How to counter Strands of Arcane Power?

[pkk]

In a game against the AI, the AI has cast Strands of Arcane Power. I am losing about 5 mages per turn. I have the Chalice to heal mages slowly and the Arcane Nexus, thus a good income of for Astral Pearls. I have tried Dispel with 411 gems put into it, but failed. What can I do?

Philipp

[Morsigil]

Kill the caster of strands. Also it would seem, according to the spell description, that the attacks only happen in friendly dominion (to the caster of the global) . Push their dominion away and you should be safe.

[pkk]

That will be hard. That enemy is an impossible AI that holds about two thirs fo the map. Both me and the other impossible AI (which started close to me) hold about one sixth each. There were 12 other AIs in teh game tha thave been eliminated by now.
Maybe I should create a strong Astral mage and move it into enemy dominion? Would that result in the enemy caster getting feebleminded, removing the enchantment?

Philipp

[Nrak555]

Yes it would but you would need a high astral to actually do this on the order of S7 to have 50ish% chance S1 mages could also do it but they have about a 1ish% chance to succeed. This assumes he used an S7 mage to cast it. If he used S9 or something you will not have much chance

[ÆtherNomad]

Also, if I recall correctly, boosters (items) have no effect here, only empowerment and native magic works.

[pkk]

I have a few S3 and S4 mages and a S6 pretender, all with starshine skullcaps, I guess I could give them rings to upgrade them further (unfortunately I don't have Alt 9 yet, so I can't just wish for magic skill). Unfortunately, the enemy now also has cast Wild Hunt, so my mages will get killed anyway.

Philipp

P.S.: I think the AI is much stronger now compared to Dom 4.

[ÆtherNomad]

As I just said pkk, boosters are useless for that purpose. This includes skullcaps and rings. Unless I'm mistaken, Strands of Arcane Power doesn't take magic boost from items into account at all.

[pkk]

I see. So I better research Alt9 and wish for magic skill then. Though I guess that won't happen in time to not loose the game.

Philipp

[Morsigil]

What is the enemy pretender? If they're fleshy e.g not undead or a monolith or something you could send shade scouts into their territory carrying bane charms and try to disease him. If you're a nation with 4 death you could send the Harvester of Sorrows to try and disease him as well.

[Scuffles]

If you know where the caster is you might be able to start trying to snipe him with assassination spells - seeking arrow / earth attack / manifestation etc.

[Mount Nomad]

The enemy caster for Strands is probably their pretender..

If you're going the wish route, might as well just wish to Kill (Faction) Pretender. Won't always work on a statue.

Still, can't believe that an S6 casting dispel with 411 gems couldn't get it. Maybe another hidden AI tweak, like when it first started bidding for Mercs?

[pkk]

Is the level for dispel without items, too? My pretender basically always wears a starshine skullcap and a ring of wizardry, which would give a total of S8. At least I was able to dispel their Wild hunt (but they just brought it back the next round).
Also, they now seem to try to domkill everyone. Their dominion now reaches three provinces deep into my territory and includes my capital. I just hope they kill the other remaining AI (T'ien Ch'i, who has a strong army but not that much magic) first, and I will be able to take a few of the the former-T'ien Ch'i provinces then.

Philipp

[Mount Nomad]

The items would count. Crystal Coin would take you to S9, as would a Ring of Sorcery. Also believe spell penetration items would aid in your dispel attempt, and Ring of Sorcery has +1 there (most Astral Boosters and Spell Penetration items have a chance to Horrormark, which's bad news on most Pretenders).

Sounds like you have Arcane Nexus up? Wishing to kill it probably is your best bet unless it's too powerful. You could probably slaughter T'ien Ch'i yourself with SCs easily enough - just avoid the Throne provinces with them.

[pkk]

How can I find out who cast the Enchantment?
After a while, I got a message that their caster was defeated by one of my astral mages, and all their global enchantments went down. But a few rounds later they started bringing them back, including Strands of Arcane Power.

Philipp

[Catowl]

Just pour enough pearls into a dispel. Should be doable even w/o many items. Though I don't think penetration helps, as dispel only wants high astral and pearls

P. S. Whats with signing your name at the end of each post? Isn't that why you have a forum username already?

[pkk]

Well, dispel failed with 411 pearls before, and getting to 411 pearls takes a while (though I just managed to bring my Arcane Nexus back after the enemy dispelt it).