Teach me, expert players of Armored Princess

[kcwong]

I'm trying to get a no-loss mage @ impossible... all previous attempts failed.

- In the first I caved and accepted a battle cannot be done without loss
- The second I failed by digging not enough (had to erect walls to save my units), and spending on the wrong units (assassin and archmage, which came at limited supply at this point, leaving not enough for paladins)

In my current game, I have a bit over 15K, but I'm at a loss about which stack to fight next.

Here's some notes about this game:
- I don't want to use save/reload to kite maps (I am not skillful enough anyway)
- I almost cleared Debir, leaving only the heroes. My tiny stack of inquisitors is not sufficient to deal with the fire arrow spell twice, or poison skull once.
- I did all I could on Scarlet Winds.
- On Bolo I managed to kite to the cave once, and kite the amulet inside too. But there's a stack of polar bears that will travel all the way down the narrow passageway.
- On Bolo I had a very hard time fighting anything - barbarians and berserkers travel fast and are too numerous.
- I wonder if getting some attack/defense artifact would help? I only have enough gold to get a few points...

An uploaded save is worth a thousand words... so I uploaded it to Box.net (no need to register, no waiting in queue, just click and download):
Save game (http://www.box.net/shared/hnib4ptl8o)

Would you take a look at my save game and give me some hints? Thank you!

[jynki]

did you actually read the post right above yours..? It has great advices on how to do no loss as a mage on impossible.
after only 2 days of getting to know the game (and reading guides) i started my impossible mage, currently done all major quests on all islands except reha and sheterra and gotten the last stone without ever losing a single unit, and its actually ridicilously easy once you know what to do. but i really dont understand how you think you should be able to do a no loss run on impossible without even reading guides..

and I do think that you need to learn map kiting to get free leadership, units and items from higher lvl islands, or i think your game will be very slow having almost equal strenght as your opponents all the time

[kcwong]

I refuse to kite for maps - not that save/reload trick. I see it as an exploit and I won't use it. If I do that I might as well give myself 100 dragons, or spend my time elsewhere.

I'm looking for suggestions, not general directions. I've done no loss on all other difficulties, so I already know those.

I uploaded my save game because I want other people to take a look, to be able to give concrete, solid, suggestions. Battlefield tactics against those stacks I couldn't overcome. Pointing out the skills I chose isn't ideal, etc.

Load the save, and try beating the stack of assassins in front. If you can, tell me how (and if you reload for lucky AI decisions). Or what other preparations you did to kill it without loss.

Or load the save, and fetch the amulet from Bolo. Tell me how you deal with the roaming stacks (that polar bear that will travel all the way down the mine entrance) that I cannot escape from.

[jynki]

dude you can not compare givings yourself 100 dragons which is cheating to kite maps which is playing by game mechanics, and thus not cheating?

[kcwong]

If it's doing it in one go, no pause-save-reload, then I'm okay with it. In fact I already said I kite the amulet from the mines on Bolo.

But kiting maps cannot be done that way - not for people without supernatural reflexes. The map guards only move with you are extremely close, and pause-save-reload is how people do it. Hence I consider it cheating. Not to mention extremely tedious, which is why I said not worth doing.

Now let's go back to waiting for someone to take a look at the uploaded save game, shall we?

[jynki]

and how can save/reload not be playing by game mechanics? to save/reload is a very fundamental game mechanic so ofcourse that´s not cheating just because you have set a limit too how many times you think one should be allowed to save/reload at a given time ?

[kcwong]

Please stop arguing. That's not the point of my thread.

[impy]

I took a look at your save. You're lucky I'm having some stomach problems so i'm stuck at home:)

First, about your character:
1) do not invest in transmute skill too early. You noticed yourself it wiped out your might runes, which are always in short supply for mage.
2) investing in wisdom gives only 6 mana, leave it for lot later. You want to pump up important skills first as a mage- chaos and/or distorsion magic.
3) do not invest in glory either. Again, you need the runes for magic skills.
4) i see you had trap spell available but did not buy/use it. No loss on impossible without kiting is difficult especially at the beginning, you have to take every little help game has to offer. Fights in Debir are easy, surely you could have squeezed some traps in? Getting it to at least level 2 means slowing down enemies+damage. The same goes for casting stone skin and getting the Guardian medal.
5) definitely take 4 archmagi from tower in Scarlet. They're sturdy, ranged, can push the enemies back, magic shield ability, chance to lower speed, help with guardian medal... as a replacement for archers.
6) you only have one unit which can resurrect, so you cannot afford to lose much and of one type of unit only. Swordsmen will have to go. replace with polar beers from Bolo
7) you're spending crystals on spells you will never use as mage- nature call, guardian angel, dragon arrows... save crystals
8) as a mage you only chance at the start is ranged damage, spell damage, no retaliation damage. So preferably no melee units apart from snakes or very sturdy ones - reason why swordmen have to go
9) fear is a great spell. therefore you need to remove units level 1-2 from your army - reason why archers have to go.

As a mage you have to choose which way to go and specialize. Distorsion and buffing/debuffing enemies? Then go for distorsion 2 quickly, keep casting slow, fear, dragon kick back, send summoned thorns forward with archmagi magic shield to occupy the enemy, and shoot. or Spell damage. Go for chaos 2 fast = stronger spells, longer fear spell, again attack from the distance.

Hmm, with you current state of affairs it is not exactly brilliant. Get +1int headgear from debir underground. go to bolo and collect unguarded rusty anchor map from in front of erica tent, you only have to avoid those barbarians by the boat, if you wait for the right moment. On rusty you will find paladins in the tavern...
good luck!

[mare911]

I tried save you attached above. Your army composition was pretty weak and hero slots were empty.
1st I equipped some +1 items which provided significant boost to your setup
2nd You didnt bought trap spell on Debir effectively crippling your chance of acquiring trapper medal (later in game enemies are harder to kill with a trap)
3rd I changed units for better survivability in this stage of game (since its no loss). I decided to make droids team (2 x repair + guard) mixed with palas + royal snakes. Droids are designated to be self ressing tanks, snakes are dmg dealers and palas are tank/ress/utility, depending on situation.

To gain access to all of this i set sail to Bolo and bought droids from the dwarf guy in front of the cave. Then i kited Droid boss in cave (since you considered this kosher ;) ) to get paladins later.
After this i cleared rest of Debir (3-4 miniboss fights) to gain money i lost on droids and eventually bought paladins.
For your convenience i cleared few patrols on Bolo to secure path to droid guy (btw i picked up unguarded Rusty Anchor map there :) )

All fights were no loss ofc

P.S. I uploaded finished save below
P.P.S. Lastly i killed assassins stack you mentioned - it was super easy :)

[kcwong]

Thank you very much, Impy and mare911.

About glory:
I have always considered getting glory to be very important - as a mage I have very little leadership to start with already. On normal/hard that was sufficient for me to get more offensive and healing power to make my way through. Not good enough for impossible though, as my situation clearly demonstrated. ;)

About empty item slots:
I'll read the info thread again, this time really get into the maths. I was skeptical about how good are +1/+2 to attack/defense stats.

