Broke and Butter's Battlelust Battle Guide

Interesting Links

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

nether winning against ascendant [2]

Got any Interesting Links. Post away:P
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. This means I do not need that much netpower (NP) in units to siege lands from you. Consequently, I can bottom-feed on you and others with undeads. 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 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 and other bonus effects in AUTOMATICALLY. I just need to run my favorite spell 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 my black-behind, kicking spell and prepare yoursefl hahahaha...Note the THL’s accuracy and holy bonus without and with Sword of Light.)
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 in the 1st to 4th stacking). The bigger I am the more I can spread my more of my units beyond the 4th stacking and bottom feed with more ease on run [[3]].

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

As a green, I know you will be stacking against whites with your demon and offcolr units.
My advantages… Be my farm.
I can and will crush your demons and often whatever else.
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 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. Hence, I will assume an instant win if I can get my treesfolk to go after your demon. Blame it on LotR for having ents. BOOM-Ba-ROOM!
< Alternatively, I can get my ultimate units to crush your demons and whatever else. 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, you know, 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 (below the 5th) 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 your 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: Lich, Efreeti, and MR. 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.

As a red mage, I just want you to know that you may be able to hurt my ultimate units with your Lich. But, besides that, 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) boosted with Battle Chant (BC) to burn your UR to oblivion before they can even attack my Efreeti. In addition, my Chimera can inflict heavy damage against all your units, except Lich. With Oil and Flameblade, 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. Your HD are better me with me with BC. Also, there is always Stun.




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 and using other color units? Please:P I can use your own 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 troublesome than you would expect.
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 climb, you may be entering a resource spiral.

Greeting from: &
In the 2,000 to 3,000 acres, WE just want to say:
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So...
Won't you please,
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?;)

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 and try to enter damage.

--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)
--Brooch? You sick, person!

-- 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)
& --"For shame!!"

--Carpet of Flying (carpet) [all units fly] non-ranged ground units cannot hit your flying units
, , and --Hides own carpets before saying--"You Whore!!"



D) Defensive (DON’T use BL; use stun or bloodcurse)
--Satchel of Mist (mist) [reduce accuracy by 10% and more with Fear/Swift units]
See Battlelust-Alternatives.
, , and : "Good sir/madame--Don't step on my contacts!!"


For info on other useful items, see Wiki's overall item list and the item’s own page[4].



The solidly sized units (13% to 20% or way more) mentioned 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 especially, 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. You stacking about three heavy stacks and using flyers to lower some of the heavy stacks. 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 2300ish-3000ish acres where lands lost can be easily attained back: (exploring works too, especially below 2100-ish acres). What you do, just do it and get to 12 million of power.
Heavy HD, Lich, and Efreeti with flyers. Flyers can be switched around but should not be in the 1st and 2nd top stacks.
1st: HD’s (15%-20%)......................Top Lich may die to Top Dom, but it works well when Top Dom are out of sight.
2nd: Lich (15%-20%+).....................Flyers should not be poping up to 2nd stacking.
3rd: Djini or Vamps......................or Heavy Wraith (don’t stay predictable)
4th: Wraith or Slyphs (5%-8%)............Expect flyers to move around
5th: Wraith or Slyphs (5%-8%)............With more lands, have Djini or Vamps to do protect Wraiths and Slyphs
6th: Efreeti (Can be targeted by UR).....Get Magic's Favor and Grand Enchanter to avoid fizzling.
(Have Efreeti stack somewhat close in NP with Lich)
7th: Medusa
8th: Salamanders (very costly to keep)....or Nymph (from market)
9th: Pyschic Wisp (PW) or Sprite
10th: DEM

Battle Lust
Brooch, BW, or Web

With the flyers, there are many units that are can be switched around—too many! Consider this anti-BR-complier tactics.
The foundation is still the same.
--Brooched or web 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 (close in NP to Efreeti) even more, if desired, and to do DAMAGE. Salamanders are expensive geldwise. 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.
--HD? Salamander? Be the turtles that lose the race. Slow.

Whites and greens do not have many ranged units. Slyphs and wraiths are usually safe below the 2nd stacking. Vamps or/and Djini can always be above them if needed.
--Don't be sad. You're not the one. We're just saving our Efreeti for someone else.


Goal against white is to exceed damage done by white to Lich. KT and Titan are then targeted by HD, Wraith, Slyphs, and Efreeti. Goal against green brooch is to stop their main attackers. Brooch is used to stop trees. Lich and Efreeti are used to absorb Nix and EE, respectively. Their fodders are targeted toward doing more damage. Once in awhile, Djini shocks EE, which greatly help.

Again, BL-based stacking is just to speed you toward the 12mil power range.
&--Don't you want to be our neighbor?

