Karador and Life Light Spell?

[Helios]

I hated that about my Mage, too. He killed so many with Sacrifice that I couldn't restore them all very easily. I was tempted to remove his Int-boosting equipment for some fights, but it sounds like it's your base Int that's already causing the problem. That sucks.

[Vulture]

Yeah, it makes it impossible to kill Lucky James only with free goodies. The key units are scarce. Only 2 Demons while I could have 15 or so, same for Horsemen and Knights. The only high hp lvl 4 unit I have available on the Islands are Polar Bears and it's not enough for a kill without losses because I only have 19 Inquisitors and those resurrect a whopping ONE Polar Bear...
I tried bringing Priests to heal them up but then I lack damage to take his units out before Priests and Inquis run out of charges. 2 heals and one ress isn't enough, sadly. With Archmages to shield the Polar Bears and Stone Skin + Target being mandatory for a no losses kill I just can't dish out the damage necessary. And I only have Magic Runes for one point in Higher Magic (I miss 2 for 2/3).

GNAAARRRR... looks like I have to pay up. I hate playing a Mage. With a Warrior I would have picked one unnecessary fight against a random Greenwort humanoid army and sacrificed / drain lifed my troop to max ldr and just bashed Lucky no-loss-style with Vampires / Sacc at lvl 5 with only 3 battles prior to that. But no, with a 7 int Mage you can't pull that off :/

[Vulture]

In case you wanna know how it looks if you beat the Turtle at lvl 4 and have Higher Magic at 5, here are the pics ^^

[Helios]

Nicely done! I assume you reached that level merely by doing the Plugens fight, and other fetch quests that didn't involve fighting?

[Vulture]

Si !

[Vulture]

So, I'm lvl 12 now (Temptres Isshara, Treaty with the Dwarves, Good Beer! and exp shrines gave 2 levels each ^^) and have only fought about ~7 battles. Robber, Turtle, Zerock activation battle, Trial Of Will, Zombie Miller Ring suppression and a thorns battle or two in order to Sacrifice/Ressurection my stack of 5 Vampires up to 88 to be ready for Bogacho castle which I easily did without losses.
I then cleared Greenwort (I just love the automatic mana replenishment at the Magic School :>), leveling Spirits and boosting the Sprites I stored after the trainig missions, the 269 Lake Fairies I found at the trader in Demonis and my current main team (Ancient Vampire Bats, Vampires, Demons, Skeleton Archers, Demonesses) to over maximum.
It's still tedious tho, because the opposing armies don't even have as much health combined as my sacrifice does damage to the Vampires xD So I still have to rely on using resurrect III after two Sacrifice Is on my Demons but that'll change as soon as I'm on the Islands.

But before that, I'll go pig out Egnum and grab the Crystals and Shamans from Karrakh in Ellinia :> Free loot ftw !

[Helios]

Thanks for the report, Vulture. It's interesting to see how a game where you go around collecting resources goes. Pigging out Egnum is a great idea, too. I know what my Archers game is going to start by doing! It really only matters if you get one of those win X number of battle items if it's at Karador's Castle, the ensuing Lord promotion from King Mark, or if it's in Haas' Labyrinth or Murock. Do you try to get Fandor's Map without fighting much, too, and get the Cold Brook quest for the total +12 of every rune? I found it really hard to tag the Obelisk in the Gray Wasteland without fighting.

The Magic School in Greenwort fills your Mana every time you visit it?! I didn't know that! That would make things a lot swifter in Darion!

[Vulture]

To be honest I knew it once and forgot it and just accidentally noticed it yesterday as I was doing a quest. Then I recalled it and just blew all my mana in every game (I'm so glad that sacrificing gives ~10 rage on avg, I'm always full) ^^

Btw there is literally nothing on the map in this game that you cannot reach easily without fighting (unless ofc the access is blocked through a battle-related quest). Except one mini island in Verlon forest. There's literally no space. The rest is piece of cake. Although it needs a little bit of practice. But I have been doing that for 2 years now and it's like I never did anything else ^^ Especially in the Grey Wasteland as there are not even half as many enemies on such little ground as, say, the Western Islands or Taron Mines.
There are like what, 8 stacks in the entire land ? You have that on the main island of the Westies even ^^

Thanks for reminding me of the Cold Brook. I constantly forget that when I'm scouting. I don't recall if Violetta accepts the Map before Karador is dead. Do you have any information on that ? You see, I usually don't scout'n'loot past Demonis because all I want is Reaper to not miss more than the 3 battles necessary to get him.

[Helios]

That's great about the Magic Academy. Darion should be a breeze and the investment in Meditation could be more easily put off that way. BTW, when, if at all, do you invest in Alchemy?

No idea on Violetta and the map. I bet she wouldn't. That would just be weird if she did. Too bad, that would be a great source of runes! I'll try next time out and see.

I guess I need to brush up my skills on avoiding battles! I usually end up grumbling when I'm trying to avoid enemies in Marshan Swamp and the crypts.

[Vulture]

You can clear all crypts' loot without a single battle. Except if you get a Vampire Bat on the map in the smallest one (the square one with the 2 sarcophagi and a skeleton in the wall).

Btw Meditation is never worth investing in at all whatsoever. Let's put it this way: especially as a Mage, where your rage inflow is weak and you are more likely to use Inquisitors in the first place, your source of mana and rage will be endless anyway which means you can always kite the last survivor and boost your mana before the battle ends. This is vital as a mage anyway because if you use Meditation you lose precious rage you can't afford to forgo.

I just finished clearing up Darion including Enemen. I'll let Noric live because he had the audacity to give me a Bronze Ring when I killed him (mofo -.-). I still don't have a wife. I wanna go with Xeona because I just need weapon slots. Until then I think I'll just go without a wife. The ridiculously low amount of Might runes so far tells me that I'm gonna be spending my fortune on them anyway. I don't want to lose too much money on a divorce.