About trap spell:
In my previous mage game I got all the trap medals - I didn't find it too useful back then, to be honest. I must cast it against natural obstacles, or the AIs will just run right around it, and still the trap will only delay them for one turn while blocking me from casting other spells. I'll try combining it with a small army and dragon wall.

About skill focus:
Since equipping some +1/+2 attack/defense artifacts did the trick, that means I was wrong not getting a level of the might skills.

Thanks again. I'll take a look at the save you uploaded, mare911, and compare the item/army config against mine. Then I'll restart - my skill choices are a mess!

[impy]

Hey kcwong, all is not lost yet. As i said, just get the rusty island map from bolo and there are paladins in tavern +2 easy quests not requiring fighting - captain bottles and bringing chests from scarlet. That should give you a level, plus you collect all the leadership rods from new area etc. On bolo, save game, get off the boat on the left, ,run past the barbarians up the hill and look. if there are enemies blocking your way, reload, wait 10-15-20.. seconds and try again. Remember, enemies are constantly moving, just wait for the right moment. Also, about your problem with polar bears not letting you out of bolo underground. Before you go underground, loose the tail and stop for several seconds. Once you go underground, game aboveground "freezes" in the exact position you left it in. (hence the polar bears = if they were following you before you descent, they would be there once you reappear again). Only if it is all nice and clear then go underground, 'cause you know it is safe to come back. Once done underground, come back up and wait by the entrance until the road is clear, it may take again 5,10,20..sec. If some enemy comes down the hill, there is a bit wider area at where the droids are positioned, just run around enemy there. Yes, you may restar the game if you wish, on the other hand you can consider yourself lucky to have access to rusty without fight, it does not happen that way everytime.

1) glory. i am not saying it is a bad skill, but it is about the runes. From your "mage power" point of view what is better - having 250 leadership or higher level of magic? definitely the latter
2) traps. Seems that you're talking about casting trap spell (i agree, not the best), but free of charge pre-laid traps are very nice to have. During the battle you can reposition your army in a way, which will force AI to come right down on the traps, or use dragon kick to push them on a trap or use archmagi skill.
3) casting pet dragon wall. don't do that. It stops pet dragon for 2 turns. Casting cheap dragon kick or mana acc. is better
4) you say - "i was wrong not getting a level of might skills". I hope you mean att/def equipment (eventhough as a mage you should prefer mana/int equipment) not spending runes on might skills. DO NOT. From might tree only invest in pet dragon skills, and only when you're happy with the magic tree first.

[kcwong]

Hey kcwong, all is not lost yet. <snip>

I looked at what you've changed, and then fought a few battles to test how well I can use them. I started a new game (since my skill choice was a mess), but I've made a backup - so I'll definitely go back and continue this game afterward.

if there are enemies blocking your way, reload, wait 10-15-20.. seconds and try again. Remember, enemies are constantly moving, just wait for the right moment.

Correct me if I'm wrong: the enemies have several patrol schemes, randomly chosen when generating the map. This patrol scheme controls where they will go (unless you are nearby), and most importantly for guards, controls how far they will move from their station.

In my new game the boss droid in the mines won't go any further than the middle of the two tunnels going left and right (luckily it paused long enough for me to snatch the amulet). In the game I uploaded, it will chase me around the 90º turn and a bit more.

So the possibility of kiting treasure is also somewhat predetermined on map generation.

What I'm trying now is to disrupt their schedules... factor in how long they will pause after losing my trail, I try to group multiple stacks into a cluster, leaving me a much longer time period to fetch items after they are gone. I'm not always successful though.

Only if it is all nice and clear then go underground, 'cause you know it is safe to come back. Once done underground, come back up and wait by the entrance until the road is clear, it may take again 5,10,20..sec. If some enemy comes down the hill, there is a bit wider area at where the droids are positioned, just run around enemy there.

That gap looks really really narrow... bears may be doable, but if it's a barbarian stack I'll be out of luck.

In my new game I got lucky - I can access the mines from both ways, due to the stack type. On the top of the mountain it's a stack of druid and royal thorn, both very slow moving. I can dodge them both easily, and I found some cyclops there. The bear near the landing is a bit harder to dodge - I have to make sure the way is clear (2 bears and 1 barbarian above), as I cannot stop or the bear will catch me.


1) glory. i am not saying it is a bad skill, but it is about the runes. From your "mage power" point of view what is better - having 250 leadership or higher level of magic? definitely the latter


In my new game I've obtained level 2 destruction and alteration, and 1 order. I've spent no other skill points other than defense 1. I think it's about time to get glory 1, in order to have more repair droids...


3) casting pet dragon wall. don't do that. It stops pet dragon for 2 turns. Casting cheap dragon kick or mana acc. is better


Early on the wall allows me to win some fights... but on Bolo enemies can knock a level 1 wall down in one hit. So yeah, I agree it's not worth it. I had to use it because my last game's army selection is bad, it's wall or lose units.


4) you say - "i was wrong not getting a level of might skills". I hope you mean att/def equipment (eventhough as a mage you should prefer mana/int equipment) not spending runes on might skills. DO NOT. From might tree only invest in pet dragon skills, and only when you're happy with the magic tree first.

Yes, I meant getting some att/def skill. And I did put a point into +1 def. In all my non-warrior games I never invested much into pet dragon skills... 0_o

[Sylvine]

Correct me if I'm wrong: the enemies have several patrol schemes, randomly chosen when generating the map. This patrol scheme controls where they will go (unless you are nearby), and most importantly for guards, controls how far they will move from their station.

In my new game the boss droid in the mines won't go any further than the middle of the two tunnels going left and right (luckily it paused long enough for me to snatch the amulet). In the game I uploaded, it will chase me around the 90º turn and a bit more.

While they do have pre-generated patrol routes, it is, form my (limited) experience possible to pretty much always kite them almost indefinitely except for a few special groups - mostly the ones guarding the Navigation Chart locations. The Droid boss, for example, will pretty much always follow You only to the intersection, but can, with some movement on Your part, be lured to follow You further, too.

For kiting advice: What I do is save manually before a kiting spree, then just use the three quicksave slots to go around and snatch treasure. In almost every part of the maps, there is enough room to go lure an enemy to and do a little triangular maneuver to get behind it - it requires very little space, too. Only enemies that give much trouble at kiting are the very fast ones - horsemen, beholders, wolves, bears, dragonfly bosses and so on - it's a bit more difficult with those. If I ever manage to maneuver myself into a corner and have no good way to get out of it with my quicksaves, I still have the save file from the start.

And regarding kiting for navigation charts: I didn't even know about any pause/quicksave/quickload tricks. I can kite away some enemies from charts by going towards them, then turning in a way that will make the character almost touch them with her side. They usually follow her then, some just a little bit, some for longer. Those that follow just for a small bit and stop - for those, save once they have stopped, and try the whole thing again. Sometimes, it works. Sure, it takes time, and doesn't work on every enemy, but it can be done.

And knowing it can be done might just as well let You use any tricks You know to make it less tedious (I know I hate grinding for guardian angel and would gladly use any trick to make it even faster - if I can complete it in a few weak battles with 4xatchmage 1xtank with no challange at all, I don't see anything wrong with sparing myself the tedious, boring grind. But I digress...)

