Phantom & Royal Snakes combo

[kadrzys]

I just came out with an idea.. There's a way to use Royal Snakes without being attacked in melee for about 3 rounds. And it's a BOMB. I use them that way and it works fine. I just got phantom spell and tried to combine it with this strat. but I'm a Warrior and can't upgrade fast Phantom up to lvl 3
43% it's a lethal thing.. Think about it:
-frog wife
-boots which give +1 speed and initiative to snakes (I got them in my game, without this it should work too)
-bless spell
-phantom spell
that's 4 or 3 (without bless spell) ingredients of this lethal (i think so) tactic.
Simply you use sorched earth tactic (mentioned by sector24 in Beating the game with no losses (Paladin) topic) but meanwhile you cast phantom on your snakes (once per turn as Pala and Warrior, two times as Mage). Of course mana pool is a limitation but there are ways to recover it (like +3 mana per turn belt and high concetration and Magic Spring). Anyone finds it good? worth trying out (asking because of priceless time needed to make it working like a real lethal bomb).

[Zhuangzi]

Personally I used Phantom + Horsemen a lot in my first game, and now I would use Magic Spring on the phantomed stack if I had Higher Magic. Phantom is also great for Griffins.

IMO Horsemen, Griffins and Roysl Snakes are among the best melee units in the game.

Phantom + Kamikaze + Griffins is also a great trick if you have Distortion 3 and Chaos 3. Phantom the Griffins and send em in to battle. Watch them retaliate and soak up hits from the enemy. If you are lucky they will last until turn 2, so Kamikaze them and BOOM! You've severely weakened the enemy without losing a single troop (unless the enemy has ranged units). If you have Higher Magic you can cast Phantom and Kamikaze on turn 1. This is basically a 'terrorist' strategy.

I love this game because it rewards intelligent and strategic thinking. Massive fun to be had!

[fld88]

Another strategy that works well for some battles is to cast Target on your phantom copy of Royal Snakes. This can be especially good if you can cast twice in the beginning.

[Namel]

Griffins are my favourite with phantom. Their infinite retaliation makes them awesome for that. Instead of kamikaze I recommend magic spring. With that you get all your mana back when 5 enemies hit the phantom.

[billythegreat]

I also find amazing those red shirt pirates ( salt dogs i think) with the special fury attack , striking 3 stacks at once + Mirabella wife + Jolly Roger flag + pirate belt ( + 5 attack of pirates) = love . Use phantom on pirates and get another stack that can attack 3 stacks at once !!.Pirates are cheap and come in unlimited supply in western freedom islands at brotherhood of the coast and at the northern castle.

round 1 teleport( or second level of tactics + mass haste) pirates on enemy line and 3 stacks are gone or severely maimed . Horseman charge another stack, mages cast shield on horseman , use rage armor on pirates, inquisitors bless the pirates and archers mop something.Having the + 3 initiative talent makes you always strike first, even before dragons.

In round 2 phantom pirates and mop up the rest of the enemies.

[kadrzys]

well i use different armies in different regions, now I'm into snakes and those sea dogs maniacs (I'm on IoF). As billythegreat wrote they're unlimited from brotherhood and their running+slash abilities make them just WOW. But they die pretty easy (in difference to snake's survivality) so I decided to try phantomise snakes and cast glot armor on sea dogs. Nice tricks tough. Especially first round cast teleport on sea dogs then run to some big stacks (for example ranged units and two other), cast glot armor on sea dogs and slash the weakest enemy (weakest retaliation=longer glot armor). Works just fine. And I'm trying to mix it with Phantom on snakes. Don't have jolly roger flag and pirate belt and mirabella tough :/ and also I love snake bastards so I'm more into buffing snakes than sea dogs (I think snakes will be handy after IoF and sea dogs not really).
I would love to use more Horsemen and Griffins but I don't have places to buy them and don't have sacrifice spell :/

[lethul]

Originally Posted by kadrzys

I just came out with an idea.. There's a way to use Royal Snakes without being attacked in melee for about 3 rounds. And it's a BOMB. I use them that way and it works fine. I just got phantom spell and tried to combine it with this strat. but I'm a Warrior and can't upgrade fast Phantom up to lvl 3
43% it's a lethal thing.. Think about it:
-frog wife
-boots which give +1 speed and initiative to snakes (I got them in my game, without this it should work too)
-bless spell
-phantom spell
that's 4 or 3 (without bless spell) ingredients of this lethal (i think so) tactic.
Simply you use sorched earth tactic (mentioned by sector24 in Beating the game with no losses (Paladin) topic) but meanwhile you cast phantom on your snakes (once per turn as Pala and Warrior, two times as Mage). Of course mana pool is a limitation but there are ways to recover it (like +3 mana per turn belt and high concetration and Magic Spring). Anyone finds it good? worth trying out (asking because of priceless time needed to make it working like a real lethal bomb).

Might add the Snake Ring too

[kadrzys]

if I got any
maybe something which gave % bonus to attack for animals (I don't know such an item)

btw I find phantom spell funny as hell while sailing around IoF. I've got archmages and evil beholders in my army and by phantomise them I can use their shield and hypnotise abilite more than once in battle and it makes my squad more extensible than I imagined. I use sometimes fast run strat with sea dogs and can cast on them archmage shield about three times (when almost all enemy units hit them) or I can hypnotise with evil beholders more than once some annoying stack of ranged unit or even a single emerald dragon of one giant hero I think I got the most universal squad for this land now and I've got a lot of fun.