general tips n tricks for new players

[oody]

Here are some general tips for starting out you might find useful regardless of your army or choice to Map-kite:


------------------------------- IN BATTLE --------------------------------
Battle Tip #1) Press ALT to so you can see the order that units will move and when you mouseover an enemy unit you will be able to see how far it can move!!

Battle Tip #2) Defending and killing with retaliations seems to build more rage than killing as fast as possible.

Battle Tip #3) Slow and Fear are really really useful spells. Try slow on large scary stacks of enemy melee.

Battle Tip #4) Stone Skin and Healing are great for keeping your army alive.

Battle Tip #5) Prolong battles until round 10 by leaving a small group of archers (any ranged attacker) - at least until you have the Guardian Angel and Fire Mage/equivalent medal (see #5)

Battle Tip #6) Use as much rage and mana as you can to maximize medal progress and dragon exp:
Rage => always 3x Treasure Searcher for Treasure Hunter (exp) medal - you can get combat scrolls, wanderer scrolls, runes, and crystals too!
Rage => Use as much as you can, your dragon gets experience from using abilities, but try to end battles with plenty of rage to keep momentum!
Optional w/Concentration Talent => idle your army until your mana is full (or round 20) so you are ready for next battle!

Battle Tip #7) Traps are incredibly powerful
Spell => Trap to finish their last units. Have troops defend next to enemy archers and they almost always will move away to get a no-retaliation attack

Battle Tip # Farm Medals early and often:
Spell => (mage) Flaming Arrow for both Fire Mage and Battle Alchemy medal -until your next flaming arrow will end their final stack of archers
Spell => prolong battle and spam Stone Skin for Guardian Angel medal until round 10




------------------------------- ON THE MAP-------------------------------
Map Tip #0) Quicksave(F5) before every battle you fight, NPC you talk to, or (quest) item you use! The game creates 3 quicksave slots (brilliant) and loading back is as easy as pressing F8 if something goes awry.

Map Tip #1) Do the 'Tutorial' Test at the start. When you get the 5 Paladins, DISMISS your trashy start troops so you get 2 'free' No-Loss Victories towards the Strategy medal. Your trashy start troops will be reset at the end anyway.

Map Tip #2) At least for the first island, fill all your free slots with single inquisitors for holy rage spam. This will guarantee next to unlimited rage for treasure searching and dragon exp. For example, I could have used a troll and 4 single inquisitors for 12 casts of Holy Rage per battle!!! (wish I had thought of this earlier!)

Map Tip #3) When you have rage at the end of a battle, quickly move to the next fight so it is not 'wasted' If there are no more battles nearby, blow your rage in battle by digging up altars, making pointless walls, dragon crushing their final group, etc

Map Tip #4) When there is a difficult encounter you want to save for later, try to also leave a weaker "rage building" enemy nearby. Or see #5.

Map Tip #5) Purchase any item you see that is upgradable. These are essentially "rage building" potions that can be destroyed for crystals later on even if the stats are useless to you. You also get gold, exp, and opportunities to progress on medals during the encounters. I also purchase every rage and mana potion I see, they are very cheap and can be useful.

Map Tip #6) Try using Quest items when you find them, some of them will give you bonuses as documented elsewhere in these forums.


------------------------------ HERO TALENTS-----------------------------
Hero Tip #1) Mind Tree -> Learning 3/3 is for everyone! Glory is strong early game, but I prefer to focus mind runes into Learning.

Hero Tip #2) Might Tree -> Training and Anger 3/3 is for everyone, Rage Control is great too!

Hero Tip #3) Magic Tree -> Concentration 3/3 is great early on for Mages, but Transmute costs many fewer magic runes for Warriors and Paladins and gives ridiculous amounts of mana!