Tactics (against communions)

[Tifone]

I think the friendly-damage check will prevent in most cases the mages' AI to spam GfH on fliers which came near friendly troops, but I may be wrong I'll test as soon as I find time

[K]

Gifts from Heaven + Communion is a low cost tactic because it only take Evocation 5 and Thaum 1 and it can be brought online before the opposition has any real research.

That being said, it is only really effective against high-cost big units like Neifle giants and elephants.

So here are a number of "counters":

1. Send chaff. The precision is so low that he'll be hitting his own stuff on the front line as much as yours, and if in the early part of the battle he is losing a 15 gold infantry for every 5 gold markata you lose, the battle can be a "win" regardless of who retreats.

2. You are Sauromatia! Hydras can take a GoH hit and all they lose is a head. Toss in some longdead chaff and you can just survive GoH long enough for your archers and mages to do their thing.

3. Straight out-mage them. Load up your mages with Death gems and Shadow Blast until his army is dead. Remember that if someone is sending mages, the best and often only counter is to send as many mages to counter. Feel free to use your own communions.

4. The Fear army. You get Nature and Death and Blood, so that means you have several ways to get Fear units and get Fear spells. Getting a communion to retreat will scatter them to several provinces and effectively turn them back into crap mages. With a little planning, you can destroy them completely by making sure they have no place to retreat to.

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by K

That being said, it is only really effective against high-cost big units like Neifle giants and elephants.

I think it can be fairly effective against normal troops as well.
If the enemy army is large enough and/or you are enhancing your precision you don't miss very often.
A GoH cost 50 fatigue and can kill up 9 normal troops. And you don't care about hp, armor, shields, etherealness and air shields.

The much loved Blade Wind can kill up to 40 troops but will often kill less than 10 because of all the things mentioned. And it costs 80 fatigue.

Of course there's better spells against troops, but you've gotta use what you have.

[K]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

I think it can be fairly effective against normal troops as well.
If the enemy army is large enough and/or you are enhancing your precision you don't miss very often.

Having done a fair number of precision tests with this spell, I can tell you that unless you have a fair pile of mages spamming it it doesn't pay off compared to other options.

Try the same experiment with the same number of mages spamming Falling Foo (Falling Fire and/or Falling Frost). Against regular national troops your Foo mages will rack up kills much faster which means less chance of enemy fighters reaching mages.

The rule of dominions is small army < Thug < Large army < SCs, mages and "trick armies" like "demons + Mandaha" or "Marble Warriors + Foul Vapors". By the mid-game, large armies get eaten by mages casting battlefield spells and thug armies are executed gangster-style by spams of spells like Frozen Heart.

That being said, most players vastly prefer to keep mages researching and not fighting in battles, so getting experience in mage on mage action can be hard to get. Send ten mages and half a plan with any army and things get brutal very fast.

Every spell has it's niche. Bladewind isn't even in my top five battle Evocation spells considering how rarely humans field light or no armored troops.

[chrispedersen]

Assassins are rarely useful. But one of the times they *can* be useful is when an enemy communion is on or near your assassin producing castles.

Even if you only make him burn gems, it can throw off his gem allocation for the big fight.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Assassins are rarely useful. But one of the times they *can* be useful is when an enemy communion is on or near your assassin producing castles.

Even if you only make him burn gems, it can throw off his gem allocation for the big fight.

Generally it's not to hard to kill 1-2 slaves with assassins, which even if it doesn't lead to a victory in the next battle, greatly increases the odds of the remaining slaves burning out, thus neutering the communion until replacement slaves can be fetched.

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I have never seen Blade Wind kill anything remotely close to 40 troops. Even against Barbarians I'm lucky to kill 10; 2 or 3 heavily damaged is more typical IME, in MA.

Sorry, I didn't make that clear.
40 is the theoretical maximum, but unless you are really lucky you will be below 10.
Still I thought Blade Wind was considered a good spell for EA?

Originally Posted by K

Having done a fair number of precision tests with this spell, I can tell you that unless you have a fair pile of mages spamming it it doesn't pay off compared to other options.

Try the same experiment with the same number of mages spamming Falling Foo (Falling Fire and/or Falling Frost). Against regular national troops your Foo mages will rack up kills much faster which means less chance of enemy fighters reaching mages.

Yes, you are of course right here.
But GoH still has a solid (while not spectacular) damage output against national troops. All in all I'd say it pays off greatly. I'll explain why and how later.