The Necromancer → The Invasion
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Gaidal Cain
- Round Table Hero
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- Joined: 26 Nov 2005
- Location: Solna
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afterthought
- Lurker
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 13 Oct 2006
The Necromancer → The Invasion
I just beat this on 1.3 Heroic and man was it a pain.
The spawned Orange heroes had armies with over 20 titans, 1000+ goblins (I think around 1.4k when confronted) and anywhere between 100-300 archmages. Plus many other melee units.
I beat the map without ever once fighting them though. To my suprise, they all charged the South island and even wierder, they all stayed there for the most part. Only at the very end, after they had *COMBINED* two of those spawned armies onto one hero, did they feel confident to leave Newpost and chase Markal, who was at that point about to follow Cyrus through the teleporter
I simply outmaneuvered the spawned heroes and let them take my towns, since I had a large enough army on Markal (gathered from the map) to take on any of the fights. Markal didn't even have Logistics, but taking the Lightpost was helpful (though probably not critical).
One thing I'd advise is using Isabel to take the leftmost town, since Newpost is on that side and it's pretty easy to take (plus it doesn't cause the heroes/Green to spawn)
Edited on Fri, Oct 13 2006, 14:53 by afterthought
The spawned Orange heroes had armies with over 20 titans, 1000+ goblins (I think around 1.4k when confronted) and anywhere between 100-300 archmages. Plus many other melee units.
I beat the map without ever once fighting them though. To my suprise, they all charged the South island and even wierder, they all stayed there for the most part. Only at the very end, after they had *COMBINED* two of those spawned armies onto one hero, did they feel confident to leave Newpost and chase Markal, who was at that point about to follow Cyrus through the teleporter
I simply outmaneuvered the spawned heroes and let them take my towns, since I had a large enough army on Markal (gathered from the map) to take on any of the fights. Markal didn't even have Logistics, but taking the Lightpost was helpful (though probably not critical).
One thing I'd advise is using Isabel to take the leftmost town, since Newpost is on that side and it's pretty easy to take (plus it doesn't cause the heroes/Green to spawn)
Edited on Fri, Oct 13 2006, 14:53 by afterthought
The Necromancer → The Invasion
I've tried this five times now on 1.3 heroic, after having beaten it many times on other patches and difficulties. I cannot beat it. I've tried slow build and rushing, but always have gone after the SE town first. As soon as I take it, I get attacked by the ridiculous army that "afterthought" mentioned (20+ titans, 200+ mages, etc.). I've actually taken the town in week 3, month 1 and still see basically the same army, with no chance of beating it. Unlike what "afterthought" saw, the enemy army always attacks me and does not go South. Maybe I should try taking the NW town first and working around the other direction........
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Not very long ago I also tried 1.3 heroic. I used Isabel to pull me through very tough orange hero fight. She was a far better army commander than Markal.
There are a lot of undeads to grab nearby this SE town, plus there is a larger stack of bone dragons SE from the landing shore, which helped a lot.
There are a lot of undeads to grab nearby this SE town, plus there is a larger stack of bone dragons SE from the landing shore, which helped a lot.
The Necromancer → The Invasion
I'm having some pretty rough time during this mission. As soon as I take the SE mage-town I get rushed by the green army (which I could defeat quite easily) and the very next turn by insane orange army (something like 1k of gremlins etc) and moreover the wizard keeps "duplicating" his units so in the end it's hardly possible for me to kill him... Any suggestions appart from starting over and hoping in better luck? thx...
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Hey, how do you convert towns after cancelling, i did it once and it killed me , so i left it to the end, now i found out that you have to convert them with no one inside, i'm struggling to remember how to! Also I have 20 bone dragons and it won't let me follow cyrus, any ideas?
