Nicolai - from wimp to uber in one day

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 16 Dec 2006, 21:59

So I just beat Nicolai's army in The Vampire Lord. He was holed up in the town in the centre of the map and had a surprisingly tiny army. As the win brought the mission to an end I thought I might creep around a while before I take him - to level up and find stat boosts etc.

I reloaded the save just before the battle and the very next day Nicolai comes out from the town to attack me - and he suddenly has an uber army: 4K Skeleton Archers, 2K Zombies, 200 Spectrals etc. etc. I had not a chance whatsoever to beat him.

So my question is - what happened? How can he be in the town one day with a tiny army and have a superarmy the very next day? I thought the AI heroes roamed around, building their armies rather realistically, albeit with some cheats, but this was beyond belief.

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:09

That particular map features some rather heavy scripting, in particular with regards to Nicolai. I've not heard anyone who's had such a sharp effect before though.

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:23

More exact numbers. The first battle is boring because it's so easy, the second one is frustrating because it's impossible - I've tried it five times with different approaches, but I'm simply overwhelmed. Nicolai is rather smart at that, casting mass slow and mass confusion all the time, so my Master Hunters have no chance to do their thing.

Battle 1. Nicolai in town:
21 Spectres
32 Plague Zombies
54 Blade Dancers
161 Vampire Lords
42 Hunters
130 Skeleton Archers

Battle 2. The next day. Just outside the town:
3962 Skeleton Archers
655 Spectres
82 Spectral Dragons
165 Arch Liches
117 Wraiths
1124 Plague Zombies

Gaidal Cain · Unread postby **Gaidal Cain** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:24

Ouch. What do you have?

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:38

Gaidal Cain wrote:Ouch. What do you have?

Uhm, I haven't played perfectly, to say the least. Thought the portal in the underground was in the south end, so it took me two wasted weeks to go north instead afterwards. That said, I have almost every single unit I've managed to produce from my two Sylvan towns since Day 1, because of Resurrection:

434 Sprites
204 War Dancers
55 Ancient Treants (love those)
19 Emerald Dragons
67 Silver Unicorns
and 320 Master Hunters with the Unicorn Horn Bow (amazing, unless they get wiped out, of course, as in the last battle...)

Oh, and those 5 silly Phoenixes I got to have to put Nicolai to rest once and for all.

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:41

What happened to your druids?

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:43

DaemianLucifer wrote:What happened to your druids?

They got to go. Could try with them instead. My Sancho Panza has them. But the Unicorn Bow made the Master Hunters so superior, so I've been using them as rangers instead.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased that this mission is over. It's been my least favourite house so far, so I'm glad it's over...

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 16 Dec 2006, 22:56

Why cant you use both?Both are excelent at range,especially with the bow.If someone really has to be left out,Id leave dancers rather than druids.

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 16 Dec 2006, 23:09

DaemianLucifer wrote:Why cant you use both?Both are excelent at range,especially with the bow.If someone really has to be left out,Id leave dancers rather than druids.

Guess you're right - and I haven't used the dancers much lately, although I honestly don't think the druids would make any real difference in this last battle from hell.

winterfate · Unread postby **winterfate** » 17 Dec 2006, 03:47

Demiurg: All I can say is...ouch!

As for the druids...how many do you have? (because they do more damage than what most people are willing to admit to when you have a few of them).

Back at Normal (patch 1.2...a while ago), when I fought Nicolai, my army was a little stronger and his a little weaker than that(by no means was it easy though...it is as you say...he'll mass slow and confusion...and after that, unless you can cleanse/mass haste...it's mop-up duty for him).

55 Ancient Treants (love those)

So do I!

(I love Sylvan in general actually

...my favorite faction).

tigersean · Unread postby **tigersean** » 26 Dec 2006, 02:38

Demiurg, tell me how you get to the point that Nicolai has that tiny army?
I've defeated Nicolai who own 6k s/archer, but then he holed up in a town with-----21K sptrum dragon!!!!!!!!!!!! 21K!!!!!!!!! Bug?????????

winterfate · Unread postby **winterfate** » 26 Dec 2006, 02:44

Welcome to the forums, tigersean!

Trying to answer that question myself...I do think 21K spectrals are a bug (as for the small army, at least what happened to me was that I beat back Nicolai...and when he respawned again, his army was a fraction of what it was the first time...he does get free troops when he respawns though...stupid scripting

).

HodgePodge · Unread postby **HodgePodge** » 26 Dec 2006, 03:00

Demiurg wrote:
DaemianLucifer wrote:Why cant you use both?Both are excelent at range,especially with the bow.If someone really has to be left out,Id leave dancers rather than druids.
Guess you're right - and I haven't used the dancers much lately, although I honestly don't think the druids would make any real difference in this last battle from hell.

Oh yeah! Druids/Druid Elders are so far superior to Blade Dancers/WarDancers there's no comparison. Druids can shoot from afar; and with Findan, both your Druids & Hunters get in those wonderful shots before the battle even gets underway.

And with the Unicorn Bow (and War Machines with Ballista & Imbue Arrow) you would have a really powerful army. Give your "Sancho Panza" the Dancers and give Findan the Druids. Those five Phoenixes aren't too helpful either, better if you had fifty!

Of course, you want to take out Nicolai, the creature-generating Vampire, before he gets too powerful.

erased. over. out · Unread postby **erased. over. out** » 26 Dec 2006, 03:43

I recall this pain-in-the-butt mission. I had a similar amount of troops (replaced the Sprites with Druid Elders, however) but Nicolai had more Skeleton Archers (around 9k). I cast endurance on the Treants and kept ressurecting them to tie down enemy units. This would give my archers enough time to fire away. The Phoenixes were basically meat shields. I used them to distract the Wraiths/Spectrals for a much needed turn or two. Oh, taking out the ammo cart ASAP is a must!

In order to distract the Skellies, I used Phantom Forces on my units at every possible opportunity. The suckers would aim at them everytime. I made sure to cast Phantom Forces on my high initiative unit(s) so that they could act before the Skeleton Archers. I find it much wiser to carry out the "defend" command for phantomed units in big battles such as this, as it wastes the enemy's attack- plus, "misses" are just sweet

.

After exhausting the Skellies' arrows (by previously destroying Nicolai's ammo cart) and wearing down the enemy tanks, I recall casting ressurection and Phantom Forces interchangeably, until finally defeating Nicolai. Mind you, this was my 5th or 6th attempt. As I'm sure you know, a lot of trial and error is involved in this game. Hope this helped. Good luck

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Nicolai - from wimp to uber in one day

Nicolai - from wimp to uber in one day

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