Confirm a few things

[Zechnophobe]

Thing is, later on in the game, you won't NEED to summon troops, you can just buy them. The hardest point in the game is generally around level 15, when you are trying to bust your way into Verona and the fertile lands beyond.

You will run out of Royal thorns, since they are likely only available in Debir (2 to 5) and your best unit is likely a cyclops. Maybe archmages, inquisitors, paladins or Royal Snakes. But that stops cutting it against the tougher fights, and Rusty and Verona are a lot harder than the first 3.

Getting some really nice troops to help you get onto these islands, which opens up huge numbers of stores and items, and money, is really important!

(My current no loss game, I got dryads early from a scroll. I beat some invincible stacks to unlock Verona and Elon using them).

[Wazat]

Hey, that's basically where I am. I've got Verona opened up but unvisited. I've cleaned out everything on Debir and Bolo, and Scarlet Wind only has 1 enemy (in the cave) left, and he's next on my hitlist (tried fighting him once but had to quit partway for time reasons; he won't stand a chance on round 2).

Most stuff on Rusty Anchor is still marked "Lethal", "Invincible", or "Dropped Soap in a Prison Shower". Admittedly I haven't checked yet whether I can defeat them anyway, and a few that I did fight by accident (dang they're fast) actually went down surprisingly fast, so I'm pleased by that. Still, I'm hoping to find a shop on Verona with some really good units, or at least some reinforcements to top off my current troops. I imagine a completely full stack of knights or paladins would be really powerful. Even at only 8 each, they both pack a decent punch.

I think some of the bonuses I've recently gotten to Attack and Defense (items and skills) have been making a significant difference. I also picked up Mr. Whiny Scarface and he's holding some items for me, which helps a lot. But I still have trouble keeping my units alive because of the sheer volume of damage some enemies can dish out while their stacks are still high.

I wish the dragon's wall skill was worth something, but spending 2 turns asleep to build a barrier that will die in one hit isn't as effective as other options, including spawning more summons. Maybe as an emergency measure it would work (delay enemy 1 turn, or maybe even redirect them).

[MaroonMaurader]

A few small points.

Units per merchant are limited. That said, if you can get at least one unit of a given type in your squad and are feeling cheesy, you can make use of Sacrifice to "create" more of that unit - Sacrifice can be used to bring a stack total to above the number you started the battle with, and if so then when you end the battle you keep the extra units.

There is a limited number of enemies, which puts a cap on the amount of experience available. That's why high-level challenges in this forum tend to focus on two things: ancient knowledge scrolls and other experience multipliers, and item suppression battles. While item suppression battles are also limited, you can get about ~10% more fights out of the game if you play to try and get as many of those fights as possible.

Distortion magic is, in my opinion, by far the best spell school. You could write a whole article on strategic uses of slow. Or haste. Or trap, or stoneskin, or phantom, or any of a number of other spells in that school. It just gives you a lot of powerful options.

Scrolls can also be "stored" if you want at castles - you can sell scrolls at castles, at which point they'll go out of your spellbook and into the castle shop (just open your spellbook while in the castle screen). Then you can buy that scroll back at a later date when you have room for it if you still want it.

Regarding dying... it will negatively effect your end-game score, if you care about that.

Keeping units alive is often an issue of directing their damage. The "Target" spell helps quite a bit there, as does simply knowing how the AI chooses who to attack. Stoneskin can be quite useful (particularly on a unit that already has high physical damage resistance, like knights or paladins). Don't feel compelled to enter a battle with 5 stacks - sometimes the best approach really is just one stack if you're trying to avoid losses (plus it levels your pet dragon faster).

Oh - and the wall is actually quite excellent if used strategically. Don't try to use it to totally wall off your troops; instead, try to use it to direct enemies away from your fragile ranged units, towards your buff tank units. If they can still reach some of your troops this turn or the next, odds are good that they'll ignore the wall and walk for the vulnerable units.

[Wazat]

I'll consider Sacrifice. I think it's an amusing exploit. I may save it for a second play-through though.

I found it especially disturbing that there's a limited number of enemies. No way to level up beyond what they give you, no recurring spawns. It means someone cannot level grind to make the game easy (which adds a new element to the game), but it also means the player is easily screwed. This is definitely a niche game.

I'm liking distortion too. However, I use the Heal spell very often too to top off one of my paladins or knights. For a while it was the only spell I used. It would be nice if there was a revive spell... is there?

Regarding selling scrolls, do you lose any money selling and re-buying them?

Thankfully I'm not concerned about end-game score. If this game ends up being worth a second play-through, I can try maximizing score then.

Thanks!

[MaroonMaurader]

I agree that Heal is a great spell; it just seems (to me) like a spell where if you have to you can easily get by with it just at level 1. Actually, the Order spells that convince me to upgrade are mostly Battle Cry and Resurrect - both of those become much more useful when they hit level-3.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "revive" spell. There's Resurrect, although it doesn't work on plants, machines, undead, level-5 units, and a few other odd cases. And it costs quite a bit of mana, and doesn't resurrect that many. Fit of Energy "revives" a unit in that it lets it move again that turn. King's Bounty: The Legend had the "Gift" spell, but it was removed when they made KB:AP (understandably, because it was overpowered); that one reset all the abilities so (for example) inquisitors could resurrect again in the same battle.

I'm not sure if you lose money losing and re-buying scrolls. But scrolls are really cheap by late-game (on Hard difficulty or below, you'll probably pile up 3 million gold or more; whether you lose some money swapping a 500-gold scroll in and out of a castle really isn't be a big worry).

[Wazat]

Interesting. Okay, thank you! Looks like I need to find a revive scroll then, and I'll watch for battle cry. If the gold loss is that insignificant, then selling them seems like a good storage method. I have 31/11 or so scrolls (meaning about 3x my capacity), so I'm going to need to store them somewhere. I just need to make sure I sell them to a castle with crappy items I don't mind burying. I've noticed (for example, in the first castle) that when it fills up, you can't access the old stuff. Had to buy something worthless to get that dragon sword once I had the cash for it.

I've noticed that the wanderer's scroll I had always gives me dragonflies (I tried a few save/reloads to see what my options would be). I gather it's predefined when I pick up the scroll, then.

[Sir Whiskers]

Originally Posted by Wazat

I've noticed (for example, in the first castle) that when it fills up, you can't access the old stuff. Had to buy something worthless to get that dragon sword once I had the cash for it.

That doesn't sound right. Check right above the items or scrolls. If the castle has more than it can display at one time, you'll see a left and right triangle. Click those to move forward and backward through the items/scrolls.

And yes, you only get half for anything you sell, and it's full price to buy it back. So you "lose" gold selling scrolls only to buy them back later, but as others have said, you should have plenty of gold in the later game, so it's not a problem.

Originally Posted by Wazat

I've noticed that the wanderer's scroll I had always gives me dragonflies (I tried a few save/reloads to see what my options would be). I gather it's predefined when I pick up the scroll, then.

The summon scrolls are random, so if you don't like what you get, you can try again. But first you have to enter a new area, like a cave or island to re-randomize the options. Also, you're limited by your current leadership, so don't expect a black dragon (Call Colossus scroll) if you only have 2,000 leadership.