strategy guide!

[Razorflame]

i was thinking about this for a long while and here it's going to be :)
my personal strategy guide!(for impossible, but can be applyable for each difficulty)

it doesn't matter what sort of class you play!
first thing you try to do after you start you game is save(after tutorial), then check the shops for GOOD items(good items it's half the game and who doesn't want to start with a good beginning?

after the save scan en look if u have any good ones (if not start over and do so again)


ITEMS

best item in the game is the DEAD SKULL

(+5 attack and +5 intellect is A GIFT FOR ANY CLASS

second best item ANGA"S RUBY
(for female armies)

gladiator sword>+10 might runes after 50 vics

banner of faith>+10 mind runes after 50 vics

ancient amulet>+10 magic runes after 50 vics

Baton>+1 morale to humans(last upgrade) too lazy to name all the batons:P

well of mana belt>+2 mana regen in combat (which is a GREAT BOON)

dragon cloack> +20% base defense and +15 % power of damaging spells excellent for mage

prismatic helm>+5 MANA and +20% power of damaging spells

xerus sword >+3 int and +3 att



look for 2 or more of these items in your start game to have a good start!

when you finally got a game with good items, get the quest for the rage box! as soon as possible. after it you go to the graveyard and get an ancient vampire from a coffing if possible then do the other main quest (kill the turtle)
1 ancient vampire in normal form kills the turtle) and by doing this u get an leadership bonus! which is very handy!

then to aim on the days talk to the dwarf next to the starting area and run to arlania killing everything and blabla but that is obvious

now for ingameplay battles

there are a few things that you should know. INQIsitor's are your lifesavior in darion! buy them as soon as possible and clear out darion

for battles be sure to have a good troop selection

and that is dependand on your playstye

you have an aggresive playstyle and a defensive one

the aggresive one means u rush into battle with a tank and let him suck up all the damage and he is also the only one u have to ressurect if possible

the defensive playstyle means u slow down enemies or keep them busy before they reach your army

*side note* if u have magic spring/gift/resu then an army consiting of an enemy troop which has NO retalition should always be A NO UNIT LOSS gameplay

keep that troop alive and reduce is so that is hardly does damage to your tank(cast magic spring on the tank, so u get +5 mana each time it takes damage) do this as long till u get enough resu to have 0 casualties

now for some tips on slicing enemy troops

how to battle MASS ranged units, ranged units are mostly low level what does this mean? meaning u can abuse them to your best benefit!

cast FEAR and the unit won't do anything to your troops that are higher level (this only doesn't work on hunters since they are level 4 (unless u have only level 5 units. but who does have that?)

if u face hunters cast blind meaning u won't get any damage from that unit and will just skipp it's turn and u can concentrate on the other troops which should be easy to kill


as for spellcasters u can distract them by placing units near them or totems
or turn them into a sheep or use magic shackles (demons and shamans are a example)

for mass melee stacks
then the spells SLOW/trap are your heroes
and also a unit that distracts them

DRAGONS

the most annoyance i've ever maddled with:P
traps are you savior then!
note that traps do WORK on black dragons! the ai is scripted so that a black dragon is easy to predcit where it will land and so i get's damage
and after use a stack of skelli archers with dragon arrows to finish him off(or any other archer but the skeli is best due to it's low leadership cost!)

or use a tank like giant to soak up the damage of the first initial hit and them camp with other melee units on them

GREMLIN towers

always make sure u kill the EVIL towers AS SOON AS POSSIBLE NO MATTER THE COST

later concentrate on the units
by doing so u cann abuse the friendly gremlin tower
how?
each turn it will summon a new stack or cast slow on a troop
what does this mean?

u can place a tank near the friendly tower and wait for it to summon a stack to attack the stack(the tank with magic spring on it will gain+5 mana)
meaning u can resu your whole army back ! and getting no casualties at all;-)

best invention ever ^^

Good units!

inqistor's very handy unit that can resurrect and increase rage with the holy anger ability!(should be your unit that carries you to the dwarven island)

shamans very handy unit that can place totems and use it axes to heal all your units(BLACK DRAGONS can only be healed by a TOTEM or the AXES of the smans!) so keep this is mind if u are going to use black dragons!

