Impossible, Mage - No unit loss.

[Chase]

So here we go again, hope you still bare with me on this :). In the end Im going for Impossible Warrior with no unit losses (with all the horror that will cause).

Having recently finished "Paladin hard - No unit losses" I had planned to take it to Impossible with paladin, but decided on trying mage as Ive never played mage before.

I decided not to scout the map prior to doing this, so I would take the map as the game decided it would be. While I do not think it is cheating to scout the map, I know it would take away part of the challenge for me. Hopefully the dice will be kind to me down the road.

Here goes:

-

I started out by scouting just to lay my initial strategy based on what units were available. In short, 60ish Inqs, no griffins and no royal snakes.

I went for Horsemen as tanks with Archers, archmages, priests and inqs as support. Archers went for Alchemists and soon priests will yield for Royal thorns of which I found 2 (yay).

At level 4 I had a really hard time however as I dident have the unit power to kill anything without taking huge losses. I solved this by taking on the turtle with Horsemen as tank and mage shield on him all the time. Then I would just use my own healing to keep him topped on hp. I went to freedom island shortly after and picked up everything there was. This gave me enough leadership to clean out most of darian. Excpet the usual "to hard" stuff.

I had some luck with my artifacts. And so far I got Ancient Amulet and Prismatic Helmet worth mentioning.

As for spells I havent had that much luck. Having resurrection would help me so much, but I havent found it anywhere so far. I have scouted a Ice Snake however on Freedom Island and that should help me alot. I also went straight for higher magic and put 1 point in everything on the path there. Just put my 2nd point in Chaos so I have some decent Fireball burst, but some fights require a dual slow to boot.

Going well thus far. :)

[fld88]

You're out of mind! Surely it cannot be possible?

[Razorflame]

it sure can :)
with alot of patience:)
^^

[Vilk]

With Gift spell probably but without Sacrifice that will be quite a nightmare if he didn't get enough inquisitors. Also soon he will run out of Horsemen and the difficulty will rise. Cursed Ghosts can replace very well Horsemen but won't work for a no loss without Sacrifice.

[Razorflame]

cursed ghost can be a pain in the ass when they get above your maximum leadership:D

[Vilk]

Not really it's just that you need take care of this. They can take care of so many thing that it's not a problem to lost one attack from another of your units to drop down their number.

Additionally with experience there's many possibilities to exploit this in combat maps that aren't too small. For example the cursed ghost is thrown far to enemy lines near enemy archer and you let them do the job when you take care not have your units in range of the cursed ghost. Another excellent application is using Target on them, particularely with some stoneskin or other.

And again you have many tools to manage this problem like move the ghost in middle of a pack of enemy and not attack but defend or wait. To use or not protection spell on them. You can even use Holy Anger to weaken them, and slow on an uncontrolled cursed ghost to keep them out of range from your troops or teleport to move them out of range or even use slow on a controlled cursed ghost that you think it will be uncontrolled after their attack.

One important point to take care of is related to initiative, for example a cursed ghost close to become uncontrolled it's very dangerous to wait end of turn to let them attack if they have the best initiative so next round will have them act without to let you a chance to do something. To avoid that you could use another troop to wait until the cursed ghost has act. And stoneskin, battle cry, speed and slow that all change initiative are tool to help manage this.

I don't say it's easy to always control but with experience that's much more easy and with target + stoneskin + Magic Shield they are an amazing tool against numerous enemy long range. In fact they are quite better than horsemen for this sort of tactic expect when enemy has many priests/cardinals. For any other archer enemy Cursed Ghost are better.

With mage with High Magic in a combat with many enemy long range it's extremely powerful to start the fight with target and stoneskin on the cursed ghost and from this base there's many variation depending of enemy army. And using Archimage with them is a total must.

EDIT: And there's few objects that lower undead moral it's quite good use them with cursed ghost because they'll lower significantly critical attack chance making more easy to control them.

[Ryastar]

They are a terrible idea if you are trying to go for no unit losses, though, which is kinda the whole point of this thread.

[Vilk]

Lol I agree it's hard to unsure no Cursed Ghost lost in all fights even if minimal. It's much more easy to ensure your cursed ghosts will do no damages to your own troops. I bet you under evaluate this point because you didn't use them enough.

But without Sacrifice you'll suffer with your horses when you'll won't have anymore enough of them. The penalty of a weaker stack will become more and more a problem and apart cursed ghosts I don't see anything to replace them until later in the game.

But ok use them will certainly be quite rude anyway for a no loss. :)

[Razorflame]

shamans are the shit for no losses:)
^^

[Vilk]

If there's Shaman they are probably a better choice, I just forgot them. But at the game point Chase was he was far to have done the Orc Embassy battle.

[Razorflame]

i mostly get them at the tavern when u ccomplete the dragon fang quest:P

[Chase]

Ok, Im almost done with Freedom Islands now. And Im not going to lie to you, it has been painfull at times. Yesterday I beat Krakken in turn 47. Basically I wouldent have come close to killing it if I hadent used my Royal Thorns. In the end I had Thorns on all but a couple of squares. Decent stacks of 3-400 aswell. Prior to this I upgraded my 2 original Royal Thorns to 15 as I was all but ready to give up. Ive never played with Royal Thorns so I wasent really sure how good they were. But hello meat(plant)wall!

Ive gotten: Sacrifice, Gift, Ice snake, Hypnosis (After failing 15 times on a gremlin battle!) and no Resurrection yet :(. I got 113 mana now and I got 1 point in higher magic.

During most of FI I went with Inqs, Alchemists, Cannoners (found a few for sale and sacrificed until I had enough), Evil Beholders (Was lucky and found these for sale here aswell) and Arch Mages actually. Thats right, 5 ranged! I never thought it would be effective, but with alot of slow+ice snake spaming it actually worked. Basically I need to kill them before they get to me thus rendering Royal Snakes and Horsemen somewhat useless except for certain fights. (I also Sacrificed me a nice stack of Horsemen!).

I tried taking alot of screenshots as you lot would really enjoy a few of them, but I couldent find them on my harddrive afterwards :(. So I think they werent actually recorded. I had a screenshot with Krakken dead and several thousand devilfish left with several thousand plants as a plant wall :). I also took some screenshots of my spells and general army makeup etc as I had planned to post them in this thread.

Oh I also got 1 Demon from the Dragon Fang quest, but it will probably take me a while to reach a point where I can use them so I wount get me a stack just yet!

Please keep posting as its nice motivation :).

