Impossible Mage, No Losses

[The Rider]

I am playing as Mage on Impossible level. At the moment I am 44 level with 46 level dragon pet. Only the Nameless Isle and Reha are left.
The game was extremly difficult until Montero. From the beggining I removed the peasants, the faerys and the dragonflies. I started with Inqusitors, Priests, Guards, Bowmen and Bears. On Verona later on I switched the Bears for Royal Snakes and the Guards for Werewolves (Werewolves do 30% more damage for their leadership. Usually for units 2-4 level the leadership is the same as the health - for melee units, and the health = leadership - 30% for archers and spellcasters. The max damage is 1/10th or 1/9th of the health, and the werewolves come with 55 health, 6-9 damage for 60 leadership, which is a pure gain, the wolves fear ability too).

I used fire arrow a lot, trap (I wanted to maximize the medal for the trap spell, which had a great influence later on) and healing. I got fire ball spell from a chest on the battlefield. From the beggining I started to invest in the defence with items and skills. The first skill I picked was glory 2 levels - I just waited for enough runes, I picked the 2 mind runes from the priest near the church on Verona, found 1 mind rune from digging, 1 from a chest and the rest I got from the level up. Than I went for chaos magic and Resistance.

I got more leadership from the 1st level of the medal for no losses. The enemies were incinerated, trapped and poisoned. The rest did the royal snakes.

On Verona I was offered the Ancient Amulet (10 magic runes after 50 battles) and on Scarlet Wind the Blade and the Paladin Banner (10 might and 10 mind runes for 50 battles). I got enough money from the digger ability of the pet dragon and because there were no losses, I didnt needed money for my army. First I bought the Ancient Amulet and later I returned for the other two artifacts.

I dont remember where exactly I found the mithirl shield(+8 defence) - it was in one cave with three chests always containing at least 2 4-5 level artifacts, but it was a great addition to my defence strategy.

On Bolo I switched the bowmen for cyclops, which was a great help (less units to heal, resurect). And on Bolo I got another lucky spell - found Ressurection from a chest on the battlefield (I couldnt believe that, this is my second replay and the last time with the Paladin I found Ressurection on Elon from the merchant on the bridge).

On Verona I switched the Priests for Demonologist, another great unit with resurrection ability and the summoning skill they have was of great help, there was no need to put my royal snakes and werewolves anymore in the middle of the battle, the cerberi and the demons did the hard work, I just used trap after trap and fire arrows and fireballs for everything. On Verona I had 2 levels of transmutation skill, so my mana was rarely empty.

Before going to Montero I replaced the werewolves with Paladins, so my army consisted from Cyclops, Inqusitors (lame damage except vs undead and demons, but can resurect), Paladins (slow, but decent damage and the second wind helped the snakes to poison more units in the first round), Demonologist, Royal Snakes (later I discovered that they are the best weapon against bosses).

Montero was pain in the ass, with all these alchemists doing mass damage, cannoneers and giants (again small mass damage, killing 0-2 units of a stack). The Paladins were the ones that have to carry on for the whole army, so I couldnt use them as strikers. My defence was around 22 on montero, my inteligence around 20 and the attack skill sucked. After the half underground was cleared I finnaly got the third level of the trap skill and that changed everything. Why? The battlefield is not very big and ussualy there are many obstacles, altars or chests. The three traps were very usefull in stopping the melee units for 3 rounds - and greatly weaking them, the traps that are placed in the beggining of the combat are much more powerfull than the spell trap. Even with the large ammount of HP the dwarves have, sometimes their stacks were halved. The dragon dive ability properly placed is a killer with all these traps. (Later in the game one trap can kill two of my red dragons, when I am not very carefull when moving them). The third trapper medal was something that made the game very very easy. The stronger armies turned into weak for my mage and the lethal into not very dangerous.

In Montero I got the first level of high magic, I got 2 levels of chaos magic, 2 levels order magic and 1 level distortion, 2 leves of Power of Spirit (+2 attack and defence) and 3 levels of Resistance. My defence skill was ~30 (even with the lame armors I found), but I invested in boots (+15% phisical resistance) and Spiked boots (+1 attack, +2 defence), the mithril shield (+8 defence), tournament helm (+3 defence, +400 leadership), Portrait of King Griffin (+5 defence, +2 griffin morale), 1 defence altar (+1 defence), steel belt (+2 defence), snake ring (+1 intelligence, later upgraded to ring of snake king + 5intelligence), novice staff (+1 intelligence, in the end of montero, upgraded to +2 intelligence). My companion was Jimmy Kraud.