evil beholders excellent unit that can put other units to sleep and has a nice ability to mind control an enemy stack using it's turn and taking damage and giving it to another unit by your choice(MAKE SURE THE MIND CONTROLLED UNIT isn't POISENED OR BURNING(which means it suffers damage and canceleing the mind control and giving the stack back to the owner)

emerald dragon (good unit for mages with the mana steal ability! and reasonable tank!

mauraders good unit for darion when your in short of money they can search dead bodies for money!(if your hasting for good items this is your quick income unit)

BEARS doesn't matter what bear if they don't do anything they go to sleep and this giving no retalition back (thus cast magic spring on them and let them defend so they sleep an enemy that attacks it will get no damage back and thus u can exploit this for armies that have no units with no retalition)

griffins great tank unit! that will ALWAYS RETALiate!

horseman excellent tank unit that is fast and does more damage in straight lines! and has high HP

royal thorns good unit that can give u extra units and does good damage

skeleton archer BEST ARCHER IN THE GAME due to it's low leadership cost and due to it boney it will suffer half damage of ranged attacks and u can have GREAT NUMBERS Of them.

dwarven alchemist GOOD TANK for defensive stacks and their bottles are very handy for undead/ creatures that are not resistant to POISON

DRYADS excellent spellcasting unit LULLABY makes level 1-3 stacks to sleep whichh is very handy in elven land where most unit are below level 3 (safe for unicors hunters and emerald dragons )

demonnes good helper for the army which is ABLE To seduce MALE humanoid units(demons can also be seduced!)

DEMONS (same as griffins only they have more HP and can summon more demon unit)

archidemons (maybe the BEST TANK unit in the game but hard to come by) their teleport makes them COME EVERYWHERE

priest good healing unit and can cast bless which is also nice

hunters good archer for shooting animals

elf good archer with double shot

dwarven cannoneer good hp archer with triple shot ability!

vampires(and ancient ones) good tank unit that can increase it stacks when it loses some

ghost very good tank that can ALWAYS increase their stack so be carefull that it doesn't go over it!

royal snake very good tank unit with no retalition!

giants good tank unit but least of the tank unit already mentioned above

ARCHIMAGS excellent spellcaster with it's mage shield makes TANK survive twice as long if not triple that time!

necromancer this unit is an excellent stack for DEFENSIVE strategies very helpfull for a mage(kill an enemy stack RESSURECT IT and the enemies will attack that stack instead (when fighting undead stack this guy is a MUST HAVE)(kill bone dragon and resu them:D)

the rest of the unit i haven't mentioned aren't worth mentioning they are obsolete and have no purpose :P

uunless
u power them up with items

female (dryads demoness lake fairies) can be boosted with anga's ruby to make them better or good:)




*chainfights*

a term somewhat new to beginners

when you are in a area*( and looted the items and troops u wanted)
prepate to CHAINFIGHT
what does this meaN?

start to pick up a weak STACK or a stack that u can easily kill without any unit losses)

do this battle as u would do normally but instead of killing al on the easy way try a bit harder in keeping the enemy alive

like magic spring to increase your mana and the enemy attacking your units for RAGE
keep doing this UNTILL u have MAX RAGE or MAX MANA or preferably BOTH

by doing this u can start with max rage and max mana next battle(which SAVES TIME!)
since you don't want to wait for the mana or wait till your rage has been decreased)

and by doing every battle with max rage and max mana this GIVES U a huge boost and more easy fights!

and time SAVING alot (try to do the quest later for better end timings)

Battle tricks

DEMONESS+inqi's(workable for armies that all got retalition! with slow melee units)

For this tactic you have to kill all the enemies except for the SLOWEST melee unit
slow is speed 1-2 (maybe 3 if u have faster units but that isn't quite the obvious case:P)

place all your armies at one side of the battle grid except for your FASTEST UNIT(dragons,horseman,evil beholders)
now when your final slowest moves to your MAIN army, use infernal exchange on the unit with the fastest unit at the other end of the battle grid), the enemy has to move again and u can repeat this proces over and over!(which is good)

iin other words you can let your inqisitor make holy anger after each 2-3 turns and u have free balls from LINA(keep using those chargers untill u have full mana and rage!) and go on to the next battle!

