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#11
12-17-2009, 09:48 AM
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I indeed payed little attention in the last part of the game. Once I reached level 40+ all battles were so easy I just squandered money dismissing armies to try new ones. However, even considering I should have played more carefully and come to the final bosses better prepared (it was impossible difficulty after all) I don't see how distortion lvl 3 and maybe an all-demon or all-lizardmen army would make much difference. If I can find the "very detailed" thread by Dobrev I'll be happy to read it.
The way I see it, as a mage you get two options against Baal: 1) you pound him with offensive spells the way I always did with all other opponents, including Gremlion and K'Tahu. However his fire resistance makes my best spells useless. So you can go with: a) poison skull, probably the best damage/mana ratio available against him, but since on average it does little more than 4k damage it would take about 35 rounds to kill him. Since my leadership gives me only 150 paladins they are death before round 15; b) pole axe, guaranteed damage of close to 6K, slightly worse damage/mana ratio so maybe you'll have to resort to calm rage, anyway even if you could keep casting it pole axe requires close to 40 castings, thus with higher magic let's say 32-33 rounds. Same problem as with poison skull; c) ice snake: does slightly more than 7k damage per round, still meaning 30+castings, about 25 rounds with higher magic. But as it costs 30 mana you won't be able to cast it all turns; d) death star: does on average 9k damage but costs 50 mana AND will wipe out your own troops in such cramped space. So the nuking does not work. 2) you protect your best troops (paladins and knights) with stoneskin, divine armor and phantom them. Nice, they will take little damage (but still their numbers are going down) but what's left to harm Baal with? If they attack, given they can come close to him in the first place, the most damage I've seen is still below 5k (on a critical) and with Baal's counterstrike, protection or not, I still lose 10-12 paladins per round. If I start casting resurrection mana goes down fast, and in the end maybe I can keep my troops alive longer than in strategy 1, but even if I reach turn 20 Baal's health is not even halfway down. Now if exorcism was to work on him (why doesn't it? He's the final boss, but he's still a demon, or is he?) that could MAYBE make it doable otherwise I just don't see how a mage can do it. Maybe a warrior with twice my leadership and 300-400 paladins, but a mage... I have maybe not all the very best items, but still have staff of the archmage, 2x robe of the magess, battle mage helm, the elven companion, various +2 regalia, that ring that gives +5 int... only no good boots, best I got is spiked boots (+2 def, +1 att). 
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#12
12-17-2009, 10:11 AM
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I would combine both strats a little prortect and some damaging. dobrev decribed tactics in high score thread. Also there was second impossible mage no loss with black nights. But u dont have money so u cant do it like that. ...
Last edited by Elwin; 12-17-2009 at 10:14 AM.
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#13
12-17-2009, 10:22 AM
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Thanks again for replying. I will look up this high score thread. As for combining them, I don't think mixing two losing strategies makes for one winning
 Anyway, I tried it, nuking and resurrecting at times... No use. Keep in mind that my analysis in last post did not even calculate the fact he just throws in some archdemons and executioners from time to time to make the scene more lively...
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#14
12-17-2009, 07:58 PM
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I kept phantoming Paladin's and it was pretty darn effective. I think one main secret is to not attack with many melee units, and focus on ranged. I guess that means inquisitors and bowmen for you, maybe Archmages?. Anyone you do attack with at melee should have mana spring, magic shield and stone skin (Don't waste mana on God Armor).
Keeping the phantomed stack of paladin's behind the ones meleeing Baal will make him more likely to attack that stack when he attacks. Use the phantoms to ress your guys, and Bills guys, to keep the damage up. Stone skin on the primary Paladin attackers will make them last a long time, possibly even the entire battle with the chain ressurrections. You can also use dragons to flame over the demons he summons. I'm guessing your ultimate problem will be lack of leadership, since you need to be able to handle the stacks he summons with any extra melee units that you have pretty easily.
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#15
12-22-2009, 08:59 AM
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dear Lord Ludwig
so at last you solved your problem and you understand how to trigger on the Dev-mode? please teach me in more details. i can not figure it out thanks a lot. Danke schön!
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#16
12-22-2009, 09:48 AM
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Quote:
 
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#17
12-23-2009, 07:52 PM
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Dear "goodplayer" I guess rancor26's answer is more than accurate. Indeed it's simple, you just have to add the - dev line out of the quotes.
As for the final battle on impossible... sorry guys but I don't get it. I restored an old save, replayed the last two islands, this time I got distortion to 3/3 and used the inquisitor's blade instead of selling it. I played the final battles a lot more carefully than before and indeed spawning paladin phantoms opens up whole new strategies. Indeed using the singing dagger K'Tahu went down a lot easier (he still wiped out 4/5 of my army but at least after 12 rounds he was taken care of and I could start resurrecting). But Baal... This time I had 190 paladins, 279 black knights, 300+ inquisitors, 800+ priests and 109 royal griffins. I used stone skin and phantom as advised. Result? on round 25 I was left with 100 paladins against 2 stacks of archdemons, several of executioners and imps, and Baal was "down" at 140,000 health... I repeat, I DO believe the AP champs like dobrev do it on impossible with 0 losses, but I feel like an amateur card&coin trick practitioner trying to emulate David Copperfield. I'll be away next week, but I think I am giving up anyway. Maybe I'll try as warrior, but beating Baal on impossible as mage just seems... well, impossible, at least for me.
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#18
12-23-2009, 07:55 PM
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Well i just did it with paladin with only black knights with no problems ^^. If u have black knights, black helemt and staff of acolyty necromancer helps realy to get much numbers. I had 400 with my paladin and this 2 items.
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#19
12-23-2009, 10:48 PM
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Quote:
I didn't use any direct damage spells on Baal except Geyser which is mostly for the other units. It's true that you don't do more than 4-5k damage on a hit. The keys IMO are not only Stoneskin, which is essential, but also the Archmage's Magic Shield and Divine Armor, which Bill Gilbert will cast on your units too. A unit with all three of these buffs will only take about 200 damage on a hit from Baal. Bill Gilbert's units won't last long, and what you need is Knights, Paladins and Horsemen hitting Baal every turn (i.e. in different rows). All will have Stoneskin, and you'll be rotating them through Divine Armor and Magic Shield where you can. So you'll do about 15,000 damage to Baal each turn. In my game I had Guardsmen basically doing nothing, so you could replace them with something else. I zap Baal with Archmages most turns too, which is worth at least 2000 damage. Geyser when he summons units is worth about 6000 damage on each stack, and even more for you with 70+ Intellect. This didn't last much longer than 20 turns. I think the Inquisitor's Sword is pretty much essential for more Paladins. With Flaming Eyes I had 34,000 leadership and maybe 170 Paladins. It's a pretty simple strategy and one I think you could use fairly easily with the stats you describe. And money isn't an issue as all of these units are freely available before the Baal fight. 
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#20
12-25-2009, 03:36 PM
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Thank you rancor26' very much.
Your answer is more than useful. i can use it, so grateful, guys 
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