loreangelicus
09-16-2009, 03:27 PM
Just some tips for people who want to do a no-casualties run on impossible:
1) get paladin for resurrect and heal OR take warrior/mage and make sure the death paladin sells resurrect
2) off the gate, even with little to no gold, rush for the vampire coffins in the marsh swamps; these would be your front-line fighters early on as they self-resurrect and are pretty powerful in their own right; you will get a number of coffins (I got 3) and make sure you play around with the proper combination of coffins to use at a time to get the GREATEST amount of vampire units (use all 3 OR use 2 then use 1 OR use 1 then use 2 OR use 1 then use 1 then use 1) since, surprisingly, you would get different numbers with different combinations.
3) early on, for endless supply of mana, magic spring MIGHT work; mid-game, for a GUARANTEED endless supply of mana AND rage, Inquisitor's holy anger ability + Lina's chargers; endless mana = unlimited casting of resurrect; emerald dragons DO NOT equate to endless mana since this would eventually kill the enemies, thus putting a limit to the number of times you could use its abilities; same with Death's rage drain not being endless rage
4) as tempting as it is to get lake fairies/sprites/dryads/skeleton archers/thorn-hunters, especially with combination with Issara's Whip and Assassin's Dagger, stick to ranged/no-retaliation/high hitpoint/regenerating/self-resurrecting units that are NOT level 5; see below for suggestions:
early game: vampires, horsemen, inquisitors, priests, archmages, alchemists, royal snakes
mid-game: shamans (their life totems actually HEAL demons), demoness-demon combo if you get the phantom spell
5) if you are lucky enough to pull an ancient vampire from a sarcophagus in the swamp area, a single unit is powerful enough to take down the turtle single-handedly, even without you casting a single spell; just stay in humanoid form, walk towards the turtle's head (it would be slow going what with the turtle casting slow), then just attack it; this is a pure example of the power and value of regeneration and no retaliation
6) tactics early on is to reduce the enemy to a single ranged unit with the least amount of troop without killing them, then regenerate mana via concentration to cast resurrect; mid-game you could use Lina's ice ball or the shaman's life totem (NOT death totem as that would kill the enemies!) to keep the small stack of MELEE enemies occupied
7) for the demoness-demon-phantom combo make sure you have the highest initiative to be able to cast phantom on demon then using demoness to swap the phantom for an enemy unit BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE MOVES; use Anga's Ring with demoness or pump Might skill Dark Commander in combo with vampires/ancient vampires to have the highest initiative
8) mid-game, you could take on anything but impossible, even enemy hero-bolstered armies, so go ahead and kill anything overwhelming and below
9) when you go to the dwarves, visit Demonis as well to get key spells and units, even if you don't plan on killing anything there yet; this could be done and still be at Ellinia at day 5 (or even day 4 if you do the no-army suicide time saving trick to leave the Islands of Freedom)
10) when trying to end battles with max rage and max mana (in preparation for the next battle) using inquisitors and Lina's chargers, keep enemies busy with ice ball and life totems as these summons do not fight back and will not accidentally kill the last enemy and end the fight
That's it for now... I'm at Ellinia (day 5) with the following units: (vampires, demoness, demon, inquisitors, shamans). Paladin on impossible. No wife whatsoever, but will marry Xeona when I take Demonis. Will update this as the game goes on.
*** update***
Major setback as I had to restart the game as I incurred losses during the tutorial missions, which I was informed the record still tallies casualties for; will continue to update this as I go along though.
***update (9/20/2009)***
11) depending on whether you want to go vampires/ghosts/cursed ghost or royal snakes, or depending on power items you picked up early on, marry Rina or Feanora asap; then if you plan to divorce your wife for Princess Neoka or Xeona (again, depending on power items and available units) splurge on runes and crystals (at the dwarven lands) to minimize divorce cost
12) too many sure combos with inqusitors not to choose it as one of your units; same with shamans, they are just very tactically sound; as such, don't forget to max Magic skill Archmage to get a 20% discount on their leadership cost
Haven't played much of late, but I just finished off the turtle and am at Day 2 0700H with approximately 70% enemies and quests done. Got lucky with an early Tactics Treatise, and combo-ed that with level 3 Learning to get to level 8 pre-turtle (item needs suppression though, and I think I could only be powerful enough to do that mid-islands). As with my previous run, I'm pretty sure I could start Islands of Freedom at Day 3, minus these enemies:
* enemy guarding kinght's tent
* Enemen at Castle Karmag
* two heroes near Castle Karmag
* dwarven woman hero patrolling the entrance to the mines
* staff and enemies on 2nd floor at Rezo's tower
* Magic Range (INT 15 is no problem, and I was able to activate the nodes and avoid the then 4 enemies, but what a waste of XP that would be! check out those enemy stacks!)
