Teach me, expert players of Armored Princess

kcwong · #1 08-07-2010, 10:13 AM

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 · #2 08-07-2010, 01:54 PM

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 · #3 08-07-2010, 02:23 PM

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 · #4 08-07-2010, 03:38 PM

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 · #5 08-07-2010, 04:07 PM

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 · #6 08-07-2010, 04:31 PM

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 · #7 08-14-2010, 11:33 AM

No skill taken on Might tree; 1 point each to Neatness on Mind tree.

I don't have any more assassins and archmage. One more necromancer and two more cyclops are available.

I opened up Rusty, but other than snatching a EGD I can't do anything there.

Debir is cleared; Bolo has the droid hero, one big wandering stack and the map guard. Scarlet Winds has one ship hero left (the one using Evil book), the recruiter, the map guard (kited), and one huge stack guarding a banner.

I just got EGD, will have to see what it can do for me.

Among assassin, necromancer and archmage, which one would you choose?

I am thinking to stick with archmage for arcane shield, now that I have more tough stacks (was using 28 repair droids). I can't get rid of the inquisitors at this stage - I'm completely dependent on rage to get more mana. I'm already equipping all affordable mana increasing items I can find. There are more intelligence items I can get though.

Razorflame · #8 08-14-2010, 01:33 PM

that ons is easy kcwong
archmage for the arcane shield(use it on your egd and let it them the shit)

or if your rather aggresive

you can pick the necromancer
and use it to revive dead stack or make one unit not use his abilities

which both can be very handy

kcwong · #9 08-14-2010, 01:37 PM

Yeah I went with the archmage. Killed the evil book hero in Scarlet Winds, and Bolo is clear except the droid hero and the quests. Managed to kill some huge but low level stacks on Rusty by abusing the landscape and fear 2.

Now all enemies on Rusty are out of my abilities... I guess I'll return to Scarlet and try again.

Level 12 now, and I decided to go Chaos 3 first, High Magic for now is quite useless because my mana pool is so tiny (43), and Destruction 2 is not as effective.

Also I ran out of paladins... 11/13. If I can't get the map from Bolo I'll be in trouble...

Edit: Cleared Scarlet Winds... but then I have run out of easy targets. My next one would be the map guard on Bolo, but this is going to be a close one...

Zechnophobe · #10 08-14-2010, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcwong

Yeah I went with the archmage. Killed the evil book hero in Scarlet Winds, and Bolo is clear except the droid hero and the quests. Managed to kill some huge but low level stacks on Rusty by abusing the landscape and fear 2.

Now all enemies on Rusty are out of my abilities... I guess I'll return to Scarlet and try again.

Level 12 now, and I decided to go Chaos 3 first, High Magic for now is quite useless because my mana pool is so tiny (43), and Destruction 2 is not as effective.

Also I ran out of paladins... 11/13. If I can't get the map from Bolo I'll be in trouble...

Edit: Cleared Scarlet Winds... but then I have run out of easy targets. My next one would be the map guard on Bolo, but this is going to be a close one...

You should be able to take a lot of battle's on Rusty with that emerald dragon and archmages. What spells do you have? Arcane shield + green dragon + heal, for instance, will lock down just about any melee units you'll likely be facing. Throw in stone skin and/or mana spring to help further.