[Dom3]Guide to communions - help/critique sought

[koz]

Hai again folks. I've recently started playing Dom3 again after an extended (and uni-enforced) absence, and remembered this guide that I started, but never finished. I'll post it here for people to look over/critique/yell at me. Please give me all the constructive criticism you can - I want this to be a useful community resource.

Oh. Well then. That's like +3-4 to all paths, yeah? That would be a hell of a lot more efficient than buffing the leader up to the point where they can...cast buff spells. Might as well let the communion do all the buffing unless the goal is to reverse communion a bunch of smaller mages with power of the spheres and whatnot.

That would've had me dropping lightning all over the place on turn 2 instead of turn 5. Definitely an improvement, and one I'll have to consider in the future.

The main thing I was concerned about there is fatigue distribution, but having reread the way that works the reason for using 15+ dudes is even clearer.

OK, I'm gonna try and put down some of Baalz's theory on communions in a way that doesn't read like a wall of text written by a dyslexic missing about 10 days of sleep.

Communions

A communion is a bit like Voltron - you're taking lots of smaller casters, and turning them into one big functioning unit. However, in this way, it's also like baking a cake - you have to follow some basic rules about proportions, ingredients and so forth, or the cake won't rise or taste good. Similarly, communions have some basic principles that you wanna follow, with some scope for variation.

The basics

Communions can be broadly divided into two kinds - true communions and sabbaths. The two are interchangeable, and function on the same mechanics, but require slightly different setups and enable slightly different options. They are built around four key spells - for the former, Communion Master and Communion Slave, and for the latter, Sabbath Master and Sabbath Slave. Each 'master' and 'slave' spell is equivalent - the game treats them as the same thing, accessed differently. These spells, when cast, create links between the casters that cast them, and designate them into roles, specifically those of master and slave.

So what the fuck does this actually mean? It means the following:

• Masters get a boost to the magic paths they have based on the number of slaves. 2 slaves give +1, and each doubling of slaves increases it by another +1 (so 4 slaves give +2, 8 give +3, and so on).
• Slaves get a boost to all paths, whether they have them or not, which is always +2.

Additionally, the way the fatigue from spellcasting is distributed among a communion is roughly as follows:

• If the master casts a spell, the amount of fatigue received by each slave is equal to what they would have gotten had they cast the spell themselves, divided by how many slaves there are.
• If a slave casts a spell, they take their fatigue normally.

Now, it pays to remember here that, while having higher paths than normal makes you take less fatigue (specifically multiplying the cost by 1/n+1, where n is the extra path rating over the minimum needed), this applies in reverse too: so if your slaves don't have enough path rating to cast something, they receive more fatigue (specifically n times more, where n is the amount they're missing in terms of path rating). Even when this is divided over the whole communion, this can be rather dangerous.

Communions also have some other neat features:

• If a master casts a buff spell on himself, all masters and slaves in the communion get it too.

Communions By Type

Based on the above, there are a few variations on communions, which all do slightly different things. It's important to remember that these communions can't all be made with the same ingredients, or the same number of ingredients either - so pick one appropriate to what you want to do, as well as what you have to work with.

Standard Communion

This is your Joe-average, basic communion. This is designed to boost up the masters to do all the casting, and the slaves basically sit around and act as fatigue sponges.

Requires: A good starting point is 5 masters, 10 slaves, although more is better. Generally-speaking, this is the communion to build if you have 15 or more mages to work with.

Does well: There are a couple of massive, battlefield-wrecking spells (like Master Enslave) which require huge path ratings and have immense costs. Communions allow you to mitigate these costs, and potentially spam the shit out of them. It can also be used to spam other generically-good spells (like Falling Fires), but this requires a decent number of masters to be truly effective.

Does poorly: Needless to say, a communion of this type needs a decent volume of masters, or you're just gonna get overrun. You also need a good number of slaves to soak stray arrows. Having one master dedicated to buffing your team is probably not a bad call.

Reverse Communion

So called because the slaves do the casting, not the masters.

Requires: One or two masters, and at least four slaves (but more is better). This communion can be built on much lower resources - six mages is enough to get started.

Does well: If you have slaves with minor capabilities in a path (like F1, D1, or W1), this kind of communion can turn them into spell-spamming machines, as they get +2 to their paths regardless of communion size. You can use the masters as support artillery, or simply as buffing machines - both work equally well. In my experience, battle magic spam is best in large volumes, which these communions provide with greater ease.

Does badly: These kinds of communions have a bad tendency to die to fliers and archers, due to their small numbers. Although they can get going faster than standard communions (both in and off the field), they are also much more limited in what they can do. Lastly, slave quality is a key deciding factor here - if you have very good slaves with other path dips, you're good, but if you only have a bunch of S1 or B1 dorks, you won't manage much.

