Hi,

I've read on many occasions that the game is quite difficult, so I decided to start a game on Hard for some challenge. However, I am now level 8 paladin with most of the starting continent cleared up and I havened really encountered any difficulties yet. Granted, almost all money I gain goes to getting new troops, but I'm not even playing very conservatively.

So my question is, should I restart on impossible right now or am I still in the introductory phase and the game will get seriously difficult very soon?

Some of the difficulty comes from the randomness (fighting against armies that are hard to counter with your own troops, getting artifacts that don't supplement your character, etc). Also most people that want to have a more challenging experience go for the impossible / hard no loss game. Otherwise the game ain't particularly hard, even on higher difficulties, unless you're very unlucky with artifact and enemy spawns.

If you're needing to constantly replenish troops due to losses on just the first continent then you definitely shouldn't up the difficulty. You'll also see your first difficulty spike when you go to the next area of the game (Islands of Freedom)- generally whenever you go to a new area you'll see a difficulty spike, plus aside from a few particular strong mobs the first continent is generally a cakewalk meant to ease you into the game. Also, unless you intentionally take on an enemy that's way too strong for you you won't typically ever be defeated outright, but rather slowly hemorrhage gold replacing troops from losses until you find yourself in the position of no longer being able to fully replenish your army due to a lack of gold (which is basically game over). Now, if you get through the islands of freedom stomping on everything while taking no losses, then you've got a pretty good tactical mind and may want to restart on impossible, but otherwise just leave the difficulty where it is.

Thanks for the answers. I have now put a few hours into Islands of Freedom and the mobs certainly are more difficult, but I still seem to come out on top. Perhaps because of cheap tactis (Royal Snakes, Cursed Ghosts, trap), so the luck might change later on. There is still challenge for me, though, so I guess I'll keep the difficulty for now.

As for no loss games, that seems like an exercise in frustration to me, but perhaps it's only because I don't know the correct tactics.

Cheers.

Final battle is an absolute bitch (at least it was for a mage). Be prepared to have to step it up big time towards the end.

Yeah, the final battle was such a departure from all the other battles up to that point that it catches almost everyone by surprise. Up to then many of the most effective tactics involve slowing the enemy down or incapacitating them while ranged units and fast melee units pick them off. In contrast the last battle turns into an out and out slug-fest on the very first turn, and without an army that's designed for that it can be quite tough.

I was lucky enough to find the Armageddon spell in Demonis. It made the final battle incredibly easy as a mage.

I have now cleared most of the normal Elven lands and have cash for about 2-3 full armies, so I guess hard was a bit too easy for me. On the other hand, it's still not too easy because it's getting quite easy to lose a lot of troops what with getting 2000 damage per hit.

But just for anyone wondering the same as I was in the first areas: perhaps try on a harder difficulty before going further.

Oh and Dryads... Geez!

You're coming up on one of the tougher bosses (Karador), so see how well you fare against him. The next area (Demonis) can also be a spike in difficulty, as many of the demon abilities are quite annoying, plus you'll be seeing a lot more black and red dragons in enemy armies. After that the biggest challenge left will be the final boss, which can also be a major difficulty spike, depending on your army composition and preferred tactics.

Yeah, and Dryads are seriously overpowered, at least if the enemy army has a lot of lvl 1-3 units. I typically use them to cheese my way through the fight with the stronger version of myself with no losses.

Thanks for the heads up. I went and took a look at Karador and indeed, that man is a killer. This was definitely the point the game got difficult. Luckily I still have stuff to explore so hopefully I'll manage him when I finally come back. If not, well at least it was fun. : )

Demonesses indeed have that nasty tactics-screwing switch places -ability, and Imps have the annoying (and quite damaging) fireball. Other than those the demons should be okay. The AI never seems capable enough to use the Demon's summoning talent, and I haven't yet met any Arch Demons.

Yeah, it's mainly the demonesses and imps that make fighting demons annoying (multiple stacks of demonesses can really put a kink in your tactics if you can't quickly disable them). Demons are mainly just heavy hitters (especially against lower-level units), while Arch Demons are just even heavier hitters than can teleport across the field to your archers on the very first turn. Lvl 3 Magic Shackles tends to be an excellent spell for dealing with demon armies, as it can completely shut down the annoying special abilities of every demon unit in one shot.

Well, I beat Karador. I was really just around the neighborhood after a failed attempt against Nehty and decided to see what happens. Guess I got lucky. Started with Black Hole that killed Bone dragons, which allowed me to use my Elves and Evil Beholders as ranged units. Used Ents, Unicorns and Griffins. Ents were great here because of their durability. I despaired a little when the troops were getting low and the crystal resurrected 64 Black Knights, but it went well after all.

At least three turns also went with Karador hypnotizing my Griffins and me dispeling that on the next turn, so luck was definitely on my side this time. Yeah, the AI is umm... Sometimes it looks like it's doing something pretty smart, but then based on multiple other occasions it seems just luck at play.

The AI is kind of odd, in that the different unit sets and different spells available to enemy leaders create situations where sometimes a combination can end up being rather clever and a major pain to fight, and other times can seem like a braindead pushover. At least it keeps things rather interesting, rather than having enemies just hit you with the same tactic time after time.

Yeah, I guess the game might be too difficult (or more interesting to some) if the AI used even basic things like concentrated fire, leaving your Glot's Armored dude to their own devices and so on.

Thanks for the help!

Kings Bounty The legend is difficult on impossible if you play with a mage very late in the game if you do not want to loose any units against armys which have many black dragons since they are magic immune. Also the difficulty depends on what artifacts you get. But if you play Kings bounty TL on impossible it should be challenging enough. I usually do not loose any units in a battle. Especially when you have the last rage spiritis you can form up an indefinite number of resurrection with fear + rage drain+ the mana rage ability from the ice queen.