Cheers
Cheers
The Necromancer → The Invasion
I really hate this map. It just keeps going, and going, and going...But I do have a question. How can I gather 20 bone dragons? Markal has the staff but I seem to be unable to convert any of the towns, and I don't see a bone dragon creature generator anywhere. So how can this scenario be completed? I just don't get it. I'm about ready to cheat past this one, since all I have left is to defeat Cyrus, if in fact there's a cheat code to do it. After having restarted this one four times, I'm in no mood to start over yet again when I'm so close to finishing. What a nightmare!
The Necromancer → The Invasion
If you really cant convert the towns (bring Markal with staff equipped to town, enter town/exit town with 10,000 gold), and you've already taken all the neutral bone dragon stacks (From my recollection there's three: Two stacks on the shore south of the closest mage town, one in the inferno area in the west), there's no way to obtain 20 dragons and complete the mission.
If you do still have a dragon stack to pick up, then you'd have to wait some weeks until there are enough there.
I've never encountered any bug on this map after playing through it two times on 1.1 and 1.3, so you really should be able to convert those towns, especially if you have a patched game.
If you do still have a dragon stack to pick up, then you'd have to wait some weeks until there are enough there.
I've never encountered any bug on this map after playing through it two times on 1.1 and 1.3, so you really should be able to convert those towns, especially if you have a patched game.
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Grail Quest
- Scout
- Posts: 181
- Joined: 13 Jun 2007
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Oh my God. This mission reminds me of some of the H3:SoD missions in how they are set up -- designed to irritate. In some ways it's worse than even Inferno Mission 3, because on Heroic that one degenerated very quickly so you didn't waste too much time before seeing how futile it was.
Like Necromancer Mission 2, this is clearly written for a character able to amass and replenish an insane-sized army on the move. You are too far from support, and there is a severe ore shortage and a non-existence of sulfur early in the game, so some buildings will be restricted.
Interestingly, if Isabel has Resurrection, she can play Necro-style in the early game by resurrecting fallen troops before combat ends, with her larger Knowledge Pool as a knight. In this way, her small initial number of troops isn't too much of a problem. She, too, can therefore rush.
The enemies that spawn when you take a city are incredibly powerful. On Heroic, I blitzed with both Markal and Isabel, and they took the western and southern cities early in Month 1, only to be turned back by Talanar entering from the northwest, and two powerful armies possibly coming through portals from the capital. In fact, shortly after I took some cities, Orange started to spit out heroes like water from a faucet, sending them through the one-way portals.
On Month 1 Week 3 Day 1, Markal had 6 Bone Dragons, 3 Wights, 20 Liches, 34 Vampires, 18 Vampire Lords, 106 Ghosts, 206 Skeleton Archers. I thought it was pretty decent myself, especially the Vamps. The very next day, charging down from the road, was Havez with all war machines and 34 Titans (!), 158 Master Genies, 240 Archmagi, 397 Steel Golems, and 723 Master Gremlins. I ran like Crag Hack himself was on my heels. Havez more or less went south, although if I were close by, he did meander my way looking for an opportunity, I suppose. After many many days he would take NewPort.
But, close behind Havez was Temkhan, who did look for Markal and caught up on Day 7 of the same week. He more or less smashed Markal's army with his own (4 Rakshasa Rajahs, 397 Steel Golems, 9 Iron Golems, 524 (!) Obsidian Gargoyles, 14 Stone Gargoyles, and 723 (!) Master Gremlins). By then Markal had gotten some nice joins from nearby undead, so he survived and I narrowly avoided having to restart the scenario.
Meanwhile Isabel tried to shake off Talanar by taking to ship, but Talanar went back to his own ship and on Month 1, Week 4, Day 7 was too close to NewPort so I let him catch up. Interestingly, Quick Combat won with a small margin but Auto Combat couldn't duplicate it. In any case, Talanar had 15 Silver Unicorns, 50 Druid Elders, 100 Master Hunters, and 200 War Dancers. Who the h*ll playtested this and came up with these numbers?! I suspect Isabel's Expert Dark Magic and lucky use of Puppet Master had something to do with it as she barely pulled through after ditching the Gremlins to increase Morale just a little for her remaining troops: 37 Fire Elementals (a lucky hire on the road), 77 Footmen, 185 Archers, 24 Peasants. Without Dark Magic, I doubt she could have won.
