Shall we start a new high score/info thread? (Spoilers inside)

[DGDobrev]

Actually the no retaliation trait gained by the Axe of Ice only works on lvl 1-3 dwarven units, and they are only 2 of them - diggers and dwarves. So it's really not that great, although I must admit that Diggers (the basic lvl 2 dwarven unit) can come in the thousands, pretty much like the fairies, but have much better attack, defense and damage, and they also get a +10% Physical resistance thanks to that axe. Besides, it's stats are great:

Axe of Ice, Class 3
+ 7 Defense
Dwarves lvl 1-3 attack without retaliation
+10% physical resistance (absolute) to all dwarven units

Here's the stats of the Axe of Lightning:

The Axe of Lightning Lvl 3
+5 Attack
+10% Critical strike chance
+20% damage to the Lightning Spell
(I'll have to check, but I think it also affects the archmagi's base attack, as it is Lightning-based)

They are all great - but in the end, it depends on your playing style which one are you going to get and use, so do not be hasty in making that decision.

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Actually the no retaliation trait gained by the Axe of Ice only works on lvl 1-3 dwarven units, and they are only 2 of them - diggers and dwarves. So it's really not that great, although I must admit that Diggers (the basic lvl 2 dwarven unit) can come in the thousands, pretty much like the fairies, but have much better attack, defense and damage, and they also get a +10% Physical resistance thanks to that axe. Besides, it's stats are great:

I did play around with dwarves for a while - MIners are awesome now even without the Axe, if you use them in tandem with Foremen (and frankly, Foremen are much better then the level 3 Dwarf). Foremen increase the base attack and intiative of miners by 100% just by being in the army, and using the ability "Forward March" they give 3 speed and initiative to Miners! Making those slow little buggers very, very fast.
PLus, during the Miner's strike the Foremen get +1 speed, initiative and 100% critical chance (because he's angry, as all bosses are during a strike... )

Also, don't forget that Droid Engineers are level 3 too. They are ranged units, but they fly, have a speed of 4 and no melee penalty, so they could benefit from the no retaliation bonus too.

Zhuangzi - already on the first Island I found the "Fairy Dress" that gives +3 morale to Sprites and Dryads and +7 to Mana. Also I believe there is another item that boosts them, I saw it on the Elf islands. Generally there are a lot more creature-specific items, for example a Dark helm that reduces leadership of Death Knights.

I found out that there is a good Lizardmen-boosting item that you can get in every game - In Alona, you can do an exam in the Lecture Hall (the headmaster elf is a strange fellow, all courses exam's end in a big battle... ) - if you choose Biology (I think that is it) he wants you to show him the weak points of lizards - in battle! You get a diploma (Regalia) in biology (?) after this that gives +10 Rage, +5 Attack to Lizardmen and +10% critical chance to Tirexes!

The other two options (from what I can tell, translation is quite bad here) are Abjuration and Botany.

Abjuration pits you against a mage army (so you can show how you defend yourself against battle magic) and the Diploma gives you +2 defense, +2 Intelligence and +25% Magic resistance.

If you choose Botany (that's the funniest) Amelie says "Oh I love this, to arrange lovely flowers in a bouqet!" To which the professor says "But how to protect it? Now show me how you protect a lovely bouqet from firey creatures from hell!" and you will be pitted against an army of Demons while your army will consist of Ents and Thorns...
The Botany diploma Gives +10 Attack to Ents, Thorns and Dryads (so that's the other item I remember that boosts Dryads)....

[Zhuangzi]

That's the thing I love the best about these games - the combinations of units and combinations of items. In AP they have worked on the 'sets' of items a lot too - now the item tells you what other items you need to complete the set. Nice.

[DGDobrev]

I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Not every playthrough must be made to show a great score. There are many combinations that are worthwhile to try. I for one, like this a lot - if you get a Call of Death Wanderers' Scroll, hang on to it - it's great in the late stages of the game. When you use it, it fills out a free spot with units worth the maximum amount of leadership you have. Try to luck out with a couple thousand Skeleton archers, use dragon arrows and drop an entire dragon stack in one blow. Priceless

What I really like about tKBAP is that it provides even more options to mix parties with mutual benefit than in KBTL. What I don't like is the fact that in certain playthroughs, one can get the units he wants at a very late stage, while it's much more fun to try them early on. A good example are the Demonologists, Necromancers and Druids. I like all of those, because the Necro's and Druids are great in utilizing mass attacks, and the Demonoligsts are Human Neutral, meaning they don't harm the morale by mixing up 3 types of units (humans, demons, undead).

