Stuck at Verona...
 

Hi all, playing my first game in KB:AP.

Playing normal difficulty, mage, leadership about 3.2K
army setup: normal bears, polar bears, 15 or 16 black beholders, 1 dragon (black? the first dragon unit we find I think on Bolo island), 2 cyclops.

I think my attack is 1, defense is 5 and intel is about 9. I know it is pretty crappy stats. my pet dragon is level 16. I cannot remember my level.

I cleared most of Rusty except for 2 units, Zig-zag and a group of Thorns that are guarding some treasure. When I right-click on Zig-Zag it says Lethal to me. And the Thorns that guard the treasure on Rusty is also Lethal.

I can go to Verona, but the units there are also Lethal to Invincible as well. I think I cleared most of the Strong units in Verona, but they town is protected by Very Strong or Lethal units.

I didn't know about map kiting until I read about it in this forum, but is there any other way to defeat those units on Rusty Island? Or advise me what I maybe doing wrong. Or should I be learning some spell that I may have missed? I have Order at lvl 2, Distortion at lvl 1 and Chaos at lvl 1.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Whats going wrong? I assume your units are dying, if so i'd say try to throw in some ressurection power, inquisitors are the most common to get but often after you got your 2nd stone you can buy paladins at the mage tower on the first island and if you're lucky you could also try demonologists.
On normal i'd say it should be doable without mapkiting, i finished the game without it at least and imo it feels alot more rewarding to play through the game like you should, at least for the first playthrough.

Yes my units are dying. Especially being swarmed by superior numbers. Like one of the enemy units had like 700+ Devilfishes and they took out my black dragon in like 1 bite. And thanks for the advice on using units with resurrection.

btw does resurrecting dead units count towards the 'no-loss' battle medal? Another one of those tricks which I didn't know about at the start of the game till I read the forums. I am still at 7/10 of my 'no-loss' medal.

yep it does count

Don't charge the enemy.. in the instance of devilfish, the black dragon's range (or speed rather) is very much superior so "kite" it around the map (Slow spell helps) while you whittle it down with ranged units (that's a weakness of your setup I think.. too few ranged units... and three "tank" types).

Also would suggest going for units with more interesting abilities (like Demonlogists) that will provide you more tactical options. As a mage you do NOT want to play a "brute"-force attempt to the game by having units that directly the enemy due to your low leadership.

I'm play too and i stuck but after my battle is with units who is week or equal strengt with me.
If have no choice i fighting wit units who is more strong then i.
My great units is Cyclops and I have 5. I try to save to no die because is archer and is rare.

Because i search and i fight with troups more week then me i have 8/10 of my 'no-loss' medal :) (this is for basis ;) )
Anyway after any battle i suply my lost units.
God Luck ;)

Hmm, you have 5 cyclops' IN YOUR ARMY or 5 total you can buy from? Because if you only have 8/10 in grand strategy, and 7000 leadership, you are getting a fair bit behind!

Remember that those cyclopses have high resistance and HP, and do more damage in melee than range. Go to melee with them, and let everything hide behind. It is a great trick early game, especially since cyclopses are plentiful in Bola a lot of the time.

Yes, in Bola island was 5 cyclops and i buy'it all. Leadership of one cyclops is 1400 and i have 5 but i need more because my leadership is 8775.
And where i can find pirates ?

I can't speak for normal as I've only played impossible but as a mage, you generally need to get used to facing stacks that are Lethal or tougher. Mages aren't about brute force so you're not supposed to have equal numbers to begin with. Therefore, how you built your character is far more important for a mage than it is for the other two classes. What did you spend your talent runes on in each tree and what spells do you have?

For my current mage, the key spells I use are:

Demon Portal
Fear
Stone Skin
Mana Spring
Trap
Phantom
Calm Rage
Fire Arrow (because it stays cheap)

I use more than that (Doom, Slow, and Avenging Angel come to mind along with others) but those are the ones I keep coming back to.

Spells I don't even scribe and just sell:

Call of Nature (worthless due to how small the stacks are)
Bless
Precision
(that spell that gives your unit fire damage; can't remember name)

There are probably more, I just can't think of them now.

Warriors and Paladins are about a lot of brute force and crushing the enemy directly. Mages are all about position and tactics. WHERE your guys are standing are often more important than how tough they are. For example, my L22 mage just took out Peter Drayn (on impossible, he is a L34 hero with two stacks of 56 demonesses and roughly 7000 total peasants in 3 stacks; Peter also has 250 mana and casts Ancient Phoenix and Demon Portal like a madman) on Verona with her 1-troll army (1 stack of 1 troll and no other units) in daylight (so the troll can't even regen.) Didn't need to be a troll. In fact, any stack of L5 units could accomplish it with no loss (I have 4 trolls but only use one in most fights to maximize dragon level.) That obviously cannot be done on brute force even with spells (Peter very quickly has like 10-12 stacks or more total on the board. Even with Higher Magic, which I have at L2, it is impossible to keep up with him on numbers.)

Planning, precision (err... not the spell of course!), and positioning is key when playing a mage. I find it strange that so many people say the mage is the hardest to play on impossible but I guess it boils down to play style. I've tried a warrior and frankly was bored with how "straightforward" her play style was.

Wow... how?