Stuck on Velona

[avenger.bg]

First of all hello and sorry in advance for my grammar, im not native speaking english :).

I'm nearly stuck on velona, all enemy armies are shown as invincible to me, i managed to kill few, but most if not all of them have stacks of over 2-300 lvl 3-4 units. and its more then impossible to beat them. (heroes about lvl 30+)

I'm playing on impossible, and before someone say i shouldnt do it, i play all games on max level of dificultly.

thats my second game on KB, first one (around lvl 10 mage) i lost a lot time traveling around so i started over.

Now im lvl 13 mage, nearly 3800 lidership. cleared completly debir, bolo, scarled wind (exept cave and a hero forquest), rusty archor (there is still 3 or 4 armies that was too powerfull for me when i was there). Have tekron opened, but never was there yet.

have 4 atack, 3 defence and 14 magic. 39 rage, 40 mana

my pet dragon have hunt at max level, crashing blow at lvl 4, mana accelerator lvl 3 (14 mana for 16 rage ), dragon dive lvl 1, mystic egg lvl1.

in might tree:
heroism lvl 2 (becouse of quest at bolo)
rage control lvl 2

in mind:
glory lvl 3
scouting lvl 3
trophies lvl 1
learning lvl 3

in magic:
everything at lvl 1, exept alchimy, transmute, summoner and thesis
higher magic at lvl 3

and have 16 might, 0 mind and 0 magic runes left :)

medals:
lvl 3 grand strategy (63 fights won)
treasure hunter lvl 3
trapper lvl 3
rest at lvl 1, exept for one for killing orc units.

my current army is emerald dragon, 35 inquisitors, 70 priests, 5 royal thorns and 13 royal griffins.

got ancient knowlidge scrolls x3 and call of collosos x4. was saving them for later of the game when battles are more xp heavy and i have more lidership for the lvl 5 units.

spells: all at lvl 1, im using mainly trap to cc enemy units, stone skin on my dragon, and firebolt to try burn larger stacks.

didnt learned most of scrolls yet, but notable ones are, invisibility, eviln, phantom, fit of energy.

and to get to start, its nearly impossible to kill anything that left, altho i skipped one map on rusty, but it was guarded from over 200 assasins and some other units, dont remember exact numbers and types.

it seems im pretty low level for velona still, but there is nowhere else to go.

so.. to the questions: what is usual lvl to land on velona, and did i miss something?
May be u should used that xp boost scrolls exept keeping them.
I didnt returned to debir yet to complete quest for stone, but dont think paladins would make much difference, exept i can at least double size of my army somehow. and im at start of day 3 of game.

any suggestions ?

P.S. I dont wanna loose units in fights and basicly if i can win a battle i can win it without lost units ( as soon as i still have living inquisitor. )

[Fatt_Shade]

I`ll try to help you with some ideas my fellow KB player :-)
1) Nice leadership, and stats for 13lvl mage. try getting more mana and high magic to at least lvl 2, you`ll need much double trap, or stone skin/magic spring spell combos. But as you said 63 battles no loss won, but still only 13 lvl it`s a bit low.

2) In might try to get Onslaught 1 lvl for initiative bonus, and training to 1 lvl until you kill some more dragons. Mind skills Adrenaline 1 lvl for some luck with bonus initiative on 1 unit, and after that slowly go Absolute balance (you already took Learning/Scouting glory 3rd lvl maybe could w8 for later, because now you have more lds then units available :-( ). Magic as i said Higher magic for more double casting, and try to get 2nd lvl Distortion then Chaos to strenghten your main spells trap/stone skin/fireball ... If you too Alchemy to 3rd lvl it was a mistake, but not to bad. later in game you`ll have bunch of low lvl items that you dont use and can destroy with Neatness skill to extract lots of magic crystals, so alchemy skill only 1 lvl is enough for almost every game just to get to skills after it.

