Broke and Butter's Battlelust Battle Guide

Interesting Links

A Guide to Playing Nether by Umbra [[1]]

nether winning against ascendant [2]

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A BIG thank you to those editing
...and to all past and present members of Realm of Chaos for been you:P

Introduction

Black may not be a friendly color to play. However, the color sure can be a good one to take up to learn the game and a little more about its depths. Simply because, black will, from the get go (2,000 to 3,000 acres), often present you with more than enough problems that can keep you entertained. These problems, which are common in other color but not as prominent in initial play, include:
---Defending against attackers
---Population manipulation
---Running with heavy pop-eaters
---Attacking for lands
---Using your turns for all their worth (as efficiently for you as possible),
---& Pimping/supering up/upgrading on its available units, colored heroes, and spells.


Beware though… the color can get you hooked on it as you play and eventually resolve the mentioned problems. It seems to be a color accessible to all players, and this guide (and especially those who contribute to it in any way) will help make the color be so accessible.

Attackers’ Perspectives [Sever]

As I white mage, I will farm you for lands.
My units may not be powerhouses, but against your undead units, they are, buddy. So, I do not need that much NP in units to siege your lands. I will arrange my units and aim for as much holy damage against your undead units (who have low or no Holy resistance and suffer double the damage [weakness against Holy]) and some lighting damage against your non-ultimate demons (…more Holy resistance, low Lighting resistance, and do not have weakness against).

You got barriers?
Okay, so what if I can’t get my Sword of Light spell through your barriers? I just can get another spell with similar effect and more in automatically by just it running in my country. I will spend 10 turns and 200,000 MP to cast The Holy Light (THL) before I log off. This means I will need to have around 150 turns or more and may need to switch between cycles/days of attack and preparing to attack. (Check out THL’s accuracy and holy bonus without and with Sword of Light on Wiki out if you have not.)

Specifically, I will use units like arch angel (AA), dominion (dom), unicorn (uni), Spirit Warrior (SW), THL-ed Knight Templar (KT’s), THL-ed crusader, Paladin, High Priest (HP's), Werebears (WB), and/or titan, to intercept as many undead units as possible (usually heaviest in the 1st to 4th stacking). The bigger I am the more I can spread my more of my units beyond the 4th stacking. (See http://wiki.the-reincarnation.org/index.php/Maerlyn_Style_White#Stacking_Ideas for more details.)

I need to be wary of your demon units, though, for they can do damage against me.

As a green, I know you will be stacking against whites with your demon units.
My advantages… be my farm.
I can and will crush your demons and often whatever else, ultimate or not. So what if I’m way above you in ranking? I can still reach you as I disband my mana-heavy units to mana charge, re-summon, and over-summon on my treefolks and ultimates. In my run I will pop down and use simply use my treesfolks to do heavy melee against your top grounded units.
Against your non-ultimate (except Lich), I don’t need spell.
Against your ultimate (and sometime complex) demon, though, I will just have to get Rust Armour in to lower your Melee resistance. Your demon units do not have any Verdant spell resistance, so I instantly win if I get my treesfolk to go after your demon. Blame it on LotR for having ents;D

Alternatively, I can get my ultimate units to crush your demons and whatever. My Phoenix (nixs) and Earth Elemental’s (EE) Magic Ranged secondary attack are not so well resisted by most of your units (except Lich). You may then sometime want to kiss your Unholy Reavers (URs), Vampires (vamp), Horned Demon (HD), Demon Knight (DK), Wraith, and Djini good bye. I will come for them with my ultimates.

I need to wary of my lower stacks though. I can’t summon the units that I want yet without spending too much turns and mana.

As a black mage, I want you too, oh chicken leg! .
I just need to kill your demon units. Against UR, DK, and HD, I will either use Lich or more UR. Against HD and efreeti, I will need UR. With HD I can hurt your fodders. With Vamp, I can absorb your ranged units. With whatever else, I really don’t care. My Lich and/or UR just need to do go after their intended targets. If you devil…well, I can devil back and see a very interesting battle report:D

Your weakness against me is also mine though. Plus, you’re kinda of skinny… Yes, chicken leg:P

As a red mage, I just want you to know that you may be able to hurt my ultimate units with your Lich. Beside that, though, you’re not as strong as you think you are against me. My Efreeti may die to your UR. However, I will have more than enough efreeti and their primary attack (1AP) with Battle Chant (BC) to burn your UR to oblivion before they can even attack me. In addition, my Chimera can inflict heavy damage against all your units, except Lich. With Oil, hehehee… you’re invinted to my BBQ. Hey! I almost forgot! My efreeti can tolerate and even also do moderate damage against your units, even your Lich, with BC. Also, your HD are better me with me with BC:P




As a Blue, I’m like Greens on their runs. I can farm you. However, I can farm my own color more easily. If I choose otherwise, I will go after your most of your units with my elementals. My Ice Elemental (IE) and Air Elemental (AE) can easily kill all of your units, except for Lich. My Water Elemental (WE) may have problems killing HD, DK, and Vamp, but they can kill whatever left, including your Lich.

