Single stack (Red dragons), impossible mage

[Chase]

So early on I got a call of the colossus and got me a red dragon. Using this unit is enough for the first couple of islands if you play smart. Eventually I managed to kite my way to shattera and ultrax to pick up some eggs.

then I got armageddon and two of the astral resistance items.

Needless to say Ive cleared out most of the game now with just red dragons and even if my tactic is a bit cheesy I do enjoy it :)

I will start any fight by waiting or depending on the enemies I will cast stone skin. Then If I have more then 600 hp when its my turn to move I just throw out armageddon. Rinse an repeat for 2-3 rounds while using rage for the mana bursts.

I was quite fun killing the 100 dragons in Montaro with just a few red dragons and the hardest encounter so far has been the Driller. But mana spring (for the extra defense and mana regen + stoneskin) saved the day in the end.

I actually think you can be able to beat the game with just red dragons if you focus a lot of defensive items and spells and just outlast the enemies.

Any input from anyone?

[Chase]

I may also add that so far Ive had no unit losses. And barely a few reloads thanks to Turn back time :)

[DGDobrev]

I doubt that one can beat the game with a single Red, Black, or Green Dragon stack. The late game bosses (Gremlion, K'Tahu and Baal) will give you very hard time.

K'Tahu's spit is about 3.5k Physical damage and even with a very powerful stone skin + magic spring on, it'll hurt, and you need your spell casts to damage the boss, not heal the dragon... Not to mention that you need to worry about his summons as well.

Baal has 80% Fire Protection (he's a demon afterall), which will make the Red and Black dragons look pitiful and when he summons demons, they will simply laugh at them (since demons have 50% or higher fire resistance).

However, the game is beatable with a single Bone Dragon stack, and has been proven already by Zechnophobe. The bone dragons inflict poison damage and few bosses and units have a decent resistance to it.

So, if you're willing to be a little bit flexible (meaning your strategy is not RD-based only), add a secondary stack to help the RD's from time to time :)

[Chase]

Good advice there :).

I just enjoy the general snipe tactic with red dragons, but you have nice initiative on the bone dragons aswell. It should be noted that Im using all the reduce damage items that I can find and that Im also stacking defense as much as I can, while hoovering around 50 intellect.

But I am a bit baffeled by how easy it has been so far with only red dragons and whatever attack spell I feel like throwing out there (Armageddon just because I can right now). So if bone dragons can top that, then it shouldent be hard at all.

It is just so effective that I can clear out islands in just a few hours. Did Umkas last night in 30 mins. And its so easy to have full rage/mana prior to every fight.

This is definatly the most fun Ive had so far in AP :).

[Hento]

then I got armageddon and two of the astral resistance items.

Seriously? I never encountered any such item, does it say specifically resistance to astral damage?

[TemjinGold]

Seriously? I never encountered any such item, does it say specifically resistance to astral damage?

He's likely using gift bag mod.

[Scaramouche]

Yeah, the Ghost Armor in the gift bag mod has 20% Astral Resist for instance.

[Hento]

Hm, I never use any kind of mods, so I was right in thinking there is no such thing as astral damage resistance.

[DGDobrev]

People should realise that gift bag is NOT A MOD. Mod is something that modifies the game in one aspect or another, usually adding extra content to affect and bias the game towards certain hero or heroes, unit or units, or aspect(s) of the game. Gift Bag is official and simply balances the game a little by adding a number items to cover the areas that were not previously covered and affect units that were... humm... "unpopular":
- astral damage resistance items (promotes the armageddon tactic, which was previously unapplicable)
- additional poison resistance items (there was only the healer's jacket before this and it wasn't a certain spawn)
- various items that reduce leadership for units that are rarely used (for example, the alchemist's kit: -25% Leadership and +1 speed will make you use them!)
- various items that boost attack against undead, there is now an item that improves critical damage (taking it over 150%)

That's what I would call re-balancing. Nothing is changed, nothing is modded in a way to bias the game. Usually, player-made mods do just that. The official one doesn't.

[Hento]

I don't understand, has there been released a new patch for KB:AP, where is this "gift bag"?

[TemjinGold]

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=12174

[Chase]

Nope its not possible. I thought that it would be able to work around it, but Zilgadis cannot be killed by just 10 red dragons.

I atleast can not find a way to do it. :)

[DGDobrev]

I doubt there is. Although gremlion has no fire resistance, heal + stone skin will hardly manage to save the reds from suffering major losses from the ever increasing number of enemies. Maybe with 2x Slippery Cuirass + Twinkling boots (+35% physical resistance) and a number of magic resistance items, the damage he'll take is simply way too big.

You can try slapping a flaming eyes scroll on, but I doubt that will help a lot, because if the fairies start hacking at the dragons, they won't be able to retaliate (and that will happen eventually), and that is extremely inconvenient.

[Chase]

The problem is that eventually you reach a spot where you have to cast a heal + stone skin at the same turn. And even with higher magic that only lasts so long.

And Im at the point where I cant get more kills for Moro Dark so I cant get the shard. (40% to go).

Meh, seem I have to try with bone dragons then as I still want to do it with only 1 unit slot.

Time to search up some bone dragon strategy then!

[Zechnophobe]

I beat Zilgadis with 11 Green Dragons and 12 Red dragons. If you have the reds, I'm sure you have the greens. (paladin, Impossible, no losses).

