P.S.: I know that gray fairies are banned, but if they were allowed, it would be an absolute cheat!
P.S.: I know that gray fairies are banned, but if they were allowed, it would be an absolute cheat!
New here? I'm Roha — want a quick tour?
Grindan and Masslow can take any standard map on the second week without any problems!
Upgraded fairies are better than any ravens at the start, and Grindan + Mass Slow on the second week will take any stronghold without casualties! So, let's argue about the Garrison. And the weaker players on upgraded fairies will run away and gather more resources.
P.S. I know that upgrading fairies is forbidden, but if it were allowed, it would be a huge advantage!
It will be very difficult to take the maximum - because even with a fortress upgrade from 1-7 + fairy upgrade on the first day = 4 Phoenixes, 4 Psychics, 10 Fire Elementals, 8 Earth Elementals, about 20 Air Elementals, and under 80 upgraded fairies, losses are inevitable - and in the case of Griffin morale and an attack on the fairies = a complete defeat.
Grindan's combat parameters will be weak... approximately 2-1-7-6
In the spellbook, Mass Slow and Bless, and Mass Stone Skin.
Phoenixes may lose one unit in the first attack, without killing half of the stack... fairies and psychics will attack without response - but with difficulty and most likely, together with the Air Elementals, they will finish off the stack of upgraded fairies - and then the gradual encirclement of the Elementalist's troops will not allow avoiding melee combat, in which neither the Phoenix nor other troops are suitable for retaliating, and only fairies and psychics will attack without response, and this is despite the fact that Griffins attack 2 times ;) , and still there will be at least 6-7 rounds... how many times do Griffins usually get morale in this case? ... I think at least 3 times - and here is the result...
P.S. Of course, if there are additional troops to the native ones, it will be easier - but only with native troops, if you take them, then either a couple of birds + some of the Elementals, or a large part of the monsters of ranks 2-5 will be defeated. (this is without Griffin morale, max 1, which is not critical)
In contrast, I will say that an Elf, taking into account the current rules (without fairy upgrade :)), takes the maximum with native troops on the second week without a rank 7 unit, which is more realistic.
And, in fact, Valeska has good chances - but the problem is having Mass Slow at the beginning of the second week, and the first turn (a single King Griffin or cavalry that has been in the stables).
Can you really max out with 4 birds, psionicists, and air units? Storms with Bless deal 160 damage already, plus psionicists + birds + grand fairy; you might need some healing (and the enemy probably has a couple of traps). The rest aren't needed. If morale doesn't fail in the first round, everything is fine.
With Mass Slow, you can take any castle's maximum, if the setup is normal.
Mass Slow gives the griffins exactly 84 rounds, which allows you to easily take the maximum castle without ravens, with a large margin. 4 psionicists and 100+ fairies (if their upgrade was allowed) are quite enough; it will probably take at least 15-20 minutes, but in principle, you can manage with fewer troops, say 4 psionicists, etc., but it will take even more time.

off-topic: Tower, Swamp, and Barb with mass slow take the max consulate from GS without any problems at all. Swamp can even take it without mass slow if Vistan is built up properly. It's harder for Tower since the main focus is on own-turn response nags, although by adding the cart and golem upgrade I think we also take it—though that's debatable. To be honest, I don't know Barb very well and haven't tried breaking maxes on the second week without mass slow, though I think Barb would break them if needed.
All IMHO, I won't test or conduct anything since there's no interest in it
84 rounds in a confined space? :)
1) One griffon that has lost morale = defeat, and how many rounds are you expecting before that happens?
2) If you only have fairies and psychics, you'll be taking 3-4 rounds to eliminate a single stack, and you'll need at least one round to retreat... with this setup, each un-upgraded griffon will cover an area of 12 cells (from edge to edge), and an upgraded one (which you'll be dealing with) will force you to retreat by the second round - and there's nowhere to retreat to... so 100+ fairies and 4 psychics won't win even with the "Spirit of Despair" artifact, and with even better stats.
84 rounds :smile40: ... let's hope we make it to Grindan's second casting ;)
a very decent option is to build 1-6 in the city — as they say, cheap and cheerful; buying at 121, and with proper battle skill, we can break almost anything we want :)

To be honest, I've kind of forgotten about morale. But if we're talking about it, without Haste, it might not work, but with Haste, it's quite easy. We gather all the fairies, one by one, in one corner (or in the places we need) and, using magic and psionic creatures along with the fairies (assuming they are upgraded), we try to quickly eliminate the griffon stack. By the way, who said there has to be an upgraded stack?
I've always been annoyed by people who, without being able to do something themselves, claim that it's impossible. Honestly, they only evoke laughter and pity. :)
I've always been annoyed by people who, without being able to do something, claim that it's impossible. Honestly, they only evoke laughter and pity. :)
At the very beginning of the discussion, we talked about a combined strategy with upgraded units.
Now, let's model the situation:
Round 1: Cast Mass Slow and Haste on the main forces, while the single units distract.
Round 2: Cast Haste on the Faeries, and together with the Psions, they move away from the upgraded stack... if the single units are still alive, they continue to distract.
Round 3: Cast Haste on the Psions and attack after the Slow, targeting the upgraded Griffons... in total, almost half are killed - 17 mana for 3 casts.
Round 4: We can't attack; we retreat, otherwise the remaining Griffons will kill the Faeries. Only the presence of Lightning, combined with the Faeries and Psions, can finish off the King Griffon, and this is assuming that the Griffon stack in the upper left corner is not near the King Griffon, which is likely.
Even with this approach, if the Griffons still manage to overwhelm the Faeries and Psions, it will take at least another 20+ rounds to defeat them in this way, and there won't be enough mana for Lightning or all the Haste spells.