Linebacker Communions

These seek to take advantage of the buff-sharing capabilities of communions. So-called because of some American football placement thing which I don't give a fuck about - I'm mostly calling them that because that's what the community calls them.

Requires: One or two masters, and as many slaves as you wanna buff. Since these guys will be wading into a fight, pick ones which can - not an easy task.

Does well: Unlike the majority of communions, this one fights - and well. Combining the buffing power of mages with the better stats and armour of things that can actually sword-swing, these can be very, very deadly to your opponent. The fact that the masters can later provide some artillery backup is just gravy.

Does badly: Aside from the whole 'needing to find slaves who can fight' problem, linebacker communions suffer from the fact that slaves in this case get fatigue from more than one source - which can pile up fast. There's nothing as anticlimactic as having your super-buffed Voltron warriors keel over from fatigue loss. While you can mitigate for this, it takes the right kind of masters, the right kind of slaves, and the right spells - not always easy.

Sabbath

Not a separate type of communion per se, sabbaths are communions that are made using the Blood spells Sabbath Master and Sabbath Slave. They follow all the rules set out in the previous types, with one important exception - casting both of those spells requires a blood slave. This is something to keep in mind logistically, as well as on the field.

Getting Your Ingredients: Communion Mages

Dominions 3 has a shit-tonne of units, and you can be forgiven for thinking that finding the right ingredients is hard. Not to worry - here's some help. They're put in nation order alphabetically.

Early Age

Mystic (Arcosephale): Holy shit, what a jackpot. These guys make for amazing slaves, with a few making for very capable masters as well. Communions involving these guys do tend to become a scripting nightmare though - so keep this in mind.
Paths: S1 +1 FWES +0.5 F + 0.5 W + 0.5 E

Sauromancer (C'tis): Only one in four Sauromancers have the capability to join a communion, but when they do, they bring some serious death magic in there. The SD combination allows you to cast such gems as Nether Darts, and to cap it all off, they come with Nature too, which lets you potentially build up to Relief (and we're not even gonna mention Eagle Eyes, as it's so fucking obvious).
Paths: D3N1 +1.1 WSDN

Shaman (C'tis): These guys make for capable slaves, but aren't very good at casting anything themselves. They ideally need a master to back them up that has better paths. Lucky you have the Sauromancers.
Paths: S1N1

Augur (Ermor): Like the Mystics, these guys make for very capable, and cheap, communion slaves. They're less-than-awesome as masters, but even then, their access to fire can give you some useful capabilities (like Falling Fires).
Paths: F1S1

Augur Elder (Ermor): These guys make for amazing masters, having the FD combo built in (which means Bane Fire) along with the SD one (which means Nether Darts). Their randoms could also land them in Air (which means Thunder Strike or Orb Lightning). Did I also mention you can recruit these out of any fort? Just pure win all around.
Paths: F2S1D2 +1.1 FASD

Ba'al (Hinnom): For obvious reasons, these guys are on master-only duty - but man can they rock it. Basically, see all the Melquart stuff, and multiply it some, and then you have these guys.
Paths: B2H1 +3 FES +0.1 FESB

Kohen (Hinnom): Primarily a sabbath-user, these guys are a tad expensive, but can make for capable slaves thanks to their additional randoms. Also, linebacker communions are kinda cool with them - just saying. Since they have holy paths, you can also use communions or sabbaths to crank their holy up - which can be very handy.
Paths: B1H1 +1 FES

Melqart (Hinnom): As well as being generally awesome, Melquarts can lead some handy sabbaths. Ones with S can be pumped into Enslave Mind, ones with F can do all the cool Fire things, and ones with E can do big Blade Winds. While they're not as screamingly cool as Ba'als for this purpose, they can be used for that. Also, S and E ones cast some awesome buffs if you wanna lineback those Kohens.
Paths: B3H1 +2 FES

Yakshini (Kailasa): These lovely ladies come with lots of Water (which makes Falling Frost spam fun), but also have Nature and Holy, which means not only undead destruction on a mass level, but also Relief. Only one in four can participate, though, so keep that in mind - or just have an ES Yaksha forge you a Communion Matrix and go nuts.
Paths: W3N1H1 +1.1 WESN

Yogi (Kailasa): These guys make for cheap communion slave fodder, being monkeys. However, they bring very little to the table with their paths, meaning that their best strength is in numbers.
Paths: S1

Rakshasi (Lanka): Hoo boy, diversity. These lovely monkey ladies have a lot of options as sabbath masters. They kinda have the Mystic problem in that they can do about a zillion things, but for those who know their spell list, they can do some crazy cool stuff with sabbaths.
Paths: A1D1N1B1H1 + 1 ADNB +1.1 ADNB

Raktapata (Lanka): Cheap, holy, and available-everywhere, these guys make for good sabbath slaves. But that's about it.
Paths: B1H1