[Chase]

Oh right, the setup I run right now is: Evil Beholders, Inqs, Cannoners, Royal Plants and Arch mages. (With Royal Snake as a sub for no retal)

I still hold on to the arch mages due to high amount of hitpoints, long range, the shield and the teleport. Basically with rank 2 slow and the Arch mage teleport you "freeze" one mob for an entire turn. And that helps alot.

[Elwin]

actualy archmage is low hp unit for its level ^^ devs raised it by much in AP

[Chase]

actualy archmage is low hp unit for its level ^^ devs raised it by much in AP

Agreed, but for now they can take the retaliation from enemy ranged units :). Which is what I need when Im going for no losses. So they are perfect for this kind of game.

Nice that they got an upgrade on hitpoints, they will be really slow to take down then :).

Cant wait for AP!

[Elwin]

well most units will have more hp but some weaker units like archmage will have much higher boost then others (in %)

[Razorflame]

oh chase haven't u got the shamans yet?

they work geat with royal thorns

u summon thorns and use the life totem near them:)
^^
then the fun can begin on your meat wall :D

[Chase]

No sadly. Will give the embassy a shot tonight however, but I havent bothered so far as I know it will be a mess :D. But perhaps not as mage, we will see. Ill let you know :).

Also, anyone got any help for the screenshot thing? I took alot using PrintScreen, but they were no where to be found :/.

[Razorflame]

i think you have to press printscreenshot and then go to pain and ctrl+v
to paste it
^^
can be wrong though ^^

[Elwin]

no its working with printscreen, if not in game folder try in my documents somewhere

[Vilk]

Ok, Im almost done with Freedom Islands now. And Im not going to lie to you, it has been painfull at times. Yesterday I beat Krakken in turn 47. Basically I wouldent have come close to killing it if I hadent used my Royal Thorns. In the end I had Thorns on all but a couple of squares. Decent stacks of 3-400 aswell. Prior to this I upgraded my 2 original Royal Thorns to 15 as I was all but ready to give up. Ive never played with Royal Thorns so I wasent really sure how good they were. But hello meat(plant)wall!...
In my current game I also used Royal Thorn against the Kraken but used many combination and tactics until I found how manage the fight with my mage level 13, impossible mode.

That said I used Archimage, Horsemen, Royal Thorn, Cursed Ghost and Inquisitors and got 1 dead Archmage, 1 dead Horsemen (resurrected 2 times with inquisitors and Gift) and... 8 dead Inquisitors. I was quite happy with that result so keep it but zero dead, damit. :-)

I wonder what level was your mage or what Leadership?

I also hadn't Shaman yet but I don't think Shaman totem is healing plants at least for Royal Thorn it seems it doesn't heal them. I could not have quote it right but I doubt.

[Vilk]

well most units will have more hp but some weaker units like archmage will have much higher boost then others (in %)

Funny how dev under evaluate Archmage... in my opinion. :-) Alchemist would worth some boost for a level 4 unit or some Leadership cost decrease.

[Vilk]

About the Kraken I not only used Cursed Ghost, Horseman, Archmage, Inquisitor and Royal Thorn but also used a precise tactic:
- Horseman attack almost only the Kraken and almost always stoneskin level 3 and some times also the Archmage Shield.
- Cursed Ghost attack the kraken when the stack was high and fish when the stack was lower in order to increase it again. I didn't use any protection spell on them.
- I used only few flame arrow level 2, kept mana for other spells.
- I resurrect Horseman when stack was low enough to not lost resurrection potential.
- Archmage, Royal Thorn, Summoned Thorns was taking care of fish and of the Kraken when possible.
- Some Thorns stack also focus on attacking Kraken.
- Kill asap the kraken was a priority because if too long fish stack become too strong.

[Chase]

In my current game I also used Royal Thorn against the Kraken but used many combination and tactics until I found how manage the fight with my mage level 13, impossible mode.

That said I used Archimage, Horsemen, Royal Thorn, Cursed Ghost and Inquisitors and got 1 dead Archmage, 1 dead Horsemen (resurrected 2 times with inquisitors and Gift) and... 8 dead Inquisitors. I was quite happy with that result so keep it but zero dead, damit. :-)

I wonder what level was your mage or what Leadership?

I also hadn't Shaman yet but I don't think Shaman totem is healing plants at least for Royal Thorn it seems it doesn't heal them. I could not have quote it right but I doubt.

Level 11 with 5400 leadership. Havent found any cursed ghosts yet. And yeah I really value the gift "trick" on Inqs myself. It helps so much when I cannot spam resurrection. (Dont have it yet)

Most fights can be done alot more easily if you are ok with just a few deaths I noticed. But some enemy heroes really favour hiting each of your stacks with units once with a damage spell. Same can be said about the gremlin towers.

It wasent so hard to prevent the Krakken from hurting me troops initially aslong as I keept out of his range and killed the devilfish the same turn they spawned. The trick for me was to save the archer plants in the back and send the melee plants to the front. So in the end I had 4 or was it 5 large stacks of archer plants that never took damage. This helped ALOT as the devilfish stacks go up quite fast and peaked at 600 in the end.

After a while however I had to use all my focus on killing the devilfish and in the end when I killed Krakken I had 6 stacks up all clustered in the northwest. I solved this by almost killing the outer devilfish and had them fight really weak plants. This way I could use the ranged to pick off the 600 stacks and not having them roam free and kill my important units.

I think Royal thorns may be my new favourite unit :).

I took screenshots of this, but I cannot find them. I checked both the game folder and the save folder under my documents. Ill give it one more go when I get home from work however. But its strange as I know my way around computers so I wouldent normally not be able to find something.

[Chase]

About the Kraken I not only used Cursed Ghost, Horseman, Archmage, Inquisitor and Royal Thorn but also used a precise tactic:
- Horseman attack almost only the Kraken and almost always stoneskin level 3 and some times also the Archmage Shield.
- Cursed Ghost attack the kraken when the stack was high and fish when the stack was lower in order to increase it again. I didn't use any protection spell on them.
- I used only few flame arrow level 2, kept mana for other spells.
- I resurrect Horseman when stack was low enough to not lost resurrection potential.
- Archmage, Royal Thorn, Summoned Thorns was taking care of fish and of the Kraken when possible.
- Some Thorns stack also focus on attacking Kraken.
- Kill asap the kraken was a priority because if too long fish stack become too strong.

I see what you did there with Horsemen. I used royal snakes for this due to the no retaliation. But I think using horsemen if I could have limited their losses like you did would have been easier. Its a good move and I think I will apply it for later fights :).

