how you beat the octocupus?

[Gatts]

The point is to provoke kraken so he won't be spawning devilfish - standing just before his main tentacle will do this - (it does not work always, but still often enough - so you have much more "free" rounds when he damages only your "provoke him" unit instead of summoning zounds of devilfish)

Other way around is to have thonrs - use the dead devilfish for new thorns - populate most of the battlefield with such summoned devil, so you gain:

1.) use the summoned thorns as provokative unit - win win situation
2.) if devilfish are summoned - if not free spaces are available - they won't be summoned - octopus loses one turn
3.) thorns are cheap and easy to get (mostly in Darion)

or use Similar strategy as for the turtle - get DMG resistant unit - (ghosts) (cheaper than castin god's armor - which is expensive, lasts only few turns, hard to get) and cast on it archmagi "shield" - another 50% less DMG - if you are lucky, you have stoneskin - increasing phy res as well DEF (phy res is not cumulative... ) - place this unit direct in front main tentacle - use the rest 3 slots for archers and shoot it down (even if the octopus will summon devilfish you will shoot em down)
Do mind that with good enough ATT/DEF your ghosts can last "alive" for very long time - the actually can replenish themselves from fighting octopus (or even better - they get hit by octopus, but can steal life from devilfish - but you should be very cautions how you handle them - on impossible level your limit of ghosts jumps over 100% leadership - and they will fight you instead)

I used thorns + ghosts nearly always when fighting octopus... (2 stacks ghosts, 2 stakcs thorns... on shooter) - if you are lucky - you can get some cool shooter like alchemist (only 3 hexagons range, but in that battlefield it is very usefull) or canoneers (creepy fast)... or when you already have undead in army - use skel archers...
Don't be afraid to use any archers - even human - even if you are not paladin with "tolerance" skill - -20% is not that bad (in normal HOMM you would lose control over them - they would lose turns in combat... having lover att/def/critical is not such big deal)
Archmages can cast shield - but they don't deal such nice damage on shooting.

[YENKO]

Originally Posted by Gatts

The point is to provoke kraken so he won't be spawning devilfish - standing just before his main tentacle will do this - (it does not work always, but still often enough - so you have much more "free" rounds when he damages only your "provoke him" unit instead of summoning zounds of devilfish)

Other way around is to have thonrs - use the dead devilfish for new thorns - populate most of the battlefield with such summoned devil, so you gain:

1.) use the summoned thorns as provokative unit - win win situation
2.) if devilfish are summoned - if not free spaces are available - they won't be summoned - octopus loses one turn
3.) thorns are cheap and easy to get (mostly in Darion)

My army was composed of: thorns,thorns,inquisitors,evil beholders, sea dogs. Obviously this combo won't cut it. 2+1 ranged units for the Kraken, thorns to spawn more thorns and soaking damage and the expendable seaDogs for mopping up. Didn't work. Oh another thing: the spawned thorns are in their turn spawning less and less thorn offspring on each subsequent 'seeding'.

Originally Posted by Gatts

or use Similar strategy as for the turtle - get DMG resistant unit - (ghosts) (cheaper than castin god's armor - which is expensive, lasts only few turns, hard to get) and cast on it archmagi "shield" - another 50% less DMG - if you are lucky, you have stoneskin - increasing phy res as well DEF (phy res is not cumulative... ) - place this unit direct in front main tentacle - use the rest 3 slots for archers and shoot it down (even if the octopus will summon devilfish you will shoot em down)
Do mind that with good enough ATT/DEF your ghosts can last "alive" for very long time - the actually can replenish themselves from fighting octopus (or even better - they get hit by octopus, but can steal life from devilfish - but you should be very cautions how you handle them - on impossible level your limit of ghosts jumps over 100% leadership - and they will fight you instead)

I will give it a shot, with the ghosts I mean. I have a ghost den somewhere on the map. A stranded ship maybe. I have access to royal snakes too, I left them garrisoned because I thought they would die too easily by those tentacles.
Oh, and i have slightly less than 5000 leadership only, 17 INT, 15 DEF, 8 ATT, 45 rage 90 mana...

Originally Posted by Gatts

I used thorns + ghosts nearly always when fighting octopus... (2 stacks ghosts, 2 stakcs thorns... on shooter) - if you are lucky - you can get some cool shooter like alchemist (only 3 hexagons range, but in that battlefield it is very usefull) or canoneers (creepy fast)... or when you already have undead in army - use skel archers...
Don't be afraid to use any archers - even human - even if you are not paladin with "tolerance" skill - -20% is not that bad (in normal HOMM you would lose control over them - they would lose turns in combat... having lover att/def/critical is not such big deal)
Archmages can cast shield - but they don't deal such nice damage on shooting.

I don't see how could I fill all the hexes with anything, there are too many hexes on that deck, many right under the Kraken's tentacles.
I am now off to the Mines. Will try to sneak my way through. I can't beat the female Dwarven hero patrolling there, but I already managed once to sneak past her. Her patrolling path is quite big and there are many nooks and crannies/intersections for me to hide.
I feel awfully underpowered since i am lacking some critical spells/units. Hope this will change soon!
This game, from dealing sheer amounts of fun, turned up to be a major source of frustration for me. And this is all on 'Normal'. Heck, Normal is not all THAT normal, is it?
Thanks for the hints, guys, keep them coming!