How do I become a "No loss" Player: Tips needed

[BB Shockwave]

Not sure you are doing this right, using Catapults - a unit noteable for its fire weakness - with units that excel in area effect fire damage like the Archdemon (now in DS). Btw, that game sure munchkinned the Archdemons, giving a Level 5 unit that can teleport anywhere the ability to use strike-and-return without retaliation is not even funny. That game is unabalanced as hell.

I only have tips for Crossworlds, I am playing No-Loss there and have gone through multiple times with different army setups. My first was Warrior on Normal, No-Loss, all-LIzardman army. I skipped using Gobots and Chosa because they die easily, and the Chosa is useless for anything else but summoning.
My second was Paladin with Human army on Hard - I used Rune Mages, Archmages, Horsemen, Paladins and Royal Griffins. The latter are a great synergy for humans. I sometimes swapped Paladins with Knights, against Dragons.
Now I am going with a Mage and Demons, on Hard. I use all demon units, plus Demonologists, got to level 38 already, no-loss. The key is getting Order Magic+resurrection first, and getting the necessary demon-army-booster items like demetrius or the Bow of Thousand Souls. My main line-up is usually Executioners, Demonologists, Demonesses, Archdemons and Cerberi. For tough battles with fast enemies I replace Cerberi with Demons, and for enemies I cannot charm I replace Demonesses with Scoffer imps (since Taunt works with the undead, too). Archdemons are there to halve enemy troops and soak up damage from weaker troops, I usually weaken one enemy with death Star/Fireballs and then use my Demoness to swap that with my Executioners and use my Cerberi to kill the teleported unit. Demonologists are good for summoning and healing, but they otherwise suck as ranged units. Demonesses help a lot by charming enemies whom you can sacrifice. They are also quite powerful if you use the whip (I don't, since the bow is better) and have Agvares as a follower.

[Shadowcran]

Thanks for the response. I'll use your advice.

Crossworlds/AP is the best in the series, but I love them all.

Archdemons in Dark Side at least don't 'halve' stacks anymore.

Still having trouble on the 5th creature deciding on which. Catapults are the one I choose so far.

You mentioned some trouble with not having resurrection in Dark Side on another thread, I responded with some helpful tips. The hardest part is just getting through Portland. Once done, you've more options with the Heretarchs(or however it's spelled,lol)until you get some Demonologists. Btw, about that one:

If you can avoid the battle at the entrance to Atrixus, and avoid any other battles, you can get to Verderet(however it's spelled), who not only has demonologists but other quality demons. I think you can get there via the catacombs right after you're kicked out of Dragandor. I think, think mind you, that you can get him to come to the shelter too at that time, and that means whenever you need the good demons, bam, he's right there.

I am convinced they will update that game in the future. A lot of the quests are hard to follow, if you're a novice to the series it's probably impossible. A lot of them are vague as to what to do next.

*If you're a novice reading this, don't pick the vampire right off. Too hard. Pick the Demoness.

Don't buy a single Metamorph. Worthless. I thought, "hmm, I can copy the Demonologist or Necromancer with the added numbers of the Metamorph and get super abilities...Wrong". Phantom is better to use and doesn't take a unit slot. In fact, it's the same effect as phantom.

[Elwin]

For succesful no loss u need summoners for meatshield and a tough units. Also multiple ways of restroing your army, since in hgarder battles one way might not be enough. Paladin is great for that. I had trouble picking range unit as well and i ended up with herersiach and wizard. Both have great utility for no loss. ONly problem i had was elves. Somehow elves in this game or at elast in my game have 90% magic resist making my casters almost useless. Damage wise at least still 50% dmg reduction from shield helps a lot and also i toyed with his push ability to put enemies in traps ;p However in your army u already have 2 ranged units and with magic magic dmg so i would say paladin or a kinght here would be good idea.
For no loss battles crowd control is very important many tough units u can lock down with just slow and trap. Also target is must have spell. Never pick units which u cant restore like black dragons. Well if u gat black dragon in early game its awesome but in late game they will be only a burden.
If u want no loss mage u must pray for phoenix spell pretty fast.

PErsonaly i dont have patience for full no loss touigh did it in AP on hard with lizard/human army once. I dont liek loosing units and most my battles are no loss but sometimes i cant bother to relaod hard battle for one unit lost in last turn ;s

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Elwin

Never pick units which u cant restore like black dragons. Well if u gat black dragon in early game its awesome but in late game they will be only a burden.

Hmm, cannot Rune Mages resurrect Black Dragons? Frankly, I did my No-Loss with Blackies in TL only, where I used Time Back to raise them, and Orc Shamans to heal them (yes, Spirit Axes actually heals them, as does Gizmo).

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by Shadowcran

Thanks for the response. I'll use your advice.

Crossworlds/AP is the best in the series, but I love them all.

Archdemons in Dark Side at least don't 'halve' stacks anymore.

But, now there is a Warrior skill that gives that ability to ALL your units, and occuring very often! Talk about munchkin-y...
It's a pity the last two games are so unplayable for me, as I quite liked the Ice Dragon and the Jotun from WotN. Are there any mods that can add them to AP/CW?

Still having trouble on the 5th creature deciding on which. Catapults are the one I choose so far.

You already have Necromancers and Demonologists, you don't need more ranged units. Also, undead kinda decrease morale of Orcs, no? I'd instead add some tough melee unit, as that is what your setup needs IMHO. Demons are a good choice -they retaliate to every attack, do increased damage to 1-3 level units, and can summon demons and even boost your Archdemon. Not to mention their summoning will strengthen your demonologist. Alternatively, go with Royal Griffins, they summon and retaliate too, and are faster, if weaker.

