Is there a counter to seeking arrows?

[Gunnar]

I am playing early era Agartha (in my fourth ever dominions game) and for the past 5 turns my commanders have been attacked by seeking arrows.

My pretender himself just got hit, and now has a never healing wound!

I heard that the arrow is a magic attack, what can I do to protect my pretender from being killed? I feel it is inevitable at this point, if they somehow keep hitting him

my pretender is a squishy Leader of the Closed Council

[Eldritch Gentleman]

Armour certainly helps. Give him an iron face, and he'll have very high protection at all times.

[Alias]

For starters, it has a range, and it is worrisome enemies have a foothold that close as to target your capital.

[Red_Rob]

Recruit cheap commanders to take the hits, they are spending gems on each one so you will come out ahead.

Originally posted by Eldritch Gentleman:

Armour certainly helps. Give him an iron face, and he'll have very high protection at all times.

Actually Seeking Arrow is Armor Negating, so armor won't help. However Air Shield does help, and so does Luck, so a Robe of Missile Protection or Mistletoe Garland would be useful.

Originally posted by Alias:

For starters, it has a range, and it is worrisome enemies have a foothold that close as to target your capital.

It has a range of 3 provinces, which can be extended if they have an Air Rune site or Arcane Lens. If they are targeting your Pretender it does suggest he is wandering quite close to enemy lines.

[Gunnar]

The arrows are hitting my pretender and the commander with him, who is attacking a deformed giants nation which seem to have no real way to oppose me (except with these arrows...), when my pretender got hit he was taking a throne

---

I had a bad start (at least to my newbie eyes)

I started in a cave, which is good because well, +20% income for Agartha there. But, I had three bordering provinces at the start to my capital:

To the North: Highland/Mountain
To the West: A cave, with some sort of very black shades, lead by demons and black shade.
To the South: A high level throne with hundreds of troops

I waited my first turn to get a few more troops and attacked to the north (since I could not defeat the other two unless I maybe waited many tunrs) but my whole army starting army was destroyed. This delayed things a bit

When I finally got out and started expanding with aid of olms, there are two flying nations to the east attacking me for some farmlands, and to the west there is a deformed giants nation. I am easily defeating the giant nation, and that is where I sent my pretender, because my prophet is in the east just trying to hold on and to take a throne over there.

In the end, I am liking my bad luck/failures. Agartha seems to be a defeatist sort of nation

[Gunnar]

thanks for the tips, I will try these, and It is probably true that I do not use enough commanders, so I will try to start using them more

[DasaKamov]

That they're targeting the Pretender doesn't *necessarily* mean they're near the Capital -- it's possible the Pretender is roaming about to perform Site-Searches or Claiming Thrones, for example. ;)

If the Seeking Arrows *are* targeting the Capital (or any other important province), you could cast "Dome of Fire/Air/Nature, etc." to protect everyone in the province.

And, like Red_Rob atated, you could place several other cheap "decoy" commanders in a province (such as independent scouts). Seeking Arrow strikes a random commander whenever it's cast, so the more inconsequential targets there are, the less chance your Pretender will be hit.

[Alias]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

That they're targeting the Pretender doesn't *necessarily* mean they're near the Capital -- it's possible the Pretender is roaming about to perform Site-Searches or Claiming Thrones, for example. ;)

What's necessary is to realize squishy Pretenders need not be put in harm's way.

[Nrak555]

simply not have them in that fort

[Telos]

The new coral blade item (W1, const 2) would give anyone +8 HP, which could easily be the difference between surviving the seeking arrow or not. Seeking arrow also won't hit stealthed commanders, so you could give someone important shademail haubergen (E+D armor) and sneak them further away. If you're worried about keeping your pretender and prophet alive, be sure to keep them in provinces with lots of white candles, so their HP will stay higher, so they'll be less likely to be killed. If you're more worried about afflictions, you could also use items to reduce chance of afflictions (e.g., wound fend amulet, or anything that provides regeneration as that reduces chance of affliction). Otherwise, use lots of decoys to catch the arrows. Agartha's national commanders have lots of HP, so should usually survive an arrow shot, so it may be worth spending a few turns of fort production to get more of them. Or indy commanders are cheap enough that you'll come out ahead even if they get killed by an arrow.

[Swirler]

I saw OP mention they started next to a high level throne, yeah you have to watch out for bad starts in this game. It's actually worth considering rerolling the map if you get a start like that. High level thrones are neigh on impossible to take early game so that's you locked out of a fairly large source of income/resources for a long time which you absolutely need for your capital to start troop production.

Although if you can somehow take it then you've got a big leg up with the high level throne bonus.

Haven't had to deal with seeking arrows much myself, seems like the best bet is getting some arrow fend gear or massing commanders with your pretender.
And apparently stealthing the commander is good.

If you have some blood magic on your pretender there's an affliction healing spell in there btw.

I suppose that's another bonus to always using tough gods, no dinky arrow is going to do much.

hashtagstatueboys

[Sombre]

Luck is a pretty amazing counter, if your guys are within arrow killing HP range.

[jojeck]

Luck only triggers if the attack would kill, so in this case he'd still take damage and get the affliction. It is one of the risks of taking a human sized pretender, but the range of seeking arrows is short so can be avoided most of the time by being careful with where you go. Inside a fort with many mages researching he should be safe on a statistical basis.

[Alias]

Rabbit's Foot will do as long as only one arrow is cast per month.

[Wonko]

No one's mentioned the dome spells yet, but you can protect an important province from all spells cast at it, though each dome works a little differently.

[MattStriker]

That's because domes are high-level and expensive.