Quick Run Through updates

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Rakush, the Goblin leader on Uzala... I just scouted him out because I was thinking about assasinating him at about level 26 while doing: Dersue-Verona-Tekron.

Turns out though, that his army of goblins kills mine... before I get to take an action! Now, this is mainly due to my army selection at the moment, but I just wanted to scout him out to remind myself what stat boosts he gets. I guess One of them is initiative. I don't know exactly HOW MUCH initiative though, but more than 6 for sure.

It is all level 3 and lower stuff, so I just need to win init, and then dryad storm him. But man, those Goblin Shamans are broken strong. One stack can kill three of mine just by casting that stupid spell...

Yeah, he definitely gets an initiative boost. It doesn't help that he loves to cast geyser too.

Yup. He has destroyed or nearly destroyed my entire army in one turn before.

Sometimes I wonder if those guys who insist on "no saving/reloading" have ever played the game normally on Impossible mode.

[Zechnophobe]

Well, joy of joys, I seem to have lost another save game, under the same circumstances as before. I saved before leaving Montero to 'scout out' Uzala, came back the next day and the save game is gone. I have a save from 4 levels ago (level 20) or the autosave from Dersu. I kinda need to clean out most of Dersu in one go though, or I'm going to have severe problems being strong enough to do Tekron (Which has some hard fights, unlike Umkas).

So... try an even slightly MORE impossible challenge, or replay 4 hours of game? Uggh.

[Zechnophobe]

Hah.. So, I started over, since I lost so much time from same games going away, and wanted to try a few things different.

I have encountered on Debir, two DIFFERENT enemy armies containing level 5 units! I've *never* seen this before. One contained a RuneMage (not too bad, since it spent most of its time not attacking).

The other contained TWO Cyclopses! That was the army in the little cave near the snake hut. Two Cyclopses. I'm pretty sure that is just straight up not beatable without losses this early. You can't control them, you can't really even do much damage to them with spells. And then... they attack and kill some things.

Has anyone else seen this happen before?

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Hah.. So, I started over, since I lost so much time from same games going away, and wanted to try a few things different.

I have encountered on Debir, two DIFFERENT enemy armies containing level 5 units! I've *never* seen this before. One contained a RuneMage (not too bad, since it spent most of its time not attacking).

The other contained TWO Cyclopses! That was the army in the little cave near the snake hut. Two Cyclopses. I'm pretty sure that is just straight up not beatable without losses this early. You can't control them, you can't really even do much damage to them with spells. And then... they attack and kill some things.

Has anyone else seen this happen before?

Yup, I've seen that happen before. That's also why I say sometimes a dose of luck is a factor for the "7-day" run. Either that or everyone else is much better than I.

[Zechnophobe]

So, uggh. Uggh and double uggh. I have been trying to use High level orc units for the early parts here, and it just doesn't work. As awesome as orcs are when they START with 10 to 20 rage, they really just stink without any. Blood Shamans, Orc Veterans, Trackers... they all look like they could be awesome. But so far they've just been really bad. I've wasted too much money on them now, I think I may just restart back from Debir and not do a more traditional Bowmen, Priest, Inquisitor type thing instead. Maybe just Orc Trackers as a tank since they have lots of HP.

[atlatea]

Unless you're a warrior or paladin, using orc at early game is disaster indeed.

Or you could try the weirdest mage build, going asap to get onslaught or adrenaline.

However as warrior or paladin, as soon as you have onslaught 2 or adrenaline 2, or both, those orcs are some of the best, especially orc veterans. Goblins begin to show their overpoweredness at this point tho.

[Zechnophobe]

Well, I'm now level 33, and things are looking good. I managed to Dryad stomp Rakush on Uzala, which I needed to do since it was the only place in the game that a necro call scroll existed.

Not only that, but I've realized I have a LOT of sets in this game.

Dragon toy? I've put it together already!
Ogre Set? Have it!
Scale Set? Scouting Shows it is there!
Engineer Set? Got that one too!

What an incredibly lucky game. Also, Gladiator sword was on Bolo, meaning it existed right when I finally had enough money to buy it, and then made a lot of fights in that area and immediately after easier.

Current lineup: GDroids-RDroids-Engineers-Alchemists-Green Dragons-Red Dragons. Depending on the situation I either use: Guards, Repairs, Engineer, Alchemist, Reds or Guards, Repairs1, Repairs2, Red, Green (This is the boss battle lineup)

Been working exceptionally well so far. Just cleaning up the Montero underground fights I didn't do before, then Hagni goes down, then we do Umkas-Tekron (And pick up an optimization module there!).

[Zechnophobe]

Tekron, Dersu and Montero down. Defeated Hagni with basically no trouble. Umkas is next, and I just did the two hard fights there (nameless scroll and grog ripper). Didn't even need wings for the chest quest here. Level 38. I'm thinking I might be able to just go straight for Reha now. Scale set is there. Hmm, so Take out Ktahu with Guard and Repair droids alone? I've never done that before, but with massive physical resist it may be possible.

Another option would be to skip it entirely for now, and when I go back to get the meteor tools from Montero, swing by there on the way. I feel that will waste more time.

Ultimately I haven't been all that fast here, It's almost done with day 6 and I've still got a fair bit left to do. I guess I spent too much time dilly-dallying around in verona-montero. All that normal travel time adds up too! Oh well, still pretty pleased with it.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Tekron, Dersu and Montero down. Defeated Hagni with basically no trouble. Umkas is next, and I just did the two hard fights there (nameless scroll and grog ripper). Didn't even need wings for the chest quest here. Level 38. I'm thinking I might be able to just go straight for Reha now. Scale set is there. Hmm, so Take out Ktahu with Guard and Repair droids alone? I've never done that before, but with massive physical resist it may be possible.

Another option would be to skip it entirely for now, and when I go back to get the meteor tools from Montero, swing by there on the way. I feel that will waste more time.

Ultimately I haven't been all that fast here, It's almost done with day 6 and I've still got a fair bit left to do. I guess I spent too much time dilly-dallying around in verona-montero. All that normal travel time adds up too! Oh well, still pretty pleased with it.

I just hate how Ktahu can slow you down with that imba AoE scream.

I also keep forgetting that the summons get zero bonus stats since Ktahu, while a Boss, is not a real Hero. Haha.

So I guess it is possible. I just feel they would do too little damage and get overwhelmed.

Then again, you are a mage though... so who knows what nifty tricks you got up your sleeve.

While I loathe to do it, I just use black knights to beat the bosses if I am a mage.

Yes, going back and forth sucks a lot of time away. It is hard to get the dream army too, since you can beat some armies with an "ok" army, but then you need to get a few more troops in that far away castle, etc. Bleh.

[Zechnophobe]

It'll be interesting to see.
5% (guardian angel) + 10% (cuirass) + 20% (droid) +20%(scale set) = 55% physical resist. 95% with Stone skin. So as usual the big dinger will be the ever accursed gorguanas. I'll have helm of chaos to reduce damage back down to ~100% base, but won't have diploma for any more than that.

If I move repair droids adjacent to gorguana's while the guard droids focus on Ktahu himself, it might workout. Stoneskin lasts more than 4 turns, so I can easily stagger casts of that to each turn, and throw in mana spring now and then for more.

Dunno, it could work. I just don't know if I'll do enough damage. Luckily the playing field often gets cluttered with weak heyterant stacks after a while.