strategy guide!

[Razorflame]

i was thinking about this for a long while and here it's going to be
my personal strategy guide!(for impossible, but can be applyable for each difficulty)

it doesn't matter what sort of class you play!
first thing you try to do after you start you game is save(after tutorial), then check the shops for GOOD items(good items it's half the game and who doesn't want to start with a good beginning?

after the save scan en look if u have any good ones (if not start over and do so again)


ITEMS

best item in the game is the DEAD SKULL

(+5 attack and +5 intellect is A GIFT FOR ANY CLASS

second best item ANGA"S RUBY
(for female armies)

gladiator sword>+10 might runes after 50 vics

banner of faith>+10 mind runes after 50 vics

ancient amulet>+10 magic runes after 50 vics

Baton>+1 morale to humans(last upgrade) too lazy to name all the batons

well of mana belt>+2 mana regen in combat (which is a GREAT BOON)

dragon cloack> +20% base defense and +15 % power of damaging spells excellent for mage

prismatic helm>+5 MANA and +20% power of damaging spells

xerus sword >+3 int and +3 att



look for 2 or more of these items in your start game to have a good start!

when you finally got a game with good items, get the quest for the rage box! as soon as possible. after it you go to the graveyard and get an ancient vampire from a coffing if possible then do the other main quest (kill the turtle)
1 ancient vampire in normal form kills the turtle) and by doing this u get an leadership bonus! which is very handy!

then to aim on the days talk to the dwarf next to the starting area and run to arlania killing everything and blabla but that is obvious

now for ingameplay battles

there are a few things that you should know. INQIsitor's are your lifesavior in darion! buy them as soon as possible and clear out darion

for battles be sure to have a good troop selection

and that is dependand on your playstye

you have an aggresive playstyle and a defensive one

the aggresive one means u rush into battle with a tank and let him suck up all the damage and he is also the only one u have to ressurect if possible

the defensive playstyle means u slow down enemies or keep them busy before they reach your army

*side note* if u have magic spring/gift/resu then an army consiting of an enemy troop which has NO retalition should always be A NO UNIT LOSS gameplay

keep that troop alive and reduce is so that is hardly does damage to your tank(cast magic spring on the tank, so u get +5 mana each time it takes damage) do this as long till u get enough resu to have 0 casualties

now for some tips on slicing enemy troops

how to battle MASS ranged units, ranged units are mostly low level what does this mean? meaning u can abuse them to your best benefit!

cast FEAR and the unit won't do anything to your troops that are higher level (this only doesn't work on hunters since they are level 4 (unless u have only level 5 units. but who does have that?)

if u face hunters cast blind meaning u won't get any damage from that unit and will just skipp it's turn and u can concentrate on the other troops which should be easy to kill


as for spellcasters u can distract them by placing units near them or totems
or turn them into a sheep or use magic shackles (demons and shamans are a example)

for mass melee stacks
then the spells SLOW/trap are your heroes
and also a unit that distracts them

DRAGONS

the most annoyance i've ever maddled with
traps are you savior then!
note that traps do WORK on black dragons! the ai is scripted so that a black dragon is easy to predcit where it will land and so i get's damage
and after use a stack of skelli archers with dragon arrows to finish him off(or any other archer but the skeli is best due to it's low leadership cost!)

or use a tank like giant to soak up the damage of the first initial hit and them camp with other melee units on them

GREMLIN towers

always make sure u kill the EVIL towers AS SOON AS POSSIBLE NO MATTER THE COST

later concentrate on the units
by doing so u cann abuse the friendly gremlin tower
how?
each turn it will summon a new stack or cast slow on a troop
what does this mean?

u can place a tank near the friendly tower and wait for it to summon a stack to attack the stack(the tank with magic spring on it will gain+5 mana)
meaning u can resu your whole army back ! and getting no casualties at all

best invention ever ^^

Good units!

inqistor's very handy unit that can resurrect and increase rage with the holy anger ability!(should be your unit that carries you to the dwarven island)

shamans very handy unit that can place totems and use it axes to heal all your units(BLACK DRAGONS can only be healed by a TOTEM or the AXES of the smans!) so keep this is mind if u are going to use black dragons!

evil beholders excellent unit that can put other units to sleep and has a nice ability to mind control an enemy stack using it's turn and taking damage and giving it to another unit by your choice(MAKE SURE THE MIND CONTROLLED UNIT isn't POISENED OR BURNING(which means it suffers damage and canceleing the mind control and giving the stack back to the owner)

emerald dragon (good unit for mages with the mana steal ability! and reasonable tank!

mauraders good unit for darion when your in short of money they can search dead bodies for money!(if your hasting for good items this is your quick income unit)