Agreed on the kill Krakken first part, but I feelt that I had to kill all the devilfish as they spawned or they would become a problem later. However they did become a problem later as I dident kill Krakken in time. Hehe

[Metathron]

In my current game as impossible paladin, I attacked the kraken when I was about level 12, I think, with the following army composition:

Inquisitors
Archmages
Cannoneers
Giants
Royal Snakes

All in all, the fight wasn't tough at all. Used the snakes' lunge ability to attack the kraken directly, and used the giants as a tank to both attack the kraken and provoke it to attack the giants (so no devilfish summoning for some turns), which it did, and the giants could more than withstand its attack with its huge hit points, the archmage's shield, and an occasional heal spell.

[Razorflame]

where did u get giants so fast?
(assuming u didn't yet go to the mines)

[Metathron]

I did go to the mines with the intention of activating Lina and hoping to get cannoneers. Luckily, they were available in the first areas, so then I also opted for giants (there were 4 available). While they are lacking in the damage dealing department -- which I guess is true of all level 5s -- they are excellent as a meat shield, i.e. blocking some choke points.

[Chase]

I did go to the mines with the intention of activating Lina and hoping to get cannoneers. Luckily, they were available in the first areas, so then I also opted for giants (there were 4 available). While they are lacking in the damage dealing department -- which I guess is true of all level 5s -- they are excellent as a meat shield, i.e. blocking some choke points.

That they are, and they can be healed unlike Royal Thorns and Cyclops :) (not counting gizmo)

I see myself probably using them just for soaking damage down the road. We will see tho, hard to tell at this point. I have had 0 unit losses so gold is not a problem :).

[Vilk]

This path lost a lot of time from a record point of view but in this approach it's sure that giants are tempting. Giants are also rather tempting to do their area damage and lower fish stacks.

I don't understand what you mean by provoking the Kraken to avoid fish summon. Since round 1 I had at least horsemen and often cursed ghost that was in direct contact to the Kraken and most often the Kraken summon anyway.

The key point is to kill faster the kraken to avoid to big fish stacks, that's why Leadership and units that hit hard should be great. Giants are definitely a good choice for this fight but that also means to give up any time record.

EDIT: I checked and had Leadership 6178 right before Kraken fight, not bad for a mage. And I had already done the Orc Embassy fight but hadn't pick a Shaman pack when I was close to doing Kraken Fight.

[Vilk]

That they are, and they can be healed unlike Royal Thorns and Cyclops :) (not counting gizmo)

I see myself probably using them just for soaking damage down the road. We will see tho, hard to tell at this point. I have had 0 unit losses so gold is not a problem :).

Beside for Kraken fight, I get some at mines castle and pick them for a try but I really don't like them when I don't have the Ogre boots or the item that speed up the slowest unit. I don't see at all how they can help reach the zero unit loss. Well ok this goes through many resurrect in any cases but for me Giants could not help lower units loss as well than Horsemen or Cursed Ghosts.

[Ryastar]

I mainly use giants for one thing: sacrifice. They have so much defense and health that they can still survive even if you take out most of their health to increase your troops. Free sacrifice=win :)

[Chase]

Beside for Kraken fight, I get some at mines castle and pick them for a try but I really don't like them when I don't have the Ogre boots or the item that speed up the slowest unit. I don't see at all how they can help reach the zero unit loss. Well ok this goes through many resurrect in any cases but for me Giants could not help lower units loss as well than Horsemen or Cursed Ghosts.

I did this in my paladin game. Its not really about how much damage your units can do to them ,but how much you can limit your units from being killed. Giants are slow, dont do alot of damage, but they dont die fast.

Also I have the giants boots :). Found them at Freedom Islands

[Chase]

I mainly use giants for one thing: sacrifice. They have so much defense and health that they can still survive even if you take out most of their health to increase your troops. Free sacrifice=win :)

Clever trick indeed :)

[Metathron]

I personally couldn't care less about any time records, my main goal is to have fun with the game, and if that entails going back and forth in order to try different strategies or possibilities, then so be it.

As for the giants "provoking" the kraken to strike them, I don't know if it was just a lucky coincidence. But certainly, up to 1/3 of the kraken's actions were striking the giants. Luckily none of my other units were in the path then!

[Vilk]

I did this in my paladin game. Its not really about how much damage your units can do to them ,but how much you can limit your units from being killed. Giants are slow, dont do alot of damage, but they dont die fast.

Also I have the giants boots :). Found them at Freedom Islands
With boots I enjoyed them in a normal game I did. Otherwise damage you do is quite important anyway. Well a concrete example from a save game with moves to do could help understand what you mean.

[Vilk]

I personally couldn't care less about any time records, my main goal is to have fun with the game, and if that entails going back and forth in order to try different strategies or possibilities, then so be it.

As for the giants "provoking" the kraken to strike them, I don't know if it was just a lucky coincidence. But certainly, up to 1/3 of the kraken's actions were striking the giants. Luckily none of my other units were in the path then!
Ok 1/3 isn't bad probably a bit of luck or something. Anyway that means 2/3 of fish summon that's a lot anyway, better kill the kraken fast to not get big fish stack.

[Chase]

Going fine. And I found out how to store screenshots. Ill update more soon, just giving a headsup for now. First try on Giant spider without any losses :).


Here Im planing the opener as I know this will be a long one.
Giant Spider 1 (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8321/spidersetup.jpg)

This is a good hour or so later. As you can see my Horsemen are healed from the first picture and still not doing anything :). Hadent planned on making this my kill, but it just worked out. Would have stacked 5 ranged for the kill, but I wanted to get a feel for it first.
Giant Spider 2 (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2721/goingforkill.jpg)

Turn 47, only 35 mana used totally for one gift and one fireball. So this shouldent be hard to replicate for any class.
Giant Spider 3 (http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5708/spiderkill.jpg)

Easier then most fights due to the thorn spam.

[Vilk]

I was doing this fight as you describe until few days ago, also in impossible mode but with stacks somehow lower (mage level 15 with leadership around 7k). The improved version is to use shaman to replace thorns killed by the giant spider with totems that the giant spider doesn't attack. Clearly during first phase only thorns can do the job fast enough from a Royal Thorn as source but after totems are quite handy.

[Chase]

I was doing this fight as you describe until few days ago, also in impossible mode but with stacks somehow lower (mage level 15 with leadership around 7k). The improved version is to use shaman to replace thorns killed by the giant spider with totems that the giant spider doesn't attack. Clearly during first phase only thorns can do the job fast enough from a Royal Thorn as source but after totems are quite handy.

Hehe that would probably have been less painfull. Its more "job" then you would think clicking defend on all those units :). And you have to be awake as you cant go def with the ranged ones.