Mictlan Priest (Mictlan): Given that you want about a million of these anyway, they can be used quite effectively for sabbath slave fuel. If you're lucky enough to get a decent random on one, they could even lead a weak communion themselves.
Paths: B1H1 + 0.1 FWSN

Various Capital Priests (Mictlan): All of these can serve as good masters, depending on what you wanna do. Consider their paths and go from there.
Paths: Vary, but all contain at least B2

Mind Lord (R'lyeh): If you can get these oversized dorks out of the ocean, they make for good communion masters. Given that they potentially end up with S4 (1/4 of them), making them climb to Master Enslave is actually not that hard. Them being able to Teleport doesn't hurt either. If you get one with a Death random, enjoy your Nether Darts.
Paths: W3S3 + 1.1 WESD

Slave Mage (R'lyeh): These guys can leave the water (at the cost of 1 W), which is already a big deal. The fact that they have a variety of useful randoms, but come with Water as standard, makes them good slave material. If you end up with any W3s (and 1/4 will be), they can even make half-decent masters.
Paths: W2S1 + 1 WESN

Enarie (Sauromantia): These guys have the awesome SD combo for Nether Dart spam, and they also all get Nature just by existing, which means that buffs and Relief aren't too far away. All up, they can make communions work just by themselves - and they're recruit-anywhere. And people wonder why Sauromantia's so good...
Paths: S1D2N1

Middle Age

Astrologer (Arcosphale): Holy shit, S3 base Batman! If you're not Master Enslaving with these folks, I'm not sure who can. Since they also have some nice randoms, you can do fun things there too. And they teleport! Worth chucking in with Mystics for when you need to add win to your win.
Paths: S3 + 1.1 FWES

Mystic (Arcosephale): Everything said about these folks in the Early Era still applies here.

Rishi (Bandar Log): Again, S3 makes us happy, and the fact they also come with N2 and get a few handy randoms makes them solid communion masters.
Paths: S3N2 + 1.1 WESN

Yogi (Bandar Log): Everything said about these folks in the Early Era still applies here.

Marshmaster (C'tis): Only one in four of these guys can participate, but when they can, they rock. SD has its Nether Darts, and their access to Water gives them other good options too. These guys also get Nature, just in case you wanted more. Being recruit-anywhere doesn't hurt either.
Paths: W1D2N2 + 1.1 WSDN

Shaman (C'tis): Everything said about these folks in the Early Era still applies here.

Grand Thaumaturg (Ermor): These guys are like Thaumaturgs for communions, but on crack. With access to Air and Water occuring roughly one in four times, this can make for even more fun. However, a lot of the time, you'll probably just use them to make Longdead Horsemen in droves, and that's also fine.
Paths: S2D2H3 + 1.1 AWSD

Thaumaturg (Ermor): In case you get sick of conquering the world using hordes of undead, these guys can do fairly decent communions involving their SD combo.
Paths: S1D1H2

Grand Master (Marignon): These guys can be a bit of a challenge to get to the front lines, but they lead communions like nobody's business. Arguably, the S3 or A1 ones are the most useful, and if you lucksack into S4 or A2, you practically jump for joy, but even the others are still handy - and the FE combination can give you the various Magma spells, which is still damn good. The fact you can crank up their holy to cast crazy shit isn't something to forget either.
Paths: F3S2H2 + 1.1 FAES

Witch Hunter (Marignon): While a little expensive for what they do, these guys can make for decent enough communions. They can kill off undead with H3 spam, cast Falling Fires repeatedly, or just troll people with Phoenix Pyre suicide bombing if you're feeling retarded lately.
Paths: F2S1H1

Arch Theurg (Pythium): I can hear Marignon crying already. These guys are, simply-put, amazingly ridiculous communion masters, being able to do all the crazy communion stuff that you could probably want. They also Teleport as a basic life choice, and end up with S4 fairly often. Totally awesome, if a touch ancient.
Paths: A2W1S3H3 + 1.1 FAWS

Theurg (Pythium): Damn good communion slaves and masters. They can do the crazy holy shit, Thunder Strike spam, Falling Frost spam, or just go nuts with the Enslave Mind. Very versatile, and also conveniently your most cost-effective research mage. People should fear your research parks - and quite rightly so.
Paths: A1W1S2H2

Theurg Acolyte (Pythium): Although very cheap for what they do (90 gold and act as communion slaves respectively), these guys aren't much good for much else. They're not as cost-efficient researchers as your Theurgs, and the fact that you need a lab and a temple to recruit them anyway means that unless you're very short of gold, there's almost no reason to build them other than for slave fodder.
Paths: S1H1

Theurg Communicant (Pythium): Hands-fucking-down cheapest communion slave there is. They also don't have to spend a turn buffing themselves, which can be nice. However, they are so niche that I wouldn't recommend using them, instead going for the less budget, but more useable, Theurgs instead.
Paths: None. No really.

Slave Mage (R'lyeh): While everything said about these guys in the Early Era remains true, given the cheap Starspawn, I'm not sure why you want these.

Starspawn (the cheap one) (R'lyeh): Beginning the insanity they're characterized by even here, R'lyeh actually have two units called 'Starspawn', which don't do the same thing. Whatever. These guys make for decently-good communion slaves even without their randoms. With their randoms, they can do some cool reverse communion action. About the only problem is that they're cowardly - lucky that holy fixes that! Some linebacking potential here as well, but don't count on it too hard.
Paths: S1H2 + 1 WESD

Starspawn (the expensive one)(R'lyeh): Holy fucking fuckstars, recruit-anywhere S5?! No seriously, even if it's one in sixteen of these fuckers with it, S5 is seriously awesome. You can climb to Master Enslave almost effortlessly, and Enslave Mind spam becomes super-simple. They can also end up with Death (hi Nether Darts!), Water (Falling Frost says hello), and even Earth (Gifts from Heaven anyone?). They are, however, cowardly and lack holy levels, so it's a good idea to have a cheap Starspawn wired in as a master for that Sermon of Courage sex.
Paths: W1S3 + 1 WESD + 1.1 WESD

Celestial Master (T'ien Ch'i): These guys can cast Aim and Gifts from Heaven in a communion they're leading. I like. They can also get a bunch of other handy things, like Nature and Water, for more toys to play with. Again, not sure if communions are the best way to go here (mostly because fuel is hard to come by), but you do manage it, it can pay off.
Paths: A1W2E1S1H2 + 1.1 AWSN

Imperial Geomancer (T'ien Ch'i): Cheap and effective, these guys get ES, which gives us Gifts From Heaven. While they're about as accurate as a drunk with one eye when it comes to aiming that shit, they can also do some other cool things with their paths. While I'm not sure that you'd want to get a critical mass of these for communions, if you happen to, you might wanna try it.
Paths: E1S1

Late Age

Mystic (Arcosephale): Everything said about these guys in previous eras is still valid here.

Sibyl (Arcosephale): These guys can participate as communion masters with your Mystics, and bring Nature and Death to the party. This means Relief and Nether Darts to go with your Win of A Thousand Flavours that your Mystics can provide. They're also useful to have around in general - not least of all because they add Holy.
Paths: S1N2H2 + 1.1 WSDN

Alchemist (Bogarus): One thing to remember about Bogarus - pretty much every fucking mage you can recruit can participate in a communion of some variety in some way, as every fucking mage you can recruit has at least S1 or B1, and some even get both. The Alchemist is the only Earth you get, and when used as a slave, can cast both Magma Bolts and Gifts from Heaven, so that's something. However, they are fairly expensive, so I don't see a critical mass of these guys showing up any time.
Paths: F1E1S1

Astrapelagist (Bogarus): Like a Kalendologist, but better in almost every way. While having the power to toss down the crazy Air magic that a communion enables makes these guys worth massing, you still have better options IMHO.
Paths: A2S1

Kalendologist (Bogarus): These guys are cheap, and perfectly-serviceable communion slaves. However, you probably don't want them in large numbers, even with fortune teller.
Paths: S2

Occultist (Bogarus): One of the guys who gets both S and B, this guy also gets Death, which would mean Nether Darts, except his path ratings are so low. I generally don't see much point in these guys, since Startsi (plural of Starets) get that and more.
Paths: S1D1B1

Master of Names (Bogarus): Finally, some gold! These guys should be massed anyway, since they crank out research like no tomorrow. Additionally, they come with S2 standard, as well as some randoms. F and A are obviously good for obvious reasons, and S3 ones can potentially get some Enslave Mind action going. The B ones kinda blow, but hey, we all need fuel. Perfectly useful communion slaves or even masters.
Paths: S2 + 1FASB

Starets (Bogarus): Capital-only, which is annoying, but these guys are pretty hardcore. Apart from their research bonus, these guys get access to Air and Fire by default, with a possibility of Death as well. They can lead and participate in Communions and Sabbaths, and bring some serious firepower to the table. I would argue that the D1 and A2 ones are the best ones, and the B2s are turkeys, but it depends on what you're trying to swing. They're also slow, but given that one in four can Teleport (and the others can too, with some help) makes that less of a problem.
Paths: F2A1S2B1 + 1ASDB + 0.1 FASB

Iassacharite Sibyl (Gath): Cheap communion slave material, these girls are kinda useful, and fairly efficient researchers as well. They don't do well in reverse communions, due to their lack of meaningful things to do.
Paths: S1N1

Kohen (Gath): These guys are much less inspiring than their EA and LA counterparts, unfortunately. They still make decent linebackers, but having Attack Skill and Defence Skill 9 doesn't really help much. Their random means that they can also act as halfway-decent reverse communion slaves.
Paths: B1H2 + 1FES

