droids are NOT overpowered:-)

[impy]

Hello everyone,

haven't played kings bounty for many months..But since it is such a brilliant game one has to come back. Just like coming back to heroes of might&magic back in the old days right?

Similar to my lowest level challenge I was toying with the idea how quickly one can actually finish the game. In the other words, what is the minimum number of fights one has to go through in order to finish the game.

The only compulsory fights are:
Stone 1 - received at the beginning - fights = 0
Stone 2 - Bolo underground - fights = 0 (kite)
Stone 3 - Montero bridge - fights = 2 = montero bridge guardian + defeat Hagni
Stone 4 - Tekron temple of sorrow- fights = 2 = defeat outer guardian + defeat stone guardian
Stone 5 - Verona capital - fights = 2 = defeat Marquis + defeat Demenion
Stone 6 - Uzala - fights = 1 = defeat Rakush
Stone 7 - Reha cave - fights = 3 = 1st champion of arena + 2nd champion of arena + defeat K'tahu
Stone 8 - Elon mirror tower - fights = 3 = defeat Uchkuk + defeat Shenobi + defeat Gremlion
and the last - Greenwort - fights = 1 = defeat Baal

That's total of 14 compulsory fights.
As you can see from screenshots, it can be done.
Any questions drop me a line
Impy

[ckdamascus]

I hoped to never play this game again, because I get too addicted when I do.

I think the first and foremost question is.... how?

Droid split? I figured that there would be situations where entire droid stacks might perish.

Naturally, a lot of flying around to evade enemies.

Was it very hard or tedious?

[Fatt_Shade]

If no1 else is going to say this, i guess i must take that task on myself : Impy you my man are insane :-D (joking :-P But seirously where do you get this ideas ???

Droid split? I figured that there would be situations where entire droid stacks might perish.
Naturally, a lot of flying around to evade enemies.
Not sure why would entire stack perish ? Since droids have 3 -leadreship% items and can get them to 55 leadership per Repair droid, even with his `low` 26K leadership they can make formidable army, same goes for Red`s, as low as 1400 leadership. It is posible, but as you said - WHY ??? :-D

[impy]

Thanks for the feedback boys.
I'm gonna sit down in the evening and write some sort of a guide.
And yes, you got that right - droid split.
As for the red dragons appearing in my army, they were merely a product of mystic egg in one fight. On the side note, I know from experience that with black dragons only you can fairly early defeat montero bridge guardian and tekron temple outer guardian.
Was it hard? It is relative. Newbies will find KB generally hard, casual players will find no loss hard and so on. But there were some nail biting moments - fight with gremlion with only 23% of positive magic resistance, praying that Ktahu will not summon too many armies of gorguanas etc.
Was it tedious? Not really, although fights tend to take longer. Idea is to play defensively and bite enemy bit by bit and rise attack via frenzy. Then you go for a kill.
See you later

[Fatt_Shade]

Seeing this kind of play`s and tactics, one has to wonder : does that repair droid have same stats as those in my game :-D Did you moded them to have zeroing-in ability, or something like that ? :-P
Nontheless good job with this playthrough Impy, you realy get some weird ideas and get ppl on this forum thinking is there anything that truly is `impossible` in this game ?
I might found one such thing, but it must wait on developers making some kind of multiplayer in KB2 like Hot-seat, or anything via Lan 1v1.
My impossible chalange goes :
1) go online,
2) find Impy,
3) defeat him :-D
To make things a bit interesting, you`ll have 10 more lvls , and all dragon army, against his Plant stacks :-D

[impy]

Hello,
thank you for assumption that I would be any good in PvP:grin:
I do not use any modded units.
Sorry for delay in producing a guide. here we go:
first, there are only 14 fights in total,so you have only 13 fights to maximize hero level, pet dragon level and work on medals. In the other words, lots of preparation is required.
1) KBscanner.
I'm not sure if starting any new game would do the job. But it has not been tried. I can honestly say i checked about 40 saves and then picked the best one. What i was looking for: physical res - twinkling boots, cuirass, leather dress, scaly set. Magic res - crystal ball, magician cowl, chaos crown, mirror shield. All three droid leadership reduction items, mana items - elkonium, portrait of queen of ice. painskull for increased rage. And as dream - Belt of the victor. Just having scaly set, droid reductions and belt of victor at the same time would probably require going through hundreds of saves, so i gave up on the belt. Now, at the beginning I was not aiming for 14 fights only, but 14-20, so if some artifact appeared in kb scanner it was good enough for me. As the game progressed and I noticed it might be possible to achieve absolute min. of 14 fights I gave up on the goodies which were results of the fights. This way I "lost" twinkling boots, mirror shield and royal hammer. So, if you're going to try this challenge yourself, make sure the items you want are not inside castles or results of quests requiring fighting. The equipment i had you can see on the screen-shot.
2) skills, spells.
Might. Quickdraw is of most importance, you want to go pretty much first every round, to recover damage, cast spells, run to safety etc. Frenzy is a way to raise the attack against bosses. Nightime operations is cheap and powerful. Make sure you play every battle at night. Now the rest in this order- resistance 3, caution 3, revenge 3, heroism 3, onslaught 1
Mind. Neatness 3. After you collect all the treasures around teana and some easier battles, use money to buy level 4-5 items to get runes by destroying them. (if you get crystals, reload) Glory 3. Before Baal fight invest in Holy anger 3
Magic. Distorsion 3, Order 3. push towards concentration 2, definitely have concentration 3 by the time you fight gremlion
Spells - stone skin 3, magic spring 3, calm rage 3, pain mirror 3, turn back time 1, divine armor 3, teleport 1. I hardly cast anything else.
3) Stats. Intellect not needed, Attack not needed (use frenzy to increase), massive defense. Rage is enough 55, for calm rage to work efficiently. Mana - would help but around 60 was sufficient - magic spring.
4) Beginning
Start game, skip training. Now kite all teana apart from Montero (first access to montero is only via bridge). I consider myself far from brilliant kiter but i managed. The easiest route seems to be: debir, scarlet, bolo, rusty, verona scroll on scarlet, umkas scroll on verona by the bridge to Bristol, nameless scroll on umkas by the owl, free sheterra scroll on nameless. Back to rusty, easiest is the scroll guarded by army not far from Zig-Zag or whatever his name is, one by the dragon cave is manageable as well. That should hopefully guarantee Tekron+Dersu. Back to Verona, behind the big lighthouse is the easiest Elon scroll. On elon there is easy Reha scroll somewhere between castles. Get Uzala scroll on usually Dersu. Of course, position of scrolls may vary:-) On all maps collect every leadership rod, free treasure, dig treasures. Idea is to have at least 80 collected treasures before you start fighting, so you get treasure hunter 2 = +5%experience. Collected money from treasures will be used for buying equipment and later for buying items and destroying them for runes. Do all the quests not requiring fighting. Example being - Reha: deliver papers to Degosh, get memory grass, get that nasty soup, get +5rage, -1intellect from it as well, get rune from Red stick. When everything is done, you should be around level 25-26. Spend the runes, get the equipment. Since you would want to start those difficult fights later with maxed rage, buy all rage potions, also dwarven beer, toadstool liquor and plan ahead depending on how many you have. Get the spells, get the droids. Now, if you managed to come across 3 x ancient knowledge scrolls, use them from the very beginning, there is only 14 fights in total to do.
5) Pet dragon. I picked pink one for +5mana. Only improve Ball of lightning, mana accelerator and possibly mystic egg
6) Droids
Unless special circumstances do not separate the 2 droid armies. since you will be swarmed by enemy stacks, you may have difficulty to get them together again for repairing. Once surrounded, droids cannot fly. Yes you can use teleport etc., but mana is scarce, other spells are needed. If there are no strong magic dealers, position droids in the corner, sit back, enjoy his physical res. coupled with stoneskin and rise attack via frenzy. At some point, usually at attack level around 100, you become so strong that you can go out and demolish the opposition. If there are threatening magic dealers, they have to be dealt with immediately - gorguanas, shamans etc. Cleverly position balls of lightning to reduce their numbers, use pain mirror etc. First round move droids to middle of battlefield towards the enemy lines to lure melee units. Second round fly in with droids to force magic dealers into close combat. Here is the something i successfully used in majority of the fights - call it : Impy's 4 round wonder:-) : First round - stone skin, Second round - stoneskin on the other stack. Third round : Magic spring. Forth round: preferably magic spring on the unit which gets more attacks or other spell - time back, calm rage etc. Fifth round: stone skin on first stack again. Stone skin - droids have 20%phys res, scaly 20%, axe of ice 10%, some items + stone skin = 95% phys. res. This way even K'tahu will do ridiculously low damage. Another point of stone skin is +40% defence. Top it up with +15 defence via magic spring, and droids will have 70++ defence and therefore level 1-4 units will do very limited damage. I cannot stress enough the importance of magic spring. Since it many turns to rise up attack by killing enemy stacks, you must make sure you have constant mana flow for 50+ rounds. Only ways are calm rage, magic spring and at the beginning concentration skill. As a rule of thumb - ignore phys. damage dealers, they will only do insignificant damage. Kill them at the end. Only exception can be - you can kill such stack in one hit guaranteed and raise attack via frenzy, or these units stand in the way to your primary target or represent specific danger - Ents and their entangling ability etc. Also, in every battle, make sure you leave as the last enemy standing a unit which has difficult time to get to you = shooter or low speed. So you can repair your droids without interruption and then finish the enemy off.
7) fights in order of difficulty:
a) Montero bridge. I do not recommend casting stone skins here. You WANT to receive damage to get rage and develop your dragon asap. Delay the end of the fight so use pet dragon to the maximum. You will easily gain 6+ dragon levels after this fight. If you get crappy options replay the battle.
b) Outer temple of sorrow guardian. There are only pure phys. damage dealers involved here, so it shouldn't be a problem. Again, work on your dragon, stay in the corner at the beginning, later come out to get hit more.
c) Hagni. Now fighting Marquis may be easier, but defeating Hagni gives you wings and access to Axe of Ice. Fight with Hagni will be very long. Make sure you use -stone skin-stone skin-magic spring-magic spring combo all the time. The only awkward units are gorguanas and alchemists. Stay back and shoot for few rounds to lure the enemy melee units, then fly in to force gorguanas into melee (which is physical). Keep casting lighting balls all the time. What helps here is to cripple goshas so the number of summoned gobots can be easily killed and your attack grows quickly via frenzy. after getting the wings collect the rest of goodies across Teana. Lure the continent scrolls guardians out and fly in to get those difficult-to-get-to wanderer scrolls. Put together Axe of ice, which is by far the best weapon. First pillar = kite, second and third = just fly in and touch it.
d) Marquis. After surviving initial fire balls there is not much else. Marquis loves to cast dispel which is annoying and ruins your mana flow. Try not cast spells for several rounds ( and if so - from scrolls without using mana) and avoid enemy, that way he'll ends up casting his very expensive mass bless.
e) Tekron stone guardian. Depending on enemy army composition this can be very easy fight or very difficult. You cannot change the initial enemy army composition but restart if summoned units are a pain to deal with - dragons etc.Ignore the enemy stacks and immediately destroy summoning tower(s). After that go after nasty units - alchemists etc. Leave the phys. damage dealers to the end.
f) Reha champion of the arena 1. This guy is pure physical damage dealer and should be a pushover, if it wasn't for his killer stacks! It is not uncommon for him to have 1300+ gorguls and two armies of 600+ hayterans. First immediately cast lightning ball on one stack hayterans hoping to shock it and slow it down. Cast stone skin on one droid stack and leave him a bit forward to lure the enemy. The unprotected stack runs away to the corner. Make sure there is no direct line between you and hayterans, they would fly in for their critical attack. Once you survive first round and have stone skin on both droid stacks, it will be much easier. Keep casting lighting balls to bring down those brutal stacks. Stay in the corner with both droids and use my spell combo. One important thing to remember here. You cannot leave as the last stack standing here those hayterans. They would fly in, get killed and ruin your repairing. Make sure you do not kill gorguls completely and leave them. Eventhough they have speed 8 and get their turn before droids, slow them down in those last few rounds.
I'm getting tired here folks, so i continue over the weekend:rolleyes:

