Dominions 3 MP game [Running]

[bob48]

..there is a superficial resemblance, I'll grant you that.

[Ubercat]

What movie is that?

[JasonPratt]

Young Frankenstein, I think.

[undercovergeek]

elephants?? who said elephants were allowed?!

:-[

[Huw the Poo]

This is ridiculous.  We're only a few turns in and already I'm paralysed with indecision!  So much to do in this game...

[bob48]

Young Frankenstein, I think.

Absolutely correct, Jason.

[JasonPratt]

Incidentally, Ysk left a message on the other thread that he'll be out of town an extra 36 hours or so. (I think all of us are in that other game, too, anyway, but just in case...)

[undercovergeek]

moooooohahahahahahahahahaha now i can build my own elephants

stomp stomp stomp

[Huw the Poo]

I hope you aren't relying on them; they're easy to counter. :P

[undercovergeek]

I hope you aren't relying on them; they're easy to counter. :P

ethereal ones?

[Nefaro]

I hope you aren't relying on them; they're easy to counter. :P

ethereal ones?

Air-Shielded Ethereal Elephants, oh my!

[undercovergeek]

ok

FAQ number 3

• Are dwarven hammers a combat weapon at all, or should they just be issued to anyone who may be forging, or do you just build 1 and leave it in the lab for anyone to pick up and use to forge?
• if continuous spell casting is going to leave a mage fatigued, then i understand he needs to take gems with him to counteract the fatigue, just any gems? or gems in the path of the spell he has just cast?

[Huw the Poo]

Geek, does that hammer have any combat stats on it, like attack/defense?  If not I'm betting it's used for forging only.

As for spellcasting, I'm pretty sure the gems need to be of the same path, however I'd be interested to know what happens with a spell of more than one path.  In these cases I think the first path in its requirements list is the primary, so it's its gems that probably count here.

[Phobos]

this is not my game, but I can attempt to answer some of these questions.  I don't know that much about multiplayer, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Elephants: They are big sacks of hit points that simply walk all over anything smaller than them.

The simplest and most elegant counter to elephants is other large creatures.  An elephant can't do squat to a Neifel giant, other than wave it's trunk around.

The second easiest counter (and far from the best counter), is to throw massive waves of cheap troops at elephants until the elephants either get overwhelmed, fall over from exhaustion or the elephants reach their preset kill limit and return to their manufacturer.

The other elegant method of dealing with elephants is to make them rout from the battle, hopefully trampling members their own side as they run away.

You can counter some of the anti-elephant tactics.

You can't do much about giants, other than avoid them.

You can counter your elephants getting overwhelmed by casting protective spells like body ethereal.

You can counter fear tactics by having your mages cast spells to make your elephants go berserk or otherwise improve their morale.

Dwarven Hammer: While the Dwarven Hammer is a high damage magical weapon, it is probably too expensive to give to your warriors, unless you are really desperate.

You most economical option is to give it to commanders who are forging the most expensive item, or using magical gems that you have a limited supply of.  Then put it back in the lab or swap it around as needed.

Magical Gems:  As explained in the manual, the spellcasters rating in a magic path determines the fatigue gained from casting the spell. 

A mage with 2 nature, casting a spell that requires only 1 nature, will only suffer half the listed fatigue from the spell (before other factors like armour encumberance are factored in).  A mage with 3 nature, casting the same spell, will only take 1/3rd the listed fatigue.

If a nature 1 mage was given a nature gem and ordered to cast the same spell, they would spend that gem and be treated as being a nature 2 mage, for the purposes of calculating fatigue.

You could give that mage more nature gems, but they can only spend as many gems on one spell as they have a rating in that magic path; so a nature 1 mage can spend only 1 nature gem per spell, a nature 2 mage can only spend 2 nature gems per spell, nature 3 can spend 3 gems and so on.

Gems spent must be of the same type as the spell being cast, or of the primary type if a spell has multiple paths.

Don't quote me on this, but I am not sure if blood slaves can be used to reduce the fatigue from blood magic.

Some powerful spells actually require gem expenditure to be cast, so managing the fatigue from casting these spells is something worth thinking about.  For a long battle, it could be an issue, but it is probably not a hassle if your spellcasters are just there in a basic support capacity.   

[Nefaro]

Yeah making tramplers rout is an ideal way to go, if you don't have big troops to block.  I've heard that targeting "large monsters" with hordes of archers will wear down elephants already low Morale enough to (hopefully) have them half broken before contact.  Since their size is so large, it evidentally makes them easier for archers to hit, too.