Karador and Life Light Spell?

[Helios]

It just occurred to me that the Life Light spell might be pretty good for the battle against Karador (I assume this is why the Tree of Life Sprout quest gives you the spell right outside his castle). Is it actually useful in practice? I'll give it a shot in my game this time around, but I just started. Has anyone had any success using the spell in that battle?

Edit: If it only makes undead units run away one hex, then it's probably better to spend the mana elsewhere. I didn't realize it only made them run one hex.

[Vulture]

It does work like that. It makes them leave the area. It is indeed useful with Karador if you have the spellcast and mana to spare (aka not as a warrior ><).
It could be better, tho, I agree. And I would really love a spell like that for the Archdemon Baal battle.
Just yesterday I was reminded how much of a cunt Baal is >< If he wasn't so dumb to punch out all his mana on Demon Portals so he is oom after 4 rounds, he wouldn't be beatable without losses whatsoever.

Usually I'd mind changing the subject of a thread but given the circumstances that we're only 4 active members at the moment on here anyway: who gives a crap ? ^^

Screen in the attachment.

Warrior lvl 28, 24k ldr, 26 Atk, 16 Def, 13 Int
133 Ancient Vamps
299 Vamps
119 Demons
187 Demoness
1849 Skeleton Archers

[Helios]

I was so desperate for space against Karador that I thought this would have been a good tactic, but I was too busy blinding his archers and necromancers and dispelling hypnosis or fear to get a chance to cast anything like Life Light. When I beat him on level 18, I ran around my house cheering. I was incredibly lucky to win--on some turns I let Karador have my hypnotized unit, just so they wouldn't take a crushing blow from the 170 or so black knights waiting behind another stack. I only won because I teleported a stack of thorn warriors to his necromancers, which caused his army crushing one stack of black knights (and other more negligible units) to make a dash for the thorns and giving me the time to move my army into position over the bodies of the dead and reform a three unit front line (with the Ice Ball).

And congrats on Baal with no losses! I think I ressed all but a few units after with my Paladin. I usually get bored ressing after round 25 and just finish. My fewest casualties in a playthrough has been ~1400 counting the training grounds, and 25% of that total being dismissed troops.

I like that he uses Demon Portal--it helps me to shore up my front line by blocking a space. :p Mass Magic Shackles has been pretty helpful for me with him, and I had surprisingly good support from a stack of Knights with morale boosted from a baton and the armor, along with Circle Attack. They held the line and cleaned up those Archdemons trying to break up rear units. I think Holy Anger is one of the most underrated skills in the game with such a massive boost against some of the toughest bosses like Karador and Baal.

And don't mind changing subjects in here, like you said, I'm thrilled to find anyone with a pulse in here to discuss how to improve my gameplay!

And I'm still curious on EXP: what do you have in the way of EXP boosting skills on equips on your Warrior? I was at level 28 at Baal, too when I had 3x Learning, 3x KoL, a Tactics Treatise, and half of the game Rina with a modded baby that gave 20% EXP. If you were that high for him without some of those skills, then maybe KoL and the TT aren't needed to hit level 30 on Impossible.

[Vulture]

Well, I had 1 point in learning and was wearing the Tactics Treatise for a while for the lack of a good second artifact (all late in the game for me). No KoL or Blood Band.
And then again, I used all the tricks you can, like buying every upgradeable item and upgrade them (I have 2 Archmage's Staffs and sold them. I never had 2 with a mage and now I get two as a Warrior). Also I killed everything outside the Labyrinth and Murock (logically, Key Quest and all) before I went to Baal. Nothing special actually.

And I made sure to beat the early bosses on as low a lvl as possible for they yield the most exp. Like the Giant Turtle. Killed her with one Ancient Vampire (of course I made sure I have one in the game) and random ranged units incl Archmage to give the vamps their shield. And casting magic spring. The turtle cannot kill the Ancient Vampire in one hit with those buffs so he regenerates after each round giving you enough time to kill the Turtle (which ar lvl 3 and some 10-odd Bowmen takes a while ^^).

I also complete every quest in a way so that I get the most XP out of them. For instance if you hoist King Mark's flags over the Frog's houses you get more XP. Most people would make it so that the quest ends in favor of one of the frogs because they'll have some desired item or troop after that and because hoisting Mark's flag will fail the quest for Bagaba/Squelch retroactively (but you keep the XP you got ) and people don't want a failed quest in their summary. But you get to fight one more frog castle and can complete the quest in favor of Frogis, to boot.
There are other examples which I can't think of now.

btw: funniest shit ever. Yesterday I killed Dragon Dreddho in the tournament in 3 rounds (before he could even begin to think about casting Geyser xD ) because he was as stupid as to lightning my Vampire bats that were in the top position. But everybody else on my team was out of reach. So what happened ? He Lightning'd his entire army, shocking them. So nobody except the Evil Beholders that stood right in front of the Vampire Bats was able to attack in round one with their one Action Point ^^ My Skellies took out 122 Knights in two turns. And the Dragons suicided themselves by attacking my two vampire stacks and the two demons (taking marginal damage only. I had to ress ONE Demon ^^), dying from mass Dragon Slayer'd supported retaliation (Demonesses slew 8 Red Dragons without (!) the Whip equipped)
Long story short, I didn't even have to use Time Back so I just Underground Blade'd them once and then Black Hole'd them all. Round 1 Icy Thorns for the Skellies ofc. I was lucky he cast Pygmy on my Demonesses in round two instead of Geyser (idiot ^^). And his last stack died before they could move in round 3.