3) Army : drop priests and royal thorns, they are now only on half lds and not enough to be of any real use. Take 1 archmage, and 2 rune mages. Go back to Debir return stone (use it first before returning, right click on it in hero screen and you`ll get 50lds for free)when you finish stones quest you get more lds and some new units but main thing is to replace army now royal thorns are on 40% of max lds not good for dmg or summoning meat shields and your Summoner skill is on 1st lvl so no much bonus there either. Rune mages will replace them as summon and will get you additional resurrecting unit with nice destruction ray and % to cast debuff on enemy on normal attack, also before finishing battles you`ll be able to keep some weak enemy unit and use their summon ability that will give you copy of you`r inquisitors for more ressing and free rage.
I say only 1 archmage, because only 1 is enough for now, spam his magic shield and on rest attack enemy but dont use battle mage before you lvl up guardian medal. 1 archmage have same shock% as 1000 of them so no need for more and bigger difference your/enemy army in leadership is more exp your pet dragon will get. So for now 1 archmage, 2 runemages(you`ll be able to lead 2 after stone quest), and see in shops on Verona is there some other kind of dragons to fill instead 1 EGD, or replace royal griffins with new kind of dragons 2 red would be great (they lower each other moral :-( ) Also check Tower of Eventus and try to get there to 2/3rd lvl to see what spells are available and composition of Caretaker hero units.

4) Pet dragon : stop lvling push (it`s enough for using it to kick on trap) and mystic egg (take it if choice is wall, or push but lds% and lvl of units dont lvlup it`s pure lds). Try to get lightning ball it will help allot with those big 3-4lvl enemy stacks. And some dragon dive, it`s useful on item battles vs towers, but keep in mind your rage pool.

5) Keep those Ancient knowledge scrolls for boss fights, and enemy heroes above 40lvl. Now battles give you up to 1500-2500 exp, later on Reha/Nameless/Shetera islands you`ll get 20.000+ exp pet battle so there ancient knowledge will work great, but keep in mind that it works for 5 battles in row so dont use it and then fight 1 tough battle, and then upgrade some 1st lvl item or go to other island at fight weak/same strenght enemy. Try to use 1 of those scrolls and go 5 tough battles in a row to take as much as possible more exp from it. So keep them to late game http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=14756&highlight=white+night check part of first post here about using AK scrolls, there you see exp gain from every high lvl enemy hero/boss with AK used.

All in all, go back to Debir replace army, try getting pet dragon on new exp path, save AK scrolls for later.

If get stuck somewhere ask, and help will be on the way :-) Have fun.

[avenger.bg]

thanks for replay.
to be honest i didnt played another KB from first one in early 90's. AP is my first one after that, altho i played HOMM a lot.

1) i got higher magic to level 3 already :)
and there is ancient ring wating me at debir, was planing to get it next time i visit it, that 15 mana and 4 intelect seems damn nice :)

2) so far i was focusing on learning and get my magic skills up. though getting learning early will make game a bit hard at start but will pay off later on.

3) you are right for royal thorns, just if i could get my hands of few more ... :<
i have priests nearly at max of my lds, they heal my dragon for 700, for nearly full health. i checked debir, but only 10 paladins spawn after i returned stone, that isnt near max of my lidership too. as for those rune mages, where should i look for them, i know game is completly random at spawning units and items, but there should be place they usualy spawn. i checked may be half of shoops at velona, only units worth mention is archmages and royal griffons. may be assasins too, but for some reason i dont like them :P
there is some undead that can be usefull too, like vampires, altho i dont like playing undead (its like going to dark side you know)

also i noticed the difference of xp for pet dragon depending of lidership, my pet dragon is several levels higher then me, which is kinda funny, it seems smarter then me :)

about royal griffons, im using them for their summon, and buff over priests and inquisitors, lure enemies into traps, ie put them on other side of trap, their mobiliti is nice for this, and their high initiative ofc, giving me chance to cast spells before most of other units. i nearly never hit with them, mostly becouse their morale is -2 becose of dragon, but cant leave the dragon ether, its damn nice tank, keeping enemies back in their corner, at least for a while. with some stone skin on it, and several traps around it, its nearly invincible. thats how i won most of fights so far.

