Impossible Warrior - no losses?

[Zhuangzi]

Yeah, I haven't got the second Treasure Chest upgrade yet - it keeps offering me other stuff which is kinda frustrating. I think I will take your advice and rush for the amulet in Bolo - I need those Paladins soon and I doubt I can clear out Bolo and Scarlet Wind without them.

Current team - Inquisitors, Royal Griffins (4 in Scarlet Wind only), Royal Thorns (3 of 4 available on Debir), Archmages (only 4 available - leadership allows 7) and Ancient Vampires (7 or 8 on Scarlet Wind). This is a nice team for no losses and I am up to 31 fights without loss (meaning I got the second Grand Strategy medal - 1500 leadership on level 6). I was able to clear about two thirds of Scarlet Wind but there are still 5 or 6 tough stacks left and I doubt I can take them at the moment.

The key to zero losses at the moment is having units with high hp (at least the highest currently available) and even more importantly units that can summon/spawn units. Thus Royal Thorns and Royal Griffins are a must. Inquisitors provide the rage and the occasional resurrection, Archmages provide Magic Shield and Ancient Vampires are just awesome in every way.

So it's off to Bolo next. Well, in the morning.

[DGDobrev]

Well, you're doing great In any case, you can be sure that the armies that will give you hard time to do without losses are the ones in the castles, the dragon-only armies (like the ones in Ulthrax - the dragon lands from KBTL are back again), and the Ktahu/Zilgadis bosses. Everything else can be done without a loss without much hastle

[Zhuangzi]

Well, I must have played for 8 hours today (at least) and it has been slow going ensuring zero casualties. I am up to 58 battles without loss now, which means I got the Grand Strategy 3 medal. I finally cleared out the last guardian on Scarlet Wind, which gave me the Verona map I needed so badly. Bolo is cleared out except for about 4-5 stacks, and Rusty Anchor is less than 50% clear. But with 3800 leadership all remaining stacks are Lethal, with maybe a couple of Very Hard.

I haven't changed my team for a long time now. It works very well with the exception that I haven't found enough Royal Thorns or Paladins. I know that there will be plenty of these in Verona though.

So I've been fighting with:

63/63 Royal Snakes (the main attack unit)
35/35 Inquisitors (for rage and resurrection)
12/12 Royal Griffins (for Heavenly Guards and mopping up weak enemies)
4/10 Royal Thorns (for Thorns)
6/17 Paladins (for defense and resurrection)

The problem I have had is that with only 6 Paladins, I am doing a measly 144 hp of resurrection. Consequently there's no room for error at all. If I can fill up my Royal Thorn and Paladin stacks in Verona, I can probably mop up the small islands. First I will pick up everything I can find in Verona.

Oh, and despite zero losses, I've only got about 60,000 gold. DGD is quite right in saying that you need to use Treasure Searcher twice a turn if you possibly can. Now that the Trading skill is gone in KB:AP, gold is much scarcer on Impossible. That's a good thing - it's making it a really tough but possible challenge for me.

Question: There are 2 Red Dragons for sale on Rusty Anchor. Should I use them when I get my leadership up to 4000 or stick with the current team?

I honestly haven't had so much fun playing a game since Master of Orion 1 in 1996.

[Elwin]

Well i ony launched a game for a while on my game i have started with sneaking and i went up to rusty anchor. When i come back to debir i see there is one stack of cyclops in undergruond cave ..
i am not going for no loses run but hell i wonder how masters of this game would deal with it ... i have just 6 inquis .. there is no way i cant lose any unit agianst cyclops since i have only 1 res its not enough to kill 650hp cyclops with his resistances on one turn ...

My armie is inqi catapult griffin droid guard evil beholder ..thats what i found to get without fights on rusty anchor .. thinking about royal sankes and those 4 royal torns from debir..

Oh and i refused traing fightsm did i lose much ?

[DGDobrev]

@Zhuangzi

I think the 2 dragons will be a really good addition. Using them will boost your battle alchemy medal. You should also be careful, since only the inquisitors can resurrect them (paladins ress only 1-4 level units).

Royal thorns spawned on 4 out of 7 playthroughs in the barbarian chieftain ship (the one who gives you the quest for his wife) on Bolo island. Still, you may not have been so lucky. As for the monetary problems, they will be a pain throughout the early game, at least until level 25 or so.

As for the fun, KBAP provides plenty of it. You will also notice that with all the rebalancing done, it is much easier to grasp and play without utilizing numerous exploits, as it was in KBTL.

Another thing you can do is to get the treasure searcher ability to 3 chests/2 altars or 3 chests/1 altar if possible (dunno if it was). Generally, there are 4-5 useful dragon skills, which as a warrior you should improve to the max in my opinion - Treasure Searcher (money FTW), Ball of Lightning (Acts as Reaper's soul drain ability, killing % of the stack), Mana accelerator (25 rage for 25 mana, great for phantoms), and battle rage (hits all units in an area with ASTRAL damage). Crushing blow and diving dragon are useful in the mid-game, but by the late game they go obsolete, as you will do little damage with those abilities. Lava flow and Mystic Egg are nice, but lava flow is fire damage and Mystic Egg takes a turn to hatch - and usually the AI targets it first.

EDIT: Oh, BTW, sell any wanderers' scroll you don't need in the early game. They will provide a nice amount of cash. If you were digging with the dragon regularly, you should have 3-4 from fights and a few from maps. Also hold on to the "Call Collosus" wanderers' scroll. You never know when you may need the extra level 5 unit's firepower

@Elwin

Well, you missed 2 fights (they also count to no-loss victories), a few gold coins, one random lvl 1 item, a training sword (+1 atk) and a buckler (+1 def). Generally, it's not much, but if you luck out with a +100 leadership belt, it is a nice boost in the early levels.

EDIT: On a side note - let's not forget that not only the trading skill is gone, but in KBTL the gold income on impossible was 60%. In KBAP it's 50%, which makes the things even more difficult. Now, play a mage and slap an Usurer's Ring on (+5 intellect - great!!! -30% gold income - EEEK!!) and see where will you go

[travelingoz]

Zhuangzi; the dragons will help a lot, especially if you have Target and Archmages Shield ability. However they really hurt your Royal Griffins Atk and Def due to low morale so you'll have to see if this balances out for you. (Maybe you'll find the King's Portrait on Verona ) BTW what day/time are you up to now? I want see if some early sneaking balances out or not in terms of mission time.

Elwin; did i read that right? A cyclops on Debir? In the Cave? I've never seen that before! The only level 5 unit i've ever seen on Debir or Scarlet islands is the green dragon on the pirate ship!

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by travelingoz

Zhuangzi; the dragons will help a lot, especially if you have Target and Archmages Shield ability. However they really hurt your Royal Griffins Atk and Def due to low morale so you'll have to see if this balances out for you. (Maybe you'll find the King's Portrait on Verona ) BTW what day/time are you up to now? I want see if some early sneaking balances out or not in terms of mission time.

Elwin; did i read that right? A cyclops on Debir? In the Cave? I've never seen that before! The only level 5 unit i've ever seen on Debir or Scarlet islands is the green dragon on the pirate ship!

Yep, the dragons are helping but I can't find Target anywhere. The morale problem for the Royal Griffins does suck though, so I am not using the Dragons all the time. My biggest problem currently is that you can't resurrect or even heal Royal Thorns. How to keep them alive?

I can't find more than 4 Archmages either, which is odd. I am up to day 8 already which is okay because I'm going for zero losses, not speed/high score. 78 fights without loss now.