*note* this can also be applied with a archer if his level is below 2 (else it would do to much damage , unless u can seduce it then it can only fire each 3 turns) whereafter you seduce it again! :D)

Spells

here i will note the spells that will help u for a NO CASUALTY run

ressurection (quite obvious case no further info needed)

GIFT (use this spell with the inqisitor)

Magic spring/source of magic (generating tons of mana for u)

sacrifice (you will be able to increase your stack without the cost of money(but beware not to exceed THE max LEADERSHIP NUMBER)

Invisibility (in combination with 1 unit+rage cloud of poison u can decimate almost all armies(best used when your a warrrior)

trap (your best friend against black dragons/archidemons

dragon arrow(your second best friend if your using archers against dragons)

Teleport (in combination with the knight+circle attack+timeback this is a lifesavor)

magic shackles( best used against spellcasters and demons)

slow(best used in the beginning to give you more time to kill enemies(best used for mages who have low attack and defense)

battlecry( being the first who is able to bring damage always receives less damage;-) )

ice snake*(more for mages than any other class(since it slows down (meaning -1 to speed) and does damage

firerain (read above but this is more for undead/plants

fear when nearing the end u will see alot of stacks that have enormous low level stacks(fear and u be safe)

blind (perfect for disabling a unit)

phantom(best spell aginst bosses in combination with shaman totems(making the spider and kraken laughable;-)


sheep a more expensive way of disabling a unit

pain mirror (a VERY CHEAP damaging spell(good for high level units or enormous stacks

hypnosis (perfect combination with sacrifice(steal his unit sacrifice it to increase your own number and also good tank:P(when enemies keep pounding on the hypnotised unit)

target good to keep low level units alive when they aim for the tank

(for the spells not mentioned i haven't found a purpose for them at least not better than those mentioned above)

(not saying those spells not mentioned are completely useless, sure they have a purpose but less effective compared to those mentioned above!)







Razorflame out

for any suggestions or more detailed advice feel free to post it here and i will edit this post!

[Elwin]

Nice JOB, I stick it. Further guide development is also welcomed

[bucazaurus]

Little rectifications are required on Prismatic Helm and Dragon Cloak.
They have lesser bonuses.

[Razorflame]

thanks for the correction bucasaurus

fixed it now ^^
got anymore corrections that i missed?

[bucazaurus]

No more corrections. Just a tip to add.
Do not kill all the enemy stacks in the starting continent.
Kill only the stacks you need to advance with the quests and leave the rest alone.
I say this because if you find the Pain Skull or any other good items that gives extra bonuses after a certain numbers of victory later on ,witch often happened,then will be much harder to get those wins required to unlock those bonuses on enemy stacks found on advanced areas.

[loreangelicus]

Don't forget key spells, especially spells that combo with units types.

1) Inquisitors + Gift (level 1 only)

2) Emerald Dragons + Invisibility (level 1 only)

3) Phantom (level 3) + Emerald Dragons/Demons/Griffins/Giants/Shamans/etc.

4) Trap (level 3) + Archmage/Emerald Dragons (I see a trend here...)

[Razorflame]

mostly of those are already covered
but not in detail:)

[BB Shockwave]

best item in the game is the DEAD SKULL

(+5 attack and +5 intellect is A GIFT FOR ANY CLASS




I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.

Both my paladin and Mage are making very good use of the Pain Skull (drained to 0% so it doesn't halve your mana). Without the Pain Skull, my mage couldn't even use any Rage skill in the first round (I know, I tried). +5A and +5I is great, but you can get them with multiple other items (for example the Royal Snake ring gives you +3I, the Runic sword +2A and +2I).

I'd have to say that I found the Rage abilities more usefull then the extra damage my spells or units would inflict - they don't scale as well with increasingly difficult enemy armies as Rage skills do (Glot Armor is a lifesaver in round 1).

There are only a few other items that increase Rage income, and the Spear of Rage is pretty shoddy in that regard. (+20% only in contrast to the +50%)

For a warrior, I bet the Rage increase is not as important, so the +5A and especially the +5I is more usefull.

[loreangelicus]

I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.


How many kills do you need to upgrade it?

Just started Ellinia, and just in case I pick it up somewhere (dead lands?), I have a bunch of suppressable items (around 8) to fight, as well as an intact Gremlin Castle.

