Awesome units/spells

[TwoBits]

Kappas! Underwater, them little fellas rock! Dry land ain't so good though...

[SlipperyJim]

Two global enchantments that I try to cast in (nearly) every game: Gift of Health (GoH) and Forge of the Ancients (FotA).

GoH completely eliminates your main worries about aging. It also allows you to keep those super-elite units rolling without them being crippled by afflictions. Finally, the extra HP in your dominion is very useful for protecting your researchers and support mages from the AI's beloved Seeking Arrows....

FotA is a delightful way to bulk up on magic items in a hurry. The gem savings are astronomical! And the easier forging is nice. (Even if they did nerf it a bit from the Dom1 glory days.) D1 Revenants can spam Skull Mentors with FotA active. 'Nuff said!

Other nifty spells:
Aim / Eagle Eye - Don't overlook these. The coolest spells in the world won't do much if they never hit anyone.
Summon Earthpower - Added Earth magic and more reinvigoration? Yes, please!
Nether Darts - Best when combined with a Spell Focus, a Ring of Sorcery, or some other item to smash through MR.
Shark Attack - The last word in underwater combat.
Astral Window - Cheap information gathering. What's not to like? Cast this spell at every opponent's capital ASAP and re-cast as needed.
Winged Monkeys / Manifestation / Earth Attack / Infernal Disease - Ranked roughly according to their reliability (with Infernal Disease at the top of the list), these spells are great for whacking nasty enemy commanders and/or stranding their armies.
Gateway - The solution to how to reinforce your conquering armies.
Faery Trod - Cheaper than Gateway, but often just as useful. Don't ignore this spell!

[Amhazair]

Ghost Riders is awesome. Casting one or two is a nice (and cost effective) distraction for your enemy. And if you have the means to mass cast them (requiring rather steep 6D mages) you can utterly devastate your oponents empire.

Call Horror is similar in principle, but less reliable. One horror can fail to take out 'normal' amounts of PD

[bananafish]

Fang and Fadgamarast (sp?) are my 2 favorite units. Seduce them or charm them, and then steal their scripted commands.

Then you can load up a bunch of cheapy scouts w/ longbows of accuracy or ethereal crossbows and send 'em in against big armies w/ mages

and similarly have flying commanders take out enemy commanders.

[MaxWilson]

TwoBits said:
Kappas! Underwater, them little fellas rock! Dry land ain't so good though...

Seconded, especially because they have so little resource cost. I hate trying to break into underwater indy provinces with Ichthyids; with Kappas a single turn of recruiting can net you 40+ kappas and a commander, which is probably worth 120+ Ichthyids (which is something like 10 turns' worth of recruiting).

-Max

[UncleYee]

EARTH ATTACK!

I don't get it, is this the best assassination spell or what? Manifestation, Infernal Disease, even the Send Tupilak just seem weaker. That earth elemental can roll right over skele spam or other chaff, even the normally assassination-wrecking dragonflies. He almost always gets the job done.

And that's in SP, where mages and such are free to cast whatever they want. I can't imagine how easily he cuts through mages in MP who are all scripted to cast battlefield support, or even (minor) thugs who are scripted to spend 5 turns buffing themselves.

[PvK]

Good point about Tangle Vines. Also in can bring Super-Combatants to their knees (at least for one turn, but) as long as you can cast it on them repeatedly. Also, see other entangling spells and effects such as Vine Arrow, Vine Bow, Fire Bolas, False Fetters, Prison of Fire, Prison of Sedna, units with nets, etc.

[Yrkoon]

Yes, other entangling spells are great too. A number of the spells you mentioned are resistible though (false fetters for sure, vine arrow too I think), PvK, or not AoE (vine arrow, bow ...). And they are generally more difficult to research and/or find casters for.

Another thing about entangling is that it prevents units for retreating - great for SCs with lots of life that take time to die (dragons, anyone ?)

[MaxWilson]

While you're at it with the entangling spells, don't forget Storm of Thorns. Tangle Vines x7, at N2 (Evoc-7). Not quite as fun as Nether Darts but not bad either.

-Max

[SlipperyJim]

Monthly castings of Clockwork Horrors can build up a powerful defensive force in very little time. True, those killer toys aren't much good in a sustained fight ... but they'll really do a lot of damage to an invading army.