Playin impossible mage, might need help
 

Kinda hittin a dead end in dwarf land right now... supposed to free the castle to get the treaty signed... but I get my ass kicked in that fight.

Fastest unit I have is dwarven cannon, and nearly every demon goes before them. I wish I had enough might runes to get the +initiative talents but I am still a lil ways off from that.

My current army is-
Griffin around 78
Evil Beholder 39
Cannoneer 32
Archmage 39
Orc Shaman 39

27 int, 99 mana
higher magic I
Chaos III
Distortion III

I have no problem taking controll against armies I win initiative on, but these guys all through the field into total chaos before I get a move.

Just wonderin if there is some initiative 7+ guys I am missing to this point.. What about those lake spirits you get at the start of the game? Should I garrison my army and stock up on them through defeats? I have the ring that gives females +3 initiative/everything else... does it work on them?

you could swap the 15 sprites with your griffins or whatever. Then you will get first turn. I would cast mass magic shackles first, then you're free to party!

word, that's what I was thinkin as well =)

oh that's right! they were sprites! Should definately work with the ring

I would also consider switching in giants for the archmagi. All demon troops are land-based, iirc, so the giant's earthquake should be able to do ridiculous amounts of damage, as well as surviving really well.

On another note, if you do use sprites, you will suffer a morale loss to your cannoneers, (and giants, if you add them), so think carefully before you do that.

I used giants, but they have such a high leadership rating, that as a mage I can only get 4 of them... so I opted for 87 griffins instead... I like the arch mages simply because I am currently using a phantom griffin army strat and the shield prolongs the life of my double phantom griffin stacks I drop in the enemy front ranks turn 1. Turn 2 I mana spring the other stack. makes for lots of rage/mana gain. The following turns I clone my orc shamans and make a totem forest. I will likely use giants when I go warrior impossible next, and the boots that make my slowest unit gain +1 move.

I guess I will replace my cannoneers with sprites, and conceed to loose my endless supply of griffins this fight... and drop 4 griffin stacks in thier front line on turn 1.

still haven't beaten that castle... I resorted to returning to clean-up/quest freedom isle, which still has a ton of xp for me and come back when I get lvl 16.. I am up to 120 mana now still at 15... hopefully get another boost at 16... or maybe leadership.

Think I will go with: polar bears, griffins, ancient bears, shamans, 15 sprites, and just concede to have a blood bath when I return to that castle... the only creatures I will use in the future will be shamans/griffins, but I have a near endless supply of each.

I am thinkin
turn 1
- mass shackles
- hypnotise one scoffer imp stack
- charge with my circus
- drop a totem with my front line of beasts

turn 2
- phantom my shamans
- drop 2 more totems
- keep pressing the action
- drop iceball or glots armor

turn 3 on just alternate casting magic spring and phantom till they are dead

well I spanked this fight pretty easily... just had to switch back to my snakes and the banner that gives +1 initiative to lvl 1-3 troops.

it's really all about winning initiative as a mage atleast.

right now I am lvl 18 and using:
green dragons
royal thorns
orc shamans
inquisitors
evil beholders

so long as the dragons can keep winning me initiative I might stay in this set up till the end of the game... assuming I can find another supply of royal thorns or a sacrifice spell.

I have found multiple copies of just about every uber spell out there except sacrifice.

I found a black dragon egg, a spot to buy arch devils, and red dragons...

unfortunately the devils and black dragon can't be ress'd buy my inquisitors, my spell, or timeback; so I had to put them back on my bench :(

I am however back in elf land now and spanking everything with my new red/green dragons... I just hope I can eventually find sacrifice or another spot to buy royal thorns... I love em, and altho I can't res them, I can atleast timeback them.

question: if you use necro call on your own undead units will it ressurect them? If so I might pick up the necromancers I found in demonis as well.

No, necro call only works on a fully dead stack, ie. one with no more units in it.. And it will only raise a percentage of those lost, so it isn't worth it.

thanks, one more question.. can you resurrect or inquisitor ressurect any undead?

also, how do druids rate vs royal thorns? they seem to be a decent alternative... maybe even better since they can charm beasts and are ressable? but i havent field tested them yet

thanks!

another couple questions:
can you res or use inquisitor res on undead units? might use necromancers if so.

also anyone have any experience with druids? might just use them as a substitute for royal thorns... I can res them easily, they are ranged, and they can poop bears out, ohh and also they can charm beasts.. so one might argue they are superior to the thorns... I know that thier bears are fewer in leadership value than the royal thorns germination... but they do have some other perks to compinsate... anyone field tested them?