Orcs on the March thread

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Okay, you definitely need Paladins (the unit). There's a cool trick that you might not be aware of; you can get the first stone on Bolo without having to fight at all. You will need to get into the underground cavern with the droids, click on the head droid that you are supposed to defeat for the stone. He'll attack - you run away. Kite around him and get the item which you return to the place on Debir for the stone. It's an amulet and you can use it for +50 leadership as well. Once you've done that, you should be able to buy Paladins at the Mage tower on Debir. Normally there's only 11 or so, which should be fine for your current leadership.

With Paladins, your job of clearing Bolo without losses should be much easier. You need spawned units (I can highly recommend the Engineer for this) and maybe Slow spells on the strongest bear stack. The Engineer kicks ass in that he has a shock grenade which blinds troops too.

EDIT: just in general, you don't need to grind your way through Bolo at this stage. What you need is the map to Rusty Anchor or better yet Verona. This may involve a difficult fight but with the Paladins you should be able to manage. Once you've got the Verona map you're golden. There's a ton of loot there that you can kite and normally access to Paladins and Royal Griffins, which were my two staple units for Armored Princess campaigns. It's a bit boring and I'm sure that there are different ways to ensure no-losses, but Paladins are pretty much essential I believe, unless you're going for a single unit attempt, and you would do that as a Mage, not a Paladin.

Thanks, I know that trick - I always get the first stone that way (sometimes I have to reload before entering the catacombs, as the boss droid is not always kite-able.

I got the stone back, but they have only 6 paladins (and I could recruit much more). But no problems - I found 18+5 Horsemen on Rusty Anchor and Scarlet Wind, so they are standing in for the Paladins for now (I can use 12 now). Even got 7 Royal Griffins with a Wind Walker scroll.

I'm doing Bolo now, and it's much easier - my Rune Mage and Royal Griffins spawn summons, Inquisitors/Rune Mages resurrect, and Horsemen and Royal Griffins tank. I use Guardsmen too or Witch Hunters -depending on the enemy troops, sometimes that magic lock comes very handy.

I agree with you about Verona - it is like a sweets-shop for units and items. But, the troops guarding the map are still "lethal" or "very strong" so I'll clean out everyone I can before trying to attack them (and unfortunately, sometimes they are guarding a map I already have).

And yep, Paladins/Royal Griffins rock. On my first walkthrough of AP, I deliberately tried out all the new units first, then went with an all-Lizardmen army when I got to Reha. My initial army was: Trolls, Paladins, Royal Griffins, Guard Droids and Repair Droids. Never lost a unit with that combo.