Getting past the bloody spider.

[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).

[namad]

I guess I should clarify, I won the battle, I just don't like the design whereby you can't fight the boss until you've done basically everything else first, I'd probably have preferred it if that boss were on island 3 but you couldn't "win" the battle until after island 4 just because that's how the old king's bounty bosses usually went

[Puce Moose]

Holy cow that was a nasty fight! I spent most of the day trying to take that spider down and finally managed it just a few minutes ago.

I managed to do it on my fourth attempt.

Level 16 soothsayer on hard. I went in there with 3 jotuns, 3 trolls, 30 polar bears, 15 jarls, and 19 soothsayers. Everyone died except my three trolls. I think the fight lasted about 40 turns.

On my third attempt, I entered a rather comical loop; on about turn 60 everyone died except for my stack of trolls. The spider kept casting web on my troll, bypassing his turn - again and again. This went on until about turn 120, when I finally got a turn. I waited, and about every 10 turns the spider wouldn't use web and I would get a single turn. This kept going until about turn 190, when both spider groups adjacent to my troll got criticals and put an end to my trolls.

[Xargon]

Originally Posted by Puce Moose

Holy cow that was a nasty fight! I spent most of the day trying to take that spider down and finally managed it just a few minutes ago.

I managed to do it on my fourth attempt.

Level 16 soothsayer on hard. I went in there with 3 jotuns, 3 trolls, 30 polar bears, 15 jarls, and 19 soothsayers. Everyone died except my three trolls. I think the fight lasted about 40 turns.

On my third attempt, I entered a rather comical loop; on about turn 60 everyone died except for my stack of trolls. The spider kept casting web on my troll, bypassing his turn - again and again. This went on until about turn 120, when I finally got a turn. I waited, and about every 10 turns the spider wouldn't use web and I would get a single turn. This kept going until about turn 190, when both spider groups adjacent to my troll got criticals and put an end to my trolls.

I'd question Jotuns (never tried them, stats don't look that impressive) and soothsayers (they seemed not much use in this fight). I used a standard army of Jarls (only 11, that's all that were sold), Axe Throwers, Warrior Maidens, Berserkers and Trolls (Soothsayer, hard, lvl18 ). Came out with losses of 1 jarl, 1 warrior maiden, 5 axe throwers and 28 berserkers on turn 11. The berserkers really do a lot of damage against the spider (stone skin and use their rage ability), trolls always hit the spider as well, the rest takes care of the little spiders (well, maybe the jarls hit the big spider once or twice).

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Xargon

I'd question Jotuns (never tried them, stats don't look that impressive) and soothsayers (they seemed not much use in this fight). I used a standard army of Jarls (only 11, that's all that were sold), Axe Throwers, Warrior Maidens, Berserkers and Trolls (Soothsayer, hard, lvl18 ). Came out with losses of 1 jarl, 1 warrior maiden, 5 axe throwers and 28 berserkers on turn 11. The berserkers really do a lot of damage against the spider (stone skin and use their rage ability), trolls always hit the spider as well, the rest takes care of the little spiders (well, maybe the jarls hit the big spider once or twice).

Jotuns are quite good - I usually start a fight with freezing mace, and switch to life-steal after they get damaged. 10% may not sound like much, but they can quickly get their HP back.
Also, they have 35% cold resistance... throw a Snowstorm over them, and it will increase their attack and defense significantly.

EDIT: Oh, I see now, the Spider spawns Undead Spiders... that makes life-steal a no-go. Still, the high HP of the Jotuns+Healing would make them good tanks against the small spiders. Right now I am trying to get Ice Dragons - once I reach 2200 Leadership I will spam those Call Colossus scrolls... (PS: check my bugfix, the scroll can now give you Jotuns).

Originally Posted by Jarcik

1. I used 4 trolls not 3
2.I havent used any mana ressurect spell just bought all offensive scrolls on the map from all vendors, it should be absolutly enough.

Finished all game as mage on impossible difficult with no loss then I really know a little about this game.

Visit please Jarcik bounty Youtube channel. There is a lot of HD movies about that including all hard fights.

Wow, nice. Can you tell us some basic tips about how to get through the first island without losses? It's more manageable afterwards (but depends on luck - me, I still don't have Resurrect scroll and only a few Warrior Maidens) - but Nordlig was only doeable until the Butcher - he ALWAYS Poison Skull-s some of my units and I cannot stop him in 2 rounds (undead cannot be Fear-ed) to stop him from casting it on 2 troops.

[sethmage]

I went with on impossible with no losses until the last six fights (I might replay them just to get the bragging rights). On top of that I finish the game 100k short of level 70 so it is possible to get level 70 on impossible since I didn’t use any equipment which increases experience and I got my “learning” not as a priority.

No question about it the first island is the most painful if you trying for no-loses, besides luck of the draw (opponents’ army strengths and units varies from game to game), BUT there are few things to change the fight:
1. different unit
2. different equipment
3. different level
4. different action (for example wait instead of walk or vice versa, atack different unit)
5. if you having very though encounter with a boss try to come back after you killed another wandering enemy.