droids are NOT overpowered:-)

[Fatt_Shade]

Nice work on explaining your method. It`s common sence, but considering what you did in this playthrough, and lots of patients for right items to show in KBscaner (havent used it before but i get principle).
Kite, kite untill your eyes bleed, and then kite some more I really hate that pussy feeling when doing this, but i simply want to play with units that arent at desposal on curent islands (example want to go full Orc army, but have to wait untill Uzala to get Moldok and some decent troop, f...k that

Some things i learned here : didnt know of using Red branch, or Magic soup in Reha, or same thing with Hephastus sword for runes. Do you get 1 rune or more is possibile ?
Spells and skills are reasonable pick, but is 3 lvl Order magis really necessary ? For calm rage and divine armor, only order spells you used.
Here is some weird situation ; you can cast Precision spell on Beholders, but not on Droids ??? Bless, and Holy anger can be casted on droids, but not precision, why i have no idea but it`s big mistake from game makers. I get it that Divine armor, and Berserk can`t be cast on undead, thay are mindless units. But why not precision on archer unit, no mater it`s mechanical ? This would be great help in your all repair droid game. Same thing goes for uselessnes of assasin in game, 0 benefitial spells for him
You said alchemist could be pain in ass, but only attack they can do is fire bomb, poison is almost nothing against droids. Or you meant mechanics ?
As for reha champion of arena, he had last time i fought him 4 stacks of 450 hyterans. Is that army dependable of your army (leadership), or already composed regarding game difficulty ? Cause i tryed him with solo BK stack, and full army and he had same troop composition. Somewhere around 270K leadership, on impossible.
And i earlier sugested you`ll be difficult opponent in PvP cause you get some weird ideas That is main diference in RTS and Turn based, no rushing, no swarming opponent. Your only upper hand is better tactics, and management of resources you have at desposal.
That is thing i love/hate most in this series great ideas, so many combinations of troops and tactic/strategy at hand, but only tihng you can use it against is ridiculusly easy AI (no matter how many times you play some battle and what you change in your moves, AI 90% moves does same). We must admitt, couple months after game was released and we already had 6-7 impossible/no loss playthroughs all witf totaly different unit builds. I have never played HoMM (just examlpe) against firends in Lan party and used same tactics, because they never did either. I just hope there will be some kind of multiplayer in KB2 . . . correction i REALLY hope there will be KB2

[impy]

To answer your questions:
-Hephastus sword only gives one rune once. Defeat some dragon stack, take the rune out.
-Order magic 3. I see you have not played against gremlion yet. His magic attack does 3000-4000/round (I think), evil towers do magic damage, although lot less. In the other words, you need magic resistance. Droids start with -50%, equip chaos crown +50%, mirror shield +20%, professor Dambior regalia +25%, medal +7%, upgraded magician cowl +20% (or 30?), maybe crystal ball, leather dress... In my game, due to limited number of fights I had only some of them, my magic resistance was 23% - not good enough. Only way to raise magic resistance is to cast divine armor, which costs 25mana. Believe you cannot win against gremlion otherwise. Since your mana as warrior will be total of cca 50, It requires everything working like clock - calm rage, magic spring etc.
- Archer description in this game truly sucks. Not all ranged creatures are classed as archers, and even those who have archer written in their skill chart do not get all archer bonuses. Similarly with companion Trigger giving bonus to only certain archers, same with telescopic set.
-Alchemists are not a major thread. Where magic dealers are major threat, physical dealers just nuissance, alchemists are somewhere in the middle. Huge stack can cause decent damage via fire bomb, plus aftereffects, plus reduced statistics. Poison damage is not that bad, but still, you only have 80% resistance compared to 95% physical.
-I believe enemy armies are set at the beginning, regardless of your army, or your level when you get to them
have fun

[impy]