A good question is whether you have some means to resurrect the undead armies, besides the Paladin hero Resurrection ability, as it resurrects every stack. In KBAP, Necro Call resurrects dead stacks as undead, and it doesn't work like resurrection. All you can do is sacrifice to regain lost units, and that takes quite a lot of mana and rounds...

[travelingoz]

Demonologists can resurrect undead too!

[DGDobrev]

Indeed, but they are hard to come by Unless I can rush to Shaterra and find some there, I will be left with some basic 5-8 demonologists which may spawn on the starting island, or may not...

In any case, thanks for the tip

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

A good question is whether you have some means to resurrect the undead armies, besides the Paladin hero Resurrection ability, as it resurrects every stack. In KBAP, Necro Call resurrects dead stacks as undead, and it doesn't work like resurrection. All you can do is sacrifice to regain lost units, and that takes quite a lot of mana and rounds...

The "Evlin" spell can resurrect a percentage of them. You need dead bodies for that, but you can get plenty of those with summonings. Also, there is time back!

[DGDobrev]

Well, there we go I've completed the playthrough I've been looking forward to for quite a while.

I must admit the Paladin is a force to be reckoned with if you develop him properly. The key to the easy going with a Paladin lies in 3 skills, which should be fully developed in this order ASAP - Learning, Resurrection, Rage. Learning lvl 3 gives 20% more XP per battle, Resurrection lvl 3 lets you use scapegoat units all the time (100% of which will be resurrected in the end of the battle), and Rage lvl 3 improves the rage income in battle by 60%, which puts you on an even foot with the Warrior. I also made sure I stared with Marshal's Memoirs artifact (+5% XP) and got the Shark Tooth from Jim Crowd for 5% more XP. So I had +30% XP per battle very early on. I even found the Hand of Necropolis - +10% XP more, so I had a lot of XP to go around.

So with this build, I had learning lvl 3 and resurrection lvl 3 by lvl 18. Until that level came, it was tough as hell (still, not as tough as a mage). After I got that behind my back, the game get way easier. Achieving Resurrection at lvl 3 made me sacrifice every possible spell improvement, though. I was using only the healing spell until lvl 19. Doing that put me at a wicked disadvantage, but it was very rewarding after I got what I wanted. I'd have to admit that with Inquisitor's Sword - guaranteed drop from Thomas Torkve (Torque?) and Warrior of the Light medal (+20/30/40% to Paladins, Inquisitors and Priests' damage), the Paladin may get a wickedly powerful army, which is worth more than it looks. So there is nothing unusual that I used these 3 types of units - as soon as they became available - pretty much through the entire game. The only battles I missed out on them were the 2 boss battles with Ktahu and Zilgadis. Top that with some items that improve the crit rate and watch the carnage

Even with the scapegoat units, and with only 164/290 battles without losses, I was amazed I ended up with only 3326 losses. I was expecting this game to go into about 10 000, but nothing of the sort happened. This saved me tons of gold - at one point, around lvl 50, I had over 3 million gold, so I even started buying runes to complement the ones that were missing.

I also noticed why I was missing out on some of the quests in my previous playthroughs. There are contract heroes, which have a bounty hunt-type quest associated with them. It would appear that I have been missing on 5 of them all the time. Now I missed on 1 of those, because I never knew it existed until it was too late - I had already killed the hero it is associated with, which automatically fails the quest, as it cannot be undertaken. This is very important for everyone who tries to get all the quests done.

