some questions
 

I have a lvl. 8 paladin and some question. It's the first time I play this game. So:

I. My army is made of Priests, Bowmen, Bears, Swordsmen and Royal Snakes (but I could only find one place to buy them and it only had 60 snakes!). What should I change?

II. Money. I have around 120k, but al my army costs around 30k, so I don't think it's much. How can I find more money?

Hey, msp and welcome to the forums.

First of all: there is no perfect army :> Play around with different setups of what is available to you and you'll find what best suits your playstyle and the enemy army you're facing.

But there are of course troops that aren't very effective in whatever setup they're in. Swordsmen belong to that group of general fails ^^
About the Royal Snakes: you'll come across more places where you can hire them most likely. Usually in my games I find at least 3 places that hire out RS, though some of them may be late in the game. You do know that what troops are to hire at any place is entirely random (except several exceptions) ? So don't bother asking where to hire more of whatever.

The key to having the troops you want is to avoid casualties much as you can. Make use of resurrection and bring back whatever you can (with the right tools and strategies you can bring back everything, except extinguished stacks).

As for your second question: you're finding enough money. Unless you lose almost your entire army in battles constantly (or even get wiped) you should do fine, even on hard. The one thing that is available in abundance in this game is gold (and mind runes, lolol).

Avoiding losses is the key to both your questions.

Another question: what are the friendly gremlin towers? I don't think I saw them...

1) Personal preference, I'd drop the bears and try to replace the swordsmen with guardsmen. If you've found any, some horsemen and/or knights would be good (you usually find a small number on the first continent). If you've made it to the Western and Eastern Islands, try to get some dwarven canoneers to replace the bowmen.

As Vulture stated, there are a lot of options for troops, and everyone has their favorites. Generally, the higher level troops are better than lower level for survivability and special abilities. Lower level troops - if you can keep them alive - generally deal out more damage due to the sheer number of them you can recruit.

While it's true that many troop placements are random, some are predictable. For instance, there are a couple castles in the Marshan Swamp that almost always have royal snakes after you complete some quests. You'll likely also find some beholders, which are pretty good mid-game ranged units.

2) Gold will not be a problem. Once you start travelling to other continents, you'll find the gold rewards (and the strength of enemy stacks) go up noticeably. I loaded an old save and at 28th level I had over 5 million gold (normal difficulty).

I completely forgot - get inquisitors when you can. They have a couple very useful abilities (resurrection and mana boost). Combined with the spell gift they may be the single most useful unit in the game, though a bit fragile in the late game.

There is a resurrection spell. You should have started the game with a scroll of it. If you've already used the scroll, you'll have to hope you can find another. If/when you have the scroll, be sure to scribe it into your spellbook. Keep in mind that the level of troops it affects is dependent on your Order spell skill. Level 1 Order, Resurrection affects level 1-2 units. Level 2 Order = level 1-3 units, Level 3 Order = level 1-4 units. The spell does not affect level 5 units, but other things can.

Not sure what you mean by friendly gremlin towers...the only gremlin towers I know of are from suppressing and upgrading items. Brown gremlins tend to summon enemies and cast beneficial spells for their side. Red gremlins tend to cast offensive spells against your troops.

I've read somewhere about them... green gremlin towers?

Also thanks for the tips.

The brown gremlis are "Friendly Gremlin"s. That's just their unit name. They only summon, buff and ress their own mates but cannot cast nor damage your troops while the red ones "Evil Gremlin"s can only cast offensive spells like pygmy, sheep and lightning strike.

As for the troops, as stated, it depends strongly on who you're facing, what you have available in decent numbers and what strategy you pursue. There is also no "good" setup ^^ At least not in general. For example an army that heavily relies on ancient vampires tanking and refilling themselves through life drain and for example 2 ranged units using bows (like bowmen and hunters for isntance) will face serious trouble facing an undead army. Vampires won't be able to drain life and undeads only take 50% arrow damage.

I hope this example explains why there is no general "good" army whatsoever. Play around, try, adapt and search the forums for setup tips. This subject has been chewed bland.

