Gates of Kyros on challenging

[euramer]

After a first try of Empire Aflame without ennemies scaling where I managed to finish the campaign (I enjoyed it very much, thank you), I have tried a more difficult approach with Scaling ON and found myself at the Gate of Kyros without Filos and with a pitiful one aerial (I was not allowed to recrute more Pegasus or Harpies) against something like 15 Night Mares & Night Mares Acolytes...I managed to kill a few, but since at ground level it was already a tight affair, keeping this setting was equivalent to Game over!

[WarHomer]

I play on legendary Iron maiden with scaling on and the trick is to have atleast 5-6 archer units (I aim for 2 firearchers as they also melt undead ground units), a few strong melee units (preferably with break charge ability to defend against Filos´ heavy knights) and some undead cannon fodder and staying in the north behind Marcras forces until you can push down into one of the cities in the center and get entrenched.

I usually go for the city to the right of the library (as this earns me some income also) and with experience I go for it straight away.

When things play out well the enemy finish off Marcras forces and take the city with the library, which I then "liberate" and thereby earns even more income. It can be a real moneymaker mission - like the one where you hunt down Filos - when things play out well.

Weak units I keep safely far in the rear and my pegasus - eventhough always upgraded to Pegasus Rider - I always keep above some of my own archers for mutual support.

[euramer]

Thank you very much for tips, I am probably too soft hearted to leave Princess Macra army without some support from my troops, but the idea is tempting.
In my retry, I am giving to a witch in my army all available power, with the objective of summoning 4 Armored Pegasus, I don't know yet if it will be sufficient.
I am only an average general.

[euramer]

I have not found the right balance of force and strategy yet, at run 39/45 the situation is already strongly compromised: Mara is dead without having the time to use her Health potion, her army is reduced to a few mostly wounded units. My army is feeling the strain, covered in part by Nightmares, including 4 nearly full health Reapers which accounted for 2 of my archers (the combination of Acolyte and Reaper is deadly for most units, even armored). I have made it a top priority and have killed 2 reapers, but with 4 left it is not sufficient. I had started the game with 8 archers of which 3 armored plus two scorpio, Fire archers can't be had at this stage of the game. On the aerial side I have 2 Armored Pegasi and one Riders.

[impossible]

the empire is all about fire archers, they are ridiculously OP. you can get tons of liquid mana by destroying mana pools with moiras skill and use those ALL to upgrade to fire archers. apart from those all you need is legionnaries or phalanxes and if you got a spear maiden volunteer from a camp a shield maiden.

in that particular scenario go for the city, take the true path temple asap (let one of the enemy units capture from the reds) then you can spam skeletons amd explode them right in the face of the motherf*er. also use the transmute life skill on all badly damaged red units, they give mana to make skeleton bombs.

also make a general for that scenario, he can restore the morale of your troops when those retarded allied units are killed.

[euramer]

Thank you again for the tips, on my 4th try (nothing to be glorious) I did find my way: Keep the army in one block and follow the sound of the horn...

[impossible]

update: wait until you get to the mission scarlet mountains MUCH further into the campaign, it is impossible to do without heavy losses. the enemy attacks with about a dozen harpies (including 2x the same hero), 3-4 blue beasts, nightmare reapers, nightmare acolytes all at once.

it is the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen in a strategy game (hard difficulty).

[OBG_primetide]

That does not sound right - 2 identical heroes and that many aerial units. We have adjusted the spawn zones to make them less prone to spawning high-end aerials and the next patch should alleviate that.

[sakura006]

The skeleton explosion deals physical damages to both ground and aerial units, and it is a free action that only costs 2 mana. Although it is not effective against undead units as all undead units only receive 50% physical damage. But it works pretty well on enemy aerial units. In challenging difficulty, 3 skeleton infantries would be enough to kill all surrounding aerial units. Your tactics is simple. Use one vulnerable ground unit as a bait, and then just move your skeletons under enemy aerial units. It will not be too hard as aerial units do not have ZOC on ground units. Then you just spam the nuclear button and watch the firecracker. You may need a mana elixir for that.