Yersinia: weak?

[cyther]

Yersinia is the weakest horseman. Its strength is mostly poison, it can't heal without being inside barb borders and its has no special power or use.
Stephanos commands units, Buboes has blitz, Ars has extra strength and a very usefull spell. The Avatar destroys everything when he arrives and summons 4 Ira's. Does anyone have any ideas for improving Yersinia?

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

You could let the radiation effect/fallout effect spawn in ever square he is in.... And let a priest unit have the ability to "cleanse" the area of the taint (ie scrub fallout).

 

[Fenboy]

Yersina = Weakest Horseman

Yersina = Only Horseman without its own Sezereth-created wallpaper

Coincidence? I think not!

/oh, and I like Darkwood's suggestion.
Yersina is supposed to be Pestilence after all

 

[Chip56]

Give him disease and plague carrier

 

[MagisterCultuum]

How about give him a spell that creates a fallout-like feature on all nearby terrain, which causes plague/disease to any unit that move into it in addition to reducing the tile's yields and causing unhappiness in nearby cities.

 

[kumquatelvis]

I like that too. Or if you want to get extreme, when he spawns every living unit can be struck with disease.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Abilities like that crash low-end rigs and give powerful ones a fit. It's why the avatar of wrath was changed.

I think he should disease/plague/whatever entire stacks, not just individual units he fights.

 

[Blackmantle]

+ add hefty global unhealthiness to his arrival? (Works performancewise for blight as well. So it should be doable.)

Also his flavor text links to blight if i remember right so it might not be entirely out of flavor.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I don't like the idea of making it a global effect that coincides with him. I much prefer him creating a "blight" feature that spreads disease and unhealthiness in nearby cities.

 

[Sarisin]

I don't know, but in my games, the power of the Horsemen is hardly an issue.

I find that in every case, they take the first city they come to and sit there. The only question of their power comes up when you are able to get a strong enough stack of troops (with Courage) to go in and take him out. The AI, of course, fumbles around by stationing small stacks all around the city with the Horseman in it unable to attack. See Acheron The Red Dragon.

I don't think the Horseman even attacks those units.

Some time later in the game you will see a message that one of the Horsemen has died.

So, while some of these ideas on strengthening Yersina et al are good, they are of little use when the Horsemen become turtles.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I find that in every case, they take the first city they come to and sit there. The only question of their power comes up when you are able to get a strong enough stack of troops (with Courage) to go in and take him out. The AI, of course, fumbles around by stationing small stacks all around the city with the Horseman in it unable to attack. See Acheron The Red Dragon.

Even worse: If they all spawn in the same area, they'll hole up in the city the first one took. You can then send warriors or slaves or something, alone, next to the city. One horseman will pop out and kill him. He is now easy pickings.

 

[Sarisin]

Even worse: If they all spawn in the same area, they'll hole up in the city the first one took. You can then send warriors or slaves or something, alone, next to the city. One horseman will pop out and kill him. He is now easy pickings.

Hmmm, I never saw more than one Horseman in a city. But that answers my question about one coming out to attack.

Often, however, I've moved units right next to the city and the Horseman stays put - even when there are other units in the city with it.

I think this 'turtling' of the Horsemen is a malady of barbarians in general since a few versions back. I'm not sure how you can get them back to raging instead of settling/defending.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

isn't that "horseman/orthus sitting in cities drinking tea and staring at the dusklight while talking about the good ol' times" issue easily solvable? I ain't no coder but just not allowing them to go AI_CITYDEFENSE ( or whatever that's called ) should do the trick. or maybe just keep them AI_CITYATTACK all the time. then if they are useless cuz you can just retake the city one turn later you have a number of options: 1) make em raze cities they capture 2) when they capture a city the city suffers a hefty population shrink and/or destroyed buildings 3) make em spawn barb units to protect the city when they capture one, so they can just move on.

 

[Sarisin]

isn't that "horseman/orthus sitting in cities drinking tea and staring at the dusklight while talking about the good ol' times" issue easily solvable? I ain't no coder but just not allowing them to go AI_CITYDEFENSE ( or whatever that's called ) should do the trick. or maybe just keep them AI_CITYATTACK all the time. then if they are useless cuz you can just retake the city one turn later you have a number of options: 1) make em raze cities they capture 2) when they capture a city the city suffers a hefty population shrink and/or destroyed buildings 3) make em spawn barb units to protect the city when they capture one, so they can just move on.

Gekko, I have been advocating your first option when it comes to ALL barbarians, not just the Horsemen. You NEVER see the barbs (or the AI civs, for that matter) raze a city unless its pop. is 1. Everything is captured now in FFH2. In the case of the AI civs, OK, although they do tend to keep some cities in god-awful locations.

However, I just think it would be more barbarian-like if the barbs razed cities and moved on to the next rather than posting defenders, sending out workers to build farms, building Wonders, producing Great People, etc. They get enough cities from spawning and the option that gives them cities when you start a game.

This would also make those who complain about the counter moving too slowly feel better as all the razing would advance it.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

yeah, barbarians acting like they are actually "nice guys" is bad I know that having a city razed by them is harsh, but hey, you are supposed to guard them in the first place. if they manage to get one of your cities, well sucks to be you it's a lesson learned, next time you should be more careful. Erebus is a dangerous place to be after all

 

[fuzzy_bunnies]

Meh, fought the first 4... had a hard time not killing them in one round with 2 earth elementals because I wanted exp for my paladin. Don't think any of them are really that powerful (maybe the last guy, but the game ended before he appeared)

 

[Fenboy]

I just think it would be more barbarian-like if the barbs razed cities and moved on to the next rather than posting defenders, sending out workers to build farms, building Wonders, producing Great People, etc.

I agree. It would produce a real sense of having to protect your people, rather than just thinking "ah well, I can just recapture it later". Though it would make the Sailor's Dirge very very nasty in the early game.

There's also Orthus' pedia entry to back up this razing.

 

[rusty217]

So give the barbs the old scorched earth trait? Would that work?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

In fairness, having to recapture a city, even after 1 turn, really does suck ass because the city loses so much infrastructure that way. I hate that in FfH and I hate it even more in BtS.

 

[Sarisin]

I definitely was thinking of this thread into my current game.

It is one of those games where the Four Horsemen appeared in rapid succession all within 10 turns. It is a Huge map, though, and I didn't have any pay me a visit.

After about 50 or more turns I wondered what happened to them. I opened the World Builder and ALL FOUR were camped out each in a different city. Also, TumTum, who made an appearance, had also taken up residence in a city. Then, of course, you have Acheron. Six cities with powerful barb hero defenders.

I guess this is an interesting scenario, but so much for raging barbarians.

BTW, I think there would have been a 7th barb hero in residence as Orthus appeared to be on his way to Acheron's city when I caught him and killed him.