Useful strategy for warriors against loads of shooters?

[maltz]

Any input is appreciated.
The spell "shroud" seems to have limited effect.
There seems to be no "deflect missile" or "confusion" spell as in Heroes of Might and Magic V.

[Fandango]

As a quick reply, I would propably use rushing strategy, if there's mainly shooters and not too powerful melee units guarding them. Use fast units like Horsemen or Griffins and cast haste on them. As a warrior you might have picked up couple of scrolls containing haste.

Also Sleem's Cloud of poison, could diminish some of the tightly grouped shooters' numbers until you get to whack them with your melee troops.

I don't really know how far have you gotten in the game and what sort of troops do you have now, so I don't know what sort of possibilities you have.

[maltz]

Thanks. I will definitely get a horde of Horsemen and Griffins.

I am still quite early in the game (Lv10). So far I've been using Evil Shoal followed by Ground Spikes to thin down their ranks. I am still hesitant on the rush tactics because the chargers usually get ganged up pretty badly and I can't resurrect all of them back.

Is poison cloud a better than the charge of fish (soooo powerful early game).

[Fandango]

Of course it's fine to use Evil Shoal and other damaging spirit abilities too, experiment with the Cloud of Poison a bit. It actually does rather good damage to a group of enemies for longer period, at least at the lower levels.

It's always hard to say how you should fight against enemies in general, cause you have to use different tactics to different shooters. For example: If the shooters are low level shooters and you have higher level creatures, use Wolves or Werewolfs. They have the Fear ability, which makes 1-2 level creatures unable to attack higher level creatures.

If you happen to get your hands on some Archmages, use their Magic Shield ability to your Horsemen. They will receive 50 % less damage from attacks for 3 rounds and it also reloads fast.

Also I sometimes used Lina's Ice Orb for distraction. Toss the Ice Orb right next to the shooters. It can take quite a lot of damage.

[Calinda]

In the hardest cases this may not be the best strategy. Shield from archmages, Target and staying back with your tank to inflict range penalty on the shooters is the way to go.
Check here: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=5242&page=11
There is a saved game called "Gray Wasteland-ambrosius.zip" and an explanation ;)

[Fandango]

In the hardest cases this may not be the best strategy. Shield from archmages, Target and staying back with your tank to inflict range penalty on the shooters is the way to go.
Check here: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=5242&page=11
There is a saved game called "Gray Wasteland-ambrosius.zip" and an explanation ;)

True about the Target thing. I personally would use Phantom and then Target on it, but I thought that in this case the thread starter doesn't have much spellpower as being a Warrior. That's why i disregarded the spells.

Anyway, it is a good strategy! ;)

[Holywhippet]

Generally speaking, any shooter troop who finds itself next to one of your troops will take a step away from it (if possible) and then shoot at it. This is really useful when you realise the AI has a broad view of what counts as your troops. The magical banners dropped by a shaman are considered troops. The Ice orb is considered to be a troop. Phoenix are considered to be a troop. All of these are disposable/rechargable - they cost you either mana, rage or an ability use. Drop some next to the shooters and they will concentrate on them rather than cutting you to ribbons. While they are wasting their attacks, hammer them with your ranged troops.

[maltz]

Indeed. After playing further here are my own strategies:

1) Ice Orb (Spirit Lina).

My favorite battle opener. After several upgrades it has a HP of 1700. (The next upgrade only puts HP1800, not worth it.) I drop it right in the middle of enemy line, preferably beside a big shooter stack. The damage is cool but it is nothing compared to the distraction function - the enemies love hacking it, wasting an entire turn or more.

I tried Orc Shaman's totem but it gets demolished very quickly - not durable at all. For this reason I've stopped using them.

2) Evil beholder + Hypnotize spell

Hypnotize (level 3) is cool enough, but with evil beholder the distraction lasts to Turn 3. In the first turn I use the evil beholder to control my victim to attack something else - its action is depleted. Then I hypnotize it. The AI also love concentrating on the hypnotized unit.

In the meantime I send in my melee from the flanks. The royal snakes and my just-acquired emerald dragons are superb for this job.