DGDobrev
09-19-2010, 03:34 PM
I managed to beat the champion of the arena without a loss on hard, so I'm damn sure the same tactic will be applicable in impossible. I intend to find out soon enough with a different class.
EDIT: It can be done. Just finished the game with a mage on impossible using the very same tactic - even under harsher conditions. I had no Black Dragons available and I was forced to use trolls and revolve my tactics around them all the time. Still, with some tactical thinking and cunning, everything is possible. I've added the victory screenshots as well.
***
Personal note: why the hell one would want to use a warrior for this campaign?! You'll have tons of rage and the only way to spend it would be Calm Rage spell. I expected to get the rage box or a dragon sooner or later, but none of this happened.
That was bad thinking by the campaign creators. That's like saying - yes, you are a warrior, but I force you to play as a mage or a paladin, because you won't be able to use your rage for skills at all. The only saving grace is the extra leadership. Big deal. Paladin performs much better here.
***
WALKTHROUGH:
0. Get a troll either in the starting area or in the dwarven zone. A black/red dragon is nice to have as well, but it is optional. Use the scanner, if that doesn't offend you.
1. Kill the turtle.
1.1 If you have healing spell, all you need is 1 Knight, 1 stack of druids and 1 stack of archmagi. Calm Rage spell is optional - just in case.
1.2. If you don't have healing spell, you need 1 stack of druids, 1 stack of archmagi and 1 additional ranged stack/assassins for extra damage. Have the summoned bears by the druid to tank with magic shield on by the archmagi. Keep an off-tank close to them just in case (a second bear stack, ready to step in front of turtle's head if the first one dies). If you want, you can keep your knight in the squad and use him for that contingency.
NOTE: careful with the demonologists. If their summoned unit goes around the turtle's foot, it will cause the turtle to use the mass attack, which is something you don't want if you want a no-loss victory.
2. Go to the dwarves. Ally and get your troll(s). Shop for stone skin and magic spring. healing isn't that important as long as you have those 2 spells at the ready. If there aren't any, check the human lands as well. You can ally with them as well.
3. Fight the spider. A single troll can drop it down, even on impossible, but it is going to take a long time. Teleport spell would be very useful here, as it will greatly reduce the battle duration (mine was over 250 turns). Try to take as few hits as possible and analyze the spider's movement, so that you can be as close to hitting it as possible.
4. Now you can ally with the orcs and with the elves. Check what units are available. There is a big chance that you'll find some dragons there. Black ones are always preferable, but red ones will do as well.
5. Now analyze. If you have some black/red dragons, do 1-4 bounties (as much as you can, till Glaciera). If not, wait till evening comes (Trolls regenerate each turn), do only 2 bounties and get ready for fight.
6. In any case, it will be evening or close to evening. After the evening time comes, have you 1-2 trolls attack the Toad boss. It is an easy fight, because unlike the spider, you will rarely get surrounded, because the snakes always take a step back to use their attack skill, which gives you plenty of room to get to the Toad after he changes positions. It's much better with Teleport spell, though.
7. Now, you'll be at a respectable level to keep on fighting. Level up the skills to suit the Trolls + Stone Skin + Magic Spring + Teleport type of fighting. Take all quests from human, dwarven, elven and orc castles.
8. Kill K'Tahu. This is going to be a tough and long fight with only 2 trolls available, but that's how it must be done. basically, you are bound to use level 3 stone skin, level 3 magic spring, possibly some magic and/or physical resistance items. Teleport is optional, but once again, it is very recommended. If you don't have it, it's going to take a long, long time to drop K'tahu down.
So, the tactic is as follows: Stone skin the Trolls, cast magic spring the next turn, put them in K'Tahu's weak spot. hack away till he moves. Teleport to his weak spot again and hack. Recast Stone skin and Magic spring to regain mana as necessary. When he moves, port again, rinse and repeat till he's down.
If there is a unit protecting his weak spot, you'll have to waste a few rounds to kill it. There is no way out of this.
9. Get your "reward" from the elves - it consists of more troops, better units, more artifacts, more spells, etc. Buy anything that would be useful, but keep some cash stashed just in case.
10. Now it's time to kill the driller, even if you're below his level. If you found some more trolls, cool. If not, the 1-2 you have will do nicely, just in way too many turns.
The tactic is very simple: Out the Troll directly in front of the driller (middle square) so that he won't spawn droids. have stone skin and magic spring on your trolls and the driller will never be able to kill them. Just be sure you have that on them ALL THE TIME. Level 3 magic spring is enough to keep your mana at maximum. It'll take over 250 rounds with 2 trolls, so be patient.