I tried the Orc Embassy and failed misserably, so no shamans for me for a while :). Ill go back there in not to long however.

[Razorflame]

yeah orc embassy is a bitch with those fast orcs:P

i still haven't found a way to do it quickly and easy:P

[Vilk]

Hehe that would probably have been less painfull. Its more "job" then you would think clicking defend on all those units :). And you have to be awake as you cant go def with the ranged ones.

I tried the Orc Embassy and failed misserably, so no shamans for me for a while :). Ill go back there in not to long however.

I don't remember very well how I did the orc embassy and did it at end of pirate isle right before kraken and the undead underground. But do it with no loss would not be possible for me at this character level except by using the bears trick I already explained.

EDIT: I did the orc embassy with the base of cursed ghost with target and blocking right with them and left with polar bears and horsemen and few traps. But shaman and time to kill all veteran still generate too many loss.

[Chase]

Orc Embassy: Im thinking Glots Armor and units with A LOT of hitpoints. Giants/cyclops etc. You only need to have 3 units infront, so 2 of your units are safe.

Cleared out all of Lower/Upper Hadar now except a few heroes.

Grand news! I found resurrection in Demonis. I went in there and it was sitting there in a chest. Now hopefully I can get out again as I got quite abit of loot there. Its also tempting to pick up succubi and go full demon army now, but hmm.

[Quelthos]

I am on a similar quest - impossible, mage, no unit loss - up to level 16.

My current strategy is little more than starting every combat with double level 3 geyser spells. Distortion is my clear cut favorite for keeping control of a fight - I only recently acquired Geyser and Phantom, and mostly relied on slow/trap up through the forests and pirate islands.

I leveled with archmages, archers (priests vs. undead), royal snakes, inquisitors, and horsemen. Took on evil beholders and royal thorns when I found them in the pirate islands. My current army is cyclops, giants, royal snakes (+frog Feonora), inquisitors, and evil beholders.

I've had some luck with spells - gift in the islands, resurrection in a hidden chest in dwarven mines, and geyser after completing titan's tear quest. Hard to imagine where I'd be without those.

[Quelthos]

At level 17 I went back and cleared the orc embassy. My army was 106 royal snakes, 34 evil beholders, 3 giants, 5 cyclops, and 73 inquisitors.

Round 1: Giants, cyclops, snakes in front. Opened with double geyser (level 3). Killed 3 unit troops, weakened most except for two stacks of 70+ goblins. Used beholder mind control to burn one of the large goblin stack's turn. Threw down Lina's orb to slow down traffic. Enemy cast slow on my snakes. Shaman put down a totem that I killed with the orb.

Round 2: Another geyser. Everything dead but a few orcs, 2 shaman, two stacks of 20-40 or so goblins. Put up a stone wall in front of my army. Enemy cast magic pole axe on my giants for low damage.

Round 3: Enemy cast magic pole axe, kills some inquisitors. They resurrected themselves and I cleaned up the rest.

An incredibly easy fight at that level.

[Chase]

Yo, nice to see that Im not alone in sharing this challenge :).

Im level 25 now and Ive cleaned out all of Dwarftown and Elfsvile. Have 4 mobs + Necrocom left in Undead County.

I used Geysir ALOT myself, but I havent really had any success with casting 3x2. First off thats 40x6 mana = 240 which I cannot afford to put on my gear if I want my INT over 30. Im hoovering around 200 mana depending on the fight. And 2nd I have yet to see a mob that does not reach your army in some way within 3 turns and can damage you :). So if 2 of my mobs took damage that would be tricky to recover from. Not impossible, but it would require alot of mana preservation and kiting. (Also I dident get resurrection until I found it in Demonis while exploring

My goal is to clear out every mob in the game so I went for the good old Dryad, Lake Spirit, Sprite, Elf and Hunter "trick". Or actually it was required once I started facing the more nasty mobs in the elfland.

Oh and packs with alot of black dragons are a pain. Ive laid waste to a few 30+ black dragon packs and it takes ages and sometimes you get beat up so bad that you have to reload. (3 of the 4 mob groups left in the undead place Black dragon packs). Sure dragon arrows help, but you still have black dragons having their way with you for 2-4 turns.

Ive taken a truckload of screenshots, Ill update a bit later :).

[Chase]

At level 17 I went back and cleared the orc embassy. My army was 106 royal snakes, 34 evil beholders, 3 giants, 5 cyclops, and 73 inquisitors.

Round 1: Giants, cyclops, snakes in front. Opened with double geyser (level 3). Killed 3 unit troops, weakened most except for two stacks of 70+ goblins. Used beholder mind control to burn one of the large goblin stack's turn. Threw down Lina's orb to slow down traffic. Enemy cast slow on my snakes. Shaman put down a totem that I killed with the orb.

Round 2: Another geyser. Everything dead but a few orcs, 2 shaman, two stacks of 20-40 or so goblins. Put up a stone wall in front of my army. Enemy cast magic pole axe on my giants for low damage.

Round 3: Enemy cast magic pole axe, kills some inquisitors. They resurrected themselves and I cleaned up the rest.

An incredibly easy fight at that level.

Yeah I posted earlier that using Giants + cyclops would probably be viable on that fight. I never tested it myself tho, but its nice to know that it works for when/if I try do this with a warrior :).

[Razorflame]

you just have to be faster than those biggie orcs:)
^^
then the fight is EASY
with rage on u can wall off and rape all of them easy ^^

[Chase]

My motivation is slowly geting drained at this point, reached level 26 last night after a 147 round fight vs Xeona.

I ran into a random mob spawn with 54 black dragons, and the effort required to do that one without any losses as a mage....

Im not that far from the end, but having no losses all the way does require you to know and perform all the tricks in the book, and that can get slightly tedious :).

Oddly enough I have motivation to start on Impossible Warrior with no losses, but should be quite harder then mage, so we will see. Perhaps Ill just take a break until AP once Im done with this mage.

[Razorflame]

you are very mistaken though ;)

a warrior is way more easy than a mage:)

at least i find to do so

since warrior has WAY more troops

especially on impossible that counts(damaging spells ain't that good anymore on impossible)

and knwoning that u can easy buf up your troops or debuf/slow the enemy and let your TROOPS do the killing ^^

[DGDobrev]

I believe that's why Chase is trying to beat the game with no losses as a mage, Razor. He did it as a paladin already. There is no dispute that the warrior is the easiest to play - that's just how this game goes. The same situation is present in Armored princess. Having tons of rage and being able to use the dragon (spirits in KBTL, it's pretty much the same) every turn for massive damage pretty much outweighs the usefulness of 3 geysers because mana is slow to replenish, while the rage is replenished in just few rounds of vicious blows and crits and you're set to go ahead and use your most powerful abilities of your spirits/dragon :)

[Elwin]

How is dragon now? at demo it was completly overpowered

[Chase]

Hah, is mage the hard one?