You mentioned some trouble with not having resurrection in Dark Side on another thread, I responded with some helpful tips. The hardest part is just getting through Portland. Once done, you've more options with the Heretarchs(or however it's spelled,lol)until you get some Demonologists.

Sorry - much like I stopped Heroes VI and never looked back, I have little time to waste on games I don't like. I work 9-10 hours a day and barely get to play on the weekends, at best. I cannot afford to waste months or more on DS that so far, has only frustrated me and offered no fun, unlike CW.

I am convinced they will update that game in the future. A lot of the quests are hard to follow, if you're a novice to the series it's probably impossible. A lot of them are vague as to what to do next.

Ohhh boy! I am not falling for that again. Check the 120-pages-long bugthread of WotN. I was a frequent poster there and in the bugfixes. But even to this day, they did not get Christa's Gift to work at all, or have the Last Hero spell not crash the game to desktop. DS has not many gamebreakers (though I did get desktop crashes with one spell), but is very untested and beta-stage. And I'll not be an unpaid beta-tester again, thank you very much. 1C can call me again if they release a new KB game with a new engine that's written by the same team who did TL and AP/CW. Until then, I am done - Heroes III HD is out, so I will be busy replaying that, anyway.

Don't buy a single Metamorph. Worthless. I thought, "hmm, I can copy the Demonologist or Necromancer with the added numbers of the Metamorph and get super abilities...Wrong". Phantom is better to use and doesn't take a unit slot. In fact, it's the same effect as phantom.

Agreed. And the Spy is rather useless too, what use is the little girl form with the kamikaze spell when it has such awful damage.
Oh, and it's "Metamorth" actually - because 1C was too cheap to even pay a spellchecker. Same as the "Lasts one of a round" (SIC) spell descriptions, which plagues WotN too. I did create a grammatically correct spell description TXT mod, they were free to use it... but didn't. Sometimes I feel they just put the russian text into Google Translate. I am Hungarian myself but even I speak/write better.

[Shadowcran]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

But, now there is a Warrior skill that gives that ability to ALL your units, and occuring very often! Talk about munchkin-y...
It's a pity the last two games are so unplayable for me, as I quite liked the Ice Dragon and the Jotun from WotN. Are there any mods that can add them to AP/CW?
Perhaps I'm not realizing their worth(that wouldn't be a first, lol) but they don't seem quite so good. However, I'm happy to see some ice creatures in a game, as all of them seem to be fire centric. So tell me how you use them, please. I kind of like the Ice Spiders myself though. Cheap creatures that can hit pretty hard and has a lot of resistances.


You already have Necromancers and Demonologists, you don't need more ranged units. Also, undead kinda decrease morale of Orcs, no? I'd instead add some tough melee unit, as that is what your setup needs IMHO. Demons are a good choice -they retaliate to every attack, do increased damage to 1-3 level units, and can summon demons and even boost your Archdemon. Not to mention their summoning will strengthen your demonologist. Alternatively, go with Royal Griffins, they summon and retaliate too, and are faster, if weaker.
Funny you said demons as I'd already added them prior to reading this,lol. However, after they dump off their demons, they seem a bit lost. Not enough R Griffins in Dark Side to use. However, I often get around 150 of them via Back to Nature. Just added another 20 dragon riders with fake princesses so have 37 of them. tempted to just split them


Sorry - much like I stopped Heroes VI and never looked back, I have little time to waste on games I don't like. I work 9-10 hours a day and barely get to play on the weekends, at best. I cannot afford to waste months or more on DS that so far, has only frustrated me and offered no fun, unlike CW.



Ohhh boy! I am not falling for that again. Check the 120-pages-long bugthread of WotN. I was a frequent poster there and in the bugfixes. But even to this day, they did not get Christa's Gift to work at all, or have the Last Hero spell not crash the game to desktop. DS has not many gamebreakers (though I did get desktop crashes with one spell), but is very untested and beta-stage. And I'll not be an unpaid beta-tester again, thank you very much. 1C can call me again if they release a new KB game with a new engine that's written by the same team who did TL and AP/CW. Until then, I am done - Heroes III HD is out, so I will be busy replaying that, anyway.

They recently fixed quite a bit on Steam with an update for WoTN. I posted it in that section. However, the spell Justice causes ctd's about 3 of 4 times it's used, so I had to stop.(Only using it to get award, seriously a lot of these rune spells are useless)

I'm disabled and have nothing but free time. On other games, like MTG DoTP, I tend to experiment for others with that free time.


Agreed. And the Spy is rather useless too, what use is the little girl form with the kamikaze spell when it has such awful damage.
Oh, and it's "Metamorth" actually - because 1C was too cheap to even pay a spellchecker. Same as the "Lasts one of a round" (SIC) spell descriptions, which plagues WotN too. I did create a grammatically correct spell description TXT mod, they were free to use it... but didn't. Sometimes I feel they just put the russian text into Google Translate. I am Hungarian myself but even I speak/write better.

Haven't gotten the Spy yet..I must have missed something. But I won't waste a gp on them. Also, don't waste jack on the Golem. 500,000 gp to get lousy xp? uh uh.

I'm also splitting time with DS and WoTN plus a replay of Legend and first play of Orcs on the March.

[Zechnophobe]

I use dragons for my no loss runs, at least in AP/CW. I haven't tries WotN yet, and am on my first run through Dark Side, so I am not trying no loss yet (Orcs will be REALLY hard to do no loss with due to such a weak early game).


Basically high resistance dragons are hilariously tough to kill. Get Timeback to level 3, and nothing can really stop them.

[Elwin]

I havent met a single runemage in DS.