Though, to tell the truth, I try not to do it, anyways. It is obvious that kiting normal enemies and snatching away all the goodies of a map before battling is an integral part of the game and intended, too. Those hard-to-kite enemies guarding charts, however, are obviously NOT meant to be kited, otherwise they, well, wouldn't be so hard to kite ;P Still, on my current warrior playthrough, I actually managed to unlock verona, montera, umkas and sheterra without kiting "guardians" at all. There are a few "free" navigational charts availble in Montera, for example. But getting there can be a pain, I'll admit. Especially for a mage, since he's very dependant on good spells availble (then again, if he manages to find just one of them, repair droids let him do pretty much any fight, so...)

Anyways, hope this helps.

~Sylv

[impy]

You invested 1 point in defence? why? benefits are negligible, and you can easily buy +1def eq. for few coins. There will come a moment when you will eagerly await enough runes to have chaos/distorsion magic at level 3 and they are costly, and then you will remember how you "gave up" runes easily for +1def.

Regarding druids & druid combo. It is sad that many people come on this forum looking for advice with higher difficulties, like you, and they get recommended something which has been discovered as uber-powerful. yes repair droid repair ability is every 3 turn and is brutally powerful. I personally find it sooo powerful that i do not use it, it ruins the game and takes away some of the challenge.
Choice is yours..

p.s. regarding luring enemies from their predescripted path vs. waiting for them to go. The paths on bolo are mostly very narrow so luring enemies doesn't help. That's why i suggested to wait

[kcwong]

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3638/screen100814002.th.jpg (http://img686.imageshack.us/i/screen100814002.jpg/)

No skill taken on Might tree; 1 point each to Neatness on Mind tree.

I don't have any more assassins and archmage. One more necromancer and two more cyclops are available.

I opened up Rusty, but other than snatching a EGD I can't do anything there.

Debir is cleared; Bolo has the droid hero, one big wandering stack and the map guard. Scarlet Winds has one ship hero left (the one using Evil book), the recruiter, the map guard (kited), and one huge stack guarding a banner.

I just got EGD, will have to see what it can do for me.

Among assassin, necromancer and archmage, which one would you choose?

I am thinking to stick with archmage for arcane shield, now that I have more tough stacks (was using 28 repair droids). I can't get rid of the inquisitors at this stage - I'm completely dependent on rage to get more mana. I'm already equipping all affordable mana increasing items I can find. There are more intelligence items I can get though.

[Razorflame]

that ons is easy kcwong
archmage for the arcane shield(use it on your egd and let it them the shit)

or if your rather aggresive

you can pick the necromancer
and use it to revive dead stack or make one unit not use his abilities;)

which both can be very handy

[kcwong]

Yeah I went with the archmage. Killed the evil book hero in Scarlet Winds, and Bolo is clear except the droid hero and the quests. Managed to kill some huge but low level stacks on Rusty by abusing the landscape and fear 2.

Now all enemies on Rusty are out of my abilities... I guess I'll return to Scarlet and try again.

Level 12 now, and I decided to go Chaos 3 first, High Magic for now is quite useless because my mana pool is so tiny (43), and Destruction 2 is not as effective.

Also I ran out of paladins... 11/13. If I can't get the map from Bolo I'll be in trouble...

Edit: Cleared Scarlet Winds... but then I have run out of easy targets. My next one would be the map guard on Bolo, but this is going to be a close one...

[Zechnophobe]

Yeah I went with the archmage. Killed the evil book hero in Scarlet Winds, and Bolo is clear except the droid hero and the quests. Managed to kill some huge but low level stacks on Rusty by abusing the landscape and fear 2.

Now all enemies on Rusty are out of my abilities... I guess I'll return to Scarlet and try again.

Level 12 now, and I decided to go Chaos 3 first, High Magic for now is quite useless because my mana pool is so tiny (43), and Destruction 2 is not as effective.

Also I ran out of paladins... 11/13. If I can't get the map from Bolo I'll be in trouble...

Edit: Cleared Scarlet Winds... but then I have run out of easy targets. My next one would be the map guard on Bolo, but this is going to be a close one...

You should be able to take a lot of battle's on Rusty with that emerald dragon and archmages. What spells do you have? Arcane shield + green dragon + heal, for instance, will lock down just about any melee units you'll likely be facing. Throw in stone skin and/or mana spring to help further.

[kcwong]

But they will go for my tiny stack of archmages... ranged and fast moving enemies like berserker love to do that, since they know they will do very small damage on a buffed EGD.

My current army forms a meat shield - I put inquisitors and archmages on one side, and then EGD, paladins and cyclops block them off from harm.

Maybe I can try a single EGD with stoneskin/mana spring/healing...

Edit: Got Bolo map.

[Minecontrol]

p.s. regarding luring enemies from their predescripted path vs. waiting for them to go. The paths on bolo are mostly very narrow so luring enemies doesn't help. That's why i suggested to wait

I find that it helps to look completely vertically down on your character as you are luring (usually) and then stepping around them. When you make it past one, save.

The only map guardian i ever tried (or succeeded) at kiting was the one on Scarlet near the lake - it was a bandit, very poor mobility.

Never even bothered to learn dragon wall myself, and left glory at level 1 (that one is a tempter, to get you to part with extremely valuable runes for an early game advantage - generally it is not worth it). The might skills i would go for first are the rage ones, i never used Chaos Magic once, some like it a lot but Distortion does me fine.

Among assassin, necromancer and archmage, which one would you choose?

Archmage, you want to send up one 'tank' monster towards the enemy and encourage them to swarm around him, if that tank already is high level then a stoneskin and a magic shield around him (plus use of heal - consider priests) can win you games marked lethal or invincible.... As Zechnophobe says (just saw).

But they will go for my tiny stack of archmages... ranged and fast moving enemies like berserker love to do that, since they know they will do very small damage on a buffed EGD.

Never used it myself, but there is a spell called 'Target', if you use it take down the low def and fast barbs/berserks first before it runs out.

Now all enemies on Rusty are out of my abilities... I guess I'll return to Scarlet and try again.

I remember that feeling :cool:. The thing about this game is desperation will make you take one of those on eventually, and you will win and realise it wasn't that hard all along.

[kcwong]

I went to Verona and snatched all I could. Then I saw a stack of peasants ranked at invincible.

I tried to take it on with Fear and this army:
1 EGD
2 Cyclops
15 Paladins
33 Inquisitors
3 Archmage

There was an obstacle near to the top of the map, which I used together with Fear. Unfortunately I do not have enough mana to last the whole fight (53 max with Transmute 1), and ended up losing 3 Paladins because I don't have time to resurrect.

I decided to switch to a more offensive setup, and switched in 22 Assassins. That didn't go well either, losing 6 Assassins and 1 Paladins at the end.

Finally I kited, using the small plaza near the dock... and found 3 Trolls in the bar!


