Surviving on Impossible

[Enarr]

Playing on Impossible w/ Mage. Level 10 and about to sail to Freedom Isle.

I kinda cheated (well not really) by starting over and over, while checking the items given in the first 2 castles. I was lucky enough to start with the Banner that gives 6 defense, 800 leadership and 10 mind runes after 50 vics, and a helm that gives 5 mana and 20% more dmg to spells. Unluckily, all the other items from other shops have really sucked . Dupes of +1 def boots and shields galore!

I saved up 60k gold asap for that banner and then it was real smooth sailing from there. Saving up that 60k took a lot of dodging and luring to get treasures/gold/scrolls from really hard mobs. I only fought weak monsters so I would have next to zero losses. Like the above poster, Fireball's my main spell.

I specced my mage for the long haul. I got 1/3 in both the exp/gold talents and then 3/3 trade talent because I know gold will be the main issue late game. Especially since I've been really unlucky with scrolls (No sacrifice and resurrection scrolls yet). After 3/3 trade, I was rich , sold off many scrolls and items I hoarded.

Main army : Nothing out of the ordinary. Good ole Royal snakes, Priests, Archers, Inq, and Horsemen/Polar bears. Ran out of horsemen so Polar bears. I just hope there will be some sweet units in Freedom.
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easy vape

[Zhuangzi]

@ Leo, that sounds like a good idea about holding onto the scrolls for now. You also get a better deal on them when you put a point or two into Trade (if you are going to). I am just worried about money basically.

The Banner of True Faith was in the building next to King Mark's castle, the one with the tournaments etc. I think this is what Enarr picked up, except that it is +4 defense, not plus +6 (I will have to check this). I hadn't seen this before so I was very happy, not only with the Mind runes but with the massive 800 leadership. I have decided that Mages really do need to work on leadership as a high priority. This is so you can have bigger stacks of ranged units. I think mine is about 6000 now at level 11.

In my two previous games, I had no luck with Feanora, so I went with Mirabella and loaded up on Sea Dogs and Pirates. With the pirate belt and the pirate flag you get from the Coastal Brotherhood, as well as the bonuses you get from Mirabella, Sea Dogs especially become killing machines. And they are cheap. So I would ditch Feanora in your circumstances and go with Mirabella for now. IMO Anga's Ring is most useful in the Elven lands due to the female units there (Lake Fairies, Dryads, Sprites). I don't think there is a single female unit in Kordar

That Horsemen trick IS invaluable early on. With Priests blessing/healing them those 13 Horsemen in the tent lasted a LONG time.

@ Enarr, sounds like you got the Banner of True Faith too. One thing that annoyed me about Freedom Islands was the lack of ranged units available. I don't like to go back and forward from Darion to Freedom Islands because I am thinking about my high score, so I usually use whatever is locally available. If you don't like Feanora's kids, I would try to kill the Kraken/Lucky James fairly quickly in order to get Mirabella. You also get the pirate flag when you do a fed ex quest between Eastern Islands/Coastal Brotherhood (the 'wife's weight in gold quest). Then you can use Sea Dogs/Pirates.

[sector24]

One trick I used to avoid going back and forth was to get the reserve skill. I put extra Inquisitors and Royal Snakes in my reserve slots, and then dumped them at the castle in the Freedom Isles. Not sure how viable that is for a mage though, especially if you spent your mind runes on other stuff.

[Chaosti]

On my first time through the game. I started at impossible difficulty with a paladin.

I'm currently starting the elvish isles
I've been using this setup:

archmage, inquisitors, shamans, gryphons, evil beholders (now dwarvish cannons since the beholder blind seems to be good only vs level 1s)

General strategy has been to run the gryphons forward, wait, shield them with archmage, bless them, and let them retaliate against the enemy while casting resurrection a few times.

From what I'm reading, I guess I should of gone mage with sacrifice Never even knew sacrifice was that useful haha.