However, I had very high physical resist (see famine to feast thread)... and another secret weapon: Zilgadis' first three towers were all evil gremlins. I just let them live because all they could cast on my two stacks was weaken.

I would keep both stacks stone skinned, and use level 1 life light to heal them both at once when it came time to.

You may try to do something similar. Instead of focusing on Ziggy right off, take out any friendly gremlin towers before they can spawn troops, and leaving evil ones. Once he has only evils, go for him. Use plenty of magic resistance and mana spring.

Edit: Sorry, just realized this was for a SINGLE stack. Yeah, you can still do this, but it will be harder without being a mage. The trick will be in not engaging him at melee for as long as possible while you keep his friendly towers dead. I hope you have 95% magic resistance (easy with the gift bag) if you don't.. yeah probably can't be done :(.

[DGDobrev]

Even if Zilgadis can be beaten, the battle with Baal remains. So far the only single stack of lvl 5 units that can beat him is the Bone Dragons, as you had proven. Red and Black dragons won't even dent his health... Greens can hit him, but they are inefficient. Bone Dragons are the best for this battle because their damage is poison, and every enemy on that arena has 0% resistance to it.

EDIT: Hmmm, maybe the Trolls can deal with this boss as well. However, one will need to wait till it's evening, so that they can regenerate properly. All that's left is some physical protection items (the more, the better), stone skin and magic spring. If the regen is better than the damage the troll takes in a turn, everything is perfect.

[travelingoz]

Just been playing with Gremilion a little seeing what single stacks are good. (Mage-impossible)

Had Scaly set and Twinkling Boots equipped, also 5% resist Crystal artifact. My black dragons were still taking 95+ minimum damage from his AOE Magic attack.
So i added in the Chaos Crown (50% magic res.) and tried again. The Magic attack was still doing 95+ minium damage????
I thought with Chaos Crown the damage would be halved? :confused:
So it seems these items do not stack with the BD's 80% Magic resistance.......

[DGDobrev]

Well, his attack is very powerful and the max resistance is capped at 95%. You probably had close to 95 already. 80% base +7% medal + 5% crystal ball is 92%. I guess the 3% didn't made much difference...

[Zechnophobe]

He clearly already had full magic resistance, because 3% makes a whole LOT of difference at that point!

[DGDobrev]

Zilgadis inflicts 2700-3500 magic damage with its mass attack. 5% of that damage is 135 minimum. It is reduced/increased by atk/def ratio between zilgadis' stats and the unit he's attacking. In essence, even a black dragon will have tough time resisting a lot of mass attacks.

I agree that with those high damage values 3% is a lot (about 80 damage by my calculations), but still, it's all about the base damage of the attack and the fact that it varies between 2700 and 3500.

[travelingoz]

I thought i saw that 5% dress somewheres b4. I might give that a try, however i'll have to lose the Magessy Dress...

[DGDobrev]

Well, there is a 95% resistance cap, so I am not certain it will help much... I think you have hit it already.

[Zechnophobe]

Zilgadis inflicts 2700-3500 magic damage with its mass attack. 5% of that damage is 135 minimum. It is reduced/increased by atk/def ratio between zilgadis' stats and the unit he's attacking. In essence, even a black dragon will have tough time resisting a lot of mass attacks.

I agree that with those high damage values 3% is a lot (about 80 damage by my calculations), but still, it's all about the base damage of the attack and the fact that it varies between 2700 and 3500.

Ah, what I had meant was that going from 92% resistance to 95% resistance should cut your damage by 37%, a very noticeable amount. But yeah, if may be that the first time he got hit by the low end of his range, and the second time by the high end.

[Chase]

I beat Zilgadis with 11 Green Dragons and 12 Red dragons. If you have the reds, I'm sure you have the greens. (paladin, Impossible, no losses).

However, I had very high physical resist (see famine to feast thread)... and another secret weapon: Zilgadis' first three towers were all evil gremlins. I just let them live because all they could cast on my two stacks was weaken.

I would keep both stacks stone skinned, and use level 1 life light to heal them both at once when it came time to.

You may try to do something similar. Instead of focusing on Ziggy right off, take out any friendly gremlin towers before they can spawn troops, and leaving evil ones. Once he has only evils, go for him. Use plenty of magic resistance and mana spring.

Edit: Sorry, just realized this was for a SINGLE stack. Yeah, you can still do this, but it will be harder without being a mage. The trick will be in not engaging him at melee for as long as possible while you keep his friendly towers dead. I hope you have 95% magic resistance (easy with the gift bag) if you don't.. yeah probably can't be done :(.

Thats actually brilliant as I do have access to greens (blacks and bone aswell)

Im 10 fights or so from beating the game now so Ill probably start over with bone dragons. And Im REALLY looking forward to it. Ill be looking at 6-7 days and no loss on this game which is fairly ok. I did waste some time by doing some quests out of my way, but all in all it has been my best game so far in AP :).

A lone red dragon army makes for some AMAZING chain pulling of everything that you see on the map as you can end every game with full mana and full rage.

Obviously I used the egg trick on a couple of colossus scrolls and I would scout ahead sometimes and then reload, but other then that It has been a good run when it came to spells and artifacts.

Cheers for the good pointers everyone!