Confirm a few things

[Wazat]

Hey, I just started this game without having played the first ones (which may be a mistake, since a lot of this game baffles me). I picked the red dragon and named him Grigori Rasputin, and he's among my most threatening units. I'm having a lot of fun so far and I love the system. I do have a few questions:

1) It seems that units are limited per merchant, permanently. Unless one says "hoard", once you buy all of that unit from that shop, then that unit is gone from that merchant. Forever. That seems dangerous... hence the emphasis on no-loss battles in this forum, I suppose (aside from the medals benefit). Do I have this right?
Currently my strategy involves lots of throw-away summoned units, and lots of high-defense units. I reset if I lose someone in an easy battle, because I can't take the losses AND I really want to get more leadership from the medal.

2) Once enemies are dead, they're gone. There's no random encounters or respawning opponents in this game. This means there's a limited amount of experience to go around, and if you get your butt handed to you in one battle and barely eek by, or don't level up your dragon enough, you've basically set yourself back. Or are there locations in the game where you can fight enemies repeatedly to try to level up a bit? Could I load my army with worthless units and repeatedly lose, to level up my dragon a bit at a time (hereby known as the lame twit tactic)?
The reason I ask is, the difficulty step-up from one island to another is brutal. It almost seems like I'm supposed to be leveling up somewhere first... Everything on the next island is either super-strong, deadly, or invincible. On occasion there's something weak I can take on, if I kite past innumerable deadly enemies first.

3) Can wanderer's scrolls be learned/used repeatedly, or are they one-use only?

4) I'm playing a warrior, and among the first skills I learned was Order Magic, so I could learn and repeatedly cast healing magic without hoarding expensive scrolls. I'm also using mana accelerator to convert rage into mana, a clever strategy I read somewhere on these forums. What emphasis should I place on the other spell schools, if any?

5) How many spells and scrolls can I have as a warrior? I read somewhere that the scroll count is somewhat limited, but I don't know if the spell count is. If so, is there a way to unlearn a spell, or should I be very careful to not learn spells I don't want long-term?

6) I'm planning on getting the bottom-right warrior skill that causes my rage to have a minimum amount. My logic is that I want to be able to enter every battle with at least a little rage to put my dragon to use. Then I'll boost my rage max a bit to fine-tune the minimum until I can cast the really important abilities, like wall, mystic egg or the tail punch umm... thingy. However, I may be misinterpreting the description. Does this skill do what I think it does, or am I in for a nasty surprise?

7) My mana went negative in one battle. Does the game allow me to cast a spell I cannot afford? Or was this a serendipitous bug?

That's all for now. Thank you!

[Sir Whiskers]

1. Correct, kind of. Unless a unit shows a quantity of "horde", you can run out. That said, as you complete quests, some shops will add new units and increase the amount of the existing ones. Finding the stones will boost units at Debir, in Castle Regnum and the Royal University. Also, I believe if you complete one or both of the quests given to you by Ariana, the troops in her castle will increase (Scarlet Wind).

You should be careful of losses, but I don't recommend obsessing over them. So long as you don't lose troops you absolutely need, cannot replace, or would take too long to replace, losing a few really isn't a big deal. Losing troops does not impact your final score, and there are plenty of fights, so you'll still get the medal to level 3.

2. No spawning of new enemies. As for leveling up your dragon, when your opposition is weak, put some troops into reserve before the fight. Dragon experience is reduced if your army's total leadership is higher than the enemy's. This is recalculated constantly throughout a battle, so you will likely get the most xp early on, while the enemy army is still at full strength.

3. Wanderer scrolls are used once, but many last for multiple fights. Check the upper right hand side of your screen - you'll see an icon showing how many remaining fights each is good for (each generates its own unique icon). Wanderer "spells" cannot be added to your spellbook.

4. All spell schools have useful spells, so as warrior I try to get at least level 1 in all three. That said, as warrior I find Order and Distortion more useful than chaos (though Fear is a great spell). If you can get either Order or Distortion to level 3, you'll have some good mass-effect spells, and a high-level Resurrection spell can be useful, as is Time Back. Direct damage spells won't be as useful to you, given that a warrior tends to have low mana and intellect.