So, in the end:
Final level: 57
Final pet dragon level: 55
Difficulty: Impossible
Ending date: 13
Quests completed: 86
Follower: Moldok
Total followers: 2
Attack 28
Defense 33
Intellect 26
Rage 87
Mana 74
Runes obtained: 208 Might 370 Mind 196 Magic
Gold: 1069451
Crystals: 601
Battle count: 290
Killed enemies: 458784
Casualties: 3326
Killed heroes: 73
Killed bosses: 6
Damage: by troops: 84%, by pet dragon: 16%
Best troops: Paladins, Inquisitors, Knights, Priests, Archmagi, Demonologists, Executioners

Final score: 1729

Decent, I guess

[BB Shockwave]

Finished the game today with a Warrior - got a very low score (580), but then again I was going for exploration and a (more or less) no-loss game, not calculating travel routes!

All in all I'd say Bhaal was the hardest boss - he does area damage and his dancing sword attack can decimate your troops - still you could save one of his troops with "blind" and regenerate mana and resurrect if it weren't for Bill Gilbert's troops who will kill all demons left standing. In the end, I went with only one troop, 650 Gorguls (Gargoyles) and used Phantom and Time Back to avoid losses, as well as some boosting spells on Bill Gilbert's troops.

So, in the end:
Final level: 56
Final pet dragon level: 46
Difficulty: Normal
Ending date: Day 74
Quests completed: 85 (must have missed one... dunno which one)
Follower: Moron Dark
Total followers: 3
Attack 35
Defense 25
Intellect 14
Rage 134
Mana 87
Runes obtained: 338 Might 262 Mind 173 Magic
Gold: 917'255
Crystals: 937
Battle count: 296 (during the end I let some 'very weak' enemies go to end the game sooner - it was very late)
Killed enemies: 279'416
Casualties: 18 (until I got to the Lizards, I lost a few Assassins and Paladins in the battle against Hnagi, plus one foremen and 11 Miners in a battle again - after that, Level III Resurrection and Time Back made it possible for me to not to lose a single Lizard unit, apart from summoned ones)
Killed heroes: 73 (I ran past by the Lizardman hero in the cave to get the Singing Dagger early, and later found out I cannot go back into the cave, bummer...)
Killed bosses: 6
Damage: by troops: 83%,By spell Book: 0% by pet dragon: 17%



Most Effective Armies (note that high number of troops was achieved with the Wanderer spell that gives you +20% leadership:

-650 Gargoyles (32,7% of total damage) - They are a killer stack, especially due to the ability to attack two spaces and the "Thirst for Blood" that lets them attack a second time after killing an enemy (50% chance). With some help (haste) I have ended tough battles in one round with just Gargoyles (Demetrius II upgrade for example).
-419 Gorguanas (13,9%) - More of a support unit, they work very well with Gargoyles. Mark of Blood (doubles damage inflicted on enemy) can help you kill huge stacks with one hit. They also have "Thirst for Blood" and can clean-up many weaker stacks in one round.
-25 Tirexes (13,0%) - Although awesome tanks, I used them more for their enemy-hampering abilities like the shout that halves enemy action points, their ability to inflict fear on lower level creatures, the -30% defense reduction around themselves, and of course corpse eating - not only does it heal the Tirex but prevents Necros or Thorns to summon troops.
-524 Hyterrants (12,8%) - Great skirmishers, when used cleverly they always hit for critical, and the eggs they lay can be used for blocking archers, blocking passages and of course later the hatched troops become cannon fodder (and they too can lay eggs... and so and and so on)
-219 Brontors (10,9%) - A versatile unit, when called for can charge straight into the enemy lines blocking their shooters (and attacking three spaces when retaliating), or can burrow to become a strong unblockable shooter for prolonged fights. With haste, makes a great tank too.

My previously used best troops were: Droid Engineers, Droid Guards, Paladins, Assassins, Trolls, Royal Griffins.




Here is a screenshot of my inventory and skills - thankfully almost all Lizardmen-boosting items can always be found in the game (Singing Dagger, Biology Diploma, Ktahu's Claw) - I also found the Ancient Amulet and Gladiator Sword, and the Squamata Bracelet (+2 morale to Lizards).

Even being a Warrior, I maxed Order and Distortion magic for Resurrection, Time Back and mass Haste, also Battle Cry, Phantom and Wake Dragon were highly used spells. I wore some mana-boosting items to have enough for casting Resurrection often. "Moron"-s Armor slot was swapped between Silver Chain Mail, Hunter Jacket, or Archmage's Cape, depending on what enemy I faced (undead, animals, mages or gremlin towers).