Artifacts - Page 2

Fate · #1 April 6th, 2009, 06:23 PM

I thought no Cast&Retreat was mostly in regards to the MoD bug (that the phantoms keep spawning after the caster has died/left the battlefield).

I know Lammashtas & retreat is a commonly used death magic trick.

Psycho · #2 April 6th, 2009, 06:30 PM

Oh, and one more thing. Horror harmonica also has the fear-inspiring wailing winds effect as noted above. Horrors themselves have a high fear score. And if you attack a starving army, like yours was in Momentum, there's a decent probability of routing it. Cut the retreats and the army is gone.

MoD bug was fixed some time ago.

vfb · #3 April 6th, 2009, 07:13 PM

The Horror Harmonica can get you into trouble if you're not careful.

In one MP game I had a sneaking unit of mine discovered in a castle province being patrolled by a large enemy army. An enemy commander was wielding the Horror Harmonica and was scripted to cast. My scout got killed on the first turn of the battle by a Bag of Winds, but the enemy army then proceeded to fight the Horrors that continued to be spawned by the harmonica commander. There were quite a few mages blasting away with area-damage spells, and they even fired off a few BEs. Total chaos, and very funny to watch the enemy army mostly self-destruct, all because they discovered my sneaking unit.

The Oath Rod of Kurgi is horrible. It feebleminds any friendly commanders in the same province as the wielder. If you have one unit wielding but the Rod and Harmonica, but are spending turns casting Horror Mark instead of Send Horror, you can get killed before your first Horror gets summoned.

I like the Twin Spear, but I have had problems when I wear Boots of Quickness and fire off more than one Lesser Horror per battle turn. It's best just to cast a couple then retreat, if you're using it for raiding, and don't bother wielding anything else just in case you die.

Executor · #4 April 7th, 2009, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfb

The Oath Rod of Kurgi is horrible. It feebleminds any friendly commanders in the same province as the wielder. If you have one unit wielding but the Rod and Harmonica, but are spending turns casting Horror Mark instead of Send Horror, you can get killed before your first Horror gets summoned.

I use it a lot, and it only got me feebleminded once, used in on dozens of occasions.
Something I especially like to use, when available, eg. with sorceresses or whatever.
Take 2, Cast Ritual of Returning, give boots of quickness of course, twin spear and oath rod.
Script, mistform, horror mark X...
mistform, send horror X...
And give them a bottle of living water just in case.
Mistform is if the horror comes back to you eventually or the enemy somehow get to you, but that doesn't happen since they all keep following the horrors back and forth around the map.
Never lost a single mage, killed hundreds.

vfb · #5 April 7th, 2009, 05:10 PM

I wonder if the Oath Rod has an MR check. Before I knew how it worked, I put it on an assassin (slayer?) to sit on an enemy's capitol. Of course, it only affects friendlies, so that was a waste. But I did lug it through some water provinces on the way, where I had single commanders patrolling. And every single (MR8 or 10 or 11) commander of mine got feebleminded when I brought the rod through the province.

That's a good plan with Mistform and Ritual of Returning. But I think with just the twin spear you would have had equivalent results. And if you're talking about the A2S2 sorceresses, why bother with the Oath Rod? Just script the mage to cast Horror Mark.

Executor · #6 April 7th, 2009, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfb

That's a good plan with Mistform and Ritual of Returning. But I think with just the twin spear you would have had equivalent results. And if you're talking about the A2S2 sorceresses, why bother with the Oath Rod? Just script the mage to cast Horror Mark.

Beeeeecause I like to complicate things???
Well it never really crossed my mind... DAMN YOU KURGI!

GrudgeBringer · #7 April 8th, 2009, 12:19 AM

When I send an indy Commander in with the Horror Harmonica what do I set it on?

Attack, retreat (I will have boots of quickness)?

I would think that hold would not allow the harmonica to work.

And I want to drop 2 horrors and split.

I have 2 astral mahes firing Horror mark and retreating so I just need to know how to set my commander?

esd29a · #8 April 8th, 2009, 01:25 AM

"Cast Spells"

All items with built in spells either autofire them on turn 0 or add them into the commanders spellbook. So in this case you will want the commander to Cast Spells (if he is a mage then Cast Specific->the added spell at the top of list).

JimMorrison · #9 April 8th, 2009, 03:30 PM

With only 1 available spell, you can also do Cast or Hold Position twice, and then Retreat.

Tolkien · #10 April 8th, 2009, 11:03 PM

Yes, but the Harmonica isn't cursed like some other items (i.e. you can remove it), and it's just a chance of horror marking, not a definite mark. So if your commander picks up a horror mark, slap it onto another and repeat.

Also: why use a mage? An indy scout or commander will do.