Alas, I have killed everything in Freedom and Darion (even Rezo, Enemen, undead in Deserted Castle) except for the giant and dragon enemies in the warrior test. All enemies in the dwarven lands are also dead, except for the double fights (will fight these at the latest level possible).

[Razorflame]

I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.

Both my paladin and Mage are making very good use of the Pain Skull (drained to 0% so it doesn't halve your mana). Without the Pain Skull, my mage couldn't even use any Rage skill in the first round (I know, I tried). +5A and +5I is great, but you can get them with multiple other items (for example the Royal Snake ring gives you +3I, the Runic sword +2A and +2I).

I'd have to say that I found the Rage abilities more usefull then the extra damage my spells or units would inflict - they don't scale as well with increasingly difficult enemy armies as Rage skills do (Glot Armor is a lifesaver in round 1).

There are only a few other items that increase Rage income, and the Spear of Rage is pretty shoddy in that regard. (+20% only in contrast to the +50%)

For a warrior, I bet the Rage increase is not as important, so the +5A and especially the +5I is more usefull.

as i expected you ain't chainfighting that completely removes the value of the pain skull

before you even start your single fight after the turtle with a ancient vamp or something

make sure u got magic spring then end the battle with max rage and mana
and start new fight right after keep doing this untill u have cleared an area then go to the second with 75% rage

keep doing this area after area and you shouldn't have any problems in keeping the rage up
^^

[BB Shockwave]

as i expected you ain't chainfighting that completely removes the value of the pain skull

before you even start your single fight after the turtle with a ancient vamp or something

make sure u got magic spring then end the battle with max rage and mana
and start new fight right after keep doing this untill u have cleared an area then go to the second with 75% rage

keep doing this area after area and you shouldn't have any problems in keeping the rage up
^^

Erm, that doesn't really work. Enemy difficulties vary, so I won't just run and kill another as soon as the last one has fallen - the next group might be too strong for me. I like to pick my fights. - I do use the Thorn Crown to save some rage between fights, though.

[Razorflame]

it does work for me ;-) use magic spring + resu and u be ok most of the times;-)

[Shadowdrake]

well you'd need to be hit four times for an average Resurrection to be worthwhile, and being hit that much would probably use up most of your ressurection... unless you have griffins who would make that worthwhile anyway (quadruple damage per round :D)

[Razorflame]

ever heard of reducing a stack to minimal like les than 5 units?

their hit hardly does damage to the unit and with a totem behind it it wil heal the attacked unit ;-)

[Razorflame]

i have updated the post ;-)

more info is inside enjoy your read!

[Center]

after the save scan en look if u have any good ones (if not start over and do so again)


ITEMS

best item in the game is the DEAD SKULL

(+5 attack and +5 intellect is A GIFT FOR ANY CLASS

second best item ANGA"S RUBY
(for female armies)

gladiator sword>+10 might runes after 50 vics

banner of faith>+10 mind runes after 50 vics

ancient amulet>+10 magic runes after 50 vics

Baton>+1 morale to humans(last upgrade) too lazy to name all the batons:P

well of mana belt>+2 mana regen in combat (which is a GREAT BOON)

dragon cloack> +20% base defense and +15 % power of damaging spells excellent for mage

prismatic helm>+5 MANA and +20% power of damaging spells

xerus sword >+3 int and +3 att



look for 2 or more of these items in your start game to have a good start!



Im curious, what do you mean by check the shops for these items? All the shops on the island? Just the first two in the starting town? Or is there some way to browse through all the shops at once?

[Razorflame]

the most important ones ;-)

the main castle
the shop next to your main castle

then to mage tower(point where u get the rage box)
and possibly the 3 castles there(sometimes i am too lazy to check there)
and at graveyard the furious paladin

rest of the shops aren't that important

but nonetheless there is always a chance there is a good item hidden in there
it never hurts to scout all shops on darion(if your sure you want a good item start)

you save at start of the adventure anyway:)
and after your done scouting all shops and noted the good items or not

reload from save or start over again and redo ^^

[poodle]

I'm trying to understand how you came up with some of the 'best' items on that list. like why would +1 to human morale be such a big deal, or even the female bonus? why wouldn't you mention that dagger that gives +20% criticals?

does anybody use sets for bonuses also?

