Trading skill - gone?

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Actually, as Calinda suggested, you don't really need big tanks... All you need is a full stack of paladins and the phantom spell. Each phantom image can resurrect the orginal stack, so you will hardly ever come to some problems.

Paladins can be found very early in the game. The island should be called Scarlet wind. There is a Camp, guarded by a tough army, which is easy to kite away from it.

To get back on topic myself, I second the opinion that trading isn't that important. Money is plentiful in this game

Behind Recruiter Norbu? I had Knights there.

Frankly if there is one thing I don't like in AP, is that you can easily get Level 4-5 units very early. I'm on level 10 only and I my army is composed of Trolls, Royal Griffins, Assassins, Guard and Engineer Droids. It's nice but makes you use low level units less often. For example, even on the first continent I found Royal Thorns...

Even if you want a full-undead army, the abandoned castle in the first Island (the hero guarding it can be defeated on level 5-6 already) sells Cursed Ghosts and Vampires. The abandoned chapel (an even easier fight) on Scarlet Wind sells Necromancers too (for me at least).

I think I will follow Zhuangzi's advice and kill the map-guarding units to get to the new continents early - want to try out the Pangolins. I think the spear-wielding lizardmen are awesome, especially their ability to attack two spaces and to get a new turn after killing a stack.

One bit of advice - the Journey Magic scroll "Birth of a Giant" gives you random 5 level units, as many as your leadership can hold. Even if you reload, it always gives you the same unit type - BUT! If you travel to a new continent and use it there, you will get a different unit - again, reloading won't change this. This might wary per each scroll - I only got one - but this was the list for me:

-Starting island: Emerald Green Dragons
-Scarlet Wind: Ogres
-Bolo: Trolls
-Rusty Anchor: Ancient Ents
-Verona: Red Dragons

One other thing to note - the enemy heroes are much more difficult then in Legend. Even a measily level 5-8 Pirate or Robber hero has like 70 mana (while as a Warrior, I only have 29) - granted, they have 1-2 intellect, but they will summon Phoenixes and Evil Books every round, or use Fit of Energy and God Armor...

My only big gripe about AP is the story. Frankly, it's less interesting then Legend was. You are thrust into the middle of things, and the main quest is very straight-lined. The headhunts are a nice nod to the original 1989 game (there is even a similar conspiracy against a king like in the old game), but this means most quests are "kill that guy over there" types, you don't even have to report back after the deed is done, you get the money and XP automatically (quick postal service! ). Even if you go back to the questgiver, you cannot talk with them about the quests. I miss that aspect of the game.

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

I agree that money is plentiful, at least on Hard. At the end of my game I still had pretty much every item I'd picked up, because I was loathe to sell them for such a miserable price. Still had plenty of money without selling them. That's a good idea about the Marauders finding money - I was using the Baby Dragon's treasure finding a lot in the early/mid game, until I realised it wasn't necessary anymore.

I use that skill because the chests have a pretty good probability of containing runes, spells, even Journey Magic spells.

Btw, Trolls are a bit over-powered, they are almost unstoppable at night where they regenerate (with 780 HP that's a huge bonus). "Malignant" is also a great ability, meaning if a unit dies (not killed by spells but other units or your Dragon) the Troll gets +5 attack. Combined with Frenzy, my Trolls often have 80-90 attack by the end of the battle. The Boots of the Ogre are a necessary tool for them, though - it increases their speed too (4 at night, 3 at day). At day, they are slower but have 30% Fire and Physical resistance. Combined with a +15% Physical artifact, they take almost no damage from enemies...