5. Spells known is unlimited, but only if you have enough crystals. If you can get the Mind skill Neatness, that will help, as you can then break down items into crystals (and runes, if you take the skill to level 3). On normal difficulty, money is generally not a problem, so by mid-game you can afford to buy up every item and break any you don't need. Always keep some crystals in reserve, as you can upgrade a spell in mid-combat. One combat I needed level 3 Time Back and had the crystals to upgrade it so I could save a couple dragons I unexpectedly lost.

6. Good idea, though you'll be in the mid-game or later before you can really spare enough runes for this. Once you have the skill to level 3, it can be very useful, but there are other skills you'll want first. BTW, I don't recommend getting more than level 1 in Training, as you'll find your dragon going up levels pretty consistently. I do recommend getting at least level 1 in Tactics at some point, as the flexibility can be very useful in some battles.

7. Negative mana? Never seen that before - I have no idea what would have caused that.

A few other comments:

As for dragon abilities, I like Fiery Phantoms because the damage is astral, so it affects all creatures. Like you, I've found Mana Accelerator to be very useful in essentially trading rage for mana. Try to get Treasure Searcher up to max soon, so you can collect extra chests. And always upgrade Ball of Lightning when you can - it's an ability that becomes more useful as the game progresses, not less, because it kills a percentage of the enemy stack. It's a lot of fun to cast a couple of those at the beginning of combat against stacks that number in the thousands.

I generally save a new game right before going into the training area. That allows me to restart the game if I get myself into a bind, or just want to try again with a different strategy. Don't be afraid to experiment, as each player has their own style and preferences.

Enjoy!

[Wazat]

Thank you for the help!

A couple more questions if that's okay:

1) Is there any rhyme or reason to which dragon skills are offered during a level up? Sometimes it gives me crap, other times exactly what I wanted to level up. I imagine I need to wait to level up skills that are already high level, but it seems to me like a bonus to mana accelerator, treasure hunter or the tail whip would serve me better than more defense to my wall, which would still go down in 1 hit against tough enemies. :/ And I have no idea when it will give me the opportunity to learn a new ability instead of upgrade an old one. I passed on ball lightning because it's apparently not as useful early on, but I intend to get it later on.

2) I think either scarlet wind or rusty anchor has a training dummy on one of its beaches. It has a very strong or impossible enemy guarding it, so I'm not all that enthusiastic about reaching it just yet. I'm just wondering what that is (unless it's a huge story spoiler). At first I assumed it was an opportunity to fight multiple times to level up, but that sounds unlikely.

3) I see, so use the dragon earlier rather than later for better xp. Do abilities like wall, mana accel, and treasure hunter give xp, or just attack abilities?

4) Is the scroll limit based on how many scrolls I have total, or is it like an inventory where like items stack in the same slot? So if I have 3 Fear scrolls and 2 Healing scrolls, does that count as 5 or 2 against my total scroll use?

The reason I ask about stacked scrolls is because I need to make room in my spell book to get a Call of Nature scroll and learn it. It would be very useful to be able to chuck some throw-away summoned units out in the first turn of battle to keep my army alive with a decoy. That's been a huge part of my strategy to get the occasional no loss battle -- meat shields FTW.

5) By training area, you mean at the beginning of the game where you get a free sword/shield? Wow, that was a while back, but given the nature of the game I can see starting over if I get in too much of a bind.

6) (edited to add this) I see enemy armies with multiple of the same unit all the time. Multiple griffin stacks, multiple swordsman stacks... how do I do that? Even if I put the units in my reserve, I'm not allowed to buy more. :/

7) (another edit) I've died twice but been allowed to continue (while other, more serious battles were a game over). Are there any bad effects to this, like causing me to miss out on something later in the game? I mean, other than losing my whole army. As I mentioned before, it seems like I get experience from doing it. So if I wanted to just throw away army after army (using hoard stacks) and level up my dragon & hero, is that an effective strategy (even though it's the wimpiest imaginable)?

