Trivia: How do you kill this unit?

[sector24]

I'm fighting MA C'tis, and I have his capital under siege with the walls down. Inside is an Astral 9 Nature 8 Sphinx. He scripts Body Ethereal, Luck, Curse, Curse, Curse, and the AI spams paralyze over and over again.

The Sphinx has about 600 hit points with no dominion, and he just ruins everything I send at it. I currently don't have any units that can deal 600 damage before he paralyzes them. So what's the best way to kill this guy?

My current plan is to just take all his other territories and dominion kill him, but there must be a faster way...

[Shovah32]

Magic seems the obvious route, whether it's via spells, summons, or items.
What paths do you have and what research have you done?

[archaeolept]

tons of mages casting AN spells, or even better some sort of an MR check death spell, w/ penetration boosters - disintegrate, petrify (not absolutely sure this works on him - it shouldn't), even soul slay (though he will get an MR bonus due to his high astral).

oh, and don't forget to curse him anyways http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[VedalkenBear]

If that's all he has...

Fatigue Costs:

Body Ethereal - 30/8 = 3.75
Luck - 20/8 = 2.5
Curse - 30/7 = 4.286
Curse: 4.286
Curse: 4.286

So his script has a total of 19.1 fatigue. Each casting of Paralyze has 20/7 = 2.86 fatigue. Calculating quickly, he should fall unconscious after 28 rounds of casting Paralyze. I don't know who you're playing, but you have a couple of options:

1) 300 Archers (or so) with Flaming Arrows (to avoid Body Ethereal) and Wind Guide. His Paralyze should do very very little damage to the troops as a whole. I would not suggest crossbows. Longbows would be best.

2) An idea my brother had was 10 or so Astral Mages all spamming Horror Mark. Doesn't kill him immediately, but will probably do the trick faster than Dominion kill.

3) I'm guessing Paralyze back at the Sphinx is pretty useless, but you might want to look into Petrify. I'm not sure if he can be affected by it, though. The book doesn't say he's not affected, but you wouldn't think he would be.

4) Along with two, if you have Blood/Astral Mages, after you Horror Mark him, start summoning up Horrors to kill him more quickly.

5) If Weapons of Sharpness makes your weapons magical, that might be an option with dual-wielding troops.

[vfb]

What nation are you playing, and what turn is it?

And why is the Sphinx not scripting Body Ethereal, Luck, Astral Shield, Regeneration, Curse? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Edi]

A big bunch of thugs with flying boots and gate cleavers, dusk daggers and other similar armor negating weapons scripted to attack large monsters are going to ruin his day in a hurry.

[sector24]

This is my MA Jotunheim game that I was playing to write the guide. So I have all magic paths except Fire, research levels are 7-9 in all magic schools, basically unlimited resources except earth gems.

I was thinking of trying to feeblemind him with Nether Darts, and then next turn sending in a couple SCs. The problem is that he's in his capital and he's scripted to sit way in the back, so even if I put my spellcasters in the front they have to walk forward for 1 or 2 turns before they're in casting range. That gives me maybe 2 or 3 volleys of Nether Darts if they don't get jammed up in the gate before the AI scripts garbage like Astral Shield and Raise Dead, etc. I'm not even sure if he can be feebleminded.

I could definitely nail him with Horror Marks and curses out of spite, but it I'll have all his provinces in a turn or two and I can probably dominion kill him first.

Are there any weapons that instantly kill casters? Like an Elf Bane for Sphinxes? It would be good to know how to deal with this in the future even if I go around him in this game.

[Shovah32]

Heartfinder sword has instant-death if MR check is failed, iirc.
An Ethereal Crossbow, Magebane or The Infernal Sword could also put the Sphinx out of commision.

Banish to Inferno/Claws of Cocytus(spelling?) should also get rid of him easily.

[llamabeast]

I'm with the gate cleaver option. Heaps of damage. Give the thug boots of quickness too, and have a couple such thugs and he will be dead in no time.

[Chris_Byler]

Heartfinder sword probably doesn't work on lifeless beings - no heart, or if they have one, it's not essential to life.

Ethereal Crossbow allows an MR save, which the Sphinx will probably pass (assuming you hit his square). Magebane will knock him out but not kill him (IIRC).

I don't know what the sphinx's chances of returning from inferno/cocytos would be. You'd think that an immobile should have zero chance of returning, but if the mechanics aren't coded that way...

I second the AN thugs. Hitting the sphinx is easy.

[Baalz]

Even better, just equip several guys with the black bows. I don't think it gives a MR check for the feeblemind.

[Taqwus]

...Mandragora, paired with Mass Flight. :p Sleep vines are vicious.

[sum1lost]

Give a thug a pair of the E10 hammers that crush constructs. That might work.

[archaeolept]

Taqwus said:
...Mandragora, paired with Mass Flight. :p Sleep vines are vicious.

yeah, that's a good one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

the gate cleaver also is a great weapon in this circumstance - a few thugs w/ good MR should take him down.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

A dominion kills worth going for anyways... Or at least go preaching in that province with priests of at least level 2. Click on their hitpoints to see how many are due to dominion.

Even if you don't dom kill, you'll make the sphinx more vulnerable, lowering a variety of stats.

Edit: isn't there a low-level earth weapon that does extra damage to inanimate beings?

[Foodstamp]

The horror marking worked exceptionally well for me in a game where a player had a SC Shedu. It took a little while for him to die, but once he was gone, it was well worth the effort http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Edratman]

Etheral bows work on the sphinx.

[konming]

20 Shatters and he is a goner, guaranteed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[DigitalSin]

Theres a hammer, in the earth path, I think its called "Crusher" or something similar. I think the description implies it does bonus damage to undead and construct units or something..

[NTJedi]

Based on the title of this thread I thought it was going to be a challenge. Oh well maybe next time.

[sector24]

I don't know, is there any unit that you can't think of a way to kill these days? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

As a peculiar question, if a player wished for the "Eater of Gods" horror, could another player horror-mark that horror, and what would happen?

Assuming of course, the Eater of Gods doesn't decide to go right back to the void?

[NTJedi]

sector24 said:
I don't know, is there any unit that you can't think of a way to kill these days? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



True... but I was hoping someone found one which would be at least somewhat of a challenge.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Wyatt Hebert]

NTJedi: The challenge is always relative to your game experience. I doubt I could even come up with something that would take you longer than 10s to figure out 3 strategies to kill. You, on the other hand, could take 10s to come up with something I would have a hard time figuring out what to do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif