Too difficult to keep units alive?

[Question]

Did you just spend 5 turns buffing a unit or 30+ turns leveling it up to max level? Well, it instantly dies to a max strength psionic blast/lightning bolt/magical focused fire in the first turn of combat before you can even do anything. It has elemental armor + iron skin + holy armor + true sight + bless? Doombolt instantly kills most ultra-elite priests/magicians.

And the AI doesn't even do the -4 spell save items + death spell combo.

Is there some trick i'm missing? i'm getting really annoyed trying to keep support units and low level heroes alive because the AI just one shots them with a high power spell before i can do anything, and getting the magic immunity spell forces me to go sorcery heavy (and its not alive till late game).

I cant even resurrect heroes unless i have a substantial amount of life spell books.

[spottedshroom]

I think generally the right answer to this question is don't focus on creating and preserving super units, because they're just too vulnerable to attack. Churn out lots of okay units and don't care when you lose some, because you're inevitably going to.

As for heroes, you hope that by the time you have to deal with enemy wizards that cast maxed-out direct damage spells, they're tough enough to take it. Magic immunity of course helps a lot, and you can get it from items even if you're not Sorcery-heavy. Even then, though, Nature wizards are going to spam Cracks Call until your hero dies. For new heroes late in the game, try to train them up on neutral combats until they're strong enough to face enemy wizards.

Oh, and you can also try to exploit the AI by including bait units in your stacks. I don't remember the details, but I've occasionally figured out what units the AI will prefer to target over my heroes and used that to get out of a tight spot.

[Seravy]

Lionheart, magic immunity or regeneration works best to keep units alive. Invisibility is so-so if the unit is ranged and the enemy has no illusion immunity it works.

[Tiltowait]

Well, it sucks but it's what I would do in the situation! After a while, you just can't use weak units. It affects the strategy of the game, at this point you have to play differently.

The real problem isn't the spells, it's the bonuses the CPs get on higher levels that leads them to absurdly high spell casting skill and unlimited mana. This lets them pull off a 50 point Ice Bolt every combat without breaking a sweat, and if the first one didn't get you the next one will be on the way soon. Or my favorite, two Flame Strikes in a battle. The player has to work for every bit of casting skill and usually doesn't get over 100 until late in the game, while the CPs get there early.

[Seravy]

I actually think the spells are a problem too, the slider makes them have way more power than reasonable for a common/uncommon in same cases. Original flame strike is a joke, kills 90% multi figure units in one shot but does close to no damage to single figure.

However the main problem here is that magicians and priests are low health, high effect throwaway units. They heal, spam fireballs and eventually you'll lose them. They are effective in larger quantities only.

[Question]

Well its just that i usually have two healer units with my attack stacks otherwise they take forever to heal after a battle, and even fully buffed, the AI (depending on what spells they ended up with) can sometimes one shot them before i can even do anything. Sure, i can replace them, but it is a massive hassle ferrying units that just die in the first round of combat. The AI is a machine so it never gets bored of doing that.

I'm currently trying out giving normal 4 and 6 figure units (Swordsmen, shamans, etc) 2 hp per figure to see how it goes. Cavalry ends up at 12 hp for a 4 man figure unit which is the same as 6 figures with 2 hp each and would prevent doombolt from oneshotting them regardless of what defenses you have.

[Tiltowait]

Just leave the shamans out of the battle and stack them with the wounded units afterwards. It's what I do. The CP always prioritizes shooting shamans and priests, and I can't say I can argue with that strategy. Kill the spellcasters first.

[Anthony]

Note that drawing fire is an excellent use for troll shamans.

[namad]

while the AI is great at killing heroes they're not very good at using them. IMO it's a fair trade off. If the ai is getting smarter though that just means you can choose to have them cheat less. soften the ai up without your hero more often? if the unit dying isn't a hero who cares as long as you get a strong enough trade. heroes excel at earning you a new book in a high ranking myran neutral battle, but slingers and paladins and such excel at grinding down the ai.

in official MoM impossible ai is a joke and super easy to beat because they have no idea how to play. if unofficial patches or mods manage to fix that, you can just go ahead and play on hard.

[b0rsuk]

Yes, it's true vanilla MoM makes it very hard to replace units (and reinforce armies). And direct damage is the main culprit, it reduces enjoyment of the game a lot because AI gets big mana bonuses and can afford to shoot them on regular basis.
There are a few tricks you can use:

1. Counter Magic (especially from a hero so you don't have to spend magic points and casting points) at max power
2. Mana Leak

I used these 2 with good results in many, many games. They're not sure but help a lot. Until late game, Mana Leak will hopefully drain the mana of enemy wizard, and it halves the number of shots magicians, priests and sprites can use on you.

3. Regeneration (especially on trolls - can't be dispelled). Other than Cracks Call and maybe Disintegrate, the unit is basically indestructible as long as you win the battle.
4. Paladins, because magic immunity trumps all.
5. Sacrificial lambs. This is an AI exploit. Before an important battle, attack enemy with waves of weak, disposable units so enemy wizard wastes his mana points on them. Won't work in late game though.

6. Use high HP races and units. For example, Lizardmen will get you very far, especially with CHEAP resistance buffs like Resist Elements. Wolf Riders from gnolls are highly resistant because they're brute force. Also, use big brute force units like beetles, turtles. On Myrror you have Beastmen, the counterpart to Lizardmen.
7. Keep your support units out of battle, and move them in after battle for passive healing.
8. Rush your enemies. It's not very fun in a game which has so much development and research potential, but it works :-/
9. Warlord. Every little bit helps.
10. Naturally Life magic works, but it's like toggling the Easy difficulty so I very rarely use it.
11. Myrror or Enchant Road spell. I remember a fun game where I destroyed my opponents by using waves upon waves of plain Klackon infantry! I was expanding my empire, RAZING all other races, and enchanting roads along the way so I could deliver several NEW units of infantry to the battlefield every turn. That was on Impossible.