"Overpowered" tricks list

[bukimi]

I thought a summary of helpful tricks in one place would be a nice idea.

There are several threads I find people mentioning different strategies I never heard of.

Let's make a list of them. I will edit my post as we will add new ideas so new people will not have to look them up.
To make this list shorter put only "strongest" strategies that feel almost like cheating and make it possible to win game easily.

================================================

1. Kiting.

It is possible to steal maps, artifacts, banners and other helpful items without having to fight.
All you need to do is to make an enemy chase you and then quickly sneak behind him to take something of interest and escape (the same way).
All units defending maps seem to be immobile but they will chase us if we stand close enough. With enough reflex it is possible to make enough space to sneak in. To make it easier you should quick-save everytime the enemy moves a bit further without attacking you and loading if he manages to catch you.


2. Paladin's class ressurection (skill) abuse.

When playing a paladin character you may invest your runes into your unique skill "resurrection".
On 3rd lever it brings to live 100% of casualties of random fallen unit.
All you need to do is to send the strongest unit right into the enemy and let it fight until death. With helpful spells (stoneskin!) and other units, the unit should be able to resist until the fight ends.
Just make sure no other unit falls in the battle. If it does, ressurect it with a spell or some ability before the battle ends.
After the battle you will get ALL your precious "sacrificed" units back.


3. Guard droids with two stacks of repair droids.

You can hire some guard droids to your army. When you do that make sure you also hire repair droids.
Then divide repair droids to form two stacks (each half size of maximum leadership limit).
During the battle all droids losses can be reverted because of the repair ability of your repair droids.
As it recharges every 4 turns it may be necessary to prolong the battle several turns (even 20+ in harder battles) by letting some unharmful enemies live on the battlefield a bit longer.


4. Using troll in early game. [by MaroonMaurader]

Even if your leadership is enough only to get one troll it is still a good idea to hire it.
If there is no place you can buy him, just use one "call of colossus" wandering spell if you find one in early game.
(Save game before casting because given unit is random. To get other random unit, use some summoning item like spider egg or travel to another island.)
Fighting at night with a troll gives him full health every turn.
Just cast a stoneskin on him and watch him fight alone or help him with your archers and other spells.


5. Creating new unit with sacrifice spell

There are units that are so rare you may have problems to refill an army, but it is possible to "create" them.
You can cast a chaos magic spell "sacrifice" on a friendly unit.
It may be some summoned unit (like bears summoned by druids, demons, thorns, etc.) or a unit that is cheap to buy and easy to refill.
If the power of spell is high enough it is possible to "resurect" a healthy unit to make more units than your leadership allows.
The spell must be able to give at least the amount of health of FULL health of added unit (creating a new red dragon needs minimum 870 of health addition, etc.)


6. Emerald green dragons and invisibility spell. (advanced strategy for mage) [by clinek]

Warning: This tactic is possible ONLY with some initiative bonuses. (blue dragon as a pet companion is the best choice)

You have to have ONLY a stack of emerald dragons in your army. The bigger the better.
It is recommended to have good damaging spell and invisibility researched to 3rd level.
Higher magic skill is also quite necessary to make this tactic useful.

round 1: cast invisibility on the stack of emerald dragons. If your initiative is higher than all other enemies, you can cast some damageing spells. If not, cast battle command as your second spell. get close the enemy group then defend.
round 2: cast a spell that is less mana than what your higher magic skill allows for that will still allow you to cast a second spell. MAKE SURE YOU WAIT, DONT DEFEND. all the enemies will defend, then you either cast time back (thats only if you are going for no loss and have lost units) or some other damaging spell, then run over and use the mana drain ability of the dragon.
round 3: cast invisibility (obviously) and continue with steps 1 and 2. MAKE SURE YOU CAST BATTLE COMMAND WHEN YOU STILL HAVE ONE TURN LEFT ON IT OR NEXT ROUND THE ENEMIES WHO HAVE A HIGHER INITIAVE WILL STILL ATACK AFTER YOU DEFEND.

Link to full thread on this stategy: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=172998


7. Black knights stack only. (advanced strategy) [by Elvin and DGDobrev]

The idea is to have only a stack of black knights (no other unit in the army).
In case of losses you cast Evlin spell on nearby corpse.
On 3rd level the spell can resurrect 30% of the initial amount of units!
It is a good idea to cast armageddon in this strategy as it will hurt enemy much more as enemy has many more units.
How to get enough Black Knigths?
Get Moron Dark as a companion (available on Elona).
He can transform Knights (available in many places) into Black Knights and makes these units even stronger!
As he may loose this ability with time it may be good idea to transform some more Knights than leadership allows and stack some Black Knights in some castle (or in reserve slot) for future refilling.
You should also be aware that once you do Necromancer Meshmere's quest in Montero shafts, he will turn dwarves into Black Knights for you (as long as you refrain from killing him for a while, since he has a bounty on him).


