super ultimate challenge

[impy]

Conditions are:

1) impossible difficulty
2) no loss of a single unit throughout a game. You can lose summoned creatures at your will but at the end of the combat original army has to be in ful numbers
3) no level 5 creatures can be used throughout the game.
4) no wanderer scrolls can be used throughout the game.
5) no pet dragon usage throughout the game. He stays at level 1.
6) no target scroll & spell can be used throughout the game.
7) no map kitting. You can lure the creatures around the map at your will and collect tresures but never pick new continent scroll without a fight.
Character : warrior.

You may ask why warrior class. I already suggested a slightly different ultimate challenge with mage, but someone said it would be more difficult with warrior class. So please excuse the bombastic thread name Yes, without the pet dragon warrior is like a mage without spell book. His offensive/crowd controll spells are weak throughout the game, traps are weak, chances of burning/poisoning are low,he is likely suffer from lack of 5th level tanks, no income from digging,and no target on presumably paladins is just plain crazy. But that is the point!

I wonder how much to tell you about how to play in order not to spoil the fun. I am currently level 33 and battles are still tough which I enjoy compared to regular middle-game.
1)I knew from the beginning warrior has to concentrate on magic and summons in order to get get hit very little. My current setup is royal griffins, demonologists, royal thorns, snakes,paladins with evil beholders, knights,druid combo, archmagi handy.
2)Your only advantage is higher leadership and quicker access to higher attack,defence. Go for it. Ignore extra experience skill etc, these things can wait.
3) Keep one thing in mind from the very beginning– fights for Verona scroll, that is what the first 4 islands are all about, to make sure you’re ready. There are 2-3 Verona scrolls available- Scarlet, Bolo, Rusty. Go for one where crowd control is easy, 1-2 level creatures. If you get tough units everywhere– archmagi, beholders, assassins, consider restart.
4) Your best friend early on is fear spell. I went quickly for Chaos magic+a few scrolls handy in order to have maximum crowd control for several turns.
5) Lure the enemy around the map. Frequently overlooked. First, you may get battlefield mostly blocked for walkers, with traps blocking the passages, great. Secondly, example, fighting pirate units by seaside gives them morale, take them somewhere else.
6) You need mana. I picked +5 mana dragon, bought +8mana gloves,+3 slippers, starting with 26 mana as warrior.
7) grind medals from very beginning, you hear it everywhere. Do the amulet of illumination trick, split archmagi into 2 or preferably 3 for as long as you can. I had trap medal III after 39 fights.
Do not get tempted to buy much else than creatures, you will not have dragon for digging. I was running around with training buckler & sword until 15 level.
9) use thorn overrun tactics. Let the weekest melee unit come to you, kill it, plant a thorn and so on and on.
10) Once in Verona, scroll guardians will be very tough. Concentrate on passage to Montero, from there on you should ok
11) and please do not abuse black knight strategy.

[Hento]

Hm, this is taking it too far, what's the point of playing any game by intentionally ignoring one of its main features, and the pet dragon is such a feature here...

[Zechnophobe]

Yeah, I think just having No level 5's, and No wanderer scrolls is a decent boost in difficulty. Maybe one more caveat of No Eviln?

Problem is, getting rid of the cool combat tricks also removes the fun of the game. I think a 7-day no loss impossible run, of ANY form, is a great accomplishment, and allows you to use whatever means possible to achieve it without arbitrary restrictions.

[tetleytea]

And you're only allowed to bring thorns and ents with you to Sheterra, and you have to defeat Baal with only spells.

[ivra]

impy! If you can achive this it would be some achivement!!! It seems to me that you are doing good so far.

I am currently trying to do a no-loss impossible mage that uses as few days as possible, hopefully no more than 7 days. That is hard enough for me... Personally I agree with Zechnophobe that your challange takes away some of the fun of the game. I like digging for treasures, and I like level 5 units. I like doing massive damage with the pet, like Fiery Phantoms against dragons and Ball of Lightning against huge enemy stacks.

[impy]

thanks for the feedback boys.
I actually unintentionally rasied the difficulty for myself, since i am level 39, all maps opened, cannot find time back spell. I guess paladins with inquisitor sword and summoning III at 69% will have to do for now. Well, opponents are really hitting a wall, since I have 39 defence + 12% resist all.
I was originally waiting for Disciples 3, when KBAP came and i love this game. I was looking for the ways to make it harder. Normally, middle game gets easy, we all know that. My battles are still challenging and I have to think about nearly every single one and keep changing setup.
Time limit is not for me. I once forgot to turn the PC off, came back from work next day, and it was day 50. Besides, i am 31, so i would probably have an heart attack going for time limit challenge

[Zechnophobe]

Well, time is only calculated meaningfully when you travel from island to island. And even when on an island, you can press space bar to pause. So just do that before leaving it on all night...

[impy]

right, job done.

See screen shots attached, all conditions met plus, as i said earlier, I could not find time back spell, eventually very late in the game, so i played game without it.
I also include savegame after defeating Baal, if someone does not believe it can be done without pet dragon, target, time back. I cannot prove no map kitting + no wanderer scrolls, you just have to believe me

[DGDobrev]

Great work impy You've proven a very strong point that the pet dragon isn't exactly everything for a warrior, as well as that the game can be won by conventional means and the black knights isn't exactly the most important thing, as well as the target spell. I also like your army setup (judging by the troop damage) - it's good, it's flexible, it's versatile.

[Zechnophobe]

How is your score only 395? I thought the minimum score for Impossible would have to be 404 (100, + 1 for days completed, all multiplied by 4 for difficulty). Even then you should have some amount of additional points for quests completed and level's gained. Hmm.

Edit: Nevermind, I got the math order wrong. Your 'days' number is only multiplied by difficulty level, not the 100 base, so: (100 + (1*4) ) * (100+ 54*2 + 86*2)/100 = 395.2