Ok, so I'm going to Freedom Islands (level 9) and my army is made of:
Bowmen (until I find canoneers)
Inquisitors
Guardsmen
Royal Snakes
Ancient Bear

Sounds good, in all honesty I quite like Archers, the fire and ice arrows they have are excellent, where as I was never keen on Cannoneers. I'd try to find some Beholders if you want a nice ranged unit, Evil Beholders are even better.

Try to find a big level 5 unit, something with a lot of HP, they can be really nice for taking a lot of punishment without dying. A dragon or two would be an excellent choice, but anything big would do.

Daniel.

I'll see what I can do, after I finish with Freedom Islands looting :)

can I have all skills upgraded to maxim? and all spirits of rage?

If you somehow gain enough runes, there's nothing in the code to stop you from maxing all hero skills available. I honestly don't believe it's possible to get that many runes without cheating in some way. In a typical game, you will gain enough runes to max out the skills most important to you, but not all skills.

As for spirits, you most definitely will not be able to max out all their abilities. There is a cap on their max level (30?), and each spirit has more than that number of ability upgrades.

Both of the above are elements of good game design, as it gives us meaningful choices throughout the game. In fact, one of the trickiest decisions for me was when to really start maxing out specific rage abilities. If you upgrade a particular ability too soon, it may cost too much rage for your current hero. But if you wait too long, you risk not being able to max it out before the end of the game. My first complete game, I waited too long on the chargers skill. Not a fatal mistake, but one I'd like to avoid in a second attempt.

In short: no and no. Not without cheating. That would be poor game design if the game gave you all skills at some point. What would be the point in skill trees to begin with ?

Which is the best race for "one-race" armies?

None. One-race armies are pretty inferior with the exception of undeads. But those need extra effort and specific management and playstyle. If this playstyle is not for you, undead-only isn't for you. Plus, every one-race-only army will eventually face its counter-combo on the battlefield. Which, if we stay within the example of the undeads, will be a full undead opponent with no living creature in their ranks.

If you were to determine what army is "good" or "best", regardless of single-race or mixed, you always need more information like:
1. what class
2. what difficulty setting
3. whhich items do you have available
4. who is your opponent
5. what spells, talents and rage abilities do you have
6. what is your preferred playstyle
?

Only if those are answered you can begin to work on what is "best" for you. But when you're at this point you will realize that uniracial armies aren't the best choice for you ^^

OK, I only wanted to know...

About Spirits of rage: If their level is increased, how is chosen the ability/abilities which are increased?

One will always be the rage ability you used the most and gained the most EXP with and the other one will always be random. And what random spell comes depends on if you have all abilities of that spirit yet. If you do not have all rage spells of one spirit, you will be prompted with taking it with a high chance. So if you plan on maximising a spell early on, make sure you use it a lot.

You can read more on spirit leveling when using the search function. It's all spread out in detail for you.

This is strange, because I (almost) never use Zerock's Wall spell, but I have the chance to increase it very often. You could say it's random, but what happens when both options are about the wall spel...?

It's possible. It also depends on the level of the spell. The first upgrade of the wall is for very low levels and if you don't take it you'll be asked with high chance.
And just as a sidenote: Rock Wall is the only useful spell of Zerock's to begin with. Using and upgrading (more hp, less rage) it is advised.

Really? For what?

The wall's primary benefit is battlefield control.

Example: The enemy army has a large stack of a powerful ground unit, say knights. Place a wall so that the knights can move around it, but doing so eats up one or two turns of movement. The knights will almost always attempt to go the long way around, rather than simply smashing through the wall.

Also, late in a battle, when the enemy has a very weak stack, you can trap it behind the wall while your inquisitors refill your rage, and your other troops run around grabbing mana and rage from the chargers you summon. Tedious, but effective.

For myself, I've also found the sword and underground blades abilities are useful spellcaster killers. Used against priests, inquisitors, mages, etc., they generate a good amount of XP (so you can upgrade your Zerock abilities). Underground blades also has the advantage of being usable even if your own troops are nearby, since it only affects enemies.

I prefer to boost underground blades as much as possible, then sword and wall in roughly equal measure. I completely skip rockfall.

All that said, Vulture's strategy also works well. One of the best features of this game is that there is no ultimate strategy that trumps all others.

Rockfall doesn't harm your troops, too.

