About Magebombs
Ever since I put up my war2 strategy guide, I have had a lot of people comment to me about the short section I have on magebombs in the spells part. It seems a lot of people have fallen victim to my magebombs, and yet few have been able to duplicate them, as I see it. I am the only person I know who regularly uses blizzard to my mass advantage, so I thought I'd devote a page to this destructive tactic.
Magebombs were invented early in the days of Kali, not over the internet but over the modem. MadDawg and I were playing a game on my Blow Stuff Up pud (see my pud page for this pud) and we had the units on a scale like you've never seen before. It was a 2 player game and I'm fairly sure we both about hit the unit limit. During this game I discovered the power of invisibility, and the two of us stumbled upon a strategy which works quite well for mages --- if we sent a lone mage into a group of enemies, and he casted blizzard on himself, he would die -- but he would take a lot of enemies with him! From there, the magebomb has been refined to this:
How to pull a Magebomb
Step 1: Target Acquisition
The first step is to find a suitable group of enemies. What you are looking for is any group of troops, knights, ogres, footmen, grunts, even archers and axethrowers. It helps if they are tightly packed together, and they must be stationary. If the enemy is controlling them, then it won't work. You can, however, magebomb units on patrol. When you find the group (hopefully with fliers) you want to get until they are just on the edge of your mage's vision, so they can't see you, and proceed.
Step 2: Set the Trap
Next, you want to set the trap, by casting blizzard on yourself. Don't wait too long before going to the next step, but you want to let the blizzard build up to a small amount of intensity, and then proceed onto the next step.
Step 3: Bait the Trap
To bait the trap, all you have to do is quickly cast a blizzard on the opposing troops. This gets the troops to charge (if they don't just leave the blizzard on them and they will die anyway), and then you want to cast blizzard back on your mage. You just hit "b", click on the enemy troops, hit "b" very quickly again and click near your mage again. You will cast 1 blizzard on the enemies, and they will charge directly into the blizzard you have already built up.
Step 4: The Kill
Now, you are all set. You cast the blizzard near you again, and you have a bunch of units charging your mage, and dying. Your mage gets whacked, but your enemies get nailed worse. Mages cost 1200 gold; knights cost 800 each, and 100 lumber to boot. If you kill 2 knights, you've cost your enemy 1600 gold and 200 lumber, and only lost 1200 gold yourself. And quite often, you kill more than that. My record is about 15 before ... that was a sight to see. I cost my enemy 12,000 gold and 1500 lumber just for my 1200. What a sight.
Step 5: The Attack
This is what happens after a magebomb. Even if those last couple of units survive, they will be hurt badly, and fall underneath your immediate land attack. To maximize the effeciency of your magebombs, coordinate them with attacks from knights, and blitzkrieg into your enemy's town before they know what hit them. Believe me, this works. USE IT!
Blizzard is a powerful tool. Most people truly don't use it to its potential.
Also, it should be noted that deathknightbombs can be done as well. I don't like them as much, as with mages I don't have to worry about being exorcised, but death and decay is the exact same spell as blizzard.
The mage should be at full mana in order for this to work correctly, although he doesn't have to be. I would recommend at least 175 mana, however. This is not hard to get.
Magebombs can counter bloodlust; a bloodlusted ogre dies just as quickly as a non-lusted ogre.
For archers, you shouldn't cast the blizzard directly in front of you, but rather about 5 paces away. The reasons for this should be obvious.
If the enemy has flying machines around, and isn't allowing your mages to get close, use invisibility. That way you can sneak up in secret.
If you have an extra mage around, use slow on the enemies. This can increase your kills dramatically.
Don't become addicted to magebombs. If you're facing only 3-4 enemy units then just send in your knights -- slow the enemy if you want to. You use mages to reduce dramatic numbers of enemy troops.
If your enemies have any troops BEHIND a wall-in, or a bank of trees, or a river .. whatever .. cast blizzard directly on them, and they won't be able to charge, but they won't run, either. This way you can take out crazy numbers of enemies.
