Again: how did you do it Maciek???

[cjlee]

https://www.celestialheavens.com/show_b ... php?id=657

I'm referring to this incredible battle you have on pIcture of the day. It looks like the 5th (final) mission of the Orc campaign in Tribes of the East. Gotai has hired 7x2 ghosts from his necro castle to fight Alaric's pretty big army.

I look at this setup and I think: damn well impossible! (At least for me). I have always played Orcs by stirring them up to greater and greater rages, pressing the attack with divine guidance, orc chieftains, words of the chief and haste.

HOw can you beat Alaric with that kind of army? Gotai has no 'raise dead' spell or summoning spells, so he can't do anything to preserve his army of 7 ghost stacks. He has no way to whip up his ballista, so the turns don't come quickly. And there is no way GOtai can wipe out the enemy in just a few turns - even a super ballista can't kill more than 20 Seraphs per turn and the screenshot isn't showing a super ballista.

Maciek, please teach us!

[Maciek]

Could somebody please convert this replay to youtube?

This is indeed the last mission of Stronghold campaign. You probably wouldn't find this battle hard if you were training with Ballistas with all your heroes for the whole mission 3, like I did while waiting to accumulate 300 Chiefs. I think I read Maltz's walkthroughs before I even bought the game, because they're fun.

Gotai has no 'raise dead' spell or summoning spells, so he can't do anything to preserve his army of 7 ghost stacks.

Wrong: Fear My Roar warcry, Last Stand perk, Incorporeality of Spectres, Tent, stupid Seraphs. Actually, my favourite moment in this battle comes when the enemy stack of Seraphs with some 3 mana left attacks a stack of 1 Spectre. Miss! And suddenly there are 2 Spectres in that stack.

He has no way to whip up his ballista, so the turns don't come quickly.

Not really. I mean, sure, he can't whip the Ballista, but he has the Ring+Staff, uses Fear My Roar and, for some reason, enemy melee stacks sometimes don't attack(I don't know why they sometimes attacked and sometimes not). Seraphs and Zealots also waste some turns casting spells.

even a super ballista can't kill more than 20 Seraphs per turn and the screenshot isn't showing a super ballista.

The battle took place before 3.1. This particular triple flaming Ballista can kill 11 Seraphs with one lucky shot and 5-6 otherwise, provided they are not protected with Deflect Missle. If that's not a super ballista, I don't know what is.
Alaric has only 1 Spellpower thanks to Gotai's Might over Magic and high Spellpower. Alaric's Empathy works in my favour, because he can burn his mana absurdly fast recasting mass spells over and over again. Gotai's Ballista sometimes waited to avoid shooting when Deflect Missle was on.

Gotai has hired 7x2 ghosts from his necro castle

I have a strange impression that not all of them were hired as Ghosts/Spectres...

Btw. I've lost 5 Spectres in this Battle.

[cjlee]

This is such an awesome game with such possibilities! Maciek, I've played for years and I still am learning new things!

I am really very surprised that you chose to use Last Stand. That means you went Defense for Gotai (a rare thing for orc players). Based on what you said, doesn't that mean you went leadership-luck-war machines-attack-defense?

I can't imagine playing any hero without logistics (a damn pain on this huge final map). Last Stand also delays the activation of additional rage points whenever an orc stack is killed, so I would never have thought of getting Last Stand (unless I wanted a ballista strategy to begin with - but to go ballistas on my main hero seems too vulnerable a strategy).

Maciek, do you think your strategy can survive a human player? I have never tried playing Gotai's campaign using a super ballista before - does this mean you won the Orc campaign with this strategy on the hardest difficulty?

[Maciek]

Based on what you said, doesn't that mean you went leadership-luck-war machines-attack-defense?

No. When Gotai met Alaric, he was level 27 and had the following skills(In TotE campaigns a Memory Mentor hides behind almost every corner):
Basic Blood Rage->Might over Magic
Expert Shout->Shout Training->Mighty Shout->Distract
Expert Logistics->Pathfinding->Warpath->Snatch
Expert Attack->Battle Frenzy; Archery->Flaming Arrows
Expert Warmachines->First Aid; Ballista->Triple Ballista
Expert Defense->Evasion->Last Stand; Protection
Luck and morale came from map locations and artifacts.

Last Stand also delays the activation of additional rage points whenever an orc stack is killed

Unless you don't use any orc stacks (Wyverns can't have rage)

I have never tried playing Gotai's campaign using a super ballista before - does this mean you won the Orc campaign with this strategy on the hardest difficulty?

Hardest difficulty - yes, but on 3.0. Actually, I only won map 5 using Gotai's Ballista, but I also used other Ballistas throughout the campaign.
When I loaded a save from late mission 3, I saw that I had 7 Barbarians(you can't hire other hero classes there), all of them with a Triple Flaming Ballista and most of them with Last Stand. They were hit&running some large stacks while I was waiting to accumulate 300 Chiefs plus some Cyclopses to try them out on the last remaining enemy castle. Gotai forgot Mentoring at the end of mission 3.
Kujin, on the other hand, didm't touch Warmachines until late mission 4, when paying a Mentor to get the Ultimate. Her sidekick, Toulain, used a Triple Flaming Ballista a lot in mission 2, though.

Maciek, do you think your strategy can survive a human player?

You must be joking.