Taking poison resistance 10 as part of the bless enables using Hydras offensively in the middle game, in a special "Poison Army" where all the commanders and units are poison resistant. I use a rainbow bless (either dormant or imprisoned with good scales) and take magic weapons for the Battle Vestal and Deacon to become useful against late game use of fog warriors, ethereal etc. The S4 means minimal empowerment and some astral boosters enable both Wish and Master Enslave as Late game spells. The sacred troops and Hydras can be reinforced by other summoned troops with poison resistance such as undead, bog beasts and Vine Ogres and vine men to bulk out the army. In battle the mages can summon elementals and Swarm / Howl to add more power to Foul Vapors and the basic astral (Enslave Mind) and holy (Smite) spells. To make the Hydras much more effective they can be fluffed with Body Ethereal, Iron Skin and Gift of Flight in the middle game and later increased again by battlewide spells Fog Warriors, Mass Flight and Army of Gold.
Varus and Augustus at the end, was sheer brilliance, made me laugh so hard. Thanks for a really eye opening video. I knew the communicants were good but they're much better than just good.
You don't get the generic Banish and Smite spells if your highest paths are tied, you instead get whichever one comes first in the list (so the one on the left). You get the generics if none of your paths are above 3.
@@Sorrac0001 If you go far enough back (as in back in dom 3) body ethereal may have been a caster only spell, but since dom 4 it has always been an AoE 1 spell, and have not buffed communion slaves
I guess one thing you didn't mention about the serpent cataphracts is that the lizard sticks around after the rider dies and keeps fighting. Unfortunately you don't get to keep the lizard after the battle so I'm still not sure they are worth it.
The petrifying Earth smite has a hidden downside of keeping an enemy alive and turned to stone (giving them higher prot and physical resistances) while your troops keep hitting them and potentially wasting their time on a dead unit.
Actually undying makes a lot of sense for your communion slaves, as you are probably going to have at least one nature master that can give them regeneration by casting personal regeneration, and suddenly those 6 or 8 hp from undying is going to make then a lot more likely to survive if you fatigue them out (and not just for one battle)
In regards to stealthed units and mind hunt. Mind hunt will hit stealthed units. Another thing you can do against a mind hunting Nation is have stealthed astral units follow your armies. They won't know you have your trap unit with the army so you can catch and mind fry their mages.
To send the battlefield straight to hell cast phoenix pyre, soul vortex, hell power, and other assorted buffs. If you don't want to use it as a last resort, make sure your buff casters return out of there. Should be especially fun with Pythium, since their communicants allow them to do this with far smaller mage units. For a large scale demonstration of what happens when using this technique there's the final battle in Nay's LA Caelum MP playthrough.
I actually found out recently that Returning affects your slaves too, unless non-commanders are somehow different the communicants will just leave the battle with the casters. Maybe you can use the ritual version though.
The grey ones aren't going to give you those spells. Trinities are weird about that. Unless you go like death or water 7, you are going to have vanilla smite/banishment. I just don't think they are viable.
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I miss this channel :( most entertaining dom content out there
Minor correction: Body ethereal doesn't transfer to communion slaves because it targets an area not the caster.
9 CE worst year of my life
Taking poison resistance 10 as part of the bless enables using Hydras offensively in the middle game, in a special "Poison Army" where all the commanders and units are poison resistant. I use a rainbow bless (either dormant or imprisoned with good scales) and take magic weapons for the Battle Vestal and Deacon to become useful against late game use of fog warriors, ethereal etc. The S4 means minimal empowerment and some astral boosters enable both Wish and Master Enslave as Late game spells.
The sacred troops and Hydras can be reinforced by other summoned troops with poison resistance such as undead, bog beasts and Vine Ogres and vine men to bulk out the army. In battle the mages can summon elementals and Swarm / Howl to add more power to Foul Vapors and the basic astral (Enslave Mind) and holy (Smite) spells. To make the Hydras much more effective they can be fluffed with Body Ethereal, Iron Skin and Gift of Flight in the middle game and later increased again by battlewide spells Fog Warriors, Mass Flight and Army of Gold.
That ending caught me off-guard, hilarious!
Varus and Augustus at the end, was sheer brilliance, made me laugh so hard.
Thanks for a really eye opening video. I knew the communicants were good but they're much better than just good.
You don't get the generic Banish and Smite spells if your highest paths are tied, you instead get whichever one comes first in the list (so the one on the left). You get the generics if none of your paths are above 3.
I like all of the Dom 5 guys who do National Overviews but Attica is definitely the most entertaining
Even though this video is an hour long, it didn't feel like it. Good video editing and good memes. I hope you continue to do more of these.
Body ethereal, enlarge and moss body are not caster only spells (but AoE 1 spells) so they are not distributed to your communion slaves
Did this get changed at some point? I could have sworn body ethereal buffed communion slaves but a recent game proves otherwise.
@@Sorrac0001 If you go far enough back (as in back in dom 3) body ethereal may have been a caster only spell, but since dom 4 it has always been an AoE 1 spell, and have not buffed communion slaves
Regarding master enslave or any other high casting time spells, remember innate spellcasters can get them cast in one round regardless
I guess one thing you didn't mention about the serpent cataphracts is that the lizard sticks around after the rider dies and keeps fighting. Unfortunately you don't get to keep the lizard after the battle so I'm still not sure they are worth it.
Hay Attica I just subscribed to your channel I'm a beginner Dom4 player and your videos encouraged me to get Dom5 and very helpful so thank you
The petrifying Earth smite has a hidden downside of keeping an enemy alive and turned to stone (giving them higher prot and physical resistances) while your troops keep hitting them and potentially wasting their time on a dead unit.
Actually undying makes a lot of sense for your communion slaves, as you are probably going to have at least one nature master that can give them regeneration by casting personal regeneration, and suddenly those 6 or 8 hp from undying is going to make then a lot more likely to survive if you fatigue them out (and not just for one battle)
In regards to stealthed units and mind hunt. Mind hunt will hit stealthed units. Another thing you can do against a mind hunting Nation is have stealthed astral units follow your armies. They won't know you have your trap unit with the army so you can catch and mind fry their mages.
Dosen't sneak go before magic phase
Wow... I had plans to play around with that short of thing. Totally need to do it once I get a chance because that is as awesome as I envision it! :D
If you hit X while scripting a mage it will repeat the last spell in their script
You're a blessing.
Love your opinion on skill sealing in this game!
To send the battlefield straight to hell cast phoenix pyre, soul vortex, hell power, and other assorted buffs. If you don't want to use it as a last resort, make sure your buff casters return out of there. Should be especially fun with Pythium, since their communicants allow them to do this with far smaller mage units. For a large scale demonstration of what happens when using this technique there's the final battle in Nay's LA Caelum MP playthrough.
Didn't think about Hell Power. How nasty
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I copied time stamp showing his army routing then the horror begins
I actually found out recently that Returning affects your slaves too, unless non-commanders are somehow different the communicants will just leave the battle with the casters. Maybe you can use the ritual version though.
Sopbucket the masters could cast returning before joining the communion I think.
Great stuff! Thanks!
Turmoil + Misfortune is a big oof... Not sure if that's worth on a nation that wants to reach lategame.
The grey ones aren't going to give you those spells. Trinities are weird about that. Unless you go like death or water 7, you are going to have vanilla smite/banishment. I just don't think they are viable.
He is even worse than a Tuatha, he is, and may the Pantokrator forgive me for uttering this word, a Fir Bolg.
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