Two Things

[Jokubas]

I really like King's Bounty: The Legend, but there are a couple of things that drive me so crazy, I'm ready to give up on the game. Before I consider buying Armored Princess, I want to know if these things have been addressed.

1. No Constant, Guaranteed Supply of Troops
I was afraid to fight pretty much anything in The Legend, because I knew I'd inevitably lose troops. At first I didn't think anything of it, until I realized the vendors I was buying from had a limited supply. After that point, I resorted to using weaker, more easily replaceable units and started avoiding every possible battle I could to conserve troops.

2. Major Jumps in Difficulty in Main Quest
I think this one might be partially as a result of my first concern, but it's the main reason I'm stuck in The Legend. Every time I finally start to make progress in the story, they send me to a new area where everything is suddenly "Overpowering" or "Impossible" and I'm left wondering what I need to do to catch up. I'm definitely going to play Armored Princess on easy if I get it, that's for sure.

By the way, if anyone has advice for those problems in The Legend, I'd appreciate it.

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Jokubas

I really like King's Bounty: The Legend, but there are a couple of things that drive me so crazy, I'm ready to give up on the game. Before I consider buying Armored Princess, I want to know if these things have been addressed.

1. No Constant, Guaranteed Supply of Troops
I was afraid to fight pretty much anything in The Legend, because I knew I'd inevitably lose troops. At first I didn't think anything of it, until I realized the vendors I was buying from had a limited supply. After that point, I resorted to using weaker, more easily replaceable units and started avoiding every possible battle I could to conserve troops.

- Try not to lose troops at all! Now there are two spells in the game to let you achieve this (Time Back and Resurrection) plus two units (Paladin and Inquisitor).

-But if you are not into no-loss games: Frankly, the game is still very random, but there are so many places where you can recruit units that you are bound to find all units you need. There are also a lot of Castles and places that sell "Hordes" of units from level 1 to 4! (I found Hordes from Dragonflies to Guardsman to Hyterrants).

-On the other hand, some units can still be rare. I only found one place that sells Demonologists and Hyterrants were only at Sammael's castle (albeit as Horde). Also, even without losing a single Gargoyle, I did buy up all the avaliable ones as there were only two sellers selling them on Reha.

2. Major Jumps in Difficulty in Main Quest
I think this one might be partially as a result of my first concern, but it's the main reason I'm stuck in The Legend. Every time I finally start to make progress in the story, they send me to a new area where everything is suddenly "Overpowering" or "Impossible" and I'm left wondering what I need to do to catch up. I'm definitely going to play Armored Princess on easy if I get it, that's for sure.

By the way, if anyone has advice for those problems in The Legend, I'd appreciate it.

Well, good news is - you can get to any island you want without even starting the main quest. Bad news is... the Maps that lead to new areas are guarded by killers stacks. Sometimes, you can lure them away and grab the map - sometimes you can't. I was around Level 30 when I got to Reha, the Lizardman island, for example. But there is a "dificulty order" of the islands, so if you go through them in the correct order you won't have any serious problems. (First few: Debir -> Scarlet Wind -> Bolo -> Rusty Anchor -> Verona)

Also - to get the Pegasus wings, you need to defeat a strong stack to cross the bridge to Montero, and then kill an enemy hero (strong mage) in a castle to get the wings. But once you get them, life becomes much easier.

[Jokubas]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

- Try not to lose troops at all! Now there are two spells in the game to let you achieve this (Time Back and Resurrection) plus two units (Paladin and Inquisitor).

Originally I tried not losing troops (I try that in a lot of games), but I found it far too difficult. Resurrection costs too much mana to use more than around twice a battle for me (I left it at level two because I decided using lower level troops is better than making it cost even more mana). Inquisitors can only resurrect once per battle (as far as I'm aware), so they only barely help me there. I decided to take Necromancy, which helps a little bit.

I just can't help but feel that I've gotten as far as I have due to pure luck, as opposed to actual knowledge of the game.

Overall though, it does sound like Armored Princess fixes some of my issues with The Legend. The demo didn't really give me too good of an impression, because I could tell by the number of runes you start with and some loading screen messages that the demo gave you stuff you normally have to earn the hard way.

