I have no idea what I'm doing

[rpeg]

I enter a battle. I lose some units. Sometimes I win the battle. I get some money and then I buy more units. REPEAT. Unfortunately after a while I'm out of easy enemies to battle and out of money to buy enough units to actually compete.

I don't understand this game.

It seems that I should have spent more money in the beginning to purchase enough of the units to compete more aggressively in battles and win more money! However I did not know that and now I have no idea what to do. I can hardly afford to purchase any units at all and I all the enemies around are too difficult to battle with the limited units I have.

Why? Am I supposed to completely back track and start over?

[Vulture]

Well, if you're completely dead-beat without anything then you should consider rerolling. But unless you tell us which of all the zillions of starting stips you considered and which not and you neither tell us what class or level and what kinds of spells and spirits you unlocked and/or found already and on what difficulty level you play... well then we can't help you but copy/paste 20 threads of "how do I do this or that?"

I'll try to list what I would advise anybody being in trouble early in the game besides starting over:

- explore the map and avoid fights. Gather chests, flags, money and everything you can take without fighting. You can take practically everything displayed on the adventure map without fighting. Lure the enemy, let him chase you to a place where you can curve him, lose him and grab what you wanted. Always use F5 and F8 (Quicksave/load) before you attempt to do that.

- Losing a battle is practically your death warrant because it's a pain in the ass to regather troops with low or no money. Save regularly. If you lose a battle, load and avoid it or consider tactics to win.

- This is not an arcade "go and slash" game. It's a tactical round-based combat rpg. If you run into the enemy mindlessly you WILL fail. This is intended.

- Depending on where you are in the game you practically always have an option to sail one or up to 3 lands with a boat and grab tons of goodies (mentioned above) along the shores. Always do that before you lay a hand on an enemy in a new land (unless unavoidable)

- Read tactical advise threads to minimize losses. Spells such as "resurrection", "sacrifice" or the rage ability "timeback" are major players in restoring lost units during combat. They are discussed to death around here. Other than restoring lost units you should always have a plan to avoid damage. Spells like "Magic Shackles", "Trap", "Target" ... pretty much the whole range of Distortion Magic is based on controlling the outcome of the battle. Depending on enemy troop compilation some of those spells win the battle on their own.

That's the most basic things to know. If you DID explore the lands by horse AND ship and there's NOTHING at all to grab that gives you the money to restore a decent army to keep going, restart a new game or load a previous savegame. But something tells me you didn't

Regards,
Vulture

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by rpeg

I enter a battle. I lose some units. Sometimes I win the battle...

Therein lies the problem because:

1) While it is ok to lose a few units, you shouldn't be losing a lot of them in ANY battle. If you lose like 20%+ in a single battle it is better to reload. Note that some people could actually finish the game without a single casualty, and this is on the highest difficulty setting, so my suggestion above is very much feasible.

2) As per suggestion #1, you shouldn't lose a whole battle completely, as this means you lost 100% of your troops and need to start from scratch. Reload and re-fight any lost battles.

I actually saw your post a couple of days back and I really wanted to help you out, but as the previous poster mentioned, I similarly didn't know where to start.

I do strongly suggest you read through most of the suggestions and posts in this forum as they are a big help. I know a gamer's instinct is to dive in an play a new game, but unless you have previously played a similar RPG turn-based strategy game this game could be a bit unforgiving. Play on Easy if you have never played a similar game, then once you get the hang of it, start a game on the higher difficulties.

[N3MES1S]

Same here. I cant understand this game.
Im new on king's bounty and i started playing 1 week ago (yea i know, its a bit late but better that than nothing!). Im stuck, cuz i cant go anywhere, i cant kill anyone. Im level 7 and im playing on the normal difficult level. But all the enemies i encounter, are too much higher or simply "match". The problem is everytime i kill someone with "match" or "strong" difficulties , my troops get almost useless and i need to buy more (and almost all "good" troops are depleted on all castles and huts) , so i get out of money, i cant do any quest to get more, and etc. wats the problem with this game? I picked up all possible items around the island (even on the sea) , and killed all "weak", "slighty weak", "slighty strong", "strong", and "match" enemies (the "very strong" are impossible). So i really dont know wtf i can do to move on this game. Any tips? Maybe the difficulty on this game is overpowered? I know, the "Heroes of might and magic" was a hard saga, but nothing compared with king's bounty. I did all the easy quests except of course the lyralo island that i cant afford cuz i dont have enough troops and i cant buy more for the reasons above.. -.- Am i missing something?