11. Now that you killed the driller, you have completed 2 quests at once. get your "rewards" from the dwarves and the orcs. Some more trolls are bound to spawn in one of those areas, so buy them all. Buy anything else that looks useful.
12. Now it's Kraken time. It's still evening, so your trolls will make quick work of it. After he's dead, go to the humans and get your reward - once again, more artifacts and more troops.
NOTE: If you have only 2 trolls, this battle can get messy on impossible. There is a very strong and cunning tactic I managed to devise while doing this battle. Put the troll between 2 tentacles, let's say left/middle and keep stone skin and magic spring on them at all times. Drop the left tentacle till it's down to 1 hit to kill it with the simplest spell (like flaming arrow from a scroll). Now drop the middle one to the same state. Port away or try to move away in the direction of the final tentacle. Get between it and the middle one, then kill the stack that's possibly standing in your way to the farthermost hex between the middle/right tentacles. Put your trolls there, so that only a single stack of devilfish can hit them and start hacking at the right and final tentacle. Get it down to 1 hit and when your turn come, KILL IT WITH A SPELL - so that you can put your trolls in the corner hex which the tentacle occupied. This way you can take only 2 hits. Use spells to drop down the other 2 tentacles (this is why I left them at 1-hit) and simply finish off the devilfish. With the trolls regenerating all the time, the battle is in the bag.
13. At this point, you have killed everything up to Gremlion in the arena and completed from 2 to 4 bounties. This is the turning point of the game. Here is when everything changes - you were good till now, now you're going to get evil.
Since you played with minimum bought units and no losses, you should have a sizeable amount of money now. Go to every area: humans, orcs, dwarves, elves and buy any spell (especially Eviln) and/or item you feel like using and any unit you feel like using (for example, droids). Stock up on them and put them in the School of Gloom. Leave no units with you, even in the reserve!
Now it's time to die. Go do a bounty without any troops and die on round 1. Get resurrected in the guild of veterans (the undead) and start shopping for Black Knights. You want as much as possible, along with the Eviln spell and possibly an artifact or two to boost them.
Go visit the lizards now. They'll be willing to ally if you kill metamorph. There is still time to reach him, though.
Go visit the demons (Kaab). They are willing to forget that you allied with the humans if you pay 50k gold and renounce that alliance. Pay the money, the alliance is already renounced since you died and thus joined the veterans guild - the undead.
Buy anything of value, if you have the money, or note the items you will need later on and save money for them.
14. Now it's time to put the wicked Black Knight + Stone Skin + Magic Spring + Eviln combo to good use. Do some bounties and add some more Black Knights as you level up. A single Black Knight stack is all you need for now, technically, but if you want, you can use some droids and/or bone dragons as well.
Save 5k gold to gain entrance to the veteran's guild. Technically, you're not allied with them yet, even though you visited their area. Go to the warrior's guild (the place where you recruit companions) and recruit the paladin - the guild master of the guild of the dark wants a sacrifice, and that "warrior of the light" is just that.
Now you have entrance to the guild. Buy some more black knights, and check out the dragon lair in the main area. Might be something interesting there as well.
15. From this point on the game is in the bag. Beat Gremlion (leave a single friendly gremlin tower, kill gremlion and recover your black knights with evlin), then beat all bounties.
The teleporter mage is easy, leave a ranged stack or a slow moving stack alive and stall till he runs out of mana. Now recover your BK's and all done.
The metamorph will turn all his units into BK's. Big deal. 200 of your BK's can beat 5000 of his. Simply go to the edge of the arena so that only 2 enemies can hack at your BK's, use stone skin + magic spring and you're all set. When you kill a stack or two, port away to ensure some fresh corpses, get to another edge of the arena and make some more corpses. Recover your Black Knights as necessary and you're done.
The necromonger is easy. He'll spawn demons, which might be a bit of a pain, but that also means a lot of corpses for eviln. Stall till he's out of mana, leave a single stack up (preferably imps due to their no retaliation, vampires will do as well), recover your Black Knights and all done.
16. Fill up on Black Knights and with your spare cash either buy some more items, or if you have Neatness, buy all level 4-5 items and break them up for runes. Raise any skill you feel like using (the new warrior skill that adds +3-10% to all resistances is a must even for a mage!) andget ready to slap down Baal - the champion of the arena.
17. Fill up on physical/fire resistance items and go for it. You should have plenty of Black Knights at this point, so the battle should not be that hard. Concentrate on dropping Baal first and use the corpses that appear from counter-attack hits as usual for eviln. It won't be long before he's down.
All done, you just beat the Champion of the Arena campaign.
