Does auto-resolve cast spells/use mana?

[Elegant Caveman]

My mana seems to have gone down by quite a bit, and I don't remember casting spells.

Did I just forget I cast stuff, or does auto-resolve actually cast spells and use mana?

As an extension, does it use consumables, like healing potions?

Edit: Just auto-resolved a battle, and my mana went down...

So either it does use spells, or it's a bug. I'm assuming it uses spells.

Any way to turn this off?

[X-the Unknown]

Well, I don't know about this game but other games like Master of Magic if you put the battle on autopilot it did use magic that was stored up and some times to total depletion.

[jonbrave]

All I can say is: after auto-resolve you can click something like a "Detail" button to read through whgat happened. Does that indicate a spell was cast?

[Elegant Caveman]

Yes.

Since originally writing this post, I have confirmed (by looking at the Details after a fight) that auto-resolve does, indeed, sometimes cast spells. And very stupidly, too.

Like constantly trying to cast the same fire spell against the same fire-immune enemy.

[jonbrave]

Doubtless you're correct about it casting useless spells for you. Which is presumably balanced by it always doing similar for the AI opponent casting....

[Elegant Caveman]

Probably true.

And that's if the enemy does anything at all.

The auto-resolve seems to be -really- wonky.

I'm generally too lazy to bother with reading the details, but I've sometimes noticed the enemy... simply not act.

And not just because I killed them too quickly, but I mean multiple rounds of my army taking action and the enemy doing absolutely nothing at all.

Sometimes my champions cast spells, sometimes they don't (for the same fight, I mean; reloading and trying it multiple times). The whole thing is very strange.

[jonbrave]

I thought the auto-resolve did actually correspond identically to what would happen if you watched the action moves through, from what it said in the Detail it seemed to be what would happen if you let it play through. But you're suggesting otherwise?

[Elegant Caveman]

I think it does that... sometimes. But then sometimes not.

I've only bothered reading the details a few times, to try and understand, but what I saw was enough to convince me that it makes no sense, so I gave up.

Best I can figure is that auto-resolve will usually just follow a "brute force" approach: everybody will just try to do the most damage to the weakest target and completely disregard anything remotely close to tactics or logic.

For example, if a champion can cast a flame dart with a base of 14 damage and they have a lightning staff equipped that can do up to 12 damage, they'll just keep on casting that flame dart every turn, even if you're facing off against a fire elemental that's 100% immune to fire.

But then, other times they might not do that. I'm not sure what decides it, exactly, but they're not -always- casting flame dart (even when they can), so, there has to be some other variable.

Enemies will bee-line for your squishiest champion, which is why mages/archers will often get killed or heavily wounded even when you have plenty of "heavy" units that -should- be able to absorb the damage and engage the enemies nearer the front.

Then there's that time I fought dragons and they did nothing and I killed them off by doing 2-3 damage per attack over maaaany rounds.

The whole thing just seemed so random that I didn't want to bother wasting more time/effort trying to understand the madness.

[jonbrave]

You can start off the battle manualy, play a couple of rounds with sense till you're confident he's on his knees, and then auto-resolve. Unless that cancels what you've down and becomes random, but I hope not!

[Elegant Caveman]

No, it doesn't "start over" or anything. It seems to just "take it from there" when you do that, so, yeah, that's certainly an option.

For the most part, I'm fine with using a "full" auto-resolve, as I try to overwhelm my enemies whenever possible, and if the fight's tight, I prefer to do it manually.

I've done what you suggest a few times, though, and it works quite well. For example, casting a couple of buffs/debuffs to start things off, and/or position my army (send frontliners to confront/surround the enemy and make my squishier folk go towards the back), and/or take out a particular threat on the first round (like taking out an enemy mage with ranged attacks).

Auto-resolve does a fair job of "mopping up" after that.

[jonbrave]

I have a mage who only heals 1 per turn maximum. So having him lose a lot of HPs in auto-resolve is a pain, as it takes a long time till he's well again, whereas I'd pull him back from the front after a while in manual, which oc the Ai doesn't do.

[Elegant Caveman]

Ah, yeah, that could make a big difference.

The enemy doesn't get to him if you auto-resolve after the first turn? Or do you wait a few turns to make sure?

[jonbrave]

It's more complicated :) He's a Death Assassin with some Wraith Touch thing, plus poison on attack, etc. He's The Main Man. So I want to use him for a few melee turns, but as he begins to lose HPs I think about moving him backwards. The others can then finish off, and he hasn't lost too many HPs at 1 per turn to recover. If I auto-resolve he wins, but takes like 20 damage.

[Elegant Caveman]

Oh, man, that sounds tiring. lol

I assume you don't have access to any Life magic? I've never played Empire, so I don't know if you can maybe get some Life champions even if you're "primarily" a Death faction.

I read somewhere a suggestion to use Regeneration (level 1 Life spell) to counteract the whole "can only heal 1 HP/turn" thing (since it heals the hero fully at the end of each season), but I'm guessing that might only be possible with custom factions.

[jonbrave]

I got no Life, and I got no Reneration :)

[Elegant Caveman]

Seems like you're stuck, then. :\

I gotta say, I do appreciate the fact that we're able to auto-resolve partway through battles, though.