Easy Dragon Slayer Sword and know what the good thing is ? I had one before already. Now I have 2 Dragon Slayer Swords and Dragon Slayer spell at lvl 3 (mass) :>
But I only wear one of them because Demetrius makes more sense to me in the other slot. -20% ldr for Demons and I currently run with Demons and -esses. At the cost of one Atk. Fair deal :>

@Edit: dismissed troops do not count as losses, dude. Only what is displayed as such after battles qualifies as losses.

[Helios]

Thanks for the info on your EXP. I didn't know you got more EXP for that Ancient Vamp Turtle trick. Those are some interesting ways to boost EXP. Is there a way to start a battle with Vamps in bat form? It sure would be nice to start with that initiative boost.

And that's one hilarious outcome for the tournament! Nice of him to reserve his geyser for his own death. That fight was a breeze for me last time through, too, as King Mark had a Dragon Slayer sword for sale at the start of my game. It's amazing how much damage units do with two of those equipped. I wasted Ultrax battles in two rounds each (with minor casualties) with those on.

How do you achieve no losses with the Haas incarnation Dragon Weir and his geyser-spamming? You have to wait for him to run out of mana, right, eating the spell many times? Or do you beat him down as quickly as possible and hypnotize his last unit so he doesn't get a turn? (I hadn't thought of that previously.)

[Vulture]

Yeah, exactly the same with me. The Dragon Slayer sword was available from scratch. I didn't even intend to pick a game that has that. It was a bonus from searching a game that has Resurrection and Sacrifice as early as on the Islands; Target, Phantom, Stone Skin, Magic Spring, Dragon Arrows, all my desired troops (of which Ancient Vampire is a must for getting past the turtle without a single fight. Unless I play mage and/or have Shamans to heal for example Magic shielded Knights or Horsemen tanking it)

About the Bats. No, there is none except you get actual Vampire Bats which I did on this playthrough. But you get the initiative with Dark Commander and Zombie Rina. All undeads and Demoness (Ruby) move before Black Dragons every round :> Demons in the first round at least. Vital.

About the Incarnation: Second option is desired. First option is more likely. Abuse the shit out of Drain Life and time Time Back with sacrifice. Double-sacc the tanks for instance to bring back archers and supporters once each, then Time Back. After that: one or two rounds of saccing Vampire Bats and Ancient Vampire Bats depending on your mana reserves (which as a warrior is a pain in the ass) to bring back whatever needs it and then play the mana game with Charm by the Demonesses on a male humanoid troop (works with Imps and Demons, too, as I just found out all over again btw) or with Beholders or just using Gift (impossible as a Warrior mana-wise).

[Helios]

Yes, I didn't think I'd chose a game that had that sword at the start, but had too many other things perfect about the game to not choose it. I only used the sword against enemy heroes prior to meeting dragons since I had no shot at winning the suppression battles until much later.

And thanks for the info about the bats--I don't recall ever seeing them for sale in that form, but then again, I wasn't looking for them prior to this game! As for ancient vampires, there's no way to tell on the Scanner if one is going to pop out of a carved coffin until you actual use one, is there? I didn't get lucky enough with my Undead army to get any ancients, but the game dealt me cursed ghosts and decaying zombies at the ghost ships in Darion. I wasn't going to make them available to myself until at least the IoF. I didn't know they could pop up so early.

And thanks again for the additional resurrection strategies. I think the lack of mana for doing so is my biggest drawback to the warrior class.

[Vulture]

No, sadly you cannot tell if an Ancient Vamp jumps out of a carved coffin. But the chances are so incredibly minimal it shouldn't matter. Sarcophagi have a much better chance and the Savegame Scanner can tell you that, luckily :> So s'all good.

Btw Decaying Zombies are crap and Cursed Ghosts are very fragile and constantly rise over the leadership maximum. You might want to look for alternatives :>

[Helios]

Ah! A sarcophagus! That explains it. I thought everyone kept starting new games until a carved coffin finally popped one in Marshan Swamp.

And yes, I don't like either Decaying Zombies nor Cursed Ghosts, but I'm not giving myself access to Necromancers, Black Knights, and Bone Dragons until later. I almost never even end up having the Zombies do anything, as the CG and vampires soak up all the melee attention and they'd just needlessly die if I sent them in. They're just the protectors of my Skelly Archers.

I've put some Ancient Vamps first available to me in the Eastern Islands upon defeating the ghost ship there.

[Vulture]

Well, back then we did. Before there was a savegame scanner.

If you don't grant yourself access to Necros, Ancient Vamps and Bone Dragons (Black Knights blow ^^) yet why don't you just take Royal Snakes and Evil Beholders until then ?