Kohen Gadol (Gath): These guys are cap-only and expensive, but in return, these guys are pretty hardcore linebackers, and can also be communioned up into Holy powerhouses without too much effort (as they start with H3). Their randoms also help, but unfortunately, because they're linked, you'll have a bit of trouble getting something awesome like Gifts of Heaven up. On the flip side, one in four of these guys can make Blood Stones without too much effort, so yeah, go for it.
Paths: B2H3 + 2FES + 0.1FES

Yeddeoni (Gath): The bad news - only 1/4 of these necromancer dorks can participate in communions. The good news - any that can bring Nether Darts and Gifts of Heaven to the party. The more bad news - your path ratings are fairly awful. The more good news - these guys are good, cheap reversers. Make of that what you will.
Paths: E1D1 + 1FESD

Onmyo-ji (Jomon): Remember Mystics? These old farts are basically Mystics on crack. They're old, which sucks, but in return, they get access to a metric ass-tonne of paths, as well as reliable access to Nature, which means that they can buff themselves and rain death on their enemies. A shining star amid an otherwise-terrible nation, these guys can do basically anything Mystics can do, and then some.
Paths: S2 + 2.1 FAWEN

Magister Arcane (Man): These guys are a tad expensive, as well as not sacred, which makes massing them a bit of a problem. Add to this the fact that fuel is hard to come by (you only have the tiny randoms off your Magisters). However, these guys are very capable reversers, with the really nasty combo of Aim and Gifts of Heaven. The fact they also end up with random Fire is just icing on that cake.
Paths: A2E1S1 + 0.5FAES

Diabolist (Marignon): Super-cheap, these guys make good sabbath fuel. However, they can also do semi-decent reverse action thanks to their Fire access. Nothing to write home about normally, but their cheapness makes them worthwhile. Just be sure to have blood slaves handy.
Paths: F1B1

Goetic Master (Marignon): Where Diabolists are fuel, Goetic Masters are very capable, well, masters, as their names would suggest. You can crank up your Holy for undead massacring, use all the cool Fire stuff (like Falling Fires), and with an Earth random, the Magma line of spells also becomes available. They're also quite strong reversers, but are just a bit pricey. The Astral/Earth combination, although rare, gives you Gifts of Heaven along with all that tasty stuff, and if you get one with an Astral random, you don't even need blood slaves.
Paths: F2B2H1 + 1.1 FESB

Royal Navigator (Marignon): And now for something completely different! While you can build reverse communions out of just these guys, I'd actually recommend combining them into other communions to either toss down Astral or Air buffs (specifically Aim comes to mind, although the others don't hurt either) or just spam Air magic. They're a useful tool in LA Marignon's toolbox where communions are concerned, and don't need blood slaves to participate either. If you get a Water random, this is even better, although only one in three will.
Paths: A1S1 + 1AWS

Mictlan Priest (Mictlan): Just like their Early Era counterparts. Check out them, because everything said about them still applies.

Nahualli (Mictlan): Everything said about these guys in previous Eras still applies.

Various Priests (Mictlan): Just like their Early Era counterparts, and everything said about them still applies.

King of Rain (Mictlan): Expensive and cap-only, these guys aren't gonna be common. However, they lead communions like nobody's business - these guys can cast Falling Frost unaccompanied. Their other path randoms are also quite helpful. However, to be honest, in my opinion, these guys don't really add anything you didn't already have from other, cheaper, and in many cases more accessible mages. Mix them in by all means, though - more can't hurt.
Paths: W3B2H3 + 1.1WSNB

To come - more LA stuff, spells, items. Hopefully this is enough to get people started, and I dare say it's much more readable than Baalz. People who know more about such things, feel free to yell at me.

[koz]

Reserved, in case I need it.

[name_here]

Communion Slaves do not, I'm pretty sure, get a real path bonus. Unless there's been a drastic change (which there might have been, it's been a while) their path bonus only applies to soaking fatigue from spells cast by the masters. Also, Baalz's guide says slaves get the same bonus for fatigue soak that the masters get.

You also left out some critically important points from the overview:

1. Slaves will only act if no master has acted before their action comes up (think this only applies if the slave is casting, hence why Linebacker communions work)
2. Holy shit blood magic has a personal spell that erases fatigue

The way reverse communions actually work is that you have the master buff the hell out of the slaves. Power of the Spheres, Summon Earthpower, and any other path bonuses you can get. Action order is unfortunately determined by unitID, which can't be changed, but spells resolve before anything else, so you can use a master in the first slot for a reverse communion by having him shoot a bow (he'll cast spells if you order him to wait).

For units, I think the Celestial Masters are very capable reverse communion candidates. Power of the spheres+summon storm power=Thunder Strike, just power of the spheres gives them falling frost. The downside is that they're expensive as hell. Likewise, reverse-communion Starspawn worked very well for me against Longdead cav hordes.

[Winnah]

Currently taking advantage of some Warrior Sorceress (N1B1) Sabbaths in an MP game.