* Deserted Castle (I want to finish this with killing everything, including enemies generated by portraits)
* everything on and in the griffin island (an all-griffin enemy is a pain to fight at no-casualties!)
I'll see if I can finish off everything except Castle Karmag, Rezo's tower, Magic Range, and the heroes this time around; on my previous run I didn't take a wife as I thought the divorce cost would be such a waste, but this time I will take Feanora since I have a couple of good artifacts at hand.
***update (9/22/2009)***
13) as mentioned by bucazaurus somewhere in this thread, Invisibility combo-ed with just a single unit and powerful rage/spell support is good for tough hero-less enemies (won't work on plants, but there aren't any real tough plant battles); this isn't a guaranteed spell though
I hate this, it seems that while spells and items in shops are fixed, some item rewards outside of this are not. I was able to take advantage of this by having the Magic Stone quest give me +1 defense instead of +5 mana, but the zombie gravekeeper who used to give me a fully upgraded Ring of Intellect (IMO the best item in the game if only because you could use it after 30 kills to give you the +3 intellect and discard it afterward) is now giving me the Silver Horn... :( I'll try and see if this is level-based as I was level 6 when I got the ring and level 9 when I got the horn (I'll try and go for level 10, then check what he gives me; else, I might restart again from a save I made at level 5).
Btw, Day 2 11:30H is very much doable pre-Freedom since I have that time and even finished of the 2nd level Rezo tower enemies and griffin island enemies (from the list above). Too much time left actually (that's 18 hours left before you need to go to Islands of Freedom for a Day 3 start there), so I might check who else I can kill before I head off to Freedom.
***update (9/24/2009)***
Reloaded from a level 5 save and killed zombie Noric at level 6; got the Intellect Ring again (item rewards do change after all, and is tied up to character level).
14) This is a general advise: don't throw crystals in the wishing wells unless your reward is tons of XP (5,000+) or a really great item that you would be using. This is because there are a lot of good spells, and crystals are actually more scarce than runes. Just to give you an idea of the value of crystals, you could buy 1 crystal for 100,000 gold at one castle; then the cost actually even scales up, the next one costing 200k, the next 300k, etc.
15) As it turns out, dryads might actually be good for a no-casualty run since they keep on recruiting thorns that draw aggro. The same could not be said for lake fairies and sprites, and like all low HP units, would be too tedious to keep intact. Anyways, these ladies do magic damage anyways, which late-game black dragons are highly resistant to (95% resistance). If you really want to combo units with Anga's Ruby, get the Demoness (physical damage) and Dryad; completing the Power Puff Girls (+ Lake Fairies and Sprites) would be too tedious to micromanage. It could be done, but I'd really like to see how efficient this team would be against an all black dragon enemy, especially if your 5th unit is Inquisitors who also does magic damage.
16) General advise again: between the five summon spells (Necro Call, Phantom, Summon Phoenix, Demon Portal, Book of Evil), the best is Phantom since it scales up with both your intellect and your leadership (unlike the other four which only scales up with intellect).
***update (9/25/2009)***
17) While the Resurrection spell is the default spell for bringing back lost units and casting Gift on Inquisitors is the given path for bringing back lost level 5 units, what is not immediately transparent is that the Inquisitor ability scales with leadership while Resurrection only scales with Intellect. That means that depending on your leadership in the late game, you might get more bang for your mana by casting Gift than on casting Resurrection. There are some exceptions though, like the fact that Inquisitors won't even touch demons of any type and level, so Resurrection is your only way of bringing back demons (sorry Archdemon, that means only Time Back works for you).
18) Consider adding these units into your unit lineup if they are available in your game: Demons, Dryads, Royal Thorns. These units summon meat shields, especially the last two who can cast it multiple times in a battle. Combo this with the Target spell as necessary. Honorable mention goes to Necromancers; multiple casts of Necro Call, but you need to kill something for it to work, and it doesn't work on all killed units. There are other summoner units out there, but IMO they are too weak to be considered (ie. Druids).
