First some background: Spells are processed from lowest fury to highest fury. Spells that change movement orders do not actually move lessers. Lessers move during the movement/battle phase of the tick. Depending on other conditions, the lessers may or may not move. In fact, a higher bid movement order spell, or even a higher bid spell that indirectly affects movement (like some terraforms), may cancel or change movement orders. Now the good stuff: There are 2 regions Red and Blue, adjacent. (You own Red, Blue's ownership is irrelevant.) There are 100 lessers in Blue. There are 4 "passable" adjacent regions to move to from Blue (including Red -- at least, before the tick). Including Blue, there are 5 valid "destinations" before the tick (even if Blue is a trivial destination). Case 1: --------- You cast Hydromide, for 90F, on Red, turning it into a sea. You cast Optic Terror, for 125F, on Blue, forcing lessers there to scatter. When the spells are processed, Red is checked first. Hydromide is cast, making it an invalid destination for Optic Terror. Next Blue is checked, and Optic Terror is cast. When this spell is processed, for each lesser it randomly picks a "passable" region to move to (including no movement -- staying put). That is, MOVEMENT ORDERS ARE CHANGED, though the lessers haven't moved yet. Since the Hydromide has already been cast, the OT "knows" that Red is not a valid distination. No lessers may choose Red as a destination. Now there are only 3 "passable" adjacent regions, plus the current region, to move to. On average, 25 lessers are ordered to each region (and 25 stay home). Barring any other interference, the lessers moved as dictated by the OT. Case 2: ----------- You cast Hydromide, for 126F, on Red, turning it into a sea. You cast Optic Terror, for 125F, on Blue, forcing lessers there to scatter. When the spells are processed, Blue is checked first. Optic Terror is cast, and there are 5 valid regions, including Red and Blue, to choose from. On average, 20 lessers HAVE THEIR MOVEMENT ORDERS SET to each region, but don't actually move yet. Next Red is checked, and Hydromide is cast. Now Red is an invalid destination for lesser movement. All of the lessers move where they were going, EXCEPT THOSE GOING TO RED. On average 20 lessers go to each of the other adjacent regions, and 40 are left at home. Important Points: --------------------- 1) Lessers can never move to an impassable region without a Grunch Guard, even if the region was passable when the lesser orders were given. 2) Spell fury can subtley control lesser distribution in a terraform/Optic Terror combination. Case 1 gives a "uniform" distribution, while Case 2 leaves more at home, and less away. HTH, -QM