Not as an independant squad, more to suppliment an army. They are mounted and armoured, which means they generate a lot of fatigue from casting, but minimal fatigue from combat (armour does not effect combat fatigue for mounted units). They are also sacred, so even a minor bless is an almost free buff.

I script them to cast Sabbath Slave, hold and attack rear.

Meanwhile a Witch King casts Sabbath Master and a few buff spells like personal quickness and soul vortex, followed by as many castings of Reinvigoration as I can fit into the script. The Warrior Sorceresses still tend to accrue a lot of fatigue after that, mainly from the Witch King casting Death spells, but against standard recruitable armies it has proved effective.

I could do something similar with a pair of Witch Kings acting as the slaves, but I have not reached the point where I want to risk my capital only commanders on the front lines.

[Username17]

Not enough has been said about the Communion Matrix. Giving a slave stone to a caster, you can turn any caster into a communion slave. And with a master stone, you can turn any caster into a communion master. The best slaves for big evocation spamming are ones who have a base encumbrance of zero, because they don't rack up any fatigue at all save for their share of the spell fatigue. And if you're casting modest spells with a lot of slaves, that share is close to zero.

Revenants cost 9 gems, 15 if you make them a slave matrix with a hammer, and have no encumbrance (less if you have an enchantment site). If you plop down say 8 of them, they will suffer 2 or 3 fatigue whenever a communion master drops a Falling Frost. And the communion leaders will be casting at +3 skill, which is a lot of killing. A group of 5 communion masters can drop heavy evocations every round for ten combat rounds, which will shred most medium sized armies, and none of your communion slaves will be dead. If you throw up Relief or something similar, your slaves won't even be unconscious.

And the best thing about 0 encumbrance slaves is that they hyper scale. If you throw down 16 revenant slaves instead of only 8, the number of masters you can field goes up considerably. Because now they are not only giving a +4 bonus to all the Falling Frost casters, they are also only taking their 1/17th share of half the base spell juice. Hell, you can have a dozen masters spamming thunder strike or gifts from heaven and you won't fatigue your slaves to death.

Communion isn't just about getting off big spells. With the right slave back up, it's about murdering people with normal evocations set to 11.

-Username17

[Winnah]

Communions are not a strict division. At least, not on the slave side.

The master will take a percentage of the normal fatigue based off improved path levels and number of slaves.

The slaves will each take the same fatigue as the master, roughly multiplied by the difference in magic path levels between them and the master. If your slave has higher paths than the master, then that slave will take drastically less fatigue than the master.

It's only important if you plan on dropping several spells with high path requirements. For evocation spam, casting spells with lower path requirements will greatly improve the endurance of a communion, especially if you are levying s1 or b1 slaves.

[Shatner]

Currently taking advantage of some Warrior Sorceress (N1B1) Sabbaths in an MP game.

Not as an independant squad, more to suppliment an army. They are mounted and armoured, which means they generate a lot of fatigue from casting, but minimal fatigue from combat (armour does not effect combat fatigue for mounted units). They are also sacred, so even a minor bless is an almost free buff.

I script them to cast Sabbath Slave, hold and attack rear.

Meanwhile a Witch King casts Sabbath Master and a few buff spells like personal quickness and soul vortex, followed by as many castings of Reinvigoration as I can fit into the script. The Warrior Sorceresses still tend to accrue a lot of fatigue after that, mainly from the Witch King casting Death spells, but against standard recruitable armies it has proved effective.

I could do something similar with a pair of Witch Kings acting as the slaves, but I have not reached the point where I want to risk my capital only commanders on the front lines.

If you want the Sabbath Master to NOT continue casting spells and causing extra fatigue for your Warrior Sorceresses you can give him a bow and script "Sabbath Master, [Buff], [Buff], [Buff], Reinvigoration, Fire Closest" and he'll spend the rest of the combat shooting arrows instead of making your sabbath slaves pass out.

[Winnah]

Yeah, that tactic really can't support more Sabbath Masters. Currently I have only noticed fatigue on the Sorceress slaves go over 60 when they are chasing down routing units while the Witch King spams Raise Skeletons or Drain Life.

Due to the Soul Vortex the Sabbath has running, fatigue on the slaves normally stays pretty low (between 10 and 30) providing they are adjacent to a mob of units.

I will definately be using that advice if I field geared up Witch Kings as slaves though.

[Username17]

Communions are not a strict division. At least, not on the slave side.

Yes and no. The division isn't "strict", it's some sort of weird round robin affair. The base fatigue is handed out one at a time to the casting master and the slaves until it is all assigned. Then each participant reduces that fatigue if their virtual path value is more than is required to cast the spell (1/2 fatigue for +1, 1/3 Fatigue for +2, and so on). Then every participant (master and all the slaves) gains Fatigue equal to their casting encumbrance.

