Inquisitors vs. demonologists vs. archmages

[DGDobrev]

Most interesting Thanks for the info.

[dashcunning]

I keep thinking about using archmages but I'm always held back by the fact that they do completely terrible damage, the worst in the game in fact (in terms of damage per leadership). Even assuming 95% crit and the double attack ability, they are still only average for range units and about 10th worst overall.

Is the magic shield ability that good? It seems a waste to dedicate 1/5 of your army to a unit that's really only useful for that purpose. I haven't used them so I honesty have no idea how good they actually are, they just seem so awful.

[DGDobrev]

In my opinion, the Archmagi are well worth the price and are by all means one of my favorite units. Having incoming damage reduced by 50% is well worth it. In most cases, with stone skin/divine armor + magic shield, your tank stack will suffer minimal losses. Let's not forget that the 50% damage reduction is absolute - it works regardless of the damage incurred.

Let us not forget that the Archmagi have a decent HP value, so they will not fall like butterflies against bosses. Their damage is magic (ranged) and physical (close combat), which gives you 2 types of damage to work with.

This goes a long way towards making no-loss victories. I'd rather have 1-2 support stacks that help me minimize the casualties than 5 offensive stacks with big damage that I will have to replenish all the time. It's costly (especially on impossible where income is reduced by 50%) and it's time consuming.

[lauvhk]

If one doesn't use Fighting Trance, then one can use Archmage Magic Shield every 2 turns. That makes Archmage damage capabilities almost a non-issue.

[DGDobrev]

And people think way too much about damage

A good army consists of a tank, damage dealers, and support. 1 Tank unit (30% phys resistance) + 2 damage dealer units with good damage/leadership ratio + 2 Support units (like Archmage + Paladin or Archmage + Demologist or Archmage + Inquisitor).

This is why my ultimate party is:

1 Tank: Knights
2 Damage dealers: Paladins and Horsemen
2 Support units: Archmagi and Demonologists

This party guarantees no-loss victories for me all the time. Units are very high on HP, most of them have decent multi-type resistances. Good vs. Practically Everything.

If you feel bad with this party, how about this:

1 Tank: Paladins
2 Damage Dealers: Lake Fairies, Tree Fairies
2 Support units: Archmagi, Dryads

Low on HP, nothing much in terms of resistances, but the damage output is great, as long as you're not facing dragons

[Hento]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Let's not forget that the 50% damage reduction is absolute - it works regardless of the damage incurred.

Yes, by having Archmagi you can be on the offensive from the beginning, for example I always use knights which I teleport at the beginning to do their circle attack(they are super buffed, initiative, 3 moral and 40% increased damage). They do more damage than maxed out fire rain in terms of intellect and spell level.

So most of the times I don't even have to use target, just stone skin or phantom in the second round, and paladins resurrect them in round 3, at round 4 it is all over most of the time. To make the knights even more buffed you could use that demon companion which takes control of them and adds abilities, like always retaliating(+revenge skill).

It would be nice for knights to be faster so that I could use stoneskin in the first round, I guess adrenaline skill would be for that although it is too random, I never used adrenaline before, I suppose you can lower the odds if you have only a couple of stacks.

P.S.
It is very bad that horseman's weapon is not considered as melee, because they then don't receive the bonus to their damage. That's very stupid, if horseman's weapon is not melee I don't know what is.