Are low-armor and low-HP units useful at all when going for no losses?

[IntelCoreDuo]

Hello, I am trying to avoid losses totally, until I get 50 no-loss matches. After that, I'll avoid any losses for all units that are not in endless supply.

Does that mean that the vast majority of units are pretty useless for most fights? I would like to use huge stacks of low-leadership units to deal loads of damage, but it appears that they die very quickly. As a warrior I can't just resurrect them, and I would rather not use all my slots on paladins.

What are the ways to keep potential damage-yielding, weak units from dying?
I imagine that you could defend units by keeping them well behind my lines, maybe behind a dragon wall, if they are archer types.

For weaker melee units, Could Target force the enemy to attack a tank instead of the weaklings?

Also, can Sacrifice be used on summoned creatures? (That would, of course, render them useless.)

In general, do you use low health/defense units at all when avoiding losses? How do you deal with this?

[1darklord]

Well I hear target is very good, I haven't really used it much myself.

Early on in the game I used an all pirate force, which did great damage (I had loads of pirate items) but died quite easily, I found myself taking a lot of casualties though which is why I stopped using it.

Sacrifice doesn't work on summoned creatures, it will work on hypnotised creatures though.

For no loss I would stick to no more than one or two low health stacks as they will die easily. No retaliation troops like Royal Snakes or Fairy's are a possible, you'll still need to heal them somewhat but less at least.

Thorns are good, especially if you combo them with Fauns for healing. They can spawns loads of extra ones. (a few Royal Thorns early on are very nice)

I think tricks like using spawned/summoned troops with archers are some of the best tactics for no loss. I even used Orc Shamans to summon totems, these not only slow down the enemy but they also end up wasting their turn attacking them.

I hear other people like to use just a Dragon or Black Knights for no loss. I prefer to take all 5 stacks myself.

Daniel.

[dainbramage]

If you also bring inquisitors/paladins/runemages you can do it fine. I invariably use royal snakes and marauders at the start of my games, and you can keep them alive decently well. Problems arise when you're against enemy heroes who kill units from multiple stacks with spells though.

[IntelCoreDuo]

Originally Posted by dainbramage

If you also bring inquisitors/paladins/runemages you can do it fine. I invariably use royal snakes and marauders at the start of my games, and you can keep them alive decently well. Problems arise when you're against enemy heroes who kill units from multiple stacks with spells though.

Inquisitors? I found that they just revive a tiny bit of HP, is that because I had too few of them in my stack? If I lose 5-6 Royal snakes, can a stack of Inquisitors bring them back? Can a full stack of Paladins/runemages/inquisitors being back a whole stack?

[1darklord]

Originally Posted by IntelCoreDuo

Inquisitors? I found that they just revive a tiny bit of HP, is that because I had too few of them in my stack? If I lose 5-6 Royal snakes, can a stack of Inquisitors bring them back? Can a full stack of Paladins/runemages/inquisitors being back a whole stack?

Depends how many you have, as your leadership increases they can resurrect more. I also have a sword which allows +20% extra Inquisitors and Paladins, which helps.

I doubt you'll ever be able to heal an entire stack though, the timeback spell is ideal if they've taken appalling casualties.

Daniel.

[dainbramage]

Originally Posted by IntelCoreDuo

Inquisitors? I found that they just revive a tiny bit of HP, is that because I had too few of them in my stack? If I lose 5-6 Royal snakes, can a stack of Inquisitors bring them back? Can a full stack of Paladins/runemages/inquisitors being back a whole stack?

Inquisitors resurrect 7hp per inquisitor IIRC. Which isn't much, but enough to make up for a fire arrow or something. If you take more severe losses, you have a few options, but generally it revolves around phantoming inquisitors, and getting mana back through holy anger+mana accelerator, or keeping a no retaliation stack alive and using mana spring. But you really want your level 5 stack(s) to be taking the vast majority of the hits. It costs 1 mana to heal 500hp on your green dragons, but can cost a hundred to heal 500hp of royal snakes.

Of course once you get to the mid-late game, a single stack of paladins can heal so much it becomes ridiculous. And rune mages can handle any tier 5 units that need fixing.

[Shadowcran]

Early on, to prevent casualties before I got better troops, I would use both Priests and Inquisitors. Priests with healing to keep hp high of a tank and inquisitors to resurrect the odd tank unit I would lose. Royal Snakes work well as a tank early going, plus help to get that poison/fire badge fast. Stone Skin also helps and again, it's one you can use for a badge as well as the healing spell. The other 2 units I would use beholders as it seems I always get them early. Another part of this strategy is have the dragon use it's stone wall. This strategy is for early game only as later the wall is worthless except as a delaying tool.

I then managed to get a handful of Paladins. I kept them alive easily and their second wind ability is far better than others seem to think, especially with a no retaliation unit like the Royal Snakes. I replaced the priests with the paladins and haven't used them since. Still with the paladins, the stone wall strategy really works if you close off big areas but allow chokepoints where your tank awaits.

After this I try and get Shaman to replace one of the beholder stacks as they're not only useful with abilities, they have higher health and ok move. Shaman are like a priest tank and it's totems seem to make the enemy focus only on destroying them.

For THIS game, I then found Knights as far more useful than previous ones. Yeah, they have stunk up to this version,lol, despite their strength. I replaced the snakes with the knights and I use Second wind on them, along with adrenaline to get them close up to the battle. With a stone skin on and paladins coming up behind to resurrect, it's hard to lose any knights. Without second wind though, they'd probably not be used. Also, since my fire/poison is high, the summon phoenix is a great "attack absorber", especially vs the fire based units. I just stick them in front of the archers and force them to deal with it, meanwhile I'm closing in on them with a huge knight stack with stone skin and when I get it, Divine armor.

After this I found some demonologists...the best unit I've seen in the series. I put them in place of Evil beholders. Now it's a miracle if I lose a troop. Like the last enemy stack has to kill itself against one of mine before I can resurrect type of miracle. I'm beating bosses with "lethal" and not losing a single unit. The phoenix is still useful for battles vs fire based foes, but not much against power stacks. For that I rely on defense and delay and whittling down the biggest stack.

This is first playthrough with it. I found the pirates are fine 'en masse" but die fast and that gets expensive as you refill. It just adds up.

I'm at mid level I think for strategy. Late game strategy will probably change as I find different units. I've long since gotten the level 3 badge for no losses and the only losses I really got were from experimenting with pirates.

[the benevolent adversary]

you inspired me to right a thread about my favorite early army; it is over in the crossworlds forum.
basically for me the best early army consists of engineers, guard droids, arch-mages (from scarlet island; for the mages you need to do one battle), inquisitors and either royal-snake or griffons). after debir I sub out the arch-mages for repair droids.
you need to get the first strategy medal or just kite flags or the ancient droid to have enough leadership (as mage) to equip the engineers.