Dev-mode

[Lord Ludwig]

OK, sorry for the double-post but it seems I recovered from my attack of dumbness. So I had to add -dev OUT of the quotes...

Help about beating Baal WITHOUT cheating with my current resources is still welcome.

[Elwin]

U did not doublepost i wrote post meanwhile. Btw i cant imagine how you play impossible with level 2 distortion

[Lord Ludwig]

Thanks from saving me from double-posting...

How did I play impossible with 2/3 distortion? The same way I completed KBtL at impossible without almost using distortion or even order magic: I try to build up intelligence, mana and above all mana restoration as quick as possible, I pick some very resilient units (before lvl 5 becomes largely available I used droids, splitting the repair units in two separate stacks so that they could repair each other) to minimize losses, and then I nuke away with fire rain. Obviously an amulet of fire storm (or two, as I got in KBtL) is welcome. For the larger stacks of enemies I use the pet's lightning (reaper's soul draining in KBtL) and that's it. The battles on Elon and Nameless were brainless pushovers, those on Reha barely required an effort. Then, however, I had to dig quite deep to get K'Tahu down and finally, silly me not to imagine it, I find out Baal is resistant to fire...

I used the cheat to bring distortion to 3/3 but it didn't make a noticeable difference. True, with stone skin + divine armor my paladins take little damage, but that means I have nothing left to damage with. As a result, after 10 rounds I had still about 70 paladins standing, surrounded by executioners and archdemons, with Baal "down" to 140,000

I had to resort to doubling repeatedly my pals to win...

One of these days I am going to replay from the start, but honestly I don't see how a mage can win on impossible, let alone the no loss wins I read about on the forum. Mind you, I am not saying it can't be done without cheating, I am just saying I can't see HOW it can be done.

[Elwin]

Dobrev described it very in detail ... Well you ended with no gold because you didnt pay much atention to unit loses i bet. With distortion 3 you can minimilize loses realy through the game. I have completed hard no loss .. would do with impossible as well. But i wont do it, my next game on impossible is fun game so it will not be no loss :p

[Lord Ludwig]

I indeed payed little attention in the last part of the game. Once I reached level 40+ all battles were so easy I just squandered money dismissing armies to try new ones. However, even considering I should have played more carefully and come to the final bosses better prepared (it was impossible difficulty after all) I don't see how distortion lvl 3 and maybe an all-demon or all-lizardmen army would make much difference. If I can find the "very detailed" thread by Dobrev I'll be happy to read it.

The way I see it, as a mage you get two options against Baal:

1) you pound him with offensive spells the way I always did with all other opponents, including Gremlion and K'Tahu. However his fire resistance makes my best spells useless. So you can go with: a) poison skull, probably the best damage/mana ratio available against him, but since on average it does little more than 4k damage it would take about 35 rounds to kill him. Since my leadership gives me only 150 paladins they are death before round 15; b) pole axe, guaranteed damage of close to 6K, slightly worse damage/mana ratio so maybe you'll have to resort to calm rage, anyway even if you could keep casting it pole axe requires close to 40 castings, thus with higher magic let's say 32-33 rounds. Same problem as with poison skull; c) ice snake: does slightly more than 7k damage per round, still meaning 30+castings, about 25 rounds with higher magic. But as it costs 30 mana you won't be able to cast it all turns; d) death star: does on average 9k damage but costs 50 mana AND will wipe out your own troops in such cramped space. So the nuking does not work.

2) you protect your best troops (paladins and knights) with stoneskin, divine armor and phantom them. Nice, they will take little damage (but still their numbers are going down) but what's left to harm Baal with? If they attack, given they can come close to him in the first place, the most damage I've seen is still below 5k (on a critical) and with Baal's counterstrike, protection or not, I still lose 10-12 paladins per round. If I start casting resurrection mana goes down fast, and in the end maybe I can keep my troops alive longer than in strategy 1, but even if I reach turn 20 Baal's health is not even halfway down.

Now if exorcism was to work on him (why doesn't it? He's the final boss, but he's still a demon, or is he?) that could MAYBE make it doable otherwise I just don't see how a mage can do it. Maybe a warrior with twice my leadership and 300-400 paladins, but a mage... I have maybe not all the very best items, but still have staff of the archmage, 2x robe of the magess, battle mage helm, the elven companion, various +2 regalia, that ring that gives +5 int... only no good boots, best I got is spiked boots (+2 def, +1 att).

[Elwin]

I would combine both strats a little prortect and some damaging. dobrev decribed tactics in high score thread. Also there was second impossible mage no loss with black nights. But u dont have money so u cant do it like that. ...

[Lord Ludwig]

Thanks again for replying. I will look up this high score thread. As for combining them, I don't think mixing two losing strategies makes for one winning

Anyway, I tried it, nuking and resurrecting at times... No use. Keep in mind that my analysis in last post did not even calculate the fact he just throws in some archdemons and executioners from time to time to make the scene more lively...

[Zechnophobe]

I kept phantoming Paladin's and it was pretty darn effective. I think one main secret is to not attack with many melee units, and focus on ranged. I guess that means inquisitors and bowmen for you, maybe Archmages?. Anyone you do attack with at melee should have mana spring, magic shield and stone skin (Don't waste mana on God Armor).

Keeping the phantomed stack of paladin's behind the ones meleeing Baal will make him more likely to attack that stack when he attacks. Use the phantoms to ress your guys, and Bills guys, to keep the damage up. Stone skin on the primary Paladin attackers will make them last a long time, possibly even the entire battle with the chain ressurrections.

You can also use dragons to flame over the demons he summons. I'm guessing your ultimate problem will be lack of leadership, since you need to be able to handle the stacks he summons with any extra melee units that you have pretty easily.

[GoodPlayer]

dear Lord Ludwig

so at last you solved your problem and
you understand how to trigger on the Dev-mode?

please teach me in more details.
i can not figure it out

thanks a lot. Danke schön!

[rancor26]

Originally Posted by GoodPlayer

dear Lord Ludwig

so at last you solved your problem and
you understand how to trigger on the Dev-mode?

please teach me in more details.
i can not figure it out

thanks a lot. Danke schön!

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