The different communion slaves don't get the same fatigue because they don't evenly divide the fatigue and then all round. They assign the fatigue points one at a time until all the fatigue is going somewhere.

The slaves will each take the same fatigue as the master, roughly multiplied by the difference in magic path levels between them and the master. If your slave has higher paths than the master, then that slave will take drastically less fatigue than the master.

This is just totally wrong. While slaves receive less final fatigue if they have higher paths (as do masters), their share of the fatigue is decided completely independently of that. One character having more paths just means that he suffers less fatigue from his share, it doesn't actually change the fatigue share of any other participant at all.

It's only important if you plan on dropping several spells with high path requirements. For evocation spam, casting spells with lower path requirements will greatly improve the endurance of a communion, especially if you are levying s1 or b1 slaves.

The only way I think you got to this conclusion is that virtual paths count for purposes of fatigue reduction and slaves also get virtual paths. So if you get +3 to your paths (for having an 8 slave communion), your revenants will take their fatigue as if they had Death 4 - which is half fatigue on a spell that normally requires 3 Death (Leeching Darkness), and one third fatigue on a spell that requires 2 Death (Shadow Blast) - but no Fatigue reduction on a spell that costs 4 Death (Cloud of Death).

-Username17

[name_here]

ITT: Why people don't use communion attack spells very much. It's a lot easier to construct a Communion to cast Master Enslave than to work out exactly what ratio of slaves to masters will not microwave your slaves, which is hard enough if you know the math.

As I understand it, the formula for fatigue on a given slave is as follows:

Fatigue = (base spell fatigue)/(number of slaves) * 2^(path requirement of spell)-(path level of slave +log2(number of slaves))

The log is rounded down.

Edit: I forgot how dominions scales fatigue for all spellcasting, communion or otherwise. Fixed now.

[K]

Just to add to what everyone else has put here, you need to do a section on Communion tactics. Even common stuff like "cast Earth Power to put Reinvig on your slaves" or "cast Reinvigoration to remove fatigue from all slaves" is not obvious enough that someone who needs a guide is going to automatically realize it, and stuff like "don't cast Hell Power unless you are willing to fight or divert a metric shit-ton of Horrors" is just a black art.

Second, your mage list needs another pass. Just on glancing at EA I noticed that you forgot two of Lanka's recruitable Blood mages, all of Lanka's nation-specific summonable blood mages, and two of Sauromatia's recruitable mages who can lead or slave in a Communion without a crystal item.

There are also non-Era mages that Communion, both summons and recruitables. For example, Shamans from lizard provinces, Sages from sites, and Spectres from summons can be Communion master or slave without items and are common units.

PS. A key fact that should be mentioned prominently is that Holy can be boosted in a Communion if the caster has at least one point of a real path. I have crushed enemies many times by boosting a Holy caster to absurd levels of Holy and then blanketing the entire battlefield with epic-sized and epic-powered Banishments.

[koz]

Thanks for all the suggestions/advice - I will attempt to work them into this guide at the first opportunity I have.

[Winnah]

It's easy to test, though complicated to set up.

You can do it with a Revenant leading Liches (Matrix items), or something like a Magus or Alchemist leading Troll Kings (matrices on the Trolls).

The fatigue the slaves take from the communion, when the master casts Earth or Death spells, is disproportiontely lower.

I am not going to pretend to understand the slave side of communion fatigue mechanics, but the row of testing over at the SA forums suggests that it is something like:

slave fatigue = (master fatigue) * (2^(master path level - slave path level)[min 0.5, max 4])

Which is apparently accurate the majority of times it was tested. It's not totally accurate, as they have reproduced edge cases that turn that formula on it's head.

[name_here]

/facepalm

Here, let's substitute in the equation for master fatigue:

slave fatigue = (listed spell fatigue)/(number of members)*(2^(spell level - master path level) *(2^(master path level - slave path level) = (listed spell fatigue)/(number of members)*(2^(spell level - slave path level))

So it's the equation I wrote earlier except with the correct formula for fatigue as a function of caster level and without explicitly including the formula for effective slave path level. It admittedly has been a while.

[Zinegata]

A couple of things about communions:

First of all, be very, very careful when scripting communions. Double check and triple check. Because a wrongly scripted communion can result in a fairly average spellcasting group becoming a dead spellcasting group that does nothing for you with some bad scripting.

For instance: Some unlucky player tried to do a reverse communion with Fire mages. His intent was to have the master cast Phoenix Power, to give all slaves +1 Fire magic.

Unfortunately, he mistakenly scripted Phoenix Pyre. Which doesn't give +1 Fire magic to all the slaves. Instead, it makes the slaves explode when they die.

So instead of getting a dozen mages spamming good fire spells, he got a dozen mages spamming weak fire spells... who proceeded to spontaneously combust in a spectacular chain reaction (that also took out a good chunk of his army) after one of them got hit by a lucky arrow.