It's also for you to have better chances of out damaging your attacker. With Battle Chant (BC) and item, your chance is better. You’re trying to jack up your troops’ primary attack power (1AP) by 80% wit BL and by 16% with Battle Chant at a cost of 40% and 5% to your troops’ health points (HP). 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 (prefers, at least, +14 efficiency for HD), you can seriously hurt attacking blacks (whose units do seem to have much Nether spell resistance, very high Poison resistance, and low HP Ratio) and whites.
Give an injection of SW! Stats! Don't fail me now, Uni, fatigue and endure those HD!
Titan and KT, don't die on me! Clear!! Beep_Beep___Beep__Beep... (Stabilizing)

That -45%HP, though, is costly. 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. Importantly, you REALLY want to use Bubblewine (+30%HP) to soften the HP loss. If you’re not using BW, then fort HP bonuses and specialized item are all you have. You can get away with two hits with BL + BC. Regardless, one the third one, you may need Ash or Web in order for you to enter Damage without losing lands.


I like the way you do that right thurr (right thurr)
Swish your BL spell when you walk, let down your HP (down your hurr)
Yeah, down hurr!

Once in a while, a cheap setup can be afforded if you can check up on your mage...once in a while. This allows you to pop in Web or Ash after the 2nd attack.

Units Trend for Battlelust

Units with moderate to high primary AP ratio (primary AP/power rank [~4 or +]), moderate or above HP ratio, moderate or better resistances, and some accuracy modifier will greatly benefits. They do not die that fast and can hit enemey hard with BL. For units with high 1AP, you’re sort of doubling their numbers with BL, which further promote the zergling idea of Black (HD’s, medusa, wraiths, salamanders, DEM, nymphs (blackmarket), reengage wizards, and whatever) by doubling the 1AP. 3,000 Salamander becomes 6,000. 4,000 HD becomes 8,000.

With efficiency and 1'attack 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 [BW] + 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.
, , & --"What do you mean your Drive-thru isn't a Drive-thru, you conartist!"

The odds are not that bad.
--You're super-oversummoned, considering how land skinny you are.
--More than 100% 1AP boost to an army with 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.
, , & --"Be reasonable";)
Deviling on low lands restrict your fun.
See Deviling Guides:

DOLZero's Devil Guide [5]

Seraph's Devils Guide [6]

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; [7]]
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

Your Power & Ranking Trend With Battlelust

In the 2100 to 3,000, you can ideally either enter damage protection after the third attack.
& --"All right, bend over. Time for your check up. Hut-hut to it."


--BC and over-summoning comes in handy here.
--Note: BW and associated stacking seem to be the cheapest and LESS risky way of using BL. Just get away from heavy Dom users to use your best unit: Lich.


Within the 2100 to 2600 acres, you can more easily out-damage and enter protection sooner with Battle Chant and over-summoning on 8-12mil+** ranking (**depending if you carry zombies or not).
--If you lose land, then Damage protection will come after the 2nd or the third attack.
--"Hi. Last check up. Say 'Arg", now."

Entering Damage requires a loss of 30% of your mage's net power.
--To do so without losing lands, you will trend to over summon in 11-13mil of power and then drop to 7-9mil of power (that's about 30% loss from 11-13mil) after 2-3 attacks.
--Yeah, you will lose that much net power (NP) in units’ NP.
--Since you're land-skinny and oversummoned, you won't be toothless after some whacking.

So, go for it!
--Use Ash or Web if you can in waiting for the 3rd attack to better your odds of not losing lands.
--"Spiderman 3 wannabe!"

Also, around 2,600 to 3,000, you should try BW, Ash, or Web in combination BL, BC, and Sun’s accuracy favor.
--With top Doms gone, high stacked Lich should be okay.

With BL on offense, you will likely get a thorough disbanding of your stacking if you get BL through.
--Against blues, your BL may be reflected upon your enemy’s units, which often help you:D
--You can disband this way in attacking for lands and lessen your chances of losing your heroes in mass disbanding, if you heroes is buddy up with Lich or some heavy stack and do not get unlucky.

As you move beyond 2500ish of lands and into the 10mil+ powers, you have some options that you might want to consider taking and prioritizing:
--Saving turns in re-summoning
--Strengthen your stacking.

To save turns you can start using Night of the Living Dead (NLVD), which costs only 20,000mp and 1 turn, with Lucifer’s +10% summoning bonus (god’s favor) to supplement your re-summoning needs and by building more than 299 workshops. With Lucifer’s favor, you can get either: ~11,000 zomb, ~89lich/vamps, ~4,500 shadows, and ~1,000 wraiths from the spell. With vamp, lich, wraiths, and HD’s, you will need more pop to avoid a pop spiral. Don’t be greedy with NLVD if you worry about disbanding with heroes.

