How do you feel about doing the medals all over again on each playthrough?

[john_crapper]

Is it something you look forward to? Is it something you think "pfff not again" as you think about having to prolong the battle to cast as many spells as possible, but still be wary that a trap needs to deliver the finish, while maintaining no losses?

Me, I dont like it. The no losses medal is entertaining to obtain, and the requirement is not obscenely high, but the spells are absolute horror. As a warrior because of low mana in the first place, but even more so as a mage, because you rely on your spells to win, and you must use them. Which leaves less turns to spam the crappy ones. And you really cant afford to goof around too much on Impossible. And the trap medal is even more vexing to obtain, for reasons obvious to anyone who's done it.

What is I dislike most is that these things prolong battles beyond an unreasonable time. A single battle where you attempt to utilize all you can for the first 10 turns may take a very long time, and there's always the chance that you will hav to redo the whole thing anyway, became, one unit died, your trap was misplaced, you cast a goofy spell, when you should've gone with a more appropriate one.

Thankfully the medals are not required for a highscore, so you may skip them, although their bonuses are helpful to have.

[onepiece]

One is okay, doing it again is a ***** (an even more on impossible). But is just so tempting to have better stats !! Damn you developers and your ridiculous tempting medals (joking)

[Saiko Kila]

There are easy medals and medals which are hard to get. The last I get is always trapper, or the rage used, but I'm not tempted beyond going level 2 with that (summons are stupid enough to go into trap sometimes, even if the see that trap). I'm trying to get level I medals ASAP, but level 2 is more situational, and level 3 often just come in the way. The only medals I'm really intentionally trying to get and max are: for no-loss (but I always try to have no loss, so that's not hard), for extra resistance (but using these spell is just helping anyway) and for extra mana for a mage (as with resistance). Yes, I feel compelled to get these three medals, and it would be more bothersome if fighting wasn't so much fun! During first two plays I got them all (except rage 3, which was impossible for a mage). Later - as I said, I skip some.

[BB Shockwave]

Eh, I never got some medals. I never used trap with my warrior, and I did not use any fire/poison damage spells or abilities either, so I never got those. Frankly, a mage needs these more anyway.

On the other hand, a mage is not likely to get the Rage medals up to III. level.

[ckdamascus]

Is it something you look forward to? Is it something you think "pfff not again" as you think about having to prolong the battle to cast as many spells as possible, but still be wary that a trap needs to deliver the finish, while maintaining no losses?

Me, I dont like it. The no losses medal is entertaining to obtain, and the requirement is not obscenely high, but the spells are absolute horror. As a warrior because of low mana in the first place, but even more so as a mage, because you rely on your spells to win, and you must use them. Which leaves less turns to spam the crappy ones. And you really cant afford to goof around too much on Impossible. And the trap medal is even more vexing to obtain, for reasons obvious to anyone who's done it.

What is I dislike most is that these things prolong battles beyond an unreasonable time. A single battle where you attempt to utilize all you can for the first 10 turns may take a very long time, and there's always the chance that you will hav to redo the whole thing anyway, became, one unit died, your trap was misplaced, you cast a goofy spell, when you should've gone with a more appropriate one.

Thankfully the medals are not required for a highscore, so you may skip them, although their bonuses are helpful to have.

I play my games with the mindset of "best return on my investment in time."

If my game play requires tanking units, I push heavily to get the guardian angel level 3 medal.

If my game play requires traps, I'll max out traps asap. There are ways to facilitate maxing of medals, you just need to plan ahead. e.g. archmages and the dragon push are great ways to force weakened enemies into traps.

There really is NO point in maxing out if you gain zero utility from it.

For example, in my current play through, I don't rely on traps for damage, so I have no trap medals.

[john_crapper]

I play my games with the mindset of "best return on my investment in time."

If my game play requires tanking units, I push heavily to get the guardian angel level 3 medal.

If my game play requires traps, I'll max out traps asap. There are ways to facilitate maxing of medals, you just need to plan ahead. e.g. archmages and the dragon push are great ways to force weakened enemies into traps.

There really is NO point in maxing out if you gain zero utility from it.

For example, in my current play through, I don't rely on traps for damage, so I have no trap medals.

Then you are not playing the same game as I am or you do not play beyond normal difficulty. "if" the game requires tanking units? "If" I need traps?. You always need sturdy units on which to place "Target" to adsorb heavy punishment for your rangers, and the traps are not there to damage, they are there to halt an opponent's turn. Do you think a 50 000+ Hp Stack cares if they get hit with e 500 damage trap? But said stack is forced to e premature end of its turn that way.