[Fatt_Shade]

Nice work on explaining your method. It`s common sence, but considering what you did in this playthrough, and lots of patients for right items to show in KBscaner (havent used it before but i get principle).
Kite, kite untill your eyes bleed, and then kite some more :-) I really hate that pussy feeling when doing this, but i simply want to play with units that arent at desposal on curent islands (example want to go full Orc army, but have to wait untill Uzala to get Moldok and some decent troop, f...k that :-)

Some things i learned here : didnt know of using Red branch, or Magic soup in Reha, or same thing with Hephastus sword for runes. Do you get 1 rune or more is possibile ?
Spells and skills are reasonable pick, but is 3 lvl Order magis really necessary ? For calm rage and divine armor, only order spells you used.
Here is some weird situation ; you can cast Precision spell on Beholders, but not on Droids ??? Bless, and Holy anger can be casted on droids, but not precision, why i have no idea but it`s big mistake from game makers. I get it that Divine armor, and Berserk can`t be cast on undead, thay are mindless units. But why not precision on archer unit, no mater it`s mechanical ? This would be great help in your all repair droid game. Same thing goes for uselessnes of assasin in game, 0 benefitial spells for him :-(
You said alchemist could be pain in ass, but only attack they can do is fire bomb, poison is almost nothing against droids. Or you meant mechanics ?
As for reha champion of arena, he had last time i fought him 4 stacks of 450 hyterans. Is that army dependable of your army (leadership), or already composed regarding game difficulty ? Cause i tryed him with solo BK stack, and full army and he had same troop composition. Somewhere around 270K leadership, on impossible.
And i earlier sugested you`ll be difficult opponent in PvP cause you get some weird ideas :-) That is main diference in RTS and Turn based, no rushing, no swarming opponent. Your only upper hand is better tactics, and management of resources you have at desposal.
That is thing i love/hate most in this series great ideas, so many combinations of troops and tactic/strategy at hand, but only tihng you can use it against is ridiculusly easy AI (no matter how many times you play some battle and what you change in your moves, AI 90% moves does same). We must admitt, couple months after game was released and we already had 6-7 impossible/no loss playthroughs all witf totaly different unit builds. I have never played HoMM (just examlpe) against firends in Lan party and used same tactics, because they never did either. I just hope there will be some kind of multiplayer in KB2 . . . correction i REALLY hope there will be KB2 :-D

[impy]

To answer your questions:
-Hephastus sword only gives one rune once. Defeat some dragon stack, take the rune out.
-Order magic 3. I see you have not played against gremlion yet. His magic attack does 3000-4000/round (I think), evil towers do magic damage, although lot less. In the other words, you need magic resistance. Droids start with -50%, equip chaos crown +50%, mirror shield +20%, professor Dambior regalia +25%, medal +7%, upgraded magician cowl +20% (or 30?), maybe crystal ball, leather dress... In my game, due to limited number of fights I had only some of them, my magic resistance was 23% - not good enough. Only way to raise magic resistance is to cast divine armor, which costs 25mana. Believe you cannot win against gremlion otherwise. Since your mana as warrior will be total of cca 50, It requires everything working like clock - calm rage, magic spring etc.
- Archer description in this game truly sucks. Not all ranged creatures are classed as archers, and even those who have archer written in their skill chart do not get all archer bonuses. Similarly with companion Trigger giving bonus to only certain archers, same with telescopic set.
-Alchemists are not a major thread. Where magic dealers are major threat, physical dealers just nuissance, alchemists are somewhere in the middle. Huge stack can cause decent damage via fire bomb, plus aftereffects, plus reduced statistics. Poison damage is not that bad, but still, you only have 80% resistance compared to 95% physical.
-I believe enemy armies are set at the beginning, regardless of your army, or your level when you get to them
have fun:cool:

[impy]

(continuation)
g) Reha champion of the arena 2 - This guy comes with serious defence and casts divine armor all the time. Not to worry, you[re interested in enemy attacking capabilites not defence. His stacks, although respectable ( i had 50+ tirexes there etc) are all physical dmg dealers so ignore them. Only danger is gorguanas. So from the beginning of the battle fly to them forcing melee and do not stop until they dead. In the meantime cast lighning balls using my stone-stone-skin-magic.spring-magic spring-repeat combo. After gorguanas are down cripple goshas and charge up on small numbers of gobots
that's all the easier fights done...
h) Shenobi. He comes with mainly elven+orc units. Elven units are not major danger here. Worth mentioning are dryads and their disabling skill, so deal with them quickly. I also had 300 druids there which do magic damage but relatively small. So after you're done with orcs cripple druids as priority. Orcs - I had 200+ goblin shamans there and 50+ ogres. Therefore: 1st turn = wait, wait, survive the damage from ranged units + shamans and check. If damage is too much to repair on one unit, cast stoneskin on this unit and repair what you can. Stay in the corner. Next turn - wait,wait and after receiving damage cast time back (which recharges repair skill). Continue with stone skins etc. If you get attacked from all angles invest in tactics skill and find yourself some quiet cormer right from the beginning. If initial damage was not too bad, just proceed as usual with my combo. Third round (after stoneskins are casted) fly in and destroy goblin shamans due to their lower resistance ability.
i) rakush. If rakush army does not have those little goblins in the army ( cannot remember the name - the melee ones whose initiative goes through the roof when attacked) use my setup recommended in Lowest level challenge thread = dryads, black dragons,droids, without enemy getting a turn. If there are no goblins shamans it is an easy battle - just equip some fire resistance and destroy catapults as priority (again with the help of cleverly positioned lightning balls). If there is tons of goblin shamans + catapults and some melee goblins, you[re up for an interesting battle. I have not seen army like that yet, chances are it may be unbeatable.
j) Uchkuk. The importance of chaos crown can be seen here. Not only +50% magic resistance but 50% astral res. as well. Those blood shamans are menace, usually combined with high number of catapults. (melee units are not important as usual). I discovered here the strength of pain mirror spell - the only way of bringing those blood shamans down quickly. So first round wait, wait, receive damage, cast pain mirror, repair. stay back. second round either time back or pain mirror again. after blood shamans are reduced fly in and destroy them. then catapults. I do not have to emphasize that lightning ball will be your best friend here. Note: if you manage to survive nicely first round of brutal attack of blood shamans, cast lightning ball on them AFTER their attack. I f you now follow with pain mirror chances are you destroy the whole stack right away.
k) K'tahu. Stay in the middle to start with to see where gorguanas get summoned. My spell combo is imperative here. With 95% phys. res all units including k'tahu wil do insignificant easy-to-repair damage. Not gorguanas. Their magic mark is a pain and if they manage to squeeze in critical damage from standard magic damage next round it will be serious. There are two problems here.
1) k'tahu mass atack reduces your speed to 1. You're also bound to be surrounded by his summons. In the other words, how to get to gorguanas quickly. You can cast mass haste, teleport, but mana is a problem. Mana management has to work properly for 50++ turns guaranteed. It means permanent stoneskin + source of mana. That's why order magic 3 and calm rage is needed, so you can squeeze in occassional mass haste or teleport.
2) i do not know the details of game mechanics here, but, as you kill his summons he will bring more summons in when their probably some leadership/hit points ratio goes below some threshold. That would mean summoning gorguanas again and more headache for you due to your speed 1 as mentioned above. Never let 2 stacks of gourguanas be on the battlefield, that's guaranteed loss. I therefore recommend just killing gorguanas and ignore the rest of the summons just bite k'tahu bit by bit
l) demenion. yes, 20+ archdemons and their halving ability, 10+ runemages, 400+ inquisitors. I used full setup of wanderer scrolls here just to be safe. Melee stacks are to be ignored, including green dragons, their magic attack is weak. I recommend casting 2 lightning balls in the corner where inquisitors are. Since many units are out of reach of ball, it will go after inquisitors. I brought down rune mages first, then seriously crippled inquisitors and then archdemons. What to do with do archdemons? I helped myself with 2 x mystic eggs in those hard to reach two spots on the battlefield. Archdemons are likely to go after them. Save yor mana, time back will be needed.
m) Gremlion. The most difficult fight. Go there fully buffed .You need to have divine armor on which is 25 mana, cannot approach gremlion without stoneskin on, and need very high mana supply for casting especially divine armors. Stone skin would be nice to have to face those summons. To top it up - druids attack you with magic, dryads have thier special reset ability, ents will entangle you. Luckily, killing any summons will give your tons of rage even after 20th turn. First, make sure there is one summoning tower standing for 90% of the fight in order to bring out summons which is fresh supply of mana for you basically. I let two summoning towers standing for cca 15 turns just so there is enough summons out there for me to feed on. Since it is impossible to have divine armors and stone skin on all the time, i was just shooting at gremlion when i had a chance. Battle took 80+ turns. Mana management is the most important here.
n) Baal. actually fairly straightforward fight. Make sure you have holy anger 3. I was hardly worried about mana this way. Baal attacks are physical (just a bit of fire every now and then). First round stone skin on horsemen, they charge first and are likely to get killed fast, which you do not want. Second round stone skin on knights. third +fourth round stone skin on droids. repeat. That's it

