I'm going out of my mind here!!!

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Due to the fact that I am using Warrior (hard level) and am currently at level 22 without the hypnotise or resurrect spell, i'm finding it extremely annoying trying to keep down unit loss as most armies are a match or stronger than mine. I have the sacrifice spell but it's useless without hypnotise to turn your enemies against themselves and then sacrifice them to replace your own units. The whole process of replacing units this way is 50 mana which is quite a lot if you are not a Mage.

So I thought I would try a different tactic using Griffins.

Turn 1

Send out your griffins out to cause maximum damage, then cast fit of energy so it has another turn.

Turn 2

After another attack from your Griffins use the rage spell time back to replace it at the start of turn 1 without any unit loss you will have damaged the enemy and it cost you nothing.

My dilemma

As I cannot resurrect fallen troops I have been trying to manipulate The Griffins "split ability" and Time back rage spell to effectively have the griffins attack loads, then get all the units back again. When using Time back with the split ability (before I use time back) I then have too many on the board cause Time back replaces the initial 295 Griffins and you now have 295 plus the original half so 295 plus 150 odd making 450 griffins on the board...they go crazy attacking everything for a while which is great, unless they attack you. When the number of Griffins come down you regain control of them.

This tactic can work but it's risky so your units need to be far away from the griffins.

Summing up

All i'm trying to do is avoid losing 10/20 Griffins a battle (on occasion) as they are my offensive unit as well as the dragons.

If I had the damn hypnotise spell or resurrect I wouldn't have to spend two hours trying to work out how to make a combination of Griffin split ability/timeback/Phantom and Fit of Energy all work at the same time, within two turns ha ha


So like I say yeh.....bit annoying really

edit:

has anybody else comes across this problem when playing as a Warrior on hard level? don't just read the bloody thread SAY SOMETHING HELPFULL

[bugmenot]

Reserves: came as a suprise to me, but you can have hundreds in your reserves. Just hire 295 griffins, put them in reverse, hire another 295, put them in reserve, repeat till you've got loads spare. My mage had 900 archers in reserve, for the occasions I needed sacrifice fodder.

Other than reserve:
I'm playing a mage, but my strategy is to use disposable summoned units to distract the enemy, and use ranged troops to kill them.

I rarely lose units.

Dunno how much mana you've got to play with, but in round 1 of every combat I summon a phoenix, it's very high initiative and speed allow it to reach the enemy before they move. I try and block a ranged attacker. As a warrior you might not have enough mana for that (40 mana for ancient phoenix), but druids summoning bears might be able to manage something similar. Maybe ghosts or vamps, since they can restore their numbers.

Most of the enemies attack the phoenix while the rest of my troops use ranged attacks against the enemies ranged attacks.

I use an Evil Beholders to control an enemy range unit, mainly to stop it attacking my troops.

By the end of the first or second turn all the enemies ranged troops are usually dead, I'll use my inquisitors to ressurect my most damaged unit, and use the Gift spell to allow the inquisitors to ressurect again. Giants jumping and area of effect enemies still cause me a few losses though.
________
Harley-Davidson Hummer

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Brilliant, I finally get resurrection from the Necromancer in the grey wasteland only to discover it's weak as p+ss due to the fact that i'm a Warrior not a mage so it has low power...

Back to square one then!

[phoenixreborn]

What's your intellect? I had some intellect boosting artifacts so my warrior resurrection was ok. Better than the inquisitors that's for sure.

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Originally Posted by phoenixreborn

What's your intellect? I had some intellect boosting artifacts so my warrior resurrection was ok. Better than the inquisitors that's for sure.

I just pushed it up to 12 adding some artifacts but it affects morale of Elves if I do it that way. The health regained is 1010 and at this point there are no easy battles left, all are strong, slightly stronger in the evil lands and I haven't even saved Queen Violette soul.

If you are using Warrior on hard level then forget it....I have 800k and no idea what to spend it on or how to get the balance right. I've given up on ressurect/sacrifice for the moment until I find hypnosis spell.

[alon]

Originally Posted by Kings Bounty Hunter

My dilemma: As I cannot resurrect fallen troops

Summing up: All i'm trying to do is avoid losing 10/20 Griffins a battle (on occasion) as they are my offensive unit as well as the dragons.

Partial answer:

Originally Posted by bugmenot

Reserves: came as a suprise to me, but you can have hundreds in your reserves.

Let me tell you my 'story' / strategy - and you be the judge if it's a useful one to you.

