Surviving on Impossible

[Zhuangzi]

Fireball is very useful early - helps to minimise losses, but it quickly loses its effectiveness. You need to stay above the 'difficulty curve' in this game by constantly increasing the damage you can deliver.

Freedom Isles was actually the easiest part of the game for me this time because I was ahead of the difficulty curve (even on Impossible) at level 9. This was due to finding Ice Snake, having prioritised Chaos 3, and having 15 Intellect.

My game is plodding along at level 21 now. I had left a few hard fights in Kordar when I started on Ellinia, but I decided that I needed Xeona. I had used Feanora for the whole game due to her very useful children, but it was getting to the stage where I had some items I wanted to equip, and Xeona is the best for this IMO. I also found that my team of Royal Thorns/Shamans/Royal Snakes/Griffins/Demonesses was losing effectiveness. There were a lot of big stacks (Very Strong or higher) in Great Forest that looked like I might start to struggle with.

So off to Demonis, before which I cleared out just about everything in Kordar (Underground Sea etc) as well as the first 'double fight.' This time I had a lot of trouble with the fight against Xeona. I guess level 19 is a bit early for this, and on Impossible she has massive stacks (like a stack of 400 Cerebus - ouch) I had to reload and go get Kerus's sword first, which I got from completing the Ultrax world quest (well, I still had to pay for it). Interestingly, I noticed that Griffins were really seeming to lose their damage power, so I traded them out and went for an all demon team (I don't have tolerance).

Having whipped Xeona the second time, I stocked up on demons (Demons, Cerebus, Demoness, Scoffer Imp, Imp - couldn't find any Archdemons) and headed back to Ellinia to clear that out. I still can't find Fire Rain which is annoying, but I am having fun with Demon Portals and Geyser. I've got two Archmage's Staffs again (5 Int each), one which was an upgraded Disciples Staff, and the other which I got from clearing the Magic Range. So my Int is 27 now. I want to get it above 30 and max out Higher Magic soon. But I need Fire Rain - that's the best direct damage spell in the game IMO (except Armageddon, but I don't like hitting my own units).

[Eldritch]

Freedom Isles was actually the easiest part of the game for me this time because I was ahead of the difficulty curve (even on Impossible) at level 9. This was due to finding Ice Snake, having prioritised Chaos 3, and having 15 Intellect.

Well good for you then I guess if you had got in a similar situation in your impossible game like me;

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...6450#post56450

Then your impossible game should have got REAL impossible... like, "unable to progress" impossible. Srsly, this is my first playthrough on hard difficulty and I'm level 15 now and searched every nook n' crevice on the isles and most parts of kordar AND I'm still stuck with the fireball. All the "randomized" scrolls, ALL of them turned out to be either the book of fail or the sacrifice which is useful but not so useful on its own. Or the incredibly lame "kamikaze" which is just flat out a product of bad game design. Who'd even use that s**t?

So, as you can see... My "hard" game just became "almost impossible" either because of bad game design (extremely imbalanced randomization) or just really s**t luck. *jinxed*

Oh well.. at least I got a ridiculous 27 intellect now which makes even the fireball utterly devastating..

[Eldritch]

A good idea for surviving on impossible could be the extensive usage of sacrifice to get back all your heavy losses instead of actually buying them back which makes you lose money and precious limited stacks of valuable creatures (e.g. royal snakes). All you have to do is to leave some weak mob alive as a controlled environment to do your thing and either hypno-sacrifice the enemy or buy cheap ass infinite "horde" critters and regularly sacrifice the crap out of them to either replenish losses or actually create full stacks of otherwise unavailable creatures. Like creating a full stack of horsemen early in the game as soon as you get sacrifice by luring out the huge mob guarding them through the pathfinding bug and making a full stack out of the mere 6 horsemen in the tent later. Also through sacrifice it is almost impossible to actually "dry out" a certain valuable creature's stacks again like the royal snakes. As long as you got at least one remaining specimen alive and kicking, they're saved from extinction!

Maybe one could more easily tolerate the aftermath of critical battles with extreme casualties on impossible with the miracle of sacrifice!!! Sacrifice... don't leave home without it! Especially if leaving the home under an impossible difficulty setting.

[BobbRobb]

Originally Posted by Eldritch

A good idea for surviving on impossible could be the extensive usage of sacrifice to get back all your heavy losses instead of actually buying them back which makes you lose money and precious limited stacks of valuable creatures (e.g. royal snakes). All you have to do is to leave some weak mob alive as a controlled environment to do your thing and either hypno-sacrifice the enemy or buy cheap ass infinite "horde" critters and regularly sacrifice the crap out of them to either replenish losses or actually create full stacks of otherwise unavailable creatures. Like creating a full stack of horsemen early in the game as soon as you get sacrifice by luring out the huge mob guarding them through the pathfinding bug and making a full stack out of the mere 6 horsemen in the tent later. Also through sacrifice it is almost impossible to actually "dry out" a certain valuable creature's stacks again like the royal snakes. As long as you got at least one remaining specimen alive and kicking, they're saved from extinction!

Maybe one could more easily tolerate the aftermath of critical battles with extreme casualties on impossible with the miracle of sacrifice!!! Sacrifice... don't leave home without it! Especially if leaving the home under an impossible difficulty setting.

The only problem there is actually getting the sacrifice spell. If you get lucky you can find it early in the game but so far on my mage I'm already lvl 17 (impossible) and haven't found it anywhere. It was hard for me to keep down losses because I also never found Resurrect and the only place selling inquisitors had just about 60 of them.

[Desperx]

Just finished impossible as mage. From begining i used fear, fireball, royal snakes and other snakes with frog wife and at lvl 9 arrived on freedom islands and clear all there.