It is confirmed, you could be at Day 2 19:15 and finish off all enemies pre-islands except for these:
* enemy guarding knight's tent
* Enemen at Castle Karmag
* dwarven woman hero patrolling the entrance to the mines
* staff at Rezo's tower
* Magic Range
* Deserted Castle
Power-wise, you could even finish of the dwarven woman hero, but since she is along the direct path to the dwarven mines anyways, it is not necessary. In hindsight, it really isn't bad to leave some enemies behind if you don't immediately need the XP and have the Sacrifice spell. That way, you have some extra easy battles handy to increase your troop stacks via Sacrifice.
I actually finished off the 2 quests tied up to the Deserted Castle as well; I did bypass all enemies there, but at least there is still the option of heading there and killing them for extra XP, or not going there if time is tight (but still be ok score-wise since you completed the 2 quests already).
***update (9/28/2009)***
17) While Slow cannot reduce a unit's movement speed to zero, it still does wonders against slow melee. Take level 2 asap to greatly reduce the difficulty of heavy melee enemies. In conjunction with high speed no retaliation units of your own (ie. vampires, royal snakes...) you could reduce large stacks to nothing without any risk to your units.
18) On the flip side, against heavy ranged units take Teleport. Level 1 should be enough for most tactical maps early on, as that allows your high speed melee units to reach the enemy on turn 1.
I'm going pretty slow on Freedom because I'm always going for the shortest possible route to complete quests and take out enemies. I'm trying to do a run where I could be at Ellinia for a Day 5 start, but already have the Agna's Ruby. It's going to be very tight (I think), but we'll see.
***update (10/4/2009)***
No new tips, just wanted to share that it is possible to start Ellinia at Day 5 with Anga's Ruby; attached a screenshot wherein it shows the day count of 5, and the initial elf at the start, and of course Demonesses with the High morale icon which only Anga's Ruby could provide.
***update (10/19/2009)***
Finished the game, but decided that I am more qualified to give tips on paladin and not really for warrior or mage since I didn't play them on impossible.
Started a new post (link below) where I finished with a score of 1,727 a paladin on impossible/7 days/no casualties/level 30.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=112216#post112216
1) get paladin for resurrect and heal OR take warrior/mage and make sure the death paladin sells resurrect
2) off the gate, even with little to no gold, rush for the vampire coffins in the marsh swamps; these would be your front-line fighters early on as they self-resurrect and are pretty powerful in their own right; you will get a number of coffins (I got 3) and make sure you play around with the proper combination of coffins to use at a time to get the GREATEST amount of vampire units (use all 3 OR use 2 then use 1 OR use 1 then use 2 OR use 1 then use 1 then use 1) since, surprisingly, you would get different numbers with different combinations.
3) early on, for endless supply of mana, magic spring MIGHT work; mid-game, for a GUARANTEED endless supply of mana AND rage, Inquisitor's holy anger ability + Lina's chargers; endless mana = unlimited casting of resurrect; emerald dragons DO NOT equate to endless mana since this would eventually kill the enemies, thus putting a limit to the number of times you could use its abilities; same with Death's rage drain not being endless rage
4) as tempting as it is to get lake fairies/sprites/dryads/skeleton archers/thorn-hunters, especially with combination with Issara's Whip and Assassin's Dagger, stick to ranged/no-retaliation/high hitpoint/regenerating/self-resurrecting units that are NOT level 5; see below for suggestions:
early game: vampires, horsemen, inquisitors, priests, archmages, alchemists, royal snakes
mid-game: shamans (their life totems actually HEAL demons), demoness-demon combo if you get the phantom spell
5) if you are lucky enough to pull an ancient vampire from a sarcophagus in the swamp area, a single unit is powerful enough to take down the turtle single-handedly, even without you casting a single spell; just stay in humanoid form, walk towards the turtle's head (it would be slow going what with the turtle casting slow), then just attack it; this is a pure example of the power and value of regeneration and no retaliation
6) tactics early on is to reduce the enemy to a single ranged unit with the least amount of troop without killing them, then regenerate mana via concentration to cast resurrect; mid-game you could use Lina's ice ball or the shaman's life totem (NOT death totem as that would kill the enemies!) to keep the small stack of MELEE enemies occupied
7) for the demoness-demon-phantom combo make sure you have the highest initiative to be able to cast phantom on demon then using demoness to swap the phantom for an enemy unit BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE MOVES; use Anga's Ring with demoness or pump Might skill Dark Commander in combo with vampires/ancient vampires to have the highest initiative
8) mid-game, you could take on anything but impossible, even enemy hero-bolstered armies, so go ahead and kill anything overwhelming and below
9) when you go to the dwarves, visit Demonis as well to get key spells and units, even if you don't plan on killing anything there yet; this could be done and still be at Ellinia at day 5 (or even day 4 if you do the no-army suicide time saving trick to leave the Islands of Freedom)
10) when trying to end battles with max rage and max mana (in preparation for the next battle) using inquisitors and Lina's chargers, keep enemies busy with ice ball and life totems as these summons do not fight back and will not accidentally kill the last enemy and end the fight
That's it for now... I'm at Ellinia (day 5) with the following units: (vampires, demoness, demon, inquisitors, shamans). Paladin on impossible. No wife whatsoever, but will marry Xeona when I take Demonis. Will update this as the game goes on.