The capital (which I never got close to but cheated to have a look at) is itself will be guarded by garrisons, the last of which has over 20 Titans, in addition to literally hundreds of other troops! The AI also has insane resources although, curiously, does not spend them upgrading any towns other than the capital.
On top of all this... I was playing it in HOF and Cursing a town resulted in them becoming Sylvan towns! So not only do I have to start over, I have to redo all the missions in regular H5. GRR!
Like Necromancer Mission 2, this is clearly written for a character able to amass and replenish an insane-sized army on the move. You are too far from support, and there is a severe ore shortage and a non-existence of sulfur early in the game, so some buildings will be restricted.
Interestingly, if Isabel has Resurrection, she can play Necro-style in the early game by resurrecting fallen troops before combat ends, with her larger Knowledge Pool as a knight. In this way, her small initial number of troops isn't too much of a problem. She, too, can therefore rush.
The enemies that spawn when you take a city are incredibly powerful. On Heroic, I blitzed with both Markal and Isabel, and they took the western and southern cities early in Month 1, only to be turned back by Talanar entering from the northwest, and two powerful armies possibly coming through portals from the capital. In fact, shortly after I took some cities, Orange started to spit out heroes like water from a faucet, sending them through the one-way portals.
On Month 1 Week 3 Day 1, Markal had 6 Bone Dragons, 3 Wights, 20 Liches, 34 Vampires, 18 Vampire Lords, 106 Ghosts, 206 Skeleton Archers. I thought it was pretty decent myself, especially the Vamps. The very next day, charging down from the road, was Havez with all war machines and 34 Titans (!), 158 Master Genies, 240 Archmagi, 397 Steel Golems, and 723 Master Gremlins. I ran like Crag Hack himself was on my heels. Havez more or less went south, although if I were close by, he did meander my way looking for an opportunity, I suppose. After many many days he would take NewPort.
But, close behind Havez was Temkhan, who did look for Markal and caught up on Day 7 of the same week. He more or less smashed Markal's army with his own (4 Rakshasa Rajahs, 397 Steel Golems, 9 Iron Golems, 524 (!) Obsidian Gargoyles, 14 Stone Gargoyles, and 723 (!) Master Gremlins). By then Markal had gotten some nice joins from nearby undead, so he survived and I narrowly avoided having to restart the scenario.
Meanwhile Isabel tried to shake off Talanar by taking to ship, but Talanar went back to his own ship and on Month 1, Week 4, Day 7 was too close to NewPort so I let him catch up. Interestingly, Quick Combat won with a small margin but Auto Combat couldn't duplicate it. In any case, Talanar had 15 Silver Unicorns, 50 Druid Elders, 100 Master Hunters, and 200 War Dancers. Who the h*ll playtested this and came up with these numbers?! I suspect Isabel's Expert Dark Magic and lucky use of Puppet Master had something to do with it as she barely pulled through after ditching the Gremlins to increase Morale just a little for her remaining troops: 37 Fire Elementals (a lucky hire on the road), 77 Footmen, 185 Archers, 24 Peasants. Without Dark Magic, I doubt she could have won.
The capital (which I never got close to but cheated to have a look at) is itself will be guarded by garrisons, the last of which has over 20 Titans, in addition to literally hundreds of other troops! The AI also has insane resources although, curiously, does not spend them upgrading any towns other than the capital.
On top of all this... I was playing it in HOF and Cursing a town resulted in them becoming Sylvan towns! So not only do I have to start over, I have to redo all the missions in regular H5. GRR!