To strengthen your stacking you might want to incorporate more defensive and moderately offensive units. On the ground, you have either Unholy Reavers (UR’s) or hydras. In the air you have vampires (if you haven’t been bitten all ready).

The problem is your pop upkeep!
--Keeping mind the lich, HD’s, wraiths, & DEM costs and effects in pop, you really can not really have them ALL.

--UR’s are most costly because you can easily summon 35-42 of them per casting.
Your pop needs to be sound and favored by Nature before you start summoning them.
You also might need to get rid of some HD’s, wraiths (likely all), and vamps (likely all) and then summon UR.

--Disbanding UR’s requires pillaging mages to kill off the UR’s down to 15 to 20ish.
If you’re feeling good, then attack and go for lands and disband that way.
They were meant to be disbanded this way.
Your pop is key.

--Once you have your UR’s, you can get Wraiths, lich, and vamps easily and cheaply obtained from NLVD.
Disband all disbandable units from NLVD if you do use the spell to get the undead units.
Don’t get greedy in using it--stop using it immediately if you have 1900 wraiths or 100-150 vamps because wraiths and vamps are difficult to stack mid to low.
Wait till you have more pop to really use it more often.

--Considering your pop, avoiding getting a stack of UR’s (20-26) might be better! Once you're used to black, got for it and them with Monkey Brain (MB) and melee-modifying and boosting spells, like Foul Water (FW [+33% 1'AP%]) or Flameblade (FB [+9% 1'AP & 3% Accuracy]). See Supering Up: Heroes for battle details... (sooner or later).
--"Hey! You thief!"

In which case, you are using the previous stack (see below), though with more flexibility because by now you have not seen top doms your way.

--Don’t forget about Nature's favor! It's the best! Pop-manipulation determines everything for blacks.
It greatly helps so much with pop manipulations, especially later on with more lands and when you're still having pop manipulation issues.
Get it to have more room for errors in pop-management.

Try UR’s out though.
--UR are not over-powering by default, except against UR, Efreeti, and HD) and tend to be as durable as Efreeti, especially when stacked 3rd or below. When comboed they can be over-powering.
--It might be better to get them when you have build up more farms and towns (around 2800 acres) and only after you have disbanded some of your HD’s and Lich, disbanded most or all of your vamps (the wraiths will die on their own). However, as you become comfortable with your pop and attacking to disband heayv popeaters, UR's become just another stack to use and disband in attack.
--Have around 300-400 djinni if you want to keep high and away from Lich. See combo details if you want to deal with Lich using UR's.
--Disbanding of UR depends on luck and target selection (prefer super skinny, UNDERSTANDING blacks who are probably stacking zombs for ~5-8UR killed, and then whites/greens/blues/blacks/reds~12-17+URs). --After killing off some of your UR’s (if needed), summon up Djinni on top of them.

Don’t stay predictable in stacking.

1st: Djinni
2nd: UR’s (~22+) or Lich………......Lich is preferred.
That’s a lot of Lich, which might require no Vamp, HD, and/or wraith.
With HD and wraith, you’re be pushing it, even with Nature’s Favor.
With Vamp, you’re gearing for pop-spiral. Rapid disbanding and 3 whips wines are needed. 3rd: Lich or UR’s
4th: Efreeti (700 and no more!)/Lich
5th: Efreeti/ HD’s
6th: Medusa/ HD’s/ Sylphs
7th: Salamander (geld expensive)/ Vamp/ Nymphs (from market!!)
8th: DEM
9th-10th: etc...

Battle Lust (if you feel like it)
or Giant Strength, Stun, and Paralyze=) (if you don't)

Incorporating UR Variations
1st: HD's
2nd: Lich
3rd: UR
4th: djinni
5th: efreeti
6th-10th: You decide
Brooch/ Web/ Ash/ Carpet (You decide)

Battle Lust/ Flame Blades/ Stun/ Blood Curse, Giant Strength/ Foul Water (You decide)
--Do use flame blade only if the SAME greens keep on attacking.

Don’t forget.
Staring around 2600 and especially, beyond 2700, you NLVD to supplement your re-summoning or grabbing quick units for attack run.

Also, staring around 2700 acres, limit the numbers of efreeti to 700-1,000 to keep them in the mid to low stacking. If you're often fizzling, just keep a lower numbers of them ~600-700.
--At the mid section and higher they won’t last as long and are just too costly to resummon, considering fizzling.
--Re-summoning can be VERY painful if your spell fizzles for Summon Efreeti 3-4x.
--If you fizzle, cast something successfully once and then try casting again. You can’t afford that many Efreeti anyway without losing your diversification. Stick with 600-700 once you are not attacked as much and move into using more black units and NLVD.
--If Doms are attacking again, get rid high (2nd or higher) Vamps or Djini, switch the top stacked HD's, place the djinni where 3rd or 4th, and DON'T use Battlelust because heavy Dom whites tend to be all flyers.
--"Can you beat AA/Dom/Pegs+THL?"