=====

Secondly, don't look down on relatively small communions. Yes, people generally make communions to bring down something big like Mass Enslave. But a small early game communion can give your early armies a nice bit of extra firepower too.

For instance, I played a game as LA Man, where I had a ton of archers, but only a Fire 1 caster putting me out of reach of that killer spell for archers, Flaming Arrows.

I had no way to make a Fire Booster to get me to Fire 2. So I did the next best thing and made a mini-communion of a master and two slaves using Matrixes. That boosted by Fire mage to Fire 2, which is enough to boost to Fire 3 via Phoenix Pyre, and enough to get to Flaming Arrows with a gem.

Obviously, this isn't the most efficient way to do things, but sometimes you have to work with what you have and creative use of communions is how you do it.

====

Be well aware of the casting order. Defender mages cast first, followed by the attacker's mages.

This is particularly important in the lategame, because lategame magic has a bit of a rocket tag quality and casting communion takes up a whole vital round (Matrix communions don't have this problem though).

While your communion is still casting Master/Slave, your opponent could potentially already be casting Rain of Stones, Earthquake, or other mass-kill spells that have already vaporized half of your communion before they could start their actual script.

In the late game, be sure to pack extra slaves and masters, or be willing to invest in some protection equipment that is well-suited to counter the opponent's mass kill abilities.

====

Finally, do note that the Blood version of communions is a little problematic because casting Sabbath Slave on its own might bring the slave to 100 fatigue if he didn't use enough slaves. But there is a fantastic Blood spell which takes away all fatigue, which will affect the entire communion if the master casts it.

Just one of those little subtle differences that can make a big difference in a game.

[name_here]

Oh, there's another thing to note: a Crystal Matrix master can cast on the first turn of the battle instead of needing to spend it joining the communion. This is incredibly helpful if you're doing a reverse communion, because you can buff the slaves in time for their second turn.

[Shatner]

Another tactic I've used with Reverse Communions is using Returning to warp 1 master and some of the slaves off the battlefield. I've used this for three different sorts of battles.

1) Run Away!: A fort full of astral/blood mages is about to be cracked. Rather than having them die needlessly, they spend turn-1 communioning and turn-2 teleporting en masse back to my capital. That's a lot of preserved commanders/research/future communion fodder. Use your lab to shuttle crystal/slave matrixes over as needed to get non-astral, non-blood mages evacuated as well. If you KNOW the enemy is going to assault you that same turn, set one of the mages to destroying the lab to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

2) Hit and Run: Your capital is under siege. Break the siege with some chaff and a reverse communion. Bombard the enemy for 5 turns, then have the master(s) of the group cast Returning, taking everyone off the battle before they are overwhelmed. Repeat each turn as needed.

3) Set Them Up the Bomb: You know what's an awesome spell? Acid Rain. You know what will easily kill most if not all of your communion mages? Acid Rain. You know what would be great? Casting Acid Rain but only having one mage take unresistable acid damage to the face. What you do is have two masters and however many slaves you need. Everyone joins the communion. Then Master-1 (who is hopefully robust or protected so he'll survive several rounds of magical acid) casts Acid Rain, which will drop bad stuff on the entire battlefield each and every turn Master-1 remains alive and on the battlefield starting NEXT turn. Master-2 now casts Returning, getting him and all the slaves the hell off the battlefield. Since Master-1 is still there, the spell still goes off, even though the communion he needed to cast the spell is no longer there. Every unit present has their armor broken and takes a random amount of MAGICAL (so it ignores ethereal and pops mistform), armor-piercing damage for which no resistance exists. Cue evil laughter.

[Winnah]

One thing I have been aching to try is Hell Power through a communion, with a group of Astral mages spamming Horror Mark. Give some of the slaves Shields of the Accursed if you can afford it, the master a squad of bodyguards.

Have the majority of slaves attack, so that when horrors appear, they will be near enemy troops as well.

I have no idea how effective that would be, but I think it would be a very expensive method of killing thugs and afflicting SC's.

[K]

One thing I have been aching to try is Hell Power through a communion, with a group of Astral mages spamming Horror Mark. Give some of the slaves Shields of the Accursed if you can afford it, the master a squad of bodyguards.

Have the majority of slaves attack, so that when horrors appear, they will be near enemy troops as well.

I have no idea how effective that would be, but I think it would be a very expensive method of killing thugs and afflicting SC's.

You are doing it wrong. You want to be firing off Astral Geysers to Horror Mark.

The spell Horror Mark tends to slam into the same enemy guy over and over regardless how many casters are using it and only marking a little. It's really annoying, and what you want is the most horror marks on the enemy side (missing is good!) and you want them to be strong as well.

You also need a Horror-killing solution and some chaff to absorb Horror attacks for when your enemies are dead and you have a pile of Horrors coming after you. I use Lightning and skeles.

It's an interesting enough tactic to play around with. Super risky, but for a long battle with high-quality units, I think it's got potential.