The Necromancer → The Invasion
I just got stomped! Playing on normal, I had 34 Bone Dragons, 800 bone archers, 65 liches, 80 plague zombies, ~100 vampire lords and 80 or so spectres.
fought an orange hero by the easternmost town...he had 8 titans, 400 gargoyles, 900 gremlins, 100 mages, 400 golems. kept casting phantom on the gremlins...yeah, 1,800 gremlins.
fought an orange hero by the easternmost town...he had 8 titans, 400 gargoyles, 900 gremlins, 100 mages, 400 golems. kept casting phantom on the gremlins...yeah, 1,800 gremlins.
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Ok, I figured this one out. The key is to just avoid the orange armies and snipe the towns behind their backs. Their movement is pretty predictable, and a two-pronged strategy works best: get them to chase a hero while the other runs into town. Make good use of the Sanctuary. Recruit lots of low-level heroes to act as decoys, but give them some troops so that you can soften the mages up if need be. After you curse their towns they can't reinforce themselves.
Orange tends to load ALL their troops on one hero later in the game. Early on, all the armies are massive. It's much easier to take the towns when Orange has one uber-hero, since he can't patrol all the towns at once.
You can get 20 bone dragons easy without ever building up your necropoleis. There are 4 stacks of them on the map. Also, don't bother to upgrade your buildings, but use the Hill Fort.
Orange tends to load ALL their troops on one hero later in the game. Early on, all the armies are massive. It's much easier to take the towns when Orange has one uber-hero, since he can't patrol all the towns at once.
You can get 20 bone dragons easy without ever building up your necropoleis. There are 4 stacks of them on the map. Also, don't bother to upgrade your buildings, but use the Hill Fort.
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Grail Quest
- Scout
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- Joined: 13 Jun 2007
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Tried it again (on Heroic), and oddly enough, the true Orange uber-hero didn't appear until much later after I took Ziyad. Havez was nearby before I took Ziyad, and had a sizable army, so I crushed him first with Markal before moving up to Ziyad with Isabel. Much later came Narxes (a measly level 4, thank goodness, so he couldn't spam Armageddon), who was the super-loaded hero, and Isabel bought all troops from Ziyad and fled. But Markal came down from the Northwest and took him on. And won!
Narxes had 678 Master Gremlins, 616 Obsidian Gargoyles, 402 Steel Golems, 155 Archmagi, 103 Master Genies, 28 Rakshasa Rajas, 23 Titans, and a mess of artifacts, including a Ring of the Unrepentant, although securing that from Narxes did not tick off the Mission Objective.
Markal destroyed everything of Narxes's, including all war machines. Once Narxes's mana ran out, Markal's ability to regenerate mana allowed him to spam Frenzy on the organic units to destroy the inorganic ones. Mark of the Necromancer on the Titans hit with Decay allowed a relatively fire-and-forget mana regeneration. It was also absolutely crucial to besiege him, as the AI doesn't move their walkers in a siege unless you go after them.
Final losses on Markal's side: 192 of 193 Skeleton Archers, none of the 157 Plague Zombies, 217 of 361 Spectres, 98 of 139 Vampire Lords, and only 1 of 55 Wraiths was lost. Spectres were priceless as they survived continued attempts to kill them, thus prolonging the siege for me. The no-retaliation attack of the Vampire Lords was handy and I sent them in for a cautious strike or two, but unfortunately they turned out to be another damage sink until the AI switched to targeting the Spectres.
Was my army smashed? Not with a good chunk of Vampire Lords and Wraiths left, plus the peninsula still untouched with archliches, vampires, ghosts, and bone dragons. On top of that, Deidre is about to launch from LoreKeep with a third wave of undead reinforcements. (I kept all Academy cities unconverted as it would be easier to combine a huge force for Isabel to smash the garrisons).
Surely Frenzy is the ultimate spell, and with the enemy unable to use either Frenzy or Puppet Master on me, Necromancers rule!
*
Some tips:
If you take Ziyad and the uber-Oranges come down, let them take Ziyad back and if possible hit them by Day 1 of the following week, when their troops have regrown but their Day 1 turn hasn't come up so they haven't bought anything yet. Also, the AI is generally easier to fight in a siege.
