Can't defeat Bagud!

[Openingknight]

I have a problem....I'm a level 29 Paladin and I can't proceed any further without defeating the Giant Orc Bagud. Anyone got any ideas?

I've completed everything else on the map, there is nothing more for me to do or fight so I can't get anymore experience or leadership to get more troops!

I just can't defeat Bagud without more troops...I've tried different types of troops but I just need more whatever combination I use! Am I missing something? It seems that this game doesn't re-spawn, so it seems like I'm stuck.

I don't want to "cheat" and give my hero more leadership, but it looks like after hours of game play there is nothing else I can do.

[Ryastar]

In order to help most effectively, I need more information, namely what your basic stats are (att/def/int/ldr/rage/mana), what skills you have in the might and magic skill trees, what troop combos you have tried, a rough idea of his army, what spells you have available (mostly talking about distortion and order spells, only mages can really use chaos spells effectively), and finally, the cost and target range of the timeback rage ability of reaper's.

Don't despair, unless you have royally screwed yourself over in some way (e.g. by never having taken leadership upgrades at levelups so you have less than 20k leadership, or not buying/using items etc.), there has to be a way to win the battle with a good application of strategy and the right combo of troops, spells, and rage abilities

[homm3megejas]

I suggest to get in your armee inquisitors, emerald dragons, dryad (with anga's ruby),... and whatever else with good kiling ratio.
Fight: 1 round: use lullaby with dryads, as rage you should use ice thorns to protect your ranged units, for spell may will use mass magic shackles, if have skeleton archers, then dragon arrows, or traps with emerald target capture,... kill ogres and shamans ASAP, don't touch lvl 1-3 enemies even if they are teleported 2 round: wait with emeralds (if no traps) and dryads, continue to destroy ogre's and shamans, if you waited with emerald, then use mana source, to regain some mana, in dryads turn use time back to recover the most damaged your units. 3 round: phantom dryads, use sleep with phantom, continue killing ogres and shamans. 4 round: wait with emeralds (if you haven't in round 2), destroy some ogres and shamans, ressurect losses (you are a paladin, so you start with this spell scroll), for dragons losses, use inquisitors ressurection with gift, or sacrifice something and time back. 5 round: use sleep with dryads, ogres now should be dead, also shamans too quick killed, continue to ressurection killed allies.
For next: ressurect your losses, every 1,5,9,... round use sleep with dryads, every 3,7,11,... round phantom dryads and ues sleep with them. When all enemy ogres and shamans are killed, don't rush to hit lvl 1-3 enemies! Instead, every 4,6,8,... round wait with some units and beginn to kill after enemies turns (prefer shooting, or with no ret., so no losses), with emeralds when possible, in the end of turn use mana source. Continue so, until Bagud is killed and your units are restored. Hope, that's help.

[Openingknight]

Thanks for your help. My stats are:

Attack 10
Defense 25
Rage 67 (0 at start of battle)
Mana 91
Intellect 10

Leadership is 22,400

I have most order spells at level 3, and most distortion at level 1

My "Time back" works on level 1-3 creatures

The only troop affecting artifact I have is "knight boots" which give +5 defense to horsemen, swordsmen, knights etc. Other artifacts affect any units with attck/defense bonuses.

[Elwin]

I wonder how it became that you have so low leadership and so low stats ..
10 atack at end game for mage ok but paladin? My was 28 atack, 25 def, 12 int and 25k leadership thats way higher than your and actualy my stats are low could be much higher since i didnt get skull of death on this game.
I think your items might be not good. Are you sure thats the best items you could get? I doubt it but if so you are really unlucky, and whats your wife?
Low timeback is bad also but its not your fault i had same at my first game.
First what come on my mind would be some nice guaranteed items like dragon slayer sword ( +5 attack +50% dmg to dragons), you can get it by doing level 30 tournament in greenwort, also kerus sword (3 attack 3 int) in demonis, one of road architects should have it, either the one with ultrax quest either that one linked with isharra's quest

The only troop affecting artifact I have is "knight boots" which give +5 defense to horsemen, swordsmen, knights etc. Other artifacts affect any units with attck/defense bonuses.

Anga's ruby is the item affecting troops also ( +3 morale for females)and its guaranteed, you get it after doing one of quest in eastenr islands

And hmm distortion 1 only at end game? we are talking about which difficulty level? easy, normal? Higher i doubt i cant imagine completing demonis without mass magic shackles ..

