Irene, Day 2 - TS

Re: Research - Make sure you have a usable summons to create cannon fodder, a usable attack spell (blazing comet, stoning, death ray, etc.), a healing spell, and then go for spells to buff your future hero.

I haven't found Healing in the list again (yet). I started with Unicorn, which seemed decent (and phasing was nice to skip to the archer in the back). Define "usable" attack spell.

New questions:
5) If your wizard is banished, do they still contribute their magic power/research or w/e for the turn?

6) If your wizard is banished, any spells they've cast don't go away, correct?

Re: #6 - Buffs disappear. - Sending your Wizard out to explore is very much a Turns 1-10 activity. After that, they are better off projecting power from the tower. Get Casting Specialist to bump spell points per turn from 20 to 30 too...

This is going to be quick game.

What I remember (among other thing, I remember a lot) is that it was first time I got shadow shift and I was trying if I would be able to perform invasion into Dave's realm but I had little idea how to do it and took me long time to realise I would have to cast one every unit one by one to get them there and perform full-fledged invasion.

Never have I tried to use it again. :-)

It was also the first time I got to own UPatch units and they got me thrilled. Ranger, pixies, sharpshooter, I had no idea they exist until then.

Why do you say that?

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7) How does the game determine how many swings/shots an attacker gets? In the battle for the node, my avenger shot three times on his first turn of shooting, with (I don't remember the order) a miss, a hit, and winging the guy between him and his target. His second turn featured someone up in his face in melee; I decided to just shoot, but he only took one shot on that turn.

I've read that a unit can only make 4 retaliations total on each turn. I gather movement plays some part in determining the number of swings an attacker will make.

Also, the pathing in SM might not be quite as robust as in AoW1? My wizard decided the best path to go attack someone was charging straight through the attack radius of a different unit, instead of taking a little longer to go around. On reflection, maybe that might affect the number of swings?

Because with shadow world movement mimo will be very likely able to take down Devourer quickly and I suspect the Orc leader wouldn't take me much longer either.

It depends on perecentage of movement left.

If you are attacking you can tell by movement layout colour. If it is green you get all attacks, if it is yellow you get one less and if it is red you get 2 less than with green.
Usually it means 3-2-1, but if you get Extra strike skill it's 4-3-2.
The decrease is at 2/3 and 1/3 of movement.
If you have extra strike it stays the same and doesn't change the movement requirements (ie. making it decrease at 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4).
Only when you would be able to perform 1 attack without extra strike it adds 1 more on top of it.
Then there are units with only 1 attack and that one can usually be used only when their movement is in greens (more than 2/3). Those are mostly (or exclusively?) strong ranged attacks (pistols, catapults, etc.) and AOE attacks (fire blast, lightning bomb, etc.).
Double strike just doubles no. of attacks at no cost. At least for attack, I am not sure if it doesn't depletes double amount of movement on defense. I think it does. So while someone like blade dancer can make 6 attacks it can only do 4 counterattacks. Not 100% sure there, though.

Bear in mind same goes for counter-attacks. Units deplete its movement with each counter attack and when it runs out of MP, it can't counterattacka nymore and also can't move next turn. So unlike AoW 1 you can use canno fodder to deplete strong unit's movement and then finish it off safely with more valuable one. Or deplete it with high defense unit and then use weaker one that needs XP (like hatchlings).

Ah ha! That would explain the single ranged attack on the second round; the enemy unit had gotten a couple of swings in between the two ranged attacks.

This means that an archer, lacking a melee attack, would be unable to retaliate and therefore should get his full number of shots each time (assuming he doesn't run around).

I have no offensive spells or good units with which to assault the Devourer, so my Shadow Realm conquest will require a build up and research phase. (And I'm choosing not to trade for a good spell belonging to one of you two.)

I'm just along for the ride on this one. Bookwyrm will need to do some heavy lifting with my units providing support. ;-)

Plus, I'm very depressed about the thrashing I am receiving in the Rise of Kings map. Normally I deliver the thrashings and my humongous head and ego are struggling...

TS.

I've learned some new things:
1) This is one of those games that is willing to let you change research targets mid-stream. It will happily punish a confused click by ditching all prior progress without so much as a "Are you sure about that?" message. Restart is because I restarted the turn when I realized what had happened; I was still in the process of trying to see what had happened off-turn when I saw "Bless researched. Shall we research [Not the spell I'm currently researching] next?"

2) You can summon creatures (and cast other spells?) inside your allies area of influence!! Would either of you like me to have a unicorn roaming in your vicinity?

Irene, Day 3 - TS

Feel free to cast a unicorn anywhere you want, but you need it to fight for you in the short term. Sending it to ally lands to pilfer unguarded mana nodes and income sources is a good way to annoy an ally. It is mighty fun though. ;-)

No worries re: Restarting.

I figure maybe allies can throw buffs on allied units too, right? For example, Vitek could start casting Enchant Weapon on my units?

More practically, it might be possible to suddenly swarm a town that would otherwise be harder to crack by dropping several summons in position to be pulled into the battle. Disband or explore with them afterwards.

Yeah, right, it's possible. I forgot about it as we recently rarely played with allies (well we recently rarely played at all) but back in times I remember some heavy supporting with buffs when one had nothing of its own to use it on.

I always dreamed of hero with stats of archon militia. But I am not the one who had the dream come true. :-)

TS.

Picked up the Production Resources, and I was offered Wizard Tower 3 or Casting Chamber. Turns out a click selects, and you already need to be familiar with the buildings when you look there. :(

Oh well. I'd have prefered the tower, but I guess the chamber will do.

Also, my wizard is making a decent tank. Enemies run up and hit her first, then my units finish off the survivors.

I was more disappointed when I saw I "lost" 50 production points with my choice. Also, the level 3 tower unlocks future building options, which the casting chamber does not.

We'll see how it works out. If I don't have the casting range, it might not matter overly much how much I can cast per turn. Also, I like research, which competes with collecting the mana needed for casting.