BEARS doesn't matter what bear if they don't do anything they go to sleep and this giving no retalition back (thus cast magic spring on them and let them defend so they sleep an enemy that attacks it will get no damage back and thus u can exploit this for armies that have no units with no retalition)

griffins great tank unit! that will ALWAYS RETALiate!

horseman excellent tank unit that is fast and does more damage in straight lines! and has high HP

royal thorns good unit that can give u extra units and does good damage

skeleton archer BEST ARCHER IN THE GAME due to it's low leadership cost and due to it boney it will suffer half damage of ranged attacks and u can have GREAT NUMBERS Of them.

dwarven alchemist GOOD TANK for defensive stacks and their bottles are very handy for undead/ creatures that are not resistant to POISON

DRYADS excellent spellcasting unit LULLABY makes level 1-3 stacks to sleep whichh is very handy in elven land where most unit are below level 3 (safe for unicors hunters and emerald dragons )

demonnes good helper for the army which is ABLE To seduce MALE humanoid units(demons can also be seduced!)

DEMONS (same as griffins only they have more HP and can summon more demon unit)

archidemons (maybe the BEST TANK unit in the game but hard to come by) their teleport makes them COME EVERYWHERE

priest good healing unit and can cast bless which is also nice

hunters good archer for shooting animals

elf good archer with double shot

dwarven cannoneer good hp archer with triple shot ability!

vampires(and ancient ones) good tank unit that can increase it stacks when it loses some

ghost very good tank that can ALWAYS increase their stack so be carefull that it doesn't go over it!

royal snake very good tank unit with no retalition!

giants good tank unit but least of the tank unit already mentioned above

ARCHIMAGS excellent spellcaster with it's mage shield makes TANK survive twice as long if not triple that time!

necromancer this unit is an excellent stack for DEFENSIVE strategies very helpfull for a mage(kill an enemy stack RESSURECT IT and the enemies will attack that stack instead (when fighting undead stack this guy is a MUST HAVE)(kill bone dragon and resu them)

the rest of the unit i haven't mentioned aren't worth mentioning they are obsolete and have no purpose

uunless
u power them up with items

female (dryads demoness lake fairies) can be boosted with anga's ruby to make them better or good




*chainfights*

a term somewhat new to beginners

when you are in a area*( and looted the items and troops u wanted)
prepate to CHAINFIGHT
what does this meaN?

start to pick up a weak STACK or a stack that u can easily kill without any unit losses)

do this battle as u would do normally but instead of killing al on the easy way try a bit harder in keeping the enemy alive

like magic spring to increase your mana and the enemy attacking your units for RAGE
keep doing this UNTILL u have MAX RAGE or MAX MANA or preferably BOTH

by doing this u can start with max rage and max mana next battle(which SAVES TIME!)
since you don't want to wait for the mana or wait till your rage has been decreased)

and by doing every battle with max rage and max mana this GIVES U a huge boost and more easy fights!

and time SAVING alot (try to do the quest later for better end timings)

Battle tricks

DEMONESS+inqi's(workable for armies that all got retalition! with slow melee units)

For this tactic you have to kill all the enemies except for the SLOWEST melee unit
slow is speed 1-2 (maybe 3 if u have faster units but that isn't quite the obvious case)

place all your armies at one side of the battle grid except for your FASTEST UNIT(dragons,horseman,evil beholders)
now when your final slowest moves to your MAIN army, use infernal exchange on the unit with the fastest unit at the other end of the battle grid), the enemy has to move again and u can repeat this proces over and over!(which is good)

iin other words you can let your inqisitor make holy anger after each 2-3 turns and u have free balls from LINA(keep using those chargers untill u have full mana and rage!) and go on to the next battle!

*note* this can also be applied with a archer if his level is below 2 (else it would do to much damage , unless u can seduce it then it can only fire each 3 turns) whereafter you seduce it again! )

Spells

here i will note the spells that will help u for a NO CASUALTY run

ressurection (quite obvious case no further info needed)

GIFT (use this spell with the inqisitor)

Magic spring/source of magic (generating tons of mana for u)

sacrifice (you will be able to increase your stack without the cost of money(but beware not to exceed THE max LEADERSHIP NUMBER)

Invisibility (in combination with 1 unit+rage cloud of poison u can decimate almost all armies(best used when your a warrrior)

trap (your best friend against black dragons/archidemons

dragon arrow(your second best friend if your using archers against dragons)

