Dark Side - New Units/Spells/Skills

[BB Shockwave]

Despite my dislike of the game, I am a sucker for new units a spells, so I used DEV mode way back last summer to check out the new units and took screenshots. Because I was interested... a bit.
I only posted descriptions of the new skills/abilities, you can see the attributes in the screenshots.

Changes to old units:

-All Evil units get "Of the Dark" (such great translation!) to indicate they are eeevil. All good units get "Of the Light". Only useful to indicate spell/skill targets and moral. Light units dislike Dark units and moral will drop. Unfortunately, they changed all the spells that did not affect or hurt demons/undead to do the same for "of the Dark" units, meaning that your enemies will be using spells and Priest/Inquisitor skills to damage Undead, Demons and Orcs too, now.
-All Demons get Frenzy. See the Fire Elemental for description. Basically it increases attack as they deal/take damage and gives the chance to decrease reload time for frenzy points.
-ALL Demon talents are rechargeble now (because why not have Demons summon other demons and plant circles every third round, eh?) They also have much longer reload times, because of the new Demon skill Frenzy that basically makes the troop reduce reload time by dealing damage or using skills or taking damage... so, Rage, basically. It's woefully untested and makes Demons perform skills every other round they could only use once per combat in previous installments.
-All Humans get Figthting Spirit - units get +1morale if they lose half their numbers. pretty useless.
-Imps/Scoffer Imps get "Fire Thrower" (SIC!) ability. It's basically a description explaining why they have two Fireball talents now, both reloadable.
-Cerberus: Leap has a basic 9 rounds reload time.
-Swordsman: Prudence/Cautious has a change now, apart from the 10% chance, it increases by 1% for every 4% of troops lost.
-The Plant trait now makes the unit regenerate 10% of its max health
-More later.

New Units:

-Fire Elemental

New Level 1 Demon unit, basically a Ghost with a fire aura - you can still see the outlines of the Ghost if you move the cursor over it.
It's a terribly weak and slow (2 move points) melee unit that is immune to mind and fire, and burns enemies. It can teleport to burning units and use a round attack, because sure, you would want to teleport a weak unit into the throngs of battle.

-Blood Priestess

Level 3 Demon unit, has a design very different from any other artstyle on the game.
Another slow (2 move) melee unit like the Demoness, only weaker. Even has the +1 cell long attack just like the Demoness, and Beautiful. Her basic attack applies Bleeding curse - unlike in previous games, bleeding lowers HP and deals physical damage every turn.
Her talents are the afore-mentioned long attack (same damage), applying bleeding to an enemy from afar, and Sacrifice - which is just like the 3rd level of the spell. Only useful if you manage to Hypnotize or Seduce enemies, as summons cannot be sacrificed still. Guess being female she would benefit from Anga's ruby, if that's still in the game.

More later.

[Shadowcran]

Level 5
Dragon Rider
attack: 64
Defense: 64
Initiative: 6
Speed: 7
Critical: 20%
Damage: 100-110
Health: 900
Leadership: 1200
Cost: 100,000 each

Talents:
Dive: Attacks selected cell dealing physical damage to all ground enemies. Nearby enemies take 80-100 damage, 10% less for each cell after that. Reloads after 2 turns

Summon Dragons: Summons a troop of dragons to nearby cell. Leadership based on your leadership. 1 charge
Abilities:
Of the Dark
Flying
Breathes Fire attacks troop, and one behind it with a 50% chance of being set ablaze
Fire Immunity: 80%
Magic Resistance: 50%
Dragon Guardian

Worth the cost? Hell yeah.

How to get:
After you get Dragon Oncologon at the shelter, he allows you to buy a dragon rider per princess you sacrifice to him. You'll find the best first place to get them is at the "charm school" near the castle in Isenburg after it's taken over by the dark. For 1 million gp, you will get 15. 10 for the first 500,000, 5 for next 500,000.

Take at least 2 princesses to Feline Davencourt in Portland and for 100,000 gp, she'll convert 20 of her girls into fake princesses.

[Shadowcran]

What I'd like to see in an expansion:

A way to play the dark elves early on. Perhaps the storyline could revolve around Half elves and their shunning by elven society.

Wyverns as opposite to griffins. Has poison tail usually in fantasy.

Lich as an undead resurrection type unit. Perhaps level 5. Perhaps a way to make them at shelter by converting Necromancers?

Dark Elven Spider Riders, unless there's an issue with D&D and the drow riders.

[ShadowTek]

Don't forget that new freaky unit thats a ogre/little girl. And yup... Dragon Riders rule!!!

[Shadowcran]

Confirmed Genuine help

Ok, I tried my theory on getting to Verdelet, the Demonologist early as I'm replaying as the Vampire. All you have to do after Whitehill is sidestep the troop guarding the portal in the Catacombs and it's off to Verdelet. Avoid patrols until you get to center, then kite your way around picking up flags and the like. Verdelet has always had Demons and Demonologists and a lot of high level chaos spells.