[Zhuangzi]

That sounds like a good strategy anyway, Chaosti. Maximum respect for going for Impossible for your first game. Griffins are great for retaliation, especially if you get the -30% leadership banner. Sounds like you are going fine.

I was annoyed at myself for using up the 13 Horsemen, as I wanted to Sacrifice something to get a full stack of them, and then I realised that I had parked 4 of them in King Mark's castle! So now I have 33/33 I love Horsemen. They are up there with Griffins as the best melee units.

I forgot to mention before that I found a lame exploit in Freedom Isles. This is related to the Bob Devis quest, for which you get the pirate halberd and some cash. I don't like the halberd but it's worth 20,000 gold if you have Trade 3, so I usually take that and give Devis the money. But I discovered today that you can get the halberd, sell it around the corner in the castle, then go back to Bob and tell him you'll keep the money (i.e. give him the halberd) and I get 'quest completed.' Lame or what?

[dli2k3]

I'm also playing a mage on impossible, I'm lvl 10 and started killing things on Freedom Islands. For the turtle, I found by accident an easy way to defeat it by sacrificing the useless beginning units. I had 2 royal thorns at the swam and brought them into battle with the turtle due to their high hps and I found out that the turtle would always attack one of the units in front of it. So by using the germination ability on the thorn, I generated some thorn which can use the plantation ability to grow other thorns and each new thorn gets the plantation ability again, so in the end, I had like 10 thorn units, some of the with only 1 thorn planted in front of the turtle and each time the turtle kills one, I grow it back...In the mean time, I just blast it with ranged units and spells...

[Zhuangzi]

Yeah Royal Thorns seem to be the perfect thing to use Sacrifice on, as you can't buy an unlimited supply anywhere. I am loving Royal Thorns myself. Like Orc Shamans they give the enemy plenty of things to attack that *aren't* your troops, and that is exactly what you want as a Mage. I have also been using Sacrifice to get a stack of Horsemen as well, long before they become a horde at King Mark's castle.

My own game is progressing very smoothly - in fact I am disappointed how smoothly it is going. I've totally cleared out Freedom Islands now, including the pirate ships, and that's despite the fact that many enemies were listed as Very Strong or Overpowering. Leadership is over 6000 and I've still got Feanora due to her wonderful children. I just cleared out Creiston Mines too and I think I am level 15 now.

I decided that a Mage really wants to race up the Magic tree (obviously) but some things are more important than others. So I already have Chaos 3 and Destroyer 3, but only Distortion 2 and Order 1. The mana regeneration is also not so important this early, so I've only got one point in that. Ice Snake is a very, very nice spell to use and now it's dealing over 2200 damage to the central hex of the attack. Fireball 3 is awesome for any thorns you see too, as they take double damage from fire.

Comparing my money stocks to my two earlier Hard games, I am surprised to find that I have WAY more money this time. Currently I have about 500,000 in the bank, compared to 200,000 at the same stage in my last Hard game. Obviously I haven't been losing nearly as many units, and this is down to the decision to play an 'offensive mage strategy.'

Basically, you want to do the biggest spell damage to the enemy each turn, which means having as high an Intellect as you can (mine is only 16 at the moment) and prioritising Chaos 3 and Destroyer 3. Then you can use spells like Fireball, Ice Snake and later Fire Rain and Armageddon. Ideally you want to use as many ranged units as possible to complement your spells, so I have settled on Royal Thorns and Orc Shamans to create cannon fodder/diversions, as well as whatever melee units are cheap (Pirates and Sea Dogs in Freedom Islands). I don't like the human archer (too weak) but I also have a stack of Horsemen which I created with Sacrifice.

[Candyman]

well just finished the game on impossible, basicly i didnt want to, but wanted to try the final fight and i was kinda tired, there are still a lot things to do for me

guys a lot of fun awaiting you in Land of Death and Haas Labyrinth!!! GL and HF