Fortress creature choices

[tb5841]

1) Shieldguards
2) Skirmishers
3) Blackbear Riders
4) Battleragers
5) Unsure, maybe Rune Keepers...
6) Thunder Thanes, unless I have Armageddon
7) Magma Dragons

I always get Soldier's Luck with Fortress, as they benefit far more from it than any other team - I might rethink some choices if I couldn't get it for some reason.

[okrane]

What makes Ingvar such a demigod?

Imba first week creeping compared to the other heroes...

[danhvo]

It seems like the abilities of the two are almost even. Bear Roar seemed to trigger a lot for me in my last game, don't know if it has anything to do with (the bears') stack size.

Paw Strike will almost always trigger if you have Soldier's Luck and your black bears moves the maximum distance they're allowed. Plus, it works on everything (undead, elementals, mechanicals, etc.), except Mountain Guards due to their Hold Ground ability, whereas Bear Roar, I believe, doesn't work on creatures immune to mind effects. The only time I would rather have Bear Roar is when the enemy creature is stuck in a corner and would retaliate even if Paw Struck.

By the way, even though the description says the Hold Ground ability only applies if the mountain dwarf remains standing in its starting position, I find that I can never Paw Strike the dwarf even after it moves. I don't know if that's a bug or intentional.

Because Paw Strike works so reliably, I find that I can usually attack a much superior neutral army with just Skirmishers and Black Bears, and suffer no loss. Basically, the black bears would completely prevent enemy creatures from acting while the skirmishers would whittle down, and occasionally cripple, those creatures in the mean time. No other faction's army has this ability. I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone mention this "abuse", especially since many people like to toss around the word "overpower" so easily.

[Mirez]

Imba first week creeping compared to the other heroes...

I never had any problem creeping with Ebba or Karli

[Dacarnix_]

Sure Bear roar affects more than one unit, but on the other hand you have less tries to trigger it. Furthermore, I prefer Paw Strike because it works on everything (except the mountain guard maybe and entangled units) while bear roar has no effect on undeads, elementals or mechanical units.

After this discussion, I think I'm going to try switching from Blackbears over to Whitebears in the mid-game or end-game once the stack gets pretty big (unless playing against Academy or Necropolis, of course).

Attacking a small stack of creatures with Soldiers Luck gives 4x standard chances. With a large enough stack of bears, that's almost as good as a guarantee (although still no 12x standard chances like the Blackbears).

[okrane]

Imba first week creeping compared to the other heroes...

I never had any problem creeping with Ebba or Karli

Oh yeah, how about lots of Master Hunters near your crystal mine?

[Mirez]

Imba first week creeping compared to the other heroes...

I never had any problem creeping with Ebba or Karli

Oh yeah, how about lots of Master Hunters near your crystal mine?

bearriders + rune of charge
I don't see how slightly buffed shieldguards are that good at creeping

[okrane]

There are more than 100 of them mind you... with extra hp and damage.

Those bears you are talking about: how many losses can you afford?
If you have 100 shieldguards, no trouble loosing a couple, especially as they are a lvl 1 unit which comes in such an abundance...

[aaelgr]

I thought Ingvar's special only applies to Defenders (or whatever the ungraded unit is called), so neither Shield nor Mountain Guards benefit from him. Did they change this in TotE?

[okrane]

It was never like that. Don't trust those idiotic tooltips made by those Russian noobs...

[Dacarnix_]

It was never like that. Don't trust those idiotic tooltips made by those Russian noobs...

lol.

I don't think I would have put it quite that way, but I can confirm that Ingvar's special does apply to the upgrades as well as the Defenders.

[parcaleste]

It's like Shak'Karukat's, come on, of course it will hit and the upgrades


BDW I think this thingy (+1 or 2 health) should be in use for each and every Beastmaster like

[Mirez]

There are more than 100 of them mind you... with extra hp and damage.

Those bears you are talking about: how many losses can you afford?
If you have 100 shieldguards, no trouble loosing a couple, especially as they are a lvl 1 unit which comes in such an abundance...

sure 100 of them is a great amount but they gain 1 attack 1 def for every 2 levels and 1 hp for every 5 levels
so that bonus can't be that great when the game just started

btw when I creep with bearriders I mostly have soldiers luck so I won't have much losses since they won't suffer much retaliation

[aaelgr]

It was never like that. Don't trust those idiotic tooltips made by those Russian noobs...

Is Ingvar one of the few where they've gone wrong, or are there in fact quite a few? I heard somewhere that Wyngaal's one is wrong...

[okrane]

Well, lots of tooltips are hard to understand anyway... so who knows...

[PhoenixReborn]

It's all in the fan manual.

[Metathron]

Is it just my imagination or does the Lava Dragon also possess the Fire Breath ability? Because I've just managed to destroy two griffin stacks one behind the other. Didn't even realize I had achieved that with the Lava Dragons until later on.

And is it possible to cast the rune Dragon Form on Dragons? I'm pretty sure I've done that as well though I also remember the icon for this rune was broken at other times (like it should be, supposedly).

[Mirez]

lava dragon have a 2 tile breath attack yes
I guess the liquid fire disciption doesn't say that in the discription

[parcaleste]

... And is it possible to cast the rune Dragon Form on Dragons? ...

Never happened to me

[Metathron]

lava dragon have a 2 tile breath attack yes
I guess the liquid fire disciption doesn't say that in the discription

Well, it should be a separate description, not part of the Liquid...thingy.

Now that the Lava Dragon (supposedly) has the Fire Breath ability as well, he seems better able to compete with the Magma Dragon. In fact, they are pretty much the same (strength-wise) to me now. However, I find that the Fire Walls they leave behind not only do very little damage, but are actually more often than not a hindrance to your own troops who will get entangled in it. This makes me give a slight edge to Magmas.