I couldn't get him to join the shelter as I believe he's only for the Demoness to recruit, but with all the stuff he's got, it's fine.

Atrixus is a hard place to describe as to "where to go" but Verdelet is gotten to on the platform directly in the center. First platform. Also, there's an unguarded troop of either Demons(in Demoness playthrough) or Executioners(this playthrough) at one part. I got 14 executioners this trip.

I also found enough leadership flags and gold to accumulate extras in the reserve slots of the demons and demonologists so I'm good for probably til end of Monteville.

I'm going to try Tristrem next, but I don't see myself getting any orcs or gobs as I'm just not good with them...yet. (would appreciate tips with all but the shaman as I do use those well)

Ok, Can't get through Tristrem via the Catacombs, but you can get it on your teleportation choices by doing so. There's nothing there to get you that you have to sidestep, but directly on the path are 2 troops.

But if you teleport and kite your way around, you can pick up some goodies, but the only thing worth really grabbing is the neutral troop between shaman tents. Got 70 Catapults.

So beginning Portland, I've a full set of Executioners, Demons, Demonologists, and Catapults by doing all this. Other troop is Vampires x 17 thanks to all the flags I grabbed.

[Zechnophobe]

You can definitely use the sacrifice ability from the Blood Maidens on summoned units. I used it on demon and archdemon summons without problems. The only problem I had is that a full stack of the maidens started to generate TOO MANY troops and cause them to go berserk. Very annoying. Had to cut the stack down so it would just make one or two.

Being able to sacrifice the archdemon's summon stack to get 3 archdemons is pretty amazingly strong however.

[Shadowcran]

Archmages and Wizards Lightning attack with Trance can now hit 2 random targets after the main target if they're within 4 hexes. That's kind of new.

Ok, Dispel doesn't work on freeze, poison, bleeding or burning...so what negative effects does it actually "dispel"? Oil/flammable? It's now useless as a spell and the Mage Hunter(Of the dark version of Witch Hunter)and his talent of dispel is also useless.

"Creation" is the replacement spell that seems the same as Gift, with perhaps even more charges added than what Gift did.

Right now, I'm going with a full set of "Order of the Twilight" of traitor humans. Wizards(Dark Archmages), Dark Paladins, Dark Knights, Mage Hunters, and Heresiarchs all with morale at "Unshakeable" due to items I've gathered. I'm still playing the Vampire but am experimenting constantly with different combinations of troops.

Due to limitations in how many of these creatures, I had to use Blood Priestesses + Call of Nature to bulk their numbers and will have to again in a few levels. I may be replacing the Mage Hunters soon with Horsemen, where I started with only 14 of them and got them to over 100.

I adopted this strategy lately due to:
1. The Items that are available in this playthrough.
2. The Traps. Got tired of watching my summoned demons blunder into every trap and ziogyn on the map. Hell, they even moved in a stupid fashion(for no goal I can see whatsoever) to step in one. Why can't we control them the way we do every other summoned creature? Anyways, it's forced me to adopt a very defensive strategy.
3. The orcs suck
4. The dwarves suck
5. Haven't gotten to any dark elves yet and anyways, by the time you get them, they suck

Negative effects Dispel actually dispels:
1. Sheep
2. Helplessness
3. Peacefulness
4. Slow
5. Fear
6. Plague
7. Doom

Ways to Resurrect your main troops:
1. Dark Resurrection spell-Obtained by giving Simon in your shelter 3 Resurrection Scrolls
2. Dark Paladin ability
3. Heresiarchs
4. Demonologist's ability
5. Turn Back Time
6. Phantom of Dark Paladin, Demonologist, Heresiarch
7. Repair Droids and Engineer Repair ability, only for Droids
8.

There is a way to heal Level 5 creatures with "Chemists" healing bottles, even Magic resistant ones, but not resurrect as far as I know.

*Yes, I'm using this as both help for others and a sort of notepad at the same time,lol.

The biggest problems(some may be bugs) and difficult encounters to watch out for and plan accordingly:
1. Starting Spells for the Vampire
2. Starting troops for Orc(don't know personally as I haven't played him yet)
3. Seems for both "spell medals" where you have to cast a certain # of each, that one of the medals scrolls take forever to get. For Vampire, it was spells for the ones with Blur and Avenger(still don't have the other 2) and for Demoness it was the opposite medal.
4. Uncontrollable Summoned Demons blundering into traps and Ziogyns. Either allow us to control them or improve their AI to avoid the traps and have the Ziogyns boost their Adrenaline or whatever.
5. Playing Vampires and Ancient Vamps vs the Droids
6. Playing Vampires and Ancient Vamps vs Plants and Ents
* The last two make sense as it causes you to play more cautious so not something I want "fixed". And vs anything else, the vampires(exception being the female) perform great.
8. Finding real use for Female Vampire
-need either same leadership as Vampires or
-need self resurrection ability
9. Playing the Orcs/Goblins except one or two ranged mixed with other races. Adrenaline is kind of OP with shaman and underpowered with everything else. No attraction with them.
10. Playing the Dwarves and same thing as the Orcs/Gobs except adrenaline of course which they don't have. Mechanics are pretty good and with creation, can be deadly
11. Call of Nature is probably best spell in this version
12. Plenty of useless items in stores and map that you can sac for Magic Crystals. very good
13.


