Teach me, expert players of Armored Princess

[kcwong]

I'm trying to get a no-loss mage @ impossible... all previous attempts failed.

- In the first I caved and accepted a battle cannot be done without loss
- The second I failed by digging not enough (had to erect walls to save my units), and spending on the wrong units (assassin and archmage, which came at limited supply at this point, leaving not enough for paladins)

In my current game, I have a bit over 15K, but I'm at a loss about which stack to fight next.

Here's some notes about this game:
- I don't want to use save/reload to kite maps (I am not skillful enough anyway)
- I almost cleared Debir, leaving only the heroes. My tiny stack of inquisitors is not sufficient to deal with the fire arrow spell twice, or poison skull once.
- I did all I could on Scarlet Winds.
- On Bolo I managed to kite to the cave once, and kite the amulet inside too. But there's a stack of polar bears that will travel all the way down the narrow passageway.
- On Bolo I had a very hard time fighting anything - barbarians and berserkers travel fast and are too numerous.
- I wonder if getting some attack/defense artifact would help? I only have enough gold to get a few points...

An uploaded save is worth a thousand words... so I uploaded it to Box.net (no need to register, no waiting in queue, just click and download):
Save game

Would you take a look at my save game and give me some hints? Thank you!

[jynki]

did you actually read the post right above yours..? It has great advices on how to do no loss as a mage on impossible.
after only 2 days of getting to know the game (and reading guides) i started my impossible mage, currently done all major quests on all islands except reha and sheterra and gotten the last stone without ever losing a single unit, and its actually ridicilously easy once you know what to do. but i really dont understand how you think you should be able to do a no loss run on impossible without even reading guides..

and I do think that you need to learn map kiting to get free leadership, units and items from higher lvl islands, or i think your game will be very slow having almost equal strenght as your opponents all the time

[kcwong]

I refuse to kite for maps - not that save/reload trick. I see it as an exploit and I won't use it. If I do that I might as well give myself 100 dragons, or spend my time elsewhere.

I'm looking for suggestions, not general directions. I've done no loss on all other difficulties, so I already know those.

I uploaded my save game because I want other people to take a look, to be able to give concrete, solid, suggestions. Battlefield tactics against those stacks I couldn't overcome. Pointing out the skills I chose isn't ideal, etc.

Load the save, and try beating the stack of assassins in front. If you can, tell me how (and if you reload for lucky AI decisions). Or what other preparations you did to kill it without loss.

Or load the save, and fetch the amulet from Bolo. Tell me how you deal with the roaming stacks (that polar bear that will travel all the way down the mine entrance) that I cannot escape from.

[jynki]

dude you can not compare givings yourself 100 dragons which is cheating to kite maps which is playing by game mechanics, and thus not cheating?

[kcwong]

If it's doing it in one go, no pause-save-reload, then I'm okay with it. In fact I already said I kite the amulet from the mines on Bolo.

But kiting maps cannot be done that way - not for people without supernatural reflexes. The map guards only move with you are extremely close, and pause-save-reload is how people do it. Hence I consider it cheating. Not to mention extremely tedious, which is why I said not worth doing.

Now let's go back to waiting for someone to take a look at the uploaded save game, shall we?

[jynki]

and how can save/reload not be playing by game mechanics? to save/reload is a very fundamental game mechanic so ofcourse that´s not cheating just because you have set a limit too how many times you think one should be allowed to save/reload at a given time ?

[kcwong]

Please stop arguing. That's not the point of my thread.

[impy]

I took a look at your save. You're lucky I'm having some stomach problems so i'm stuck at home

First, about your character:
1) do not invest in transmute skill too early. You noticed yourself it wiped out your might runes, which are always in short supply for mage.
2) investing in wisdom gives only 6 mana, leave it for lot later. You want to pump up important skills first as a mage- chaos and/or distorsion magic.
3) do not invest in glory either. Again, you need the runes for magic skills.
4) i see you had trap spell available but did not buy/use it. No loss on impossible without kiting is difficult especially at the beginning, you have to take every little help game has to offer. Fights in Debir are easy, surely you could have squeezed some traps in? Getting it to at least level 2 means slowing down enemies+damage. The same goes for casting stone skin and getting the Guardian medal.
5) definitely take 4 archmagi from tower in Scarlet. They're sturdy, ranged, can push the enemies back, magic shield ability, chance to lower speed, help with guardian medal... as a replacement for archers.
6) you only have one unit which can resurrect, so you cannot afford to lose much and of one type of unit only. Swordsmen will have to go. replace with polar beers from Bolo
7) you're spending crystals on spells you will never use as mage- nature call, guardian angel, dragon arrows... save crystals
as a mage you only chance at the start is ranged damage, spell damage, no retaliation damage. So preferably no melee units apart from snakes or very sturdy ones - reason why swordmen have to go
9) fear is a great spell. therefore you need to remove units level 1-2 from your army - reason why archers have to go.

As a mage you have to choose which way to go and specialize. Distorsion and buffing/debuffing enemies? Then go for distorsion 2 quickly, keep casting slow, fear, dragon kick back, send summoned thorns forward with archmagi magic shield to occupy the enemy, and shoot. or Spell damage. Go for chaos 2 fast = stronger spells, longer fear spell, again attack from the distance.

Hmm, with you current state of affairs it is not exactly brilliant. Get +1int headgear from debir underground. go to bolo and collect unguarded rusty anchor map from in front of erica tent, you only have to avoid those barbarians by the boat, if you wait for the right moment. On rusty you will find paladins in the tavern...
good luck!

[mare911]

I tried save you attached above. Your army composition was pretty weak and hero slots were empty.
1st I equipped some +1 items which provided significant boost to your setup
2nd You didnt bought trap spell on Debir effectively crippling your chance of acquiring trapper medal (later in game enemies are harder to kill with a trap)
3rd I changed units for better survivability in this stage of game (since its no loss). I decided to make droids team (2 x repair + guard) mixed with palas + royal snakes. Droids are designated to be self ressing tanks, snakes are dmg dealers and palas are tank/ress/utility, depending on situation.

To gain access to all of this i set sail to Bolo and bought droids from the dwarf guy in front of the cave. Then i kited Droid boss in cave (since you considered this kosher ) to get paladins later.
After this i cleared rest of Debir (3-4 miniboss fights) to gain money i lost on droids and eventually bought paladins.
For your convenience i cleared few patrols on Bolo to secure path to droid guy (btw i picked up unguarded Rusty Anchor map there )

All fights were no loss ofc

P.S. I uploaded finished save below
P.P.S. Lastly i killed assassins stack you mentioned - it was super easy

[kcwong]

Thank you very much, Impy and mare911.

About glory:
I have always considered getting glory to be very important - as a mage I have very little leadership to start with already. On normal/hard that was sufficient for me to get more offensive and healing power to make my way through. Not good enough for impossible though, as my situation clearly demonstrated.

About empty item slots:
I'll read the info thread again, this time really get into the maths. I was skeptical about how good are +1/+2 to attack/defense stats.

About trap spell:
In my previous mage game I got all the trap medals - I didn't find it too useful back then, to be honest. I must cast it against natural obstacles, or the AIs will just run right around it, and still the trap will only delay them for one turn while blocking me from casting other spells. I'll try combining it with a small army and dragon wall.

About skill focus:
Since equipping some +1/+2 attack/defense artifacts did the trick, that means I was wrong not getting a level of the might skills.

Thanks again. I'll take a look at the save you uploaded, mare911, and compare the item/army config against mine. Then I'll restart - my skill choices are a mess!