Routing bug?
 

I've encountered some strange behaviour in my current MP game. After taking some heavy casualties the enemy routed. It didn't seem to have much effect though. The enemy lich stayed on the field with his bodyguards and happily continued casting spells until he was killed three turns later. Is this a know bug?

Re: Routing bug?
 

I believe Gods don't route in their own dominion...or perhaps it was Immortal Gods don't route in their own dominion.

Re: Routing bug?
 

Then it seems like units set to guard commander on immortal gods doesn't rout either. I wonder if that's true for all units under his command.

Re: Routing bug?
 

Hmm, that lich seems buggy in a lot of ways. Now he's back and cast two spells each turn. Well sometimes he just casts one but the text still claims he casts two.

Re: Routing bug?
 

Immortals are never supposed to rout in their dominion. They will rout due to total hp however, so it is possible to make them rout.

(If they get killed because they have nowhere to rout to, they also don't come back - which is also a bug).

Basically, there are a lot of bugs having to do with immortals and routing, but not routing is what they're supposed to do. (They're immortal, why should they care?)

Re: Routing bug?
 

Just because your arm grows back doesn't necessarily mean you don't care about losing it....

Re: Routing bug?
 

Yes, my Lich (or any other) Immortal unit will never retreat as long as there is a white candle on the province because it cannot die. The only way to rout an immortal is to (a) be defending and (b) reach the 50 turn limit.

The "army routs" message may display multiple times for any of a number of reasons during the battle, but no immortal units will retreat. Immortal, non-commanders such as Vampires and Fey Boars will retreat if they have no commander, I believe.

I have never seen an immortal unit retreat before it dies including to this "total hp" retreat indicated above.

One thing about Immortals is that they do collect a significant number of afflictions. Your best bet for dealing with them is to try to keep a nasty affliction on it such as "Blind" or "Feeblemind" both of which can be induced by magic weapons. The phoenix, who can die multiple times in each battle in CBM with it's automatic Phoenix Pyre I have seen collect as many as 7 afflictions in a single battle all of which, of course, were healed by my lovely Arcoscephalean priestesses ^_^. Immortals also have automatic Rejuvenation effect even if it doesn't show up--they will randomly heal afflictions each turn.

This won't work well, of course, if you're up against healers such as Arcoscephale or EA Ermor or if your opponent has Gift of Health or the Chalice.

Also note, that my lich is a Master Lich which is the weakest immortal chassis--it's a rainbow. The regular Lich is significantly more powerful and can be used as a thug or SC, but generally lacks the wide variety of paths the Master Lich has. SCing a Lich requires at least one wish for "Power", but requires only minimal equipment depending on your choice of paths. Minimal gear is always best for Immortals because you don't want to be afraid of kamikaze. I usually like Death/Astral minimum often with a touch of Air and or Earth for the big Lich.

(I'm an Immortal pretender freak btw).

Re: Routing bug?
 

Why would you bother healing an immortal pretender?

Re: Routing bug?
 

To get them back to a useful state quicker.

Some afflictions won't matter much, but you'd want to heal a Mute/Feeblemind as soon as possible.

Re: Routing bug?
 

It takes a longer time to recuperate afflictions than to heal them in Arcoscephale. I'm not sure what the default recuperation rate is, but if you're playing Arco, and you're not healing, you're missing out on one of their best features. With other healers, you want to get rid of Feeblemind/Mute/Blind/Lost One Eye/Chest Wound as soon as possible because those significantly impair your pretender's ability to kill things (Chest Wounds don't matter to Liches of course).


I have usually 1 to 3 priestesses set on heal permanently in my capitol and largest staging point cities at all times so that any visiting army is automatically healed. I also bring them along with traveling armies and they heal the army while they siege castles. Arcoscephalean Priestesses have a 100-score Heal rate. Their pathetic 3RP, IMO, is not worth as much as their ability to remove afflictions from units. This also easily cleans up any nasty Death magic or after-effects of starving your army (after you're back in supply surplus, of course. The priestesses also like to heal and bless units in combat.

I don't generally use Ermor's priests for healing, though I do hire a lot of them. I prefer to use them as a ranged attack force--Smiters. I use them for healing only when I have a significant problem (like disease spells, starvation effects, or repairing an SC).