I mean sure I can no longer geysir the living heck out of things, but I asumed warrior would be harder midgame as you dont really have that much damage help from spells.

Did you try both classes on impossible?

[DGDobrev]

@Chase

I tried all three classes on impossible, that's why I moved to KB: AP, the russian version. Warrior seems to be the easiest and seems to suffer low or no casualties, because most of his mana is dedicated to buffing/resurrecting and with a proper spell and army setup, he rocks. He also gets big rage boosts while the armies exchange blows, which allows you to time back or use offensive skills from the spirits pretty much every turn.

I'd have to say that the paladin has the toughest going in my opinion, because he can neither multi-geyser or use timeback + underground blades like crazy. Some fights are especially tough on impossible and you need a pretty strong army setup and enough options to resurrect your troops. I can remember my problems with karador even now :)

As a mage, I left my mana just enough to 3-geyser and built-up some rage for underground blades/time back to a decent level (it's hard to max it without hindering your magic usage) and picked all the rage reduction costs. Still, the geysers were pretty much the thing I used throughout the game.

The thing is that I wasn't bent on doing all the games with no losses, but having the combat experience with both 3 classes, I can have a pretty good idea which would be the easiest... I think that would be the warrior.

@Elwin

The russians don't seem to be doing much on the dragon now. Some skills were fixed or balanced, but I don't seem to find much of a difference. Swooping dive or whatever it should be called in English (the mass-damaging dragon ability that pushes enemies back) still works like a charm. Same goes for the chargers and deadly blow (or whatever it is called, that damages and pushes enemies lvl 1-3 back 2 cells). Those are the abilities I use the most and they don't seem to be affected. Besides, I always have rage for them, since in AP, you have a skill that actually retains your rage in a manner that in can't drop below a certain percentage of your total rage. Even if you use up all your rage in combat, it automatically regenerates to that amount. Pretty neat.

[Vilk]

In impossible mode I don't see at all the mage as DGDobrev, I almost never use attack spell and feel them quite inefficient. Higher magic, more mana, int bonus increasing spell time length are great tools for some tactics a warrior can't apply as well. The point is to reach int 15 and 30 to increase time length of spells, and with more mana this offer much more choice than for a warrior.

For example:

Start a fight with stoneskin and target at first round is a very strong tactic to use on units like Knights/Horsemen/Archmage/Cursed Ghost and against army with many long range.
Use 2 traps at first rounds and more during next rounds can be very nice against army with many close range.
Use Stoneskin on two units at first round, or stoneskin and Peacefulness on one unit, or stoneskin and Divine shield on one units are also very strong choices.
Teleport plus stoneskin or mass haste and stoneskin can be quite good.


That said I agree with DGDobrev that the rage bonus during fight but also the leadership bonus and warrior skills are tools that seems to make the warrior easier to play. But I'm not sure if it's because I don't exploit well enough mage specific possibilities.

[DGDobrev]

Vilk, I am all too comfortable with the buffs and durations and such as well, but the mage has substantially less troops than the warrior, and on impossible, the buffs + the troops do not always suffice. Even with a good tank+target+stoneskin+magic shield, you need a lot of backup power to beat the enemy army (especially the hard battles vs. heroes and the bosses).

If I am to play with buffs, I would rather do it with a warrior (although I used the same strat with the imposible paladin in the 11 day victory) and go with magic shield + target on the tank on the first round. Depending on the enemy army, the warrior can easily afford glot's armor or soul drain. The tank will take quite a beating, but the ranged troops will get a shot in. Then it depends. If the tanks have lost way too many units (I would take that into account when I see what I'm up against and will not use soul drain but glot's armor) I would use time back + target at the end of the 2nd round (since I didn't cast any spell on the 2nd round) and still have full complement of tanking units, while the enemies' numbers have been reduced.

Generally, there is no need to use a char for something he's not good at - like a mage for buffs + army style of combat - because even if you get leadership upgrades starting from lvl 2, you will end up with up to 23k leadership, while a paladin can go over 28k and a warrior with proper items can go way over 30k (you can view the high scores thread for more info about final leadership values - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=4864&highlight=high+score), which makes a world of difference. In addition to that, the mage has generally lower atk/def attributes, especially if you go for leadership items and not defensive items. For example, a mage with mostly leadership items will barely make 20, in atk or def, while a warrior will have over 30 def and over 35 atk.

I'm not saying it's impossible to play the mage like that, of course :) It's just a bit odd to use a char for something he's not good at.

[Quelthos]

At least up through level 20 or so damage spells are very much viable, but only if you use them in the right situations. If an army is bundled up in five stacks of large troops, geyser becomes a lot less effective than manipulative spells (for me these are slow, trap). But if an an army is in 8+ smaller stacks, it's great.

I have only faced a few stacks of black dragons to this point, none higher than 10, but my strategy against them has been to space out all but two of my units, so that the dragon will be enticed for double damage, and lay a trap in front of those units. Then during the turn I rearrange my troops again and lay down a second trap spell. Meanwhile my range/no retaliation non magic users lay into them.

Just as it is important to reshuffle your army in impossible modes, it's important to change up your spell tactics.

[Chase]

At least up through level 20 or so damage spells are very much viable, but only if you use them in the right situations. If an army is bundled up in five stacks of large troops, geyser becomes a lot less effective than manipulative spells (for me these are slow, trap). But if an an army is in 8+ smaller stacks, it's great.

I have only faced a few stacks of black dragons to this point, none higher than 10, but my strategy against them has been to space out all but two of my units, so that the dragon will be enticed for double damage, and lay a trap in front of those units. Then during the turn I rearrange my troops again and lay down a second trap spell. Meanwhile my range/no retaliation non magic users lay into them.

Just as it is important to reshuffle your army in impossible modes, it's important to change up your spell tactics.

I maxed int and got close to 40 while having 200 mana (hi low def, att and leadership) and it let me use the geysir spam until level 24-25.


Update: Im not clearing out demonis with the help of my new wife Xiona and the poison dagger + the whip. I thought this would be a downgrade, but my lake fairies hit for 11000 now. So even tho I lost alot of int and mana, I now basically only use slow and mass magic shackels to win. Its highly viable vs anything except black dragons. And it seems like the strategy Ill use until the end.