[bucazaurus]

I will try to answer your questions.
1 - Dragon's skills need your pet to be at a certain level in order to gain them or to upgrade them .
2 - I attached a pictures . Look at the right side image . Is that the training dummy or you saw something else? Because that object it's a power up object.
It disappear after you interact with him and usually it gives +1 defence .
3 - In the left side image you can see where it shows how much exp you get for using dragon pet's skills .
4 - 3 fear scrolls and 2 healing scrolls counts as 5 scrolls .
5- ....
6- Saying you have one stack of bowman worth 10 000 leadership . You can split that stack into multiple stacks , but you can't have two stacks of bowman
worth 10 000 leadership each. That's one of computer's ability , along with having 10 stacks against 5 of yours.
7- You can die as many time as you like , but the battles you need to make to advance with the main quest are Game Over if you loose them.

[Wazat]

Thank you for your reply!

1) So is it random which 3 upgrades are offered on a dragon level-up? Is there some way to scroll to see others or is that all that's offered?
2) I think that's it. Thanks.
3) Thank you. I didn't notice that in the descriptions.
4) This is sort of good news, since that opens my options on which scrolls I can toss. Discarding 1 scroll from a stack of 3 is the same as 1 from a stack of 1, so I can pick any scroll that isn't useful to me.
7) Cool. Seems like if I lose my army, that's the best way to make up for it (increase character and dragon xp).

[Sir Whiskers]

1) So is it random which 3 upgrades are offered on a dragon level-up? Is there some way to scroll to see others or is that all that's offered?


As near as I can tell, it's random each time you level up. I doubt there's a way to see ahead of time what will be offered, as each time you select a new ability or upgrade, you change what can appear at the next level up.

[Wazat]

bucazaurus, what version of the game do you have? I don't see experience listed in mine. :(

Sir Whiskers: Yea, I just leveled up and had to choose between learning ball lightning or adding a substantial upgrade to mystic egg. I upgraded mystic egg, since decoys are currently my strategy. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake. :/

I wish it had given me these choices on previous levels.

[bucazaurus]

bucazaurus, what version of the game do you have? I don't see experience listed in mine. :(


Unzip the attachment in Armored Princess folder \data\mods
If you don't have a folder named mods , then create one first.
The mod was created by Spamm. I just reupload him .The links for download doesn't work anymore. Original thread here
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=11156
Have fun.

[Wazat]

Thank you!

[Wazat]

Sorry for the double post and resurrecting a dead/dying thread, but that mod does not work for me. Nor does the interface mod in the thread you linked to (the mirror sites still have the working download, btw).

I put both mod files in [kbap dir]/data/mods/, but noticed no difference in my popup screens etc either in battle or out.

I have the steam version of the game. Is there anything different there? Is putting these files in the directory sufficient or do I also have to activate them somewhere in-game? Am I supposed to keep them inside the ZIP files?

Thanks again.

[bucazaurus]

If you have KB Armored Princess , you have to unzip them in data\mods folder.
If you have KB Crossworlds you have to unzip them in session\orcs\mods.

[Wazat]

I'll try that when I get home. I only intended to have AP installed, but if I remember right steam had me install crossworlds too for some reason. I'll drop it in session\orcs\mods to see if that works.

[bucazaurus]

If you do that , then you need to play Orcs on the March campaign :)
Witch is the extended version of Armored Princess campaign but with new troops,spells,items,skills,etc.

[Zechnophobe]

He may have linked you to the Armored Princess mods, and not the Crossworlds Mods, or vice versa, which version do you have?

Also, The challenge ratings of bad guys go:

Very Easy
Easy
Equal
Slightly Stronger
Strong
Very Strong
Lethal
Invincible

This is a comparison of their leadership to yours. Considering you have spells, and a dragon, and items, 'equal' strength fights shouldn't actually be anything but a cake walk, and this becomes MORE true as you go through the game. Don't be too shy from trying Strong or Very Strong, especially if you start getting some good tactics down.

One of the things that makes this game amazing, is that there are some strategies that you can attempt that are VASTLY better than others. Try things out, look for combo's where you can.

Also, don't be afraid to play with your wanderer's scrolls a bit, especially the 'summon' ones. You can get some very advanced units with them early on, that can be amazing. A stack of Dryads or Royal Griffons from Song of the Wind or... just about anything from Call Colossus. It can really bootstrap you.