*** update***
Major setback as I had to restart the game as I incurred losses during the tutorial missions, which I was informed the record still tallies casualties for; will continue to update this as I go along though.
***update (9/20/2009)***
11) depending on whether you want to go vampires/ghosts/cursed ghost or royal snakes, or depending on power items you picked up early on, marry Rina or Feanora asap; then if you plan to divorce your wife for Princess Neoka or Xeona (again, depending on power items and available units) splurge on runes and crystals (at the dwarven lands) to minimize divorce cost
12) too many sure combos with inqusitors not to choose it as one of your units; same with shamans, they are just very tactically sound; as such, don't forget to max Magic skill Archmage to get a 20% discount on their leadership cost
Haven't played much of late, but I just finished off the turtle and am at Day 2 0700H with approximately 70% enemies and quests done. Got lucky with an early Tactics Treatise, and combo-ed that with level 3 Learning to get to level 8 pre-turtle (item needs suppression though, and I think I could only be powerful enough to do that mid-islands). As with my previous run, I'm pretty sure I could start Islands of Freedom at Day 3, minus these enemies:
* enemy guarding kinght's tent
* Enemen at Castle Karmag
* two heroes near Castle Karmag
* dwarven woman hero patrolling the entrance to the mines
* staff and enemies on 2nd floor at Rezo's tower
* Magic Range (INT 15 is no problem, and I was able to activate the nodes and avoid the then 4 enemies, but what a waste of XP that would be! check out those enemy stacks!)
* Deserted Castle (I want to finish this with killing everything, including enemies generated by portraits)
* everything on and in the griffin island (an all-griffin enemy is a pain to fight at no-casualties!)
I'll see if I can finish off everything except Castle Karmag, Rezo's tower, Magic Range, and the heroes this time around; on my previous run I didn't take a wife as I thought the divorce cost would be such a waste, but this time I will take Feanora since I have a couple of good artifacts at hand.
***update (9/22/2009)***
13) as mentioned by bucazaurus somewhere in this thread, Invisibility combo-ed with just a single unit and powerful rage/spell support is good for tough hero-less enemies (won't work on plants, but there aren't any real tough plant battles); this isn't a guaranteed spell though
I hate this, it seems that while spells and items in shops are fixed, some item rewards outside of this are not. I was able to take advantage of this by having the Magic Stone quest give me +1 defense instead of +5 mana, but the zombie gravekeeper who used to give me a fully upgraded Ring of Intellect (IMO the best item in the game if only because you could use it after 30 kills to give you the +3 intellect and discard it afterward) is now giving me the Silver Horn... :( I'll try and see if this is level-based as I was level 6 when I got the ring and level 9 when I got the horn (I'll try and go for level 10, then check what he gives me; else, I might restart again from a save I made at level 5).
Btw, Day 2 11:30H is very much doable pre-Freedom since I have that time and even finished of the 2nd level Rezo tower enemies and griffin island enemies (from the list above). Too much time left actually (that's 18 hours left before you need to go to Islands of Freedom for a Day 3 start there), so I might check who else I can kill before I head off to Freedom.
***update (9/24/2009)***
Reloaded from a level 5 save and killed zombie Noric at level 6; got the Intellect Ring again (item rewards do change after all, and is tied up to character level).