Waiting for night is sooooooo boring... yet I feel insecure to use fight very strong+ during the day. :/

[Zechnophobe]

But they will go for my tiny stack of archmages... ranged and fast moving enemies like berserker love to do that, since they know they will do very small damage on a buffed EGD.

My current army forms a meat shield - I put inquisitors and archmages on one side, and then EGD, paladins and cyclops block them off from harm.

Maybe I can try a single EGD with stoneskin/mana spring/healing...

Edit: Got Bolo map.

Cast slow on fast moving units so they get 'stuck' to the EGD
Place the EGD at melee range with archers to prevent them from shooting
If you have Target, that is of course the best option, then lure the melee units into the middle of map, and slow them there so you can kill archers with ease.

Use cyclops to pick up medium strength stacks. They can do a *ton* of damage at melee range, but you can't heal them so they are harder to keep alive. Stone skinning them makes them almost impervious to physical damage though.

[kcwong]

I'm clearing Rusty now with the same army... at night stoneskined trolls are absolutely fantastic.

Then I saw the map guard... 70-ish Assassins, 3 stacks of 300-ish Devilfish, 1 stack of 100-ish furious goblins.

"Those assassins would be troublesome, but with fear and trolls I should be able to take it on... "

And then I saw the timer changed to day just as the assassins lunged at me.

>_>

<_<

*loads save*

[kcwong]

Save uploaded to Box.net (http://www.box.net/shared/l5yzfjj0tc) (no registration required).

But I'm owing it all to the utter overpowered-ness of one single unit - troll.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/8447/screen100817003.th.jpg (http://img839.imageshack.us/i/screen100817003.jpg/)
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6871/screen100817004.th.jpg (http://img827.imageshack.us/i/screen100817004.jpg/)

My next destination is Montero Dungeon. I kited some loot during previous visit, but was unable to kill most of the stacks (annoying alchemists and a stack of 14 trolls). Now I have Magic Shackle III to deal with them, I'll go back and try again.

The map guard on Rusty turns out to be still out of my abilities - too many fishes! I cannot keep stoneskin & target while still fearing them. High Magic II or III is needed here.


Edit: Oh boy. Alchemists cannot be controlled easily with just Target... I need to teleport my trolls into their faces, or they will just use their annoying bombs on my other stacks.

Also Montero above ground is hell to kite. Too congested! I'll need to wait for a blue moon to get to the shops on the left side of the island.

Took Learning III to switch to the mage companion, and took out the fatal stack of wolves near the bridge in Verona during the day.

[N3MES1S]

With only 1 stack of 3 trolls, u can kill everyone u want.

[kcwong]

With only 1 stack of 3 trolls, u can kill everyone u want.

No I can't... there is a stack of alchemist near the entrance of Montero Dungeon. It consists of 9 beholders, two stacks of alchemists (30-ish), 14 trolls and about 100 dwarfs. I don't have divine armor, and that army is too much for just stoneskin/magic spring/target to handle.

[kcwong]

Now I'm up to 5 trolls, and the above ground Montero is mostly cleared, I can go anywhere I want. The underground is still fully populated, but I can kite them all.

I found out I left Terkkon while the hero ship was right at the entrance (I hate this "feature"!), so I couldn't go back right now. :(

Opened up Dersu... but that's didn't do much for me except a few flags and crystals.

I may need to swap out 25 paladins and 3 cyclops for some repair droids if I want to move on.

Spell-wise I got Phantom III and Lightning I, plus I can buy Death Star, but no Time back, Geyser and Resurrection yet.

Skill-wise I have some runes saved up... I can get Training II, Anger I, Transmute II, Magic Light II, Destruction II and Thesis II. Give me 1 more magic rune and I can choose High Magic II as well. Sword of Gladiator is 19 battles away from the 10 might runes reward.

I have no problem with mana (max 69) at the moment; rage (25 max) is only used for digging and mana ball, so that's fine too. I think I should choose Thesis II... since I'm not really using a lot of damage spells. All my mana are used on healing, stoneskin, fear, target, slow, and magic spring, and I don't really have time to cast anything else.

Edit: A breakthrough! With repair droids I went back to a map guard on Verona and got my first Call Colosuss - received 2 red dragons. So my line up is now:
2 Black Dragons
2 Red Dragons
1 EGD
4 Cyclops
5 Trolls

And I'm back in business!

[Petwin]

You can sacrifice 2 Trolls to get another EGD. With a few demonologist (and 1x phantom) you can grow back your Trolls.

[kcwong]

You can sacrifice 2 Trolls to get another EGD. With a few demonologist (and 1x phantom) you can grow back your Trolls.

I can grow a stack beyond actual size with sacrifice? I don't know that... Thanks for the tip!

I don't have any demonologist or Time back though, so that'll have to wait.

[Saiko Kila]

I can grow a stack beyond actual size with sacrifice? I don't know that... Thanks for the tip!

I don't have any demonologist or Time back though, so that'll have to wait.

If you like lightning, and don't have time for casting it, and have such high-HP troops - maybe you'd consider using Avenging Angel? It's one of the most awesome spells in the game, very good when it comes to both damage/mana ratio and damage/time. It can damage all targets, including black dragons - and with high Intellect and high level (II and III) even kill some. It would be perfect for demonologists and they summons if you had said demonologists... Demons and executioners with AA are true destroyers.

Another, more tricky spell to consider is "suicide bomber" a.k.a. Kamikaze, which, despite its description, can be cast on most enemies, including summons (for example of goblin tower...) and ranged units (which tend to stay away from you, so are usually safe to be blown out).

Also be careful with sacrifice - it can replenish your troops beyond your leadership limit. Actually it is very useful near the end of fighting, with hard to come troops, you can then store these redundant troops in any free castle and wait for the leadership to go up. You can sacrifice enemy units charmed by demonesses and hypnotised, but unfortunately not summons. I had only one case of unit which went out of control and attacked my other units, usually they either attack random enemies or simply stay put.

[kcwong]

Another, more tricky spell to consider is "suicide bomber" a.k.a. Kamikaze, which, despite its description, can be cast on most enemies, including summons (for example of goblin tower...) and ranged units (which tend to stay away from you, so are usually safe to be blown out).


In my current game I have trouble upgrading most of my items (valued 4000 and up). I tried again today, and remembered your tip about Kamikaze... turns out you cannot use it on those towers.

Perhaps it can only be used with those summoned into play during the lizard boss fight?

Edit:

I finally managed to beat a huge stack on Verona and got the Elon map... but sadly no red dragons for me in both dragon lairs.

Currently my army is:
Cyclops 6/6
Red Dragon 2/4
Black Dragon 3/3
Emerald Green Dragon 4/4
Troll 8/8
Paladin 41/41

I switch cyclops with paladin if I can foresee taking more damage from level 5 enemies (I can't limit them with target).

[Saiko Kila]

In my current game I have trouble upgrading most of my items (valued 4000 and up). I tried again today, and remembered your tip about Kamikaze... turns out you cannot use it on those towers.

Perhaps it can only be used with those summoned into play during the lizard boss fight?


My wording can be a bit misleading but what I meant was that you can use it on summons of goblin towers, not goblin towers proper. Summons often stay next to the tower to protect it and to be as far from you as possible, so they're a perfect target of Kamikaze.

