Re: Legends - combat vs monsters

From: griffith@fx.com (Jim Griffith)

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1993 18:13:45 +0000

dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick) writes:

>Hi,

>I'm about to hit a rather nasty dragon who is my first monster.  I
>have the following question:

>He is set to raid any force with more than 20 soldiers.  Does this
>mean that I'll have to fight him twice (once when he raids me, and
>again which I conquer his lair)?  I really want to avoid this - the
>first battle will be easy, as I'll have 5 single soldiers in my front
>slots to absorb his (large) special attack and also his battle spell.
>However if I have to fight him a second time he will do his special
>attack and magic on real slots before he runs away, causing
>significant damage (SA1350, spell = firestorm at unknown level).

The short answer is "yup".  However, if you can guarantee of wounding him
enough in the first battle so that he would run away before combat in a
second battle, then you can defeat him using two forces.  Take your main
army and break off 15 or so soldiers into a second force (keeping in
mind that the game *may* considers characters to be "soldiers" towards
determining encounter orders, whether or not they're in slots).  Have your
main army move in with no encounter or force military orders.  Assuming
the dragon sights him, he'll attack and your army will chew him up.  Also
move your second army in, which will not trigger encounter orders.  If the
dragon is seriously wounded, and if you attack with the second force, then
he will get off one round, toast one slot, then retreat and you'll win.

There are some caveats, of course.  Unlike for characters, monsters will *not*
automatically retreat at 50% wounds.  There is a chance, based on how wounded
they are, that they will break.  If you only take the dragon to 60% wounds in
your combat, then there's a good chance that he'll be alive enough to chop
your dinky army to chutney.  But if you spread out the soldiers - 1 in every
front slot and all 8 slots filled, then you have a good chance of making him
break just by surviving enough rounds.  You can also increase your chances
by getting a duel spell big enough to wound the dragon by 5% or so in the
magic round, but, of course, you risk getting that character chopped to
chutney.

And even if you fail, your main army is sitting safely in the same province
as him.  On your next turn, you can reconfigure your main army with single
soldiers in the front slots again and hit him without triggering encounter
orders (you will only trigger encounter orders on entering the province).

Jim

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Jim Griffith  /--OO--\     | Two great powers are on our side: the power of
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References

Legends - combat vs monsters
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Sun, 27 Jun 1993 19:14:12 +0000