=Units Used for BL and Info=

Salamander (7-11%; ~900 summoned:^/)
--Used 4th or lower or else.
--Great against "fat" greens who target black w/ mainly top-ground treants and mandrakes b/c such green mages won't have enough low stacks to engage w/ ur low salamanders.
--Keep behind HD's to be protected from mid-stacked titains.
--On offense, great for targetting top-grounded levi and most blue units.
--Slow or Web, however, will render them unless.

efreeti (15%-19%; ~200 summoned)
--Used as 2nd, 3rd, or 4th units for enemy's ground units to hit.
--Can tolerate all white units hit and green ultimates’ hits.
--W/ brouch of protection can absorb treefolks easily.
--Great when placed low (5th or lower) to wipe out mass green lower units
--Ssecondary attack might not be used against something else if 1AP kill everything
--Can beats titan in 1on1 match up.
--Only unit, beside Lich, to survive getting smacked by EE or Nix.
--Killed by UR and can kill UR with boosted 1AP FIRE Ranged.
--Hurt by Treefolks and MR.

Unholy Reaver (UR's) (+20-25%; 36-42 summoned)
--Used as the 1 or 2st ground units for enemy's ground units to hit.
--Mainly to tolerate white ground units and treefolks.
--Keep mid stack and behind Djini, Lich, HD, and or Efreeti around mid-stacking.
--Otherwise, can be easily targeted by top Lich or RD's, FE, chimera, and or heavy Efreeti.
--Disband on skinny mages to lower # summoned to manage more easily.
--Only 16-25 UR are usually needed. Re-attaining similar number can be problematic.
--Use stackulator to see who UR will fit in w/ the other stacks.
--Easily killed by Nixs and EE or by treefolks if Rusted.

Zombie --Can't do much offensively, even with poison/fire-modified melee.
--Blocks UR and anything with paralyse, poison, or psychic very well due to resistance and chucky HP.
--Can tolerate units with low AP/NP ratio till they powerup their attack (vallor, spell, etc... i.e. blocks lich till they power up and/or get better efficiency:P)
--Basically anti-black stacking
--Seemingly durable as a 4th or lower ground unit (10%) against other color
--Used to buffer up ranking and disbanding to power down

Hydras (~460 summoned)
--UR’s alternative replacement…sort of.
--Naturally tolerate mandrakes (treant do more than moderate-high damage on regular),
--Great against Titan and other white units (THL’ed uni too; Holy weaken Magic attack)
due to “scales/regen/and health”
--Can out damage SW, KT, and titan in a 1on1 match in the moderate range
--Should not be used with BL and 3rd ground units
--EE is usually stacked as the 3rd ground unit in attacking green army…
--Die to heavy fire, psychic, and magic attacker.

lich (15-20-30+%) --Used as 1st or 2nd ground units for enemy's ground units to hit.
--1st if greens are attacking; 2nd if white are attacking more often.
--Can absorb treefolks best because UR's no longer have any spell resistance to Verdant spell (rust armour)
--Can do moderate-high damage against Nixs.
--With UM can easily hurt RD if Oil or Stun is not used against Lich.
--With Hero’s efficiency bonus, can easily hurt Chim with secondary Magic Ranged.
--Can be top stacked if you don't see whites above you and used in mass.
--Avoid matchup with Efreeti against reds.

Djinni
--Used to lower lich top.
--Heavily damaged by Nixs and Doms.
--Can tolerate Efreeti attack.
--Can hurt EE (Weakness to Lighting) and MR (20% Lighting R= Poison R)
--Killed by Wraith… Heavy or heavy Magic, Poison, and Paralyse units.

Vamps:
--Used to protect Slyphs and Wraith from ranged units.
--Blocks MR, Lich, WE, and Treefolks very well.
--Killed by Nixs, EE, Doms, chimera, RD, and IE.
--No Verdant spell resistance (Got Call Huricane?)

Mind Rippers (MR)
--Can actually hurt Doms and SWs
--Kill Efreeti and Chim (avoid 1on1 matchup)
--Can tolerate most white units, except Titan
--Can beat WE but not other elementals, which is just odd.

Dark Elf Magician (DEM)
--Need 20-40 barracks and recruiting setting of 9,999,999,999
--Cheaper Fatiguing unit than MR's till more lands become available
--Can be costly in upkeep at higher numbers (6,000+).

