ultimate chalenge

[DGDobrev]

It's easy to add requirements, the harder part is keeping them Against the final bosses, changes in the lineup may be necessary to do it without a loss

[impy]

ok then, enough talking, looks i am going to have to try it myself. I'll go for extra challenge - no pet dragon use. But first off i'll finish my amusing no loss mage game which I called "crazy phantom" using high intelect with griffins, demonologists, royal thorns (with lots of fire res.) + paladins. No needn for fifth unit.

Right, i guess i try my luck with mage. yes, low leadership will be an issue, but i remember starting once with two officer batons in debir. I do not think it is considered cheating so i reload several times to see. we'll take it from there. I never was into trapping, but in this harsh challenge it seems as a way to go.
Keep you posted

[impy]

Before we start let's clarify the rules of the ultimate challenge again:
1) impossible difficulty
2) hero class: any. Mage has the harshest start due to low leadership, so I chose mage for extra challenge. Choice is yours.
3) no loss. You can lose summoned crits at your will, but original army has to be at full numbers at the end of the battle.
4) no usage of any 5th level units throughout the game in your army
5) no wanderer scrolls to be used throughout the game. All they're good for is 5000 coins when you sell them.
6) no pet dragon usage at all. He stays at zero experience untill the end of the game
7) no map kitting. You can move the creatures at your will to get treasures, rods from behind them, but never pick new continent scroll without proper fight.

Here is my progress.
Currently 42 fights done. restarted Debir few times to get favorable conditions. Found officer batton,trap scroll,bought stone skin, started working on trap and guardian medals immediatelly. Found Bolo & Scarlet island scrolls. Finished temple of hope quest, got paladins, archmagi. Split archmagi in two groups for long time, it incredibly speeds up going for medals. After my 42 fights I have trapper III medal - average of more than 2,5trap per battle and guardian II - 290. Cleared Debir easily. Cleared Scarlet apart from presumably Verona scroll, and Norbu. Got Rusty anchor scroll, it's getting interesting. Currently clearing Bolo, mostly done. It is getting tough. My line-up: archmagi, snakes (got the boots), paladins, inquisitors, royal thorns. Considering employing droid combo or even two groups of droid archers for nearly suicidal trips under magic shield and then quicky retreating for repair with other group. Was hoping for Evil beholders somewhere for crowd control, but no luck. Got I point in concentration, transmute for steady mana inflow. Cannot decide whether to go for higher magic or increase distortion & fire, have mana only 39. Bought ring of mind class 2 for 20000 with tears in my eyes. Got 20000+coins, so so far so good

[TemjinGold]

Without the dragon, the Warrior is likely the hardest, not the mage.

[impy]

yes, warrior might be overall the hardest, but i was talking about the beginning of the game - mage has the hardest time. I wanted to see if it possible to do what i wanted right from the start.

travel update
fights done - 74,level 15. Cleared everything on debir,scarlet,bolo, left just zig-zag,annoying pirates and another continent scroll on rusty and went for fight for Verona scroll. Boy, i miss that dragon. If he could only just kick opponents back 1 tile, it would be helpful. Made it to Verona,picked everything,got royal griffins, no archmagi or demonologists though yet,but utter disappointnment with spells. NO target, no phantom so far,two crucial spells! Hope i won't have to restart, fights are getting extremely tough, and due to just one lot of res coming from 22 paladins and 48 inquisitors, i have to be very careful. droid combo was helpful against ground troops + few shooters,when shooters fell under fire rain, otherwise unusable. got trapper, guardian 3, working on fire mage. Traps are crucial, cannot imagine it without them. Many fights won by heavily employing fear spell. Still do not know which route to take, so saving runes - have 15-19 of each ready. Statistics are lousy - a:3,d:2, i:14, leadership 5000. Relatively lots of money - 60000+, but i was not buying any artifacts really. Can be done so far without dragon digging,see mr. dobrev?

[loreangelicus]

I have to agree with Temjingold, warrior is the hardest specifically for this challenge since you don't get to use your pet dragon. Their vaunted extra leadership does not come into play up until the early middle of the game. At the early levels, the paladin could easily outpace them with regards to leadership because he could pump Glory to level 3 the fastest.

I might even go so far as to say that mage has the easiest for this challenge. This is because you simply have to wait for your mana to go back to max, then fight the next battle at full magical power. That is why in my suggested challenge I placed the time factor of 7 days. Without the time factor you just always wait for your mana to regenerate to max, and run around picking up the free gold/chests/banners, buying the best lineup, and then start killing enemies in the order of weakest to strongest.

[TemjinGold]

If you are looking for favorable starts, mage definitely has the easiest time. If you start with an Ancient Amulet, you can seriously just nuke everything from the get-go with no need for an army. The warrior has no form of control w/o the dragon and no way of keeping the enemy from her army.