[bucazaurus]

He may have linked you to the Armored Princess mods, and not the Crossworlds Mods, or vice versa, which version do you have?



The mod works with both , Armored Princess and Crossworlds.

[Wazat]

I'm playing AP and the mods still do nothing, but when I get some free time I'll try fighting with it again.

As for tactics, I've actually recently taken on some enemies that were marked as very strong or brutal and won w/o losses. The important thing is keeping my 2 cyclops in the front lines with my knights and paladins, letting the stone absorb most of the hits, so the inquisitors are in the back protected. Inquisitors make good snipers and rage builders, are perfect emergency revivers, and they do tons of damage, but they're a vulnerable stack that must be kept safe (enemy spells and range attacks are pretty nasty). When the paladins or knights take losses, I revive them with the inquisitor or paladin. This is very limited though so I have to be super-careful. Likewise, the stone hulks cannot be healed or revived, so I need to pull them back when they start looking hurt.

I rarely do summons with mystery egg, royal thorns or call of nature anymore. Call of nature is pricey in mana and gives very little -- the summoned stack can absorb 1 hit and waste 1 enemy's turn or counterattack, and that's all. Mystery egg is an amazing skill and the summons can absorb a brutal beating, and make an exceptional decoy or path blocker... but lately I've been using dragon dive every chance I get until the enemy has been nuked into whimpering submission. :D Even at levels 1 and 2 the dive has been a life saver. I just can't afford to have my dragon sleeping all that time [from mystery egg] when I could have dropped several stacks by 3-5 attacks worth.

I stopped using royal thorns for now. I've been making do with ONLY TWO of them the whole game. I'm likewise severely short on knights and paladins, using less than 1/2 or 1/3 capacity because nobody sells them, but they're still worth while because they can absorb hits like you wouldn't believe. Royal thorns take a beating too, but less so, and I cannot heal or revive them. Their summons were amazingly useful, but when they're my biggest weak point (especially vs enemy hero spells) it's best to shove them in reserve and split up my 2 cyclops instead.

Still trying new tactics. I have enough potential item bonuses to sea dogs and pirates that I'd consider using them... but... well, no losses battles are pretty tough when the slightest tickle slaughters 4-5 in the stack. I'm liking my army of level 4 and 5 killers.

BTW, you recommend using my wanderer summon scrolls now? I have been saving the "lovers of the wind" one until late game when I get the most out of it with higher leadership, but your talk of getting a leg up has a good ring to it. Sounds to me like I'd get better use out of the scroll now than later, even with the higher late-game leadership.

Here's hoping for some royal griffins. :D

[Zechnophobe]

Thing is, later on in the game, you won't NEED to summon troops, you can just buy them. The hardest point in the game is generally around level 15, when you are trying to bust your way into Verona and the fertile lands beyond.

You will run out of Royal thorns, since they are likely only available in Debir (2 to 5) and your best unit is likely a cyclops. Maybe archmages, inquisitors, paladins or Royal Snakes. But that stops cutting it against the tougher fights, and Rusty and Verona are a lot harder than the first 3.

Getting some really nice troops to help you get onto these islands, which opens up huge numbers of stores and items, and money, is really important!

(My current no loss game, I got dryads early from a scroll. I beat some invincible stacks to unlock Verona and Elon using them).

[Wazat]

Hey, that's basically where I am. :D I've got Verona opened up but unvisited. I've cleaned out everything on Debir and Bolo, and Scarlet Wind only has 1 enemy (in the cave) left, and he's next on my hitlist (tried fighting him once but had to quit partway for time reasons; he won't stand a chance on round 2).

Most stuff on Rusty Anchor is still marked "Lethal", "Invincible", or "Dropped Soap in a Prison Shower". Admittedly I haven't checked yet whether I can defeat them anyway, and a few that I did fight by accident (dang they're fast) actually went down surprisingly fast, so I'm pleased by that. Still, I'm hoping to find a shop on Verona with some really good units, or at least some reinforcements to top off my current troops. I imagine a completely full stack of knights or paladins would be really powerful. Even at only 8 each, they both pack a decent punch.

