Let's Rip Off Something Awful - Dark Omen or No Love For 56K

[Marsal]

And this is it. Necromancers. You know the havoc our Bright Wizard can wreak? How he can teleport around and kill whole regiments on his own?
Well, here's the catch- the enemy can do the same. Necromancers will slaughter your units with they very, very powerful direct damage spells. It is not at all rare for a necromancer, if he gets close enough, to kill about five of your Grudgebringer Cavalry in a single round of magic, costing you 1250 gp. You know the drill- kill them absolutely as soon as you can, aiming the cannon and the crossbows at them. Do NOT engage with a wizard though- they can dispel your own protective magic and then kill you a lot faster than slow me can click to instruct counter-measures in time. I'd go so far as to say that killing enemy necromancers is just as important as horsemen. If you encounter both at once, go for the necromancer first, at least in my (still limited) experience.

What protective magic are we talking about? The Dispel magic spell? He can dispel your dispel?

I used my Bright wizard as necro-hunter quite often. Casting triple dispel magic on the wizard with the combo of teleport, crimson bands and some offensive magic to finish the necro off (or shoot him with archers if he's in range).

 

[Jasede]

Wait... you can cast dispel magic multiple times on yourself?

:suicide:

With "he can dispel" I meant that you lose the protection once your dispel magic absorbs a spell, and they usually fire 3 attack at the wizard, killing him after my first dispel magic wears off.

How embarassing! >_>

Umm. I know all this! I just want to gather XP for the crossbows. Yeah. <_<

 

[Marsal]

Wait... you can cast dispel magic multiple times on yourself?

Didn't you cast 3x fireball earlier in the thread? Glad to be of assistance

[I'm sure you know this, but for other players: it's click-click-click on the spell icon and then click on the target for 3x effect, I don't think cast-cast-cast stacks, two times works also, obviously]

 

[Jasede]

Yes, but I didn't know it worked for dispel! I just tried it out. Jesus, I should redo the earlier missions to save some more gold... >_> Too many losses! I lost 3 cavalry in Bogenhafen, 1 to the skeleton archers and -2- to the necromancer... had I known, oh had I only known! That's 500 gold.

 

[Marsal]

That's 500 gold.

I take 20% commission. I'll PM you my bank account number. Euros will be fine.

 

[sqeecoo]

Woohoo good info Maršal, thanks.

Come on Jasede, hurry
I'm bogged down in the blighted towers assault mission and am waiting to see how you will handle it: those orc catapults always slaughter my troops.

 

[Marsal]

Woohoo good info Maršal, thanks.

Come on Jasede, hurry
I'm bogged down in the blighted towers assault mission and am waiting to see how you will handle it: those orc catapults always slaughter my troops.

I'm in it for the money Do you have the teleport spell for this mission? If yes, kill everything with your wizard (firestorm + crimson bands on moving targets). If not, wait for Jasede (or if you can't wait http://members.tripod.com/~UndeadDude/kill.html)

[nice use of 'š' btw, props]

 

[Jasede]

Sorry sqeecoo, I have too much homework this week to update right now. I spent all Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and today doing homework, and I have to start working on the new batch today and tomorrow. But I promise I'll try three, maybe four battles on the weekend to make up for the wait.

By the way: Blighted Towers was as far as I played the game. The mission is pretty trivial once you get your grubby hands on the shield of Ptolos... but you'll see, I hope! It's a fun mission as long as you do not, I repeat, do not even consider attacking the towers. Just chill, let the wizard port next to catapults and set them on fire and port back before the other catapults fire at him. The shield should go to the crossbows, but that's just my opinion- I like my crossbows a LOT so I will want them at level 3 as soon as possible, even if normal archers are technically better.

Normal bows have a strength of 3, crossbows 4, but normal bow units allow the first two ranks, typically 12 or more men, to fire, while the crossbows will only let you fire your front row. I still like the crossbows more, they are more accurate in my experience from SotHR.

I just hope this game has elven longbowmen I can demonstratively not use because I like the crossbows better!

 

[sqeecoo]

What's crimson bands? a spell? I never got it.

And I don't have teleport in that mission! My money is low too, so I'll go replay a few missions while I wait

 

[Shannow]

Hmm, I always had the impression that a dispell would only work if the attacking spell actually met one of the blue light thingies that circle you. So even with three dispells on you, enemy spells could still break through...
Seems that my impression was wrong^^
I liked longbows better because they could shoot over my own units, but I never used my regiments as mobile as you seem to do.

And where are you getting all that magic? I was happy if the winds of magic gave me two mana per "round". 3 was very seldom and I could probaly use my cock to count the times it gave me more than 5...

 

[Jasede]

Dunno. I get a lot of magic, I usually have 5 to 6 spellpoints each round (total, the winds just give me like 2-3 a round, but it seems to add up, or at least, there's a good chance it adds up, though there's also a chance your total will decrease. I just let it charge up until 6 or so, then let lose... you can check my kills and XP and you'll see that while I do make screenshots of hot wizard action a lot, the crossbows still get a whole lot more kills... yet), just like the enemies. Why do you think I am so afraid of the necromancers? They just port in with their 8 spellpoints, cast two of their havoc-spells killing half an unit and teleport back.

Protip: Lose as few men as possible.

Though thanks to you kind guys I am now in a great situation- you told me to use infantry more.. so now I have a perfectly expendable unit I can use to soak up arrows! ^^

And I don't have teleport in that mission! My money is low too, so I'll go replay a few missions while I wait

Hmm, that mission is tough without teleport. I can try doing it once I get there without using teleport and see if I can't find a way to minimise losses- some surgical cavalry strikes might do the trick, rock lobbers aren't very accurate.