8. Paladin (class) + Black Knights + Armageddon spell power combo. [by DGDobrev]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Play Mana/Intelligence-based Paladin, use black knights, use 3 spells: Stone Skin, Eviln and Armageddon. Use the pet dragon to transform rage to mana (so that you can cast consecutive armageddons - mind you, they are astral damage, so dragons are not a good idea) and rule any arena
Here's a link to a clip I made based on the last strategy I explained: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...nt+day+paladin

9. Using red dragons in middle game. (Especially useful for mage with higher magic skill)
I discovered how useful it is and at the same it was suggested to be added in this thread by Gorod13.

In this strategy you use ONLY a stack of red dragons. Leave all other units in castles or in reserve slots.
If you have problems finding red dragons to hire, just use first "call collossus" wandering spell you find until you get some.
They have high initiative so you should be able to cast stoneskin (level3) on them before they will be attacked.
Then you may also cast Fear (very useful in this tactic) on the most powerful stack of opponent (will not attack nor move)
When fighting just fly from one unit to another taking advantage of their low speed (no more than 2-3 units should attack you on the same turn)
If you get really low on health just call healing (that's why do NOT use black dragons)
You can also move far away every 3 turns and "shoot fire" from distance and have a healing without taking damage.
On the turn when stoneskin is going to end, you may cast it again and heal dragons in the same turn (using higher magic)
You can also use your rage to call lightning ball (using pet dragon) to make the strongest enemy unit weak enough to fight with.
(until then, it is useful to recast Fear until they are weak enough)

It gives really big advantage over slow stacks (giants, knights, etc.), stacks using fire or physical attacks only or enemy heroes casting mass-damaging spells (like geyser). I was able to clear almost all Montero using only 2 red dragons.
Warning: This trick does not work against "pure magic" enemy stacks (lots of inquisitors, etc.) as stoneskin does not give magic resistance.


10. High mana supply for mage. Warning: only for players who can accept losses.
Transmute skill required.

If you are playing in a way you have some free spaces for extra stacks it is a good idea to fill them.
Especially if you play with only one type of unit (only troll, only black knights, only red dragons, only emerald green dragons)
The trick is to get one cheap unit for every free slot.
Then, depending on the cheap units' initiative you can decide when to have them killed.
(unfortunately archers tend to kill them first so this does not work so well on enemies with lots of range-attacking stacks)
Transmute skill will give you 8, 14 or 20 of mana for every stack you lose. (depending on the level of skill)
That means even 80 free mana for getting 4 useless units killed.
Additionally, enemy uses his turn to kill them. You can also use them to have enemy retaliate on them.
Another advantage is that you can cast Evlin spell right in front of chosen (biggest) enemy stack to kill half of it and also have some bodies to resurrect your undead soldiers by the same spell.
I find this trick very powerful when casting a lot of summons in the battle...

11. Getting high mana regeneration in bosses fight.

Every kill should give you full rage, which you cannot use with your pet dragon.
You should equip yourself in "The devourer of Fury" - rage eating artifact - in bosses fights.
It eats 5 rage per turn and gives 5 mana.
You cannot use rage in these fights so it is free 5 mana/turn FOR ALL TURNS!
Also - cast "Calm rage" spell - change useless rage for lots of mana for free!

12. Suggest more power tricks, please.

[Elwin]

6. You can ressurect them with evlin spell. Stoneskin is a must.
I havent go for no loss campaign but i was able to play with only blackies on imposssible. Even on nameless/shettera while striking there just after rusty anchor !! ( dont have to say that many players would suffer badly at verona at this point)
Few hardest heroes like Vlad vegeto, or that demon in castle in Shettera were too hard but only a few. I beat for example von cracow with no loss, while hes army was like 15 times larger in case of leadership. Black Knights just owns

[bukimi]

Originally Posted by Elwin

6. You can ressurect them with evlin spell. Stoneskin is a must.

Sorry, I do not know which spell you are mentioning

Is Moron Dark necessary as a companion? (I see he is often mentioned in relation to Black Knights)

PS. I play mage impossible without kiting or save scanner. Target: finish the game at all but I have almost no losses yet

[DGDobrev]

Eviln is a Chaos spell that summons a dark cloud from a corpse that either kills living creatures or recovers a % of fallen under units that walks on it (both yours and enemy's).