I was really unlucky with ice snake or fire rain so i decided to rush for elven islands. I did not kill anything in Kordar. So at lvl 14 terrible battle vs castle in taron mines.

Finaly elven lands so i found ice snake scroll somewhere in the middle while sneaking even lands of death. I found fire rain in guarded castle thx dryads and sprites mostly. All enemies were overpower or impossible after then fight match or strong party was pretty easy. At 22 lvl battle vs karador castle was really hard. Then i went to clear Kordar, mines and Demonis and everything else

Good spells: fear, slow, sheep, blind, magic spring, phantom, stone skin, doom, magic shackles, ice snake, fire rain and flaming arrow.

Good units: royal snakes, marauders, priests vs undeads, shamans, unicorns, sprites, dryads, elven archers, green red black dragons and all demons. Most time 3 dragons and archers or unicorns.

Wife feanora all the time with one 10 mana child just triyed one for my luck and still better then scrolls

Tactic:
Toughest main quest battles defending in corner and nuking by spells.
Other challanges i prefered cc meele such as sheep and doom then focused by 3 dragons slowing rest and nuking if possible.
Phantomed dryads can makes 12 turns all 1-3 lvl crazy stacks sleeping. Also easy way using higher lvls units and fear all lower still good at the end vs 1800 goblins in one stack etc.

Nice challange at all. Id like to see yours records and story

[bman654]

What is the pathfinding bug with the horsemen tent? I can usually get to the tent by doing some quick dodging but don't know the bug.

[Zhuangzi]

I think we just mean 'pathfinding exploit' bman, i.e. the unit doesn't follow you around to the side.

Fire Rain has got to be the best direct damage spell in the game, and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE this time. So, after finishing the Pyramid - King Fandor's obelisks quest I traded the map in at the Mage's Tower in Verlon Forest. This seems to work by giving you the three 'best' spells you don't already have. Lucky for me, Fire Rain was among these.

30 or higher Intellect + Higher Magic 3 + Chaos 3 + Destroyer 3 + Fire Rain + 120 Mana = Win

It's pretty simple - you use Fire Rain twice a turn on turns 1-3 and avoid the enemy. If the fight lasts until turn 4, there isn't much left to fight. Only downside to Fire Rain is it's not much good against Dragons.

I'm up to level 23 now and I've just defeated Karador. This time it was absurdly easy, which is a disappointment because I recall this being just about the hardest fight in the game. I always seem to go for Xeona as my final wife but maybe I should go for the Elf wife instead, because I seem to have the best luck with Elves in the end. My demon team actually didn't last very long in Ellinia, but this team is extremely powerful:

Leadership 15,000

Sprites - 1800
Hunters - 130
Elves - 250
Dryads - 700
Black Dragons - 6

The only reason I am using Black Dragons is because there are NO Lake Fairies anywhere in Ellinia, which is bizarre. Anyway, with Anga's Ring equipped Lake Faires, Dryads and Sprites are probably the most overpowered units in the game. Massive movement, no retaliation, and massive damage. Plus Dryads can put things to sleep. Anyway, my stack of 1800 Sprites will sometimes do up to 18,000 damage in a single hit if they score a critical (presumably 10 damage per unit). This is insane, and I don't think any other unit in the game can do damage like this. Can it?

[alon]

Originally Posted by BobbRobb

The only problem there is actually getting the sacrifice spell. If you get lucky you can find it early in the game but so far on my mage I'm already lvl 17 (impossible) and haven't found it anywhere. It was hard for me to keep down losses because I also never found Resurrect and the only place selling inquisitors had just about 60 of them.

My experience exactly.
And I got so depressed not getting Sacrifice that I returned and continued where I left off with my Normal Game.

Now I just read that there might be a little cheat that will give you just 1 single spell (instead of that awful one that gives you the full book). hmm.

[BobbRobb]

Originally Posted by alon

My experience exactly.
And I got so depressed not getting Sacrifice that I returned and continued where I left off with my Normal Game.

Now I just read that there might be a little cheat that will give you just 1 single spell (instead of that awful one that gives you the full book). hmm.

I would gladly use that cheat to get myself the sacrifice spell, if you know it please share it.

[Eldritch]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

So, after finishing the Pyramid - King Fandor's obelisks quest I traded the map in at the Mage's Tower in Verlon Forest. This seems to work by giving you the three 'best' spells you don't already have. Lucky for me, Fire Rain was among these.

So does this basically mean if I already have Armageddon, I'm p. much guaranteed to get Fire Rain? There's no visible tier/level descriptions of spells and that's probably why people like me keep getting for example the book of fail instead of ice snake because they're somehow ridiculously considered the same tier.. Armageddon sounds like the "best" one even though I agree Fire Rain is superior.

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Anyway, with Anga's Ring equipped Lake Faires, Dryads and Sprites are probably the most overpowered units in the game. Massive movement, no retaliation, and massive damage. Plus Dryads can put things to sleep. Anyway, my stack of 1800 Sprites will sometimes do up to 18,000 damage in a single hit if they score a critical (presumably 10 damage per unit). This is insane, and I don't think any other unit in the game can do damage like this. Can it?

And because sprites are one of your default starter units along with the peasants and the lake dragonflies, as soon as you get anga's ring after the cursed pirate quest you can garrison all your troops in castles and lose/retreat a battle with no army and after ya get the default sprites you can just create a full stack out of them using sacrifice. Seems like a nice way of getting the buffed up sprites of doom earlier before getting them in Ellinia. I think I should try that now. There was even an item for sale in the 'isles in my game which gave all elves +1 initiative. That way with the sprites I'll have a unit with an extremely high initiative which is vital for a mage to nuke everything before anyone starts movin'/shootin' !!! The best I got before was the horsemen.