KBDS Normal/Hard/Impossible No-loss thread

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Very good tactic, Matt. The game forced me to try something else though... I did it by ditching the low-HP imps completely, as the enemy hero was "healing" them all the time and there was no way to prevent them from being killed. Instead, I split the Demoness stack in 2. This allows for more swaps around the battlefield, thus allowing you to kill stacks of archers safely, and get your troops out of the fray if necessary.

I love this fight. Makes you really think and get creative.

That is an excellent tactic, DGDobrev, and one that I had considered, but fortunately I was able to get by with the Imps / Scoffer Imps since they are your only ranged troops for Demoness. I don't remember all the details of that fight, but I guess I was lucky that he didn't heal my Imps to where they died (if he used the heal spell at all - I just can't remember as that was two months ago!).

Nonetheless, having another Demoness does have the advantages that you state, the only downside is that you won't be able to charm as high leadership troops as you could with 2 Demonesses, but the extra swap is probably worth it in the end.

Originally Posted by zjazd18

The knight is rather easy fight, but that big spider stack is indeed very difficult. I guess it all depends how game rolled your enemy stacks. Demoness start seems so fun, and well put with starting troops and stuff you can do. Vampire has vampires, zombies, ghosts, and both skeletons - like there is no hp in compassion to demoness troops. Matt did you manage to do guardians of light with vampire ? I guess that should be nice challenge for Impy.

Yah, I guess game variability makes all the battles pretty personalized for your playthrough. That's why I've posted the starting pictures so that at least you can see how different the enemy stack is from what you're facing and also give you a feel for what is doable.

I've only played Demoness and have just finished Oakarland and Aralan, but all the comments here have me itching to try the other classes, at least through the Whitehill fight. But I'd really like to finish my current playthrough before I restart with another class...

It sure sounds like Orc and Vampire are much harder, although with Vampire at least Ghosts and Vampires can life steal. With Orc and Demoness, you don't have any healing whatsoever.

Does Orc get the Goblin Shamans (or whatever that new unit's name is) or at least 1 Shaman at the start? If you had one Shaman like the Demoness has 1 Demon that would be huge. Too bad for Vampire they don't give you 1 Necromancer. Seems like that would balance out the other classes as you get 2 level 4 troops with Demoness you should at least get 2 level 4 troops with the other classes as well.

Oh well, I guess that's part of the challenge!

/C\/C\

[Zhuangzi]

Phew, I'm up to 102 fights without loss now, meaning I get the third level of the Grand Strategian medal. I hit the wall a bit at about fight 90 in Inselburg. My team, which I really liked, just wasn't doing it anymore. It consisted of Demonologists, Necromancers, Archdemons (only 2), Demons and Demonesses. This is a great team for spawning units and playing havoc with the enemy, but it's a bad team for keeping everything alive with no resurrection ability.

So, level 5 units it is...

My new team consists of ALL level 5 units in Black Dragons, Reds, Greens, Archdemons and I just got 3 Ice Dragons out of a second Call of Colossus spell. So I think I should be better able to keep everything alive. The next problem I expect will be poor access to more dragons. I have 2 Red Dragon eggs but that's it.

[DGDobrev]

You got Archies? Grats. I didn't.

My Call Collosus scroll gave me trolls, which was great news. I was very hyped up about the idea of trying to play with Dark Paladins + Phantom, as I am so used to that playstyle, but I wasn't meant to be. Not yet at any rate.

Neoline DG is level 27, 140 fights in. My lineup consists of Red Dragons, Giants (had to ditch the Green Dragons cause I have no way of replenishing them) after the dwarf castle fight, Demonologists, Shamans, and Trolls.

I am very interested to find out how do you get to Galenirim. I have a bad feeling it has something to do with that baloon, and you need silk from spider eggs for it. Well, I had like 200, and I sold them cause I didn't know better. Now I need 100 more, and have like 60 of it.

I am also wasting a lot of time going back and forth, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. I don't know how the quests go yet.

So far so good. I am quite enjoying this

[zjazd18]

I'm at final boss atm, level 73, 450 fights no-loss (haven't done any item upgrading fights) so you get rough idea how long the game is. Still have like 10 quests to do but I'm gonna pass on them as I'm quite burned from the game. Last fight seems fun, but nothing spectacular, just adds spawning I need to replace my dragon riders as there is unavoidable damage, so they are no good for no-loss approach.

Galenirim is pretty late game location like 50s or so, and you get it from the maps. The baloon quest is important tho, as it leads to your ability to fly, so definitely look out for those spider eggs.

[Zhuangzi]

Lucky for me, in this playthrough, I didn't bother picking up all those spider eggs in the Catacombs. I guess I'd better go back there and start picking.

450 fights? Christ, this is going to take a while then. DG - where do you get those Dark Paladins? Haven't seen any yet.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Lucky for me, in this playthrough, I didn't bother picking up all those spider eggs in the Catacombs. I guess I'd better go back there and start picking.