In letting them take Ziyad, you will also now make Lorekeep the closest city for Summon Creatures. Markal doesn't have a deep mana pool to summon troops, but Isabel probably has 10+ Knowledge if you've picked up all the bonuses from the Haven missions, so in one go she can get 2-3 weeks worth of troops from LoreKeep and hand them over.
Don't convert the Academy cities right away. Isabel (especially if she has Leadership) can use the troops to replace her initial Haven joins on the island (the stack of footmen near the shipyard always joins, and I think the archers nearby join if you can buy them), and all the cities will have all dwellings except Rakshasas, although if you capture the cities later, they may also have a Silver Pavilion for you. As well, if you are picking up a new magic specialization for Markal, you might need the deeper spell libraries of the Academy to top up his spells before moving on. Restarting a city, especially with a sulfur shortage, is too costly.
Grow New Port to a City for cash then leave it until later, when, as an option, you might want to have archers or griffons (for crossbowmen or conversion to Vampires). However, they are more or less strictly secondary troops. Don't aim for Capital as you are unlikely to really use the troops and building it up that much will just waste your resources. It'll be easy enough to grow a capital with one of the captured Academy cities.
Have a hero sail about collecting driftwood. The excess wood and frequent finds of gold will come in handy when you start to develop the cities on the mainland. I used Isabel for the most part as she could also clear the shipwrecks (which won't join Markal even if they are undead).
Not all Death Knights join, regardless of how absolute Markal's specialty sounds.
Be careful about Talanar. He apparently knows where Isabel is and goes straight for her. He smashed my army, and I survived only because I built Isabel to also have Dark Magic, initially intending a combo Mass Slow - Mass Haste - Benediction, but ending up using a lot of Frenzy and finishing with Resurrection. Her fairly deep mana pool let her compete very nicely.
There are a lot of Rakshasa and quite a few colossus stacks, so it's easy to build a nice stack of Wraiths. However, Vampires are your best troops overall with their ability to revive themselves, so keep an eye out for opportunities to get them with Necromancy. There were always at least 2 stacks of Champions, one just north of Ziyad, along the road. Get them whenever possible.
Only Isabel has Town Portal, and only if she got it previously. It is apparently not available anywhere in the Necromancer campaign up to this point, unless Godric or Isabel teaches it to you.
*
It's possible to randomly encounter the necessary artifacts either on the map (I saw the Cloak on an island) or with artifact merchants. I know the Ring of the Unrepentant isn't meant to be found, so it did not check off that mission objective, but has anyone completed the other mission objectives this way?
Edited on Thu, Aug 09 2007, 10:47 by Grail Quest
Narxes had 678 Master Gremlins, 616 Obsidian Gargoyles, 402 Steel Golems, 155 Archmagi, 103 Master Genies, 28 Rakshasa Rajas, 23 Titans, and a mess of artifacts, including a Ring of the Unrepentant, although securing that from Narxes did not tick off the Mission Objective.
Markal destroyed everything of Narxes's, including all war machines. Once Narxes's mana ran out, Markal's ability to regenerate mana allowed him to spam Frenzy on the organic units to destroy the inorganic ones. Mark of the Necromancer on the Titans hit with Decay allowed a relatively fire-and-forget mana regeneration. It was also absolutely crucial to besiege him, as the AI doesn't move their walkers in a siege unless you go after them.
Final losses on Markal's side: 192 of 193 Skeleton Archers, none of the 157 Plague Zombies, 217 of 361 Spectres, 98 of 139 Vampire Lords, and only 1 of 55 Wraiths was lost. Spectres were priceless as they survived continued attempts to kill them, thus prolonging the siege for me. The no-retaliation attack of the Vampire Lords was handy and I sent them in for a cautious strike or two, but unfortunately they turned out to be another damage sink until the AI switched to targeting the Spectres.