also im trying to end each fight with max rage and mana, and start next one with both nearly full, which helped me so far.

the last battle on velona, oposite army was with 16 paladins, 20 demons, 64 repair druids, about 300 swordsmans and 4-450 bears.
managed to keep sowrdsmans and bears back with traps while i took care of demons and paladins, and pushing repair druids to shoot my summoned thorns or my dragon. also im using a stack of 2 thorns to summon 1 stack of 1 if possible too, just geting enemy 1 more target to waste a turn :)
did this with 2 loads only, the last battle took me like 2.5 real hours, battle should ended in like turn 35 or so, but i used may be 10 more to restore my army, mana and rage. im always saving a ranged enemy unit for end of combat for that reason, forcing it to shoot the unit with, what was name of the spell that gives you mana back when you take dmg.

and probably my main problem is using hunt in first 2-3 rounds in battle, but cant stand the chance to get my hands on new spell or that shiny runes, which makes my pet dragon occupied with this instead kicking enemy butts (in fight for map on bolo got 2x call of colossos and AK scrolls, was awesome) :P

which reminds me.. it seems to me that the stronger is the army the cnace for strong spells or scrools or runnes is bigger, but that might be just wrong impression, im getting mostly gold from week enemies, and runes scrolls from invincible ones. and mostly if i use dragon in start of combat, like the weeker become enemy the chance is lower.

4) as for dragon push, i had no choise, my other choises was wall and mana accelerator actoin points upgrade. i didnt wanted to increase rage cost of mana accelerator and wall seems pretty useless to me.

5) that was my intentions at first but after i landed on velona wasnt sure if it was right.
i didnt have alchemy yet, but was thinking to take it to max soon to learn all that scrolls i keep for a while. wasnt sure how frequent are magic crystals later in game.

there is some fights i left for later, may be 5 or 6 total on rusty and scarlet, may be could get me a level or level and half, but would it matter so much?
100-150 lidership may be, and 200 from stone when i return it to debir.
on second though i might hit 4000 lds and try that call of colloses scroll to get 2 red or emerald dragons. ( i tryed spawn every lvl 5 unit in game just to look over them) black dragons seems awesome .. just if you could heal them :<
imo best is red dragons, may be in combination with emerald, from what i saw,
high hp and speed, defence too, emerald have some nice skills, puling enemy over a trap, or giving you mana just in right moment, red is a bit more offensive

i though my level is a bit too low for velona and that i might missed something looking at army and heroes there.
ill try change my army composition, think ill get the save just before im leaving bolo and go to debir for that instead velona.

and btw, thanks for hints, ill look into that rune mages they seems pretty nice.

[Fatt_Shade]

If you like this game, and you played Homm3 try this out (if you have KB-the Legend) http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27802 , http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=29080 (first link is about new things in mod, second link is for downloading said mod)
1) Well things should go easier now with max higher magic, and spamming trap/fire arrow and such. And get that ancient amulet asap, mana and int bonus will help you allot.

2) Learning will pay off later, but on first 4 islands all battles wont give you more then 100k exp i think (dont count quest exp it wont rise with learn skill) so you could maybe get some sills to help your army before buffing hero on low lvls) First problem on start for mage is surviving and achieving no loss as you said you want, second is to improve hero herself. But you managed it so far, things should go better from now on.

3) If you get more royal thorns maybe keep them, but as it is now thay arent of much use. Paladins arent best in dealing dmg but as supporting unit, second wind is great ability (on inquisitor for more rage, on archmages to hit enemy and maybe shock them . . .) Priests dont pay off since they only good to heal and that is 2 mana cost of healing spell in battle, better take some useful army instead of them. As for rune mages, i`m not sure are you playing normal AP or CW ? they are CW units, my bad sorry :-( But from this trip to Debir you can decide to go full human army with royal griffins and great moral (paladins, horseman, archmage, inquisitor + royals), or to try call collos scroll and go 5th lvl army, with inquisitor/archmage and some other supporting troop (stone skin/magic spring + magic shield from archmages will make great tanks of any unit near enemy. Also try using target spell on your tank, it`s great to pool enemy from rest of your army, and get them on traps :-) ). Try using royals if you go human army, they will have positive moral, and unlimited retaliations is fantastic for them as tanks. Also for getting full army try finding sacrifice+time back/hypnosis combo, it`s great and cheap way to get full lds worth of units, search here on forum.

