Magely advice requested.
 

So, i like playing games on their hardest difficulties and once i saw the reward system for no losses, i was immediately interested. I figured i'd play through on hard first to gauge what i'd need to get better at before playing through on impossible. 65 battles in i'm running into a snag.

You see, I'm playing as a mage and started noticing a trend. No int gear. Everything is low defense and attack. I ninja'd scrolls to get to verona, umkas, tekron to see if this continues and, sadly it does. Data mining my save file also shows no hypnosis, pigmy, or phantom, resurrection scrolls either at all (the first 2) or very late game.

What would you guys suggest in terms of strategies to deal with this problem?

Dig 3 chests on the battlefield with your dragon all the time (the treasure searcher ability). This is essential as a mage, as you may find yourself in a game where you miss a spell or two. This has happened so often in my games that it had me start with the green dragon (who has the ability right from the start) all the time.

When I saw that there is not a single spell in Verona, no fire rain, demon portal, ice snake, phantom, nothing at all, I restarted the game with new mage character.

I think they randomized things too much.

Hypnosis and Pygmy aren't really worth the time. Hypnosis just becomes obsolete really fast, and Pygmy is unnecessary pretty much from the start. Resurrection and Phantom are... somewhat more important. My first advice would be to kite maps until you get to wherever they are. If you don't want to do that for whatever reason, here's a fallback:
Paladins, Inquisitors, Archmages, a high-health level-5 tank (Trolls and Tirexes are common), and whatever fifth unit you prefer. Target plus the archmage's shield on the tank will neutralize most of the enemies damage, judicious use of heal (plus inquisitors if you are accidentally less careful) can keep the tank alive, paladins restore any other casualties you get. You'll be good to go at least through Monteron, even without Phantom, although it might take some creative thinking for a few fights.

Well, it's not that i don't want to kite rather, these longer narrower strips to kite them away to ninja the nav seem rather impossible. But i shall attempt your suggestion. I suppose if all else fails i'll create a new one, data mine the save to see where phantom and trap are then try again. Although i do not look forward to another 100 trap kills.

When I'm finished with my No loss impossible mage game, I will post my walkthrough. The first 2 tips:

1) Start 10 games and save them before talking to Amelie’s father. Use KBScanner to find a game with the spell Trap in Debir. Also nice to find on Debir, Scarlet, Bolo, Rusty Anchor or Verona (in shops, not in castles): Trap (the artefact), Skull of Pain, Well of mana, Shield of Rekross, Ancient Amulet, Gladiator Sword, Banner of True Faith (last 3 for rune farming), Dragon (any colour), Troll, Ogre, Demonologist, Shaman, Druid, Ancient Vampire and Black Knight.

2) After choosing, also check where you can find the scrolls Phantom, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Turn Back Time, Fear, Necro Call, Geyser, Eviln, Death Star and Armageddon

Wow, that is a lot of stuff to look for. I've just been looking for units and spells and that's been quite annoying enough. As for the rune farming..out of luck on 2/3 of those.

Seems getting this combination of stuff all in the same game is an impossibly difficulty in and of itself

You don't have to check for all of those things. Only if your a bean counter from Nerdville. Bu I have to admit, I checked 30 save files. :)

I never found all the items in 1 game. 2 out of 3 rune farming items on the first 5 islands is possible. My current game is without Well of mana or the Shield of Rekross, and the Gladiator Sword is far away in Reha.

The list of units is also not compulsory: it speeds things along to have strong units early on, but you don't need all of them. Heck, you probably do fine without any of them.

Knowing the scroll locations are just convenient. I find finding Phantom, Sacrifice and Turn Back Time near the end of the game very unconvenient :)

It doesn't have to be that tedious! If you look in the KBScanner files, you'll see two examples of .flt files you can use to generate a separate list.
For example inside my mage list are;

Slippery Cuirass
Gladiator Sword
Ancient Amulet
Novice's Dress
Usurer's Ring
Ring of Mind. Class 2.
Snake Ring
Novice's Staff
Magician's Cowl
Scroll Turn Back Time
"Well of Mana" Belt
Twinkling Boots
Scaly Bracelet
Scale Armor
Scale Shield
Traveler's Staff

You can use Worpad to generate the file and cut and paste the item names from the Artifacts.rpt file that you are looking for. (syntax and case ARE important!)
Save it with the .flt extension eg. mageneed.flt and place it in your KBAP sessions/addons file. After you scan, you should have 2 .rpt files generated. Easy as that! :grin:

I know that minmaxing is fun, but you guys are to much . Getting an achievement out of the game is kinda diminished if you "cheat" your way to it . Well i don't consider it cheating, but using mods to check items ahead or 1000 restarts for convenience etc . while getting you there , it won't make you a better player .

Play the hand you are dealt and make the most of it . Being able to achieve "your" goal with any start is of more value , than being 1 step from editing the game for a perfect start . Wouldn't you agree ? .