The Cultist → The Betrayal

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 27 May 2006, 06:32

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/530

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 27 May 2006, 06:32

I'd take the hell chargers over cerberi any day, they allow you to win over Fire elementals in the underground without losses if the elementals don't split. Oh, and focus on Gating and logistics in this scenario- both will be very useful now and later.

Mozza · Unread postby **Mozza** » 01 Jun 2006, 11:20

I agree... Gating becomes very useful against ranged attacks.

Robenhagen · Unread postby **Robenhagen** » 01 Jun 2006, 15:45

... and it's nearly invaluable in the coming scenarios.

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 01 Jun 2006, 15:57

You can also decide not to chace the ultimate ability and take tactics instead.That extra tile is exactly what your nightmares need to reach the shooters,and makes your cerberi even more deadlier.

Robenhagen · Unread postby **Robenhagen** » 01 Jun 2006, 16:12

That's definately worth considering. You can always play the campaign again later and then go for the ultimate ability then.

Akul · Unread postby **Akul** » 18 Jun 2006, 16:01

I killed Rutger tough I have lost a half of my army and have gone throughout the whole map. However, I didn't have problems escaping Godric, defeating all stacks, buying hell hounds and killing the demon lord.

Easy, but fun sceanrio IMO.

csarmi · Unread postby **csarmi** » 23 Jun 2006, 19:13

Hm I lost half my dogs right in the first fight versus the priests, they went after them... Godric has expert logistics and pathfinding as well, do I still have a chance or should I start over?

I can't save and reload because it takes about 25 minutes everytime I load (I have only 256m memory).

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 23 Jun 2006, 19:28

@csarmi

You can still get some more from neutrals around the map, they should join you. And the Sanctuaries help against Godric. Once you know where you're going it shouldn't be a hard map.

csarmi · Unread postby **csarmi** » 23 Jun 2006, 20:28

Okay but what end army shall I have to kill?

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 23 Jun 2006, 21:31

1 Arch Devil, two pit fiends, some Succubi, etc. If you've conserved troops earlier, it's not a very difficult fight. But if you lost Cerberi against the priests, it seems to me that you've made some errors- I took Hell Chargers as the bonus and only lost like 13 imps (the chargers will be useful later on, so they need to be conserved, though)

csarmi · Unread postby **csarmi** » 23 Jun 2006, 22:38

Ah it was some easy guys... actually I just went straight through the map, I didn't even fight vampires or took extra troops I just fought what was on my way. Those fights weren't hard (gating is powerful), but in the beginning I lost all my cerberi then my Pit Lord before getting used to it.

Killed the spectral dragons and the wights though - gating rocks against large creatures.

Taking hell chargers wasn't such a good idea though. The more stacks you can gate, the easier your fights are.

And fire elemental can't be killed without losses. At least I can't see how. Hm Maybe you can gate hell chargers by then too? Well I wasnt lucky enough to get gating levels up fast enough.

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 24 Jun 2006, 08:16

csarmi wrote: Taking hell chargers wasn't such a good idea though. The more stacks you can gate, the easier your fights are.
And fire elemental can't be killed without losses. At least I can't see how. Hm Maybe you can gate hell chargers by then too? Well I wasnt lucky enough to get gating levels up fast enough.

I made sure to get Expert gating, which allows you to gate chargers (you need to keep all three alive for that to work with any certainity, though). And they can be used to soak some retals early one when you only have one stack that can gate.

As for Fire Elementals: You need enough creatures that the gated creatures alone can kill them (Fire Shield is a good ability)., and Hell Chargers who are fast enough that they can gate in reinforcements next to the elemetals before they can act. Of course, this only works if the elementals are inj one stack, but the gold and xp is nice.

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 13 Jul 2006, 23:47

Played on Heroic difficulty and picked the 8 Cerberi bonus. Went straight for the Boots of the Swift Journey guarded by the pack of Priests. Then headed South, got Logistics at the witch hut and picked up that crown artifact at the Thieves Den that boosts your scouting radius. Kept riding South until reaching the Horned Demon dwelling, where the Demons guarding it joined my army. Then traveled East towards the road and encountered a sizeable force of Familiars that joined and boosted my Familiar stack to 100+. Let me tell you Battle Frenzy is a pretty sweet skill when you've got a fat stack of Familiars that now do 3-4 damage each.

