Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

And if you are fighting underwater against the ryleh, you have even less battlefield spells in your arsenal. And you can count on a heavy dose of VOTD to back up the communions.

Which is why the Ryleh is in my top 3 power aces in the Middle Era. That said, there are ways things that can be done.

I am presently engaged in a fierce underwater fight with the Ryleh in one of my mp games. I tend to try to weaken his armies before the battles.

Earth attacks take out keys mages. There are other tactics.

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

I'm a big fan of mass flight, personally.

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

Communions aren't very mobile. He will have trouble stopping thug/SC raids (3-4 thugs or 1-2 SCs) behind his lines with big communions. He will also have trouble protecting communions against overland rituals and/or assassination/remote attack spells. It just isn't feasible to teleport a 12-man communion around. At best, communions are an anvil but you can still smash the hammer.

-Max

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

Assassins would be fun. You imagine a mage with a knife at a couple cms from his throat, cry out loud "COMMUNION... SLAAAVEEE!" ?? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

I'm Assassinating communion members in one game I'm in. He's besieging a castle so not really going anywhere..... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

When they're scripted for a large army battle it's kind of hilarious how pathetic they are against an assassin. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

What about group of flying thugs with high MR? I'm thinking of Iron Angels in here. They have base mr 20, base enc 1, reinvigoration 4, full slots and they fly, and while MA Ulm has some trouble getting a summoner, they're cheap to mass once they have one. For 25 Earth and half-price equipment, you can afford to lose some.

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

Sorry for a newb question. What is there to fear from end-game Astral battle magic other than Master Enslave?

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

Astral Tempest, Unraveling and Soul Drain. They don't really surpass Master Enslave a lot of the time, but they're nasty enough. Mostly the same advice for getting round them applies, I think.

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

By the way, has anyone had any success casting both Army of Gold and Army of Lead on the same group of units? I've never tried this, but I always wondered if it was viable, and worth doing.

Re: Countering End-Game Astral
 

HB, I ran a test of this and both spells were cast. Could be worth doing if you want both 50% FR and +4 MR.