Horned Demon (HD's)
--Overall useful unit like Efreeti
--Black version of Mandrakes offensively and Uni/SW defensively.
--Great with Soul Reaver or Dread Knight
--Can kill Dom, AA, Titan, Nix, and MR well.

Medusa (10%-15%)
--Can push down non-ranged units
--Can hurt Lich and Efreeti
--Stacked lower. br>

Wraith --Powerful offensive units.
--With coverage from vamps and/or djini, won’t die as much.
--Deadly gainst most white units (except SW's, unicorns, and doms) and Djini and AE.

Nasty Countering

Playing as a black mage is easier without hero(es).
--With just one, you are okay and just need is to get that hero to stick with your Lich to avoid stackwipe against non-whites (usually). The hero can stick with HD too, just stacked HD behind Lich or used Brooch.
--With many, you’re more conservative in attacking to disband and countering: pillage
--Always counter and disband on your attackers.

Don't be at a disadvantaged by not knowing what the attacker stack on defense so that you can come up with better attacking stack next time.

Be careful against whites because you will need to stack Lich low.
--NOW, If you're feeling NASTY, throw in a Head of Medusa (Head) or some spell (like Graze of Death/ Disintegrate) to ruin your attacker's stacking.
Against Greens, Head or Disintegrate will more likely head than Graze of Death. If they hit, ultimates, then the counter/disband is more than worth it.
--"You ain't that lucky! If you are, shouldn't you be playing the lottery, instead of TR?"

Mage Maintenances: Items, Barriers, Country’s Setup, Disbanding, Re-summoning, and Black Addict’s MP Charging

The items----different set of items----are very important and should be collected in numbers per run.
MS, brooch, and BW are usually cheap.
--So, you can easily amass them all together at affordable prices.

Without items you are handicapped with your choices of stacking, especially at 2,000 acres of lands.
--With items you can get a more solid defense because you can limit your vulnerablity to certain unit-unit match-ups.

Hence, why not always use item (even if you’re low on geld)!

--Don't just leave your item setting blank!
--If you have the geld (like when not using Salamanders), then get the better, more expensive ones: Web, Ash, Candle, Carpet.
--Don't let inflation ruin your money;D
--Try to buy a bunch of one item on one run, the next bunch of another item on the next, and alternate your stacking and setup accordingly to the item on the next day round or not. The choice is yours.

Country’s setup is straight forward.
--299 WS and more (340ish and more) as you grow or expect to lose some lands
--10-20 Guilds
--20-30 Barracks for DEM

--Barriers
More important than item is your barriers.
You should have close to or full barrier for a 73-75% chance of blocking spell and item individually.
They simply give you a chance to defend.

--Nodes (See Black Sabbath & Suggested Nodes)

--Rest in Farms and Towns till Residency and Food Production value matches

--Spells:
Black Sabbath (BS)

• 30% to 45% Holy Resistance Bonus to UNDEADS & DEMONS only. Details of Holy Resistence given by Black Sabbath [8].
• gives only ~ +3,000-3,500mp on average in addition to mp from nodes.
  
• Without BS 3,485acres & 1,483 nodes: 10,062mp…
• With BS, same settings: 12,595 to 13,755 to 14,478 mp
  

Average difference is about 3,500mp…
This means you will need more nodes as you gain more acres.

--at 2000 acres(~30-35%)
--at 2500 acres(~35-40%)
--at 3000 acres(~35-42%)
--at 3500 acres(~40-45%+)
--at 4000 acres(~40%-45%+)
--at 4500 & + acres(~45-50%)
The question is: pop or mana? Pop usually wins;)

Touch of Necromancy

• Useful with UM (Zomb, Wraith [UM10]; Lich[UM15?])
• A small percentage (~3.8%) of the NUMBERS of your enemy’s dead units become your undeads
• The more units you killed the more units you get;D

Concentration

• Less fizzling
• Get Magic’s Favor and then cast if possible

Battle Chant

• Does not seem to increase with increased SL. See Wiki…
• +16% 1AP and -5% HP

Disbanding for black mages often means attacking to get lands or just to disband.
--There is no other way to get rid of pop-eaters.
--Undisbandable units were meant to die in battles.

Hence, in order to mp charge like other colors, you seemingly need to:
--Strip yourself of your pop eaters for at least a low negative.
--Positive mana income of 1-500+mp is preferred.

• 1500+mp if you’re aiming to do a mass charge and mass disbandingbr>

--Avoid losing too many efreeti, since they can be too costly to summon, due to possible spell fizzling.

--& MORE importantly, a positive pop income of at least 300-500+ pop and some whips of the 3 tails.

You should commit to mp charging then only.
--Get moon’s favor for a 10% boost in mp production if you have many nodes.

• Otherwise, Nature’s food production bonus might more attractive in allowing you to more quickly recover from pop loss after your run (& killing pop eaters).

