Crazy Nicolai (Spoiler)

[Gaidal Cain]

OK. So, what were we arguing about exactly?

[Wulfgar333]

I read all these posts and am astounded that I find myself in this position and no one else has, or has beaten it. Early on Nicolai has 5k archers and he kicked my moderately built armies arse...so I gathered the dwarven artifacts, got 5 Pheonix's, (which incidentally, different than another campaign where I got 1 Pheonix, and he was unstoppable, these 5 are slighly better than my Emerald Dragons. Now, after getting those Pheonix's, and having a very large army, I meet Nicolai who now has 10k archers, and god knows how many Sprectral Drgaons, Vampires etc.etc.

Something is missing here, and I can't figure out what. It isn't favorite enemy etc. etc. Nicholai also has Phantom Forces, which creates another 10k archers, heelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllppp!

Any suggestions? Building the towns underneath etc. etc. to reach these proportions will take 10 mos. and god knows how strong NIcolai will be by then. He doubled or tripled his forces in the time it took me to get the dwarven artifacts.....these numbers don't make any sense.

[Omega_Destroyer]

Light magic helps a lot. The mass spells and resurrection help immensely. I guess you just gotta hope your master hunters and druids will take out the skeleton archers before the battle really starts.

[maltz]

and no one else has, or has beaten it...

Er... did you read my reply on gamefaq, before you post the same question here? Actually tons of people has kicked Nicolai's arse on heroic.

So again I go: Expert Dark + Sandro's cloak. If you don't have them, then you can try this:

1) Take as many castles as possible. Since you have more income and more troop production, eventually you will outgrow him. There is no doubt about that.

2) Phantom image can be easily dispelled by an area-effect spell, no matter how weak it is.

3) Rebuild your Findan to be a tougher one. It matters a lot.

[Wulfgar333]

Thanks for the response. Sorry, did not see your earlier post or solution, and if I did, would still be disappointed...

I do not have Dark Magic, and if this is a prerequisite, that isn't fair with no indication scenario, in game info etc. wise. Cloak of Sandro, tho it appeared in the Eyes of Magi, probably will not help me if I don't have Dark Magic, but who knows that?

The game indicates by quest and effort that you must get the dwarven artifacts, and as I indicated, to get 5 Phoeonix's is worthless, to say the least in the final battle. I am Lvl. 29, same as Nicolai, not sure if I should have leveled more, but I needed the money once I saw 5k skeletons.

Speaking of building more than Nicolai, having the underground cities, I saw Nicolai grow from 5k skeletons to 10k skeletons in 2mos. based on saves I have. That exponential build is simply not built into the gold, troops etc. available to Ranger in those two months, so the build rate is not logical, and does not lend itself to thinking you can outbuild this type of army buildup. Nicolai, month 5 essentially, has 10k Skeletons, 300 Lich,1000 ghosts, 490 Vampires, 59 Spectal Dragons, 1000 Plague Zombies. That is ridiculous, and is not possible in 8 weeks building time with the cities Ranger has, not to mention a mixed army, morale, etc. etc.

So, with all due respect, I must start the scenario over, but lacking Dark Magic, not having Sandro's boots, there still seems to be something terribly lacking, despite the fact some folks have succeeded. I hope to beat this SOB sometime.

However, I do not like the narrow requirements to win this scenario/campaign, and it is the first I have discovered to this point which was somewhat disengenous in providing a victory.

Thanks for the help. Sorry for missing your post and making you post again. Will try various things mentioned, tho it this point the whole thing is kluggy in my opinion.

[Gaidal Cain]

This might only be me, but after patching, I found this map be ridiculusly easy. THere was exactly one hero with any force to speak of that opposed me, and even that battle was a clear victory...

[maltz]

Nicolai and his heroes get a lot of archers from the neutral stacks on the map. The longer you wait, the more they will get.

10K skeleton does not sound too bad. If you run around to gather more troops, and hire a lot of skeleton archers yourself, you should be able to wipe out 1/2 of it when the battle starts. Nicolai will keep phantom force that stack, but your druid and yourself will be able to dispel it.

If you still can't manage, how about restart this mission, and try to rush him this time. The AIs are very timid; they run back to their castle if seeing you marching around. If it comes towards you it is even better, as you can beat them piece by piece.

Even on heroic, without logistics, by month 3 you should be able to emerge from underground, and take the central town out of the three in the west. From my experience, the AIs usually have about 6-7K archers in total at this time (of course, from neutrals). However, they are split in the north and the south castle.

Then, quickly consolidate your defense by calling up one of the two assistant heroes, split them some army, and take yet another town where Nicolai is NOT present. If he is on the south, go take the north castle first. Then, poor little Nicolai is trapped on his last castle. With 10X income than him, you can beat him without trouble.

In my 2nd run on this mission, I beat one hero with 3K archers who tried to sneak to my castle, but got caught (because my assistant hero has expert logistics), and it turned out that Nicolai has given all he has to this guy. When I face Nicolai, he has 29 peasants and 8 archers! And guess what - even though I have the Sandro's cloak and expert dark, I never had a chance to use it. Whenever I finish mass haste and mass slow, I am busy resurrecting my archers. Suddenly there is no enemy left.