Teach me, expert players of Armored Princess

[jynki]

dude you can not compare givings yourself 100 dragons which is cheating to kite maps which is playing by game mechanics, and thus not cheating?

[kcwong]

If it's doing it in one go, no pause-save-reload, then I'm okay with it. In fact I already said I kite the amulet from the mines on Bolo.

But kiting maps cannot be done that way - not for people without supernatural reflexes. The map guards only move with you are extremely close, and pause-save-reload is how people do it. Hence I consider it cheating. Not to mention extremely tedious, which is why I said not worth doing.

Now let's go back to waiting for someone to take a look at the uploaded save game, shall we?

[jynki]

and how can save/reload not be playing by game mechanics? to save/reload is a very fundamental game mechanic so ofcourse that´s not cheating just because you have set a limit too how many times you think one should be allowed to save/reload at a given time ?

[kcwong]

Please stop arguing. That's not the point of my thread.

[impy]

I took a look at your save. You're lucky I'm having some stomach problems so i'm stuck at home

First, about your character:
1) do not invest in transmute skill too early. You noticed yourself it wiped out your might runes, which are always in short supply for mage.
2) investing in wisdom gives only 6 mana, leave it for lot later. You want to pump up important skills first as a mage- chaos and/or distorsion magic.
3) do not invest in glory either. Again, you need the runes for magic skills.
4) i see you had trap spell available but did not buy/use it. No loss on impossible without kiting is difficult especially at the beginning, you have to take every little help game has to offer. Fights in Debir are easy, surely you could have squeezed some traps in? Getting it to at least level 2 means slowing down enemies+damage. The same goes for casting stone skin and getting the Guardian medal.
5) definitely take 4 archmagi from tower in Scarlet. They're sturdy, ranged, can push the enemies back, magic shield ability, chance to lower speed, help with guardian medal... as a replacement for archers.
6) you only have one unit which can resurrect, so you cannot afford to lose much and of one type of unit only. Swordsmen will have to go. replace with polar beers from Bolo
7) you're spending crystals on spells you will never use as mage- nature call, guardian angel, dragon arrows... save crystals
as a mage you only chance at the start is ranged damage, spell damage, no retaliation damage. So preferably no melee units apart from snakes or very sturdy ones - reason why swordmen have to go
9) fear is a great spell. therefore you need to remove units level 1-2 from your army - reason why archers have to go.

As a mage you have to choose which way to go and specialize. Distorsion and buffing/debuffing enemies? Then go for distorsion 2 quickly, keep casting slow, fear, dragon kick back, send summoned thorns forward with archmagi magic shield to occupy the enemy, and shoot. or Spell damage. Go for chaos 2 fast = stronger spells, longer fear spell, again attack from the distance.

Hmm, with you current state of affairs it is not exactly brilliant. Get +1int headgear from debir underground. go to bolo and collect unguarded rusty anchor map from in front of erica tent, you only have to avoid those barbarians by the boat, if you wait for the right moment. On rusty you will find paladins in the tavern...
good luck!

[mare911]

I tried save you attached above. Your army composition was pretty weak and hero slots were empty.
1st I equipped some +1 items which provided significant boost to your setup
2nd You didnt bought trap spell on Debir effectively crippling your chance of acquiring trapper medal (later in game enemies are harder to kill with a trap)
3rd I changed units for better survivability in this stage of game (since its no loss). I decided to make droids team (2 x repair + guard) mixed with palas + royal snakes. Droids are designated to be self ressing tanks, snakes are dmg dealers and palas are tank/ress/utility, depending on situation.

To gain access to all of this i set sail to Bolo and bought droids from the dwarf guy in front of the cave. Then i kited Droid boss in cave (since you considered this kosher ) to get paladins later.
After this i cleared rest of Debir (3-4 miniboss fights) to gain money i lost on droids and eventually bought paladins.
For your convenience i cleared few patrols on Bolo to secure path to droid guy (btw i picked up unguarded Rusty Anchor map there )

All fights were no loss ofc

P.S. I uploaded finished save below
P.P.S. Lastly i killed assassins stack you mentioned - it was super easy

[kcwong]

Thank you very much, Impy and mare911.

About glory:
I have always considered getting glory to be very important - as a mage I have very little leadership to start with already. On normal/hard that was sufficient for me to get more offensive and healing power to make my way through. Not good enough for impossible though, as my situation clearly demonstrated.

About empty item slots:
I'll read the info thread again, this time really get into the maths. I was skeptical about how good are +1/+2 to attack/defense stats.

About trap spell:
In my previous mage game I got all the trap medals - I didn't find it too useful back then, to be honest. I must cast it against natural obstacles, or the AIs will just run right around it, and still the trap will only delay them for one turn while blocking me from casting other spells. I'll try combining it with a small army and dragon wall.

About skill focus:
Since equipping some +1/+2 attack/defense artifacts did the trick, that means I was wrong not getting a level of the might skills.

Thanks again. I'll take a look at the save you uploaded, mare911, and compare the item/army config against mine. Then I'll restart - my skill choices are a mess!

[impy]

Hey kcwong, all is not lost yet. As i said, just get the rusty island map from bolo and there are paladins in tavern +2 easy quests not requiring fighting - captain bottles and bringing chests from scarlet. That should give you a level, plus you collect all the leadership rods from new area etc. On bolo, save game, get off the boat on the left, ,run past the barbarians up the hill and look. if there are enemies blocking your way, reload, wait 10-15-20.. seconds and try again. Remember, enemies are constantly moving, just wait for the right moment. Also, about your problem with polar bears not letting you out of bolo underground. Before you go underground, loose the tail and stop for several seconds. Once you go underground, game aboveground "freezes" in the exact position you left it in. (hence the polar bears = if they were following you before you descent, they would be there once you reappear again). Only if it is all nice and clear then go underground, 'cause you know it is safe to come back. Once done underground, come back up and wait by the entrance until the road is clear, it may take again 5,10,20..sec. If some enemy comes down the hill, there is a bit wider area at where the droids are positioned, just run around enemy there. Yes, you may restar the game if you wish, on the other hand you can consider yourself lucky to have access to rusty without fight, it does not happen that way everytime.

1) glory. i am not saying it is a bad skill, but it is about the runes. From your "mage power" point of view what is better - having 250 leadership or higher level of magic? definitely the latter
2) traps. Seems that you're talking about casting trap spell (i agree, not the best), but free of charge pre-laid traps are very nice to have. During the battle you can reposition your army in a way, which will force AI to come right down on the traps, or use dragon kick to push them on a trap or use archmagi skill.
3) casting pet dragon wall. don't do that. It stops pet dragon for 2 turns. Casting cheap dragon kick or mana acc. is better
4) you say - "i was wrong not getting a level of might skills". I hope you mean att/def equipment (eventhough as a mage you should prefer mana/int equipment) not spending runes on might skills. DO NOT. From might tree only invest in pet dragon skills, and only when you're happy with the magic tree first.