Another problem: The leadership. Omg, how hard is to raise leadership??? So, u cant kill anyone, cuz u dont have good troops, but u cant buy more cuz there are no troops u can hire or u dont have enough leadership. All that doesnt matter, cuz u dont have any ways to gain more money, or more exp, or more leadership, cuz u dont have "fair" quest to provide u with that. And the slighty fair quests are impossible cuz u don have enough troops, etc. The problem on this game is that once u killed everyone and picked all the items, u cant do anything. Is that right?

Thanx.

P.D.: How its possible that there are just only a bit NEUTRAL troops, and no castle/huts troops respawn? wat im supossed to do?

[DGDobrev]

First of all, you should consider carefully what you're doing. Are you rushing blindly forward? What does your army cosist of? Is it balanced? How many tanks (meaning units with a lot of hit points or units with 20% or more physical resistance), how may healers and how many ranged units does it have?

After that, you must take a look at the enemies and learn their strenghts and weaknesses. For example, is there an element they are weak (meaning negative resistance) against? If there is, use it! Are they fast? Are they slow? If the enemies are fast, more close combat troops or more ranged troops without close combat penalty are called for. If they are slow, get 1 tank and 4 ranged units and mow them down while they advance at you.

The next thing you must learn to do is to analyze when to stay on the defensive, and when to go on the offensive. The game is somewhat hard for people who never played chess, as chess teaches you to carefully calculate the options. This is valid for this game as well. You should know when to rush, when to slow the enemy advancement, when to cast offensive spells and when to cast buffs/debuffs.

I recommend you switch to easy difficulty, get the hang of the game and then try normal again.

[N3MES1S]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

First of all, you should consider carefully what you're doing. Are you rushing blindly forward? What does your army cosist of? Is it balanced? How many tanks (meaning units with a lot of hit points or units with 20% or more physical resistance), how may healers and how many ranged units does it have?

After that, you must take a look at the enemies and learn their strenghts and weaknesses. For example, is there an element they are weak (meaning negative resistance) against? If there is, use it! Are they fast? Are they slow? If the enemies are fast, more close combat troops or more ranged troops without close combat penalty are called for. If they are slow, get 1 tank and 4 ranged units and mow them down while they advance at you.

The next thing you must learn to do is to analyze when to stay on the defensive, and when to go on the offensive. The game is somewhat hard for people who never played chess, as chess teaches you to carefully calculate the options. This is valid for this game as well. You should know when to rush, when to slow the enemy advancement, when to cast offensive spells and when to cast buffs/debuffs.

I recommend you switch to easy difficulty, get the hang of the game and then try normal again.

I am a real good chess player -.-. And i completed all the Heroes of might and magic sagas. Believe me, i know how to play tactics battles on king's bounty. Thats the reason i cant understand this game is that hard, pointless. The problem is that the world is so lack on resources, that u cant move on. U cant raise yours spells, cant upgrade the spells tree, cant buy anything, cant pick anything more (cuz i picked all and it seems theres nothing more around), cant kill anyone, cant finish any quests.. so i just stop playing for now, till i see if theres something wrong with the game. I really dont like games that u need to start again from the beginning (cuz i suposse i cant do anything more and need to restart..) doing the things ONLY in one way, and still being too hard for being playable. I never saw a castle that once u have bought all the troops, u cant buy more cuz the castle never respawn the troops again.. thats stupid.

I tried all possible combinations. Nothing works. Actually i have priests, swordman, ancient bears, peasants and bowmen. And yes i know, for example magic is powerfull against undead, and i try always to kill the ranged ones before the melee ones (or hit em till they have for example 20 archer skeletons). And i am a mage, so i use to use fireball to damage skeleton hordes (or thorn hordes, etc) , for example. And i know almost all creatures advantages and disadvantages of the 3 first islands, and i eventually can kill even a very strong enemie, but thats all. I dont think the problem is the strategy, the enemies are just too unbalanced or the resources are just stupidly poor. If i cant even raise my leadership, it doesnt matter if i play good strategy, because i dont have fair enemies to kill.

So the point is, i think this game is a "BIT" unbalanced, i really dont want to play on easy mode to realize that the normal one is still too hard (cant imagine the next 2 levels).