I think some of the bonuses I've recently gotten to Attack and Defense (items and skills) have been making a significant difference. I also picked up Mr. Whiny Scarface and he's holding some items for me, which helps a lot. But I still have trouble keeping my units alive because of the sheer volume of damage some enemies can dish out while their stacks are still high.

I wish the dragon's wall skill was worth something, but spending 2 turns asleep to build a barrier that will die in one hit isn't as effective as other options, including spawning more summons. Maybe as an emergency measure it would work (delay enemy 1 turn, or maybe even redirect them).

[MaroonMaurader]

A few small points.

Units per merchant are limited. That said, if you can get at least one unit of a given type in your squad and are feeling cheesy, you can make use of Sacrifice to "create" more of that unit - Sacrifice can be used to bring a stack total to above the number you started the battle with, and if so then when you end the battle you keep the extra units.

There is a limited number of enemies, which puts a cap on the amount of experience available. That's why high-level challenges in this forum tend to focus on two things: ancient knowledge scrolls and other experience multipliers, and item suppression battles. While item suppression battles are also limited, you can get about ~10% more fights out of the game if you play to try and get as many of those fights as possible.

Distortion magic is, in my opinion, by far the best spell school. You could write a whole article on strategic uses of slow. Or haste. Or trap, or stoneskin, or phantom, or any of a number of other spells in that school. It just gives you a lot of powerful options.

Scrolls can also be "stored" if you want at castles - you can sell scrolls at castles, at which point they'll go out of your spellbook and into the castle shop (just open your spellbook while in the castle screen). Then you can buy that scroll back at a later date when you have room for it if you still want it.

Regarding dying... it will negatively effect your end-game score, if you care about that.

Keeping units alive is often an issue of directing their damage. The "Target" spell helps quite a bit there, as does simply knowing how the AI chooses who to attack. Stoneskin can be quite useful (particularly on a unit that already has high physical damage resistance, like knights or paladins). Don't feel compelled to enter a battle with 5 stacks - sometimes the best approach really is just one stack if you're trying to avoid losses (plus it levels your pet dragon faster).

Oh - and the wall is actually quite excellent if used strategically. Don't try to use it to totally wall off your troops; instead, try to use it to direct enemies away from your fragile ranged units, towards your buff tank units. If they can still reach some of your troops this turn or the next, odds are good that they'll ignore the wall and walk for the vulnerable units.

[Wazat]

;)

I'll consider Sacrifice. I think it's an amusing exploit. I may save it for a second play-through though.

I found it especially disturbing that there's a limited number of enemies. No way to level up beyond what they give you, no recurring spawns. It means someone cannot level grind to make the game easy (which adds a new element to the game), but it also means the player is easily screwed. This is definitely a niche game.

I'm liking distortion too. However, I use the Heal spell very often too to top off one of my paladins or knights. For a while it was the only spell I used. It would be nice if there was a revive spell... is there?

Regarding selling scrolls, do you lose any money selling and re-buying them?

Thankfully I'm not concerned about end-game score. If this game ends up being worth a second play-through, I can try maximizing score then.

Thanks!

[MaroonMaurader]

I agree that Heal is a great spell; it just seems (to me) like a spell where if you have to you can easily get by with it just at level 1. Actually, the Order spells that convince me to upgrade are mostly Battle Cry and Resurrect - both of those become much more useful when they hit level-3.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "revive" spell. There's Resurrect, although it doesn't work on plants, machines, undead, level-5 units, and a few other odd cases. And it costs quite a bit of mana, and doesn't resurrect that many. Fit of Energy "revives" a unit in that it lets it move again that turn. King's Bounty: The Legend had the "Gift" spell, but it was removed when they made KB:AP (understandably, because it was overpowered); that one reset all the abilities so (for example) inquisitors could resurrect again in the same battle.

I'm not sure if you lose money losing and re-buying scrolls. But scrolls are really cheap by late-game (on Hard difficulty or below, you'll probably pile up 3 million gold or more; whether you lose some money swapping a 500-gold scroll in and out of a castle really isn't be a big worry).