As far as skill development goes, immediately went for Advanced gating so you could gate Cerberi & Succubi but stopped there because you can't get any more Hell Chargers or Pit Lords, although Expert Gating does come in handy on the next map. Speaking of the Pit Lord you start with try not lose him as the Vulnerability casting comes in handy. Aside from Gating, tried to develop Logistics and since I decided to try to go for the ultimate I went with the relevant skills. Also took War Machines with the extra slot (it was either that or Defense).

Anyhow, at that point Godric caught up with me (b*stard had Expert Logistics & Pathfinding) so I had to take refuge in the nearby Sanctuary. After Godric rode off Southward towards the garrison I bolted back to the North (don't forget to make use of the Stables on this map!) and went for the Phantom Forces spell scroll I had seen earlier, guarded by the Griffins near the starting point. Let me tell you that Phantom Forces is a real boon on this map, particularly later on when I was able to build up my Cerberi stack. There was a group of Hell Hounds to the East near the 2nd Redwood Observatory that joined as well a group of Cerberi off to the South of there that you will see. With those Cerberi the stack increased from like 30 to around 80. Clone them with Phantom Forces and you have yourself a dangerous assault force. That spell without a doubt saved me a good amount of lost troops. Later during the scenario I managed to take out Rutger with minimal losses (+4000 exp.)

Some other tips....

I'd say take gold from whatever treasure chests you encounter as I was able to hit max level (10) after exploring above ground but before entering the subterranean level. You will need the gold later when you head underground so save up! It also comes in handy at the War Machines Factory to purchase Ammo Cart and First Aid Tent (if you have the skill). I don't recommend the Ballista as it's pretty useless on this map and you will wish later that you had saved that 1500 gold. Also, if you pass by the trading post try to stop there and sell any resources you have picked up for more gold.

Another thing, don't hesitate to recruit the Hunters at their dwelling even though their morale will suffer what with being combined with Inferno forces. Your ranged attacking ability is going to be very limited with only the pack of Succubi that you start with and the Hunters are pretty good so they will definitely help. I managed to build up to a stack of 28 at the beginning of week 4 just before heading underground. Just one thing to keep in mind with the Hunters.... don't upgrade the Succubi when you finally make it to the Hill Fort because the Chain Shot will hurt them. This isn't really a big deal because the unupgraded Succubi deal the same damage and the only differences are the Chain Shot and increased hit points. Besides, if you are letting attackers reach your shooters then you are doing something wrong.
Edited on Fri, Jul 14 2006, 11:49 by Shad0WeN

NickMP · Unread postby **NickMP** » 18 Jul 2006, 16:20

Very enjoyable scenario - Godric's determined chase gives a sense of urgency that was missing in the initial Haven campaign, when you could amble around bopping this and that without pressure. I took the hell chargers but I suspect various tactics all work. Minor correction to the walkthrough: Rutger comes in the NE, not the NW. Unlike Godric he seems to have no idea where we are and just rides around in circles, but maybe that's because I avoided the NE so he never picked up my scent.

Spoiler tip follows:

When you do the initial magi scan, spot the teleporting entrance. That's where you're heading for. Having guessed that I was able to cut across in natural-looking places and get there without having to reload or draw on the wlakthrough.

NickMP · Unread postby **NickMP** » 18 Jul 2006, 16:22

PS Comments below relate to Hard level. By the way, nice though gating is, remember that any losses the reinforcements take are deducted from your original force - you can't just gate in new guys and merrily throw them to the wolves without real losses.

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 18 Jul 2006, 16:32

NickMP wrote:PS Comments below relate to Hard level. By the way, nice though gating is, remember that any losses the reinforcements take are deducted from your original force - you can't just gate in new guys and merrily throw them to the wolves without real losses.

Of course you can.Even though gated units are listed as losses,my armies always were the same even though Ive lost all of the gated stacks,but not a single of the original creatures.

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 18 Jul 2006, 20:20

Gated stacks don't count as real losses. Meaning although it may show losses to gated creatures in the results you won't lose any of your original forces. With the game patched to 1.1 it doesn't count gated or cloned creatures among the losses anymore. I suspect the same would be true for any summoned creatures.

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 18 Jul 2006, 20:25

- Develop Logistics as much as possible in this screnario... very useful here and especially on the next map

- Also try to get Expert Gating near the end of this map or early on the next... will come in very handy on "The Promise"

- Raise Dead is a nice spell for the Demon Lord if you don't have Phantom Forces as it can be useful in keeping Gated stacks alive. Unfortunately Demon Lords tend to lack in the spell power department though.
Edited on Tue, Jul 18 2006, 14:26 by Shad0WeN

NickMP · Unread postby **NickMP** » 21 Jul 2006, 13:05

Apologies for the mistaken info on gated losses!

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