Orcs on the March thread

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Orcs on the March is a much more.. challenging thing to do no-loss. The new orc units are surprisingly good at making you lose pretty much anything. They REALLY like to do astral damage.

A lot of the same strategies ultimately work, but there are substantially more 'problem' creatures to face. Goblin Shamans and Blood Shamans, for instance. Both Ogres are noticeably more annoying.

I do like that they've added Fauns. Makes that plant army much much more viable.

We'll see how things change when we get to the end game. I am doing no loss impossible(mage) using the Dragon Army right now (I had black dragons on Rusty, and 8 red dragon's on Verona... how can you NOT do that?).

Level 24, and going strong. Had to do a few reloads when I kept doing stupid stuff against orcs though. One turn without Target-controlling bunch of shamans, and they ripped my units to pieces. So ridiculous.

Yeah, Orcs are ridiculously strong. Once you learn how to deal with them, it isn't too bad. The item distribution of Crossworld's tends to make it easier to do certain combinations, so the no-loss should be just as achievable (heck, even I can do it!) or sometimes easier. (sometimes...)

At least you get some better spells, like Black Hole!

Also, Ancient Phoenix and Dragon of Chaos are SIGNIFICANTLY improved.

If you think the roaming Orc stacks right now are hard, wait until you face one of the new Orc Heroines.... Scrounger.

Yeah, one time I didn't disable, or phantom, or target against the Scrounger army... my entire army was wiped out in a single turn.

@jake21, I'll do the official count from my saved game. Should be done by tonight.

VERY troubling. I manually wrote all the quests down, it adds up to 92. Yet, my high score says 93. I guess it is another bug.

[atlatea]

Most annoying orc unit is ogre.

Shamans can be disabled by target or other disable spell/ unit talent/skill.

But this ogre, i hate them the most of all unit, second only to black dragon in my list of most hated unit.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by atlatea

Most annoying orc unit is ogre.

Shamans can be disabled by target or other disable spell/ unit talent/skill.

But this ogre, i hate them the most of all unit, second only to black dragon in my list of most hated unit.

You mean you don't like it when they do the little dance, then proceed to run across the entire map to smash your units?

Then, they go into a rage, and smash up more units?

I found ways to deal with them, but they are undoubtedly very annoying.

If you can't beat them, join them! I used Ogres in my last playthrough, mwhaha. Take that evil computer. Take a dose of the its own porc medicine!

[Zechnophobe]

Originally Posted by ckdamascus

Yeah, Orcs are ridiculously strong. Once you learn how to deal with them, it isn't too bad. The item distribution of Crossworld's tends to make it easier to do certain combinations, so the no-loss should be just as achievable (heck, even I can do it!) or sometimes easier. (sometimes...)

At least you get some better spells, like Black Hole!

Also, Ancient Phoenix and Dragon of Chaos are SIGNIFICANTLY improved.

If you think the roaming Orc stacks right now are hard, wait until you face one of the new Orc Heroines.... Scrounger.

Yeah, one time I didn't disable, or phantom, or target against the Scrounger army... my entire army was wiped out in a single turn.

@jake21, I'll do the official count from my saved game. Should be done by tonight.

VERY troubling. I manually wrote all the quests down, it adds up to 92. Yet, my high score says 93. I guess it is another bug.

The number of 'danger' units really increased with orcs on the march. Y'know, the units you often need to give special attention to. Blood Shamans and Goblin Shamans are both.. ugh. Heck even normal Goblins can be incredibly annoying if they double attack... or triple attack in a single round.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

The number of 'danger' units really increased with orcs on the march. Y'know, the units you often need to give special attention to. Blood Shamans and Goblin Shamans are both.. ugh. Heck even normal Goblins can be incredibly annoying if they double attack... or triple attack in a single round.

Triple? I've seen it attack FIVES times in a row. Reload time.

Yeah, they are annoying. In my warrior (Shrek Ogre) game, I didn't get Target until I went to fight Mistikus and dug it up. So... I basically didn't have Target.