Random Thoughts:
1. An underwater race would be fun if you can figure a way for non underwater to fight them without drowning
2. Wyverns would be a good evil counter to griffins. Keep them evenly matched though
3. Why not Timber Wolves as a slightly better wolf add on
4. Teaming up with Battle for Wesnoth(a free TBS Strategy game) and using some of their factions would be fun
5. Robber types could use a leader type. A 'Kingpin'
6. Whatever happened to Archdruids from original KB?
7. Where in the hell are Rune Mages and their dark equivalent in this version? Maybe the Dark Version could be a Lich and have a resurrection for undead only type ability? Names for it? Lich of Runes? Rune Lich?
8. The Paintings are listed as artifact, but shouldn't they be regalia?
9. In an expansion, having a Traitor Humans buying place would be a good idea. Never enough of them and have to go to Blood Priestess to get more.
10. Shouldn't Sacrifice work on summoned creatures to obtain their numbers? It does for priestess but not the spell.


*Apparently Ziogyns only appear when you have 1 or more undead troops in your army and appear regardless of who kills the stack. No Undead, No ziogyns at all.

[BB Shockwave]

Wait, you mean the Blood Priestess sacrifice works on summoned units? So far, Sacrifice never worked on summoned/raised units, only hypnotised ones. That has to be a bug, they probably never tested it.

I can answer a lot of your questions with "This game was built on the codes of AP". Thus, it totally neglects any fixes and new changes that CW did. Same issue was with WotN, too.

Regarding the new units (I'll post the rest someday, I have the screenshots, just need time to make the data-files) I find it ridiculous how the developers thought every cavalry unit has to be an archer... Mounted archers were pretty rare in history, even if they were useful (my ancestors the huns and hungarians used them to great effect) - all three new cavalries, the orc wolf rider, goblin hyena rider and the amazon have ranged attacks, and two of them have totally overpowered skills like running away after being attacked (to avoid blocking) or "support" fire - meaning they will attack multiple times in one round, shooting a marked enemy when your other units attack it. Another unbalanced idea that they never tested.

And frankly, can we just call them Evlins? It's a stupid name, yes, but still better than the zygayzagesomething. I can actually pronounce it, for example.

[Zechnophobe]

Dragon Riders are pretty amazingly powerful. Summon dragon stacks, big full screen damage every other turn? Magic immunity? Zoiks.

The Female Vampires seem to be... I dunno, a typo? Why do they have the same leadership as Ancient Vampires, but similar starts to normal vampires? Their special abilities aren't that great. I feel they just have about twice the leadership cost they were intended to have.

The hyena rider shamans are pretty 'meh'. I do like a ranged cold damage dealer, but I just don't find their special skills all that wonderful. And they are SO fragile.

Got to level 60, haven't seen a wolf rider yet.

The Metamorphs are... uh, I don't see the point. If I wanted a specific stack I'd just bring it with me. The only possible value is if I wanted to switch between different types, maybe to reset charges/cooldowns?

The Spies I dunno about either. Interesting idea to be sure though.

Units aside, I *really* like the rage skills and skill trees in this iteration. Black Hole has a lot of cool uses other than just damage, especially after the area increase. The ability to cut out large parts of the battlefield, berserk enemy stacks, and lots of % damage + summoning... I feel there's a lot of great stuff to do here.

[Shadowcran]

The Wolf Riders are a collaboration between the Military dept and the Research Dept. You need to get Elven Cedar, which is at the end of Aralan conquest(late in the game) and some item from Dragandor. After that, you'll be asked for a lot of prisoners to turn into the riders, then 100 wolves(witches usually have them). I only recently(2nd playthrough) started trying them out and they're pretty good. Here are the stats:

Name: Orc Scouts
Level 4
Leadership 200
Attack 24
Defense 32
Initiative 5
Speed 3
Crit 10%
Damage 10-15
Health 180

Talents-
Piercing Strike-12-18 physical damage and ignores physical resistance
Support- Select another of your troops, Without using Action points, the Orc riders fires at same target as that other troop. Does 6-9 damage to that target regardless of that distance, lasts for 3 turns
Companion-Summons a troop of Wolves each having leadership 150. 132 of them was producing around 533 wolves.

Abilities:
Of the Dark
Shooter
Crossbowman
Wolf Cavalry
Greed
Adrenaline

The Metamorphs suck, take my word on it.

The Spy is currently bugged for steam players. I haven't gotten them and there's no prompt to do anything else to obtain them. If someone could post their stats I'd sure appreciate it.

The Female Vampires make little sense and for the reasons you highlighted. I did read though that you can spam the spell "Armageddon" while using the female vampires "Transformation" ability. They take no damage from Armageddon while in this mode.