[ckdamascus]

Wow, incredible detail! Now, this is going to sound a bit silly as I have read a lot of your posts and there is one lingering detail I could never understand.

What is cca?

[impy]

cca (or ca) from Latin circa meaning "around"

[Zechnophobe]

No Optimization module for Gremlion? Those give +25% magic resistence each, and some defense. Would seem to be perfect for you!

Engineers badge, Optimization Module x2, Horn, Hammer... should be one heck of a maxed out stack of droids.

I'm curious what you could do with Black Knights. Can they get the counter attack ability from Crossworlds? Can you even find the knights or whatnot you need to kill to unlock the ability? (Maybe on verona bridge)?

I'm curious to hear how Bhaal goes. Sure, ktahu with 95% physical resist is just a matter of defending vs gorguanas.. but Bhaal does fire damage in there too... and his archdemon stacks are going to be larger than your droid stacks I suspect.

[Jatekos]

Funny idea to solve the game with the less battle as possible.
One of your "compulsory" seems avoidable for me, but I have to check first.
And what's the next "craziness"? :) ?
Finishing the no-loss game using only peasants?
Or without using any spell?
Or with using only one type of runes?
Or even without using any runes? :):-P

[impy]

regarding Optimization module. Yes, the bonuses are great, unfortunately it requires 2 fights to upgrade it & unlock its better bonuses. Those two extra is something you do not want if you aim for minimum number of fights. From this point of view upgrading Magician cowl = 30% magic resist + 20 mana is better since mana management is difficult here.
Baal. his fire attack, which is also not very often does only 500-1000 fire damage. In Baal fight I had two stacks of 268 droids at more than 17000 hitpoints each. So 500-1000 fire damage was not a problem. Yes , archdemons had a chance to cast their halving attack in this battle. That's why they had to be destroyed first (axe of ice gives droids non-retaliation ability). That's also why I kept casting stoneskin on knights & horsemen, so there are more targets for archdemons, since loss of Gilbert units is not an issue here. Also, majority of received damage in this fight was physical, therefore negligible and therefore I could "save" repairs for moments like when being halved.

Jatekos: one fight may be avoidable? both uchkuk and shenobi must be killed in order to enter mirror tower, marquis cannot be moved, the only thing i can think of is kite montero bridge guardian..I think he is unmovable.
From your suggestions : if you read one of my earlier threads, you find out I already managed to get all the way to k'tahu with only investment in Distorsion 1:grin:
Hmm. I never played with black knights. I only joined kings bounty community well after The legend and Armored princess were on the market, so once i read they are overpowered i never touched them. But it sound interesting to go for minimum fights with black knights only..

[Jatekos]

I still didn't have time to check -and it will not be easy, because in all of my runs killed the Marquis earlier than Hagni (wings)-, but probably You knows the answer, is it impossible to fly behind the Marquis? (To kill Demenion).
Yes I agree, he is unmovable, but perhaps possible to bypass.
Yes, I've seen your level 1 distortion trial, but You didn't finished the whole game, aren't You? :) and also seen the thinking about only peasents game, but haven't seen the end. :)
I almost sure, if You were able to do this 14 fight finishing only with droids, You are able to repeat it only with Black Knights, they are really very powerfull with eviln (Zlogn). I think it's not a bigger challenge, than the droids trial. (You have to take care only one single stack)
One more thing, You mentioned that the runes from artifacts via Neatness can changable.
I've tried it earlier in several ways to get different runes-crystals, but I always failed.
How it be possible??

[ckdamascus]

To beat the game no-loss with peasants would be a challenge indeed. Perhaps summoner mage can do it, but at that point it woudl be all about making sure there was enough disposable cannon fodder to keep the peasants alive rather than the peasants doing anything useful.

Not to mention the poor initiative hmmm....

[plin500]

To beat the game no-loss with peasants would be a challenge indeed. Perhaps summoner mage can do it, but at that point it woudl be all about making sure there was enough disposable cannon fodder to keep the peasants alive rather than the peasants doing anything useful.

Not to mention the poor initiative hmmm....

Well, with Onslaught 3 and Adrenaline 3 you're initiative will be 8, equal to archdemons.

So in order to achieve that playing Mage, you'll need to be about lv 20. It's doable. But the problem is keeping them alive... Invisibility?;)

[impy]

I can confirm that you cannot bypass Marquis and fight Demenion straight away. Just tried it with wings..
Regarding getting runes from level 4-5 items via neatness skill. It is a misunderstanding. I said - "if you get crystals, reload". What i meant by this was load a savegame before you bought the particular items which when destroyed gave you crystals. That would be a waste of money. Just buy a different one. I'm not aware that by reloading or breaking the item on different island would make any difference, as with call colosus scroll for example .
Impossible no loss with peasants only. I think I mentioned somewhere that only possible way in my opinion would be very high intellect mage which casts invisibility first turn and then there are two ways - creating bucketloads of summons or unleash hell via death star for example.
Black knight game with minimum fights. I've not played them yet, but I do not think it would be that easy. Remember, you will not have staff of acolyte (-15% leadership req.) since it is a result of some fights and also no splinter of darkness. I see the following problem. You will be constantly surrounded by enemies. The moment you kill someone (and finish your turn) hoping to cast eviln, the empty slot next to you would be immediately filled in by another enemy stack attacking you. So i guess one would need to use teleporting to lure the enemies away from standing on the dead bodies...

[Jatekos]

Yes, I confirm as well: the Marquis can't be bypassed (although there are pretty big places between him and the castle :(), so You are right: 14 is the minimum.
Call Colossus works (I mean you can change the result with several methods), but neatness always gives the same result. (But now I understand your idea, regarding this).
Impossible no loss with peasants only. It seems extreme hard. (Till sy do it! :))
I think the invisibility, and death star and so on tricks could be work, but will You have enough recources to build up the hero before the very first battle??

BK. I have had splinter of darkness only once, and just in that game I haven't used BKs at all. BK is very very strong without any leadership modification.
And yes, You need teleport lvl1, and if You want to get sure chance, You need to be a Mage to put eviln and make teleportation in the same turn.
Lvl 3 eviln gives back 30% of the original HP of the stack, which means with four eviln you would get back more than the whole HP. I don't remember any in my games using eviln more than 4-5 in a battle. As I remember even Baal was killing only about 10-12 BKs in a turn (with lvl3 stoneskin), so with a +100 BK stack seems doable. I like droids very much (very good in noloss games, quick and tough), and I like BK as well (bit slow), but my opinion (without trying what You did:)): BK is easier way, than droids.
Perhaps some weeks later You will settle this issue? :grin:

[Zechnophobe]

You don't really need the -15% leadership. -20% is good enough from the helm. Also, splinter is cool, but maybe the Fighter retaliation ability for humanoids would work?

[impy]

warrior's special ability does not work with black knights. Also, it would require 1 extra fight to access a tower in Debir.
I've done it with black knights. :grin:As some of you said, it was a bit easier than with droids.
Some things in this game should have been clarified by developers long time ago. For example - Steam armor description says "affects humanoid warriors". and it happily gives bonuses to black knights as well. One can argue that black knights are not humans anymore but still "humanoids" .uff.. Also spells which have different effect on undead and/or demons have this mentioned in their description. Divine armor does not work on undead and there's no mention of it in description. I know a word "divine" is a hint here, but it would save some players (me:rolleyes:) frustration.
Check out the black knight's defence in the last screenshot.
It is a result of :
starting defence = 28
nightime operations = +6
belt of winner = +14 (+50% base)
hero = 20+
steam armor = 9 (+30% base)
Moro = 3 (+10% base)
mastery ability = 25 (+90% base)
stone skin = 12 (+40% base)
magic spring = 15
Total of 130+ defence.
Could be increased by another 10 with Titan armor, and, in my game by putting on mithril shield instead of scaly for a total of 150+defence. We know that any defence point which is over 60 higher than opponent's attack is a waste but it looks quite impressive doesn't it?corr

[ckdamascus]

Congrats! I have always wanted to find a good way to use Steam Armor.