As for spells against Goblin Towers, the best spell is Death Star, and then much weaker but mana conserving Magic Axe. Tactics is a must for using Death Star. With high Intelligence DS will kill any goblin tower(s) in game, so it's best for mages. Other good one for high-level mage with items strengthening damage spells is common Fire Arrow - it doesn't make them burn, but can be quite deadly, almost like Magic Axe III and it costs three times less mana.

My best anti-gremlin, ranged units are Demonologists - I always have much luck with them and their availability though. Actually I call them "demo" for "demolition" and not for "demon" :) They have unique damage (fire, magic and physical) and are quite sturdy. I don't use close combat units against evil gremlin towers, and friendly gremlins are non-issue.


I finally managed to beat a huge stack on Verona and got the Elon map... but sadly no red dragons for me in both dragon lairs.

Currently my army is:
Cyclops 6/6
Red Dragon 2/4
Black Dragon 3/3
Emerald Green Dragon 4/4
Troll 8/8
Paladin 41/41

I switch cyclops with paladin if I can foresee taking more damage from level 5 enemies (I can't limit them with target).

Personally I prefer tactics where I can resurrect easily my troops, so for most of the game I use only EGD (always) and trolls (I change them for other units, like evil beholders, during day) from Level 5.

And while I get red dragons late, usually it's from eggs or from Wanderer Scroll named Call Colossus. Save before using, if you got some crap then use it again later, after feeding some Pseudorandom Numbers to other actions, for example by using different summoning scroll.

[Quelthos]

I am up to level 21, currently. Mostly clearing Verona at the moment. Right now I am using 3/3 giants, 1/3 EGD, 5/5 trolls and 4/4 cyclops.

I have level 3 distortion, level 2 order magic. I mostly use geyser, mana spring, fear, healing and slow, with exorcism for undead as needed. I have level 2 higher magic and concentration, level 3 alchemy, the left side of the mind tree and the dragon skills in the might tree at level 1, among others. I'll probably take level 1 in Thesis next.

As far as the dragon, I use ball of lightning and mana accelerator almost exclusively until the fight is out of hand, where I'll dig up my treasure. The giants + geyser are fantastic for maxing out my rage repeatedly. This is very similar to the setup I used in the first game, though I'd like to eventually find some dragons to round out my army. I may settle for ogres in the meantime.

[impy]

In my current game I have trouble upgrading most of my items (valued 4000 and up). I tried again today, and remembered your tip about Kamikaze... turns out you cannot use it on those towers.

Perhaps it can only be used with those summoned into play during the lizard boss fight?

Edit:

I finally managed to beat a huge stack on Verona and got the Elon map... but sadly no red dragons for me in both dragon lairs.

Currently my army is:
Cyclops 6/6
Red Dragon 2/4
Black Dragon 3/3
Emerald Green Dragon 4/4
Troll 8/8
Paladin 41/41

I switch cyclops with paladin if I can foresee taking more damage from level 5 enemies (I can't limit them with target).

with your army set up i wonder why you carry paladins with you. paladins ressurect units up to level 4, so not for that, they give second turn again up to level 4, so not for that. they are not exactly heavy hitters and are terribly slow speed and initiative wise, you would have to teleport them. They are also used as "damage soaker" with target and stoneskin cast on them, in order to protect other units but with heavy 5th level units you have, there is not need. Looking at your set up, if you insist on keeping those level 5 units, i would replace paladins with some elf range units

[kcwong]

I use cyclops most of the time. But some battles have multiple level 5 stacks (e.g. 2 black dragon stacks and 1 red) and they just love frying my cyclops so much that even Divine Shield can't handle it.

So in those fights I use paladins instead, which I can easily resurrect with Phantom I-III.

Turn Back Time works on everything, but I must cast the level III version for level five creatures, and it must be right after the damage happens. That makes it much harder to use when there are still plenty of enemies around.

[impy]

looking at your leadership, seems you are right in the middle of middlegame. Of course, if you are not playing no loss game, there is nothing to worry about. But if you do later in the game this setup will get hit much nastier and you might not be able to keep up with time back requirements, dragons can only take so much. Don't know how you spent your mind runes, but Voice of the dragon 3 is brilliant, gives +2morale to dragons, which is 20% to defence (i think..) which is percent based and means huge bonus to dragons surviving capabilities.
Neverthless, dragons are known as a very bad choice for end game bosses, but you are far from that.
Best of luck.

[kcwong]

looking at your leadership, seems you are right in the middle of middlegame.

I've unlocked Elon, Nameless Island, the two Orc islands as well. I managed to defeat some stacks on them. I have 9 trolls, 7 cyclops, 3/5 reds, 5 greens and 4 blacks.


Of course, if you are not playing no loss game, there is nothing to worry about. But if you do later in the game this setup will get hit much nastier and you might not be able to keep up with time back requirements, dragons can only take so much.

That's true... the enemy stacks are getting bigger and bigger, sometimes even stoneskined trolls have trouble. In some fights my black dragons had about 100 HP left, doing nothing except opening chests and spewing fire every few turns.

I have no real preference for unit types though, I only want this to be a no loss impossible mage game. I am trying to kite on Elon... if there is an Elven Bow somewhere I will have the +9 Int set. There's a dress for sale that gives bonus to elven troops, so maybe I can switch to a full elven line-up.

Don't know how you spent your mind runes, but Voice of the dragon 3 is brilliant, gives +2morale to dragons, which is 20% to defence (i think..) which is percent based and means huge bonus to dragons surviving capabilities.
Neverthless, dragons are known as a very bad choice for end game bosses, but you are far from that.
Best of luck.

I have Learning III and Absolute Balance III, Neatness II, and their prerequisites at I. I still have about 20 mine runes.

Magic tree is almost maxed - Wisdom I, all magic schools III, Magic Light III, Destruction III, High Magic III, Transmute II, Thesis III, Linguistics II.

Might tree - Anger I, Dragon Training III, Rage Control III. About 8 might runes left.

[impy]

You see, you admit yourself your black dragons sometimes have hard time and therefore are not that useful. and it will not get any better as the game progresses. Maybe it is time to replace them. For example: take advantage of paladin's circle resurrection. Get archer unit which will stand right next to paladins and will get resurrected along with them at the end of the battle. Or get summoning units - royal griffins, demonologists, demons, dryads..that way you get expendable meatshield.
You will have to replace all 5th level units before end game battles anyway.

I do not follow your skills selection. Yes, even on impossible no loss game the middle game tends to be not-that-difficult, but still..
Mage character should specialize from the beginning.
1) Devastator : high intelect and mana, casting pretty much only damaging spells - geyser, death star, fire rain etc. This character ignores light magic, transmute, order magic and goes quickly after chaos 3, higher magic, concentration, destruction etc, hero equipment boosts primarily int/mana, mind tree also focuses on int boosters first.
2) Supporter :buffing/debuffing armies - summoning, battle cry, slow, fear etc. you name it. This character goes after distorsion, order, transmute, higher magic,summoning, while chaos, concentration, mana/int boosters are delayed. Mind tree - prayer, persuation etc.

