Baal help for impossible mage

[wailoktam]

At level 52, I have got 25000 leadership + all magic/attack/leadership booster scrolls, which give me a 30/30+/30+ stat if equipped with the +7defence axe fr the quest at the dwarf land, or 40/20+/30+ otherwise with the best weapons. After applying the leadership booster, my leadership is 29000+

I lost badly in my first fight against Baal. I bring with me Giant worms(for more units that do range), brontors (for ranged attack), knights, paladins and T-rex.

I thought it was a smart make with the little worms and the brontors kept on doing the ranged attack even if my knights, paladins and T-rex are kept blocked by waves and waves of devils summoned.

Unfortunately, I ended up just beating Baal to down to less than 60% of his health and the battle goes deeply uphill with Bill's army all get swept away and my paladins and T-rexs are reduced to a number vulnerable to the "halved" ability of archdemons and "hypnosis" ability of she-devils.

Any suggestion is welcomed.

[Zhuangzi]

Okay, I've just won this exact fight so I'm sure I can help.

I think I had 32,000 leadership with Flaming Eyes, and you've got 29,000. Okay. I would get rid of all the lizard units and just use Human units. I should say here that my guys had High morale and that I had the Inquisitor's Sword which allows for 20% more Paladins. You can get all the Human units free before fighting Baal, so money isn't an issue.

Your team should be Paladins, Knights, Horsemen, Guardsmen and Archmages. You could swap the Guardsmen for something else or keep your Tirexs perhaps. For this strategy, it helps if you have the Geyser spell. I had 60 Intellect with the Wanderers scroll so yours may not be as effective.

Turn 1 cast Mass Haste and Stone Skin on something, probably the Horsemen. Turn 2 cast Stone Skin on the Paladins and Knights. Those three units are the ones that will be attacking Baal. I use Geyser whenever Baal spawns new units instead of Stone Skin. Keep casting Stone Skin until all your units have it, then switch to Divine Armor (Bill Gilbert will cast this on your troops too). Also don't forget the Archmages' Magic Shield. A unit with Stone Skin, Divine Armor and Magic Shield will take maybe 200 damage from Baal, and dish out 5000+ damage.

So you will smash Baal 3+ times a turn with your tanks. Geyser when appropriate. The only thing you want to avoid is Baal's 'flying sword' attack, and the best way to prevent this is to leave two units in a file directly in front of Baal to encourage his 'sword smash' attack. If you are trying for no losses, then you will need to preserve a stack of Scoffer Imps while you resurrect.