At the end of Montero I realised that I made a mistake using the fire rain spell insted of fire ball or flame arrow (for some reason the fire rain doesnt increase the fire mage medal). But anyway I got plenty of medals until than - 3 levels of Grand Strategy (+1000 leadership), 1 level Headhunter (+5 rage at the beggining of the battle vs a hero), 2 levels Battle Alchemy (+20% incinaration and poison effects), 3 levels Trapper (3 traps), 1 level Dragon Slayer (+10% pet exp, one of the pirats on Anchor Island got 1 Green Dragon, so I was lucky again), 0 levels of Guardian Angel, I started to invest in this on Dersu and at the end of Elon, at the moment I got the 3 levels), 3 levels of treasure hunter (+7% more exp), 1 level of Blind rage (+1% critical), 0 levels of Illiteracy Exterminator (this usualy is changed after Umkasa and Dersu), 1 level Fire Mage, because of that mistake (+5 mana).

The game after Montero was very very easy, no real resistance, most enemies were lethal or very strong but that means nothing. The first boss I killed was the giant frog, I used fire arrows on it, using my units to kill the summoned snakes and to heal each other. The second one was the giant spider, again from the first try it was down with 0 losses. My resurection spell, paladins' resurection, inqusitors' resurection and the demonologists's resurection ability were used non-stop.

On Tekron I killed very easily the two lethal heroes, the knight and the dragon, took the dragon's cloack for 34 defence (with my Paladin this was impossible to do this immidiatly, until I got the resurection spell from Elon). I maximized the linguistic skill and started to invest in thesis skill for more intelligence. I didnt bother to take the mage companion, on Tekron I found a vial of goddess blood, so Jimmy now gives me +700 leadership. I changed the cyclops for red dragons.

On Shettera it was again very easy (again because of the traps, that stopped the demons, cerberi and executors, the dragon dive ability pushed often the demmonesses on a trap killing half of the stack). I bought the anti-demon sword, anti-dragon sword and the anti-undead sword from different stores, so I switched them when necessary.

The only time I got difficulties was when in fight against the driller, the first re-play was a dissaster, almost half of my army got killed, the second one I finished with minor losses, but the third one was a winner, I waited unitl he summoned droids, which I left for the end, killing the Driller, resurecting all my units (I used Magic Spring and resurection spells/abilities). Knowing what to do I killed Grimaldis (the evil gremlin boss) from the first time with no losses, I just waited until he summoned yellow gremlin tower, the red gremlins can harm you with spells, and the summoned units from the yellow gremlins are very weak. The Grimaldis battle was very long, maybe 25-30 turns, but at the end everything was ok.

I am now on the nameless iceland and I will switch Jimmy Kraud for Gaudi, because of his critical hits against undead and demons (very important against Baal at the end).

I will post the victory screen when I finish the game, but I have to say a mage with lots of defence, max trapper skill and the proper spells is much much powerfull than a paladin. At the moment I have ~18k leadership, on the same level with tha Paladin I got more than ~30k leadership and the battles very very hard for me. Lots of losses and pain. In Elon I found the Geyser spell which is a killer after the Ice Snake for demons or Fire Rain for everyone else. At the moment I got all the medals on max, except Blind Rage and I am not sure if I can do it, I need 5k more rage points for the third level, but if I focus all the time on the fiery grounds I can do it. I have less rage than with the Paladin, but I still use the Rage Blade (10 might runes after 50 battles, +3 attack, +15 rage) and I have 80 rage (my fiery grounds cost 80 rage), I cant cast the lava skill because it needs 86 rage.

And the last words - mage on impossible with no losses isn't impossible at all

[DGDobrev]

Good work You should be able to do it, I don't doubt that. Besides, the only battles that provide some challenge are K'tahu and Baal.