MY personal observations are that the Paladin and the Mage do better than a warrior, but it will be fun to try all classes - but if you play a warrior, make sure you develop him a little caster-wise. You rage means nothing when you can't use it.
EDIT: It can be done. Just finished the game with a mage on impossible using the very same tactic - even under harsher conditions. I had no Black Dragons available and I was forced to use trolls and revolve my tactics around them all the time. Still, with some tactical thinking and cunning, everything is possible. I've added the victory screenshots as well.
***
Personal note: why the hell one would want to use a warrior for this campaign?! You'll have tons of rage and the only way to spend it would be Calm Rage spell. I expected to get the rage box or a dragon sooner or later, but none of this happened.
That was bad thinking by the campaign creators. That's like saying - yes, you are a warrior, but I force you to play as a mage or a paladin, because you won't be able to use your rage for skills at all. The only saving grace is the extra leadership. Big deal. Paladin performs much better here.
***
WALKTHROUGH:
0. Get a troll either in the starting area or in the dwarven zone. A black/red dragon is nice to have as well, but it is optional. Use the scanner, if that doesn't offend you.
1. Kill the turtle.
1.1 If you have healing spell, all you need is 1 Knight, 1 stack of druids and 1 stack of archmagi. Calm Rage spell is optional - just in case.
1.2. If you don't have healing spell, you need 1 stack of druids, 1 stack of archmagi and 1 additional ranged stack/assassins for extra damage. Have the summoned bears by the druid to tank with magic shield on by the archmagi. Keep an off-tank close to them just in case (a second bear stack, ready to step in front of turtle's head if the first one dies). If you want, you can keep your knight in the squad and use him for that contingency.
NOTE: careful with the demonologists. If their summoned unit goes around the turtle's foot, it will cause the turtle to use the mass attack, which is something you don't want if you want a no-loss victory.
2. Go to the dwarves. Ally and get your troll(s). Shop for stone skin and magic spring. healing isn't that important as long as you have those 2 spells at the ready. If there aren't any, check the human lands as well. You can ally with them as well.
3. Fight the spider. A single troll can drop it down, even on impossible, but it is going to take a long time. Teleport spell would be very useful here, as it will greatly reduce the battle duration (mine was over 250 turns). Try to take as few hits as possible and analyze the spider's movement, so that you can be as close to hitting it as possible.
4. Now you can ally with the orcs and with the elves. Check what units are available. There is a big chance that you'll find some dragons there. Black ones are always preferable, but red ones will do as well.
5. Now analyze. If you have some black/red dragons, do 1-4 bounties (as much as you can, till Glaciera). If not, wait till evening comes (Trolls regenerate each turn), do only 2 bounties and get ready for fight.
6. In any case, it will be evening or close to evening. After the evening time comes, have you 1-2 trolls attack the Toad boss. It is an easy fight, because unlike the spider, you will rarely get surrounded, because the snakes always take a step back to use their attack skill, which gives you plenty of room to get to the Toad after he changes positions. It's much better with Teleport spell, though.
7. Now, you'll be at a respectable level to keep on fighting. Level up the skills to suit the Trolls + Stone Skin + Magic Spring + Teleport type of fighting. Take all quests from human, dwarven, elven and orc castles.
8. Kill K'Tahu. This is going to be a tough and long fight with only 2 trolls available, but that's how it must be done. basically, you are bound to use level 3 stone skin, level 3 magic spring, possibly some magic and/or physical resistance items. Teleport is optional, but once again, it is very recommended. If you don't have it, it's going to take a long, long time to drop K'tahu down.
So, the tactic is as follows: Stone skin the Trolls, cast magic spring the next turn, put them in K'Tahu's weak spot. hack away till he moves. Teleport to his weak spot again and hack. Recast Stone skin and Magic spring to regain mana as necessary. When he moves, port again, rinse and repeat till he's down.
If there is a unit protecting his weak spot, you'll have to waste a few rounds to kill it. There is no way out of this.
9. Get your "reward" from the elves - it consists of more troops, better units, more artifacts, more spells, etc. Buy anything that would be useful, but keep some cash stashed just in case.
10. Now it's time to kill the driller, even if you're below his level. If you found some more trolls, cool. If not, the 1-2 you have will do nicely, just in way too many turns.
The tactic is very simple: Out the Troll directly in front of the driller (middle square) so that he won't spawn droids. have stone skin and magic spring on your trolls and the driller will never be able to kill them. Just be sure you have that on them ALL THE TIME. Level 3 magic spring is enough to keep your mana at maximum. It'll take over 250 rounds with 2 trolls, so be patient.
11. Now that you killed the driller, you have completed 2 quests at once. get your "rewards" from the dwarves and the orcs. Some more trolls are bound to spawn in one of those areas, so buy them all. Buy anything else that looks useful.
