Ok, I got a build that seems a little different and it seems strong for now. It relies on mostly Orcs (thus achieving one of my goals).
4 melee, and 1 ranged. To be fair, the strategy is still mostly ranged, but the melee is pretty freakin strong.
Using Moldok
Warrior, around level 31, perusing around Montero.
Orc Tracker - tank
Orc - damage dealer, second winder.
Paladin - healer, second winder.
Goblin - Ultimate Damage Dealer.
Assassin - spectator to jack up attack to 100% for most monsters.
Orc Trackers are ridiculously awesome tanks, and they are level 4! This means they qualify for the "super powerful paladin surround". Since all of the orcs and goblins move "fast" compared to the paladin, it is semi-easy to get all of them back to the Paladin for the final recovery process.
My game only spawned 28 Veteran Orcs, but I think I prefer Orcs anyway. Orcs can do a "second wind" on goblins. Paladins can do a second wind on goblins. Maybe I can finally stop wearing that stupid Officer's Patent since I will not convert the Orcs to Orc Veterans.
Orc Trackers tank nicely and draw mega aggro.
Assassins are just there because I have 88% critical hit with them and want to get closer to 50% bonus damage on most monsters... ideally 100%
My game did NOT spawn the Ale Barrel, so I cannot achieve 100% critical with the goblin out of the box. BUT, thanks to orc's special morale ability, if my goblins kill one unit, my critical hit rate goes to 100% because my base is around 88%.
Goblins are able to act 4 times in 2 rounds (barring them disabling me), which means he raises his attack rating verrrry fast due to "Zeroing In."
I've seen them roll around 10K damage per hit. PLUS they have a chance to attack multiple times in a single round due to the "Unstoppable" ability. It's pretty gross.
The range penalty is negligible, since I have Tactics 2, Moldok for speed, Quick Draw, my goblins can usually get in the "zone" for no penalty before the enemy can go "huh?"
Despite not having maximum criticals for the other melee guys, they seem to do it quite a bit.
I'll let you guys know how well this works later on, but this seems like the right build for now.
Of course, this means I blew like 200K on rune mages and black dragons for nothing. Bleh.
[edit]
Just realized I had more than enough orcs and trophies to convert to orc veterans. Now that I have paladins, I have decided to revisit them and they seem pretty darn good.
I swapped my Assassins for Orc Veterans.
Which brings me to ...
has anyone gotten Assassins to work well in Impossible no-loss games?
Their downsides
- cannot be buffed due to Servant of Death
- relatively slow compared to say the Orc armies with Moldok
- relatively fragile
Their advantages
- can poison (but orcs can maim with moldok)
- no retaliation (but orc veterans somewhat get this too at adrenaline level 3 and enough speed, and they have the triple slash)
- somewhat nifty phantom candidate (but an orc veteran with NO adrenaline is verry useful as a tank due to counter-counterattack).
- can achieve 100% bonus damage (but orc veterans have "scold", which does double damage, and I won't be able to converge on 100% bonus damage easily, since that means killing 20 stacks of the same type).
- can "backstab" (but this generally only works once, unless I murder someone, and continue the rampage)
It seems the Orc Veteran has nothing but advantages over the Assassin.
Can anyone tell me if they have had great success with the Assassin?
[edit]
Just took out driller in 7 rounds, level 34 warrior.
How?
Paladins, Goblins, and Orc Veterans. (Companion Moldok)
I didn't realize no retaliation units worked on bosses until I played Champion of the Arena.
Orc Veterans become no retaliation units at adrenaline level 3 if their speed is greater than the target. Goblins are one of the few scalable units in the entire game (they dealt nearly 64% of the damage, with nearly 100% criticals), and Paladins can tank and do the final heal at the end.
About 18K leadership.