Was my army smashed? Not with a good chunk of Vampire Lords and Wraiths left, plus the peninsula still untouched with archliches, vampires, ghosts, and bone dragons. On top of that, Deidre is about to launch from LoreKeep with a third wave of undead reinforcements. (I kept all Academy cities unconverted as it would be easier to combine a huge force for Isabel to smash the garrisons).
Surely Frenzy is the ultimate spell, and with the enemy unable to use either Frenzy or Puppet Master on me, Necromancers rule!
*
Some tips:
If you take Ziyad and the uber-Oranges come down, let them take Ziyad back and if possible hit them by Day 1 of the following week, when their troops have regrown but their Day 1 turn hasn't come up so they haven't bought anything yet. Also, the AI is generally easier to fight in a siege.
In letting them take Ziyad, you will also now make Lorekeep the closest city for Summon Creatures. Markal doesn't have a deep mana pool to summon troops, but Isabel probably has 10+ Knowledge if you've picked up all the bonuses from the Haven missions, so in one go she can get 2-3 weeks worth of troops from LoreKeep and hand them over.
Don't convert the Academy cities right away. Isabel (especially if she has Leadership) can use the troops to replace her initial Haven joins on the island (the stack of footmen near the shipyard always joins, and I think the archers nearby join if you can buy them), and all the cities will have all dwellings except Rakshasas, although if you capture the cities later, they may also have a Silver Pavilion for you. As well, if you are picking up a new magic specialization for Markal, you might need the deeper spell libraries of the Academy to top up his spells before moving on. Restarting a city, especially with a sulfur shortage, is too costly.
Grow New Port to a City for cash then leave it until later, when, as an option, you might want to have archers or griffons (for crossbowmen or conversion to Vampires). However, they are more or less strictly secondary troops. Don't aim for Capital as you are unlikely to really use the troops and building it up that much will just waste your resources. It'll be easy enough to grow a capital with one of the captured Academy cities.
Have a hero sail about collecting driftwood. The excess wood and frequent finds of gold will come in handy when you start to develop the cities on the mainland. I used Isabel for the most part as she could also clear the shipwrecks (which won't join Markal even if they are undead).
Not all Death Knights join, regardless of how absolute Markal's specialty sounds.
Be careful about Talanar. He apparently knows where Isabel is and goes straight for her. He smashed my army, and I survived only because I built Isabel to also have Dark Magic, initially intending a combo Mass Slow - Mass Haste - Benediction, but ending up using a lot of Frenzy and finishing with Resurrection. Her fairly deep mana pool let her compete very nicely.
There are a lot of Rakshasa and quite a few colossus stacks, so it's easy to build a nice stack of Wraiths. However, Vampires are your best troops overall with their ability to revive themselves, so keep an eye out for opportunities to get them with Necromancy. There were always at least 2 stacks of Champions, one just north of Ziyad, along the road. Get them whenever possible.
Only Isabel has Town Portal, and only if she got it previously. It is apparently not available anywhere in the Necromancer campaign up to this point, unless Godric or Isabel teaches it to you.
*
It's possible to randomly encounter the necessary artifacts either on the map (I saw the Cloak on an island) or with artifact merchants. I know the Ring of the Unrepentant isn't meant to be found, so it did not check off that mission objective, but has anyone completed the other mission objectives this way?
Edited on Thu, Aug 09 2007, 10:47 by Grail Quest
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Wow the AI is stupid on this map. Played it on normal and managed to take the western-island and north-central academy nearby. Then while Markal was preparing to take the southeast academy (and dealing with an uber-wizard hero) and Isabel was dealing with the elves another somewhat uber hero popped up and charged towards the north-central academy town.
Fortunately I managed to hire one of the orange heroes I already defeated to defend the town. This is where it gets interesting.
When the siege starts I have my hero constantly frenzy their most powerful stack (60 of the upgraded rashkasha thingies) and it proceeds to lay waste to everything except for some djinns and gargoyles that flew over the wall. In the end all I have left is about 20 gargoyles that just finished off the enemy gargoyles (my hero is about out of spell points) and the enemy is left on the other side of the map with the rashkasha. I figure I'll just have Markal take the town back later since the enemy just took a nasty blow anyway.