@Sir Whiskers: 100% agree with your explanations of the Rock Wall. About the Sword, Blades and Rock Fall I can only say: until level 15 - tops. After that it's wasted rage. When I said that they're useless I was viewing that from an endgame PoV.

My playstyle for instance relies heavily on Time Back, Chargers, Ice Ball and Ice Prison (for Dragon Fights). Casting any other rage ability is out of the question most of the time.

@msp: nor does it harm the enemy (much) xD

P.S: Early on I like boosting Evil Shoal as far as possible. It's my main damage dealing rage ability throughout the Islands.

I like Evil Shoal too, but when I have enough rage for it, the enemy is already split through the battlefield and it's hard to hit many enemies.

The Ice Ball is nice, but it's har to hit enemies with it, I like Gizmo more...

Where is that clock I must find for Reaper? In Taron Mines?

The Ice Ball is not for damage purposes, it's for tanking, distracting and blocking archers.
Questions concerning the quests have been answered numerous times (more thatn I can or want to count) ad nauseam in this forum. Use the search function, please. There is also a very detailed walkthrough on the internet (linked somewhere on the forums) that gives you all the information you need.

Just a personal hint: as soon as you get the quest for liberating Castle Bogacho for the clock, do it. Every opponent killed without The Reaper gaining experience greatly decreases your end game performance. Especially - but not limited to - on higher difficulties.

I would do it if I there weren't so much higher level heroes around it... I'm only at 16, and there's a lvl. 24 hero unit...

Forget about it, it's done

I ask this in order to avoid the "use search" statements. So:

Would it be fine to ask here about spirits' spells to max out, so they can fit my play-style?

What exactly is your question ?

You can max the rage spells you like to use. And that's even as easy as it gets and as intuitive as it gets. Just use those you prefer the most and it will be very likely that you'll be asked to upgrade them.
A general rule of thumb is: restorative spells like Time Back generate experience for the Spirit according to the level of the Troop it's cast on, the number of units restored with it, the level of the spell and/or number of charges of it removed or restored. Damaging spells of course generate experience for the spirit according to the number of kills and the level of the killed units.
Support Spells like Chargers gain experience accoring to the overall leadership cost of all enemy units still on the battlefield. That means if you cast chargers first thing in combat before anything moves you'll get the most exp for it. If you do it while only a handful of enemy units is still alive you get next to nothing.

Now I have Reaper. Is it the right time to destroy evrything I can before moving through Elinia? There are some dwarven armies that I haven't destroyed. Or should I let them live for later?

There is no fathomable reason to let armies live. Except, of course, you need some easy fights to sacrifice/Time Back/ressurect up your ranks. But I'm sure you won't be doing that. If you can beat them, do it.

I'm going to Elinia and my army is made of Inquisitors, Royal Snakes, Horsemen, Griffins and Evil Beholders. Is there something I should know/change. I'll using fast units with high initiative to reach the enemy archers fast, this is my strategy so far...

You could swap the Knights with Skelton Archers. Since you have only animals, unclassified and Inquisitors in your ranks they don't reduce morale with any of them and they deal times more damage than the Knights (except you have Training lvl 3 and Circle Attack and use it excessively including Gift on them but only then are Knights even debateable... and against Dragons.). If you need more flesh in the front row, just cast Phantom on the Griffins.

I don't have knights, I have horsemen...

Anyway, I will use skeleton archers if find more, I only have 400 now at 12000 leadership.


Do you know where I can find Master Richard? I need the Dragon Slayer's sword from him...

msp: Master Richard is at the Knight's Temple next to King Mark in Greenwort, and to get the Dragon Slayer Sword, you must win all the tournament battles he offers you in conversation.

@msp: use Sacrifice and stock them up. Easy as that ^^ If we only ever had to rely on: "what is there is there and if you have more ldr than what's there that's tough noogies" then I wouldn't even bother playing the game xD

Sorry about confusing Knights and Horsemen. My opinion remains the same. Even stronger, since Horsemen suck even more donkey balls than Knights :>

THAT Master Richard...

I'll see what I can do...

I need advice in the magic problem...

My paladin is at level 20 and in the magic skill tree I have lvl. 3 Order, lvl. 2 Distortion and lvl.2 Chaos magic. What should I upgrade? Distortion or Chaos?

