Super easy way to beat K'tahu and Baal with mage and a single stack of units

[nik718]

I just finished beating Impossible, no casualties game with Mage. I found out that the easiest way to beat last 2 bosses is with a single stack of units and some clever play with spells.

I have not found such strategy mentioned on the forum, so I'll just give it a few words.

// spoilers ahead.

K'tahu
I used a single stack of Paladins. All spell I used were, natually, level 3. The main thing is to use Stoneskin and bring physical resist up to 95%, because all K'tahu attacks are physical, including his field attack roar/spit. The key for the strategy is to get him to summon at least 6 stacks of Brontos. For the opening rounds you need to play that way to kill off all units except Brontos. Once you have 6-7 stacks of Brontos on the field, K'tahu will stop summoning. Do NOT go close to him nor near the Brontos. Use spells to reduce number of Brontos in the stack down to 10 or less. I used a cheap Flame Arrow. Use Magic Spring or Calm Rage to refill mana (Brontos attack Paladins with Stoneskin and do a minor damage, but they trigger Mana Spring). K'tahu will attack each round with his mass attack but will kill max 1-2 paladins (I had ~100 at the begining of the fight). Use Ressurection on Paladins as needed - remember you just need to survive, not to keep your Paladins at high number. Once you're comfortable, you can start attacking K'tahu with spell (I used Ghost Blade). When he is dead, ressurect all your Paladins and kill off Brontos. Voila.

Baal

I used a single stack of Red Dragons. Again, the key spell is Stoneskin. Make sure your RDs always have it. Mage SS lasts 5 rounds, so, you're easy on that. Now, the strategy is to make Ball kill all Bills army ASAP so you can clutter the field with ICE THORS. If there are Ice Thorns in front of Ball when he summons, he will not bring monsters, instead, it will just push Ice Thors back for one hex. Close 2-3 spaces right in front of him with Ice Thorns ASAP, and use the rest for him to fight Bills army. Your RD is waiting at that time and doing nothing. Once Bill's army is gone, your goal is to bring Gizmo (it will heal RD every turn) and to close all field excet one line with Ice Thorns. This way Baal will NEVER summon anything for the rest of the fight. Now, just bring your RD to a single hex near Baal and start attacking him. Each round cast spell as needed, you'll need Magic Spring (to refill mana), StoneSkin (in order for baal to never kill your RD) and attack spells. You can attack Baal directly (Ghost blade or something), or use Avenging angle on RD (I found out that to be much better). Anyways, Gizmo is healing your RD each turn and giving 2 attacks for RD per turn, baal is not able to summon because of the field filled with Ice Thorns and the rest of the fight is childs play.

Hope you like my strategies. Feel free to comment.

p.s. I used similar Ice-Thorns strategy against Gremlion in order to rpevent him to raise Gremlin towers.