On the first map of the first campaign, my nodes keep on being attacked by the elves.

All I have to defend the node is what the game refers to as a 'board guard' - it looks like the stump of a tree. But how do I supplement the board guard with troops of my own?

Move close to it, and select the transfer/trade button on the right.

Handy tip,
First chance you get, learn a summoning spell. That way when the AI goes after your nodes, assuming the node doesn't kick its ass (which is usually can, particularly after it upgrades) you can take it back/defend it readily by dropping a summon on the AI to weaken/finish it off, and can use it to take back the node if it was recently lost. I know the stone gollum summon Empire gets is all but immune to the node guardians elves have and can singlehandedly take them down, and they can place new nodes as well (saves you from having to run across the map back to it)

Summoned units capturing nodes sounds like a bug not a feature.

(21-07-2010 07:11 AM)Larkin Wrote:  Summoned units capturing nodes sounds like a bug not a feature.

I somewhat agree. I do agree that summoned units should not be able to place guardians. because this way if you have the mana, you can get a "remove fog of war" type of spell and summon units everywhere on the map and capture all nodes. however, i believe that summoned units should be able to fight and even win against Guardians. for example, i am playing empire vs elf. a summoned golem can, slowly but surely kill a upgraded elf guardian, because it has 95% (or the likes) resistance to Earth, and the guardian's attack is ground based. this is just how it works, and it encourages players to add party members to the guardians and compensate for this. anyway, i find summoned units (ex golems) very strong. maybe a bit to strong (but this would be a bit offtopic).

(21-07-2010 07:11 AM)Larkin Wrote:  Summoned units capturing nodes sounds like a bug not a feature.

Yes, that should be reported in bugthread. Its without a doubt a bug.
Spells in this game, once again ruins the point of bought units and "true" battles...

(21-07-2010 11:12 AM)iivo Wrote:  

(21-07-2010 07:11 AM)Larkin Wrote:  Summoned units capturing nodes sounds like a bug not a feature.

I somewhat agree. I do agree that summoned units should not be able to place guardians. because this way if you have the mana, you can get a "remove fog of war" type of spell and summon units everywhere on the map and capture all nodes. however, i believe that summoned units should be able to fight and even win against Guardians. for example, i am playing empire vs elf. a summoned golem can, slowly but surely kill a upgraded elf guardian, because it has 95% (or the likes) resistance to Earth, and the guardian's attack is ground based. this is just how it works, and it encourages players to add party members to the guardians and compensate for this. anyway, i find summoned units (ex golems) very strong. maybe a bit to strong (but this would be a bit offtopic).

The golems are definitely too strong. They have a relatively low mana cost and will wipe out an AI group by themselves more than half the time, and when they don't they leave them seriously crippled. Never thought of that revealing fog of war and dropping summons everywhere scenario. Though I wonder how likely it would be as the fog spell is a top circle spell and by then you would imagine all the nodes would have guardians already. Though it would still make it too easy as they just roll solo guardians anyway. Yeah, they should probably fix that in retrospect.

did not try this, just thinking about it (this only works in campaign mode... or if you can import leaders with items in skirmishes): create a rune based on the reveal fog of war spell (holy light or something... i don't remember), and runes are kept between missions. so, if at the end of a mission (when you have a lot of mana) you create 10 runes, and you can keep them between the missions... bingo. instant fog of war removal at each start. hmm.... you would need to play mage to gain access to the 5'th level spells, but nevertheless, i believe the scenario is plausible

(21-07-2010 02:35 PM)iivo Wrote:  did not try this, just thinking about it (this only works in campaign mode... or if you can import leaders with items in skirmishes): create a rune based on the reveal fog of war spell (holy light or something... i don't remember), and runes are kept between missions. so, if at the end of a mission (when you have a lot of mana) you create 10 runes, and you can keep them between the missions... bingo. instant fog of war removal at each start. hmm.... you would need to play mage to gain access to the 5'th level spells, but nevertheless, i believe the scenario is plausible

I didnt think fog of war could be turned into a rune?

as i said, i did not try this, isn't it possible to turn any spell into a rune ? by paying the casting cost ?. so if this is true, there's a lvl 5 empire spell that removes all fog of war.

please correct me if i'm wrong... don't want to provide false information

(21-07-2010 01:00 PM)War-Neck Wrote:  

(21-07-2010 07:11 AM)Larkin Wrote:  Summoned units capturing nodes sounds like a bug not a feature.

Yes, that should be reported in bugthread. Its without a doubt a bug.
Spells in this game, once again ruins the point of bought units and "true" battles...

Disagree respectfully.
Summoned units behave like other standard stacks on the overland maps in most respects, they walk, fight, can conquer cities, can be healed, what have you, why should they not be able to capture nodes? (except for that e.g. the golem may be a bit unbalanced).
My opinion is that it´s far from being a "bug without a doubt" more like an intended feature/deliberate design choice. Hope summoned units won´t be discriminated and this won´t be changed.
Just my 2 cents.

(22-07-2010 05:15 PM)StupendousMan Wrote:  Summoned units behave like other standard stacks on the overland maps in most respects, they walk, fight, can conquer cities, can be healed, what have you, why should they not be able to capture nodes?

Well, in D2 summons couldn't capture cities, so if they can in D3 it also seems like a bug, along with capturing nodes.

I think the issue with using summons for capturing is the low opportunity cost. They're expendable and you don't have to move your leader.

(22-07-2010 06:04 PM)Clayman Wrote:  Well, in D2 summons couldn't capture cities, so if they can in D3 it also seems like a bug, along with capturing nodes.

I think the issue with using summons for capturing is the low opportunity cost. They're expendable and you don't have to move your leader.

Not sure if they can actually conquer cities, but I think I remember that they can attack the stacks standing outside the cities, which was most often the only city garrison in campaign play. Have to check that again.