> Back to the TAF, how do they get around ECM, such as sonar jamming for the
> bugs set up by ultrasonic bat signals and similar trickery? What about
> Light & Starburst etc spells?
I suspect you'd have ECM (or DCM, Darksense Counter Measures?) through the means of specially-bred bugs -- perhaps the kind that give off "false" sonar echoes, or jam sonar through the use of a sonar "glare" -- a continuous noise at the right frequency that drowns out the ability to discriminate between sonar images. You could carry them on in sacks, or something.
My immediate reaction would be that it just means that inter-troll air combat isn't as bloody as it might otherwise be, since the poor pilots have a devil of a time getting, um, "lock-on" on each other. Another possibility might be that the trollkin are specially trained to use their visual abilities, and they fly the bugs by sight. Or that you train your pilots to be big on DCCM, and try to blow right through the DCM, or carry special bugs that serve as DCCM. Do flies and bees use sonar or sight? I think it's sight, so it's just targeting that's effected.
Note, though, that unless your non-Trollish opponent has a way with bugs, the uz should still have an edge in air combat.
Drat, Light's a good point. As is Lantern, Lightwall and Sunbright. Curses! Yup, the mighty TAF will be forced to deal with fighting in daylight after all. I do rather like the idea of Yelmists (of whatever deriviation: they all taste the same to me) casting Lantern on their shields and then searching the skies with 'em, like WWI or WWII searchlights (10 meters isn't much, but maybe they can ritually lengthen it). You could cast Light on a rock, shoot it up in the sky, and have it work like a starshell or flare. And cast Sunbright on one the bugs, which will illuminate it as a target, and hopefully some of its formation mates. Lightwall, pointed "up", serves to confuse/blind the trolls and reduce their bombing accuracy.
Trolls can get around this. Just "buzz" the Sunboys constantly -- force 'em to use up their runemagic and MPs through continual harassment, then hit 'em with a massive air raid when you think you've got the magical advantage.
Something I hadn't considered, either, was that the Guhan TAF is probably going to have to work around sorcery, which is gonna be a problem. Off hand, long-range Drains and Hinders reduce your range, a lucky Palsy or a Smother can knock a bug outta the sky, Illusions are troublesome ("Aieee! Pull up! Pull up!") and familiars, flying soldiers and shapechanged whatevers contest for air control. Yuk.
For either of these bozos, if the TAF is really threatened you just load up the mantises a little less, and fly at a couple thousand feet up -- well out of spell range, visual sight, etc -- and bomb blindly. You should still do _some_ damage, especially if you use a low-profile scout of some sort in mindlink below to the formation leader -- then just tell all the other mantis pilots to start dropping your rocks/bolts/whatever when the leader does. Should at least _annoy_ a targeted field army, unless you misidentify and drop on your own troops, or on innocent peasants, or whatever... just part of the fun!
And, to continue the troll zaniness: those troll fly and bee fighters _do_ have a specialty bombing mission they can perform well: pinpoint bee hive bombing (um, small bee hives, natch). Think of it this way: since yer average Troll can swat that silly spear out of the way and bite a Yelmist's (or Lunar's) head off, the Sunboys have to huddle together in fear, right? (Okay, this is trollish propaganda, but what I'm getting at is that the Phalanx formation is important for the hoplites). Now, when the bug fighter-bombers (jabugs!) flit by and drop a couple of wasp hives, sacks of stingworms (or perhaps jars of trollkin urine! It's a _military_ export!) on the Phalanx, you can (hopefully) break up their formation as the hoplites tend to those nasty wasps, trollkin urine out of their eyes, etc., giving your ground forces an opportunity to attack a disorganized formation. (You supply the trolls with Gorakiki amulets keeping the stinging bugs away, or perform the Wasps Don't Sting Us ritual, or something).
Perhaps not supremely practical, but surely MGF.
James Frusetta
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