[Elwin]

This game is easy ... maybe a bit different than HOMM since u have to explore much before any fighting ... Its a challange only on begginig on impossble difficulty but only at begging, in half of the game its also easy ;p

There was many players like you bbefore nagging its too hard ... I was never a good HOMM player, i thought that only good spells are Direct damge and i had no problem with finishing mage on normal at first run ... And my strategy was .. hm nuke everythig down? : D

[DGDobrev]

Well, in that case, you are doing something wrong indeed. First of all, why do you need all those peasants? Bowmen are an excellect substitution for them, and they can both burn and slow. The next unit you need is Inquisitors and/or archmagi - you can find some in Shivarius' Tower and the Mage tower in Velarion forest, unless you're really unlucky and got a game without them.

Other useful units are the royal thorns or alchemists - both can spawn in the Marshan Swamp. Also, try to lure the strong unit (usually mages) in front of the horsemen camp in Greenworth away, then go around them, move back in and buy some horsemen or knights (at least one of those is guaranteed to spawn there) and you will be just fine, as they are one the best tanks there is, and for such low level, they alone can make a difference. Another thing you can try is the Dragon's tooth tavern in Arlania - some good units can spawn there as well.

You shoud also reconsider your in-game tactics. If you have a bishop on F1, you don't necessarily put it on A6 straight away, do you? For that matter, if you have a good long-range unit (like inquisitors or bowmen) it doesn't mean you should move it each turn. If you have a good rook on a free line, you should keep it there - for that matter, if you have a good tank that can rule the middle of the battlefield, you should keep him there, as the AI is stupid and usually goes for the units that it can reach. For example, do not be surprised if the AI goes for your archers - this means you simply allowed it to reach them.

Try a party of:

Horsemen, Inquisitors, Bowmen, Priests, Archmagi. If you can't find horsemen, the ancient bears will do.

This party usually rocks the early game, because Horsemen have high initiative and you can move them in the middle of the battlefield straight away. Inquisitors can resurrect any of the lost units, priests can heal the horsemen, the Archmagi can cast magic shield on the horsemen so that they take only 50% damage and use the bowmen to slow/burn anything that is threatening your rear guard.

[Elwin]

also grihons and royal snakes are awesome early game units, and with frog feanora snakes do wonders even in late game

[N3MES1S]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Well, in that case, you are doing something wrong indeed. First of all, why do you need all those peasants? Bowmen are an excellect substitution for them, and they can both burn and slow. The next unit you need is Inquisitors and/or archmagi - you can find some in Shivarius' Tower and the Mage tower in Velarion forest, unless you're really unlucky and got a game without them.

Other useful units are the royal thorns or alchemists - both can spawn in the Marshan Swamp. Also, try to lure the strong unit (usually mages) in front of the horsemen camp in Greenworth away, then go around them, move back in and buy some horsemen or knights (at least one of those is guaranteed to spawn there) and you will be just fine, as they are one the best tanks there is, and for such low level, they alone can make a difference. Another thing you can try is the Dragon's tooth tavern in Arlania - some good units can spawn there as well.

You shoud also reconsider your in-game tactics. If you have a bishop on F1, you don't necessarily put it on A6 straight away, do you? For that matter, if you have a good long-range unit (like inquisitors or bowmen) it doesn't mean you should move it each turn. If you have a good rook on a free line, you should keep it there - for that matter, if you have a good tank that can rule the middle of the battlefield, you should keep him there, as the AI is stupid and usually goes for the units that it can reach. For example, do not be surprised if the AI goes for your archers - this means you simply allowed it to reach them.

Try a party of:

Horsemen, Inquisitors, Bowmen, Priests, Archmagi. If you can't find horsemen, the ancient bears will do.

This party usually rocks the early game, because Horsemen have high initiative and you can move them in the middle of the battlefield straight away. Inquisitors can resurrect any of the lost units, priests can heal the horsemen, the Archmagi can cast magic shield on the horsemen so that they take only 50% damage and use the bowmen to slow/burn anything that is threatening your rear guard.

In fact, i did all that u say in that tip (except horsemen, i never can get em). Yes, i used fire arrows to break down ranged like thorns, for example and i always move the tanks making a defensive line). I tried ancient bears-bowmen-archmages-priest. The problem is that i cant do anything with only 31 bowmen (the maximum i can get with my leadership) or 8 archmages or 11 ancient bears. They work good against weak-strong parties, but higher than that, i need more units. And i cant get more cuz i cant get more leadership. So the thing is, or i start again (something that should not be needed, but as i notice, u need to do the things perfect since beginning, something that is stupid in a videogame) or i cant do anything. And the funny thing is, i start playing with a paladin class, and i changed it to mage cuz the game was too hard.. LOL surprise.