Re-summoning options should be explored thru Gauging Summoning Efficiency.
--Turn Focused Ratio:
Summoned Unit NP per Casting Turn
High ratio means good for saving turn(s) in powering up.
Examples: Whatever from NLVD, UR’s, HD…

--Mana Focused Ratio:
Summoned unit's NP per Casting Mp
High ratio means good for saving mana in powering up
Examples: Whatever from NLVD, Lich, Vamp, HD, Djini…


Compare with you own colored units’ summoning to decide what values are high…

--Mana and Turn Focused Ratio
NP/MP per Casting Turn
Examples: HD, Medusa…
HD and Medusa are then good units for powering in terms of turns and mana…

With Damage protection, you can also take additional advantages of Sabbath and/or moon’s favor by mp charging per turn to get an extra 1000mp per turn.
--Sadly, YES, you’re mp charging per turn. Yes, you're that bored and addicted to TR!:D
--If not then, how about mp charging every two turns? C'mon?
--The mp you get is random when charging.

• For some reason, you can get more mana doing per turn charging for some amount of turns (3-4) than you do when charging all (3-4 turns) at once...
• Call it a short term effect that can be extended in multiple short mp charging.

Overall, as you can see, a black's run seem to be for the sake of maintenances. This will require around 150 turns. Re-summoning usually can take from 40-50 turns for more off color units or 30-40 turns mainly for on-color units. NLVD is eventually heavily used to supplement wraiths, vamps, and lich. At UM Lvl 10, Touch of Necromancy will come in handy in re-supplying wraiths based on the NUMBERS of enemy units killed.

Attacking-Disbanding

Like mentioned before, with black units, you can't instantly disband, like greens, whites, reds, and blues, but can STILL disband by attacking via pillages, regulars, or siege. The problem with running heavy pop eaters (mp and pop upkeeps and charging with such mp and pop weights) is then solved. You just gotta attack. Those oncolor, indisbandable units have to be killed off. If you're more defensive in mind, consider attacking, in general, for blacks, is maintaince. Mass mp-charging with a positive mp income, like other colors, is then possible. In the 2300 to 3000 acres range, you can get to a +1000 to +2000 or more mp income and still be able to resummon what's lost and further summon for more NP. With 150 turns you can comfortably drop to +1000mp of mana income and oversummon if you're new to black and its units.

This doesn't happen all the time. Still, attacking in damage protection is where black mage can rob lands safely from randoms and even bottom feed, which is pretty neat and a golden oppertunity for blacks.
, , , , and --Actually, you can only somewhat safely feed. Why? It's payback time! Counter!

--If you are lucky to be damaged and have an intact army core (Lich, Efreeti, and 2-3 other units), what you can do to establish your army, like previously with teeth, is:

• mp charge for a few turns
  
• summon non-pop-eating units
  
• bid some items or whatever to recover some pop freed up from the loss of some of your pop-eater
  
• use Night of the Living Dead (NLVD) to grab some Vamps, Wraiths, or Lich in a quick amount of turn.
  
• pump out some HD’s, sylphs, and sprites and go attack reds, blues, and greens after adjusting your stack per attack.
  

Before you hunt, get Sun’s accuracy favor or Lucifer’s primary AP boost (& summoning boost) if you don’t have Nature or Moon’s favor all ready.
--As you hunt, you grab some more units from NoLD, summon the cheap units, and re-adjust again.
--You then continue to attack and repeat till you are ready to mp charge, over summon, and end your run.




In terms of your mage's setup, Nature's favor is supreme. It fits your needs: faster pop recovering rate and high geld income. Plus, Nature and Moon get along 75% of the time (assumptions based on Wiki's Gods Chart);D. Once you have a healthy pop income (just in case you get disfavored by Nature, get Moon's favor and then mp charge or continue mp charging. If you mana-full and feeling lucky, you can also go for Lucifer's favor, which is can be difficult to get in practice.

In terms of summoning, NLVD is Black's blessing. Not only should you try to incorporate NLVD into your run but also in re-summoning.
--The easiest way to do so is to attack and slowly kill off or just disband most or all of your Wraith and Vamps.
--Set up/recover/amass up your pop and then use NLVD.
--Disband the Zombs and Shadows if you intend to go into Damage.

• Keep the Wraith, Vamps, and Lich, if you're don't want Zombies.
• Zombies become useful in defending against black and behind Lich. 10-13% of them is usually safe.
• With more lands you can afford to stack more Wraiths, Vamps, and Lich. NLVD can then provide you with some (Lich), most (Vamps), or all Wraiths of the mentioned units. If you can zombies, at least on defence, you're basically using everthing from NLVD.

• Beware. Wraiths and vamps will float to the top stacking very fast if you don't plan to alter our stacking thru summoning and keep using NVLD.

