The turtle is a pain in the ass. It has 4000HP and dishes out 80 damage with it's Footstomp on impossible. We are talking about impossible level right?

The turtle on impossible is very easy to kill using a single Horseman as a tank
and archmages,bowmans and priests as damage dealers.(also Inquisitors if possible)
Just be sure you have learned Heal spell before enter the combat.
In first round move the Horseman near the Turtle and go Defend mode.
Use haste if not enough Action Points.Then use the Shield ability from archmage on them. After that start shooting. Keep using heal and shield on horseman until the turtle is dead.Do not attack with the Horseman. Just defend.You will win with no losses .

Ancient Vampires have 110 HP (as opposed to 50 HP of regular Vampires). It also has a high Defense statistic. Neither the turtle's stomp nor its bite attack could dish out greater than 100 HP damage.

Regular Vampires work too. I went with around 45 and they did enough damage with one hit to resurrect any that got killed when the turtle attacked.

That is quite a good amount of leadership you've got there if you have enough to bring in 45 vampires.

Unfortunately this might not be a viable tactic if you want to kill the turtle before Day 2 06:00 (that is, if you are going for a 7 days game).

quickest way is to fight the turtle with a horseman archimage and ranged units
and boom boom turtle;-)

Yeah, the turtle is really easy with Horsemen, Archmages and a couple of other ranged units. No melee units except for the Horsemen. You can usually get Horsemen from the King's Tent in Greenwort, you just need to get around the strong stack there. Bit of an exploit but it's necessary for this tactic.

To avoid the turtle's footstomp you cast Haste (you need Distortion 2) on the Horsemen, and CHARGE! I think the turtle does the mass slow on turn 1, but that's okay because only the Horsemen will move. You use the Archmage's Magic Shield on the Horsemen, and on subsequent turns you cast Heal on the Horsemen. You can also alternate with Stone Skin to buff the Horsemen even more. The turtle won't do enough damage to kill even one Horseman. Meanwhile you are shooting at the turtle with probably Inquisitors and Archers, and that's it! Using this tactic, I was able to win against the turtle on Impossible on probably day 3. It would work just as well on day 2, it would just take a bit longer due to lower leadership. :cool:

The key is you have to use Horsemen to melee the Turtle ASAP. That way the turtle will never do the footstomp, because it will always melee the unit standing in front of it.

Just like to point out that the Horsemen could reach the front of the turtle on Turn 1 if you position it at the middle of your lineup.

No-retaliation units are also better than ranged units at taking down the turtle faster. Vampires and Royal Snakes come to mind. Ranged units would do, but would take longer as they do not do as much damage as melee units.

Never understood the point of a timed challange. What fun is in rushing through the game? I do a no casualties game, that's been my habit since Heroes of Might and Magic II., but I'm not rushing it - I avoided some fights to get to the Death Land and get better undead units for myself (still no Ancient Vampires or Cursed ghosts, though ...:( ) but I will be going back and clean out the Freedom Islands and Kordar methodically.

I'm with a Mage btw, and I took my time in cleaning out most of Darion before attacking the Turtle to ensure the no losses battle.

BB Shockwave, I myself do not rush through the game. On the contrary, I spend a lot more time on the game since I plan the routes to take and sequence the quests to accomplish.

And besides, the main point of accomplishing it in 7 days is because the score at the end takes this into account.

I myself am doing a no casualties run, even though this added challenge does not factor in to the score at all; the statistic is still in the final records, which is why it is worth pursuing.

The game I'm playing is a no-casualties run with a target Day 7 finish. Also targeting the max 103 quests, and level 30. Paladin on Impossible. The quick time forces you to go against tough enemies that you would otherwise just skip and overpower with larger forces and better spells later.