Burden of Time

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
All this is assuming you direct your research efforts and gem income to counter BoT at the start of the game, not after BoT is cast. If BoT is already cast, you simply have no time to boost and research what is needed to dispel it.

Of course you can do it. I've done it with default Ulm while fighting against an Impossible C'Tis, Marignon, and Abysia.

[PvK]

I wonder if regeneration rings help protect agaist BoT.

I also wonder if Vengeance of the Dead counts BoT victims against the caster? If it does, that would make for a very unpleasant nightmare for the caster, and a good way to take out any caster of a killing spell.

So far, I have had good luck finding AI GE casters in their national capital. It was so satisfying seeing my succubus (barely) kill that Arch Theurg Prophet who had cast Wrath of God!

Oh, another possibility is to summon a caster. There are some spells which give you spellcasters, which depending on your other magical abilities, could turn out to be a shortcut to a dispeller.

Another minor counter-tactic is casting a spell that prepares for death. BoT could save you some maintenance gold.

PvK

[ February 14, 2004, 18:16: Message edited by: PvK ]

[Bowlingballhead]

So basically, there's too sides to this debate:

1) Burden of Time is one of those insanely powerful spells that can wipe out whole armies and empires in a dreadfully short amount of time, and has lost people games all by itself.

2) There are many things you can do to get rid of it.

It seems to me that both of these are good points, but neither really cancels out the other. I fall on the 'Burden of Time is too nasty' side of the debate, because although there are many ways to be ready for it, it is easily possible to lose JUST because of that one spell if you're not prepared. Maybe you have the research to get to level 5 enchantment in time - or maybe you're not playing a high-research game and you don't. Particularly if your wizards are dying off and your pretender is being crippled with wounds.

I just don't feel that any one spell should be so nasty that you *have* to be ready for it. One of the strengths of this game is that you can play it in all sorts of ways tailored to your individual style. Something that is so overbearing that you *have* to make sure Dispell is handy (and that's a considerable resource investment, greatly changing your style) is too much.

[PvK]

Burden of Time is only one of the Global Enchantments, many of which are very nasty. Not being able to dispel any Global Enchantments will always be a big liability IF you get into the high-level magic stage of play.

In a multi-player game, most Globals threaten everyone, and there will most likely be someone with enough astral competence to dispel.

In the special case of a single-player game where you don't want to get dispel ability and there is an enemy like Ashen Ermor that doesn't mind Burden of Time themselves, then yes it gives more urgency to dispelling it.

For a nation not like Ashen Ermor, though, BoT is going to hurt them as well. Nations basing their forces on undead have major weaknesses to cheap priests, who are easy to mass-produce and it doesn't matter if some of them die every turn. And, several other anti-undead techniques. There are plenty of things that are scarily powerful about death and unholy magic and Ashen Ermor etc., even without BoT. There are also many things that bLast them to dust, take them over, get them all to dissolve, etc.

PvK