(There is a red dragon army walking around here with no less then 52 red dragons in it. It hurts me and wants to say hi to everyone on the forum)

[Razorflame]

black dragons are a curse for no unit losses :>

[DGDobrev]

BTW, Chase, you should be aware of something. The army setup with fairies and such is good up until the battle with Bagum (the big orc that gets you to the turtle via his flying contraption). Bagum has a lot of hard-hitting lvl 4 Orc veterans, Shamans and other units which makes your army a bit improper for that fight. Although it's still manageable, it will take quite a lot of resurrecting afterwards.

The turtle head battle will be even harder because dragons eat fairies for breakfast... However, with the boost in damage you have (whip + dagger) you may be able to cut it, but the ressing will be long and arduous... But I guess that's why it's a challenge :) One ancient ent and you'll be set to start with the neat trick with multiple thorns and poison cloud lvl 1 you pointed out :)

[Elwin]

as for last battle, archer with dragon arrow for dragons, females attack some other his units

[Metathron]

Archer? I would never think of taking archers with me to battle several stacks of dragons that will crowd your archers. Strong melee troops for the final battle all the way!

[Vilk]

DGDobrev: I disagree, a mage is good at using non attacking spells. It's easy to use attack magic so I tried and felt that in most fights it's quite inefficient in comparison with fights organized around non attacking spells. For example, against long range think target, against dragons think traps, against non long range think traps, tank with extreme defense, mass haste, buffer, slow and weaken. A mage is just better to do that than a warrior. For sure attacking power is important but defense is important too for any class, that's why Archmage is that good. But with better spell support mage is quite better to take care of defense level.

Again here some points useful for such spells and a warrior won't have:

Higher int make last non attacking spells longuer and that is a substantial plus a warrior won't have.
Higher Magic level 1 and 2 provides you two spells in one round and that's too is a huge plus a warrior won't have.
With spells that last shorter and and no double spells boost a warrior cannot support as well some tactics with Target use during all the fight.
A fighter also cannot provide support buffer and traps during a fight as well and as long a mage can.
Teleport can be huge when well used and is often a waste for a warrior that has better to do, not for a mage.
With mage I use less long range and more close range and close range hit much harder. With mass haste you provide your troops better initiative and very good mobility allowing easilly to concentrate attacks on one troop that counter attack only once.
Against fast dragons, double traps is quite better than one trap, and again double trap at second round can be sometimes quite good.
A mage is also better to use Cursed Ghost because of his attacking spells to use in case of lost control. And Cursed Ghost can be a huge plus in many fights, a plus a warrior can't use as well.


Ok a warrior that hit quite stronger can be quite efficient in most of similar tactics but for a mage attacking spells are very often less efficient anyway and support these tactics better for the reason I listed above.

[Vilk]

I maxed int and got close to 40 while having 200 mana (hi low def, att and leadership) and it let me use the geysir spam until level 24-25.

Update: Im not clearing out demonis with the help of my new wife Xiona and the poison dagger + the whip. I thought this would be a downgrade, but my lake fairies hit for 11000 now. So even tho I lost alot of int and mana, I now basically only use slow and mass magic shackels to win. Its highly viable vs anything except black dragons. And it seems like the strategy Ill use until the end.

(There is a red dragon army walking around here with no less then 52 red dragons in it. It hurts me and wants to say hi to everyone on the forum)
200 mana at price of leadership is a weird choice, you don't need such high mana except for using a lot of attacking spells asap. In Demonis mass magic shackels is very efficient and came in time to help you support your lack of army power (here another example of spell choice better than attack spells) but later it won't be that good and your 200 mana choice will weaken you I think.

Lake fairies are great but does magic attack and are quite weaker against troops with magic protection. You could balance better your army, for example you could use Knights as an option in your reserve. But there are many other possibilities, the point is to have at leas one strong attack troop that does physical damages.

[DGDobrev]

Traps work against dragons one or two times, depending on your troop setup, unless you replay your battle like 5-6 times with different strats and see exactly where to put them in several turns in the proper cell the dragon occupies, because, let's face it - a trap itself doesn't do much damage. Besides, you are aware of the various resistances the dragons have.

Target+stoneskin is nice, but against a big army of 4-5 lvl units, even a strong tank will feel the big bang on his back and may die - afterwards the rest of your army will be minced meat in a few turns.

I do agree that a lot of debuffs will most certainly compensate for the lack of numbers, but you need to pump them like crazy and you still need to play with as many leadership items as you can get and leadership upgrades from lvl 2 in order to get as much units as possible.

As for the bullets you put up:
Higher int make last non attacking spells longer and that is a substantial plus a warrior won't have.
> the warrior compensates with numbers

Higher Magic level 1 and 2 provides you two spells in one round and that's too is a huge plus a warrior won't have.
> the warrior compensates that with high initiative, a lot of rage, which means 1 buffer spell + 1 high-level spirit ability every turn. That pretty much compensates for higher magic.

With spells that last shorter and and no double spells boost a warrior cannot support as well some tactics with Target use during all the fight.
> Target isn't paramount. If you find your tank being busted by numerous 1-4 lvl units and he dies before you can wear the enemy down enough to start the big ressing, you've pretty much lost the battle. Lvl 5 units will attack your weaker stacks straight away.

Teleport can be huge when well used and is often a waste for a warrior that has better to do, not for a mage.
> I totally agree, but once again strength in numbers + spirit abilities can compensate for that. Glot's armor works like the trap ability - it makes the enemy lose an attack. Ice thorns can slow enemy advancement. Soul drain can reduce an enemy stack way more than any mage spell. Time back saves you quite a bunch of resurrecting. AND you can alternate between those in every turn, which acts like a spellbook.

With mage I use less long range and more close range and close range hit much harder. With mass haste you provide your troops better initiative and very good mobility allowing easily to concentrate attacks on one troop that counter attack only once.
> The warrior does the same. Just Mass haste and you're ready to go.

Against fast dragons, double traps is quite better than one trap, and again double trap at second round can be sometimes quite good.
> Against fast (like the ones in the labyrinth and in the end game) dragons 1 trap + glot's armor does the same. The rest that works is Knights, Archdemons and Demons - good fire resistance and circle attack or furious trait.

A mage is also better to use Cursed Ghost because of his attacking spells to use in case of lost control. And Cursed Ghost can be a huge plus in many fights, a plus a warrior can't use as well.
> Undead make most of your other troops lose morale. A troop with high morale gets +40% attack and defense and +30% crit chance (and a warrior can easily afford going that far down the paladin tree and get the morale upgrades). Top that with a lot of atk and def attributes the warrior gets through items... Now that can easily outweigh most of the things a mage can do.