450 fights? Christ, this is going to take a while then. DG - where do you get those Dark Paladins? Haven't seen any yet.

Dark Paladins become available after you complete the Portland quests of dethroning the current leader.

As an aside, be sure to pick up on the spider eggs, etc. when you see them as you never know when you might need them in the future.

Some quests do provide you with them - there's a quest in Aralan where you need to bring someone 1 Spider Egg, 1 Dragonfly Egg, 1 Griffin Egg, 1 Thorn Seed, and 1 Ent Sprout. I was wracking my brain as to where I had seen a Griffin Egg, when I realized that they placed armies on the island for you to fight to get each item. In fact each item was a quest item that you couldn't use.

/C\/C\

[DGDobrev]

Exactly, I got Dark Paladins when dethroned the portland king, but they were only measly 14, when I could command over 40, so it makes very little sense to use them, unless you feel very comfortable with the sacrifice spell. So I opted out of using Dark Paladins for the time being.

Working my way through Tristem now. There we have 2 maps I want Both guardians count as deadly, so it is a challenge.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by zjazd18

I'm at final boss atm, level 73, 450 fights no-loss (haven't done any item upgrading fights) so you get rough idea how long the game is. Still have like 10 quests to do but I'm gonna pass on them as I'm quite burned from the game. Last fight seems fun, but nothing spectacular, just adds spawning I need to replace my dragon riders as there is unavoidable damage, so they are no good for no-loss approach.

Galenirim is pretty late game location like 50s or so, and you get it from the maps. The baloon quest is important tho, as it leads to your ability to fly, so definitely look out for those spider eggs.

Wow! I'm only level 65 with 447 no loss fights, but I have fought every artifact upgrade battle so that's maybe why I have so many more fights for such a lower level.

By the way, some of the Gremlin Towers have 60 to 70k hp!

I know what you mean about being burnt out - I've been a bit bored with it since about level 50, but I guess I'll finish as many quests as I can to be thorough.

I did have 6 Scrolls of Ancient Knowledge and just started using them so hopefully I'll be getting a lot of experience for these last batch of battles. I just need to dethrone the Galenrim King and then I'll just have Helvedia and Atrixus left.

By the way, why don't they show the Wanderer Scrolls active any more on the right side of the screen? Did they not have it in WotN / I&F, either? It'd be nice to know which of my Wanderer Scrolls are active as in AP / CW.

/C\/C\

[zjazd18]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

Wow! I'm only level 65 with 447 no loss fights, but I have fought every artifact upgrade battle so that's maybe why I have so many more fights for such a lower level.

By the way, some of the Gremlin Towers have 60 to 70k hp!

I know what you mean about being burnt out - I've been a bit bored with it since about level 50, but I guess I'll finish as many quests as I can to be thorough.

I did have 6 Scrolls of Ancient Knowledge and just started using them so hopefully I'll be getting a lot of experience for these last batch of battles. I just need to dethrone the Galenrim King and then I'll just have Helvedia and Atrixus left.

By the way, why don't they show the Wanderer Scrolls active any more on the right side of the screen? Did they not have it in WotN / I&F, either? It'd be nice to know which of my Wanderer Scrolls are active as in AP / CW.

/C\/C\

Yea i have more late game battles, and less early ones from item upgrading etc. I fought most of my battles with 10%exp bonus from items, and ofc learning maxed asap. Once you pop AK and do these late game hero battles levels will fly like crazy. Last 3 battles at whitehill gave me 3 levels so yeah it's pretty ridiculous. Still miscalculated my AK scrolls and have 2 left, so go spend them while you can, just save 1 for these last battles.

Those towers have huge hp but no damage from what I've seen. There are some quests with battles with them and they were doing like 200dmg lightning with no ricochet. So definitely the ones spawning more troops are more annoying.

Yeah that must be a bug with those wanderer scrolls not showing up remaining duration. Kinda annoying but at least they work

Still haven't killed last boss, gave up at turn 50ish and boss still had like 3/4 of hp remaining. Will do it later as I got into Pillars of Eternity beta, and man did i love baldur's gate series.

EDIT: Realized something while writing this post, went to try it out and boss went down on first try. Won't spoil it for you guys, if someone cant beat it pm me, but strategy wasn't really creative or anything.

[DGDobrev]

Congrats

The game really opened up for me now after I got the 2 Tristem maps. So I went on an explore/steal spree, and opened Galenirim, Bear Butte, Sandy and Amazonia. Being able to port between islands is amazing, as you need to finish a lot of cross-island quests.

I think I have only 2 undiscovered islands now, and I will get those 2 eventually as well. At level 30, my lineup is Archdemons, Demonologists (+Phantom, it's amazing), Shamans, Trolls and 4 Reds. Still looking for something to sub the Reds with... I think I saw cyclopses somewhere. They will sure pack a punch from range till I find something better.

Sadly, still no luck with the Dark Paladins.