This game forces you to change your strategy!
 

...on Hard it does at least. How many games have I played where I genuinely had to think of new ways of doing things over the course of a game. Not many. Not many at all. An example:

After cleaning out most of Kordar and heading over the Elinia, I had a serious cash flow issue. My bank balance kept going down, from its high point at about 300,000 gold to as little as 33,000 at one stage. I was worried. I thought I might actually *lose* the game due to lack of money. This is a real issue on Hard because there are more enemies and less money. It's not enough to win fights, you need to win without losing many troops.

Prior to this I had been using an entirely dwarven team for some cool morale modifiers. I think I had a team of Cannoneers, Giants, Alchemists, Dwarves and Miners (like 700 of them). A pretty tough team but basically a direct fire team. They kept taking a pounding from all the nasty demons in the Underground Sea etc.

So I needed a new strategy.

I thought - 'how can I assemble a team that DOESN'T lose this many troops?'

This is where you have to use what is available to you. I had a couple of artifacts that I hadn't used at all - Anya's ring (which gives insane bonuses to 'she fighters') and a dwarven telescope thing (which gives 100% hit bonus to archers).

My new team looks like this, with about 15,000 leadership:

80 Horsemen
400 Swordsmen
210 Elven Archers
400 Archers
1800 Sprites

Sprites? WTF? Well, they're 'she fighters' which means that Anya's ring gives them +3 Attack, Defense, Morale and one other thing. They cost 20 gold each which means you can have a stack of 1800 at my level.

Then I made use of two spells I had rarely used before, Dragon Arrows and Phantom. At level 3, Phantom creates a stack 43% the size of the original that lasts for three turns. I had been having some luck with phantom horsemen (about 30 in a stack) but even better is the phantom stack of 800 Sprites. So you move the sprite forward a bit, create the phantom stack which runs straight toward the enemy. Meanwhile, you use sniper to take out the biggest threat on turn 1 with your elven archers, and on turn 2 you give him Dragon Arrows. Turn 3 you create another phantom stack of 800 Sprites, and turn 4 you do the same again. So you are fighting with Phantom troops and sniping with arrows at the same time. Meanwhile the original Sprites, plus the Swordsmen and Horsemen are hanging back waiting for an easy kill.

What do you think of my new strategy? :-P

Depending on the army you are facing if they lack range units. block off half the battlefield with rockwall and Daemon gates. Round 2 use Direct damage spells on their ranged units if they have some. If they donot open 2 more daemon gates. Use remainder of rage to summon the gizmo dealy for the ice lady.

When daemons are summoned put a mana shield on one or two. Then just let your summoned pets fight.

Just as a follow up - I've now completely scoured Elinia (with the exception of a walled off area) and killed everything without much trouble at all. I went from 33,000 to over 500,000 gold with this strategy, because I just wasn't losing many troops at all. Now I'm up to 1700 leadership with a team of:

2100 Lake Fairy
2200 Sprite
260 Elven Archer
420 Archer
210 Ancient Bears

Off I go to the Land of Death. :cool:

Zhuangzi, that is such a cool idea! I also have anya's ring, (is it a set quest item? Remember receiving it from the cursed pirates.)

Just hit the elven islands (on normal, I'm not that crazy!) Been trying very hard to minimize my losses (Resurrection and Inquisitors really help) but my army was massacred at the dwarven castle seige (It was rated "match" but I was in a "what the heck oh crap I have work tomorrow mood"). Those damn demonesses teleported their bears next to my archers and my cannoneers in the midst of his troops and then the clear devil surrounded them - legitimate cheese! ... I like that in an AI

So my gold is down to 55k I was thinking turfing the dwarves and starting an elven army. Found a spawn of Fairys but sniggered, hmm maybe I won't snigger anymore! Also just picked up the phantom spell, the game is trying to tell me something.

Yeah I love the way this game keeps you on your toes.

Wait till you get to General Karador's Castle. That is the longest fight in Land of Death. Waiting to hear on your tactic report Zhuangzi, after defeating him. :-P

Nice strategy! :)

My strategy there (spoiler in white):

I used maximum female troops in army just because of Anya's ring (2 types of spirits, dryads, demonesses). Such army kills everything till the dragons easily. Most important: rings gives +3 init +3 speed (!!!) +3 att +3 deff +3 morale (!!!). Spirits and dryads doesnt recieve retaliation and spirits with such speed going to enemy troops in 1st turn and hit them (just place them in 1st row :) ). Dryads have mass sleep ability for 1-3 lvl creatures and you can put them in permanent sleep by using "gift" every 2 turns.

Such army works fine even in "impossible".

Nice strategies, I hope to get such itms too when I advance.

I also like the way this game forces you to change. Even on lower levels it forces you to make choices between units, Sometimes units are juts no longer available and you will have to switch to something else.

as a mage i change tactic all the time

for each area i change mobs to save run around time. reserve skill saves hours and i wish i had bought that one earlier. i barely looose any units and at one time i had saved up 2.9 millions when i got to elven lands. at that time i realeased i had to spend the money so i bought mage runs from the dwarfen kings son in the mines for 300000 each.


i agree about phantom skill. very usefull on giant stack of archers. i have the archer skill so i can have many archers even if i am mage with low leadership.

i tend to go for as sturdy and big mobs as possible to avoid losses, for a long time i had cyklops and giants with archer units like cannoners,shamans and human archers. all that changed in end of elven land quests. red dragons and black dragons have huge hit points and are very mobile.

i have concentration skill for +6 mp and 130mp with 28 intelect and fire based +% artifacts. so basicly i just avoid all melee and nuke the shit out of ai. for example when i am upgrading items i use only lvl 4-5 mobs in my stack otherwise my melee units run around like sheeps all the time hehe.

atm in the game i have upgraded an item that gives demon units -20% leadership cost so i am looking forward to see whut i can buy later in the game and i will combine it with resurection and demongate summon skill. if its not working i will go back to old kite and nuke style. it saves alot of running around and money. my rage skills are at 15 or so. gotta love the gizmo!

agreee was a fun fight. he summons lots of stuff :)

When I read this I can't wait to get to the higher levels.