I just need to get your Lich and Vamp to not hit my AE and WE, your HD to not hit my MR or Djini, your Efreeti to hit something other than elementals. Also, you think you're twisted in faking Knighthood with DK? Please:P I can use your units and white units against you, yo:P

Defending With Battlelust Idea

In the 2,000 to 3,000 acres, blacks are often hit.
This makes defending more difficult.
As a black mage, you can setup a defense, like blues, to absorb the attacks. That’s fine if you can get lands and climb faster than your attackers and their guildmates. Otherwise, after so many attackers, your items will run out, and your units will be killed off. Your defense will then crumble, and you would have wasted more items and units than you wish otherwise. Around 2,000 acres, especially, the costs due to numbers of attacks become obvious. Units and importantly, items must be often replaced. The process repeat till you get climb higher. If you don’t you may be entering a resource spiral.

Two alternatives are possible.
--One is to explore like crazy, build up, mp charge, and mediate (3 days missed turns).
Once out of mediate, cast spells, summon, and climb like crazy.

--The other is to get into Damage Protection (Damage) while in the high traffic zone/Bang zone. Oddly, in attempting to enter Damage, you will tend to save more units from being killed than in attempting to absorb. (Not all units well absorb so well…)

So, starting with 2,100 acres, you can enter damage protection and get around these attackers and their frequent attacks by:
--Stacking 2-4 solidly-sized units (13%-25% or more) and 3-4 filler-sized units (3%-10%)
--Using the spell Battle Lust (BL [+80% 1AP, -40% HP)
--Using some inexpensive and expensive items complementary with BL

--And entering damage protection status (based on a moving time-frame).
The setup is an anti-holy-melee that hopefully will deal heavy damage against your attackers (via you being over-summoned and BL).


Items to be used with BL:
A) Boosting Resistance
-- Brooch of Protection (Brooch) [+50% melee resist.] against treants, mandrakes, titan, and SW’s (holy melee)

-- Missile Shield (MS) [+50% ranged resist.] against phoenixes, nymphs, and other ranged units.
Brooch and MS's resist. bonus are capped out at 100% and then averaged in calculating resist. for non-mono attack type (ex. Magic Ranged). Against non-mono attack type, units with high ranged/melee resistance (like djini and lich) do not benefit that much from brooch or MS. Units with moderate resistance (like efreeti and HD) do. Brooch often grants immunity attack immunity or really high melee resistance, even against Rust Armour.


B) Offensive
-- Bubble Wine (BW) [+20% Primary AP and +30%HP] greatly reduces BL’s HP reduction and further drive the primary AP to make BL LESS RISKY to use.

--Ash of Invisibility (Ash) [striking 1st]

--Candle of Sleeping (-10% all resist. and efficiency) boosts your units’ ability to do damage

C) Defensive and Offensive
--The Spider's Web (Web) [-1 attack initative to all attk] stops titan’s primary holy melee attk and trees (all together) and slow down faster units enough for some of your units to strike first (damage + fatigue)

--Carpet of Flying (carpet) [all units fly] non-ranged ground units cannot hit your flying units



D) Defensive (DON’T use BL; use stun or bloodcurse)
--Satchel of Mist (mist) [reduce accuracy by 10% and more with Fear/Swift units]

For info on other useful items, see Wiki's overall item list and the item’s own page[3].



Solidly sized units (13% to 20% or way more) that are usually stacked are: efreeti, lich, and horned demon (HD’s).
--Unholy reavers (UR’s) can be incorporated, once you have the population and land and if needed, disbanded some or all of your HD, vamps, and wraiths.

The 2-5 filler sized units (3%-15%) can come and go and depend on your liking and include: djinni, DEM, vamps, medusa, salamanders, wraiths, zombs, sylphs, sprites, HD, and hydras. --They don’t have to be all stacked and shouldn’t. --For entering Damage, fillers tend to be wraiths and sylphs.

=Stacking with Battlelust=
Stacking is done to keep:
--one of your ranged units (the one lesser in%) in the mid to low stacking
--some non-ranged ground (melee) and/or flyer units above that ranged units
--the higher % ranged units above those non-ranged ground and/or flyer units
--some more non-ranged/or flyer units above the higher % ranged units
--lastly have something on top.

Since most of your solidly sized units are ranged units, they can be easily stacked in the mid to low stacking in numbers.
--Your lower stacked ranged units can then have better chances of hitting lower and more vulnerable units of your attackers and still be in position to absorb damage if there are no other units on the ground stacked above them.

