What is the best way to kill a Sphinx?

[Gurthang]

In one of my ongoing games, I am confronted with the remarkable feat to kill a Sphinx pretender. I can easily siege the fortress and defeat its army, but I ask myself what can be done to destroy the beast itself. It has a base 500 hps, raised by astrong dominion, and high magic resistance. What spells could be of use?

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

Couldn't you just avoid the fight and dom kill it? Or do you only want to take in down in combat? If so, you can cast "shatter", or some AN spells. Or gear up a high-strength thug with a smasher or gate cleaver.

[Admiral_Aorta]

If its astral levels haven't been boosted too much you could try massed magic duels, one of them will likely kill it eventually. Shatter does a lot of damage to lifeless creatures, but that might still not be enough to kill a sphinx. Instant death spells with penetration boosters might work if you use enough of them, even with high magic resistance. If you're a blood sac nation then you'd probably do better to go for a dom kill rather than trying to kill it directly.

[Gurthang]

Dom killing it might be a nice idea. How does it work? I mean, shall the damn thing automatically die as soon as it has no single region with at least dominion 1?

[Admiral_Aorta]

Yeah, a player with no dominion anywhere automatically loses the game, all their provinces revert to being independent and all their units vanish.

[Soyweiser]

Not a domkill per se, but just putting the province he is into negative dominion (for him) also helps. As then the pretender has lower MR and lower HP. (From baseline).

[Loren]

Not a domkill per se, but just putting the province he is into negative dominion (for him) also helps. As then the pretender has lower MR and lower HP. (From baseline).

Yup, trying to kill the superhard non-living monsters is very hard if they have strong dominion. It's so much easier if you preach it to your side.

[bbz]

Guys guys go the practical way about it!!!

Just answer her riddle. Can't believe no one mentioned that one!

[sansanjuan]

Spammed stellar cascades (quick) or horror marks (slow) can work. Horrors. Certain items will hurt inanimates. Swarm hits are armor negating
ssj

[brxbrx]

Soul slay spam? Are sphinxes susceptible to soul slay?

[YellowCactus]

French Artillery!

[Soyweiser]

Soul slay spam? Are sphinxes susceptible to soul slay?

Soulslay doesn't work on mindless. So if it isn't mindless it works.

[brxbrx]

I don't think Sphinxes are mindless, are they? I'm pretty sure the only mindless pretenders are the Polypal Queen and that giant wooden idol that Machaka has.

[revenant2]

In one of my ongoing games, I am confronted with the remarkable feat to kill a Sphinx pretender. I can easily siege the fortress and defeat its army, but I ask myself what can be done to destroy the beast itself. It has a base 500 hps, raised by astrong dominion, and high magic resistance. What spells could be of use?

It was a long time ago and the details are a bit fuzzy, but I once lost my high HP sphinx (1000+ HP) to a gang of wights that drained my fatigue with their chill auras and then quickly destroyed me with critical hits. That might be a viable approach for you.

I still have a screen-shot from that battle:

http://devnada.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/b9.jpg
http://devnada.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/elgato.jpg

I was a noob back then and thought ring of regeneration would work -- I also screwed up my orders. Sigh.

[brxbrx]

It's good to know that powerful spirits inhabiting enormous stone constructions are still vulnerable to hypothermia

[JonBrave]

http://devnada.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/b9.jpg
http://devnada.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/elgato.jpg

I was a noob back then and thought ring of regeneration would work -- I also screwed up my orders. Sigh.

If you could replace that Ring of Regen, what would you put in the slot to win this battle?

[revenant2]

If you could replace that Ring of Regen, what would you put in the slot to win this battle?

Tactically, I would have done two things:


Use a Ring of Frost to make El Gato Grande (EGG) immune to the cold aura.
Give EGG an extra astral gem so his Solar Brilliance would kick off and move it earlier into his cast sequence.


The second bone-headed move I made is that I didn't realize EGG would burn an extra astral gem to reduce the fatigue from Power of the Spheres.

Strategically, I wouldn't have moved out the rest of my defensive force from my capitol. I got cocky and figured EGG would kick the crap out of those wights backed up with his ring of regeneration :)

[Fantomen]

I wonder if the best alternative wouldn't actually have been to give him a stone bird and buff Earthpower, BE, Luck and astral shield and then attack.

[brxbrx]

Using a ring of frost would have required some foresight. Had your opponent been using those wights a lot?

Also, I'm assuming that's not your tarrasque?

[revenant2]

Using a ring of frost would have required some foresight. Had your opponent been using those wights a lot?

No, although I think I had a turn or two warning. It was awhile back, so I'm not 100% sure.

It would have required some foresight, but nowadays I try to have a variety of equipment so I can equip SC/thugs appropriately based on the situation.

It comes in handy when sending in anti-raiders.


Also, I'm assuming that's not your tarrasque?

Nope. El Gato Grande was pretty much flying solo. That's what he gets for being cocky.

[brxbrx]

Does magic resistance help fight auras?

[Fantomen]

Does magic resistance help fight auras?

No.

[jBrereton]

Fraid not, Michel, although I think having an elemental resistance does affect some of the various kinds of damage taken.

[sSs1897]

Get a berserker and make him survive 75 turns

[John_Madlock]

Couple (4) of guys with Ethereal Crossbows. Attack one turn, attack one turn, fire large monsters. I killed 1300 HP, 23 MR Sphinx with 2 hits (the first hit took only 1000 HP). Maybe I had luck.