Hero killing with spells

[sylvanllewelyn]

Quick questions about hero killing mechanics:

There are many spells that do damage and many high-end spells that kill or disable a hero, or a very high-strength unit, outright. My questions are, specifically:
- which, if any spells can reliably kill a unit regardless of strength
- which, if any, would be unreliable because of damage limits (pillar of fire), strength limits (fireball), chances and resistance (banish)...

I've always considered the Amurites a little underpowered because they are so fidgetity, and the only way I could really use them well is rushing to Govennon, build lots of warriors and bash cities with 30 skeletons a turn. They are supposed to enjoy many spheres of magic, however, my chief concern with them is whether magic is enough to deal with the hero units of other religions or civilizations or not.

 

[reverend oats]

Meteor swarm is the best for softening up enemies. You summon 3 strenth 6 collateral damage units which really makes life a lot easier. The skeleton strategy is not so effective because skels are weak. The key is swords backed by fireball/contagon mages and late govannon.

 

[Grey Fox]

With Amurites I always went massive amounts of Wizards, mass production really, and fire + death magic. Skeletons just got in my way in the end, they are too slow, cant be hasted, and cost maintenance. I used fireballs and eventually meteors and Chariots with Nightmares and Sheut stones to kill off whatever the meteors and fireballs left behind. I did use skeletons sometimes, but usually they ended up being temporary city garrisons. Sometimes I used them to kill off the targets but as I started getting cavalry they were pointless.
Can also use Firebows. They keep their fireballing abilities when upgraded, so back in Fire I used to have flurries with fireballs.

 

[Assassin]

Meteor swarm is the best for softening up enemies. You summon 3 strenth 6 collateral damage units which really makes life a lot easier. The skeleton strategy is not so effective because skels are weak. The key is swords backed by fireball/contagon mages and late govannon.

And if you have twincast you get 6 meteors
Crush is also good, but meteor swarm can bombard city wich make that spell probably better. I used crush before, but now i favor meteor swarm.

Well, one archmage with earth 3= crush and one with fire 3= meteor swarm, couple heros and couple another units you have very powerful army.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I understand crush and meteors, they kill masses of enemies, even when protected by heroes or stack defenders.

What I'm having difficulty with is killing the actual hero or high strength unit with spells. Fireball has 4 strength, meteor has 6, even if you summon a lot of them, you won't scratch groups of high strength units. I don't have difficulty dealing with strong units actually, it's just that my solution is always "a large stack of champions with mithril" that can take down any hero or mystical unit. My real problem is how to do it as the Amurites, who must use their magic even in the late game to survive. A damage "spell" with low strength or a spell with a damage cap don't seem to work very well, and all-or-nothing spells face stiff resistance chances.

An aside: Govennon skeleton push is awesome. Warriors are cheap, and even if you lose 30 skeletons to take out a city with 4 archers, well, you haven't lost much. You can summon them again next turn for free.

 

[Grey Fox]

Use a combination of collateral units with Assassins. The assassins killing the units that get damaged.

 

[reverend oats]

Oh yeah, that reminded me- heros are more likely to get attacked by assasins, so a large group can take a slightly wound one out, as I learned to my shagrin when the Doviello took out Valin.