4) Digging chests in battle is nice way to get scrolls and lots of gold, but i dont think chance% for better reward depends on enemy army strenght.
Pet dragon exp on other hand DO depend on enemy size, so on start when enemy is on full you get nominal exp for skill * (whole enemy leadership/your whole leadership). Expl :you have 1 only red dragon no other units, and enemy have 2 red dragons. Leadership ratio is 2/1 and every rage skill you use will get you 2*exp value of it listed in rage box in skill description, but if you have 1 red dragon, and left only 1 priest alive ratio is 50lds/2000lds=1/40 and you multiply that to exp listed for rage skill so for chest digging of 10 exp you`ll get 10/40=0,4 exp=0. Lesson of story if enemy units are to weak dont use lots of rage, it`s not worth it maybe only chests or mana accelerator but no need to waste rage on it.

5) Trust me there tons of crystals later in game, and take only 1 lvl of neatness skill will be enough to destroy all 1-3 lvl items you dont need and but for low price, you can get 4 magic crystals (=70.000 gold) from destroying 1 3rd lvl item cost 15-30.000 gold. It really pays off later, but done is done.

Try getting red dragons, or trolls(they are great tanks) if you go 5th lvl army. If not keep call collos scrolls for later when you have at least 5000lds for 2 black dragons (you can revive them with inquisitors).
Dont forget cave on scarlet wind there you`ll usually find some nice item after killing that 20lvl zombi hero, but you first need to talk to parrot on rusty anchor to get password for it.
Anyway keep it up and good luck :-)

[avenger.bg]

didnt knew you can revive bd, thats nice to know, is it just inquisitors or resurect spell, if i can get my hands on it can revive them? :)

i just checked the cave, dont remember exact items, but wasnt so good, for me at least. ill clear it on my next tip there, also cleared the cave with "luck" well just to see whats there, got a traning sword +1 atack from npc in front of it when i spared his life, but then skiped that again, was just to check whats inside :)

as for 4, i said its looks like that, its probably my just my luck. also im trying get max from each battle, sometimes diging traps too just for xp, exept when enemy suicide in my dragons, most of my battles take over 20 turns, im using thorns just to take hits for rage, when im sure i can win at the moment i decide
to get max xp possible for my pet.

ill give it a try with human army, i think i need just few levels more to make it easy for me on velona, may be ill manage do it with them, cya around :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Resurrection spell on 3rd lvl can only work on 4th lvl units, so for 5th lvl only way is inquisitor, and bone dragons with Evlin spell, or Time back if you time it right.

In Scarlet wind cave i got some nice items every time i played (and it`s allot :-) last save i got there is cyclop eye +4def, and rahha shield that gives you dragon every time you lvlup. But it`s CW save, i dont remember what items were there in AP.
As for rusty anchor `luck` cave, should be a bit better item it`s just your bad luck :-) No pun intended.

I`m off, take care :-)

[avenger.bg]

just checked the cave again, there is 2 items princess shoes, which gives 15 rage and 2 atack, so far i dont have problems with rage, may be at late game, but not now, second is usurper ring, 5 intelect, but 30% less gold from battles, its nice but not right now too, i still need every coin i can get my hands on.

and for luck cave, sword can be upgraded if im right into runic sword, 2 atack and 2 intelect which isnt bad at all for a mage. and the xp from guardians, but thats when im in position to beat them ofc :)
that gremlin towers just rape me, and their hp is still way too high for me to take them down quick.