Attacking & Disbanding Targets and Stacking

To stretch out your attack run, attack some blues, especially. --They are unpredictable but don’t deal that much damage to your lich and Efreeti (MR’s do kill Efreeti). --IE and WE can easily kill your UR and Djini. --IE blasts Vamps.

Template:Blues
1st: Vamps/ Djinni/ Lich……………Got top vamps and want disbanding? Go blue.
2nd: Lich/Djinni
3rd: Vamps/HD’s……………………Light enough to hover above Efreeti
4th: Vamps/HD’s (light)/ Efreeti
5th: Efreeti
6th: Vamps
7th: Salamander
8th: Medusa
Etc

--The top lich are really just aiming for top djinni.
*This stacking will usually be used as red targets are no where to be found.
*You’re really hunting RD’s or FE with top lich.
*If not top-lich is not preferred, go w/ a top but very light stacking of djinni or vamps.
*Any good offensive matchups from Djinni, Lich, HD’s, and Vamps would be great.

• The real teeth of the attack will probably come from low, mid, or high stacked Efreeti, low stacked Salamander (targeting Leviathans and elementals), and your folder-killing units.
  
• Slow, however, will neutralize salamander and HD's.
• Without slow or web, salamander will usually be super amazing against levi and grounded elementals.

If Siege doesn’t work, go Regular.


Against Mono Djini, which you can sometime tell, cast Sleep, use more wraith, replace Salamander with a MR, and do regular.

Template:Reds
1st: HD
2nd: Lich
3rd: Efreeti/Djinni
4th: Efreeti/Djinni
5th: Wraith/Vamps
6th: Vamps/Wraith
7th: Sylphs (Sylphs should be used if you think the reds are deep stacked.)
7th –8th-10th Medusa/Salamander/DEM/Sprite

--Sprite are preferred for fatigue, so you can Leave the DEM behind. --HD’s is the best unit to take hit from RD’s w/out using any item.

• Lich will still target top RD’s and are there to absorb chimera attack (best unit to do so, unless oil and FB is involved).
• Efreeti is to take on red’s Efreeti/Hydras.
• Vamps are there to absorb any ranged unit’s attack away from wraiths if the stacking is in order.
  • Other units are there to do damage to hydras and other grounded units.

You can also just use top lich if you like and bump HD’s below or above efreeti. --Just make sure to have sprites and a denser stacking of Lich, Efreeti, and Wraith:
1st: Lich
2nd: Efreeti/HD's
3rd: HD's/Djinni/Vamps for coverage of wraiths
4th: Wraiths
5th: HD’s/etc
… …


Against heavy top Efreeti with BC, go top Vamp, Lich 2nd, get 400-600 MR’s and/or 10ish UR (if you have the pop), and regular.

Template:Greens (at 8mil-12mil)
1st: Vamps/Lich/HD’s…………………………….Prefer top Lich
2nd: Lich/Vamps
3rd: Djinni
4th: UR’s/Efreeti
5th: Wraith/HD’s/UR’s
6th: Vamps (enough to lower efreeti)/Efreeti
7th: Efreeti/Vamps
8th: Salamander
9th-10th: Medusa/HD’s/DEM

--HD’s usually get disbanded in matchup against trees and nixs.
--Attacking= wanting to disband too, esp. against greens and oil/stun wielding reds. --Treants are too tough to kill in numbers.

• So, you’re targeting the other units.
• Starting at 9mil of power, greens trend to have many other units.
• You’re aiming for those other units.
• Call hurricane is often used.
• So, ideally you don’t encounter rust armour or sword of light.
• The top units of greens is what could make things painfully—losing many efreeti.
• Top lich aim for nixs or to absorb top treants.
• Top HD’s is to get 2nd stacked lich to aim at nix, getting 2nd stacked treants to hit lich, and for dying.
• UR’s is to absorb mandrakes and treants attacks.
• Low salamander is to target treants of green with few stacking.
• Everything else is there to do damage to folders.

Template:Whites

Whites tend to go with all flyers: AA and Dom. You can attack the ground-stacking one if you want, though you might have to look for one thru pillages and good record keeping.
--Just bump lich and vamps down to about mid-stacking stacking.
--Do get rid of vamps if that would help with your pop!

1st: HD’s/Djinni/UR’s (avoid djinni if you think expect to see top Dom’s, AA, pegs)
2nd: UR’s/HD’s/Djinni
3rd: Djinni/HD’s/UR’s/Efreeti
4th: HD’s/Efreeti/Lich/Wraith
5th: Efreeti/Wraith/Medusa/Lich
6th: Medusa/Sylphs
7th: Salamanders/Sylphs
Etc…

--Top Demons are there to prevent getting the other units in matching with top Dom.
--Djinni are there to attack SW and Unicorn and mainly to bump down Efreeti, Lich, Wraith, Vamps, and Sylphs. UR’s is there to go after SW too. --HD’s, wraiths, and sylphs are there to go after titian. Medusa, HD’s, wraith, and salamanders are there to go after KT’s and white fodders.