Idea behind specialization is to excel in certain field.. As you can see from your chosen skills, you have bit of both; neither strong spellcaster or strong supporter. Your game maybe doable as it is, but if you are looking for perfection:-)

But, I am suprised with your might tree skills.
Mage,as we know, does not generate as much rage as warrior, and apart from very rare dragon dive only casts mana acc., lightning ball + treasure. Now how many levels of pet dragon do you need to max out these 3 skills? 30 max. Is there therefore a need to boost dragon experience? No. Remember, you cannot use pet dragon in boss battles anyway. I personally go for rage around 50 only with mage, just enough to cast maxed lightning ball and have some decent calm rage. So Rage control 1, training 1 - but only as prerequisite for Anger 1-2. With rest of the runes you can either go after frenzy or boost your defence.

P.S. you do not mention to have concentration skill. I'm sure you have it. There is a reason why it is all the way at bottom of magic tree - it is one of the best

[kcwong]

You see, you admit yourself your black dragons sometimes have hard time and therefore are not that useful. and it will not get any better as the game progresses. Maybe it is time to replace them.

My black dragons got hurt because I sent them into biting a big but feared stack. Even with High Magic III sometimes I couldn't keep them all feared long enough, so I had to deal some damage fast. Of course I only do that when I calculate that my dragons won't die even on a critical hit.

I can still go a bit further with the dragons... though I've started seeing some big and tough stacks, like 2x20 Giants, 6 EGDs, about 200 Evil Beholders and about 100 Cannoneers guarding a map in Grand Canal, 14 Archdemons with lots of lesser demonic units in Abandoned Mines, and I know with my low leadership I won't be able to win without loss.

But still, it's my first time using so many dragons together, so I'll enjoy them as long as I can manage. ;)

For example: take advantage of paladin's circle resurrection. Get archer unit which will stand right next to paladins and will get resurrected along with them at the end of the battle. Or get summoning units - royal griffins, demonologists, demons, dryads..that way you get expendable meatshield.
You will have to replace all 5th level units before end game battles anyway.

I kited around Nameless Island and got 57 Demonologists with me now, replacing 7 Cyclops. If I had to replaced Black Dragons I have near unlimited amount of Royal Griffins on several islands, and of course I have plenty of Paladins stashed in a castle.

I do not follow your skills selection. Yes, even on impossible no loss game the middle game tends to be not-that-difficult, but still..
Mage character should specialize from the beginning.
1) Devastator : high intelect and mana, casting pretty much only damaging spells - geyser, death star, fire rain etc. This character ignores light magic, transmute, order magic and goes quickly after chaos 3, higher magic, concentration, destruction etc, hero equipment boosts primarily int/mana, mind tree also focuses on int boosters first.
2) Supporter :buffing/debuffing armies - summoning, battle cry, slow, fear etc. you name it. This character goes after distorsion, order, transmute, higher magic,summoning, while chaos, concentration, mana/int boosters are delayed. Mind tree - prayer, persuation etc.

Idea behind specialization is to excel in certain field.. As you can see from your chosen skills, you have bit of both; neither strong spellcaster or strong supporter. Your game maybe doable as it is, but if you are looking for perfection:-)


I made some mistakes reporting my skills - it's only Dragon Training 2, and I have Scouting III. Transmute is maxed, and my future magic runes are going into Concentration.

Early on I focused as a protective spell caster - keeping my stacks stoneskined, enemies feared, tough creatures helpless, etc.

Once I get all spell scrolls developed I invested in Intelligence and Mana increasing skills. I have around 40 Int. without equipping much Int artifacts. I have two Advisor's Dress, though with the Trolls and Dragons I prefer Slippery Cuirass and Leather Dress more, making them extremely tough.

I started casting more offensive spells late, hence I still have a little bit more spell uses to go for Fire Mage III and Trapper III medal.


But, I am suprised with your might tree skills.
Mage,as we know, does not generate as much rage as warrior, and apart from very rare dragon dive only casts mana acc., lightning ball + treasure. Now how many levels of pet dragon do you need to max out these 3 skills? 30 max. Is there therefore a need to boost dragon experience? No. Remember, you cannot use pet dragon in boss battles anyway. I personally go for rage around 50 only with mage, just enough to cast maxed lightning ball and have some decent calm rage. So Rage control 1, training 1 - but only as prerequisite for Anger 1-2. With rest of the runes you can either go after frenzy or boost your defence.


I had extra 10 might runes from the banner, hence I decided to spend more on the might tree for more max rage and faster rage gain - that translates to more mana during fights, and I can use dragon egg for meat shields or distraction.

My reason is that a bigger rage pool can't hurt... and I don't have a use otherwise for those might runes. All the big mine rune eaters in the magic tree are already maxed.

I use my dragon for digging, mana orb, egg and an occasional kick (mostly for traps) or lightning. Lightning didn't come up as upgrade choice as often as I'd like... I got offered kick, wall and egg more.


P.S. you do not mention to have concentration skill. I'm sure you have it. There is a reason why it is all the way at bottom of magic tree - it is one of the best

No I don't have it yet! But it's my next magic skill to get. I don't have any problem with mana flow before (and still don't), hence I delayed getting it.

[Petwin]

Impy wrote:
Mage,as we know, does not generate as much rage as warrior, and apart from very rare dragon dive only casts mana acc., lightning ball + treasure. Now how many levels of pet dragon do you need to max out these 3 skills? 30 max.

I totally argree with the skill use. Alas, to max them out can take a long time if the 3 upgrade choices per level are all for different skills. A lot of dragon levels are "lost" to upgrading Lava Call and Stone Wall.

[impy]

Just to clarify the pet dragon issue.
One of the features how pet dragon gains experience is - it gains exp. quicker if hero level is higher than dragon level. Try it. Start a new game, kite, and start in debir level 10+. You'll see your dragon gaining exp. MUCH quicker and that happens without your input = increasing his experience gain.
Point is, you'll finish the game level 50-60, so your pet dragon will if you use it here and there, at least 40+. Now do not tell me, you will not max out tresure skill, mana acc, and lighting ball in 40 levels. If you are struggling, do not pick up skills of limited use - mystic egg, wall..at all. That way you increase the probability of getting the "right" upgrade choice.
So there is no need to boost dragon exp. for mage. Spend might runes somewhere else

[kcwong]

Latest save uploaded to Box.net (http://www.box.net/shared/armx2kh2kl)

I added Archmages back to my army, taking red and black dragons out from reserve only when needed (Fear continues to be very powerful in battle).

I somehow forgot to learn Linguistics III... but I can get it next and that will be very soon. I have plenty of might and mind runes to go around - and important skills that need them are already maxed.

I wonder if I can unlock Skull of Death this late... but I gotta try, +5 Int from one artifact is not something to be missed.

I'll also need to equip that bird skull and get the new spells (Armageddon, plus Ice Snake and Geyser on Reha).

Chance to get Elven bow looks pretty slim at this point... so no hope for +9 Int and an elven army. There are some demon artifacts and lots of demon troops to buy though, so maybe I can try that.

