jsv
Indept
Posts: 26
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Post by jsv on Mar 3, 2012 11:18:41 GMT -5
Well, I've failed on my first attempt. It's the first time I was beaten by the AI in the late game from what I thought was a winning position. I had income, I had wizards to support my armies, I had champions like this one: (left to right: Infernal Torch, Crown of Intimidation, Hydra Skin Armor, Amulet of Anti-Magic. )The Necromancer player was all but destroyed, the Witch seemed to be paralyzed by the loss of all her spellcasters and I considered the Demonologist to be a mere supplier of magical trinkets for my heroes. Then, a strong demon army appeared out of nowhere and obliterated my main force without any visible effort. While I was recovering from the debacle, the Witch had recovered too. And suddenly there were Creeping Dooms and Greater Demons everywhere. Even undead started to appear once again. I tried to reorganize my defenses but kept losing army after army... I surrendered after losing my starting citadel and all my wizards and libraries. Ok, next time I'm not going to toy with the AI.
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Post by yurgartisb on Mar 4, 2012 1:39:58 GMT -5
I am the first to succeed! It was easy enough where i felt like I was cheating unfortunately. I only faced witch summons which means that the necro and demon characters lost their primary summoners. (AI failure they don't prioritize recruiting more summoners). I spawned at 7 o clock and the other three opponents spawned at 1, 3, and 4. Like I said their early hero suicides made the challenge a bit too easy. Still I claim it
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jsv
Indept
Posts: 26
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Post by jsv on Mar 4, 2012 15:44:25 GMT -5
My second attempt was successful. This time I started near the center of the map, with the Demonologist not far from me to the northwest. The other two were located to the southeast of me. Not knowing that yet, I was expanding westwards and met the Demonologist pretty soon. Remembering my resolution not to farm demons for items this time, I eradicated the evil cult with one swift strike. The Demonologist's allies rushed to help him but it was to late. I turned around and returned to my castle, avoiding rather strong Necro army (2 abominations, 2 bone dragons, a tartarian spirit) and crushing the Witch (root monster, hydra, a lot of frogs). Then I proceeded further to the southeast, trying to finish the Witch. That was a real witch-hunt, as her tower was well-hidden in jungles. Still I found it before the Necromancer was back after retaking the Demonologist's citadel. After that it was I against the Necromancer on a huge map. A long and bloody war that I won by sheer numbers. The Baron himself died in an epic battle against the enemy's starting hero. He was then raised by victorious necromancers, then put to rest in other big battle. He was finally avenged by my assassins who slayed that Grand Necromancer in the third, decisive, big battle (involving, among other horrors, 4 tartarians). It was an interesting game and the AI played it well (for AI ). Unlike the first game, here the Witch had no problems hiring apprentices, I've killed at least 4 Witches and 1 Apprentice. She was unlucky with summons though, getting only hydras, root monsters and swamp ghosts. Nice creatures, but not when outnumbered by Baron's forces. A couple of creeping dooms would make a huge difference as I had no mages at all, but she got none. The Demonologist was unlucky to meet my that early in the game, when he had no income to summon anything half-decent. But the Necromancer was strong from the very beginning, despite being half insane. And he was hiring/summoning a lot of commanders too. Defeating him was harder than I expected.
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Post by ulius on Apr 10, 2012 14:10:15 GMT -5
I rolled over the AI on this challenge in 3.04. Maybe I know how to play Baron or it is that the Baron is way too strong right now, but it was an easy game. I started very strong and expanded faster than each of the AIs and my income was almost as high as that of the three allied AIs together. They all amassed troops, but fell to some mass-crossbowmen/towerguards/longbowmen stacks with 1-3 rows of meatshields. I was a bit lucky in that game, because the witch didn't get a Creeping Doom. I hadn't got a single wizard in the entire game. Furthermore the Demonologist made a Demon only stack. It is similar to the Troll King/Mum wandering alone, if played by the AI. They may be strong alone, but on the other hand they're too valuable and must be protected / supported. The Necromancer AI made a crucial mistake too (and I've seen that often). It didn't buy enough archers / crossbowmen. I killed a stack of 200 soulless / longdead with 60 standard units and lost about 10 spearmen. It even attacked me in a guard tower with those units (though soulless do 1-2 damage). It also had an abomination and 100 undead that were not supported by archers/crossbowmen. That made that stack a rather easy target. The Witch was killed by me early because the AI didn't bother to protect its main spellcasters. After that only standard units came and she wasn't able to gather funghi anymore. After all it was a quick and fun game
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