I don't want to sound biased or something, but in so many play-throughs of KBTL and KBAP, I can't shake the feeling that this game is just made for a warrior. 1 buff/debuff spell + 1 high level spirit ability every turn usually works a lot better than 2 buff/debuff spells + 1 low level spirit ability (since the mage can't afford the high level ones). I tried to analyze and 2 armageddons + 1 decent level black hole were worth about 1800 damage at most and that's the best a mage can show for.

The next thing is that a warrior has over 12k leadership more than a mage for every stack as well as 12+ points in the atk/def attributes. That strength in numbers can make even the last battle a matter of "who pulls out the bigger gun" (or the bigger army in our case). As a warrior, an army of Knights, Archdemons, Demons, Horsemen (all of those have fire resist and good stats) and a random unit of your liking (EDIT: Come to think of it, a good last unit will be the cerberus - 3 pronged attack and 50% fire resist) can beat the crap out of the dragons there. I can say that for a fact because I managed to overpower that nasty Dragon Haas even with the paladin on impossible. As a warrior with some more units, I would have had even easier time.

heck... maybe this is why I like the Paladin so much. It's probably the most challenging and most fun char to play - no higher magic, no huge amounts of rage. Only the careful planning, the good tactics and the cunning will win the day.

[Vilk]

The point isn't to compare to warrior but to mage with attack spell use. You should look at it in this way. It' not because a warrior will perform better that a mage with attack spells will perform better.

About some of the points you bring, and only from a KBTL point of view:

Against dragon with high magic res your attack spells will be ridiculous.
You clearly didn't used a lot target with mage otherwise you would know that a mage could use against a big army of long range target + stoneskin + magic shield all along a fight and some other spells at same time. And when used on proper target the damages are ridiculous.
It's for example on Archmage or dragons against plenty magic long range, on Cursed Ghost on plenty poison/physical long range, on Knights or even Horsemen against anything. A warrior will have much pain to do the same because it won't has the mana and more important spell duration will be too short. But more important in many fights, it's much much more efficient than using attack spells.
Against less long range you could use target on the proper target but with few protection and use your other spells for some other options.
Glot armor is very very far to be the same than trap, it doesn't make lost any movement points nor any special attack when a trap can. For the random factor your are partially right but not fully, for example dragons are the easiest to predict when you set them a temptation trap.
You can use Time Back with mage too, less often but still at right points.
Cursed Ghost is obviously to use with the Paladin skill that disable any morale penalty because of them. And not only a warrior can learn this Paladin skill but a mage can too.
Black Hole use plenty rage and isn't something for a mage. Double armaggedon is only for a rare use and will make you suffer significant lost. It's weird to compare a mage by using such weird tactic that are a good choice only rarely.
12k Leadership more isn't right, that's depend when in the game and what items used.


And I agree that warrior seems better but not that this imply that mage is better by using attack spells in imposible mode.

EDIT: There's also an important disadvantage to focus on attack spells in impossible mode with a mage. That means that you'll focus on magic order or/and magic chaos level 3 first when mage distortion level 3 asap is a huge advantage. In my current game I even get it before level 2 for chaos and order.

[DGDobrev]

I apologize for the misunderstanding then. I thought we're still on the topic of why using a mage for something that isn't for him.

You are correct in the pointers you give out in that case. However, the 12k difference in leadership is precise. The most leadership I've seen on a mage is about 19k (I got up to 18k something with a lot of leadership items). The most leadership I've seen on a warrior is more than 30k (I've had close to 31 once with a ton of + leadership items). You are correct that Glot's armor isn't exactly the same, because even if it does fully protect the first unit from the attack of a dragon, for example (which takes out all movement points), it doesn't protect the second unit in the line of fire, provided there is one. Still, most of the dragons will close up on your units in just 1 turn, so even if you force them to lose it, with lower army strength it will be somewhat hard to drop that dragon down in just 1 turn. I do not argue that it's a good tactic though. I've used it quite a bunch of times myself.

The is one trait I do not like about the cursed ghosts. They sometimes tend to get out of control when they hit too hard, which is nasty and can cut through your own lines in record time :)

[Vilk]

DGDobrev: Yes that's about it, that non attacking spells are for mage too, not a mage vs warrior comparison.

For traps my comment about spending movements points wasn't against dragon. For your comment about dragon second round I don't fully agree it's more complex than that. red dragon will almost always try use their special attack at second round if they didn't in first. And they'll almost always target for the special attack hurting the most stacks and you can have a good predict about that. The same goes for Black dragon but it's more difficult to predict where the special attack will end. For Green dragon they'll also try use their special attack in order to hurt most of your units. If they have used their special attack red dragon will most often if not always attack in order to hurt two stacks with their normal attack that has a range of 2. All of that mechanism offer plenty possibility to use traps against dragons even after first round. Yes that's quite complicate but again magic attack against them will be very weak approach.

Drop down a stack of dragon stack in one turn is difficult for a warrior too and with attack spell it's even harder and more a waste of mana.

Yes it's useless to try protect a unit for the reason you describe that's why using traps and tempt dragons to do so move can be more efficient than any magic attack. But I clearly agree that there's an unpleasant part of random, that this won't do all the job and that a warrior will do better.

I compared with Calenda save right before freeing king dwarf son and I had almost same Leadership but quite more mana, much more int and Calinda warrior had much more attack. That's quite far from the 15k leadership you mention. In records included with the game quote the bast mage has 22k, that's quite more than the 18k you mention. Check crepuscule mage record in 7 days, his mage has 23k. The difference is more about attack at price of mana and int and attack too increase damages.

That's right about cursed ghost you can use them blindly and then they can be a curse as you describe but there are many other way to use them. A typical one is target when it's a good choice and keep them in back line and after stack lower enough your cursed ghost go in contact to restore deads. But there are many other trick including using Peacefulness that decrease their attack and increase they HP making them much mroe easy to manage or taking care to lower their stack before end of turn.

[Chase]

Update

Karador Dead. (arg1)
Baal Dead. (arg2)

[Elwin]

i wonder how u have killed them with no loses

[Chase]

i wonder how u have killed them with no loses

I realised after failing alot that I couldent take them with brute force or even close to it (that is a shocker for alot of you I recon).

So on both encounters I went with 40 int and 160+ mana. So I would cast mass shackles and geysir turn 1. Then depening on how clustered they would be I would either cast geysir times 2 or fire rain/frost snake times 2 for turn 2 and 3.

During this I cast thorns with my dryads and lullaby in order to block their units from reaching mine. On Baal I had the imps zerg infront and block off everyone else and that helped me quite a bit.