Another question would be: is it worth spending runes on the destroyer skill? I don't use magic for dealing damage too much after all...

I'd stick with distortion and only upgrade chaos to 3 if you desperately need it for sacrifices, otherwise, no need to upgrade. Distortion 3 has more than enough tricks in it, provided the spells are in your game: Phantom, Blind, Target, Hypnosis, Trap, Pygmy, Magic Shackles, Slow, Mass Haste, Stone Skin, etc. to carry you the entire way. I'd ignore destroyer entirely, too.

Confirming what Helios said. You don't have the spells per turn to spare on damage spells, which only then Destroyer would make sense. Sacrifice 2 has always sufficed for my Paladin and Warrior games.
Distortion is by far more useful. Put another point in the Healer talent if you don't know where to put your magic runes. You need some to get Tolerance and its prerequisites, too.

Today I fought two important battles: Karador and Dreddho...

Karador was... a disaster, I los many troops but I won (nothing can take down 300 Royal Snakes).


Dreddho wasn't so bad, with skeleton archers I demolished his dragon stacks very easy. I had some dead archers but it was easier.

There ya go, man. Practice makes perfect, neh ? :> Royal Snakes are badass. I always use them for Darion. I don't play games that don't have RSnakes available from scratch ^^

Royal snakes hold the damage record: 16014 damage.

16k is nice. But have a look at this :>

I don't use sprites/LF, but skeleton archer is the runner-up.

My runner-up were Demonesses with some 25k. Whip ftw.

Bah, my sprites hit 62k without a dagger.


(but with a whip and hell's breath against thorns...)

Special vulnerabilities don't count since it's not comparable.

I need archers for dragon fighting. Should I choose elves or hunters?

Skeleton Archers. Unless you have insane amounts of Atk (30+) they are your number one choice + Dragon Arrows (even without).

No more skeleton archers, 2500 or so and i keep them for harder battles.

Current stats: level 29, 23k leadership, 3 incarnations and an army made of elves/skeleton archers, demons, royal snakes (of course :grin:), inquisitors (of course x2 :grin:) and knights. I cleaned all the land, there's no enemy left (i think :confused:).

Why would you "keep" them for harder battles ? Units are there to use them. If you're in danger of running out of Skellies, just make sure you restore them before the battle ends.

Btw in combats where you see that you cannot out-dps the enemy before he starts spamming Geyser for instance it is very much advised to refrain from using non-resurrectable units or those that can't restore themselves (Vampires, Ancient Vampires, Cursed Ghosts, Inquisitors). So if anything, then it's the hard battles where you do NOT use Skellies :> Not the other way around.

third runner up u mean, there are sprites, then lake faeries, then everything else kkkkk

After a month and a half, I've finally finished this game. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The Marshall of Darion, Admiral of the Freedom Islands, Defender of Kordar, great diplomat and "dear friend" of the dwarves' king, the one who closed the evil gate to Demonis and second slayer of Baal, the one who travelled in Ultrax, savior hero of elves, lord over the Land of death, keeper of the labyrinth's secret, Chief and Great Shaman of the orcs in Murok, rider of the Archplane, killer of Haas and friend of Endoria, the turtle, the first "World Searcher", lord Christian Tyler, Paladin.

Congratulations, msp :> Seems like a fairly good resume for a first time playthrough. The damage done by snakes is impressive. With a frog wife and a snake king ring they're mighty fierce aren't they ? :>
You could have tried to bring regular Snakes along, too (not the swamp ones, they do poison damage only and that's fail). They don't have the benefit of no retaliation but they have lunge as well and their damage is physical, too. They'd have benefitted a lot from your wife and the ring.

I highly suggest you play through the game with a warrior next and on hard. And learn basic loss presevation and mana conservation techniques (Lina on lvl 19 kills my heart xD ). That'll give you a completely new approach to the game.
You'll think you're playing a different game entirely ! Have fun :>

Not bad, msp. I suggest following Vulture's advice. And you'll be surprised how much quicker you can beat the game knowing the locations, what enemies to generally expect, which troops are good vs. certain enemies, etc. I just learned last time through from Vulture how awesome Vampires and Ancient Vampires can be.