Mid-game crisis :<

[Nike-it]

Originally Posted by Vulture

Hi folks,

I am pretty new to the game and am still learning strategies but nevertheless I am used to these kinds of games like HoMM/LoM and I've been reading this forum for hours and hours gathering every information my brain can take but yet I can't seem to make proper use of all of them.

This is my first playthrough and I chose Paladin on normal diff.
Lvl 19
12,5k Leadership
8 Attack (only 1 + atk to choose @ lvlup so far :< )
24 Defense
11 Intellect

I learned to use all the tricks posted in here about sacrifice/time back so I can bring back slain lvl 5ers, extend buffs or save/multiply troops that are rare. I float around to grab free goodies and search shops.
In my (pretty lucky tbh) game at the moment I can get every troop execpt for:
Arch-Demons, Blackies, Reds and I have found every powerful spell except for Armageddon (which as a paladin is not usefull anyway). But I explored only up through Ellinia and Demonis so far. So I'm confident that at least 1 out of these 3 will appear later on in the Lotd and the labby.
As a paladin of course my spell power sucks big time but yet I have Order and Disto @ 3 and chaos @ 2 (only for sacrifice) and of course the 1 cast/turn rule makes me a rather helpless wannabe warrior/mage.

I have been reading for hours about troop setups and tried a lot on my own but it seems like I am stuck. Having Anga's Ruby and the elven crown I came to the conclusion that my current setup:
Dryads
Lake Fairies
Demonesses
Emeralds
Demon
might be a good idea considering the morale bonus on the she-fighters and the fact that it makes up for the demon penalty. I am trying to use the greenies as tanks with timeback and as mana gain machines combined with their skill and magic spring or on easier fights the demons for the massive slaughter presented by their 'furious' and pentagram abilities. But I am totally unhappy with the elf chicks. They do practically no damage. 1,5k to 2k normals without frenzy is a PITA especially when facing high defense mobs. Plus it's even more a PITA that they just get destroyed by troops that ignore the 'Target' spell or are lvl 5 and so do not obey to it. The Demonesses do fairly good and I love the swap ability and their charm on humanoids (priceless against big stacks of hunters that would just carve the dragons in half).

So basically what my problem is: so many people on this forum say that lake fairies and all those she-elves are ultimate damage machines combined with Anga's Ruby and I've seen that one signature displaying a 54k sprite crit . But it just doesn't work out for me, the damage just sucks. What am I not considering ? I chose every good might talent possible incl frenzy, onslaught and nighttime operations. I went for 3/3 into that rune exchange talent of course. And I've maxed concentration and as said before 3 Order, 3 Disto, 2 Chaos.

Ok, that's very much for one posting ^^ I hope somebody can figure out a strategic advise for me because actually fighting is very frustrating because the enemy just lives too long and the 'target' ignoring creatures just crack my girls.

Thx in advance !

According to the list of your units, lake fairies and dryads have low morale becuse of demon units. In this case it is normal, that they are not so good in the battle. You can learn about morale here: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...48&postcount=2

[Vulture]

Originally Posted by Nike-it

According to the list of your units, lake fairies and dryads have low morale becuse of demon units. In this case it is normal, that they are not so good in the battle. You can learn about morale here: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...48&postcount=2

Thank you for your comment but as stated above I have anga's ruby which makes up for the demon penalty. -2 for demons in the army, + 3 for anga's ruby makes +1. I know how morale works since as I said I have read through this forum for hours ^^

[Nike-it]

Originally Posted by Vulture

Thank you for your comment but as stated above I have anga's ruby which makes up for the demon penalty. -2 for demons in the army, + 3 for anga's ruby makes +1. I know how morale works since as I said I have read through this forum for hours ^^

Well, I think other players will be able to give more efficient advices. Good Luck

[thorndike]

there is quite a big difference between +1 and +3 morale for getting the criticals. That's one of the many dilimmas I faced when playing this great game, whether or not to put demoness in the army with fairies and dryads.

to increase the damage, you need to get the whip (easy to get) and the dagger (I never found it in my first game), and to use multiple weapons, you might have to marry Xena.

