Getting past the bloody spider.

[lowsx]

Use Vikings and Berserkers. Make them berserk when fighting spider. They will hit huge damage to the spider (> 2000 damage).

Did not use much spells (I am a skad). Using this strategy, I got the achievement - killing the spider in less than 15 rounds.

[Mattias]

I had to cheat. I just couldn't do it any other way. I tried for over 2 hours (plus made an account here, so I feel it a tad justified).

Here's what I did:

shift + ~ key to bring the menu up during the game. I had the bear warrior chicks in group one. I did 'doublyarmy 1' so I had 38 or so of those ladies. I only had enough leadership for 19. When the battle started....

The bosses won't fight anything that's over your leadership limit. So she basically beat down the boss while the rest of my ragtag crew fought off the babies. Yet the babies went for her too, so when the boss spider died she was down to 24 ladies. Just killed off a few extras and the battle was won.

Feels good.

Originally Posted by lowsx

Use Vikings and Berserkers. Make them berserk when fighting spider. They will hit huge damage to the spider (> 2000 damage).

Did not use much spells (I am a skad). Using this strategy, I got the achievement - killing the spider in less than 15 rounds.

[coRex]

i had some issues with this spider too... (warrior - impossible)

waiting and killing those spider stacks does not work for me... because the stacks become higher and higher...

so i tryed the boss with a different lineup...
polar bears, ancient bears (with stone skin huge defense and they do some good dmg - especially with the warrior skill double dmg - you have to be a little bit lucky)
sea dogs (for some good aoe dmg against those anoying spiders)
canoneer (you can use any ranged i guess, but these can take some hits from spiders and still do good)
vikings, berserker (for some insane crits and attacks)

i tryed to kill as many spiders in every round, but i also tryed to focus on the boss and hit him at least 2 times every round...

i hope this helps!

[Zechnophobe]

Skald, hard. I did all previous content before fighting him, and was level 20 or 21 when I fought him, with 22/22 Jarls (for comparison)

I used Jarls, Soothsayers, Royal Snakes, Battle Maidens, Jotun's.

I used Valkyrie to give more leadership (900) and stomped the spider fast enough to get the achievement.

I think the problem you have is that your troops look very weak. Axe throwers and Berserkers really don't cut it that far into the game. Need some stuff with higher damage and health.

[xhan]

Did it with a lvl17 Soothsayer. After 2 failed attempts I killed it on the 3rd.

Jarls
Warrior Maidens
Slingers
Assassins
Skalds

What did the trick was a change in tactics. All my troops only focused on killing the small spiders as soon as possible - except for the Jarls. The Jarls got Stoneskin+Hell's Breath+Persistence (amazing underrated synergy with skalds, made my buffs last 9 turns!) and meleed the spider. Her counterattacks only dealt about 50-100 dmg this way and he kept hitting for about 1K.

The trick with skalds is to FIRST buff your unit manually, then use their ability. It will almost always cast persistence on the unit that has multiple buffs.

No other troop except the Jarls attacked the giant spider to avoid counterattacks, save for a few spears from the Maiden. I spent the turns hacking away small spiders and casting flame arrows on the spider. Took about 20 turns, lost around 30% of my army.

I didn't expect that, and lost my stacks of maidens and jotuns.

[Zhuangzi]

No trolls on first four islands in my game.

Anyway, I managed to beat the spider (Impossible Skald) at level 18 with 6600 leadership. I always prioritise leadership in KB games, so I have the Valkyrie that gives leadership up to level 3 and as the leader. I wanted to try for a 'bear team' but I had a real problem purchasing anything decent in quantity. This is really annoying as I just don't have access to high level units (other than Jotuns) on these islands. Even Jarls were in fairly short supply.

Anyway, I had to go with a hodge-podge team of Jarls, Jotuns, Blue Snakes, Axe Throwers and I forget the fifth unit. Not a good mix, and Morale was not great either, but it did the job within 11 rounds. My tactic was a simple one: go for the big spider as much as possible, and whack the small stacks if I have to. I had Frenzy Level 2 which helped a bit, and Distortion 3 (which I always go for early for Mass Haste + Stone Skin, Trap etc). For the boss I just cast Mass Haste on turn 1 (which is needed for when the spider moves location) and Stone Skin thereafter. Then I just whacked the big spider for 1k-2k on a critical. Jarls seem to be really useful here. Lost about 1/3 of my troops but it wasn't too hard overall.