14) This is a general advise: don't throw crystals in the wishing wells unless your reward is tons of XP (5,000+) or a really great item that you would be using. This is because there are a lot of good spells, and crystals are actually more scarce than runes. Just to give you an idea of the value of crystals, you could buy 1 crystal for 100,000 gold at one castle; then the cost actually even scales up, the next one costing 200k, the next 300k, etc.
15) As it turns out, dryads might actually be good for a no-casualty run since they keep on recruiting thorns that draw aggro. The same could not be said for lake fairies and sprites, and like all low HP units, would be too tedious to keep intact. Anyways, these ladies do magic damage anyways, which late-game black dragons are highly resistant to (95% resistance). If you really want to combo units with Anga's Ruby, get the Demoness (physical damage) and Dryad; completing the Power Puff Girls (+ Lake Fairies and Sprites) would be too tedious to micromanage. It could be done, but I'd really like to see how efficient this team would be against an all black dragon enemy, especially if your 5th unit is Inquisitors who also does magic damage.
16) General advise again: between the five summon spells (Necro Call, Phantom, Summon Phoenix, Demon Portal, Book of Evil), the best is Phantom since it scales up with both your intellect and your leadership (unlike the other four which only scales up with intellect).
***update (9/25/2009)***
17) While the Resurrection spell is the default spell for bringing back lost units and casting Gift on Inquisitors is the given path for bringing back lost level 5 units, what is not immediately transparent is that the Inquisitor ability scales with leadership while Resurrection only scales with Intellect. That means that depending on your leadership in the late game, you might get more bang for your mana by casting Gift than on casting Resurrection. There are some exceptions though, like the fact that Inquisitors won't even touch demons of any type and level, so Resurrection is your only way of bringing back demons (sorry Archdemon, that means only Time Back works for you).
18) Consider adding these units into your unit lineup if they are available in your game: Demons, Dryads, Royal Thorns. These units summon meat shields, especially the last two who can cast it multiple times in a battle. Combo this with the Target spell as necessary. Honorable mention goes to Necromancers; multiple casts of Necro Call, but you need to kill something for it to work, and it doesn't work on all killed units. There are other summoner units out there, but IMO they are too weak to be considered (ie. Druids).
It is confirmed, you could be at Day 2 19:15 and finish off all enemies pre-islands except for these:
* enemy guarding knight's tent
* Enemen at Castle Karmag
* dwarven woman hero patrolling the entrance to the mines
* staff at Rezo's tower
* Magic Range
* Deserted Castle
Power-wise, you could even finish of the dwarven woman hero, but since she is along the direct path to the dwarven mines anyways, it is not necessary. In hindsight, it really isn't bad to leave some enemies behind if you don't immediately need the XP and have the Sacrifice spell. That way, you have some extra easy battles handy to increase your troop stacks via Sacrifice.
I actually finished off the 2 quests tied up to the Deserted Castle as well; I did bypass all enemies there, but at least there is still the option of heading there and killing them for extra XP, or not going there if time is tight (but still be ok score-wise since you completed the 2 quests already).
***update (9/28/2009)***
17) While Slow cannot reduce a unit's movement speed to zero, it still does wonders against slow melee. Take level 2 asap to greatly reduce the difficulty of heavy melee enemies. In conjunction with high speed no retaliation units of your own (ie. vampires, royal snakes...) you could reduce large stacks to nothing without any risk to your units.
18) On the flip side, against heavy ranged units take Teleport. Level 1 should be enough for most tactical maps early on, as that allows your high speed melee units to reach the enemy on turn 1.
I'm going pretty slow on Freedom because I'm always going for the shortest possible route to complete quests and take out enemies. I'm trying to do a run where I could be at Ellinia for a Day 5 start, but already have the Agna's Ruby. It's going to be very tight (I think), but we'll see.
***update (10/4/2009)***
No new tips, just wanted to share that it is possible to start Ellinia at Day 5 with Anga's Ruby; attached a screenshot wherein it shows the day count of 5, and the initial elf at the start, and of course Demonesses with the High morale icon which only Anga's Ruby could provide.
***update (10/19/2009)***
Finished the game, but decided that I am more qualified to give tips on paladin and not really for warrior or mage since I didn't play them on impossible.
Started a new post (link below) where I finished with a score of 1,727 a paladin on impossible/7 days/no casualties/level 30.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=112216#post112216