I also used soul drain whenever I could and both the walls when I could.

vs Karador I got to the end and had him spawn vampires like you can see in the screenshot. Same went with Baal and his imps. Both of these have no retaliation so you can milk them for mana for ages. Its boring, but it works.

Threw in a screenshot of a fight vs alot of black dragons in Demonis. This was also quite a hard fight for me. But hurray for the imps.

Baal Dead. (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/baal.jpg/)

Karador Dead. (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/karador.jpg/Karador Dead)

Karador mana. (http://img37.imageshack.us/i/karadorsetup.jpg/)

Black Dragons and Arch Demon army. (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/blackdragons.jpg/)


And my stats + gear + army:

My Character. (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/setupp.jpg/)

(As you can see Im going for spell pain for offense and a very defensive playstyle with my units in general.)

[Elwin]

well i am not shocked, actuallly i suspected such answer.I Was just curious that maybe someone invented something new but i think its all the same ^^

[Chase]

well i am not shocked, actuallly i suspected such answer.I Was just curious that maybe someone invented something new but i think its all the same ^^

Im sorry to have dissapointed you :).

[Kjella]

I don't want to sound biased or something, but in so many play-throughs of KBTL and KBAP, I can't shake the feeling that this game is just made for a warrior. 1 buff/debuff spell + 1 high level spirit ability every turn usually works a lot better than 2 buff/debuff spells + 1 low level spirit ability (since the mage can't afford the high level ones). I tried to analyze and 2 armageddons + 1 decent level black hole were worth about 1800 damage at most and that's the best a mage can show for.

Huh? I do over 3500 dmg/spell from my fire rains (haven't got lvl 3 armageddon so can't compare, but should be even higher and I still got low int - 28 - for a mage) and can usually do a 30%/20 rage soul drain with reaper. My problem right now (lvl 24/impossible) is that I've come to a point where I'm getting toasted by:

a) Dragons with tons of fire/magic resistance
b) Demons with fire resistance
c) Karador on sheer numbers

The ugliest stack I've come across so far has been 33000 HP (dryads) and 20000+ HP dragon stacks. I run myself dry on mana (source of magic doesn't get you that far in my experience) and it all goes to shit. Too bad I stupidly spent my crystals since I got the arma scroll, with that I could probably at least get further taking some heavy losses.

[DGDobrev]

That's why I'm giving armageddon info. Fire rain will toast pretty much everything that doesn't have fire resistance and will obliterate thorns, ents and such, because the have fire vulnerability.

You can refer to this site for additionnal info about the chaos spells basic damage:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/kingsbountythelegend/spellschaos.php

Also that 1800 damage is the bast a mage can show for without the intellect and item bonuses. It may go higher, but on impossible that damage isn't much, because you're generally overpowered, and 2xarmageddon will have you out of mana in just a few turns.

[Elwin]

Well i didnt try on impossible but my normal mage had fare rain 7k+ same for ice snake i think it could harm even on impossible ^^

[Chase]

Well i didnt try on impossible but my normal mage had fare rain 7k+ same for ice snake i think it could harm even on impossible ^^

Yeah thats around the damage I do on impossible. I rely on nuking down whatever I can before it touches my units. That seems like the best overall strategy. But at the same time it helps to have the "hit and run" units that sprites, dryads and lake spirits are.

All in all I feel that Ive found the best balance by going mental on int.

[Quelthos]

I was able to defeat Karador at level 24 with only a stack of 5 black dragons.

Karador Setup (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Karador_Setup.jpg)

Karador Midway (No Crystal, No Mana) (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Karador_NoCrystalNoMana.jpg)

Karador Victory (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Karador_Victory.jpg)

You can see I have a lot of damage modifiers, from my helm to the two firestorm artifacts to level 3 Destroyer. So I opened the fight with two max level armageddons, which reduced my stack of dragons to 1 and wiped out all necromancers, ghosts, skeleton archers, and all but 2 bone dragons. I used Time Back the next round to raise my stack of dragons back to maximum. From that point on it was a combination of a level 2 fireball (since my fire damage was so amplified), a level 3 healing spell (can't beat 1 mana), the dragon's special ability and just flying around the map to avoid getting hit.

On the left and right sides of the field are squares where only one creature can reach you, so I would take turns there with Glot's Armor as another means of avoiding damage. I used Charges to get some extra mana back as well. I used a second Time Back later in the fight as a means to kill the crystal.

[DGDobrev]

I would surmise that this is not impossible, otherwise the XP from the combat would've been more.

[Quelthos]

The difficulty is on impossible. I have only invested in a 10% bonus to XP from combat, so that might be why it seems low to you.

[Elwin]

I just compared hes screen to my win against Karador on hard and can say it IS imposssible, i had less exp and was level 25 and amount of exp is higher too

[DGDobrev]

Then that's an interesting playthrough. You've gotten pretty close to the maximum boost to all fire spells. 2x30% Fire spells, +20% from the Prismatic helm - that's a pretty nice boost. The belt is also invaluable. The only thing coming to mind that you lack is the flame necklace (+15% Fire), but you do have better ones.

You also seem to have been taking mostly mana and int upgrades and few leadership upgrades. In any case, the game's been pretty kind to you - in 4-5 mage playthroughs from normal to impossible, I never had such strong item setup. I think it's very rare :)

[Elwin]

I had very similiar in mine first game

[Quelthos]

I've actually discovered that Armageddon is not fire damage and is not boosted by those artifacts. That was probably done with the intent of not being able to use armageddon with black dragons and have immunity. So I had pretty much thrown away two slots. Ironic, given that finding those artifacts is what encouraged me to try the idea.

I've kept using the strategy, though; it's much faster than using the elf army and I more easily take out packs of dragons. I'll be curious at the end to see how my damage statistics play out.

[Razorflame]

armageddon does astral damage :>

[Vilk]

Armageddon has also a fire effect if I remember well its description.

[Chase]

Im at Haas now. And I think I need to plan a new strategy here. We will see tho.

[Quelthos]

My results:

Character Stats (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Character_Stats.jpg)

Combat Stats (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Combat_Stats.jpg)

[Chase]

My results:

Character Stats (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Character_Stats.jpg)

Combat Stats (http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n13/quelthos_03/?action=view&current=Combat_Stats.jpg)

Well done :)

[McSwan]

Dam, that armageddon + black dragons sounds like a good strat.

You'd need to be able to time back level 5 dragons though, so I'm guessing at every level up of the "time back" spirit, you always chose time back. Sounds like a "1 strat kills all" ability, and it'd be quick for most battles. Plus your spirits would level fast.