(continuation)
g) Reha champion of the arena 2 - This guy comes with serious defence and casts divine armor all the time. Not to worry, you[re interested in enemy attacking capabilites not defence. His stacks, although respectable ( i had 50+ tirexes there etc) are all physical dmg dealers so ignore them. Only danger is gorguanas. So from the beginning of the battle fly to them forcing melee and do not stop until they dead. In the meantime cast lighning balls using my stone-stone-skin-magic.spring-magic spring-repeat combo. After gorguanas are down cripple goshas and charge up on small numbers of gobots
that's all the easier fights done...
h) Shenobi. He comes with mainly elven+orc units. Elven units are not major danger here. Worth mentioning are dryads and their disabling skill, so deal with them quickly. I also had 300 druids there which do magic damage but relatively small. So after you're done with orcs cripple druids as priority. Orcs - I had 200+ goblin shamans there and 50+ ogres. Therefore: 1st turn = wait, wait, survive the damage from ranged units + shamans and check. If damage is too much to repair on one unit, cast stoneskin on this unit and repair what you can. Stay in the corner. Next turn - wait,wait and after receiving damage cast time back (which recharges repair skill). Continue with stone skins etc. If you get attacked from all angles invest in tactics skill and find yourself some quiet cormer right from the beginning. If initial damage was not too bad, just proceed as usual with my combo. Third round (after stoneskins are casted) fly in and destroy goblin shamans due to their lower resistance ability.
i) rakush. If rakush army does not have those little goblins in the army ( cannot remember the name - the melee ones whose initiative goes through the roof when attacked) use my setup recommended in Lowest level challenge thread = dryads, black dragons,droids, without enemy getting a turn. If there are no goblins shamans it is an easy battle - just equip some fire resistance and destroy catapults as priority (again with the help of cleverly positioned lightning balls). If there is tons of goblin shamans + catapults and some melee goblins, you[re up for an interesting battle. I have not seen army like that yet, chances are it may be unbeatable.
j) Uchkuk. The importance of chaos crown can be seen here. Not only +50% magic resistance but 50% astral res. as well. Those blood shamans are menace, usually combined with high number of catapults. (melee units are not important as usual). I discovered here the strength of pain mirror spell - the only way of bringing those blood shamans down quickly. So first round wait, wait, receive damage, cast pain mirror, repair. stay back. second round either time back or pain mirror again. after blood shamans are reduced fly in and destroy them. then catapults. I do not have to emphasize that lightning ball will be your best friend here. Note: if you manage to survive nicely first round of brutal attack of blood shamans, cast lightning ball on them AFTER their attack. I f you now follow with pain mirror chances are you destroy the whole stack right away.
k) K'tahu. Stay in the middle to start with to see where gorguanas get summoned. My spell combo is imperative here. With 95% phys. res all units including k'tahu wil do insignificant easy-to-repair damage. Not gorguanas. Their magic mark is a pain and if they manage to squeeze in critical damage from standard magic damage next round it will be serious. There are two problems here.
1) k'tahu mass atack reduces your speed to 1. You're also bound to be surrounded by his summons. In the other words, how to get to gorguanas quickly. You can cast mass haste, teleport, but mana is a problem. Mana management has to work properly for 50++ turns guaranteed. It means permanent stoneskin + source of mana. That's why order magic 3 and calm rage is needed, so you can squeeze in occassional mass haste or teleport.
2) i do not know the details of game mechanics here, but, as you kill his summons he will bring more summons in when their probably some leadership/hit points ratio goes below some threshold. That would mean summoning gorguanas again and more headache for you due to your speed 1 as mentioned above. Never let 2 stacks of gourguanas be on the battlefield, that's guaranteed loss. I therefore recommend just killing gorguanas and ignore the rest of the summons just bite k'tahu bit by bit
l) demenion. yes, 20+ archdemons and their halving ability, 10+ runemages, 400+ inquisitors. I used full setup of wanderer scrolls here just to be safe. Melee stacks are to be ignored, including green dragons, their magic attack is weak. I recommend casting 2 lightning balls in the corner where inquisitors are. Since many units are out of reach of ball, it will go after inquisitors. I brought down rune mages first, then seriously crippled inquisitors and then archdemons. What to do with do archdemons? I helped myself with 2 x mystic eggs in those hard to reach two spots on the battlefield. Archdemons are likely to go after them. Save yor mana, time back will be needed.
m) Gremlion. The most difficult fight. Go there fully buffed .You need to have divine armor on which is 25 mana, cannot approach gremlion without stoneskin on, and need very high mana supply for casting especially divine armors. Stone skin would be nice to have to face those summons. To top it up - druids attack you with magic, dryads have thier special reset ability, ents will entangle you. Luckily, killing any summons will give your tons of rage even after 20th turn. First, make sure there is one summoning tower standing for 90% of the fight in order to bring out summons which is fresh supply of mana for you basically. I let two summoning towers standing for cca 15 turns just so there is enough summons out there for me to feed on. Since it is impossible to have divine armors and stone skin on all the time, i was just shooting at gremlion when i had a chance. Battle took 80+ turns. Mana management is the most important here.
n) Baal. actually fairly straightforward fight. Make sure you have holy anger 3. I was hardly worried about mana this way. Baal attacks are physical (just a bit of fire every now and then). First round stone skin on horsemen, they charge first and are likely to get killed fast, which you do not want. Second round stone skin on knights. third +fourth round stone skin on droids. repeat. That's it

[ckdamascus]

Wow, incredible detail! Now, this is going to sound a bit silly as I have read a lot of your posts and there is one lingering detail I could never understand.

What is cca?

[impy]

cca (or ca) from Latin circa meaning "around"

[Zechnophobe]

No Optimization module for Gremlion? Those give +25% magic resistence each, and some defense. Would seem to be perfect for you!

Engineers badge, Optimization Module x2, Horn, Hammer... should be one heck of a maxed out stack of droids.

I'm curious what you could do with Black Knights. Can they get the counter attack ability from Crossworlds? Can you even find the knights or whatnot you need to kill to unlock the ability? (Maybe on verona bridge)?

I'm curious to hear how Bhaal goes. Sure, ktahu with 95% physical resist is just a matter of defending vs gorguanas.. but Bhaal does fire damage in there too... and his archdemon stacks are going to be larger than your droid stacks I suspect.

[Jatekos]

Funny idea to solve the game with the less battle as possible.
One of your "compulsory" seems avoidable for me, but I have to check first.
And what's the next "craziness"? ?
Finishing the no-loss game using only peasants?
Or without using any spell?
Or with using only one type of runes?
Or even without using any runes?