Uladar Maritarius

[torquemada]

I can't believe I'm writing this but I can't beat this necromancer in the cave on the first island playing soothsayer impossible. Did they buff him up or something, I had no problems with him few weeks ago. It seems his mana pool and army is just way too large for such an early battle. Just take a look at this screenshot to see what I'm up against. Btw he opens up the battle by critting with his ghost blade (~280 dmg), no amount of reloads can change that.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by torquemada

I can't believe I'm writing this but I can't beat this necromancer in the cave on the first island playing soothsayer impossible. Did they buff him up or something, I had no problems with him few weeks ago. It seems his mana pool and army is just way too large for such an early battle. Just take a look at this screenshot to see what I'm up against. Btw he opens up the battle by critting with his ghost blade (~280 dmg), no amount of reloads can change that.

Sort of. The variance in the leadership he can spawn with is incredibly high, so restarting the game might result in a much easier game. Personally, I toughed it out and took severe losses with my Viking build because the items were TOO good for that game. (sacrifice the early game for a great middle-end game).

Regarding ghost blade, that isn't completely true. If you change your army composition, the AI changes his opener and will not nuke you.

Unfortunately, that could sometimes even mean going in with an underpowered army.

Sometimes that means a stack of snakes, dropping to 4 stacks with only 2 split soothsayers stacks, ancient bears, and ugh I can't remember what else. But keep trying. Even try with slightly smaller leadership stacks.

He sometimes opens with blind (if you have a powerful small stack like snakes or slingers) or slow.

[Razorflame]

Originally Posted by torquemada

I can't believe I'm writing this but I can't beat this necromancer in the cave on the first island playing soothsayer impossible. Did they buff him up or something, I had no problems with him few weeks ago. It seems his mana pool and army is just way too large for such an early battle. Just take a look at this screenshot to see what I'm up against. Btw he opens up the battle by critting with his ghost blade (~280 dmg), no amount of reloads can change that.

I think the only real problem is that getting his not using a damaging spell

And what are your spells?

And for that army I would suggest that you split the soothsayers
leave bear out
Wait with the beserker to let the ancient vampires get close then use their rage ability+with their run ability

and ofcourse open the battle up with using the rage ability+spells if needed

since the ancient vampires are in pretty low stacks u should be able to kill em very fast the problem being the skell archers not shooting with poison arrows unless u have dispell or something

[torquemada]

I made another game and he has even bigger army now, see screenshot. Last time he had 4770ls worth of units, now he has 5429, almost all fast ones, there is no way to control this battle. I am even using +20% leadership scroll.
I don't understand this, I had no trouble with this battle before the patch in same difficulty, same class.

If anyone thinks he can win this I'll be happy to send him the save game

[torquemada]

Originally Posted by Razorflame

And for that army I would suggest that you split the soothsayers
leave bear out
Wait with the beserker to let the ancient vampires get close then use their rage ability+with their run ability

How would that help me to lessen my army?

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by torquemada

How would that help me to lessen my army?

If you want to no loss or minimal loss, usually split soothsayer stack is needed.

They can tank far harder than any other unit out there.

Berserker has to be timed for perfect offensive move. Ancient Bears are good as a secondary melee follow up.

I found the game a lot more fun when I just accepted I would take losses in some battles.

However, then I found out some of those battles were difficult to win EVEN with losses!