You know, some of these questions would all be answered if people combed the Gamer's Edition player manual, which I have linked from my Ultimate Documentation thread, which no one has stickied (but it really should be). :)

Although, I do agree that most of this should be IN GAME. Why do I need 10 pdfs to support this game? :)

<coughs>
Regarding Steam Armor, it only affects "short humanoids", of which the list is

"""
Alchemist, Skeleton Archer, Archimagus, Barbarian, Berserker, Black Knight, Archer, Cannoner, Goblin
with the Catapult, Druid, Dryad, Dwarf, Elf, Pathfinder, Sworsman, Guardsman, Goblin, Violent Goblin,
Cavalryman, Imp, Imp the Mocker, Knight, Miner, Necromancer, Orc, Orc the Veteran, Peasant, Pirate, Old
salt, Priest, Inquisitor, Robber, Marauder, Shaman, Skeleton, Vampire, Werewolf Elf, Ancient Vampire,
Zombie, Decaying Zombie, Demoness, Wood Fairy, Lake Fairy, Foreman, Paladin, Demonologist
"""

Regarding Undead
"""
Immunity to some spells (Bless, Revival, Armour of the God, Victim, Weakness),
to talents (Vampirism, Dance of Edges, Gobble up a Corpse, Second Breath) and features Absorption of Soul,
to effects (Bleeding, Furiousness, Curse).
Spells Treatment and Life Light cause a loss.
The plague does not influence undead parameters, gives +1 Morals.
"""

I don't know if anyone created an updated manual for Crossworlds. The Warrior Counter-attack seems to simply not work with undead. It does work with quite a few humanoids, and their definition expands far more. e.g. it works on my Shrek team. :)

Or in other words, it works with LARGE humanoids too. :)

Or, in case someone does not get it by now, it works on trolls, ogres, and orc chieftain as well. :)

[impy]

Thanks for the info. When I meet a troll I tell him he is one of us:)
well, dear ckdamascus, seems that we ended in this discussion alone:(
I was thinking about playthrough with ancient vampires. No crazy challenges (hopefully it will be challenging enough), just nice game with vampires only.
So I want to ask - has anybody tried it? Can they be made self sufficient with their drain ability? I guess with very occasional use of eviln it can be done...

[ckdamascus]

Thanks for the info. When I meet a troll I tell him he is one of us:)
well, dear ckdamascus, seems that we ended in this discussion alone:(
I was thinking about playthrough with ancient vampires. No crazy challenges (hopefully it will be challenging enough), just nice game with vampires only.
So I want to ask - has anybody tried it? Can they be made self sufficient with their drain ability? I guess with very occasional use of eviln it can be done...

Haha indeed. But I wonder what height we have to be to qualify as "short humanoid" for King's Bounty? Hmmmmmm I'm 5'7"....

I did ancient vampires in the Champion Arena campaign. I can't say I did it with no-loss though haha, and the game mechanics are clearly different in that game.

It probably is possible since the key features of beating the living daylights out of bosses is no-retaliation (ranged and/or special melee) OR insane firepower (aka Black Knights).

I suppose the resurrection/resistance bit is pretty important too. :)

I'm sort of scared to think of more combinations. I love this game, but I fear of losing myself in it again.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hm . . . ancient vampires playthrough. not bad idea, but it`s possible you`ll have problems getting enough vampires to restock your army. I played this game for some time now (what an understatement :-D and rarely have found some reasonable amount of ancient vampires, to be useful before finishing quest for Mysticus and having chance to change normal vampires to upgraded version. On other hand solo BK or droid playthrough no problem since they can be found in almost unlimited quantities (BK from Moro Dark, or castle in undergroung in Montero, and droids almost anywhere on Montero in hordes).
And Warrior`s counterstrike not working with undead would make solo ancient vampires boring, even more since they dont get any bonuses like black knights, and crippled from lack of beneficial spells.
All in all, really unbalanced race to race up`s and down`s.

[impy]

Well, i still intend to go ahead with vampire play through at some point. Beauty of all challenges lies in the fact that there is not only one way to achieve it. Shall you go with max criticals for vampires to leech as much as possible? Or max defense with steam armor, belt of the winner etc? Or max resistances? You would obviously like all of it but due to limited amount of slots you can't. As for getting sufficient amount of vampires i guess one would have to kite to Nameless, do not pick up anything in process , just to get vampires, come back to debir and start properly. I also do not think it would be boring. Since every enemy army consists of mixture of units, one needs to plan ahead the order of killings. For example - kill first non leechable units = undead, cyclops etc. or save really weak units for when vampires numbers drop and one can do massive leeching = bowmen, gobots etc. Or kill one non leechable then one leechable etc in order to keep numbers consistenly high..

[Zechnophobe]

Wow, the steam armor works on non-dwarves? Seriously? I thought it was pretty obvious that it worked only on Dwarves. I mean, those are 'short humanoids' right?

That makes it a much better item. Though... still probably not worth it.

[impy]

I have not tried it personally, just following the ckdamascus list above about units affected by steam armor. Why shouldn't it be good? The otherwise terrible drawback = -1 speed can be easily offset by belt of winner or adrenaline skill. Besides vampires in their bat form have speed of 5, so even reduction to 4 i find acceptable.

[ckdamascus]

I have not tried it personally, just following the ckdamascus list above about units affected by steam armor. Why shouldn't it be good? The otherwise terrible drawback = -1 speed can be easily offset by belt of winner or adrenaline skill. Besides vampires in their bat form have speed of 5, so even reduction to 4 i find acceptable.

Eh, only +8 defense and +8 attack? I guess that is a decent chunk. Now if only it worked on some Level 5s.... :)

Hmmm it works on the overpowered Veteran Orcs though... hm. Too bad they cannot be resurrected easily.

[Fatt_Shade]

Eh, only +8 defense and +8 attack? I guess that is a decent chunk. Now if only it worked on some Level 5s... :-)
Come on, for 5th lvl units ? Asking for to much now :-D
I agree , it`s great item for 3-4 lvl units cause %, but if you use 1-2lvl not so useful. For me best option for Steam armor are : Paladin/Knight, Orc veteran/Trackers, Black knigh/Ancient vampires and Demonolog/Demoness high basic attack/defense.
Funny thing, Steam armor is native dwarf race but is least useful for them. Dwarf and Foreman almost never used units and it doesnt effect droids, so only units that benefit from dwarf race are Mechanic/Alchemist :-(
All in all good item, and -1 speed is not so big problem with Adrenaline skill, or 1 cast of Mass haste.

[ckdamascus]

Come on, for 5th lvl units ? Asking for to much now :-D
I agree , it`s great item for 3-4 lvl units cause %, but if you use 1-2lvl not so useful. For me best option for Steam armor are : Paladin/Knight, Demon/Executioner or Orc veteran/Trackers, Black knigh/Ancient vampires high basic attack/defense.
Funny thing, Steam armor is native dwarf race but is least useful for them. Dwarf and Foreman almost never used units and it doesnt effect droids, so only units that benefit from dwarf race are Mechanic/Alchemist :-(
All in all good item, and -1 speed is not so big problem with Adrenaline skill, or 1 cast of Mass haste.

Am I? Look at Belt of the Victor.. +50% defense, +1 speed, AND works on level 5 AND works on summons. :)

Dwarves always make cool stuff that they can never take advantage of. :) Oooh mithril weapons and armor? Let the humans and elves use it. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Ok Belt of victor have imba bonuses, but it consists of 3 other items, and it is much harder to acquire, and Steam armor you can buy almost every time in Montero for only 85K gold. That`s why i thought it would be overkill to give 30% att/def for 5th lvl also.
On other topic, i didnt want to start new tread so i`ll ask here. When cleaning basement of Dark Mistikus castle, you can use his Dark ritual to upgrade undead units. My question is this : it says lvl 0/3, experience 0/10. What happens when you fill to 3/3 and 10/10, is there some bonus, or that is famous 93rd Quest ?
I never get those numbers cause i upgrade skeletons, zombies,ghosts and vampires and only get 2/3 and 5/10. Dont know how to raise more. Any1 knows what those lvl`s experience are for ?

[Zechnophobe]

I have not tried it personally, just following the ckdamascus list above about units affected by steam armor. Why shouldn't it be good? The otherwise terrible drawback = -1 speed can be easily offset by belt of winner or adrenaline skill. Besides vampires in their bat form have speed of 5, so even reduction to 4 i find acceptable.

'easily offset by belt of the winner'? That's... a composite end game item you likely will never see, or only after defeating Scrounger! Also, it is still -1 movement compared to it!

Also 30% to the stats of a level 4 unit is rarely all that much. I don't recall the beefiest level 4, but I think it might be around 30 attack defense? Probably less. And that's only +9 attack and Defense. That's MAX. I can find decent items for that slot that give good bonus', that don't decrease my speed by one, and effect my dragons or cyclopi or whatever.

[ckdamascus]

Ok Belt of victor have imba bonuses, but it consists of 3 other items, and it is much harder to aquire, and Steam armor you can buy almost every time in Montero for only 35K gold. That`s why i thought it would be overkill to give 30% att/def for 5th lvl also.
On other topic, i didnt want to start new tread so i`ll ask here. When cleaning bacement of Dark Mistikus castle, you can use his Dark ritual to upgrade undead units. My question is this : it says lvl 0/3, experiance 0/10. What happens when you fill to 3/3 and 10/10, is there some bonus, or that is famous 93rd Quest ?
I never get those numbers cause i upgrade skeletons, zombies,ghosts and vampires and only get 2/3 and 5/10. Dont know how to raise more. Any1 knows what those lvl`s experiance are for ?