[Razorflame]

for pointer the +1 morale also gives leadership


and the female ring anga ruby is specially used for a female combo(power puff girls)

they beat the shit out of anything except bosses xD

but high iniative demonssses with dryads and sprites :p
pure ownage

[Heroe]

ive been playing this game and i never used almost none of these strategies.. :)
i cant think of a better spell in the beggining of fight - phoenix :) i got it quite early..
my armies mere mostly of neutral creatures up to where i got demons :)
but the fights are tough against strong melee demons and dragons... any hints what spell to use instead of ancien phoenix?

[ludak021]

nice general guide. One thing is missed thou :) If you don't have resu spell in beguinig, and you usually don't, you can hardly play no loss. Also, when starting, Darion is full of plant archers, so no fear on them, and your 8-12 inquisitors vs 100+ archers = no more inquisitors = no resu. In armored princess one could kite to get a troll or even a dragon and get a no loss from start, but the best unit in darion I can find is 3 knights and some royal snakes. Before them, I made peace with my self and playing no loss since the meat wagons you can have early game die very often even with archmage's shield and stoneskin on them. Not to mention that magic spring gives % to defense instead of fixed number like in KB AP, inquisitors have only 50 HP instead of 70 (if I recall correctlly, I dump all my units in KB AP once I get to BD/RD/GD/BK, nothing else is needed :D )

My big problem is that I played KB AP first (4 runs for now) and just now got the KBTL and I find that everythig is harder :/ but not in a good way. I picked mage and feel retarded, too much runes needed for higher magic and too much runs spent on crap skills in between (archmage skill is useless, or, it will be when you get access to level 5 units), no holy anger, no transmute, even reserve requires to be learned (twice!).
kiting seems to be more difficult, range from which enemy can attack you is bigger?!

anyway, good strategy guide overall, only remark is about archers since they rarely come in one stack, most often you will find 2 stacks, and you can only cast one fear or two as a mage (but it seems to take foreever to get to higher magic, I am still only on Darion, almost cleared it, level 8 and I still can't afford HM (I collected 19 runes thou, so I am close). So, if you can cast one fear on one 150 plant archer stack, how will inquisitors (as a mage you have ~800~1000 LS as level 6-8 when you start missing weaker stacks) live trough another 150 archer plant stack that will do 400+ dmg? :) Or, for illustration, getting to a witch in underground requires you to clean a group with 50 royal snakes and some 250 other snakes, in my game I still havent found neither trap nor resu scroll, actually, only usefull spells I found are fear, stoneskin, slow, haste and magic well. No resu, sacrifice, phantom, call of nature, demon portal, trap, invis. etc. Only viable strategy I see atm is getting those ancient vamps, but this is my first run in KBTL and I sort of avoided graveyard in swamps till now, seems like a big mistake :P of well, first run... :P

cheers!

[Razorflame]

u got the spell gift in KB:TL which lets u use another skill from a unit again
plants are one of the easiest archer to kill in KB:TL (fireball/fire arrow)
the burning effectwill kill alot since they have low HP

and u can always use a ghost stack*(they regenreate hp by attacking and even growing in size)
but beware when they get too much leadership they will go red and attack everything:)

horseman/evil beholder/inqi's/royal snakes/priest
is a nice combo for the first island;)

[BobMaster]

Just a few 'for your information' about the items ...

2 of the ones in the list will be in each and every game you play, those will be:

Anga's Ruby
Dragon Cloak

Also, the Officer's Baton (lvl1 name) has always been in every game I scanned using KBScanner, so maybe there are even 3 best items which will always be present.

[Lex]

2 of the ones in the list will be in each and every game you play, those will be:

Anga's Ruby
Dragon Cloak

Also, the Officer's Baton (lvl1 name) has always been in every game I scanned using KBScanner, so maybe there are even 3 best items which will always be present.Not only these two. There is also Kerus's Sword in every game (of course we are talking only about listed items - because there are some others guaranteed in every game).

Your info about Officer's Baton is not true - it appeared in around 60% of my scanned games.