Like bugmenot, I use the 2 Reserve slots. In fact, a use them a LOT as my entire game play is based on them because I hate going to and from distant castles and tents right when I'm in the middle of an exciting new area - just because my leadership went up a couple of hundred points - or after a seriously hard battle which I deemed worthy enough to lose half or more of my armies. (Yes, I lose a LOT of my armies, but I have way too much money as it is!)

What I do is rather simple: when I need to "resurrect [my] fallen troops" I go to the nearest castle or tent, buy one full stack (usually hundreds of units, and I am only LvL 16 at my first pass as a Mage) of whatever unit has the most Hit Points, pull back one of my "prime units" into the second reserve slot and go into an easy battle (chose your battles).

Once there and before it ends, I simply Sacrifice the lot of them (I have Sacrifice at LvL 2) and be done with it. I also never forget to use the Ctr key to set it at LvL 1 when I want to conserve on Mana as it's only 10 mana for LvL 1 Sacrifice but 20 Mana for LvL 2.

I also wrote down the exact max-leadership numbers by hovering my mouse over my troop portraits to easily get all 5 of my 'primary units' - so when in battle I'll know in advance when I might "over-stack" my units, and which of my units needs a boost the most.

For those who are afraid they will "over stack" and "go or a rampage killing everything in sight" (saw it in a comment somewhere), I got two words for you: don't be!

After the battle, simply move the entire "over-stacked" unit into your spare Reserve Slot (if it is full with other units - dismiss them) and than I simply transfer the units back from the Reserve Slot to one of my main slots: the game will only allow you to transfer the exact amount of troops your Leadership allows - easy weasy.

As for what to do with the "spare" units in your Reserve: If I feel like it, I go back to the main castle and deposit them there for later "pickups", as I know I'll be back there over and over to get Quests from the King.

I also keep one single unit of each type snugly and cuddly waiting for me in the castle in case I somehow managed to loss the lot of them. They are my "emergency templates" In the past, I already managed to loss an entire troop three times, for various unfortunate reasons, only to go back, get the template, go into an easy battle armed with cannon-fodder troops and Sacrifice all of them in the name of Fame and Glory. (and in the name of keeping my damn favorite troops!! )

As for units going out of control without enough Leadership when you "over stack" them during combat: my extensive experience proved without a doubt that they will never attack your troops, but just mile about doing nothing at all, BUT they will attack those enemy troops who attacked them first, if they are in range - they are leaderless not brainless!

As for Griffins, I find them to be, as your experience shows, too easily killed in battle.

Personally, I use Royal Snakes and Horsemen as my main shock troops, although I haven't yet reached an area where I can buy dragons. (and Just added Giants to my team)

I don't know if you know, but Royal Snakes or THE BOMB: they have no retaliation attack (just like archers), they move at 3 and have a special 'snake bite' ability to attack from a distance (for lesser damage though), they do insane amounts of damage regardless!, especially if you have the frog-wife turned back into a frog, (%100 more damage to snakes and spiders), they have the best initiative of all my troops giving me first-turn advantage to cast whatever I feel like, and the real sweet spot: I just LOVE calculating where the enemy will end his movement at the end of the turn, and I move my snakes just one square "too far" for them, and tell them to wait for the turn to end always keeping at least 1 Action Point, I also use slow a LOT, so when my Snakes turn finally comes: Kaplow!! and if the battlefield permits, I might even attack again strait at the start of the next turn, giving me a chance to deliver coup de grace and in essence giving the snakes a sort of "double attack ability".

This way, I get as many Super Powerful "free attacks" with my Royal Snakes as I want and no melee unit can ever touch me!

As for ranged attackers - couldn't possibly be any easier: I use the Target Spell and set it on my Giants or my Horsemen. When I used to travel with Archmages, I always also added his Shield spell on them to half the damage from ranged. This way, I maxed out (LvL3) both Target and Magic Spring for best effects...


Now you tell me, using these tactics - will you still be "out of your mind", Kings Bounty Hunter, or did I just saved your sanity?


Hope I did.
Enjoy.

[vicheron]

What kind of artifacts do you have? You're really not going to get very good stats by leveling alone, you need artifacts. When I played a Paladin, I got around +50 mana from artifacts and a child, and +15 intellect from artifacts and the Frog Princess wife.

My strategy after I got to Elven lands was to cast Geyser at the beginning of combat and then move in with my Emerald Dragon to use its mana drain ability to recover my mana, attack with my Necromancers, and then use my Bone Dragon's poison breath ability.

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Originally Posted by alon

Partial answer:


Let me tell you my 'story' / strategy - and you be the judge if it's a useful one to you.