Then the enemy hero fled. With a powerful stack of 60, against my mostly destroyed citadel and 20 gargoyles. Maybe I'll start playing on hard or heroic now.
Fortunately I managed to hire one of the orange heroes I already defeated to defend the town. This is where it gets interesting.
When the siege starts I have my hero constantly frenzy their most powerful stack (60 of the upgraded rashkasha thingies) and it proceeds to lay waste to everything except for some djinns and gargoyles that flew over the wall. In the end all I have left is about 20 gargoyles that just finished off the enemy gargoyles (my hero is about out of spell points) and the enemy is left on the other side of the map with the rashkasha. I figure I'll just have Markal take the town back later since the enemy just took a nasty blow anyway.
Then the enemy hero fled. With a powerful stack of 60, against my mostly destroyed citadel and 20 gargoyles. Maybe I'll start playing on hard or heroic now.
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Grail Quest
- Scout
- Posts: 181
- Joined: 13 Jun 2007
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Recently replayed it, again on Heroic, and it was way easier this time. Took the western town first (Isabel took to sea early and found that landing for him, whereupon he immediately blitzed in that direction), then the northwestern one. Quickly hopped on the boat and went to take down Talanar, then headed south for the southern town, and finally moved up to the garrisons.
The very interesting part is that I had over 100 ghosts, and that amount steadily increased later through joins and reinforcements, to nearly 200. In some fights, such as against Talanar, and the two uber-heroes of the AI, I fielded ONLY GHOSTS. I might have done much better if I had taken Dark and Destruction instead of Dark and Summoning (there is a chance the AI will have some sort of Unsummon Power, or Puppet Master your Phoenix, unless you wait until late in combat), but the main point is that none of the other units really mattered. With incorporeality, the ghosts lasted 50% to 66% longer than they would otherwise. Frenzy like crazy, and in late combat, Phoenix.
As long as I didn't move the ghosts, the AI was content to sit back and shoot, not knowing that I was waiting for his mana to deplete while replenishing mine with Mark of the Necromancer.
Strong AIs also had Magic Immunity, which made things problematic, but as long as you can wait them out (e.g., besieging them, and waiting for the Magical Immunity duration to run out), you are virtually assured of victory.
A vast number of ghosts was also crucial, as it reduced the amount of Raise Dead casts I needed to do.
Based on my experiences here, I would say the Necromancer may in fact be a superior Destruction-caster than the Warlock! Having an essentially unlimited mana pool, plus very high spellpower, is sweet!
Edited on Sun, Sep 09 2007, 16:50 by Grail Quest
The very interesting part is that I had over 100 ghosts, and that amount steadily increased later through joins and reinforcements, to nearly 200. In some fights, such as against Talanar, and the two uber-heroes of the AI, I fielded ONLY GHOSTS. I might have done much better if I had taken Dark and Destruction instead of Dark and Summoning (there is a chance the AI will have some sort of Unsummon Power, or Puppet Master your Phoenix, unless you wait until late in combat), but the main point is that none of the other units really mattered. With incorporeality, the ghosts lasted 50% to 66% longer than they would otherwise. Frenzy like crazy, and in late combat, Phoenix.
As long as I didn't move the ghosts, the AI was content to sit back and shoot, not knowing that I was waiting for his mana to deplete while replenishing mine with Mark of the Necromancer.
Strong AIs also had Magic Immunity, which made things problematic, but as long as you can wait them out (e.g., besieging them, and waiting for the Magical Immunity duration to run out), you are virtually assured of victory.
A vast number of ghosts was also crucial, as it reduced the amount of Raise Dead casts I needed to do.
Based on my experiences here, I would say the Necromancer may in fact be a superior Destruction-caster than the Warlock! Having an essentially unlimited mana pool, plus very high spellpower, is sweet!
