Ward those provinces!

[Solmyr]

Hello,

I'd like to hear your comments (and suggestions for countering) on the following strategy:
1.Wizard casts Warding in desired provinces.
2.Wizard casts Legion of Dead/Summoning, occupying the provinces.
3.Wizard takes over the provinces, with their rightful regent having no chance to do anything against it because of the Warding.
4.If Warding runs out (and it generally lasts for a long time), wizard re-casts it.

While obviously the wizard has to have some gold for all the spells, in general he can quite easily take over 2-3 provinces in this way, without meeting any physical opposition.

******************
Aleksei Andrievski
aka Solmyr, Archmage of the Blue Star
aka Azure Star Dragon
solmyr@kolumbus.fi
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/2198/index.html

[David Sean Brown]

Well, presumedly the current ruler of the land has holdings in the
provinces, and as such can raise armies there in (even if just levies) to
fight the Leagon of the Dead/summoned creatures.. AS well, the current
province ruler can contest the holdings of the wizard, making it
impossible for him/her to cast the aforementioned spells. Finally, the
ruler can (depending on class) create temples/holdings, of if a wizard,
just extend a ley line into the province to cast a dispel realm magic
spell. If not a spell caster, find some $$ and a trustworthy spellcaster
(or as close as you can get) who you can hire to do the same thing.

Sean


On Thu, 26 Nov 1998, Aleksei Andrievski wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'd like to hear your comments (and suggestions for countering) on the following strategy:
> 1.Wizard casts Warding in desired provinces.
> 2.Wizard casts Legion of Dead/Summoning, occupying the provinces.
> 3.Wizard takes over the provinces, with their rightful regent having no chance to do anything against it because of the Warding.
> 4.If Warding runs out (and it generally lasts for a long time), wizard re-casts it.
>
> While obviously the wizard has to have some gold for all the spells, in general he can quite easily take over 2-3 provinces in this way, without meeting any physical opposition.
>
> ******************
> Aleksei Andrievski
> aka Solmyr, Archmage of the Blue Star
> aka Azure Star Dragon
> solmyr@kolumbus.fi
> http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/2198/index.html
>
>
> ************************************************** *************************
> > 'unsubscribe birthright' as the body of the message.
>

[Gary V. Foss]

Aleksei Andrievski wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'd like to hear your comments (and suggestions for countering) on the following strategy:
> 1.Wizard casts Warding in desired provinces.
> 2.Wizard casts Legion of Dead/Summoning, occupying the provinces.
> 3.Wizard takes over the provinces, with their rightful regent having no chance to do anything against it because of the Warding.
> 4.If Warding runs out (and it generally lasts for a long time), wizard re-casts it.
>
> While obviously the wizard has to have some gold for all the spells, in general he can quite easily take over 2-3 provinces in this way, without meeting any physical opposition.

I think there are two possible ways a regent might deal with this sort of thing.

First, he can raise troops in the warded province. Technically, this is rather hard to justify. Assuming that the regent is not himself in the province that is warded, how is he
supposed to issue the orders that a Muster Troops action would require? Despite the fact that it is a free action there has got to be some fairly significant things that a ruler
must do in order to rule a province, but in a case like this I am inclined to give the province ruler a break. Actually, two breaks. He can raise troops AND they can be used to
fight in that very round. Normally troops can't be used in the same round it is created, but I think a case like this should be an exception.

Second, if he is at all cordial with a temple that has holdings in that province they would probably be inclined to help him out with a Dispel Realm Magic realm spell. Of course,
different temples have different political views, but in most realms of Cerilia I would imagine that such an aggressive attack by a wizard would get the cooperation of the local
faith as a minimum. Depending on your interpretation of how Dispel Realm Magic works it might actually dispel the wizard's summoned troops as well, which might be kind of funny....

The province ruler can contest the wizard's source, which would turn the matter into a contest of RP pools, whoever has the largest pool will win. Since wizard regents often have
to spend a lot of their RPs on realm spells I am inclined to think the province ruler will tend to win this battle. It will take two rounds, however, to fully contest that source
holding and by that time the mage can cast both his spells. He is going to get stuck in another regency battle with the province ruler over investing that province, which the
province ruler might very well be able to continue longer than the wizard. Again this depends quite a bit on the situation.

In general, however, I think a wizard using Warding and Legion of Dead/Summoning would be pretty effective. There are certainly ways for a province ruler to work in cooperation
with a temple regent in order to combat his efforts, but without the temple on his side a province ruler could easily lose.

Gary