Academy Strategy (continued)

[Labyrinth]

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/580

[Labyrinth]

Hiya, Chuck!

Are you still recommending war machines without endless MG repair?

[Caradoc]

Amazingly good! Maybe the best guide ever.



One other battle tactic worth considering: Since the Gremmies are so fragile, you want to discourage missile fire (especially the Assassin's poison) and spells. A way to do that is to present the AI with what appears to be a better target. This is where your Gargoyles help. Send a couple of sacrificial stacks out on the first round and let them drawfire until your Golems can close. The Gremmies will get off a couple of rounds before the Golems start taking losses.



A second point is that if you start your Mages in a corner, you can leave them exposed and avoid losses due to friendly fire. By concentrating your attack on their side of the battlefield, you can usually hold off attacks. However, it pays to keep one of your tanks within range in case something flies or gates into that corner.

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'd like to suggest another strategy. By week 2 you can get 10 Mages on Day 1, by building the Mage Tower on Week 1 Day 7. Put all the Gremlins in one stack, Golems if you use them, and split the Mages into as many stacks as possible. The multitude of Fists of Wrath allow you to clear neutrals really easily.



The damage of the Mages' basic Fist of Wrath is 30+(6xSP).

One stack of 10 Mages has 9 SP, so damage is 30+(6x9)=84

Five stacks of 2 Mages each has 2 SP each, so total damage is

5x[30+(6x2)]=210

The damage output is more than doubled if you split them into five stacks. You also don't get wasted damage i.e. sometimes attacks are overkill. The extra damage can go to other enemy stacks.



You can also do this when they are Archmages and you get even better returns when you cast Fireball and Advanced Fist of Wrath with many stacks of Mages.



Later on in the game this becomes redundant when you want creature artifacts, but it helps in giving a good start.

[Sir Charles]

@ Labyrinth (jerrie)



Yes actually. There are still several options available in regards to the War Machines/Gremlins. You could split the grems. You only have to repair one point in order to rebuild a war machine. But regardless, with the individual abilities you'll still get them back after combat if you do lose them. The Ballista (the key to this skill IMO) is still VERY durable and to destroy it you'd need either a VERY high level area effect spell OR direct attacks on it. As long as you focus your troops in either corner, area spells tend to miss the ballista. And if the enemy's focusing his attacks on your ballista...*grin*...that's exactly what you WANT him to do. :O) Great skill for this town regardless of the # of repairs. (but I'd still like more repairs *grumble grumble*)



@ caradoc

Thanks, I appreciate it. It's a bit outdated now that the patch is out though. I'm working on some better solutions now that the grem/golem tactic is nerfed and the summon elementals has been weakened. Right now it's looking like leaning more heavily on Sorcery and Magic skills earlier. It's still a work in progress though.



@ Smokey

Splitting caster creatures is always recommended early on. Not just the mages. All casters will deal more damage percentage-wise in smaller groups. Individual units pack the most punch. Unfortunately it's rather hard to organize most times due to the constraints of 7 slots. *shrugs* But you're right...it IS effective.



I've also started going the route of mage dwelling in week one too. It's nearly required with the current set-up. I think it's just a personal quirk of mine that I absolutely HATE to lose my mages, even just ONE, to a neutral stack. But it's pretty much unavoidable now. So I'll just accept it now and move on.



After playing a few games post-patch, it's looking more and more like the premium set-up for Wizards would be something along these lines now.



Luck/resourcefulness/spoils of war/magic resistance

Logistics/pathfinding/march of the golems/teleport assault

Light Magic/Abjuration/blessings/wrath

Sorcery/magic insight/arcane training/counterspell



The last slot is a toss up. You could go the War Machines route, which is surprisingly effective even without the gremlin repair. Or Attack/archery/flaming arrows/cold steel. Pairing these two skills is very effective, but the way things are now, sorcery is almost required. But like I said, I'll continue to play with it.

[SmokeyTheBear]

Ah yes I hate losing Mages too, but with 18 hp it is extremely hard to avoid losing one. Archmages have 30 which I think is a real big boost.



I know that all caster creatures work better when split. That's why I absolutely detest fighting neutral Druids/Druid Elders. They are usually split into stacks of three and the Lightning Bolt HURTS AS HELL. Boom! 10 Mages perish Boom! 10 Mages perish. Now I avoid fighting neutral Druids/Mages/Pit Fiends until later on.



However, early on with only 10 Knowledge, you can create creature artifacts that give 47% spell damage reduction. Extremely good for fighting neutral casters as you can build the item and fight them then dismantle the artifact to get the resources back.

[Sir Charles]

Ahhhh...the dreaded Druids/Druid Elders. You realize that they're quite EASY to beat, right? When you head into battle with them, leave EVERYONE on the sidelines except your Obsidian Gargoyles. Immune to lightning. So that means that the druids will either go for ranged attacks (which won't hurt very much at long distance when gargs choose defend) or stone spikes (again, nowhere NEAR as devastating as L.B.). Then just defend with the gargs, and wipe them out with spells. If you've got summon elemental, summon one on your first turn...the druids will focus their attacks on them thus lessening your garg-losses even further. But spells combined with the ballista will kill them off rather quickly with VERY minimal losses. Gargoyles DO serve a purpose. :O)

[SmokeyTheBear]

I considered using Gargoyles before, but being the stingy guy I am, I never recruit them and keep all the gold for other stuff. I feel that other than fighting Druids they would be useless except maybe as retaliation soaker/tank.



However, I have started using Golems against caster neutrals. It is really effective when I used Iron Golems with a creature artifact that gives +Defense. They always shoot my Golems instead of casting and the +Defense helps a lot. Although Golems need 3 turns to reach (maybe 2 with Windstrider boots), they have high Defense and I usually cast Weakness/Suffering on the enemy so I don't lose many of them. Too bad if I bring Gremlins they will ALWAYS target the Gremins.

[Glitch29]

It might be just under my nose, but is there a way to split stacks in this game? I knew how to in HoMMIV, but it eludes me in this newest game.

[Gaidal Cain]

Hold down shift and drag-and-drop as you'd normally do.

[MelloRed]

I think you are underestimating Arcane Omniscience. Yes it restricts growth, and you have to take some useless things, but it will let you cast at expert level, basically giving you the 9 casting skills free (you already have expert summon), which more then makes up for the few useless skills you do have. It's an investment, but it will pay off.



I also recommend using Jhora, as she can cast more frequently and has the correct starting skills.

[Zailash]

I don't see why you guys talk about endless repair. I have never been able to get my MG's to repair my golems more than once

[winterfate]

Welcome to the forums, Zailash!

That feature was removed in a later patch (1.3 I think). But, when the game first released, MG's could repair an infinite amount of times each battle.

[Zailash]

Thanks a lot winter



There's also something else I'd like to know. How do you cope with the randomness (can you say that?) of the perk/skill selection. I played a game as deleb (infernal), where I went all the way to lvl 20 without even getting the ballista... :\ it's kinda redundant to think of strats with that kind of randomness (there I said it again )

[VAMPSVSZOUNDS]

In fact,Academy,other than the Titans,should NOT be army-dependant.Summoning is extremely powerful with Academy.