Edited on Sun, Sep 09 2007, 16:50 by Grail Quest
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CatherineMcClarey
- Leprechaun
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 14 Jun 2007
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Has anyone tried the sphinx's riddle in this scenario, and what was the answer? (It's located roughly SSE of Bahiyaa on the map.) I know it's not required for completing the scenario, but I'm trying to explore everything and see if Markal & Isabel can reach the level cap on this go-round of this scenario (played it once on my old XP computer; doing it on the Vista computer this time).
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Obtain Cloak of Death’s Shadow
can't find this peice. I've captured all the towns have killed everything. where is it. Someone give me a picture or something.
can't find this peice. I've captured all the towns have killed everything. where is it. Someone give me a picture or something.
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Queen Hera
- Pixie
- Posts: 104
- Joined: 29 Jun 2006
- Location: Australia
The Necromancer → The Invasion
For those who reported they couldn't finish this, I thought I had the same problem so I restarted the mission only to realize (at the end) that Markall just has to stand near the portal that Cyrus went through to complete the mission. !!!!!
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Just an extra bit of advice for this map- you should definitely not take too much time making your way to Al Safir, at least not on Hard or Heroic. Creatures are piling up in this town throughout the scenario and will eventually be given to one of Orange's elite heroes. If this happens, it will be extremely difficult to defeat their army even using a maxed out Isabel or Markal. I was spending too much time going through the whole map after conquering all the towns but Al Safir, and little did I know the HUGE army that was manifesting itself up there. Orange hired Havez in Al Safir, and brought the army out which looked like this on Hard-
3500 Master Gremlins, 2500 Obsidian Gargoyles, 1500 Steel Golems, 400 Archmages, 230 Djinn Sultans, 100 Rakshasha Rajas, and 75 Titans
Yeah...not a walk int he park. Definitely rush Al Safir to avoid letting too big an army building up there. Even so, you will still see a huge force up there even rushing, so don't waste time!
Edited on Thu, Feb 05 2009, 22:40 by ahoover
3500 Master Gremlins, 2500 Obsidian Gargoyles, 1500 Steel Golems, 400 Archmages, 230 Djinn Sultans, 100 Rakshasha Rajas, and 75 Titans
Yeah...not a walk int he park. Definitely rush Al Safir to avoid letting too big an army building up there. Even so, you will still see a huge force up there even rushing, so don't waste time!
Edited on Thu, Feb 05 2009, 22:40 by ahoover
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Using the Sanctuary just South of Ziyad causes my game to crash during Orange's turn. Running v1.6 on Windows XP Pro 64-bit.
The Necromancer → The Invasion
Recently Play this game wo Patch I Think, So many Bugs but have No Choice
Get 20 Bone dragon and can't follow Cyrus thro the portal......
Try Queen_Hera method If it dun work, try mine, it work for me
Restart the game and Follow the walkthrough BUT DON'T Recruit or Kill any Bone Dragon even if they are guarding artifact or Any Dragon if Possible!!!! Just remember where they are and after Cyrus goes thro the Portal, Recruit the 20 bone dragons.
Right side DOWN of the Top Island where a lot of Necro Forces are guarding the artifacts have 13 Bone dragons and the down little bit to the left ON a small Island have 7 Bone dragons which make exactly 20 lead them there without any Loss and go thro the Portal on the Right.
Hope this work for u
Get 20 Bone dragon and can't follow Cyrus thro the portal......
Try Queen_Hera method If it dun work, try mine, it work for me
Restart the game and Follow the walkthrough BUT DON'T Recruit or Kill any Bone Dragon even if they are guarding artifact or Any Dragon if Possible!!!! Just remember where they are and after Cyrus goes thro the Portal, Recruit the 20 bone dragons.
Right side DOWN of the Top Island where a lot of Necro Forces are guarding the artifacts have 13 Bone dragons and the down little bit to the left ON a small Island have 7 Bone dragons which make exactly 20 lead them there without any Loss and go thro the Portal on the Right.
Hope this work for u
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