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View Full Version : Tips: How to beat the second "Double" (SPOILER)


Nemaa
10-05-2008, 04:42 PM
There is a dwarf in Upper Hadar that can be reached by an elevator from Lower Hadar only. He offers you a trial against yourself. You have to fight against the exact same type and amount of troops that you have, and you can accept this trial only if your troop slots are completely filled. This one is easy, but the second is quite hard, the enemy troop numbers are doubled. You have to figure out the right tactics to beat this. These are my suggestions and tips:

This second trial does not need fully filled troop slots. What I did was to go with full guardsmen, full sea dogs, full pirates and about 80% of maximum number of cannoneers. You don't need to bring a 5th troop. The sea dogs can attack 3 cells at once with a recharging talent, use this on the enemy with the least damage (because it will retaliate, but the two other next to it gets the same amount of damage)

There are some bonuses you might want to collect, for example:
-Mirabella wife for +100% attack to pirates
-There is a weapon for +20% damage for all troops with cold steel weapons
Generally compose your army to get the full benefit from your special items. I don't think your "double" will have these items as well. An other example is to go with only undead troops while having skills/talents/items against undead.

Use the following spells:
-Pygmy (reduces enemy health and damage)
-Helplessness (reduces enemy defense)
-Fit of Energy (gives one more action point, good to use on a troop that has already attacked once)
-Divine Armor (increases defense from all types of damage)
-Stone Skin (+defense)
-Pain Mirror
-Plague (reduces attack, defense and health)
-Weakness (target inflicts minimum damage)
Don't try this trial without the Reaper and his Black Hole (high damage to every enemy) or Soul Draining (base spell is 20% of the health of the enemy troop is damaged, can get even higher)

Don't use troops with powerful talents like:
-Evil Beholder with mind control (remember, you can't really use this against the enemy because they are twice as much and there is a leadership cap on this talent)
-Giant with Earthquake, and so on...
What I found really punishing is to go with a lot of ranged units.

The reward is 3 of each runes and a lot of XP, also the feel of victory over a very hard challenge :) The first trial is 1 of each runes as I remember.

Darkhon
10-05-2008, 05:26 PM
wouldn't it be logical to just get a bunch of low level grunts like peasents and what not, then when the map starts destroy them with magic?

Nemaa
10-05-2008, 05:46 PM
You have to use about 80% of your leadership to start the battle. Could you kill like ~7000 peasants with that magic? :) The enemy hero (old yourself) will use magic as well.

Psychward
10-05-2008, 07:32 PM
I went in and killed the first Double pretty quickly... Then without knowing what was going to happen (and I forgot to save), I started the 2nd round! GREAT FIGHT! At the end, I had 3 cyclops left vs 6 of the enemy's cyclops. Was completely out of mana, completely out of rage, and since the fight had gone on so long, I wasn't getting ANY of either each round. Luckily I had some Flaming Arrow and Stone Skin scrolls in my spellbook...

Ended up winning with ~120hp left on my last cyclops O.O... Felt pretty good after that :)

Nemaa
10-05-2008, 08:51 PM
I'm sure, later on it'll be easier as your rage creatures, spells and attributes like attack and defense improve. It took me 4 tries and serious consideration of tactics (at hero lvl 16, lvl 8 Reaper and Lina) until I had my victory :))

PHJF
10-05-2008, 09:47 PM
Yeah I figure I will be able to win that easily if i take like peasants in.

Soul Drain is currently 40% at 45 rage with a cooldown of 1 turn. I have ~70 rage if I use a demonic helmet I have, so right there in two turns I can take down 40% of two squads with just Spirits alone.

4300 damage ice snake or 3200 AoE fire rain will twice per first three turns will help as well :) 110 mana is a lot to burn.

laffwis
10-06-2008, 05:23 AM
Soul Drain is currently 40% at 45 rage with a cooldown of 1 turn.

wow soul drain at 40 %? im lvl 20 mage and have it still on 20 % since firstly i dont have much rage and i think it takes to long to get the rage. from 20 % - 30 % you have to invest 5 times more rage, so i thought its not worth it, but maybe it will be easier to gain rage in the end game.

PHJF
10-06-2008, 02:52 PM
Yes, I've done over 10000 damage with soul drain before on a stack of ~1300 level ones.

Shd
10-07-2008, 08:25 AM
"Eternal sleep"

Imho, easiest way is get dryads (with other 1-3 lvl troops without immunity to sleep) and have "gift" spell and Agni ring. Best is all elven she-fighters (because of ring your troops will move before enemy and they have no retaliation) and some shooters.

Tactic is simple:
1. Dryads which uses sleep ability.
2. All units "wait". (turn 1)
3. At end of turn attack enemy with spirits/fairies, shooters, magic and rage spirits (just dont use abilities with DoT effect). (turn 1)
4. At beginning of turn 2 use "gift" spell on dryads if needed. (turn 2)
5. Attack enemies with units which have larger iniative than dryads. (turn 2)
6. Dryads uses "sleep" ability. (turn 2)
7. Pass till end of turn. (turn 2)
8. goto 2 :)


Result: No casualties (your "double" cannot use magic because his units have no move).

kennec
10-07-2008, 09:34 AM
this fight was very easy. i ,made anm runback and checked all quests on all maps before end game battle.

the army i used agaisnt second double in hadar was a mish mash of units i had bought and didnt used during the campagin and some beholders from lower hadar shops.

i used alot of fire rains and resurections. no special tactic used at all.

kennec
10-07-2008, 09:36 AM
wow soul drain at 40 %? im lvl 20 mage and have it still on 20 % since firstly i dont have much rage and i think it takes to long to get the rage. from 20 % - 30 % you have to invest 5 times more rage, so i thought its not worth it, but maybe it will be easier to gain rage in the end game.

i still have 20% at lvl 30 mage. but i have reduced the cost to 5 rage and rest to 2. so basicly i can use that one and gizmo alot.