Defender of the Crown thread

[Zhuangzi]

Yes, money is definitely a problem here, especially if you spend the 20,000 initially for the medals like I did. The upgrade items I had were much too difficult initially (of course) but maybe I could have done them before the last fight. I've never been one for trying to maximise the score though. One good thing about DotC - you WILL finish on Day 1.

[hotfix666]

I play this yeasterday

[Zhuangzi]

Well done hotfix. Beating the game on Impossible is always a challenge to begin with. Did you manage to do it without losses (can't tell from that screenshot)?

[bladeking77]

Yesterday I finished the game on Impossible with Paladin. Seemed like the best tactic is to max out the Holly Anger skill and pick Demons as enemies. And it worked, first three battles were pretty easy compared to ones in my previous attempts. Also, 20000 gold for medals seems like too much, but it isn't, especially since you can take 20000 gold from that random guy in the first castle. One or more 5th level units + Healing spell was also very helpful.

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by bladeking77

Yesterday I finished the game on Impossible with Paladin. Seemed like the best tactic is to max out the Holly Anger skill and pick Demons as enemies. And it worked, first three battles were pretty easy compared to ones in my previous attempts. Also, 20000 gold for medals seems like too much, but it isn't, especially since you can take 20000 gold from that random guy in the first castle. One or more 5th level units + Healing spell was also very helpful.

Yup! Paladin is definitely the best way to go for an easy run (choosing demons defines your first 3 enemies, then reload/jump to the next island till you get undead), and is also the best way to go for a high score run (Learning 1 right off the bat, then Learning 2 after the super-easy medals battle, then Learning 3 after the 1st serious battle).

Then after the 1st serious battle just get a level 5 Heal-able unit and your off-the-bat Heal 2 just makes it smooth sailing.

Attached are screenshots of my first 2 battles; I even grabbed an Ancient Knowledge scroll on the second battle. After the second battle Trolls and Red Dragons were available, so after doing a test battle with the 3rd enemy using 1 Troll in broad daylight and completely owning that battle with Heal 2, I lost interest and stopped (for now).

Wait, so the random fool in the castle hands you 20k before you leave the 1st island? Great... so much for what seems to be the only challenge left in my game, accumulate/budget money. Not surprisingly enough among the overpowered units/items available after the 1st serious battle a shop was selling FOUR Ancient Knowledge scrolls. 20k a pop (I think I only need one more), and I'm looking at 15k worth of upgradeable items, so I need 35k before leaving the 1st island.

I already have 15k after the 1st serious battle, and would likely get 3k+ each on the next 2 battles. Paladin also starts with Inquisitor's Blade (8,250), Healer's Jacket (3,500), and 3 Divine Armor scrolls (5,400 total). But with an extra 20k I don't even have to sell those items and still purchase an extra AK, 2 total, so 10 battles with AK on (5 sure battles and 5 extra battles for possible item upgrades).

While I think this campaign would have been better if level 5 units were only available on the 2nd island, people would probably have just restarted till they got droids and walked over the first island anyways. Oh well, shorter campaign, easier to abuse.

EDIT: (2010-09-24)

Added the screenshot of the next battle. I bought one Troll, placed my 3 Paladins in reserve so that the pet dragon gains a bit more XP, then went to town. Just to show you how overpowered this setup already is I did the combat during the day, so no regeneration to full health every turn for the Troll. As such, I had to use Heal 2 (2 mana, 200+ HP healed per use) every 3 rounds or so. Also note that the enemy hero did not use a single point of his 100 mana pool. I'm guessing he had no direct damage spells and only had a bunch of debilitating spells, most of which don't work on my level 5 Troll.

Started to use the AK for this, got 2,294 XP and level 8; tried the battle without AK and got only 1,638 XP and level 7. On both occasions I already have Learning 3 (+20% XP) and the medal (+5% XP).

[hotfix666]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Well done hotfix. Beating the game on Impossible is always a challenge to begin with. Did you manage to do it without losses (can't tell from that screenshot)?

I have loose people in the battels... But I dont care about that...Most important is win the battle?

You dont get more points on highscore if you have loose people in the battles?
I see someone here have not loose army in the battels but I get higher highscore
What is most important get higher points?

My goal in games is come high on highscore list

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by hotfix666

I have loose people in the battels... But I dont care about that...Most important is win the battle?

You dont get more points on highscore if you have loose people in the battles?
I see someone here have not loose army in the battels but I get higher highscore
What is most important get higher points?

My goal in games is come high on highscore list

I say to each his own, my good man. I know some people on this board who don't care about the score, some people who don't care about no-loss, and some people who don't care about any challenge goals at all and just want to play this game to completion at easy settings.

I, for one, like both the high score and no-loss goals; I'll try to beat your score and post my results here, whether I am successful in beating your high score or not.

EDIT:

Screenshot of 3rd "serious" battle, 4th battle if you count the medals battle. 1 Troll in the morning, still no contest whatsoever. More surprisingly is somehow my gold jumped from 15k before this battle to 89k! Screenshot say I only got 16.5k from the battle, plus the 4,200 I dug up via the chest. Must be a reward for completing the 1st island, as I also suddenly got the scroll "Sheep".

So now I can buy all the items and AK scrolls that I want...

Level 11 after this battle; jumped 3 levels from level 8.

[axelle]

Originally Posted by loreangelicus

I say to each his own, my good man. I know some people on this board who don't care about the score, some people who don't care about no-loss, and some people who don't care about any challenge goals at all and just want to play this game to completion at easy settings.