[DGDobrev]

Well... It all depends on your gameplay and your tactical thinking. In general, the game's not that difficult, even on impossible. All you need to do is to carefully consider your strenghts and weaknesses and the enemy's strenghts and weaknesses. Even battles with Impossible enemies on impossible difficulty can result in no-loss victories, provided you are careful and considerate.

Besides, once you make an army that is worth the effort, it usually pays off to stick with it. For example, My favorite army is mostly humans - as they are the easiest to achieve high morale. Paladins, Inquisitors, Knights, Demonologists and another unit of your choice (I usually get priests with paladin, cannoneers/elf hunters with warrior, or another summoner unit with a mage, as more summoned stacks mean more occupied enemies) and you can easily rock the game.

[Metathron]

Which difficulty did you play in KB:TL?

If easy or normal, you shouldn't have suffered such great losses so as to be chronically running out troops, and my advice would be to read some threads on these boards that discuss game strategies/tactics. Or ask questions of your own, perhaps describe a battle of yours in details and others will tell you what you are doing wrong.

If hard or impossible, why be shocked at meeting overpowering troops in a new area? It's not like you have to fight everything that crosses your path. You have to pick your battles: grab free leadership banners and treasure chests, analyze an enemy army before you attack them, i.e. is your army composition suitable for fighting your enemy's army, etc.

[Jokubas]

Originally Posted by Metathron

Which difficulty did you play in KB:TL?

If easy or normal, you shouldn't have suffered such great losses so as to be chronically running out troops, and my advice would be to read some threads on these boards that discuss game strategies/tactics. Or ask questions of your own, perhaps describe a battle of yours in details and others will tell you what you are doing wrong.

I'm playing on Normal.

Part of my problem is that I don't even exactly know what my problem is. I've moved through the game at a decent pace so far, but I continually get held up in ways that make me feel like I'm missing something important. This might partially be a result of the fact that the only games I have played that is anything close to this is the Disciples series, which still has significant differences.

I have a level 14 paladin, and my army is as follows:
101 Inquisitors
120 Elves
247 Swordsmen
48 Horsemen
50 Archmages

The quest I'm on is to break the spell on the elf queen, but many of the enemies in the elf area are strong enough that I know I will sustain heavy losses, and the land of the dead has enemies that are outright impossible.

I try my best to avoid losses, but it seems almost every enemy group now has ranged attacks the blow away chunks of my troops at a time.

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by Jokubas

I really like King's Bounty: The Legend, but there are a couple of things that drive me so crazy, I'm ready to give up on the game. Before I consider buying Armored Princess, I want to know if these things have been addressed.

1. No Constant, Guaranteed Supply of Troops
I was afraid to fight pretty much anything in The Legend, because I knew I'd inevitably lose troops. At first I didn't think anything of it, until I realized the vendors I was buying from had a limited supply. After that point, I resorted to using weaker, more easily replaceable units and started avoiding every possible battle I could to conserve troops.

2. Major Jumps in Difficulty in Main Quest
I think this one might be partially as a result of my first concern, but it's the main reason I'm stuck in The Legend. Every time I finally start to make progress in the story, they send me to a new area where everything is suddenly "Overpowering" or "Impossible" and I'm left wondering what I need to do to catch up. I'm definitely going to play Armored Princess on easy if I get it, that's for sure.

By the way, if anyone has advice for those problems in The Legend, I'd appreciate it.

To be frank, your problem is your own tactics, not the game being too hard. The game isn't that hard, as others have said. Try clicking autobattle once in a while and see how badly the AI does. What happens? The AI sucks. It will lose far more of your units than you should be able to do yourself. Why? Because the AI plunges straight forward, engaging with the enemy in the style of the film 'Braveheart.' You don't want to do that, unless you have an overwhelming advantage in troops. To cut down on troop losses, there are a number of things you can do:

1. Create cannon fodder

- the Phantom spell, Royal Thorns spawning Thorns, Royal Griffins (in Armored Princess) spawning Griffins, and many more. Use these summoned troops to slow the enemy while you pick them off with your real army.