[namad]

@everyone talking about warrior maidens... darnit darnit... my game I didn't have any! although I think it may even be due to some sort of bug because one of the shops in the game spawned them, but with 1 and only 1 maiden for sale? which made them unusable... thats one thing I don't like about wotn... first four islands don't have a done of random troop variety... difficult boss for which you don't have many choices of troops to bring? not fun! I might give it another try tho with jotun/berzerker/polar bear/bear/royalsnake the only problem is... the first four islands combine to give me ONE CASTLE, with THREE garrison slots... so I don't have enough space to really store my entire old army that easily

also no trolls either... strategies that only work with specfic troops are usually fine for bosses in king's bounty games because usually you can bypass the boss explore a ton... have so many places to recruit from that eventually randomly you'll find what you need... but in wotn half the shops on teh first 4islands have basic vikings troops... I'm really sad I couldn't get warrior maidens in my playthrough ... by the time they become available in my playthrough I'll probably have something better like paladins or something..



actually wait nevermind: here is flat out the one and only flaw with this boss fight! the first time you fight this boss you will probably lose, at least depending on random happenstance, what's the problem? well you can't do go anything else! you realize frenzy would be a great ability to use against the boss? oh well too bad by the time you first encounter the boss there aren't enough enemies left in the game to fight to gain even 1 level, so if you don't already have exactly what you need, it's just not fun! typically in king's bounty you can fight a boss, lose, think about strategy, go acquire a different army, maybe level up once or twice, get what you think you might need, and then try again!!!

for example I went for learning rank 3 early because it can pay off in the long run, I could've had glory rank 3 instead but I didn't realize that the bosses weren't things you could come back for later, crossworlds campaign is 90-95% all about skipping every boss and coming back for it later?!!?!!!!!!!!

[Highborne]

Dunno I beat it with a normal Slingers, Vikings, Soothsayers, Jarls and Scalds.

Lost about 1/5 of my army total; but just went and bought more; not going for a no-loss play through.

However, after beating the Spider and getting to the next islands I have lost maybe 20 troops total due to Rune Mages/Paladins and mostly lost units due to carelessness (didn't res all...or one died and I didn't see it...didn't want to restart battle).

[themaster]

Originally Posted by namad

the first four islands combine to give me ONE CASTLE, with THREE garrison slots...

It's 2 castles one where you start.. one at fastland

Originally Posted by namad

@everyone talking about warrior maidens... darnit darnit... my game I didn't have any! although I think it may even be due to some sort of bug because one of the shops in the game spawned them, but with 1 and only 1 maiden for sale?

My game came with about 30 on fastland.. not sure if completing the zombie quest created "more" ?

It's my understanding because there's no random rolls.. then everything is supposed to be fixed..? I haven't started a new game yet.. so I don't know yet..

But on my mage game "impossible" I have 30+ maidens on fastland.. (between 2 recruiting points)

Originally Posted by namad

also no trolls either...

The trolls in my game were hidden at one of those small shops on the side of the mountain.. the one at vestlig

Originally Posted by namad

actually wait nevermind: here is flat out the one and only flaw with this boss fight! the first time you fight this boss you will probably lose, at least depending on random happenstance, what's the problem? well you can't do go anything else! you realize frenzy would be a great ability to use against the boss? oh well too bad by the time you first encounter the boss there aren't enough enemies left in the game to fight to gain even 1 level, so if you don't already have exactly what you need, it's just not fun! typically in king's bounty you can fight a boss, lose, think about strategy, go acquire a different army, maybe level up once or twice, get what you think you might need, and then try again!!!

for example I went for learning rank 3 early because it can pay off in the long run, I could've had glory rank 3 instead but I didn't realize that the bosses weren't things you could come back for later, crossworlds campaign is 90-95% all about skipping every boss and coming back for it later?!!?!!!!!!!!

So your bitching about how hard the game is??

Usually, in the olden days a game kick your ass.. (like it did mine!! many times those 4 islands were tough as nails) but you take some time you re-think.. and you conquer/persevere..

You want a easy game against them..? see my how I beat the turtle "no loss" on royal griffins above

I want to be clear.. I had to cheat to beat the turtle.. and what I mean is.. I didn't want to start all over and get "rune magic" cause (I didn't choose it) so I used cheat codes to give me the runes.. but starting over as you call it/mentioned above.. was the other option..

Sometimes it's just easier to cheat a little.. the command for giving you better runes is shift + ~ and then rune # (choose your number 1000 if you want )

So it's not that I feel I cheated really.. I just didn't want to start over like your bitching about above.. I just chose to side-step the games flaws by using "the matrix" I mean re-structuring the game to my liking..

The thing is once you have the knowledge about the map and units.. you will make educated decisions even in say "crosswords" or kings bounty the original.. if I had started over.. I would have focused on "rune magic" as a priority for a no loss boss-fight.. but simply entering a cheat code.. by-passed hours of boring work just to beat him.. fairly.. lol