[Eat-Man]

Thanks for the guide, before I got here I was using peasants/sprites/dragonfly/swordsman/bowman until they died, always replacing dead units, avoiding too many fights, after the guide I changed to Royal Snakes/Griffins/Inquitor/Priest/Alchemist, I got to them running, cleared swamps by lv4/5, with 5-6 losses on griffins and snakes together, now lv6 15int fighting most slightly/strong enemies with no losses, got banner of faith+ancient amulet on store with spear of rage+book of beast rage to use the box of spirits faster and some +int items that gave me +5int.

I got one question as a mage, should I upgrade Alchemy before learn and upgrade more spells or I will find enough crystals although getting Alchemy could speed the process?

[Fatt_Shade]

I got one question as a mage, should I upgrade Alchemy before learn and upgrade more spells or I will find enough crystals although getting Alchemy could speed the process?

If you play in turn without kiting to other areas investing in alchemy is good plan since lvling up spells give more dmg then getting intellect slowly. This also depends of your main dmg dealers (units/spells/rage spirits), but for mage investing in anything concerned spells is good idea. Still considder that first you lvlup magic skill you want to upgrade spells in then alchemy, because if you lvl up alchemy first to 3 lvl, and then no runes for magic skill there`s no point :-)
Also you get lots of magic crystals later in game, but will also need alot of them for 3rd lvl of spells so be careful not to waste it on spells you never use (expl : lvlup fireball to 3 lvl, then use only lightning/geyser , or lvlup precision/berserk when you only cast direct dmg spells). I odnt know how experienced you are in this game, and how much you know what is at your disposal but dont just lvlup all spells in your spellbook but consider what spell you need and use crystals for it, because they are plenty in game of them for mage with 3rd lvl alchemy, but not in unlimited supply. So you will eventually end up with 0 crystals.
Have fun playing this awesome game :-)

[Eat-Man]

Thanks for the help!
Well this is my first time playing the game, I'm Lv6 using Horseman and Royal Snakes as tanks now, although Griffin hp is higher the Royal dish more damage so the enemy has no chance of fighting back, while they hold the enemy I use Alchemist/Priest/Inquisitor/spells.Right in the start 1 fireball for slow ranged enemies and trap/slow for fast enemies and other spells mid battle.
The spells I use and I'm thinking of upgrading Lv3 Helplessness/Bless/BattleCry/Slow/Magic Spring/Haste/Trap.
Spells to find: Firerain/Sheep/Geyser/Magic Shackles/Ressu/Phoenix and Phantom
I'm using Sleem's Cloud and Schoal waiting for Glot's Armor, Zerock's Rockfall and Stonewall.
I got +80 crystals, cleared Greenwort/Swamps/Forest except for very strong to impossible with hero quality enemies.
I'm thinking about using Dragon/Demons/Cyclops and some ranged units maybe elf by mid-end game I don't know all the units avaiable.

[Razorflame]

you don't need alcemy it's just a waste of runes

you only need 10 spells and only a few o those will be needed to up to level 3

and for those things u don't need any alcemy skills

unless u want to upgrade EVERY spells then yeah alchemy would be a good idea

and make sure you use the spells based on the units you take with you;)

[Shadowcran]

Some creatures are very good vs the Towers:
Before I begin, yeah, melee creatures next to the towers can wreck them good, but getting there can be a lesson in futility. The ones I'm mentioning below are flying or ranged units capable of wrecking towers.

Ents and Ancient Ents both hit the towers with the insect swarm hard. Plus, they're expendable. Who cares if they get killed as they're borderline worthless in regular battles? However, they tend to last in these tower battles as well. Keep them in garrison primarily for tower battles.

Dwarven Catapult. This should have been obvious to me from the start...but it wasn't.

Any dragon. Red and Black being better than Emerald, who I feel is the best in the regular battles.

Griffins. Buff them up, heal them, it doesn't matter. Sic them on the towers and don't concern using them on regular units unless they're in the way.

Dwarven Alchemist, but ONLY with fire bottle. After it's used, either give them the "Gift" or, like I do, have them assault the brown gremlin towers as they're ability to range through creatures to hit the tower thus damaging them both is the best use of them.

Unless you're going for zero units, the dwarves all make good tower assaulters due to their "hardiness" plus being expendable. As a mage, these are what I use for towers. I wait til I'm at a dwarven castle, replace my regular units with the expendables and easily rush the battle.

Giants- Otherwise, don't waste a cent on purchasing them.