12. Now it's Kraken time. It's still evening, so your trolls will make quick work of it. After he's dead, go to the humans and get your reward - once again, more artifacts and more troops.
NOTE: If you have only 2 trolls, this battle can get messy on impossible. There is a very strong and cunning tactic I managed to devise while doing this battle. Put the troll between 2 tentacles, let's say left/middle and keep stone skin and magic spring on them at all times. Drop the left tentacle till it's down to 1 hit to kill it with the simplest spell (like flaming arrow from a scroll). Now drop the middle one to the same state. Port away or try to move away in the direction of the final tentacle. Get between it and the middle one, then kill the stack that's possibly standing in your way to the farthermost hex between the middle/right tentacles. Put your trolls there, so that only a single stack of devilfish can hit them and start hacking at the right and final tentacle. Get it down to 1 hit and when your turn come, KILL IT WITH A SPELL - so that you can put your trolls in the corner hex which the tentacle occupied. This way you can take only 2 hits. Use spells to drop down the other 2 tentacles (this is why I left them at 1-hit) and simply finish off the devilfish. With the trolls regenerating all the time, the battle is in the bag.
13. At this point, you have killed everything up to Gremlion in the arena and completed from 2 to 4 bounties. This is the turning point of the game. Here is when everything changes - you were good till now, now you're going to get evil.
Since you played with minimum bought units and no losses, you should have a sizeable amount of money now. Go to every area: humans, orcs, dwarves, elves and buy any spell (especially Eviln) and/or item you feel like using and any unit you feel like using (for example, droids). Stock up on them and put them in the School of Gloom. Leave no units with you, even in the reserve!
Now it's time to die. Go do a bounty without any troops and die on round 1. Get resurrected in the guild of veterans (the undead) and start shopping for Black Knights. You want as much as possible, along with the Eviln spell and possibly an artifact or two to boost them.
Go visit the lizards now. They'll be willing to ally if you kill metamorph. There is still time to reach him, though.
Go visit the demons (Kaab). They are willing to forget that you allied with the humans if you pay 50k gold and renounce that alliance. Pay the money, the alliance is already renounced since you died and thus joined the veterans guild - the undead.
Buy anything of value, if you have the money, or note the items you will need later on and save money for them.
14. Now it's time to put the wicked Black Knight + Stone Skin + Magic Spring + Eviln combo to good use. Do some bounties and add some more Black Knights as you level up. A single Black Knight stack is all you need for now, technically, but if you want, you can use some droids and/or bone dragons as well.
Save 5k gold to gain entrance to the veteran's guild. Technically, you're not allied with them yet, even though you visited their area. Go to the warrior's guild (the place where you recruit companions) and recruit the paladin - the guild master of the guild of the dark wants a sacrifice, and that "warrior of the light" is just that.
Now you have entrance to the guild. Buy some more black knights, and check out the dragon lair in the main area. Might be something interesting there as well.
15. From this point on the game is in the bag. Beat Gremlion (leave a single friendly gremlin tower, kill gremlion and recover your black knights with evlin), then beat all bounties.
The teleporter mage is easy, leave a ranged stack or a slow moving stack alive and stall till he runs out of mana. Now recover your BK's and all done.
The metamorph will turn all his units into BK's. Big deal. 200 of your BK's can beat 5000 of his. Simply go to the edge of the arena so that only 2 enemies can hack at your BK's, use stone skin + magic spring and you're all set. When you kill a stack or two, port away to ensure some fresh corpses, get to another edge of the arena and make some more corpses. Recover your Black Knights as necessary and you're done.
The necromonger is easy. He'll spawn demons, which might be a bit of a pain, but that also means a lot of corpses for eviln. Stall till he's out of mana, leave a single stack up (preferably imps due to their no retaliation, vampires will do as well), recover your Black Knights and all done.
16. Fill up on Black Knights and with your spare cash either buy some more items, or if you have Neatness, buy all level 4-5 items and break them up for runes. Raise any skill you feel like using (the new warrior skill that adds +3-10% to all resistances is a must even for a mage!) andget ready to slap down Baal - the champion of the arena.
17. Fill up on physical/fire resistance items and go for it. You should have plenty of Black Knights at this point, so the battle should not be that hard. Concentrate on dropping Baal first and use the corpses that appear from counter-attack hits as usual for eviln. It won't be long before he's down.
All done, you just beat the Champion of the Arena campaign.
MY personal observations are that the Paladin and the Mage do better than a warrior, but it will be fun to try all classes - but if you play a warrior, make sure you develop him a little caster-wise. You rage means nothing when you can't use it.