[Zhuangzi]

I'm having a go at this now myself. After the training fights and the two very weak Devilfish units on Debir, the next weakest unit was listed as Lethal! So it was necessary to do some exploring of the other islands - I don't think it'd be possible to complete this challenge otherwise. Found 5 Demonologists on Scarlet Wind which I am very happy about. I'm wondering whether they only spawn in Mage games, as I didn't see any of them in my Warrior game. Demonologists are just so awesome - not so much the drain life/heal but summoning even 1 Executioner right amidst the enemy is just beautiful. Angel Avenger works well with this for maximum carnage.

I should have mentioned that I picked the Green dragon and set to work on digging up those treasure chests every battle. With 10 rage only at this stage the fights have to be managed correctly. Currently I am using the 4 Royal Thorns that always seem to be available on Debir, Demonologists, Inquisitors, Swordsmen and Royal Snakes. I know that leadership is going to be a big problem so I bought anything that added leadership as well as two points of Glory. So now I have 1700 leadership at level 6 and Debir is clear. The other thing to keep in mind is that there is the quest on Rusty Anchor where you just pick up bottles - this should be done very early.

[DGDobrev]

Make sure to get the 50 archers/pirates/robbers to get the key to the cave in rusty anchor. The emerald green dragon is a great tank this early in the game.

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Make sure to get the 50 archers/pirates/robbers to get the key to the cave in rusty anchor. The emerald green dragon is a great tank this early in the game.

Yep, done. In fact, it's the first time I bothered to complete this quest. With that and the other quests on the first four islands that don't require fighting, I am up to 2800 leadership at level 8. Getting the leadership up is absolutely critical for a Mage, as we know. I also just did the 30th fight without loss, so I got 500 leadership from that.

Team currently hasn't been decided 100%, but currently I have:

- 2/2 Trolls
- 1/1 Emerald Dragon
- 5/11 Demonologists (no more to be found)
- 7/11 Paladins (same)
- 4/7 Royal Thorns (same)
- 46 Royal Snakes
- 28 Inquisitors

I have the Snake boots so I'll definitely be using the Royal Snakes, and the Paladins and Inquisitors, and I'm thinking of maybe going with two tanks for now in the Emerald Dragons AND Trolls. Bad idea? I will need to clear out Scarlet Wind and Bolo with these guys if possible. Intellect is up to 15 already and I've got 2 points in all schools of magic, so spells are looking okay.

[DGDobrev]

As a mage, especially if you're going for no-loss, tough units are mandatory. So I completely support the idea of having both Emerald dragons and Trolls. Emerald dragons do some great work in improving the trap medal as well - simply put the trap in advance, bite something (the bite must not kill it) and draw it to the square with the trap, so that the trap can kill it safely.

You doing great, the few strating islands should be a snap right now

[The Rider]

Actually many units that are described as lethal or invincible for the mage are the same as very strong or strong for the warrior, so don't worry if you see that kind of troops, always look at the numbers, not at the description. I killed that stack near the devil fishes just before leaving Debir and it wasn't so hard (right after I did the first level of Grand Strategy medal for more leadership and the second level of glory).

[Zhuangzi]

It was very amusing for me, as I left Debir with leadership of 140 which made everything lethal, and returned with over 600. Suddenly a LOT of enemies were running away from me! Everything in Debir was weaker. Leadership isn't everything, but it is almost everything.

[Zhuangzi]

Made it to 50 fights without loss, and the first level of Trapper in the same fight. I haven't gone for Trapper before but I thought it would be good for a Mage. With level 2 Distortion, Intellect of 15 and Destruction 1, plus the 25% bonus for the first Trapper medal, my traps are doing 560-840 damage. Not bad for level 11.

I got my leadership up to 3800 by this stage, but I've got a bit of a problem with proceeding now. I've been around the first four islands but I haven't got the Verona map yet. Presumably the easiest guardian is the one on Scarlet Wind, but he's got about 50 Assassins and my Resurrection power is puny with only 7 Paladins and 28 Inquisitors. I find that against Assassins my units are often pinned to the back of the map so that the Assassins can't use their backstab ability. I tried to kite one of the maps on Bolo or Rusty Anchor but no such luck so far.

[DGDobrev]

They are tough to kite... Try kiting the one on Scarlet. You should be also aware that on Rusty Anchor, the stack in the graveyard that's guarding the verona map is sometimes easier than the one on Scarlet, so you may as well try that one out as well.