Just now, a stack of archdemons would've obliterated my archmages, because they always get to act first, but they landed on a trap and found themselves surrounded without being able to take an action

[Zechnophobe]

Then you are not playing the same game as I am or you do not play beyond normal difficulty. "if" the game requires tanking units? "If" I need traps?. You always need sturdy units on which to place "Target" to adsorb heavy punishment for your rangers, and the traps are not there to damage, they are there to halt an opponent's turn. Do you think a 50 000+ Hp Stack cares if they get hit with e 500 damage trap? But said stack is forced to e premature end of its turn that way.

Just now, a stack of archdemons would've obliterated my archmages, because they always get to act first, but they landed on a trap and found themselves surrounded without being able to take an action

The trap medal is pretty useless. You don't really need to get all the medals by any stretch of the imagination. The only one I often regret not grinding out early on is Guardian angel, since it isn't that hard for archmage.army to do it.

[ckdamascus]

Then you are not playing the same game as I am or you do not play beyond normal difficulty. "if" the game requires tanking units? "If" I need traps?. You always need sturdy units on which to place "Target" to adsorb heavy punishment for your rangers, and the traps are not there to damage, they are there to halt an opponent's turn. Do you think a 50 000+ Hp Stack cares if they get hit with e 500 damage trap? But said stack is forced to e premature end of its turn that way.

Just now, a stack of archdemons would've obliterated my archmages, because they always get to act first, but they landed on a trap and found themselves surrounded without being able to take an action

Actually I play Impossible No-Loss games exclusively. I never use Target, oddly enough. :) I just resurrect or attack first so their ranged prioritizes my melee attackers, not my ranged.

As for when to use level 3 traps with level 3 medal traps, probably in those crazy solo black dragon no-loss impossible mage missions.

I'm not a huge fan of traps since as you have noticed, dealing 3-4K and poison and cancelling a turn isn't really all that impressive against the later enemies.

That said, a level 1 trap does precisely what you needed to do, so the medals aren't useful there. Unless you really want to spend hours pumping it, that's fine too. I just find the traps are too situational. Maybe if I was able to place all the traps ahead of time.

Also, because they act first, you were relying on luck or the Tactics + luck for that trap to occur.

I probably would have just used Turn Back Time if I was a warrior. Although, since my warrior build was a ranged build with Level 3 Quick Draw, I almost ALWAYS acted first and destroyed or crippled every major unit before it got to me. Level 3 Helplessness + 100% Critical == dead enemies.

Or, Pain Mirror + Turn Back Time as a mage. :) Ah.... it is funny to see the Archdemons take ridiculous damage from Pain Mirror when they do 'Half' on my units, which will be restored. :)

[karabaja]

The trap medal is pretty useless.
On the contrary, i think it's actually very useful, especially if you're a mage. With trap medal maxed out and intellect high enough trap becomes a very powerful spell.
with lvl3 trap spell you can easily do 10K+ damage. not bad for only 15 mana ;)
plus it spawns in every battle 3 traps on the battlefield. they do decent damage as well but most importantly they slow down enemy and make 'em lose turn which is on impossible in early part of game many times a life savior.
i agree that trap medal isn't crucial, and that there are maybe more useful medals to have, but it definitely has it's purpose and imho it is well worth having.

[john_crapper]

Is the turn Time spell random spawned or you need to kill someone for it?

[BB Shockwave]

Random, IMHO. On my walkthrough I found it on the small dwarven island (Tekron, maybe? Has been a while...) in the temple, after defeating the ghost hero there.

[pavned]

It's random, sometimes it just doesn't spawn, it appends to me in my Mage Impossible game.

[onepiece]

In my game there are like 7 Turn back scrolls. It's just luck (like the units and items you get and where)

[Sir Whiskers]

What is I dislike most is that these things prolong battles beyond an unreasonable time.

I agree. I've been kicking around the idea of modifying the medals.txt file. Any medal that gives a bonus for spells cast in the first 10 rounds would only give a bonus for spells cast in the first 5 rounds, but the number of castings needed would be half. It should take roughly the same number of battles to get each level of medal, but each battle won't need to last 10 rounds to get the full benefit.

[jake21]

Random; in my current mage impossible game it pop'ed in a dragon spawned treasure chest at 'round level 10. Learned a new nifty thing after I completed the quest using the time back scroll (though I didn't have to actually complete the scroll portion of the quest to learn the new nifty thing)..

Is the turn Time spell random spawned or you need to kill someone for it?