Since it recovers a %, this means the more Black Knights you have, the bigger the number of recovered units.

Here's another power combo for you. Play Mana/Intelligence-based Paladin, use black knights, use 3 spells: Stone Skin, Eviln and Armageddon. Use the pet dragon to transform rage to mana (so that you can cast consecutive armageddons - mind you, they are astral damage, so dragons are not a good idea) and rule any arena

EDIT: Here's a link to a clip I made based on the last strategy I explained: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...nt+day+paladin

[bukimi]

OK. I have it under another name in my manual...

How to use it properly? When I used to play paladin I had this spell and used it only to kill enemies. (and found out it is usually quite too expensive for an unpredictable result)
I mean - how to make sure it resurrects us instead of killing the enemy?
Can Black Knights alone withstand the power of all enemy stacks?? I somehow cannot imagine that

[DGDobrev]

You should imagine that Black Knights + Stone skin + Moro Dark companion + his shard he gives you means:

1 stack BK with wicked physical resist
always retaliates
with black helmet you can recruit even more of them

Eviln is best used on a corpse, then you move your BK stack onto it, rather than attack. They will get resurrected.

EDIT: You should also be aware that once you do Necromancer Meshmere's quest in Montero shafts, he will turn dwarves into Black Knights for you (as long as you refrain from killing him for a while, since he has a bounty on him).

[Elwin]

Originally Posted by bukimi

Sorry, I do not know which spell you are mentioning

Is Moron Dark necessary as a companion? (I see he is often mentioned in relation to Black Knights)

PS. I play mage impossible without kiting or save scanner. Target: finish the game at all but I have almost no losses yet

Hes not, but he helps. If u build your hero around blackies they are just insane. Geting a splinter of darkneess from moro gives them countlesS retaliation - priceless.
BK is high atack and high defence unit but its slow and dont have very high intiative but we can change that !
Dark commander from might tree, from mind adrenaline. Adrenaline is really awesome when u play 1 stack tactics. Now hes not so slow anymore, actualy hes now very fast and more deadly. There are 2 items which can make them very high in numbers, black helmet and second is rod from misticus(forgot its name)
I build my hero more like warrior for BK while Dobrev builds more mage,

[kcwong]

Originally Posted by bukimi

5. Emerald green dragons and invisibility spell.
????????
I heard of it and that it makes a very useful combination but I do not know why and how.
????????

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=172998
The third reply by clinek

no no no. First off, you dont have to cast armageddon, you can cast any spell that you want as long as it will do some damage over time by burning/poisening them or any spell that takes a chunk of thier army out like firerain, geyser, death star, ect. Second, What you need to do before you even get into the fight is look to see what enemies you have to fight. If one of the enemies has a higher initiative than your green dragon, you must cast invisibility then battle command to raise your initiative above thiers. If your initiative is lower than almost any of the enemies, this strategy is useless. here is what you do round by round

round 1: cast invisibility. If your initiative is higher than all other enemies, you can cast some damageing spells. If not, cast battle command as your second spell. get close the enemy group then defend.

round 2: cast a spell that is less mana than what your higher magic skill allows for that will still allow you to cast a second spell. MAKE SURE YOU WAIT, DONT DEFEND. all the enemies will defend, then you either cast time back (thats only if you are going for no loss and have lost units) or some other damaging spell, then run over and use the mana drain ability of the dragon.

round 3: cast invisibility (obviously) and continue with steps 1 and 2. MAKE SURE YOU CAST BATTLE COMMAND WHEN YOU STILL HAVE ONE TURN LEFT ON IT OR NEXT ROUND THE ENEMIES WHO HAVE A HIGHER INITIAVE WILL STILL ATACK AFTER YOU DEFEND.

If you need info on how to get more initiative, let me know and ill give you some tips

[MaroonMaurader]

A list like this isn't really complete unless you add in the solo nighttime troll + stoneskin for early in the game. It's not overpowered late-game, but until the enemy stacks start being able to do 700 damage in one turn to your stoneskin troll, it is impossible to lose with it.

[bukimi]

I would REALLY want to have a troll in my army in early game but it is unobtainable so far.

Do you think using "call colossus" wandering spell for summoning ONE troll (as a mage I don't have leadership for more) is a good idea?