[Vulture]

Originally Posted by Openingknight

Thanks for your help. My stats are:

Attack 10
Defense 25
Rage 67 (0 at start of battle)
Mana 91
Intellect 10

Leadership is 22,400

I have most order spells at level 3, and most distortion at level 1

My "Time back" works on level 1-3 creatures

Ok, the problem here is pretty obvious. You need way more attack. I don't know how you managed to rech 29 aquiring only 10 attack even with items but I am 100% sure that you can re-arrange some items to go at least towards 20 attack. Sacrifice Defense for it. The same goes with intellect. Even a paladin, who royally sucks at casting/spellpower can handle Intellect way more effectively than defense. See it that way: what is the best way to avoid taking a beating ? Easy as this: hit as hard as you can and leave nothing or few to retaliate. Stacking Defense is very ineffective and it doesn't help a lot considering the fact what you're losing, i.e. atk/int. So that's the most important point here. Try to get at least 20 atk and 15 int and lower defense to say 10. I know there are items available, you're practically through the game and almost every shop unlocked.

The time back range of course limits you choice of troops to time back effectively. But to help you I need to know what troops you are using the most (I know you've said you've tried many but you should have found at least a rough setup of faves).

Other questions that need to be answered (and don't kill me if they exceed your knowledge of the game, since I don't know you :> )
Are you married ? If yes, to whom ?
Does your wife have kids ?
As Ryastar already asked you to tell us: what skills did you take in the might and mind tree (since these 2 are the key to the paladin)

As for the distortion magic level 1. Distortion Magic is the strongest CC magic in the game and no class can afford going without disto3 in late game. Of course, this is my view on the game and my personal playing style. Spells like Magic Spring, Target, Magic Shackles (one of the most important spells in late game for a pal especially) are inevitable. They need to be maxed out asap. I hope you can somehow fix that with buying runes at Castle Bogacho. otherwise you have a big disadvantage here, especially against orcish troops. Shamans and Catapults turn absolutely useless being magic shackeled (lvl 3 = mass for 3 turns). If they're not they'll screw any of your defensive strategies for avoiding archer/support losses.

€dit: to confirm Elwin here. I would say that any game is completable with the guaranteed items. It's no cup of tea relying only on these (in cases of very very bad luck) nut with time back, ressurrection, sacrifice, disto3 and given items you can beat any game. You cannot lose unless impossible game diff. You can perform bad and take losses but you can't lose. So the tournament sword, and/or (depending on weapon slots on the wife) kerus sword will give 8 attack together. And you don't have 2 atk base, do you? So more than 10 is granted. Anga's ruby not only gives 3 morale to females, it also gives speed, atk, def and most importantly INIT. In a game not filled up with the finest of random items this IS the strongest one you will have and it's crucial to use it.

[Elwin]

Oh you write completly that i have on my mind vulture i realy wonder how he get so far without disto3 ^^ U made one little mistake, shackes are 2 rounds alaways. 3 turn or more cames if your int is higher than 15

[Vulture]

Oh, I didn't realize the additional turn derives from the int. Didn't pay attention to it. The moment I upgraded shackle to 2 and 3 was the moment when I already hat 15+ Int so I didn't notice although the tooltip of INT displays exactly what you say. Thanks for the correction here :>

[guciomir]

a nice strategy is to use cerbers + demonesses with a time back support. It worked very nice with Bagud for me. As I remember cerbers are lvl 3 so they work with your low level time back rage.
If you have onslaught ability than you can:
- use ladies ability and switch cerbers with some enemy unit
- cast lvl 3 bless spell
- attack with cerbers 3 enemy units at once
- use some rage of your choice
- destroy enemy unit that is close to your melee forces
- attack with range units
- cerbers will counterattack and hit 2-3 enemy units
- end turn
during next turn use time back on cerbers (after they attack and after they counterattack)
other hints:
- use better equipment as everyone suggest (swords, anga etc)
- wait with your spells so you can dispel any hipnotize that bagud loves to use

[Openingknight]

My might and mind trees are fully developed for all combat relevant attributes. I finally managed to beat Bagud by trying different spell combinations and relying on luck with critical hits (and less luck for the opponent) a victory dropped out in the end! Believe it or not, I finally defeated him with a troop of Horsemen, Knights, Swordsmen, Inquisitors and Elves!!

As a Paladin, ofensive spells aren't that great and spell use is mainly countering spells cast on my troops.

I like to play the game with just one type creature, i.e all elves or humans or orcs etc. but I am now in the position where I stand absolutely no chance of defeating Haas.

I think this is where the game is flawed. It is clearly possible to get to this stage of the game having completed all the quests and beaten all the wandering monsters and still have insufficient stats to finish! As for artifacts, I got a surprising number that raised intellect or mana, but very few to help with attack. I guess this is due to the randomness of the the game.

I hope the new game gives us the chance to battle some higher level groups so that it's possible to level up if need be. Re-spawning after a period of time would help with this, or some more complex quests that give more experience....let's be honest, the quests in this game are pretty basic and don't take much in the way of intellect to complete!