Like bugmenot, I use the 2 Reserve slots. In fact, a use them a LOT as my entire game play is based on them because I hate going to and from distant castles and tents right when I'm in the middle of an exciting new area - just because my leadership went up a couple of hundred points - or after a seriously hard battle which I deemed worthy enough to lose half or more of my armies. (Yes, I lose a LOT of my armies, but I have way too much money as it is!)

What I do is rather simple: when I need to "resurrect [my] fallen troops" I go to the nearest castle or tent, buy one full stack (usually hundreds of units, and I am only LvL 16 at my first pass as a Mage) of whatever unit has the most Hit Points, pull back one of my "prime units" into the second reserve slot and go into an easy battle (chose your battles).

Once there and before it ends, I simply Sacrifice the lot of them (I have Sacrifice at LvL 2) and be done with it. I also never forget to use the Ctr key to set it at LvL 1 when I want to conserve on Mana as it's only 10 mana for LvL 1 Sacrifice but 20 Mana for LvL 2.

I also wrote down the exact max-leadership numbers by hovering my mouse over my troop portraits to easily get all 5 of my 'primary units' - so when in battle I'll know in advance when I might "over-stack" my units, and which of my units needs a boost the most.

For those who are afraid they will "over stack" and "go or a rampage killing everything in sight" (saw it in a comment somewhere), I got two words for you: don't be!

After the battle, simply move the entire "over-stacked" unit into your spare Reserve Slot (if it is full with other units - dismiss them) and than I simply transfer the units back from the Reserve Slot to one of my main slots: the game will only allow you to transfer the exact amount of troops your Leadership allows - easy weasy.

As for what to do with the "spare" units in your Reserve: If I feel like it, I go back to the main castle and deposit them there for later "pickups", as I know I'll be back there over and over to get Quests from the King.

I also keep one single unit of each type snugly and cuddly waiting for me in the castle in case I somehow managed to loss the lot of them. They are my "emergency templates" In the past, I already managed to loss an entire troop three times, for various unfortunate reasons, only to go back, get the template, go into an easy battle armed with cannon-fodder troops and Sacrifice all of them in the name of Fame and Glory. (and in the name of keeping my damn favorite troops!! )

As for units going out of control without enough Leadership when you "over stack" them during combat: my extensive experience proved without a doubt that they will never attack your troops, but just mile about doing nothing at all, BUT they will attack those enemy troops who attacked them first, if they are in range - they are leaderless not brainless!

As for Griffins, I find them to be, as your experience shows, too easily killed in battle.

Personally, I use Royal Snakes and Horsemen as my main shock troops, although I haven't yet reached an area where I can buy dragons. (and Just added Giants to my team)

I don't know if you know, but Royal Snakes or THE BOMB: they have no retaliation attack (just like archers), they move at 3 and have a special 'snake bite' ability to attack from a distance (for lesser damage though), they do insane amounts of damage regardless!, especially if you have the frog-wife turned back into a frog, (%100 more damage to snakes and spiders), they have the best initiative of all my troops giving me first-turn advantage to cast whatever I feel like, and the real sweet spot: I just LOVE calculating where the enemy will end his movement at the end of the turn, and I move my snakes just one square "too far" for them, and tell them to wait for the turn to end always keeping at least 1 Action Point, I also use slow a LOT, so when my Snakes turn finally comes: Kaplow!! and if the battlefield permits, I might even attack again strait at the start of the next turn, giving me a chance to deliver coup de grace and in essence giving the snakes a sort of "double attack ability".

This way, I get as many Super Powerful "free attacks" with my Royal Snakes as I want and no melee unit can ever touch me!

As for ranged attackers - couldn't possibly be any easier: I use the Target Spell and set it on my Giants or my Horsemen. When I used to travel with Archmages, I always also added his Shield spell on them to half the damage from ranged. This way, I maxed out (LvL3) both Target and Magic Spring for best effects...


Now you tell me, using these tactics - will you still be "out of your mind", Kings Bounty Hunter, or did I just saved your sanity?


Hope I did.
Enjoy.

Thank you very much for that response my freind. You are playing as a mage though which is far too easy. The reason I say that is my previous attempt at the game was with a mage and I am now playing with a Warrior on hard which frankly (as the Americans say)........sucks.

The game needs seriously balancing out for the Warrior. I'm lvl 25 with him and it's like swimming in mud.

[Calinda]

I finished with warrior on impossible, I had resurrect and never used it at all.
I found that inquisitors + gift is better; the other (and better) substitute for resurrect is the time back ability of the Reaper spirit, and it is far more powerful than resurrect for two reasons: there is no limit to the amount you can resurrect, and you can resurrect things that cannot be resurrected via the spell - just upgrade it and learn to use it.

[phoenixreborn]

The reaper strategy doesn't help for most of the game.