Considering I never upgrading units using Mistikus and I have gotten the "mysterious 93rd" quest (which does not really exist, just a bug where it improperly sums up the total quests), I would suppose, no. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Also 30% to the stats of a level 4 unit is rarely all that much. I don't recall the beefiest level 4, but I think it might be around 30 attack defense? Probably less. And that's only +9 attack and Defense. That's MAX. I can find decent items for that slot that give good bonus', that don't decrease my speed by one, and effect my dragons or cyclop or whatever.
30% att/def for 4th lvl units isn`t that much ??? Pls tell me your joking. All 4th lvl`s have 25+basic att/def so this armor give them +9 for BOTH att/def!!! +18 stats isn`t enough ( for Paladin is +10/+12 att/def) ? Name 1 other item that gives so much attributes.
There are so few high bonus items Dead skull +5 int/att, Mithril shield +8 def, Axe of ice III lvl +7def and that tooth +7 att you get from K`tahu. Thats it, no more so strong items. Plus this is ARMOR, there are no other items that fit in that slot witch give better stats.
If you use 5th lvl units, obviously this armor is bad choice but for other unit lineups it`s great item. All humans, dwarfs (except droids), undead(except ghosts), many elfs, and some neutrals. So there are alott of builds that would benefit from this item. In my opinion only other Armor/Dress that can compare to Steam are : Dragon cloak (for Mages), Steel leaf (for 3-4 lvl army - Orc team, 100% crit archer lineups, or mass summon army), Dress of mages and last but not least Leather dress :-)
And since there are no Armor/Dress that give -% leadership for some units (Inquisitor blade, Orc ear . . . ) in late game this armor it great choice. Of if you play dragon army with +3 morale, or Shrek team go for some other item, but for any other army consisted of 3-4 lvl units Steam armor is better then most of others.

I just now figured out imba fact for Mage+Elenhel combo : you can equip 3 sets. Undead set (2 artifacts+gloves in hero), Darkness set (helm+artifact in hero) , Vampire set(weapon hero, artifact companion). I`m playing it now and wondering should reload since lvl 12, and pick Moro dark instead Elenhell, just ot get that stupid Shard of darkness and exploit this retarded combo. Black knights and Ancient vampires are ridiculously strong. It gives some impression that developers intended to overpower this class :-(

[impy]

'easily offset by belt of the winner'? That's... a composite end game item you likely will never see, or only after defeating Scrounger! Also, it is still -1 movement compared to it!

Also 30% to the stats of a level 4 unit is rarely all that much. I don't recall the beefiest level 4, but I think it might be around 30 attack defense? Probably less. And that's only +9 attack and Defense. That's MAX. I can find decent items for that slot that give good bonus', that don't decrease my speed by one, and effect my dragons or cyclopi or whatever.

Zechnophobe, this thread started as a discussion about pretty much single unit challenge - droids, black knights, vampires..That's how my answer should have been understood, i was not talking about standard gameplay & line-up. Besides, I did not say steam armor was the best, but it is certainly amongst the best. Debate which armor is the best in standard gameplay heavily depends on opposition. When fighting Gremlion upgraded magician cowl is probably the best. For regular fights I always liked slippery cuirass etc.

On the lighter note, I started this laid back playthrough aiming for high level intellect mage, no kiting, no scanner.
So far in Verona, and I cannot believe my luck
Debir - novice dress
Scarlet - skull of pain
Bolo - novice staff
Rusty - novice dress 2, battlemage helmet, hand of necropolis
Verona - novice staff 2, usurer's ring, ring of mind, ancient amulet, 2 x bronze ring.
That's extra 38 intellect so far guaranteed.
find savegame at level 1 attached, if anyone is looking for playing int. oriented mage

[Fatt_Shade]

As you said solo unit challenge, steam armor can be good item for many fights.
I wonder how come so far no1 mentioned solo Paladin stack. Good tank, easy to resurrect, and kicks ass against undead and demons. They have crappy initiative and speed, but easily fixed with Adrenaline skill, and if you manage to get Inquisitor`s blade they would go to 176 leadership/unit. But this challenge would be best for Paladin hero and his +40% physical dmg medal.
Last game i played with Warrior and found 2 Battle axe`s, and Drill which got my paladins to 27-33 basic dmg, and with Hell breath spell +52% fire dmg (3rd lvl give 40% but with Firestorm necklace it get`s to 52%), which finally was 40-50 physical/fire dmg on 4th lvl unit :-). For Paladin hero this could go up to 45-56 :-D ,for only 220 leadership :-D Better then some 5th lvl units !
So far only units that can compare with him are Royal thorn (f...ing hard to keep alive) with Crown of blackthorn 40-60 basic dmg (61-91 with Hell breath for 380 leadership/unit), and ofc his Majesty and Royal highness overpowered Black knight 20-27 basic (43-64 with Rising fury and Hell breath for only 120 leadership/unit 3 times less then those unit above).

I might try this next play through. Paladin hero, Paladin unit Companion Gaudi/Agraves (not sure which is better). Question is next : to use Inquisitor blade for bigger army (-20% leadership cost=25% more units), or Drill/Battle axe for nice dmg (would be 30-37 basic dmg this way) but no Att bonus (untill Frenzy kicks in after couple of turns in fight). It`s obvious to go for Blade, but high dmg Paladin is just hilarious to look :-)

I`we read on some other treads that some ppl go solo Bone dragon. I get it easy to resurrect with Evlin, and pretty low leadership for 5th lvl. But i dont get it how they kill plants/undead/droids ??? Very high poison resistance=Bone dragons have hard time killing any1 :-(

As for your save file, thx might try it. I saw somewhere on forum that 70+ int mages make 12-20k dmg with Black hole per turn, damn :-)

[ckdamascus]

As you said solo unit chalange, steam armor can be good item for many fights.
I wonder how come so far no1 mentioned solo Paladin stack. Good tank, easy to resurrect, and kicks ass against undead and demons. They have crappy initiative and speed, but easily fixed with Adrenaline skill, and if you manage to get Inquisitor`s blade they would go to 176 leadership/unit. But this challenge would be best for Paladin hero and his +40% physical dmg medal.
Last game i played with Warrior and found 2 Battle axe`s, and Drill which got my paladins to 27-33 basic dmg, and with Hell breath spell +52% fire dmg (3rd lvl give 40% but with Firestorm necklace it get`s to 52%), which finally was 40-50 physical/fire dmg on 4th lvl unit :-). For Paladin hero this could go up to 45-56 :-D ,for only 220 leadership :-D Better then some 5th lvl units !
So far only units that can compare with him are Royal thorn (f...ing hard to keep alive) with Crown of blackthorn 40-60 basic dmg (61-91 with Hell breath for 380 leadership/unit), and ofc his Majesty and Royal highness overpowered Black knight 20-27 basic (43-64 with Rising fury and Hell breath for only 120 leadership/unit 3 times less then those unit above).

I might try this next playthrough. Paladin hero, Paladin unit Companion Gaudi/Agraves (not sure witch is better). Question is next : to use Inquisitor blade for bigger army (-20% leadership cost=25% more units), or Drill/Battle axe for nice dmg (would be 30-37 basic dmg this way) but no Att bonus (untill Frenzy kicks in after couple of turns in fight). It`s obvious to go for Blade, but high dmg Paladin is just hilarious to look :-)

I`we read on some other treads that some ppl go solo Bone dragon. I get it easy to resurrect with Evlin, and pretty low leadership for 5th lvl. But i dont get it how they kill plants/undead/droids ??? Very high poison resistance=Bone dragons have hard time killing any1 :-(

As for your save file, thx might try it. I saw somewhere on forum that 70+ int mages make 12-20k dmg with Black hole per turn, damn :-)

Curse both of you. :) I lost a lot of my life doing calculations and such... I must... resist. :)

Oh man, I don't want to get sucked into all of this again. I think when I did do the math for Super Paladin build, they weren't TOO bad but the problem was ... paladins are generally slow. I guess adrenaline can fix this...

Fairly certain that in the end, I wasn't that terribly impressed with the final damage. It was pretty darn high, but compared to the Shrek team, you don't get the same longevity and you need some time frenzying it up. Compared to archer teams, you waste quite a few rounds either running, or casting haste, etc. You can't start off doing real damage without blowing a spell away.

You could mix it up a little, so it isn't pure solo units. Loreangelicus was a big fan of droid/bone/blackknight sort of armies. However, mixing paladins runs into the same problem: speed. You pour all your resources into making paladins the ultimate killing machine, but you still need to waste rounds in allowing the to do damage.

Maybe I'm wrong though (since paladins are inherently highly resistant to a lot of damage). Just that the power of the Shrek team was the ability to drain at least one guy's attack round.

Also, paladins probably work best in DUAL stacks so they can second wind each other. They really were made to be a complementary unit.

Finally, despite the Paladin classes awesome +40% damage boost, the warrior MIGHT still end up being a better. I think when I did the math, the Paladin class with paladins does do more damage, but not by much. Note, this is before Crossworlds.

Warrior have the extra weapon slot AND they have counter-attack from Crossworlds which most likely works with paladins. This is what made the Shrek team shine, and I am sure it would make a paladin team shine too.

Being able to deal up to 4X more damage per round is tremendous and overcomes the Paladin damage class advantage by far.

I'd strongly consider to look into using the Warrior instead.

This also makes me come to the sad conclusion that the Paladin class really has less utility (besides top score runs, easy voice of the dragon, solo stack - resurrection runs) and probably a few other weird cases.

[Fatt_Shade]

I just now figured out were both wrong here `ckdamascus` :-)
This tread goes for solo unit run 14 fight end game. So no special class skills. On other hand old skills : Bloodlust would be useless in this run, but Paladins Resurrection will give 30% more on spell and units ability (every paladin with Prayer resurrect 31HP).
But just for sake or conversation lest think this through. We mixed bonuses from Warrior and Paladin.
+3Att is for killling Lizard units, Paladin gets +3def for undead from medal, neither is available for this run. Warrior gets +15 Rage and Paly +40% dmg is reachable easy.
Again Warrior sucks, bonus rage useless comparing bonus dmg.
Warrior have counterstrike which is great for any humanoid except undead. Why i have no f...ing idea, since it works for lake/forest fairy for Gods sake. And steam armor give bonuses for almost all undead so they are obviously humanoids. Then why not counterstrike for vampire/blackies ??? But Paladin have also special skill, lets not forget Holy armor :-) Counterstrike wont work against Bosses, but Holy armor will. So i`ll stay with solo Paladin hero/unit idea (just on paper) i`ll leave impy to try if he want :-D Because he clearly have knack for this business.

