Defender of the Crown - high score/highlights/combat statistics
 

I figured I'd start a high score thread, one for each campaign. But instead of just focusing on the high score, I would like to make it a trend to have people post both the highlights screen as well as the combat statistics screen; and if possible, the character screen as well. I really want the high score thread to be informative as well, especially for newer players who would like some idea as to how veteran players play the game: class chosen, skills selection, units used, and items used.

Given my hope for this thread, please do post your results no matter what your score is or difficulty you played. That way even veteran players could gain some insight on other play styles and tactics employed. So please post your results! :) Also, it is recommended to post your images in JPEG format since it is smaller in size and you could see a preview of the attachment. The screenshots in KB are saved in bitmap format; simple right-click and "edit" it and Windows will open it using Paint. From there, just choose "save as" and select JPEG format.

My latest impossible paladin no-loss game for DotC; level 29; final score: 793.

Highlights and combat statistics screen attached, as well as a character screen that shows the full skill selection, items and units used just before the final battle.

EDIT: Added my spellbook screen. Also, aside from the 7 total fixed battles in the campaign I fought the following suppression battles: spiked boots x2, adept's staff, advisor's dress, ring of power x2, archmage's staff, silver ring, mask of hate, and golden ring.

Posting my first impossible paladin no-loss game for DotC; level 26; final score: 763.

Unit composition was totally different for this game, thus necessitating a slightly different skills tree build.

EDIT: Added my spellbook screen. Also, aside from the 7 total fixed battles in the campaign I fought the following suppression battles: golden boots, magician's cloak, magician's cape, snake ring of wisdom, steel belt, and dress of the princess.

congrats!!!

what suppressions did you do exactly. how many AK and how were they used?

what spells did you use?

Thanks! I updated my previous two posts with a screenshot of the spellbook (showing all 3 schools of magic) as well as a list of the suppression battles.

For my level 26 game I had 3 AK scrolls and used them for all battles except for the medals battle and the 1st hero battle (13 battles total, 11 with AK).

For my level 29 game I had 3 AK scrolls and used them for all battles except for the medals battle and the first 2 hero battles (17 battles total, 14 with AK).

you might wanna see if you can replay the initial save and hit 30.

the weapon that you start with, Inquisitor's Blade

Increases 1 after each battle, +2 if enemy undeads
Decreases +4 humans/elves, +3 Inquisitors/Paladins

so if you load until the enemies on the second island are humans (the first one robber, the second one knight) then those two fights will get the morale of that sword to 0 and you can suppress it which is a level 4 suppression that will get you to 30 or maybe even 31.

score... 793
Attachment 3682

Before last battle....
Attachment 3683

I have only one AK scroll :P

I have try reach level 30 but I come to level 29 too...

I buy 1 AK scroll on second island but dont use it on final battle so I think if I have fix one more AK scroll on first Island I have been level 30...

I give up now...shall not play it again but that was fun play :-P

That is definitely worth a try, thanks for the tip! I actually reloaded till I got dwarves for enemies and lizardmen items for the second island since the dwarf heroes had larger armies and gave more XP and getting the lizardmen items meant you are assured two suppressions (ring of power x2). I do have the original start save as well as saves for each and every battle done, so I'll try this out. This means not using the Inquisitor's Blade for the whole of the 1st island though as I chose demon enemies, and even the medals battle spawned vampires.

Even if this tip doesn't push it past level 30 I think level 30 is still possible. I got unlucky with the suppression battles, the game generating few enemies, thus resulting in lower XP. Archmage's Staff and Mask of Hate barely gave me 14k+ (Mask of Hate battle in my CotA game gave me 25k+); same with Advisor's Dress (5.8k) and Golden Ring (7.5k). A tinge of tough love there, I had the firepower to suppress more enemies than the game generated (I didn't have to reload a single suppression battle).

Congratulations! But you know what? You can most likely hit level 30 with this game! Aside from taking Axelle's tip with the Inquisitor's Blade you could abuse the relative easiness of the medals battle to cough up an extra AK scroll. :) I myself didn't need to in my game since the starting castle already sold 3 AKs, but if an extra AK is the only thing preventing you from getting level 30... dragon dig away! :)

But rest for now... that was definitely a good game. Then if you have finished CotA and OotM and have nothing else to play... :)

ok, what troops did you use lore for the suppression fights? how did you do the mask of hate fight as a paladin? i would like to learn how to play a paladin!

For my latest game I went with guard droid-repair droid (split stack) for most of the game, with Mask of Hate necessitating me to get a full stack of red dragons (no black dragons were available).

The tactic was quite simple: kill all towers first, then kill the troops. Evil towers really need to die first since their lightning could do the most damage to the droids. Mass haste and teleport helps a lot in the mobility of the guard droids.

I held off in using the red dragons since I thought it would be a pain to keep them no-loss, but I had no choice since the Mask of Hate battle looked too tough for the droids. In that particular battle, the friendly towers were equally dangerous since they could summon red dragon and archdemon stacks. :( Demon portal helped there as well as I was able to cast it one time during the battle and it summoned a stack of archdemons. :)

Mask of Hate suppression battle screenshot attached.

Playing paladin is just like playing a weaker warrior. I chose paladin over warrior for the short campaigns because I wasn't sure if not being able to grab Learning 3 asap on such a short campaign would make a difference or not; and when in doubt, choose the safer route. :) Anyways, I knew I would go warrior for OotM, so playing paladin here is ok.

learning 3 early makes little to no difference. the suppression fights and last fight together is roughly 90% of the exp. so boosting the first 10% by 30% is really nothing. but the weapon that the paladin uses is definitely a plus.

i need to ask, if your second island ally is lizard, then where did you get the hand of necropolis?