2. Have a super tough 'tank' stack, and other ranged stacks.

- Choose one type of unit that is suited to melee combat. Griffins were good for this in The Legend, but I also used Horsemen a lot because of their speed. You want to 'buff' this unit as much as possible using spells like Stone Skin or Magic Spring. You could use Target instead if you want to draw the enemy's attention, but I usually didn't do this. Apparently Giants + Target is an awesome combination. You can also use other units to supplement this unit, e.g. Archmage's Magic Shield ability. Then you have a super strong tank that absorbs hits for you with a minimum of losses. Glot's Armor is your friend too in The Legend.

3. Slow the enemy

Trap is great for this, because the enemy loses all action points and takes damage too. Great for grids where there are chokepoints. I didn't use Slow much, but there's always that. Anything that freezes the enemy can be useful here. Basically, you don't want the enemy engaging your troops en masse in melee fighting. Every time you lose 1 unit from 1 stack you should regard this as a failure that needs to be fixed next time.

[Metathron]

Wait a minute, at level 14 you shouldn't necessarily be clearing out the elven lands, still less the undead ones. Have you cleared out (and thus leveled up sufficiently) Freedom Isles and Kordar, not counting extra strong units that you might have left for later (e.g. the demoness hero in Taron Mines next to the king's son's castle)? Have you finished most quests to get the experience for level up?

Also, to remind you once more that just because something's in your path, doesn't mean you should (or can) defeat it. Try sneaking around, getting some quests complete -- like the Egnum the evilns eater quest that you get in the House by the waterfall place in Magic Valley, not far from where you disembark -- or recruiting useful new units. Have you got the Anga's Ruby artifact? It's a quest item, so you can get it in every game. Try equipping that and then recruiting some sprites, lake fairies and dryads and despair no more. In any case, ditch those swordsmen right away and get royal snakes or some other superior unit. Take a boat and grab some free stuff around the elven lands (another possible replacement for swordsmen - emerald green dragons whose dwelling is accessible by sea only in the Valley of a Thousand Rivers).

This site has some good information on the game: http://gamebanshee.com/kingsbountythelegend/

BTW is this your first time playing the game? If so, you really shouldn't feel bad as there are tons of things to learn and consider, which is one of the biggest reasons why this game rocks so much. I remember in my first game I came to complain to these boards that the demon lands were too hard. Turned out I had completely missed Ellinia and the Undead Lands (wasn't paying much attention to dialogues).

[Jokubas]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

To be frank, your problem is your own tactics, not the game being too hard. The game isn't that hard, as others have said.

I always did feel that it was me and not the game, and you proved it here. I pretty much do Rambo through most battles myself, and it's because I'm used to this being true of most games: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...essUsefulSpell

Come to think of it, the Ice Orb has done me some good in distracting my opponents in the past. I really didn't think of using those strategies very much; I feel really stupid now that I know it actually works.

Originally Posted by Metathron

BTW is this your first time playing the game? If so, you really shouldn't feel bad as there are tons of things to learn and consider, which is one of the biggest reasons why this game rocks so much.

This is my first time playing this game, and my first time playing a game in this exact genre (as I said before, Disciples is close, but differs in key areas like combat).

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll check back here, but next time I go into the game I'll try to take this stuff into account.

UPDATE: I just replaced my Swordsmen and Horsemen with Lake Fairies and Dryads. I was on my way to getting Sprites and the Dragons you mentioned (neither of which I could find yet), when I was caught by surprise by a tough enemy. At first I was going to load it because I wasn't ready to fight anything, but I decided to try new tactics. I made it through with no losses! I filled the field with Thorns and the Ice Orb, and they never got to me. The only thing I would have done different next time is focus a bit more on their ranged guys, which caused me to have to use a lot of Resurrections.

UPDATE 2: Found the dragons. Right now I'm still experimenting with different combinations, but using thorns, phantoms, and ice orbs as distractions has already saved me a lot.

[Metathron]

Put ranged to sleep (assuming they're elves, not hunters) with dryad's lullaby along with other level 1-3 units. Got the phantom spell? Cast it on dryads in the third round (when lullaby wears off) and cast lullaby again with phantom dryads, while you pick off any remaining level 4/5 enemies (assuming any are left). By the time the second lullaby wears off, lullaby will become available again to the original dryad stack. Get my drift...?

Also, you got Anga's Ruby, right? It's a must have for a girl army. Hopefully you find sprites, too.