[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

Man, you really must have a lot of free time to analyze this game like you do, do you work or are still in university? Sure, I believe you it is the most efficient way, you have explained it with charts and numbers, but I'd hate to play the game again and again and always use the same unit in every game, just because of the Prayer.

While I am not quite as skilled as impy, perhaps we are both infected by the uncanny desire to think about the game a little TOO much.

I work. I'm a pretty analytical guy and oddly enough, I find that doing this analysis SAVES me time in the long run. Perhaps it is my way of getting back at the game for when I played Impossible and ended up running out of gold, or I would be nearly at the end of the game on Impossible, and had no way to beat the bosses, losses or not.

That's right. I try whatever I can to steam roll this game to get back at it! Take that, King's Bounty! ...

Nothing makes me more sad then wasting hours upon hours in a battle where it is highly inefficient. e.g. 60 rounds to beat driller with single stack trolls. what the?!? Where one bad move can lead to a restart of a 60 round battle. That's not my idea of fun.

I find that is more time consuming and a waste of my time. That is what drove me more and more into learning the game mechanics and seeing the optimal paths of victory.

That said, the analysis isn't really as time consuming as one might think, especially with the excellent user derived manual and spreadsheet development skills. Once you get the game mechanics down, it is pretty easy to see where the optimal points are.

Regarding using similar units over and over again, well, that's the basis of my other thread. "Units you love/hate". Seems like the fastest "boss busting" armies are "no retaliation" ones deriving from high leadership.

Or, the ever so insane Black Knights.

Besides Paladins, I do end up using quite a few different units. Although, I think I am near the end of my run and thank goodness. I've spent too much time on this game.

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

Again, you play Impossible games - I only play Hard. It's enough of a challenge, and since I only get to play maybe 3-4 hours a week it'd take me a lot of time to finish an Impossible game.

I think the key to a solid impossible run is to know some basic templates of power teams. Again, while some units seem like you can't get rid of, there is some wiggle room. Knowing the basic ways to beat the enemy can make it so the battles don't take nearly that long, even on no-loss and impossible. Early game is pretty hard on Impossible, but the other guys here might have mastered it better than me.

But later on, if you have a good killer army in mind, you should be able to do it fairly easily.

In short, an Impossible game shouldn't take longer than a Hard game if you got the right unit mixture. But, it might be more difficult for you to come up with proper combinations in an Impossible game than a Hard game since your margin of error is far far smaller. Plus, some battles might be particularly grueling if you can't get the items or units you need for a smoother victory.

Admittedly, a lower difficulty level would allow for a larger range of units to be played successfully. There is a certain charm to beating up some super Demon with a pack of Peasants. Ok, I haven't done that... but would be funny.

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I'm a bit surprised at what you say about Resurrection and how it doesn't increase every 7th Intellect point. Granted, I played on Normal with my Warrior, but even she with her not too high Intellect had enough spell power to resurrect everything I have lost even in hard battles. Baal was tough to do no-loss - killing him is not that hard, ensuring some unit is left behind to keep resurrecting your units without Gilbert killing it is harder - but in the end I killed him by going only with one stack of Gorguls and spamming Phantom and Time Back. Gorguls can attack Bhaal without fear of retaliation, often more then once per round, "through" the demons he summons.

Well, the reason why it probably works fine in Normal is because the boss statistics are much much weaker in Normal. Their attack rating is less, so it is easier to receive less damage from them. Their defense rating is lower, so you can deal more damage to them. Furthermore, their HP is lower, so you can blitz them out before they can do real damage. Incidentally, that's the basis of my aggressive boss busting builds. Kill them FAST.

Ah yes, the "attack through the weak unit" no retaliation tactic is great. Of course this tactic is the meat and drink of dragons... gosh I love those units. Thankfully the rune mage lets me use Dragons in more situations than before. That's why I felt they were such a pivotal unit to changing the usable army compositions in Crossworlds.

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

My question regarding your message is - since my current army build does contain lots of Human units - what is this Inquisitor Sword and where can you always find it? I checked the save game in Excel and did not see it...

Atlatea has already answered it. Be careful not to give / sell the sword back.

Of note, the only other item that can reduce leadership further is the Knight's Set. But it seems so rare, not all the items are that great,... and the end goal seems a little mediocre.

I think it was somethign like 22K damage, but with slow melee, one retaliation...

If used with a warrior you could get more retaliations, but, the paladin class will result in more damage, even with the 6750 leadership gap.

But the Knight's Set does decrease requirements for Horsemen and Knights.