[Fatt_Shade]

On the lighter note, I started this laid back playthrough aiming for high level intellect mage, no kiting, no scanner.
So far in Verona, and I cannot believe my luck
Debir - novice dress
Scarlet - skull of pain
Bolo - novice staff
Rusty - novice dress 2, battlemage helmet, hand of necropolis
Verona - novice staff 2, usurer's ring, ring of mind, ancient amulet, 2 x bronze ring.
That's extra 38 intellect so far guaranteed.
find savegame at level 1 attached, if anyone is looking for playing int. oriented mage

Nice int items, and thx for save file but why o why pink pet dragon and skipped training ground ? :-(
For high int mage, green dragon would be better, and those fights can get you to firemage medal faster and some chests could get something even better, i have once found mithrill shield in second chest in battle. And free +1 att/def items are better then no item at all until get/find some better ones. Also you get free lvl after training and runes to get you started.
Dont get me wrong, thx for save and sharing good luck with int mage build (i personally have never seen 2 novice dresses in game, 2 princess yes but never novices). But you made some weird choices on start my man :-)

[impy]

sorry man, my mistake. I just picked one of saves at level1 without checking it. I remember, since I did not want to spoil the fun and use scanner, that I just went through initial islands to see if there is trap scroll before I started game properly. I am aware of the benefits of the training:rolleyes:

i stand by decision of picking the +5mana dragon. To start with, let's agree that bonuses provided by any pet dragon are hardly significant. When picking a pet dragon, you can either increase your strengths (mage = int & mana), improve your weaknesses (mage = rage, def, att) or go for specific build requirements ( +crit for high crit shooters army, +init to dragons for dragons army.) If you look at my current game screenshoot, you can see that with a bit of calculations I can get to 77int, possibly more, so knowing this, +1int from pet dragon does not make much difference. However, problem with mage after casting 3-4 of 40+mana spells is lack of mana. Since "value" of mana for mage is much higher than for any other character, meaning damage he can do per 1 mana, I went for +mana. Also, +5mana helps at the beginning when you try to utilize first ten rounds to work on medals..

[Fatt_Shade]

Apology not excepted. Now try some other games until you get same items as here, and this time do training, and pick green dragon cub. Just joking :-D
That +1 int can make huge difference trust me. I managed to make 83 int mage last time, with 2 gloves of destroyer and that 1 int would give me +20% on spells, but there was no chance to get it anywhere in all game :-( Black hole was somewhere 12-20K dmg, so i think with that +1 int can go up to 13-21K.
I just tryed new game to see training bonus and got normal +1 att/def items as every time but got 1 more from first battle - chieftains belt for +1 def/+150 leadership. What a luck, and then i go finish second battle, all in all i got 6 chests, 7 fire arrow for medals, +1att/+2def/+150 leadership which for mage is imba on 2 lvl. Then i go check first lvl in Tower of eventus and find there Fear and Trap spells :-D
So training can be boring and called noob at start of every game but can give some sweet bonuses :-)
I never use KBscaner and since impossible game for mage can be pretty tough, i use at least training and get couple of easy steps to get me started.

On my/ckdamascus conversation about Paladin hero/solo paladin unit 14 battles game any thoughts ?

[impy]

yes, 20% bonus to spell damage looks good, obviously you mean a breakpoint reached at multiply of 7 of intellect. Still it is 20% to base damage,not overall damage. It is about personal feeling I guess, i am not looking for absolute divine damage with no mana after few rounds, but more balanced mana/int ratio. I happily swap archmage staff for elkonium or get portrait of queen of ice instead of +5int ring. It depends on situation on battlefield; sometimes you need to dish out max damage quickly, sometimes wear down the enemy with demon portals, flame arrows, fear etc, which cost lots of mana over time. If you want really nerve wracking experience try my earlier challenge - how far can you get in the game with single black dragon. I played it in Armored Princess days and killed everything in the game except Baal & Ktahu. Speaking of witch, I might try it myself, since now the game has been made harder by overpowered orcs. There is a cap on astral res - chaos helm + ghost armor + crystal ball =75%. Hmm, if you get very lucky you might get 2 chaos crowns in the game (is it possible?) for extra 10% via gloves of destroyer.

paladins. It is difficult to pass a definite judgment. You see, droids have crappy defence + magic res, but infinite repair which overcomes everything when played properly. Eviln brings back insane numbers of black knights as long as you have mana management organized, but with paladins.. I am worried about their high leadership req. and resurrection skill being to weak, and typical warrior char. mana problems...

[Fatt_Shade]

Your right i was thinking 7 multipyer, since somewhere on forum i saw screenshot of 24K black hole and i just wandered how d hell they managed it.
Solo 1 BD hm . . . doable i think. I have some old save with ghost armor, leather dress, chaos crown and 3lvl medal, and had 82% astral ressistance. But why 1 Bd ? No beneficial spell - cant get medal for ressistances - lower overall available astral ress. Only way to heal him is Gizmo as i can tell. Cant cast Illusion so only way to kill units is to pick places to hit weak unit and some stronger behind it, and w8 for Rain of fire to reset. It`s hard challenge i agree, but prety boring.
Wouldnt 1 Red dragon be better, since you want to test overpowered orcs, just dont use divine armor. Get 3lvl medal for resistances, for healing use only gizmo (when you get it), and for mana regen there`s Magic spring. To match BD magic ress there`s always magic diploma/mage`s cape for 25%/30% so it will be almost the same.
Solo 1 dragon is tough for sure. but it`s also so monotonous :-( I`we read here for EGD inisibility and heavy use illusion spell, for RD stone skin and also illusion, for BD never tried but i guess it`s like i mentioned above fly around , kill enemy with spells and rain of fire.

For paladin hero/paladin unit it would be tricky for sure. But for Paladin class, your Prayer ability and ressurection would be stronger 30%. And basic 30% physical/magic ress and 10% fire, and morale is easily on +2. As you said infinite repair is life saver for droids, and for blackies imba evlin is in no way connected to int of hero, you get 30% revived units no matter do you have 1 or 80 int points it`s such overpowered spell. So lets even things up a bit : 18 fights for solo paladin run (4 more since droid run you skiped 3 fights to get imba Axe of ice 3lvl), So fights could be : Battle academy (to get Holy armor skill), Tomas Torkve (for sword obviously since both droids and blackies have free -leadership% item available), Driller (for his namesake weapon and to fix difference in droids no retaliation bonus from axe) and last fight by your choice, but no Frog or Spider (since they give to high exp boost). This fights would help out with Purifier medal. I would try this myself, but my kiting skills are pretty low :-(

[ckdamascus]

Your right i was thinking 7 multipyer, since somewhere on forum i saw screenshot of 24K black hole and i just wandered how d hell they managed it.
Solo 1 BD hm . . . doable i think. I have some old save with ghost armor, leather dress, chaos crown and 3lvl medal, and had 82% astral ressistance. But why 1 Bd ? No beneficial spell - cant get medal for ressistances - lower overall available astralress. Only way to heal him is Gizmo as i can tell. Cant cast Illusion so only way to kill units is to pick places to hit waek unit and some stronger behind it, and w8 for Rain of fire to reset. It hard chalange i agree, but preety boring.
Wouldnt 1 Red dragon be better, since you want to test overpowered orcs, just dont use divine armor. Get 3lvl medal for resistances, for healing use only gizmo (when you get it), and for mana regen theres Magic spring. To match BD magic ress there`s alwaus magic diploma/mage`s cape for 25%/30% so it will be almost same.
Solo 1 dragon is tough for sure. but it`s also so monotonus :-( I`we read here for EGD inisibility and heavy use illusion spell, for RD stone skin and also ilusion, for BD never tryed but i guess it`s like i mentioned above fly around , kill enemy with spells and rain of fire.

For paladin hero/paladin unit it would be tricy for sure. But for Paladin class, your Prayer ability and ressurection would be stronger 30%. And basic 30% physical/magic ress and 10% fire, and morale is easily on +2. As you said infinite repair is life saver for droids, and for blackies imba evlin is in no way connected to int of hero, you get 30% revived units no matter do you have 1 or 80 int points it`s such overpowered spell. So lets even things up a bit : 18 fights for solo paladin run (4 more since droid run you skiped 3 fights to get imba Axe of ice 3lvl), So fights could be : Battle academy (to get Holy armor skill), Tomas Torkve (for sword obviously since both droids and blackies have -leadership% item available), Driller (for his namesake weapon and to fix diference in droids no retaliation bonus from axe) and last fight by your chosing, but no Frog or Spider (since they give to high exp boost). This fights would help out with Purifier medal. I would try this but my kiting skills are prety low :-(

It was probably me, because I've done like 28K damage with it at least once.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=16974&page=6

However, note, the spell book claims the maximum damage is only 18.6K, but I am able to EASILY deal far greater than this.

We never did find out WHY this is the case though. As you can see, I did all that mayhem with "merely" 79 intellect. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Damn bugs and errors :-(
The more i try to figure some neat combos and tactics, the more problems i find in this game.
Totaly buged Onslaught skill as you said. Archer ability`s also badly optimized (beholders regular and evil ones count as archer and can get and quick draw bonus/precision spell, but no bonus from archer items). Some units arent counted in any category : spiders cant get morale in any consivable way, troll also (his att is great, but 9% crit is laughable), only 1 unit gets bonus from unused runes, many spells not related to int walue (stone skin, evlin, helplesness . . .), and some in very weird way (resurrection , with 83 int only 4500 hp worth), on other hand dmging spells are so overpowered Black hole, Death satar, Geyser . . . and all mass dmg spells, humanoid class is through the roof with description wood/lake fairies get counterstrike from warriors skill, and troll/ogre/chieftain also how d f..k are those units in same category ? And as you already know black knight/vampires dont get that same bonus :-(
So many problems in this game, so i`ll only ask you this : WHY am i still playing it ? :-D

[ckdamascus]

Damn bugs and errors :-(
The more i try to figure some neat combos and tactics, the more problems i find in this game.
Totaly buged Onslaught skill as you said. Archer ability`s also badly optimized (beholders regular and evil ones count as archer and can get and quick draw bonus/precision spell, but no bonus from archer items). Some units aret counted in any category : spiders cant get morale in any consivable way, troll also (his att is great, but 9% crit is laughable), only 1 unit gets bonuse from unused runes, many spells not related to int walue (stone skin, evlin, helplesness . . .), and some in very weird way (resurrection , with 83 int only 4500 hp worth), on other hand dmging spells are so overpowered Black hole, Death satar, geyser . . . and all mass dmg spells, humanoid class is through the roof with description wood/alke faries get counterstrike from warriors skill, and troll/ogre/chieftain also how d f..k are tohse units in same category ? And as you already know black knight/vampires dont get that same bonus :-(
So many problems in this game, so i`ll only ask you this : WHY am i still playing it ? :-D

Actually, the archer issues are most likely not really bugs. It is detailed in the "players manual" (sadly, not the official manual), which sub-groups are affected by which items.

