Blood?

[Windreaper]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Windreaper:
EQ I use with Ice Devils.

Agree on every point, except the Messenger boots. Flying is an awesome ability to get on Ice devils (more for strategical than tactical reasons). I was fond of starshine skullcaps and rainbow armors for my SCs in Doms 1.

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I see your point there and to quote myself:
"Boots: boots of the messenger, flying boots (again, unless I'm using rainbow armor I often get the messenger boots)"

Still, getting nailed by a single quickened arch seraph casting orb lightning kind of sucks so I'd take survivability over strategic mobility in this case. It's a matter of taste however. Rainbow Armor/Flying Shoes might be better if you wish to take part in smaller combats with less mage power in play.

Jasper: Good point, you just don't want to unstealth your scouts. If they happen to get attacked and you lose a scout the whole army retreats, ugh. Never tried it this way so I'm not 100% sure of this, however. OTOH, you could always keep some mock troops with your ID to prevent this from happening.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Windreaper:
I see your point there and to quote myself:
"Boots: boots of the messenger, flying boots (again, unless I'm using rainbow armor I often get the messenger boots)"

Yes I've seen that line, but myself I'll stick to flying boots in most cases even with no rainbow armor. I couldn't pass on the fact that flying IDs can strike wherever I want within a 3-provinces radius, and limiting your opponent's ability to predict your next move so drastically is invaluable. In a sense this unpredictability improves the ID's survavibility, while maximizing his efficiency at the same time (on the contrary a non-flying IDs isn't assured to fight every turn, and may often miss opportunities to cause the most damage to your enemy).

Still, getting nailed by a single quickened arch seraph casting orb lightning kind of sucks so I'd take survivability over strategic mobility in this case.

I can't see how boots of the messenger would help better than flying boots in this scenario. When you fly you can always hit something, and regain hit points and fatigue from it. Although if I knew I had to fight Caelum, I'd just fly away to a lab, equip shock resistance gear, and be back to fight 2 turns later.

It's a matter of taste however. Rainbow Armor/Flying Shoes might be better if you wish to take part in smaller combats with less mage power in play.

Everyone is allowed his own opinion and I respect yours. I prefer to use IDs as raiders, and flying is essential to me. Now of course I could use the trampling winged armor with boots of the messenger.

The part I like about the flying boots is you can send out your ID out only partially equipped (without the Elemental Hauberk for example) with flying boots as you choose provinces that have less likely of a chance of getting attacked by anything except provencial defenses. Hurting your opponent faster or while you don't have as many gems as you need. Then when you get your new equipment forged you can just jump back to a lab like Nagot said and equip him. Also I have alot more success with killing retreating armies by boxing in provinces with IDs.

Even with Starshine Cap, Lead Shield, and AMA the poor guy will still get hit by spells, especially if the casters have any sort of penetration. That's why I think that Windreaper considers the cap *required* because it is basically a 'free slot' with MR on it.

[ January 09, 2004, 21:11: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Windreaper:
Jasper: Good point, you just don't want to unstealth your scouts. If they happen to get attacked and you lose a scout the whole army retreats, ugh. Never tried it this way so I'm not 100% sure of this, however. OTOH, you could always keep some mock troops with your ID to prevent this from happening.

Stealthy targets don't get hit by spells like Wind Ride, and so you must unstealth your scouts for them to work as chaff. Stealth is a very nice ability for a raiding Super Combatant to have!

You do have to be a bit carefull, for as you allude this scout tactic is vulnerable to teleport attacks (before you leave the scouts), especially if your retreat provinces are simultaneosly cut. Still, this is less of a risk than Wind Ride.

[ January 10, 2004, 05:22: Message edited by: Jasper ]

[Jasper]

My main knock against the Starshine Skullcap and to an extent even Winged Boots is that they aren't strictly neccesary, yet significantly increase the IDs cost. Then again, you can't mass produce IDs as you could in Dom 1, so it makes more sense to stack a few extra items on.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Jasper:
My main knock against the Starshine Skullcap and to an extent even Winged Boots is that they aren't strictly neccesary, yet significantly increase the IDs cost.

In Doms 1 I didn't give skullcaps to every ID I summoned, but I tried my best to give them flying boots. 5 air gems is not a significant increase in cost, I'd even say it's the reverse: if you want to use a mass ID strategy efficiently, you'd better make sure these 30 blood slaves pay for themselves each turn - and that means flying. As I pointed out, a non-flying ID may not seen combat as often as a flying one, to me a lost ID turn is 30 slaves idling for nothing. When I used mass IDs in Doms 1, almost all had flying boots, some had amulets of AM or pendants of luck, a few had wraith swords and/or rings of regeneration, only the picked best had extra stuff like rainbow/elemental armors or starshine skullcaps.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:
In Doms 1 I didn't give skullcaps to every ID I summoned, but I tried my best to give them flying boots. 5 air gems is not a significant increase in cost, I'd even say it's the reverse:

Agreed. The amount of time you spend fighting as a powerful flyer is worth the extra air cost. I always had a really soft spot for Wraith Swords as well and the old amulet of luck is cheap and very effective. It was always hard to know where to stop.

cheers

Keir