[impy]

you need to max out 2 very important skills.
1) pet dragon mana acc. There will be plenty of paladin's resurrection later and concentration 3 even with wanderer scroll +mana/int might not to be able to keep up. Btw. I always carry some phantom scrolls in the backpack in case i run out of mana.
2) Summoner. I have it maxed out even with warrior character. It raises the number of phantomed paladins and increases summons from griffins and demonologists.

Get ready for Elenhel fight coming soon:-)

[kcwong]

Get ready for Elenhel fight coming soon:-)

Yeah... that fight could be troublesome. T_T

[kcwong]

It is problematic alright.

Before I can make a move my demonologist stack was reduced to 33 from 68. He has 191 Archmage, 2 stacks of 66 Demonologists, 186 Evil Beholders, 90+ Necromancers, 130+ Druids, 2 stacks of 17 Executioners, and about 400 Fire Dragonflies.

I have pretty much the same army in last upload. I removed the Skull of Pain before getting to level 40, but still his army to too big. Teleporting my trolls (it was evening) into the fray does me no good as his stacks will just run away (possibly getting rid of range penalty to shoot at me).

I'm now inclined to dismiss him... I already extracted much wanderer scrolls, I'd trade +4 Int and some artifact slots for a successful no loss game. T_T

[Saiko Kila]

It is problematic alright.

Before I can make a move my demonologist stack was reduced to 33 from 68. He has 191 Archmage, 2 stacks of 66 Demonologists, 186 Evil Beholders, 90+ Necromancers, 130+ Druids, 2 stacks of 17 Executioners, and about 400 Fire Dragonflies.

I have pretty much the same army in last upload. I removed the Skull of Pain before getting to level 40, but still his army to too big. Teleporting my trolls (it was evening) into the fray does me no good as his stacks will just run away (possibly getting rid of range penalty to shoot at me).


Maybe you could try some other, unorthodox strategy. When I was playing the game for the first time, and was level 39, I tried a new strategy for fighting tough opponents - a single stack of Emerald Green Dragons. I had the skull of necromancer and was a mage. I battled "impossible" pirate, got loss-free victory and, surprisingly, a new fight with traitorous, sneaky elf (the fight was optional, but I weren't willing to part with my artifacts placed on this bastard). So I started the fight with 18 points of mana halved and a stack of 6 EGD. That was the most spectacular fight to that point so I remember it quite good :-P Anyway, it was another no-loss, but I wasn't believing I would survive that till the end :)

Beginning of battle, each of these pictures is about 400 KB:
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/4558/elenhelbegin.jpg

Middle:
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5785/elenhelmiddle1.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5346/elenhelmiddle2.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9544/elenhelmidend1.jpg

Bitter end (for pointy-ears):
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8373/elenhelmidend2.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/5485/elenhelscore.jpg

Of course, I had fairly good magical defense, that's why it was possible. The key points were:
- magical defense (items, from gift bag)
- amazing EGD with their mana steal ability
- good spells: invisibility, time back, healing level 3, and demon portal to spice things up
- luck with treasure hunter, i.e. Volcano :)

But the fight is at lev 40, so I think most heroes would be quite good by that time. Note that invis is not good against plants, droids, gobots, some other creatures and spells, because they can target invisibles and these would reveal themself by retaliating. For this reason I hate guard droids and thorn warriors.

[impy]

you're not giving up at the first serious obstacle are you?

1) improve your magic resistance. majority of his units are ranged magic dealers so if you put on chaos helm, magician cloak etc. they'll do only negligible damage.
2) improve your physical resistance. His geyser is physically based.
3) dump level 5 creatures. facing those many,many geysers you do not want to spend tons of mana on time back. Replace temporarily or permanently with unit with god resistances - knight, horseman..
4) better artefacts. I remember seeing those fire protection boots, shark tooth.. which are not helpful in this fight.
5) This is one very nasty fight where you either have to wait until he spends all his mana before you start resurrecting or leave last unit - dragonflies and cast fear. So you are actually quite lucky with him having dragonflies. Cast fear on them in the first round.
6) Once last creature is standing start resurecting. position all units around paladins in the circle and go. Phantom paladins, repeat.
7) have you improved those skills are was telling you about - mana acc., summoner? You can improve your resurrection also by - higher intelellect, increases strength of summoning spell, inquisitors blade, increases number of paladins you can have

[kcwong]

I've read about Invisibility + EGD strategy, but never used it.

I have Invisibility (III I think), 6 EGD in Verona plus an egg... I guess it's time to fetch them!

[Saiko Kila]

Also, one of the best abilities of pet dragon for mage hero is Ligthning Ball, because it's percentage based and hits where it would hurt most. It is the second ability I max, after treasure hunter. BTW I use mostly Invis II, because it's kind of sweet spot between duration and mana spent, but it depends on enemies and their positioning. Amount of Mana recovered by EGD depends on damage (1 mana per 100 HP I think) and sometimes you get less than you'd like to - when enemies scatter or have high magical resistance. Another one known and good strategy against tough guys is paladin+phantom, but I had no phantom at level 40, and I think that paladins are better against bosses and physical damagers.

In KBTL there was unlimited rage and mana thanks to inquisitors and ice spirit, so almost every big fight was easy (with gift or resurrection), even if tediously long, but in KBAP it's impossible. Either EGD or Calm Rage (rage->mana) are way to go for mana, and lower level creatures and resurrection if you want to bring more troops. Unfortunately with nerfed/changed Anga's Ruby (Ring of Arianna boosts pirates instead of ladies) there's no universally good low levels, but I prefer priests and inquisitors, and beholders too (beholders suck against magic resistant but are perfect for aggro ;)). It depends on items and availability, human troops are also good and durable. And dryads are still very good with their summons and lullaby. Ah, and demons (meatshield/avenger angel carrier) can be resurrected, even summoned ones, and I prefer to summon them than to pay and bring them to the fight. Besides, demons lower morale of most other races if you keep them in the main army.

[Quelthos]

Here was my setup for Elenhel: Setup (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/Elenhel_Setup.jpg)

Presumably because I used two half stacks of black dragons (3/6, 3/6) and one stack of green dragons ( 8/8 ), he used summoning spells instead of geyser (snakes and fireflies, hah). He had a large stack of demologists who summoned some cerberus that I had to avoid, archmages, druids, and necromancers in smaller stacks, and one stack of 20 green dragons.

To nullify the dragons I placed one of my black dragon stacks on a square two squares away from a trap, and made him the only unit the dragons could reach. They fell for it, and never got another turn.

Each round was simply one use of ghost blade followed by geyser. I went into the fight with full mana and rage, and used mana accelerator to keep my mana up. Nobody could really do any damage to my units except the cerberus, and I avoided them throughout. I killed him on round 5 and had half my mana left; this was one of the easier fights I've encountered so far.

I find an army of only dragons, or dragons and archdemons, is highly effective for no unit loss as it gives you mobility, strong special attacks, and makes fear a viable spell.

Finally found where KBAP saved my screen shot for the win. See here. (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/Elenhel_Victory.jpg)

[kcwong]

I'm back!

