The Cultist → The Betrayal

[GrimHunter]

I won this map without even going underground (v1.0). With focus first on logistics and those boots Gothric never comes close enough. The Portal is a good way to escape too.

Somehow I managed once to get the Scurubbi joining, if I just knew how.. :-)

[Grail Quest]

I skipped the Boots guarded by the Monks because it was simply too costly to take. Later in the surface map, however, there were Boots of the Open Road in the corridor with the Sylvan Military Outpost.

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When you and Godric are separated by a terrain feature, sometimes you can go one way and he will go the other because the AI apparently calculated that that was the shorter route. This means you can occasionally get him to clear some stacks for you, like a large neutral stack of hunters guarding a permanent bonus.

There are two permanent bonuses on the surface map, and especially if you've cleared Rutger, you can (with lots of reloads) play cat and mouse with Godric until you pick them both up before heading underground. Meanwhile, you can continue to recruit hunters and horned demons.

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With regard to Tactics, I thought about what that extra space would do, and eventually I declined. If I go for gating, I'd spend the first turn gating anyway, meaning the enemy walkers would be coming to me. Also, your cerebus and hell chargers can usually hit large creatures without that extra tile on the first turn (the damned AI did that to me sooo many times in The Queen). Very few creatures have higher initiative to strike you first.
Edited on Mon, Jul 23 2007, 10:21 by Grail Quest

[Grail Quest]

The Phantom Forces scroll appears to be gone, replaced by Frenzy. :-( Or, it's a random spell?

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The Necklace of the Lion can be a nice bonus if you don't develop Leadership. It allows you to mix troops without too severe a penalty in Morale. There are Inferno, Haven, and Sylvan dwellings, so in this mission anyway, you can have at least one stack of something else and still have things even out.

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How can I make the succubus mistresses join me? They wouldn't, and before I could assemble a larger army to try again on a reload, Godric cleared that stack.
Edited on Fri, Aug 03 2007, 12:34 by Grail Quest

[Nebs]

On 1.6 blue gets neverending turn when Godric visits flag for morale. Damn idiots at Nival.

[Nebs]

Correction, seems it's not the flag problem, but every time I enter sanctuary. Way to go Nival.

[Ceres]

Anybody knows a good build for Agrael?

[Guarderman]

try to get hellfire with all perks and mark of the damned with all perks and searing fire. I did that, so bad that this is the only campaign with Agreal

[Ceres]

Thank you! I thought nobody will care to answer my question. The Inferno Campaign is the hardest campaign for me. And now I'm going to repeat it again. I was just thinking if I made Agrael with the right build it will lessen the load.

[mysticc]

How do you attack the priests at the very beginning and not losing anything or only lose useless imps?

[VAMPSVSZOUNDS]

@mysticc:you don't need to;I won the scenario last night even though Godric had basic logistics and pathfinding,and without the boots.

[ShadowLiberal]

The hell chargers aren't worth it for a few reasons.



1) You only get 3 of them, and no more. Hell Chargers are fast and fragile, so they'll die easily, and they'll never be a powerful group



2) Cerberus on the other hand you can find quite a few of on the map, plus you can upgrade your hounds to give you well over 150 at the end of the map. And Cerberus have the no retaliation ability, and thee headed attack, much better then the Hell Charger.



As for how to win this mission, some advise.



1) Get the boots guarded by the priests, even on Heroic, it's worth the losses. If you do things right you can suffer loses mainly in just your imps, which aren't too useful anyway. If you don't get the boots then Godric will give you absolute hell for the rest of the mission.



2) When you get to the fork in the road, go east, and fight past the blade dancers, to find some Cerberus reinforcements.



3) Next head south, and a bit to the east when you hit a wall of trees. There's some hell hounds over there.



4) Now head west, grab the imps by the church and then hide inside if Godric is near.



5) Once it's safe, go where you found the imps and head southwest, to get some horned demons, and to hire some more.



After this the rest of the mission should be easy, just make sure to get the two stat boosters before going underground. And you can win the final boss fight here even if you only have throngs of tier 2 and 3 creatures left.

[Felix Krull]

The priests are much about luck. First time I tried, I got 18 priests (seven of them inquisitors) in three stacks and was absolutely savaged. After a few tries, I had 15 priests in one stack, no inqusitors and paid a toll of 20 imps an ten dogs - and I figure I could've done better if I'd tried out a few opening moves, but I'd forgotten to save before starting combat.

[Sunlover]

Just some small notes...re: the priests guarding the Boots in the starting day [this was on Hard, v1.06] - they foolishly seem to attack whatever group is closest to them. I started this scenario taking the Cerberi group and rushed forward with them vs a single stack of Priests. As a result my Cerbs got pummeled down to 12 or so. I disliked that, so I restarted and took the Hell Chargers this time - got the 3-stack of 2 stacks Priests and 1 stack Inquisitors. I charged forward with the Hell Chargers and the Familiars, and just trotted the Cerberi about 40% of the "field length" so they could charge forward next turn. My losses were much fewer this time; I lost 1 charger, a little more than half the Familiars, but very few Cerberi. That's great because they're going to be the primary non-ranged force you use in this scenario.



So far on this run, I have Expert Logistics/Pathfinding, Expert Gating, and amazingly, I got blessed with Light Magic again - got Expert Light Magic, all by the time I finish the 1st scenario. Oh, and Basic Destruction Magic. Can't forget who Agrael is, after all. If I can get blessed with Dark Magic, I will consider my life (as far as this run goes) complete.

[Felix Krull]

Now I played this again. I split my imps in three stacks and gated in beside the priests. The priests don't attacking the gated imps, rather than advancing towards your end line, so hold back the real army, while the pit lord cast vulnerability and the gated imps harass the priests and, eventually, attack them to suck up the retaliation. With a bit of nimble maneuvering, you should loose only the imps that the priests target in their first salvo.



The rest should be a walk in the park, especially if you get advanced logistics.

[Wheeler Dealer]

The Betrayal, Heroic

Took the Cerebi. Happy with my choice.

Week 1, defeated the priests to get the Boots.

Week 2, went underground and Godric followed, forcing me into a premature battle with Tan. Reload, a little baiting allowed me to get past him headed back to the surface.

If this is the Godric I built, he has Expert Logistics, ugh! Defeated Rutger.

Week 3, Godric right on my heels. Agreal Reached L10.

Week 4 Lots of cat and mouse while I collected artifacts and troops. Never had to use a sanctuary but did reload a lot when I mis guessed how far Godric could move.

Week 6, Reached the Hill Fort with just enough gold (about 12K) to upgrade all but my Succubae. The final battle wasn't much of a problem this time.

Won @2,2,2.

[Wheeler Dealer]

I attempted to reach the Ultimate Demon Skill, futile.

Leadership will be very handy since you will often be leading Sylvan or mixed troops. I developed War Machine skills which was handy but totally useless in the final scenario. Dark Magic was great, Puppet Master, Blindness, Frenzy and Mass Slow were great. Never got Confusion but that would have been great as well.