An army stacking could be something like below for 2000ish-3000ish acres where lands lost can be easily attained back: (exploring works too, especially below 2100-ish acres)
1st: HD’s (15%-20%)
2nd: Efreeti……………………………….if no Dom Lich/Djini/Vamps
(Have 2nd stack close in NP to be able to switch with HD)
3rd: Djini or Vamps………………………or Wraith/Slyphs (don’t stay predictable)
4th: Wraith or Slyphs (5%-8%)………….or Lich/Efreeti (Bump up Med.)
5th: Wraith or Slyphs (5%-8%)………….or Lich/Efreeti
6th: Medusa or Salamander………………or Lich/Efreeti 7th: Medusa or Salamander 8th: Pyschic Wisp (PW) or Sprite 9th: Pyschic Wisp (PW) or Blackmarket Nymphs (3-6%)
10th: DEM

Battle Lust
Brooch of Protection
Or Bubblewine if Lich (or UR [~20ish]) is first ground unit
Or Web

There are many units that are can be switched around—too many!
The foundation is still the same.
--Brooched HD’s and efreeti can provide you with a good defense against the teeth of white and green melee associated units.

--Djini and vamps can absorb most ranged attacks from white and green units (other than Nixs and EE).

--The other flyers, medusa, and salamanders are used to lower your lich even more, if desired, and to do damage. Salamanders are expensive. You don’t have to use them. They good for attacking blues, though.

--Slyphs, sprite, and wraith will die and help you enter damage status protection.
Whites and greens do not have many ranged units. Slyphs and wraiths are usually safe below the 2nd stacking. Vamps or Djini can always be above them if needed.


BL is there for you to have better chances of out damaging your attacker. With Battle Chant (BC), BL is better. You’re trying to jack up your troops’ primary attack power (1AP) by 80% w/ BL (battle lust) and by 16% with Battle Chant at a cost of 30% and 5% to your troops’ health points (HP) respectively. That’s a boost of 96% to your 1AP at a cost of -45%HP. With Lucifer’s Favor, that’s +106% 1AP and -45%HP without fort bonus. With valor from a couple of cheap hero (+10% 1AP each), the bonuses become scary +126% 1AP and -45%HP before fort bonuses. With Soul Devour, Soul Reapers + HD (+14 efficiency for HD), you can seriously hurt attacking blacks (whose units do seem to have much Nether spell resistance) and whites.

Since you don’t want the HP reduction, or at least not all of it, your forts then must be built to around 1.00% (or higher) to get some fort HP bonuses to compensate for the loss of HP. If you’re not using BW, then fort HP bonuses are all you have. You can get away with two hits with BL+BC. The third one may need Ash in order for you to enter Damage without losing lands.

Units Trend for Battlelust

Units with moderate (around 4) to high primary AP ratio (primary AP/power rank), moderate or above HP ratio and moderate or better resistances and accuracy modifier will greatly benefits. They do not die that fast and can hit hard with BL. You’re sort of doubling the numbers of HD’s, medusa, wraiths, salamanders, DEM, nymphs (blackmarket), reengage wizards, and whatever by doubling their primary attack points after all. 3,000 Salamanders become 6,000. 4,000 HD becomes 8,000. With efficiency bonuses from heroes, Have fun playing around with the +% 1AP bonuses:D

Variation Stacking with Battlelust

--BW and BL Stacking
1st: Lich
2nd: Efreeti or HD
3rd: Vamp or Djini
4th: Wraith or Slyphs (5-10%)
5th: Djini / Vamp/ Wraith/ HD
6th: Djini / Vamp/ Wraith/ HD/ Efreeti
7th: Medusa
8th: Salamanders (expensive)
9th: Nymph/ DEM/ fanatics
10th: DEM/fanatics

Should be used when Doms are not present.
Without MR, Doms tend to be a problem if you can’t get HD to fly and hit Dom.



Overall, the minimal loss of HP (or none -45%HP + 30%HP + Fort %HP) for that much gain of primary AP for your moderate or high primary AP ratio endowed units is well worth it.
Don’t forget…

The REASON you get around the frequent attacks with the stacking and defense setup mentioned is because you will tend to end up in damage status after around 2-4 attacks.
The odds are not that bad.
--You're super-oversummoned, considering how land skinny you are.
--More than 100% 1AP boost to an army w/ moderate to high 1AP wielding units.
--Go for it!

