Teach me, expert players of Armored Princess

[impy]

Just to clarify the pet dragon issue.
One of the features how pet dragon gains experience is - it gains exp. quicker if hero level is higher than dragon level. Try it. Start a new game, kite, and start in debir level 10+. You'll see your dragon gaining exp. MUCH quicker and that happens without your input = increasing his experience gain.
Point is, you'll finish the game level 50-60, so your pet dragon will if you use it here and there, at least 40+. Now do not tell me, you will not max out tresure skill, mana acc, and lighting ball in 40 levels. If you are struggling, do not pick up skills of limited use - mystic egg, wall..at all. That way you increase the probability of getting the "right" upgrade choice.
So there is no need to boost dragon exp. for mage. Spend might runes somewhere else

[kcwong]

Latest save uploaded to Box.net

I added Archmages back to my army, taking red and black dragons out from reserve only when needed (Fear continues to be very powerful in battle).

I somehow forgot to learn Linguistics III... but I can get it next and that will be very soon. I have plenty of might and mind runes to go around - and important skills that need them are already maxed.

I wonder if I can unlock Skull of Death this late... but I gotta try, +5 Int from one artifact is not something to be missed.

I'll also need to equip that bird skull and get the new spells (Armageddon, plus Ice Snake and Geyser on Reha).

Chance to get Elven bow looks pretty slim at this point... so no hope for +9 Int and an elven army. There are some demon artifacts and lots of demon troops to buy though, so maybe I can try that.

[impy]

you need to max out 2 very important skills.
1) pet dragon mana acc. There will be plenty of paladin's resurrection later and concentration 3 even with wanderer scroll +mana/int might not to be able to keep up. Btw. I always carry some phantom scrolls in the backpack in case i run out of mana.
2) Summoner. I have it maxed out even with warrior character. It raises the number of phantomed paladins and increases summons from griffins and demonologists.

Get ready for Elenhel fight coming soon

[kcwong]

Originally Posted by impy

Get ready for Elenhel fight coming soon

Yeah... that fight could be troublesome. T_T

[kcwong]

It is problematic alright.

Before I can make a move my demonologist stack was reduced to 33 from 68. He has 191 Archmage, 2 stacks of 66 Demonologists, 186 Evil Beholders, 90+ Necromancers, 130+ Druids, 2 stacks of 17 Executioners, and about 400 Fire Dragonflies.

I have pretty much the same army in last upload. I removed the Skull of Pain before getting to level 40, but still his army to too big. Teleporting my trolls (it was evening) into the fray does me no good as his stacks will just run away (possibly getting rid of range penalty to shoot at me).

I'm now inclined to dismiss him... I already extracted much wanderer scrolls, I'd trade +4 Int and some artifact slots for a successful no loss game. T_T

[Saiko Kila]

Originally Posted by kcwong

It is problematic alright.

Before I can make a move my demonologist stack was reduced to 33 from 68. He has 191 Archmage, 2 stacks of 66 Demonologists, 186 Evil Beholders, 90+ Necromancers, 130+ Druids, 2 stacks of 17 Executioners, and about 400 Fire Dragonflies.

I have pretty much the same army in last upload. I removed the Skull of Pain before getting to level 40, but still his army to too big. Teleporting my trolls (it was evening) into the fray does me no good as his stacks will just run away (possibly getting rid of range penalty to shoot at me).

Maybe you could try some other, unorthodox strategy. When I was playing the game for the first time, and was level 39, I tried a new strategy for fighting tough opponents - a single stack of Emerald Green Dragons. I had the skull of necromancer and was a mage. I battled "impossible" pirate, got loss-free victory and, surprisingly, a new fight with traitorous, sneaky elf (the fight was optional, but I weren't willing to part with my artifacts placed on this bastard). So I started the fight with 18 points of mana halved and a stack of 6 EGD. That was the most spectacular fight to that point so I remember it quite good Anyway, it was another no-loss, but I wasn't believing I would survive that till the end

Beginning of battle, each of these pictures is about 400 KB:
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/4...enhelbegin.jpg

Middle:
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5...helmiddle1.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5...helmiddle2.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9...helmidend1.jpg

Bitter end (for pointy-ears):
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/837...helmidend2.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/5...enhelscore.jpg

Of course, I had fairly good magical defense, that's why it was possible. The key points were:
- magical defense (items, from gift bag)
- amazing EGD with their mana steal ability
- good spells: invisibility, time back, healing level 3, and demon portal to spice things up
- luck with treasure hunter, i.e. Volcano

But the fight is at lev 40, so I think most heroes would be quite good by that time. Note that invis is not good against plants, droids, gobots, some other creatures and spells, because they can target invisibles and these would reveal themself by retaliating. For this reason I hate guard droids and thorn warriors.

[kcwong]

I've read about Invisibility + EGD strategy, but never used it.

I have Invisibility (III I think), 6 EGD in Verona plus an egg... I guess it's time to fetch them!

[impy]

you're not giving up at the first serious obstacle are you?

1) improve your magic resistance. majority of his units are ranged magic dealers so if you put on chaos helm, magician cloak etc. they'll do only negligible damage.
2) improve your physical resistance. His geyser is physically based.
3) dump level 5 creatures. facing those many,many geysers you do not want to spend tons of mana on time back. Replace temporarily or permanently with unit with god resistances - knight, horseman..
4) better artefacts. I remember seeing those fire protection boots, shark tooth.. which are not helpful in this fight.
5) This is one very nasty fight where you either have to wait until he spends all his mana before you start resurrecting or leave last unit - dragonflies and cast fear. So you are actually quite lucky with him having dragonflies. Cast fear on them in the first round.
6) Once last creature is standing start resurecting. position all units around paladins in the circle and go. Phantom paladins, repeat.
7) have you improved those skills are was telling you about - mana acc., summoner? You can improve your resurrection also by - higher intelellect, increases strength of summoning spell, inquisitors blade, increases number of paladins you can have