I had an accident... this Monday afternoon, in my office I suddenly saw some black floating objects inside my right eye. I have floaters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater) in both eyes since I can remember, but those were new additions. On close inspection they dispersed... and I knew I had blood in my right eye.

I left work immediately for an ophthalmologist... he told me that my right eye indeed had a blood vessel bursted. Bleeding already stopped when I noticed it, and my retina had no sign of falling off, so he sent me home with some medicine, vitamin C pills and "Papase 30mg" (seems to be some anti-swelling enzyme), and told me to come back two weeks later.

I still have no clue why that happened... I never had any eye problems before, other than being close-sighted, astigmatism and occasionally dry eyes, which is understandable for an IT guy that stares at monitors a lot.

So I'm now taking it very seriously... a mandatory 5 minutes break every hour from any reading. Hopefully I won't have another busted blood vessel somewhere... :(

While I have to stop realtime gaming like Starcraft II, luckily Armored Princess and upcoming Civ5 are still viable choices. :)


Anyway, I defeated Elenhel, but not really because of a lot of skill on my part. It's just the mysterious ways the AI acts in this game.

I tried single 8/8 EGD stack using invisibility first, but Elenhel's stacks moved first, and I was down to 4 EGD when I get to move.

I tried several times more (on Orc islands), and then started switching the triggering battle, trying to start out on a better terrain with full rage/mana.

Eventually I chose the magic protection test as my triggering battle (I know I won't get a chance to equip it)... I didn't end it with full rage/mana, but somehow in Elon Elenhel stopped spamming geyser every single turn. Instead he chose to use Call of Nature almost every turn, and only used Sheep on my Archmage and Demonologist stacks once each.

Here's the before and after saves...
http://www.box.net/shared/639y9dg97e

And here's the result screen...
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/151/elenheldefeated.jpg
Archmage stack didn't deal enough damage to out rank the multiple stacks of Cerberus.


@ impy:
1) improve your magic resistance. majority of his units are ranged magic dealers so if you put on chaos helm, magician cloak etc. they'll do only negligible damage.
Unfortunately I don't have any such artifacts. I make map notes of every single artifact for sale, so I'm pretty sure of it.

2) improve your physical resistance. His geyser is physically based.
Already using all I have! Slippery Cuirass and Leather Dress.

3) dump level 5 creatures. facing those many,many geysers you do not want to spend tons of mana on time back. Replace temporarily or permanently with unit with god resistances - knight, horseman..
In earlier attempts my stacks were quickly reduced to nothing if I went with too much weak units, since he's spamming geyser non-stop.

4) better artefacts. I remember seeing those fire protection boots, shark tooth.. which are not helpful in this fight.
For the boots, I have no other options, other than the pair that makes your slowest stack move faster one. The only other boots for sale is on the demon island, the same pair of fire protection boots. So I think the +2 Def is already my best option.

5) This is one very nasty fight where you either have to wait until he spends all his mana before you start resurrecting or leave last unit - dragonflies and cast fear. So you are actually quite lucky with him having dragonflies. Cast fear on them in the first round.
On Elon he didn't have dragonflies... but then he also didn't spam geyser either. The AI in this game moves in a mysterious way.

7) have you improved those skills are was telling you about - mana acc., summoner? You can improve your resurrection also by - higher intelellect, increases strength of summoning spell, inquisitors blade, increases number of paladins you can have
I closed up a quest and became level 40 before fighting Elenhel. I took Summoning I with that... but it wasn't the deciding factor as it turns out.


Edit: Exchanged mind runes (had near 40) for magic runes, so I have Summoning III now. Might runes is around 15, I think I can go for more bonus defense in Defense and Caution later, or get Anger II. Only Concentration III left, then it's Wisdom or the map-regen on for a bigger mana pool. Got flying mount.

[Quelthos]

Your spells seem to do very little of your damage, percentage wise.

I continued using dragons/archdemons and cleared out all the islands of regular armies. I would mix up between using a single stack of dragons, multiple stacks, or dragons + demons depending on whether my strategy was more kiting or more aggressive. Fear, geyster, death star, and ghost blade the dominant spells.

After that I went back and started taking out heroes (using a knowledge scroll for extra xp), and once I'd done that, I started knocking down bosses. Driller, Demenion, the frog were all easy with my dragon army (hellooo hitting the boss through its own summoned troop), but I could quickly tell that wouldn't work for Gremlion.

I wound up using royal gryphons, archmages, and paladins for Gremlion. With two archmages robes, the +crit belt, and +crit mind skill, my archmages had a 100% critical strike rate. I used their magic shield on the paladins (they have lesser resistance) and attacked the boss otherwise. I let the gryphons and paladins kill the gremlin towers, while the paladins would give extra turns to the archmages. I cast ghost blades and fire arrows on Gremlion, and resurrected troops when my spell power hit 90-100% on that troop. I used rage eater to keep my mana up, and on the very last round, had my paladins heal all three troops to their full stack.

Driller (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/Driller.jpg)
Demenion (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/Demenion.jpg)
Gremlion (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/Gremlion.jpg)

[kcwong]

Your spells seem to do very little of your damage, percentage wise.


It depends on the fight. I can't use some strong spells if I want to keep something alive for reviving my army.

Here's some fights with higher magic damage percentage...

Champion Title
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8708/championtitle.th.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/i/championtitle.jpg/)

Demenion
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/4153/demenion.th.jpg (http://img641.imageshack.us/i/demenion.jpg/)

Dragon Cave in Montero
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5043/dragoncavev.th.jpg (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/dragoncavev.jpg/)

Fat Tirex hero in Reha
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/5746/fathero.th.jpg (http://img715.imageshack.us/i/fathero.jpg/)

The cave the necromancer sent me to
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/9126/necromancerquest.th.jpg (http://img706.imageshack.us/i/necromancerquest.jpg/)

Royal Thorn hero on Elon
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/1102/royalthornhero.th.jpg (http://img832.imageshack.us/i/royalthornhero.jpg/)



Here's some boss fights:

Samman
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/5646/samman.th.jpg (http://img828.imageshack.us/i/samman.jpg/)

Driller
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/1834/driller.th.jpg (http://img535.imageshack.us/i/driller.jpg/)


I only have Gremlin and Lizard to go. Both are quite tough as I only have one of magic (the certificate) and one of physical resistance (slippery cuirass) artifact, plus leather dress (5% all).

Current army is Demonologist, Archmage, Paladin, Royal Griffin and Horseman (replacing Troll).

I maxed out all skills except Alchemy (which is 0) on Magic tree. In Might tree I have 3 Defense (any more def I can get is good), 3 Cautious, 3 Rage Control, 2 Dragon Training, 1 Anger. In Mind tree I have all the left-most skills at 3 (except the one for more gold, which is at 1), plus 3 Holy Anger (for bonus against Baal), 1 +Critical%, 1 Persuasion (since I'm mostly using human troops now), 3 Glory (for a bit more troops).

Edit:
Wait - I forgot Moro Dark. He's still on Elon with about 30 black dragons. I will defeat him this time.

[Bag In Vena]

Warrior, impossible, 7 days, 87 quests, zero casualties, score 1850