You will tend to end up in protection, losing some lands or not at all, and hurting your attackers dearly. That's how you will limit the numbers of your attackers. Also, threats of devil countering should also be used and enforced if SERIOUSLY needed. Consider doing the Meditating route before deviling. Deviling on low lands restrict your fun.
See Deviling Guides:

DOLZero's Devil Guide [4]

Seraph's Devils Guide [5]

Note: Knowing how to enter Damage status is then only beneficial to you. --“Damage Protection ("D") is entered when you have lost 30% of your NET power (i.e. power ranking) due to attacks and attacks alone. It lasts 24 hours from the first attack--FROM THE FIRST ATTACK--that counts toward the 30% NET power lost [moving time frame!…..see example below…]. The easiest way to tell how long you really have in damage protection from the time you login and found yourself damage is by checking the chronicle on your mage.”

[More from: Alzorath's FAQ v0.2; [6]]
Damaged Example:
Attack 1 Day 1 22:00:00 :: 5% np Damage.
Attack 2 Day 2 0:00:00 :: 10% np Damage.
Attack 3 Day 2 9:00:00 :: 25% NP Damage.
Damaged Protection Entered (5+10+25 = 40, 40>=30).

Day 2 22:00:00 Damage from Attack 1 expires (10+25 = 35, 35>= 30), Damaged Status remains due to still greater than 30% damage in the past 24 hours.

Day 3 0:00:00 Damage from Attack 2 expires (25 = 25, 25<30), Damaged Status Expires due to damage less than 30% in the past 24 hours. Total Time Spent Damaged: 15 hours

More Variation BL Stacking… (Don’t stay predictable in stacking.) 1st: HD
2nd: Lich
3rd: Djinni
4th: Efreeti/ HD/ Wraith (Wraith are difficult to place sometime)
5th: Efreeti
6th: Salamanders (geld expensive)/ Wraith
Medusa/Wraith
7th: DEM
8th-10th: Skeleton/zombs/vamps & wraith left over/whatever
Brouch/web
Battlelust

Population-manipulation

To have a much higher pop growth rate, have more residency(towns) than food production(farms)---NOT MORE FARMS:D

Having a higher pop growth rate allows you to build up your population to its max faster and without having to use wine of the 3 whips. You hopefully won't end up with an actual-pop: max-pop of 300,000/500,000 and a zero pop growth rate (which then some disbanding of most of your pop eaters and many 3tails drinks).

So if you have gained some lands and want to increase your pop faster, build up more towns than farms to get that higher pop growth rate. Then build the farms once you're about to max your population with the pop reduction taken into account.

Get Nature's Favor for food production bonus. Sweet!:D

Tips

• always have some god's favor.

--get magic's favor and recast conc. and BS. --get sun's favor if you want to do more damage. Accuracy really helps! --get moon and Lucifer' favors if you want to mp charge faster and summon more (best for powering up in ranking). --get nature's favor if you need more farm production.

• get some cheap valor heroes!

--w/ BL, BW, and valor, your primary AP can be boosted to 120% easily.

• quantitatively determine summoning efficiency (Excel might be useful here...)

--turn focused: Summoned unit NP/casting turn) and compare with other units' --mp focused: Summoned unit's NP/ casting mp and compare with other units'

• BS gives only ~+3000mp

--more nodes will be needed to stay competitive with (or have an advantage over) other colors --at 2000 acres(~35%) --at 2500 acres(~40%) --at 3000 acres(~45%) --at 3500 acres(~45%+) --at 4000 acres(~45%+) --at 4500 & + acres(~50%)

Population-manipulation

To have a much higher pop growth rate, have more residency(towns) than food production(farms)---NOT MORE FARMS:D

Having a higher pop growth rate allows you to build up your population to its max faster and without having to use wine of the 3 whips. You hopefully won't end up with an actual-pop: max-pop of 300,000/500,000 and a zero pop growth rate (which then some disbanding of most of your pop eaters and many 3tails drinks).

So if you have gained some lands and want to increase your pop faster, build up more towns than farms to get that higher pop growth rate. Then build the farms once you're about to max your population with the pop reduction taken into account.

Warnings:

School usually ended my mage before ARM. I have no idea how people change their mages after early mid-reset.

Blah-blah:

The battle lust defense for black mages was developed from a joke to see what would happen if Battle Lust (BL), certain items, and some units were used for a black army. Its goal is to provide any black mage, who willing to try about anything, an enjoyable reset in getting some thorough whooping and in DOING some thorough whooping on Severs. Its goal is DEFINITELY NOT to ruin your eyes. If you can boost up the front, please do:(

This battle method is FOR SURE NOT the best out there, but it will give entertaining results and will be updated periodically to include your comments and suggestions, whatever new finding, and especially grammatical corrections. So don’t hold back any comment, suggestion, and especially jokes/other stuffs---the driving forces behind this battle method.

So, Hit Edit fix, comment, etc...:OP

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Best Wishes to ALL & MUCH thanks to the good people of Realms of Chaos and those editing the above stuffs!

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