Teleport (in combination with the knight+circle attack+timeback this is a lifesavor)

magic shackles( best used against spellcasters and demons)

slow(best used in the beginning to give you more time to kill enemies(best used for mages who have low attack and defense)

battlecry( being the first who is able to bring damage always receives less damage )

ice snake*(more for mages than any other class(since it slows down (meaning -1 to speed) and does damage

firerain (read above but this is more for undead/plants

fear when nearing the end u will see alot of stacks that have enormous low level stacks(fear and u be safe)

blind (perfect for disabling a unit)

phantom(best spell aginst bosses in combination with shaman totems(making the spider and kraken laughable


sheep a more expensive way of disabling a unit

pain mirror (a VERY CHEAP damaging spell(good for high level units or enormous stacks

hypnosis (perfect combination with sacrifice(steal his unit sacrifice it to increase your own number and also good tank(when enemies keep pounding on the hypnotised unit)

target good to keep low level units alive when they aim for the tank

(for the spells not mentioned i haven't found a purpose for them at least not better than those mentioned above)

(not saying those spells not mentioned are completely useless, sure they have a purpose but less effective compared to those mentioned above!)







Razorflame out

for any suggestions or more detailed advice feel free to post it here and i will edit this post!

[Elwin]

Nice JOB, I stick it. Further guide development is also welcomed

[bucazaurus]

Little rectifications are required on Prismatic Helm and Dragon Cloak.
They have lesser bonuses.

[Razorflame]

thanks for the correction bucasaurus

fixed it now ^^
got anymore corrections that i missed?

[bucazaurus]

No more corrections. Just a tip to add.
Do not kill all the enemy stacks in the starting continent.
Kill only the stacks you need to advance with the quests and leave the rest alone.
I say this because if you find the Pain Skull or any other good items that gives extra bonuses after a certain numbers of victory later on ,witch often happened,then will be much harder to get those wins required to unlock those bonuses on enemy stacks found on advanced areas.

[loreangelicus]

Don't forget key spells, especially spells that combo with units types.

1) Inquisitors + Gift (level 1 only)

2) Emerald Dragons + Invisibility (level 1 only)

3) Phantom (level 3) + Emerald Dragons/Demons/Griffins/Giants/Shamans/etc.

4) Trap (level 3) + Archmage/Emerald Dragons (I see a trend here...)

[Razorflame]

mostly of those are already covered
but not in detail

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Razorflame

best item in the game is the DEAD SKULL

(+5 attack and +5 intellect is A GIFT FOR ANY CLASS

I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.

Both my paladin and Mage are making very good use of the Pain Skull (drained to 0% so it doesn't halve your mana). Without the Pain Skull, my mage couldn't even use any Rage skill in the first round (I know, I tried). +5A and +5I is great, but you can get them with multiple other items (for example the Royal Snake ring gives you +3I, the Runic sword +2A and +2I).

I'd have to say that I found the Rage abilities more usefull then the extra damage my spells or units would inflict - they don't scale as well with increasingly difficult enemy armies as Rage skills do (Glot Armor is a lifesaver in round 1).

There are only a few other items that increase Rage income, and the Spear of Rage is pretty shoddy in that regard. (+20% only in contrast to the +50%)

For a warrior, I bet the Rage increase is not as important, so the +5A and especially the +5I is more usefull.

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.

How many kills do you need to upgrade it?

Just started Ellinia, and just in case I pick it up somewhere (dead lands?), I have a bunch of suppressable items (around to fight, as well as an intact Gremlin Castle.

Alas, I have killed everything in Freedom and Darion (even Rezo, Enemen, undead in Deserted Castle) except for the giant and dragon enemies in the warrior test. All enemies in the dwarven lands are also dead, except for the double fights (will fight these at the latest level possible).

[Razorflame]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I'd debate that... Not that it's a great item (it is!) but whether it is worth upgrading.

Both my paladin and Mage are making very good use of the Pain Skull (drained to 0% so it doesn't halve your mana). Without the Pain Skull, my mage couldn't even use any Rage skill in the first round (I know, I tried). +5A and +5I is great, but you can get them with multiple other items (for example the Royal Snake ring gives you +3I, the Runic sword +2A and +2I).

I'd have to say that I found the Rage abilities more usefull then the extra damage my spells or units would inflict - they don't scale as well with increasingly difficult enemy armies as Rage skills do (Glot Armor is a lifesaver in round 1).

There are only a few other items that increase Rage income, and the Spear of Rage is pretty shoddy in that regard. (+20% only in contrast to the +50%)

For a warrior, I bet the Rage increase is not as important, so the +5A and especially the +5I is more usefull.

as i expected you ain't chainfighting that completely removes the value of the pain skull

before you even start your single fight after the turtle with a ancient vamp or something

make sure u got magic spring then end the battle with max rage and mana
and start new fight right after keep doing this untill u have cleared an area then go to the second with 75% rage

keep doing this area after area and you shouldn't have any problems in keeping the rage up
^^