It might have been for balance reasons.

Spiders don't need morale. Even so, this is incorrect. The magic shield, S'Karrash allows them to ALWAYS inflict critical damage, and raises speed AND morale by 1 AND does +9 to attack AND defense.

Troll doesn't really need critical that badly, and even then, I was able to crit fairly often with him in the Shrek team. If you really want that critical anyway (don't forget critical lets you do maximum damage, just like bless), you can always doom the enemy. :)

If you want to play with high intellect Mages, you could highly consider my special Summoner Deluxe Mage build. :)

Basically, I theorized that the Ancient Phoenix and Dragon of Chaos would dominate the game with Level 3 Summoner and high intellect. I was correct. :)

The nice part about the summon builds is that they do a "fair" amount of damage, completely disposable, and they benefit from your higher intellect. They draw tremendous aggro too, so you really can use any other unit with the summon team to synergize well.

I think I ended up pairing them with demonologists and rune mages for extra summon mayhem.

I ended the game with the Ancient Phoenix dealing like 23% of all damage. I tried using Ice Orb too... it was "marginally" useful. Heh.

[Fatt_Shade]

I know about archer units, i`m only saying that it should be specified in abilities/items what you get form them. Because there 3 types of range units : armed with bows (bowman , elf, hunter, skeleton) , projectile (goblins, catapult, cyclop) , beholders i dont even know wtf they are doing in this category. And then there are items that give bonuss for range dmg units, and every item give bonus to different type of dmg, but in description only saya Archer bonus.
Ok for spider there`s item for morale and 100% crit. Question here is this : wtf item gives morale if you already have 100% crit with it ? Bonus 10% stats for 1-2 lvl spiders is nothing and item give +9 att/def. So why is there morale bonus at all ?
There`s skill for +1morale all races, and +2 to animals/dragons. I only ask why didnt they include spiders and trolls in here somewhere.
For using doom to make crit with trolls not much of an option for warrior/shrek team. It takes 3lvl chaos magic (to make it at least bit usefull to huge stacks of 4th lvl`s enemy) and i almost always have better spell to cast instead to waste spell turn on giving doom to only 1 unit.
I agree with phoenix/chaos dragon plan, but i feel like such pussy hiding behind my imaginary (summoned) units :-D I`m more of warrior-kill 95% of enemy in first turn and then pick up chests and such, or mage-attack with all you have units/spells/summons and then revive dead.
I wish in new patch (if it ever come out onslaught skill would be fixed, and more importantly to developers ot give runic ability to some other units also, not just rune mage which need nerf with it anyway 20 might runes*10% bonus to destruction +240% bonus dmg ??? 20mind runes*7% to revive=280% WTF??? Where did these ppl learn their math ?).
Something around 3-5% bonus to talents would be nice to add to more units like : inqusitors resurrect, fire/poison/magic arrows more dmg with might runes or any other idea that will utilize other units to get bonus from runes in reserve, not just 1 unit in all game :-(

And since this is solo unit run tread, did any1 tried that discussioned Ancient vampire run for 14 battles end game ?

[ckdamascus]

I know about archer units, i`m only saying that it should be specified in abilities/items what you get form them. Because there 3 types of range units : armed with bows (bowman , elf, hunter, skeleton) , projectile (goblins, catapult, cyclop) , beholders i dont even know wtf they are doing in this category. And then there are items that give bonuss for range dmg units, and every item give bonus to different type of dmg, but in description only saya Archer bonus.
Ok for spider there`s item for morale and 100% crit. Question here is this : wtf item gives morale if you already have 100% crit with it ? Bonus 10% stats for 1-2 lvl spiders is nothing and item give +9 att/def. So why is there morale bonus at all ?
There`s skill for +1morale all races, and +2 to animals/dragons. I only ask why didnt they include spiders and trolls in here somewhere.
For using doom to make crit with trolls not much of an option for warrior/shrek team. It takes 3lvl chaos magic (to make it at least bit usefull to huge stacks of 4th lvl`s enemy) and i almost always have better spell to cast instead to waste spell turn on giving doom to only 1 unit.
I agree with phoenix/chaos dragon plan, but i feel like such pussy hiding behind my imaginary (summoned) units :-D I`m more of warrior-kill 95% of enemy in first turn and then pick up chests and such, or mage-attack with all you have units/spells/summons and then revive dead.
I wish in new patch (if it ever come out onslaught skill would be fixed, and more importantly to developers ot give runic ability to some other units also, not just rune mage which need nerf with it anyway 20 might runes*10% bonus to destruction +240% bonus dmg ??? 20mind runes*7% to revive=280% WTF??? Where did these ppl learn their math ?).
Something around 3-5% bonus to talents would be nice to add to more units like : inqusitors resurrect, fire/poison/magic arrows more dmg with might runes or any other idea that will utilize other units to get bonus from runes in reserve, not just 1 unit in all game :-(

And since tihs is solo unit run tread, did any1 tried that discussioned Ancient vampire run for 14 battles end game ?

Well, if you haven't noticed by now, there are a lot of missing or bad information in the descriptions for a lot of items.

Regarding the Rune Mage, they buffed them in the latest patch, but forgot to update the info. That is why the math seems off.

I love rune mages. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Yes i know about changed buff to Rune mages, but since they made patch 1.3.1 was it so hard to fix couple lines of text in runemage.lua ? I like them also, but in same time not. Why only 1 of my units gets bonuse from my unused runes (over 80 different units in game, and they buff only 1 by runes in this expansion :-( )
Others are jealous about it :-D

[impy]

Your right i was thinking 7 multipyer, since somewhere on forum i saw screenshot of 24K black hole and i just wandered how d hell they managed it.
Solo 1 BD hm . . . doable i think. I have some old save with ghost armor, leather dress, chaos crown and 3lvl medal, and had 82% astral ressistance. But why 1 Bd ? No beneficial spell - cant get medal for ressistances - lower overall available astral ress. Only way to heal him is Gizmo as i can tell. Cant cast Illusion so only way to kill units is to pick places to hit weak unit and some stronger behind it, and w8 for Rain of fire to reset. It`s hard challenge i agree, but prety boring.
Wouldnt 1 Red dragon be better, since you want to test overpowered orcs, just dont use divine armor. Get 3lvl medal for resistances, for healing use only gizmo (when you get it), and for mana regen there`s Magic spring. To match BD magic ress there`s always magic diploma/mage`s cape for 25%/30% so it will be almost the same.
Solo 1 dragon is tough for sure. but it`s also so monotonous :-( I`we read here for EGD inisibility and heavy use illusion spell, for RD stone skin and also illusion, for BD never tried but i guess it`s like i mentioned above fly around , kill enemy with spells and rain of fire.

For paladin hero/paladin unit it would be tricky for sure. But for Paladin class, your Prayer ability and ressurection would be stronger 30%. And basic 30% physical/magic ress and 10% fire, and morale is easily on +2. As you said infinite repair is life saver for droids, and for blackies imba evlin is in no way connected to int of hero, you get 30% revived units no matter do you have 1 or 80 int points it`s such overpowered spell. So lets even things up a bit : 18 fights for solo paladin run (4 more since droid run you skiped 3 fights to get imba Axe of ice 3lvl), So fights could be : Battle academy (to get Holy armor skill), Tomas Torkve (for sword obviously since both droids and blackies have free -leadership% item available), Driller (for his namesake weapon and to fix difference in droids no retaliation bonus from axe) and last fight by your choice, but no Frog or Spider (since they give to high exp boost). This fights would help out with Purifier medal. I would try this myself, but my kiting skills are pretty low :-(

No news about vampires playthrough as of yet, unfortunately my life is not only about beer, games, anymore:(
are there any other candidates for 14 fights plathrough? I can only think of bone dragon +eviln or although unlikely - trolls?
Well, if you find single BD game a bit boring, fair enough. It is not:grin: Remember, back in KBAP days there was no gizmo, so you had your 1000hp and that's it. Also just flying around casting flame arrow or similar will not do the job. There can be massive phys. damage dealers mind immune - skeleton archers, droids, cyclops, brontors etc, which you have to fool somehow. Some battlefields are very small - reha guardians, frog, driller...and when centre of battlefield is not blocked even melee walkers with speed 3+ are a problem. Plus of course fast flyers - bone dragons, griffins etc. You can get resistance medal with single BD. Skip debir & scarlet, come back when you have maxed higher magic, then 1st round some summon and keep slapping stone skin on it for 10 rounds, shouldn't take long. I'm hoping to get some time off during easter and do single BD game without gizmo.