Sometime you just want to disband.
--Pillage is the safest way to disband.
--Regular or siege if you need to get disband multiple units; send in the Lich/Vamps/Wraiths/HD/UR’s together for a quick overall disband of your black pop-eaters.
--You can still also gain land if you risk losing your overall stacking more by selecting certain targets, depending on how your stacks can be move around. --Blues are the best targets in not getting your units banged up, though not always the case:)

Attack Frequency Trend

As you may notice, the high you go up, the lesser times you get attacked.
--After 10-12mil of power (assuming you are playing from the beginning of reset), whites tend to not use heavy doms and rely more on ground units.
--Doms are the toughest units to deal with if you don’t want to use HD’s and UR’s high.
--Against white grounders, you have a better chance of defending if you pack in more wraiths mid stack and get low stacking HD’s and medusa via outdamaging attacking whites.
--Wraiths and low stacked HD’s and medusa can hurt whites more than expected.
--Accept that some lich will be kill in numbers, and that Lich are needed against other colors in defending and attacking.
--Fewer greens (esp. the same ones) will attack you; you can end their attack run with Battle Lust. --
Their ranged set units are very vulnerable to your mid stacked ranged sets.
--Plus, you keep using brooch, and devils can really hurt or at least, seem like it to them.


Eventually, you get attacked twice at most, which is--so odd.
--Take advantage of the situation and gain lands and make room for mind rippers (MR’s) once you get the lands.
--Until you reach 13-16mil of power with 3650-3850 lands, you may or may not want to use Battle Lust for defense.
--Once you do reach the 15+ mil of power and around 3700 acres, you need to get the good items--ash, carpet, or web--in order to use battle lust and become damaged without losing lands.
--Battle Lust gets difficult to use because you can drop from 14mil of power to 9mil of power, be very land fat in one successful defensive stand, and not be in protection or not long enough for you to come back to your mage and play.
--It’s better just to lose power gradually with around 3650acres.
--This way you still have an intact army to defend, even with everything moving around.
--Additionally, don't forget to get MR’s and lose the vamps if you need to. --GET MR's!

Battlelust Alternatives

White Knockoff Binding Flash + Mist Defense
Throw Swift and/or Fear units in (-10% or -15% accuracy).
+Mist (-10% running total= -20% or -25%)
+Hope your attacker siege, instead of regular (-30% or 35%)
+Sleep/Paralyze/Stun/Bloodcurse/Fog
+NO BC!!

Trends in units noticed:
Vamps can now tolerate most flyers' attacks, except Dom.
Efreeti seem to benefit the most, overall.
UR’s still kill UR’s easily.
Lich still die in numbers to white ultimates, though less against THL’ed Uni and SW.
HD still die to Treant on regular, though not so much on siege. HD become black unicorns with Mist and is the second unit to benefit from mist.
Fog seem to hurt you more than the enemy. Paralyze, Stun, Bloodcurse, Doubletime, Gravity Pull (if you got 140,000mp[x])...

Mini-Battlelust Defense
Use BL-stackings with BC Giant Strength, instead of BL, + Brooch/Bubble/Web

Supering Up: Heroes

--Soul Reaper Lvl+15 (or/& Dread Knight) for HD

• Efficiency bonus.
  
• Soul Devour +4% HP&1AP and weakens enemy's Chim/HD/Wraith...etc (see Nether Spell R)
  
• Needs Flameblade +9% 1AP & +3% Accuracy
  
• Don't forget! HD is weak against Treant and UR's. Don't gamble. Use Brooch or Ash. If you do, then toss in Oil and stack HD behind Lich, UR, zomb*(*against UR)...
  
• God's Favor: Lucifier, Sun, or Nature*(*pop upkeep)
  

With Ash and bonuses to efficiency, 1AP, and accuracy, HD can be an overwhelming unit against enemy units that weren't before...Levi, Lich, UR's, uni, mandrakes, and somewhat againt SW. Treants still a threat unless mostly killed off.


--Soul Reaper for UR

• need more HP
  
• Both demon-leading heroes tend to be relatively safe if stacking undeads above them.

--Illusionist

• for MR combo (+efficiency bonus +more Damage)

Undead Heroes

• Lich can do heavy, instead of just moderate damage, to chim via efficiency bonus and stronger 1AP.

--Valor Heroes for 1AP bonus.

• Boost HD up more.

--Expensive Heroes work too:D

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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