Drain Life

[Saber Cherry]

I'm counting on blood thorn + astral weapon for Tuna's SC roundup If a unit has high enough strength, and you throw in armor piercing or negating magic, the bloodthorn can be super effective. It's also great against billions of lightly armored (living) enemies.

It can be hard to kill life-drain-capable SCs without ready access to nonliving troops. And weapons aren't the only things that drain life...

As for 30 vans killing an SC, I should hope so. That costs 2100 gold, 480 resources, and 30 holy (plus unquantifiable cost of pretender blessing paths), compared to an SC that might cost 10 gems + 30 gems for equipment. 30 centaurs are more reasonable but have a much lower chance of success. Mictlan, Tien Chi, Ermor, Ulm, Machaka, Man, and other countries without strong elites or only highly resource-intensive elites can't fight mid-level SCs effectively with national troops. Some people say "That's good, that's the way it should be." But I don't like the game to degenerate to an SC race.

[Boron]

Can a Lifeless SC using a bloodthorn heal himself if he hits living troops ?

[FrankTrollman]

Can a Lifeless SC using a bloodthorn heal himself if he hits living troops ?

Sure can. Although I have to say that I'm not all that impressed with this sort of strategy. A pile of flagellants can and will occassionally kill Banelords in one round, making the presence of a Wraithsword largely meaningless.

In my current MP game I have yet to make any SC other than a good old Great Kraken.

Air Queens bursting with swag have fallen to Enslaves. Bane Lords bursting with swag have fallen to critical hits from fanatics. A SC with a life draining weapon is impressive, but it doesn't make you automatically win by any means. I'd rather have 600 hit points than 50 hit points and a life drain attack.

-Frank

[Tuidjy]

Life drain is overrated, SCs are overrated, everything is overrated. The
ultimate weapon in Dominions II is the specialist mage squad, and if it is
made out of Tartarian Titans, so much the better.

As extremely well equiped SC is only marginally better than a decently
equiped one. Sure, it kills chaffe a bit better, but no unsupported Sc
will win a battle of the opponents choosing.

In my current game, I just eliminated an enemy pretender loaded with life-drain,
the Aegis, and quite a few magic paths with two warlocks, a sage and a relief
spammer. The same squad would have taken three Lords of the Gates instead of
one, no problems.

The one trick that wins Dominions II is to always have a rock to the enemy's
scisors, which is why you will not see a good player whine about nerfing
'overpowered' stuff. There is no tactic without a counter. Fortunately, not
all races have all the tactics and counters... and unfortunately, some races
have too few counters, or none (Ulm)

[Oversway]

I'm curious. What, if anything, would you like to see changed in dom2 or dom3, Tuidjy? You seem to be firmly in the "don't touch a thing" crowd, but maybe you have your own pet ideas?

[FrankTrollman]

I'm very nearly in the "don't touch a thing" camp. I'd mostly like to see:
[*] More Information available to the player (ex.: when I mind hunt a province, I want the message to say which province got hunted in addition to who did it and the name of the guy who got hit.
[*] Small balance changes. Cave Drakes are too expensive, Ghost Riders are too cheap. Not by a lot, but enough so it matters.
[*] More options. I want to be able to select from a menu when I build a castle. Sometimes I want to invest in a Fortified City or a Mountain Stronghold, and sometimes I don't. I should have that kind of option on a per-province basis.
[*] More stuff. I want to find provinces that are populated by Giants or Vaetti. I want to have multiple different versions of things show up at each research level - when I get Summoning 3 I should be able to make Vine Ogres or Vine Beasts, not just one.

In short, I want subtle tweaks that make the game more accessible and deeper, rather than an explosive nerf campaign against every strategy I don't use.

-Frank

[Tuidjy]

Of course I do. I will not go into details, but here are a few places where
I'd look for improvements.

1. All orders should be checked by the server, not by the client
2. Scripts should allow for 'hold', 'repeat last order', 'loop script'
3. Castles need to be balanced. Protecting sites should be an add-on per site
4. More counter-spells - to calm storms, to evaporate thunderclouds, de-buff...
5. More 'slayer' weapons - in addition to undead/deamon, magic, construct, etc..
6. Stiffer penalties for being outnumbered by _sentient_ troops
7. Higher bonus to precision against huge targets
8. Gem generators' chance of working should decline as more items are built
9. Items and spells that severely hinder spellcasting on the battlefiend
10. Globals that severely hinder spellcasting in friendly domain
11. Globals that protect or disable other globals until dispelled
12. Better low level summons
13. More, and better troop buffing spells
14. Ulm and T'ien Ch'i to be made half-way competitive. War engines for Ulm.
15. The ability to cap spell level from the game setup menu

[Bummer_Duck]

The one trick that wins Dominions II is to always have a rock to the enemy's
scisors, which is why you will not see a good player whine about nerfing
'overpowered' stuff. There is no tactic without a counter. Fortunately, not
all races have all the tactics and counters... and unfortunately, some races
have too few counters, or none (Ulm)

What is the counters to Ghost riders?

[Verjigorm]

Currently, the best counter to Ghost Riders is a fortification.

[Graeme Dice]

Bummer_Duck said:
What is the counters to Ghost riders?

Spells that don't tend to target lifeless troops, such as drain life, work very well, as they will go for the wraiths leading the horsemen.