I, for one, like both the high score and no-loss goals; I'll try to beat your score and post my results here, whether I am successful in beating your high score or not.

EDIT:

Screenshot of 3rd "serious" battle, 4th battle if you count the medals battle. 1 Troll in the morning, still no contest whatsoever. More surprisingly is somehow my gold jumped from 15k before this battle to 89k! Screenshot say I only got 16.5k from the battle, plus the 4,200 I dug up via the chest. Must be a reward for completing the 1st island, as I also suddenly got the scroll "Sheep".

So now I can buy all the items and AK scrolls that I want...

Level 11 after this battle; jumped 3 levels from level 8.

so you are rocking a warrior?

no loss so far or?

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by axelle

so you are rocking a warrior?

no loss so far or?

Nope, Paladin is the way to go if you want a high score. You get to reach Learning 3 faster (+20% XP) and the XP medal is higher (+5% XP, +3% XP if mage, didn't quite check with warrior). This is because this is a low level campaign, so getting the XP bonus fast via the Paladin class skill tree is more important.

No loss so far, see my screenshots posted a page back showing the first 3 fights. Note that only the 1st serious battle could be considered tough, and it's not even THAT tough. You could spawn as having units from elves, humans, or dwarves. Humans get Paladins, dwarves get droids, elves get... ents? Might as well restart the game if you get elves.

Then your dialogue choice dictates what your next 3 enemies would be: lizardmen, orcs, or demons. With the Paladin skill Holy Anger, choosing demons is a given. Did I mention that the Paladin class starts with Exorcism level 2 even though there are zero points in the Distortion Mage skill tree?

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Yeah you seem to get a cash bonus for reaching the second island - it's in the vicinity of 50,000 gold I believe. Looks like you won't have any trouble with no-losses here. I restarted the game at least 10-15 times and I only had Trolls on the first island once.

Troll is not the optimal choice, dragons are better (Reds in particular), and you almost always get dragons after the 1st serious battle. The reason I went Troll is because they are cheaper gold-wise (I thought gold would be scarce) and XP-wise, and as my screenshots show you don't even need to abuse their nighttime regeneration since Paladin starts the game with Heal level 2.

Actually, the easiest and most optimal way to clear the 1st island is to restart the game till you get dwarves for their droids (1 in 3 chance); Engineer's Badge is optional, though it seems to almost always spawn for me whenever I get dwarves. I just continued on with my game since I lucked out and was able to dig up an AK scroll in the 1st serious battle; that definitely offset me spending 4,500 gold total for 3 Paladins whom I don't need anymore once I got 1 Troll.

EDIT: (2010-09-25)

I already mentioned before that the initial dialogue dictates what race your first 3 core enemies would be: lizardmen, orcs, or demons. It should also be noted that when jumping from the 1st island to the 2nd island you also randomly get the race of your next 3 enemies: humans, dwarves, or undead (which completes all 6 race types); just keep on reloading from a previous save from before the jump and you would eventually get your enemy of choice.

This is why going Paladin for this campaign is so overpowered. Not only do you start of with Inquisitor's Blade, Healer's Jacket and 3 scrolls of Divine Armor which you could sell if you don't like them, you also start with Lightning 1, Heal 2, Dispel 2, etc. And most importantly: starts off with Exorcism 2 and could tech up to Holy Anger 3 real quick. So if you take Demons as your first set of enemies and Undead as your next set of enemies... seriously, even just the part where Holy Anger has -15 Defense against enemy demons and undead is IMBA enough.

And it definitely doesn't hurt the Paladin to be the best class to get +XP bonuses.

EDIT: (2010-09-26)

Battles 5 - 8 attached; first suppression battle was an upgrade to Steel Belt, next was an upgrade to Magician's Cloak.

I still have the last battle left, plus a couple more suppression battles. Already using Trolls at night, which may not cut it against the more powerful suppression battles, though the off-the-bat Paladin spells (Peacefulness 3, Divine Armor currently at level 2) plus Diploma of Anti-Magic and the Magician's Cowl help a lot. Worst case scenario, I chicken out and just buy the Black Dragons available at one shop.

Already at level 19, so definitely breaking level 20+ here and breaking the high score mark of 700+ for this campaign. Now if only I had more time to play...

EDIT:

Level 21 after Magician's Cape upgrade suppression battle, screenshot attached.

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by loreangelicus

I say to each his own, my good man. I know some people on this board who don't care about the score, some people who don't care about no-loss, and some people who don't care about any challenge goals at all and just want to play this game to completion at easy settings.

I, for one, like both the high score and no-loss goals; I'll try to beat your score and post my results here, whether I am successful in beating your high score or not.

EDIT:

Screenshot of 3rd "serious" battle, 4th battle if you count the medals battle. 1 Troll in the morning, still no contest whatsoever. More surprisingly is somehow my gold jumped from 15k before this battle to 89k! Screenshot say I only got 16.5k from the battle, plus the 4,200 I dug up via the chest. Must be a reward for completing the 1st island, as I also suddenly got the scroll "Sheep".

So now I can buy all the items and AK scrolls that I want...

Level 11 after this battle; jumped 3 levels from level 8.

Yeah you seem to get a cash bonus for reaching the second island - it's in the vicinity of 50,000 gold I believe. Looks like you won't have any trouble with no-losses here. I restarted the game at least 10-15 times and I only had Trolls on the first island once.