Confirm a few things

[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.

[Wazat]

Excellent, thank you. I didn't notice the arrows.

I'll also change areas and retry the wanderer scroll. I was wondering if I had to do something to randomize it, but didn't think of that. I had tried moving around to a different spot on the map, letting enemies move around in hopes that their random movement decisions would change the selection, etc. I'm a programmer, so I think about these things.

I have enough leadership for 3 cyclops (well over 4500). Unfortunately I haven't found the call colossi scroll yet. That would rock.

[Petwin]

I'll also change areas and retry the wanderer scroll.

It's a lot easier to use eggs and sprouts to get a diffent outcome:
1) quicksave
2) use scroll. If outcome is not to your liking reload
3) use egg or sprout and delete new stack
4) goto (1)

Important: you can only get troops that are within your ledership and not already in your army (so if you have a black dragon and want another one, park the first in a castle).

note: the scroll Song of the Wind can give you Royal Griffons, in case you like those.