For the ranged units, I found spell "precision" at level 3 to be really useful. Other people also suggest spell "dragon arrow"

[Vulture]

@ Thorndike: You're right about the Dragon Arrow and/or precision and I do own both of them but the problem is that I am not a mage and need my single cast per turn for 1. target 2. magic spring/divine armor [timeback tank unit at end of turn 2] 3. target again 4. magic spring/divine armor again. There is practically no time for 4 turns to cast dragon arrow or precision which is the reason why I dumped the ranger setup.

You're right about positive morale being inferior to a possible high morale but I was doing BETTER with other units having no morale bonus at all, meaning neutral morale (Evil Beholders, Royal Snakes, Horsemen, Inquisitors went far better until the tanking problem appeared) so the morale can't be the only problem. If so I will have to throw out the demoness, replacing her with something else.

Yet I can't figure out how I am supposed to get Isshara's whip at level 19 since all over Demonis it says 'very strong' or 'overpowering'. But I'll see what I can do.

@ Ryastar: ok, I get the point. So the sprite is missing. I remember having read in the 'favorite unit' thread about lake fairies being better than sprites. Must have got it wrong then. So without the whip (yet) and the dagger I should not go with the 'girls' setup ? And forget about tolerance, I have taken the way down to the rune swapping and won't do more since the mind tree sucks big time tbh. Getting all the talents in the middle and right (i.e. glory which doesn't scale at all) part of the tree doesn't make sense to me since I have Inquisitors + Sacrifice/time back to make more if lost. As you stated correctly the Inquisitors lack range damage wise unless fighting the undead (I will take them again in Lotd) so I don't think they are a good choice for Ellinia. Having timeback lvl1-5 at 20 rage it's pretty fine for me not to go with inquisitors since I use to have the rage for it and so don't need it at all atm. The bless coming with holy anger isn't enough to justify their spot (again unless fighting undead) and so it leaves me with a small rage gain and no damage at all.

But still, even if I took the demoness and the demon out replacing them with other none-demonic units there would still be a problem with the lvl 1 (sprite or lake fairy don't make a difference in that respect) melee unit just being smashed by all those mobs ignoring 'target' either by bein' 5ers or immune. Especially ancient ents are horrible in that respect. They just spit (or melee hit) them to death while the mobs affected by target are busy with my dragons and/or demons. So either with +1 or +3 morale they get eaten and I end up every fight saving a low stack of slow enemies or rangers to wait for my mana to regen to resurrect them all. Spending more than 50% of your battle mode time with running and waiting is rather frustrating. Running through cities with backup in their garrisons I've put there isn't that much more interesting...

Edit: elven crown gives +1 to elven morale, too, so I have actually +2 on them with demons in the army.

[Ryastar]

Ah, but what makes the sprites and lake fairies kick butt is the +3 morale that they get with anga's ruby. You have reduced their morale back down to mediocre. The other thing that makes them own is using +damage items, namely the poison dagger and isshara's whip. The latter is a quest reward for a quest in demonis, which you will get eventually. It gives +2 att and +1 fire damage. Since sprities + lake fairies are in such large number due to low leadership cost, this +1damage has a huge effect.

Some suggestions for you:

1) since you are paladin, you should have little problem getting tolerance level 2, which will negate the morale penalty from the demons. The other option is replacing your demonis troops with elven ones. The eleven archers are quite powerful, and I am frankly astonished that you don't have any sprites.

2) Lake fairies pale in comparison to sprites, which are only slightly slower and in slightly smaller numbers, but do more than 50% more damage per troop, so I would add sprites to your lineup either instead of lake fairies or in addition, see 1), above. Another thing to note is that dryads suck at dealing damage and should mostly be used as support troops ie. using lullaby to put enemy troops to sleep and summoning expendable stacks of thorns to distract enemies and do some damage.

3) Red and Blacks Dragons are ALWAYS available in the land of the dead, amongst the cliffs in Death valley, so extend your explorations there. Of the two, blacks are more devastating with better special abilities but are harder to keep alive without losses while reds are only slightly weaker and have a better special attack and can be kept alive easier.

4) Inquisitors are a good addition to any army despite their rather lacking damage. They are primarily support units with the ability to ressurect any level of unit even level 5 as well as having an ability that blesses a troop (and sprites and lake fairies become far more powerful when blessed) and gives you some rage (only 5-10, but it still helps).