[Fatt_Shade]

I agree with you, life shouldnt be about beer and games, it should be only about beer :-P
I`ll try 14 fight playthrough, but not promising anything with my kiting skills (my worst map is Verona, after that is usually much easier).
It would be much easier if not that stupid counterstrike/undead uncompatibility (i know in 14 fight end game no counterstrike, but it`s frustrating bug/error). Is 38 quests max for 14 fight end game ? You did 35 with droids, and 38 with blackies, since i never did 93 quests i`m only asking if i try 14 fights end should i end on 38 quest mark.
Now i`m off to bed, working first shift today :-)

[impy]

I agree with you, life shouldnt be about beer and games, it should be only about beer :-P
I`ll try 14 fight playthrough, but not promising anything with my kiting skills (my worst map is Verona, after that is usually much easier).
It would be much easier if not that stupid counterstrike/undead uncompatibility (i know in 14 fight end game no counterstrike, but it`s frustrating bug/error). Is 38 quests max for 14 fight end game ? You did 35 with droids, and 38 with blackies, since i never did 93 quests i`m only asking if i try 14 fights end should i end on 38 quest mark.
Now i`m off to bed, working first shift today :-)

38 quests should be close to the maximum if it isn't:grin:. I mean, with such a serious knowledge of the game as you have, just get to the new continent and do what you can, there is usually 2-4 things to do. As far as I remember difference of three quests which I have done with BK and did not manage with droids were:
1) I killed shenobi before Uchkuk, so I lost the quest for liberating the elven queen. I was aware of this, but shenobi was much easier fight in my playthrough so I needed the exp. badly.
2) I realized that once you have wings, you can do wealthy zombie quest for buried treasure without killing small skeleton stack on scarlet
3) I forgot about Mesmer's quest about feeding him with dwarves. When I realized it later, the experience bonus from this quest was way too little for making any difference ( getting a new hero level) so I did not bother. Of course, playing with BK I had to do this quest regardless, just to get access to his BK.
Kiting. There is probably good few threads dedicated to it, just look them up. Approach enemy from roughly 90% angle (no direct approach) and force him to move a little and pause. Save a lot. and again, and again, bit by bit. Verona guardian is not that difficult, since there is wide area in front of him, so you can approach him nicely from the right hand side, and you have all the time in the world to do it since richad the cruel only comes to this area every now and then. Also, do not drag the guardian right out but once you get their attention move to the side, which also moves the stack to the side. Point is, that at some point you'll have to get past him to get the scroll. Much more difficult are guardians with narrow passages. See screenshot. It is guardian of Elon scroll by artist house in Verona. Took mi 20min. Also better stacks for kiting are fast - griffins, wolves etc. Once you gain their attention and force them to move I believe their "walking speed" dictates the minimum distance their cover before they loose you and show those question marks.

[Fatt_Shade]

No mater how i count quests i get to 37, that`s why i asked you about number of free/no figth quests. I did simmilar thing as you with in Elon. Freed Elven queen, but killed Shenobi before promising him to bury him in Dersu, thats quest i keep forgeting.
As for kiting i know concepts, and how it`s done, but it becomes so tedious after 10+ reloads :-(

[impy]

Debir - travel to Teana, training, choosing pet, amulet of Il., kings bride, fisherman
Scarlet - contraband
Bolo - 0
Rusty - bottles, rohaty, antidote
Tekron - soap, submarine, fighting temple of sorrow
Umkas - treasure
Uzala - traveler's papers
Shettera - get slave, demon in stone, Hephastus sword
Nameless - treasure for zombie, brother's package
Reha - memory grass, nasty soup, papers for DeGosh, fighting champion of arena, fighting Ktahu,
Elon - fighting Uchkuk, fighting Shenobi, Shenobi burial, open tower, falling star, fighting Gremlion
Dersu - glasses, 100 fairies (if you're lucky to find them), Bagouri love, fighting Rakush,
Montero - levers & gears, dwarves for Mesmer, fighting Hagni, axe of elements,
Verona - traveling for beer
+1 fulfilled prophecy
+1 final battle

I believe that is everything. Total is 42, so some of them are either not considered quests, or even I forgot some when playing. Happy Easter:-P

[impy]

Well, I have done with bone dragons too.
But first things first. My previous post about number of quests is slightly incorrect, this time I got it right:rolleyes:
Quest training you do not want to do, since it raises the number of fights by 2. Also, last battle with Baal is not considered a quest. On the other hand there is one more quest - Abyss on Tekron. I find out that when you get lucky with "size" of creatures down there you may get past them. It seems there are 3 "sizes" of creatures
a) large - dragons etc, from which can sometimes hide in unreachable corner. Example - behind the house of wealthy zombie
b) medium - majority of creatures
c) small - goblins etc.
I had in Abyss goblins & archdemons.
Total and definite number of quests is therefore 41.
Playing with bone dragons was fun, although baal, gremlion and ktahu were tedious. I did not take Moro, since dragon heart + voice of dragon 3 gives +3morale anyway and Moro has awkward slots. No artifact slot and a helm? There are so many wonderful artifacts to choose from : +20mana, +5mana/-5rage/turn (my favorite), crystal ball...I also needed someone with shield slot since scaly shield is always there and mirror shield is needed when fighting gremlion.
I guess it can be puled with vampires as well. Much lower defence and no resistances would be painfull, but you have drain life

[Fatt_Shade]

Gj with BoneD :-) Why didnt you use Paladin`s shield ?
I tryed with Vampires but their ressistances are horible :-( Only 50% poison, and only poison dmg in 14 fight end game are alchemists at Hagny and no1 else. I guess it`s doable but i had no nerves to try more games to get Scaly set (i never use KBscaner).
I tryed to change Counterstrike to affect undead, but cant find anything in that skill description that exclude them. It works on Fairies and Giants, so i want it to work with undead also. Does any1 have idea how to fix this?

[impy]

Paladin shield is +4def, tower shield is +5def on 5level creatures; i was after def, some extra bonus against undead from paly shield was not important. Did you try 14fights with vampires or just regular playthrough with single stack? 14fights playthrough is very demanding KBscanner might really be needed. At least 90% phys. res is needed = 50% without stone skin, which will be your first spell in most cases anyway. As you know, difference between having 10% or 20% phys. res and 80% or 90% phys. res is very big when you get hit for massive damage by those huge endgame stacks.
getting to 50% phys. res = scaly set + twinkling boots + crystall ball (or leather dress) + slippery cuirass. In previous challenges you job is made easier by natural resistances which lower the req = droids (20%), BK (30%) and bone dragons (10-15% I think).
You mentioned hating kiting; I was going to give a savegame with zero fights and all maps uncovered, but my PC packed up completely on Thursday:evil: and now i am on holiday, so you'll have to wait for two weeks:(

[Fatt_Shade]

I tired 3 games for 14 fights, and in best found Slipery cuiras and Leter dress (no KBscaner so it was quite boring :-( All scaly set never shoved all items in shops. And i fialed miserably with Ancient vampires. I know about phys ress but i didnt have luck with right items. It must be possible, cause right now i think there is no impossible run in this game :-) I just couldnt find right items for this playthrough.
And about kiting i can do it, but hate when i try to kite some map 20 times just to get some stupid scroll-Song of wind, or something like that :-)

On other note, still w8 patiently for some news about anything related to KB2 from Kataury or 1C :-)

[Fatt_Shade]

Finnaly had some time to finish impy`s save form 4th page on this tread, and i must sya it was fun. Managed to pull 89 int and do 11-19K dmg with black hole (in battles it did 15-25K no idea why, but ckdamascus had same thing with his high int mage, so i guess it`s some astral dmg bug), most fights were finished in 1-2 rounds, only lasted longer to dig up chests and it payed off - 16 AK scrolls (5 elenhel, 3 raven, 3 from map scrolls, 5 digged in battles :-).
63lvl/93quests/15days. Needed 80K exp more for 64 lvl, i think it`s not possible.
All quests give 280K exp, i used +exp%, in almost 90% of battles, and AK scrolls only on bosses/35+ lvl enemy heroes, and invincible enemy and still got to 1,9M exp.


Spoiler alert, for those that dont want to pick up items and have fun with mega mage :


Great save game, great items as impy said : 2novice dresses,undead set, scaly set (2 items at reha, armor is free in elon underground tombstone behind 1 enemy guard), +5int ring, ancient amulet, 2helm of battle mage, +2int boots. Hearth of dragon is reward in wizard tower so who want to play dragon army try to finish that first, drakonix also reward on debir after some stone (not sure which 1), all +exp% items (memoirs-scarlet wind, belt-reha i think, gloves-verona on undead ship, 2 regalia`s you all know where to find :-)
Bad thing is that there is no geyser spell in all game (shoal of piranha was great substitute) , and NO red dragons, i had to use eggs and then sacrifice (which isnt problem after taking crown of chaos at reha castle). In the end impy thx for sharing save game file with all.
Take care ppl :-)

[impy]

Nice work.:grin:
You said earlier that you do not use kbscanner and do not like kiting.
14fights game is so demanding that I am not sure you can pull it with any game.
Find attached a savegame, fresh start at greenwort.
Game has freely (no fights required) available:
phys. res : twink.boots, scaly set, leather dress = 40%
magic res : chaos crown, mirror shield, magician cowl, leather dress = 85%
astral : chaos crown, ghost armor = 70%
vampire set = ring + blade
if necessary there are fireproof boots+salamander banner
after 4th stone portrait of icequeen (+20mana) kicks in
this should be enough to conquer the game in 14 fights with vampires, you'll always have powerful eviln to fall back on if desperate.
The only powerful items missing are slippery cuirass and dagger of judgment for massive criticals = leeching, crystal ball unfortunately is hidden in castle Tront
Have fun. I'll use this save myself when i get a minute (or more likely a day:))

[Fatt_Shade]

I just started 1 playthrough in red sands mod, and found out that it`s possible to finish game with 13 fights, because there were no guaridan on verona-montero pass.
Is weird since that wasnt only1 enemy army that is missing in game, 2 more were missing in verona on bridge to barbarian castle ( 1 patroling 1 guardng dersu map), on tekron no creep on mine entrance) , . . . I dont know is it bug or what is hapopening to make all those enemy troops dessapear.