Devil Review

[Cainehill]

archaeolept said:
generally, the easiest way to tell if something is a bit too cheap is how prevalently it is used. on that yardstick, ghostriders is too good a deal. I love them, and use them all the time, but I think bumping up their cost, even to say 7 death gems, would be a good thing. As it is they are just one of the many things that makes castling such a necessary strategy, as the open lands are so dangerous.

Having been the Ghost Rider (not the Marvel comics one, mind, though that would be even cooler), I can state that a moderate army can deal with multiple ghost riders. A moderate meat shield (20-40 vine ogres, easy to come up with) both slows the undead down and kills a lot of them. Having several priests doing banishments, or astral mages doing the anti-undead fire spell, or fire mages doing Holy Pyre, or death mages doing wither bones, or ....

Ghost riders _are_ vicious. I don't think they're as much of a cause of castling as the cheap/easy raiding mechanism is, and they are, after all, a level nine research spell requiring D4 casters.

A very minor tweak might be okay for them - at 5 gems a cast, they already diminish your supply of death gems severely. And remember, unlike blood's Contracts, there actually are many other great things to be doing with death gems than spamming Ghost Riders : wraith crowns, Liches, Spectres, Tartarians, etc.

[Taqwus]

'course, one might note this: in combination with castling, Ghost Riders makes a nasty anti-raider spell as well. Enemy arrives in your province, perhaps by flying or magical means (several Tartarians cloud-jumping in for a visit, say), then get nailed by 5-6 castings of Ghost Riders before they can move away (short of using the Boots of the Planes or Gateway Stone to 'port/astral travel away) or breach the walls.

It's handy against PDs or unprepared small/medium armies; against the larger armies FFTS, Murdering Winter or perhaps even Beckoning can do more damage.