[Wazat]

Interesting. Okay, thank you! Looks like I need to find a revive scroll then, and I'll watch for battle cry. If the gold loss is that insignificant, then selling them seems like a good storage method. I have 31/11 or so scrolls (meaning about 3x my capacity), so I'm going to need to store them somewhere. I just need to make sure I sell them to a castle with crappy items I don't mind burying. I've noticed (for example, in the first castle) that when it fills up, you can't access the old stuff. Had to buy something worthless to get that dragon sword once I had the cash for it.

I've noticed that the wanderer's scroll I had always gives me dragonflies (I tried a few save/reloads to see what my options would be). I gather it's predefined when I pick up the scroll, then.

[Sir Whiskers]

I've noticed (for example, in the first castle) that when it fills up, you can't access the old stuff. Had to buy something worthless to get that dragon sword once I had the cash for it.

That doesn't sound right. Check right above the items or scrolls. If the castle has more than it can display at one time, you'll see a left and right triangle. Click those to move forward and backward through the items/scrolls.

And yes, you only get half for anything you sell, and it's full price to buy it back. So you "lose" gold selling scrolls only to buy them back later, but as others have said, you should have plenty of gold in the later game, so it's not a problem.

I've noticed that the wanderer's scroll I had always gives me dragonflies (I tried a few save/reloads to see what my options would be). I gather it's predefined when I pick up the scroll, then.

The summon scrolls are random, so if you don't like what you get, you can try again. But first you have to enter a new area, like a cave or island to re-randomize the options. Also, you're limited by your current leadership, so don't expect a black dragon (Call Colossus scroll) if you only have 2,000 leadership.

[Wazat]

Excellent, thank you. I didn't notice the arrows.

I'll also change areas and retry the wanderer scroll. I was wondering if I had to do something to randomize it, but didn't think of that. I had tried moving around to a different spot on the map, letting enemies move around in hopes that their random movement decisions would change the selection, etc. I'm a programmer, so I think about these things. :D

I have enough leadership for 3 cyclops (well over 4500). Unfortunately I haven't found the call colossi scroll yet. That would rock.

[Petwin]

I'll also change areas and retry the wanderer scroll.
It's a lot easier to use eggs and sprouts to get a diffent outcome:
1) quicksave
2) use scroll. If outcome is not to your liking reload
3) use egg or sprout and delete new stack
4) goto (1)

Important: you can only get troops that are within your ledership and not already in your army (so if you have a black dragon and want another one, park the first in a castle).

note: the scroll Song of the Wind can give you Royal Griffons, in case you like those.

[Wazat]

That's even better, thank you. And yes, royal griffins would probably be the most effective. They have a reasonable amount of health so I'm less likely to lose them when trying to do no-loss battles, and their summons are immensely useful for controlling losses as well.

I have a bunch of snake eggs and griffin eggs, which I assume with produce crap units (the weakest of the creature series), so it's nice to finally have a use for them. :D

[Zechnophobe]

That's even better, thank you. And yes, royal griffins would probably be the most effective. They have a reasonable amount of health so I'm less likely to lose them when trying to do no-loss battles, and their summons are immensely useful for controlling losses as well.

I have a bunch of snake eggs and griffin eggs, which I assume with produce crap units (the weakest of the creature series), so it's nice to finally have a use for them. :D

Royal Griffons are very common on Verona, so don't assume you need to summon them. I'd strongly recommend Dryads instead.

Heal at level 2 is substantially better than level 1. It costs less and heals more. Level 3 is 1 mana for a heal large enough to heal dragons. Some pretty powerful early game strategies involve using just a single Green Dragon, with stone skin, and healing it.

[Wazat]

Nice. I have L2 for both magic trees (distortion and the healing one, name escapes me) and it's helping a lot. It's nice that the heal spell finally does something worth while. Unfortunately many of the L2 distortion spells are pricey in mana. Glad I have a dragon that converts rage to mana. :D

Unfortunately my dragon sword's morale dropped too low and it's no longer helping me. *grumble*

[bucazaurus]

You can always "suppress" the item , if you have enough army to fight the keepers.

[Wazat]

Not yet. When I tried it out to see how nasty the battle would be, I got my butt handed to me. :D I didn't have much problem suppressing the axe in the storyline (trying to avoid spoilers), but this battle was an order of magnitude or two harder.