said:
Curse you meglobob!!!

you must have used about 500 gems is various assasination spells and attacks on my poor damaged LA Arco. The rain of seeking arrows was truly impressive. Actually I thought it was an inefficient use of all those gems to take out my by far weaker nation in that way at that point in the game. But perhaps you were using your main armies on another front?



If you have got it flaunt it... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Well attacking you, it was on a direct opposite front to Jomon, so I could only use a portion of my army to attack you. I think I used all my chaff, plus a few SC's/thugs, supporting spellcasters. You put up such fierce resistance that I had to commit more and more force to destroying you. Was impressed at the fight you put up and 500 gems was a conservative estimate of what I used.


Xox said:Of course an attack by you is the gratitude I get for holding LA Agarhta to a standstil all that time til you decided to kill him, then me in succession.



Lifes tough in a war of gods... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif