How do you counter spell caster armies?

[TomOfFinland]

The way the game currently is, they can just keep buffing each other with 1-2 hex aoe spells and by the time I reach them, they can already pretty much one shot my similar tier units. It's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Every tome and affinity is viable.

Tome of Cryomancy would like to have a word with you.

It is awesome, right?

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Tome of Cryomancy would like to have a word with you.

It is awesome, right? :mhwgood:

In the way of how little it synergizes with itself, yes.

[Jimib4158]

Originally posted by PewSquare:

Originally posted by TomOfFinland:

Nice feedback. The way you just skipped answering the question directly to just insulting tells me pretty much just what I need to know about you and your life. [. [/quote]


wow another know it all psycho-babble expert, dude you dont know me so F-off and quit pretending your Dr know-it-all

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

It is awesome, right?

In the way of how little it synergizes with itself, yes.

It is incredible strong later on. And early on having your enemies ice cold is already powerful.

[RedPine]

I'm shocked nobody has mentioned the Mystic culture yet. Their T3 unit, the Spellbreaker, does just that: He cancels all enemy buffs, AND all ally debuffs, in a 1 hex AOE, at 6 range. Yes, it's a full action ability, has a cooldown, and his damage isn't the greatest, but he hard counters pretty much everything short of mind control.

(Mind control is tricky because although it's a DEBUFF, it turns the unit into an ENEMY, and there aren't a lot of abilities that removed debuffs from enemies.)

---

Astral Tome T6 does the same thing, but as a battlefield wide spell. Shadow Tome T1 Souls has a similar spell, but it only clears debuffs on allies. Any spell or ability that freezes, stuns, or slows, or otherwise renders a unit ineffective for a turn, for all practical purposes removes that buff for that turn.

Most buffs last 3 turns at most, unless refreshed.

---

If your fighting an army that relies heavily on supports (Feudal Bannerman, High Awakeners), your best option is to snipe those supports, then survive until the buffs wear off. Easier said than done.

Many tomes have single target damage spells that scale quickly, such as +2 fire damage per allied unit on the field, or +5 spirit damage per faithful allied unit on the field. You may want to start off with an AOE spell to trick the AI into wasting as many single target heals as possible, first. It might take 5 turns to kill a single unit, but if that one unit is propping up the entire army, that's what you have to do.

---

The hardest part of any plan, whatever you decide to do, is 1) buying time 2) affording the units/spells/upkeep in the first place. It could be that your core issue isn't tactical, but economic. If one army has T1 units being propped up by 3-4 unit enchantments, and the other army has T2 units with only 1 unit enchantment, those T1 units are probably going to win AND be more cost effective.

For example, in one extremely long game, I consistently autoresolved single armies containing T4 units and winning with 2-3 stacks of T1 scouts. (Cavalry scouts, which meant they qualified for most "animal" unit enchantments).

[TomOfFinland]

Originally posted by RedPine:

I'm shocked nobody has mentioned the Mystic culture yet. Their T3 unit, the Spellbreaker, does just that: He cancels all enemy buffs, AND all ally debuffs, in a 1 hex AOE, at 6 range. Yes, it's a full action ability, has a cooldown, and his damage isn't the greatest, but he hard counters pretty much everything short of mind control.

(Mind control is tricky because although it's a DEBUFF, it turns the unit into an ENEMY, and there aren't a lot of abilities that removed debuffs from enemies.)

---

Astral Tome T6 does the same thing, but as a battlefield wide spell. Shadow Tome T1 Souls has a similar spell, but it only clears debuffs on allies. Any spell or ability that freezes, stuns, or slows, or otherwise renders a unit ineffective for a turn, for all practical purposes removes that buff for that turn.

Most buffs last 3 turns at most, unless refreshed.

---

If your fighting an army that relies heavily on supports (Feudal Bannerman, High Awakeners), your best option is to snipe those supports, then survive until the buffs wear off. Easier said than done.

Many tomes have single target damage spells that scale quickly, such as +2 fire damage per allied unit on the field, or +5 spirit damage per faithful allied unit on the field. You may want to start off with an AOE spell to trick the AI into wasting as many single target heals as possible, first. It might take 5 turns to kill a single unit, but if that one unit is propping up the entire army, that's what you have to do.

---

The hardest part of any plan, whatever you decide to do, is 1) buying time 2) affording the units/spells/upkeep in the first place. It could be that your core issue isn't tactical, but economic. If one army has T1 units being propped up by 3-4 unit enchantments, and the other army has T2 units with only 1 unit enchantment, those T1 units are probably going to win AND be more cost effective.

For example, in one extremely long game, I consistently autoresolved single armies containing T4 units and winning with 2-3 stacks of T1 scouts. (Cavalry scouts, which meant they qualified for most "animal" unit enchantments).

Thank you! A very helpful answer! :)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Cryomancy is fine. It's not as easy to use as Pyromancy, its obvious mirror, but unlike Pyromancy it has stuns.