 

[Marsal]

I liked longbows better because they could shoot over my own units, but I never used my regiments as mobile as you seem to do.

I liked longbows better, too.

And where are you getting all that magic? I was happy if the winds of magic gave me two mana per "round". 3 was very seldom and I could probaly use my cock to count the times it gave me more than 5...

OMG! Multiheaded dick?! :shock:

What's crimson bands? a spell? I never got it.

Spell that immobilizes the target. It is great in conjunction with Flame storm (or archers).

 

[Jasede]

I'll tell you guys why I like the crossbows better. Sure, the longbows ARE better in most situations, that's true.

But- the crossbows were what brought me through the hardest missions in SotHR. They've stuck with our Grudgebringers for a long time and we've been through a lot. Even if there's better ranged attackers, like longbowmen, I am not allowing them to take the place of those fine men who stood with us side by side in that bitching hard "rescue Carlson's family" mission.

 

[Jasede]

Marshal, since I haven't actually seen Crimson Bonds yet-

Is Bonds + Firestorm as hideously broken-powerful as I think it's going to be?

 

[abstract]

Yep. Also think bonds + steam tank.

 

[Jasede]

I am kinda afraid of using the tank since it seems so hideously powerful. Maybe I'll keep it hidden from you guys until the final mission.

 

[cardtrick]

I just hope this game has elven longbowmen I can demonstratively not use because I like the crossbows better!

stfu morbus (EDIT: By the way, cool thread.)

 

[Marsal]

Marshal, since I haven't actually seen Crimson Bonds yet-

Is Bonds + Firestorm as hideously broken-powerful as I think it's going to be?

Well, one would think so. But it really isn't that powerful, at least from my experience. I used it mostly on skeleton cavalry and it didn't do much damage, as far I could see. So I skipped casting Firestorm and just killed them with other units while under influence of bands (mortaaaar). Mummies don't even feel it as far I could tell (and they are very vulnerable to fire and die easily to Blast). I did, however, manage to kill the Black Grail Knights in couple of castings. Also, you can have only 1 bands active at a time. Ideal for stoping those pesky chariots later on.

Maybe you'll find a way to hideously break it

stfu morbus

Fucking crossbow fanboys!

 

[sqeecoo]

I think the random spells suck. They should have either fixed spell selection for each mission, or let you chose. Is there any way to "reroll" spell selection? Reloading does not help, as far as I can see.

I am kinda afraid of using the tank since it seems so hideously powerful. Maybe I'll keep it hidden from you guys until the final mission.

That's my plan, with no teleport. Move forward with the tank to draw fire from the arty while the "real" troops kill them one by one.
If the catas one-shot the tank that is not a good plan though. Ugh, I dread the idea of retrying the mission until my cav is lucky enough to evade all the shots.

A thought: could I sell the cav armor prior to the mission, and then not care much about losses? Or would I lose too much money by selling it?

 

[puppyonastik]

Thanks for the bonus, Jasede. Lore is one of my favorite parts of games like these.

 

[Shannow]

He, that tank wasn't soooo great, but it won the final battle for me
I'll tell you when you've come that far.

As to winning a battle without teleport: I never used teleport so it should be possible

 

[abstract]

I am kinda afraid of using the tank since it seems so hideously powerful. Maybe I'll keep it hidden from you guys until the final mission.

In of itself the tank isn't so powerful - it's painfully slow and fragile (even regular archer fire can destroy it) - but it becomes a meat/bone grinder when you cast crimson bonds on a regiment and run it over with the tank.

 

[dragonfk]

Woohoo good info Maršal, thanks.

Come on Jasede, hurry
I'm bogged down in the blighted towers assault mission and am waiting to see how you will handle it: those orc catapults always slaughter my troops.

Ive played that mission 3 days ago. Just place your troops as close to the bottom of the map as possible. your firing troops( mortars, canon...) place in front and a little closer than the rest( specificaly you should choose a good spot for the canon so you could bombard those archers on the cliff). So you slaughter all coming enemy troops. Than you slaughter archers with a canon. Then you place your fastest unit close to the cliffs(using it as a cover). By doing so you lure out even more enemy troops from the castle. After that you retreat with your fastest unit, slaughter the enemy and once more use your fastes unit(for me it was flagelants unit, I've lost 5 of them,but hey, they cost 30 or 50 so its no problem) with cavalery( yes, dont use your cavalery as a bait its a bad idea). Get close to the cliffs and then ran for that orc mortar, the ballistas arent so important so you can destroy them later. Remember KILL mortar!

And voila, you won. At least I managed to do it with not too many losses( those fucking ballistas killed 3 cavalery man(!) )

Of course I am not a seaseoned tactician as Jasede so this plan may be worthless :D .

 

[Jasede]

I made some test runs and I am really, really unhappy about having to use those fucking useless Grudgebringer Infantry. I'll make a point of them ONLY soaking up arrows and nothing else. And they're going to have to get their armor by scavenging the fallen comrades. Give me my crossbows any day. Replaying the next three missions again and making different shots, because, it turns out, armor on the crossbowmen is a bad, bad idea, and too expensive in the long term.

 

[puppyonastik]

Since you've still only shown us chapter 6 in your campaign, just go back to that point and not purchase armor for the crossbows. Also, get rid of the infantry if it suits you.