I dealt with them by using sheer firepower and Drain or occasionally throwing in blind.

If you don't have a very powerful strategy, it is extremely tough.

I also didn't need Target much, if at all for my Mage (Summoner Build) either. A part of it is also because the buff in 1.3.1 for rune mage's summons makes my "sacrificial lambs" much stronger against the astral attacks and I can revive much more.

[Zechnophobe]

So, I just tried out the level 3 Chaos Dragon...

That thing is a *monster*. Especially with 45 intellect. I need to grab order 3 now (something I rarely do) just to see what the ancient phoenix is like. The area fire damage plus 3 tile knockback on the chaos dragon is one HECK of a thing. And it always survives the first hit... I didn't even have the summoner skill.

I can see how these new rare summons could make such an army 'work'. VERY mana intensive though .

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

So, I just tried out the level 3 Chaos Dragon...

That thing is a *monster*. Especially with 45 intellect. I need to grab order 3 now (something I rarely do) just to see what the ancient phoenix is like. The area fire damage plus 3 tile knockback on the chaos dragon is one HECK of a thing. And it always survives the first hit... I didn't even have the summoner skill.

I can see how these new rare summons could make such an army 'work'. VERY mana intensive though .

Heh, try it out with 72+ intellect. Dragon of Chaos can withstand Ogre stacks, and this isn't even counting the Power of Chaos ability (always has one HP)! Although you probably need Belt of the Victor to withstand this.

I'm not a huge tile knockback fan. I'll use it if I know the retaliation will hurt me badly, but I hate not being able to critical. It is still very good to have though. Throw in oil mist though....

Actually, that was how I was able to do my speed run. I blitz for Order level 3 and get as many mana items to reach 35 mana. I also go for transmute and max summoner skill asap. I move towards level 3 distortion for... Oil Mist. I rarely cast Stone Skin at all in that entire game.

The Ancient Phoenix is the same as in 1.3.0, no new change in 1.3.1. Just in case you didn't know though, they can resurrect units now.

All summons since 1.3.0 benefit from intellect scaling now.

Once you get the mana though, it usually pays itself off through transmute. Sure, I can't use mana spring anymore but eh.

[Zechnophobe]

Oil mist is indeed one of the best spells in the game. Especially cast on Demons!

The knockback can help move units into position for other units to combo against, such as dragons. Crit is nice, but no retaliation can be nicer!

Even before the summoner upgrade, Phoenix in the early game was a pretty solid tank. It'll be cool to see how that improves with the substantial stat/health increase they have.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Oil mist is indeed one of the best spells in the game. Especially cast on Demons!

The knockback can help move units into position for other units to combo against, such as dragons. Crit is nice, but no retaliation can be nicer!

Even before the summoner upgrade, Phoenix in the early game was a pretty solid tank. It'll be cool to see how that improves with the substantial stat/health increase they have.

Yeah, the damage boost and debuff morale effect is huge.

Regarding early tank, true! It was good for the early game, but it tapered off later on. Now with the 1.3.0 int/stat adjustment, the Phoenix can work until the end of the game. Did you see my end game stats?

Ancient Phoenix 32% Damage
Dragon of Chaos 20.5% Damage
Black Dragon 16.2% Damage...

[torquemada]

I'm currently playing mage/impossible at level 35.
I've found that getting the free emerald dragon early makes a whole lot of difference. I am such a fan of dragons, I got lucky and found 4 black ones at rusty anchor and 3 red ones at verona. If you play carefully it's quite easy to get no loss victories. My current setup is: Black dragons, red dragons, paladins, rune mages, demonologists. I try to do as much damage with my dragons as I can while getting as little damage in return (wait command, abilities, fear/slow, damaging strong stacks by attacking the weaker adjacent one). I use lvl 3 heal alot on my reds but I need to be extra careful with the black ones though, but they can be healed and even resurrected by the rune mages, don't know if any other ability can heal black dragons (maybe shamans?).
Currently this setup is owning the battlefield.