Hand of Necropolis was unlocked at the castle after the 2nd demon battle (see screenshot), though I was only able to buy it after finishing the 3rd demon battle. It should be noted that most of the suppressable items are in the 1st island. The reason why I was able to buy 3 AKs, Hand of Necropolis, all suppressable items, and stock up on guard and repair droids is because I started suppressing the weaker items while I was on the 1st island; more battles mean more gold as battle rewards and via dragon dig.

Btw, I tried replaying against humans in the 2nd island, but stop playing after the 1st human battle. This is because the human battles generate the weakest enemies, at least it does for my game. I got 5.8k from that battle wherein the parallel dwarf battle got me 8.5k (both with HoN and AK on); that's a 2.7k XP difference. I know this would be the trend for the other 2 hero battles since I could see them as just "lethal" as well, wherein I see the dwarf battles as "invincible". Given an estimated trend of losing an average of 2.7k XP per battle for 3 battles, that's 8.1k XP difference. And given my "luck" with level 4 suppression battles I might just end up getting 7.5k from the Inquisitor's Blade, a net loss of 600 XP. Even if the conditions had some variations/fluctuations I estimate I still need a net gain of 10k XP to get to level 30.

I still might give it a shot; you'd never know for sure if you don't try, right? :) But I've already done 2 complete runs of DotC; time for some OotM first. :)

I not so good on english so I dont understand what this means ====>>>>
Increases 1 after each battle, +2 if enemy undeads
Decreases +4 humans/elves, +3 Inquisitors/Paladins

Its best use that sword when meet paladins?

I have try load a older save now but when I digging for a scroll so thats come always same item when I try digging again after I start the fight again :(

I buy that hand on second Island... Why you dont get more points when you have use more AK than me??? The answer is.... I dont know :(

Yes, it is best to use the Inquisitor's Blade when you go against human and elf enemies, especially if they have paladin and inquisitors with them.

As for using the dragon to dig chests you need to change how you fight the battle. For a simple example, let us say your army is composed of only one stack of repair droids placed in the middle slot. If on the first turn you don't move and just attack then you dragon dig at the start of the second turn, this should give you a different result if on the first round you move your repair droids 4 spaces forward then attack then dragon dig at the start of the second turn; the fact that you did something different should randomize both the location of the chest and its contents.

The answer is you had harder and more powerful suppression battles, thus the base XP from those battles were far greater. Take for example the baton of leadership; it takes 3 suppression battles to fully upgrade it, and that last suppression battle is one of the hardest suppression battles for all items.

There is also a large randomization factor in suppression battles. For example in my CotA game my Mask of Hate suppression got me 25k, while in my DotC game I only got 14.5k; the amount of enemy units generated in my DotC game was simply a lot lower than in my CotA game (see screenshots below wherein my CotA game Mask of Hate suppression generated 6 more Archdemons).

Thanks for the answer :)
I shall try find a AK scroll and fight all battles with Inquisitor's Blade,, I think I come to level 30 :D
Yeasterday I upgrade Mask of Hate and see that give me around 2000 points in OotM without AK. (thats on hard and not impossibel)

Definitely harder to finish Imp no loss than CotA. I managed it today after a lot of false starts, going paladin (never used paladin before), doing the first battle with RD and AD, the second, third, fourth and fifth with a combination of RD, AD and giants (sometimes ONLY giants, easier to keep alive) and the final battle with 2 black dragons after dumping the other units.

Quite abysmal score, I guess, only 694.

Mage run
 

Impossible, no-loss run as a Mage, reaching level 29.
It was my second run, (the first was only lvl 27), which differs from the first only in the second island. The first island was a human against orcs. The first battle with 2 paladins in one stack, the second with a single troll, the third with 2 trolls in one stack.
The second island was against Necromantas, with lizard artifacts. Both of them were giving better score, because Necros gave about 2000 more XP than humans (dwarfs were the weakest), and lizard artifacts gave two Rings of Youth, (elf artifacts didn’t give any upgradeable). On the first island there were Dress of Magessa (8414), Adept’s Staff (3033), Archmage’s Staff (16072), Colonel’s Baton (4666), General’s Baton (6986), Marshal’s Baton (12216). On the second island, in the chest: Snake Ring. It’s interesting, that this ring from the chest was the only artifact, which gave different XP in the different runs (8884 or 10412). It means, that the defenders were generated only when the chest is opened, not when the game started. It’s interesting as well, that the gremlins are differs time to time in any upgrade battles, not the number of them, but the type (evil or friendly). With the two Ring of Youth (7190 + 6422) in the second run lvl 29 was reached, but still pretty far (cca 10000) from lvl 30.
The second island was done by BDs and GDs, in the first run without-, in the second with Ress, which was much much easier keeping a few Inquisitors in my army for bringing back GDs.
I’ve had 3 AK scrolls on the first island, and used them for all of the upgrades and for the 3 battles on the second island (12 battles together).
Reaching lvl 30 seems possible, although it needs one more highlevel upgradeable artifact, or the suppression of Inquisitors blade, or a Hand of Necropolis with some luck which gives stronger enemies.
Scores, Heroscreen and Spells attached.

it's such a pain to get a good initial save that is worth saving and loading for an AK scroll.

:(

Just an update, unsure if OP is still around, it's 14 years later!

i managed to hit level 30.

https://i.imgur.com/fbwc937.jpeg