I can do the first mission against the geomancer and his minions fairly reliably. Or more truthfully, I typically just restart if I'm not able to get the door out my way immediately. If the door gets (re)moved, my adventurers get out the entrance atrium without too much trouble, and it's pretty much a guaranteed win. Die Hard (four priests in a cottage) is a different story though: I've tried three times using all my replays on this level and have not managed it. Sometimes I get close, just one VP away (typically when one or more goblin shamans come too close while I have attacks available), other times it's a complete slaughter. What tactics do people use to win this reliably? I saw at least one comment saying how it was someone's favourite of all the MM missions, so it's got to be reliably winnable, right? To give a quick overview of what I've been doing I've tried two deployments, one with the priests staying where they are and then moving into the VP spaces once a door goes down, and one where one of the two priests facing off against the ogre moves to the back door, which is otherwise undefended. I generally use heals on the doors to keep them up as long as possible using heals (and in theory, buffs, but defensive buffs never seem to show up in my draws at that stage), but as they only have 10 health and the goblins can hit for that, or almost that, it doesn't take too long. I also tried hunting down the shamans one time and that was hilariously disastrous. Suggestions? Criticisms? Edit: I just played through the whole of Mauve Manticore #2 in 30 minutes, beating it on my first ever try. That really does make me think I am missing something in this one.
You don't need to kill many of them to complete the adventure. So quite good strategy is just to burst through one of the doors with all of your characters and smash the opposition in one of the corners. The others wont have enough time to come to help. Then you need to turn back and stand for a while killing few additional enemies to finish the battle by VP gain. Remember to buff the priest with the most attack cards. The one of the most simple solutions is to go against the ogre with all your characters. Most probably during the process the ogre will kill his goblin mage by his splash attacks. This gives you 4 VP points. Then you need just to turn back and kill two other goblins (or three can't remember). Maybe one will come to your right flank. You can use push allies or other such type cards to move your doors to slow down goblins. Also remember that most of the demonic boosts cards can also deal dmg to enemies and in certain situations it is useful to finish them off that way.
I typically play a kind of delaying action, replacing doors w/ the tankiest of the available priests and taking the rest on in a kind of slow retreating action. The two who start near the ogre's door are actually pretty good at fighting it from behind door cover, with their stabs. I usually let them take the unguarded door at the top of the map without much contest - it's not worth it to fight over it. Make sure to probe the berserkers early for raging strikes, and focus your damage as much as possible. Also, the AI will waste a lot of moves on meaningless repositioning, and taking advantage of that to back off just behind the VPs can be really helpful - that way only on goblin can step into the vp at a time, which really helps you not get overwhelmed. There are a bunch of ways of doing it, though, so experiment and see what works for you!
I see. I tried Bykuzplastiku's method, but by the time I'd moved two of my priests to the doors bottom left (near the berserkers), the berserkers had blocked off the other side of the doorway, so I never came close to "bursting out". In addition, every *other* door in the cottage was knocked down long before the first turn finished, though I did get the VP for possession on that turn. On the other hand, having my priests bunched up, while making them comparatively vulnerable to chops, meant they could always heal and buff each other, as well as focus attacks on damaged opponents much more efficiently. Additionally, and I think this was reasonably lucky, the AI kept two goblins on the door spaces in front of the ogre at all times, so the ogre never joined the fight after knocking doors down. Sadly, he didn't kill anyone else after splatting his handler as the shamans kept healing them. Before, my guys were split up and trying to hold possession of the victory locations, but this meant they weren't able to support each other well, quickly became surrounded, and couldn't focus attacks to make kills. So, yes; I'll certainly have to try this again, but perfectly doable. Thanks for the advice! Hahah, and then I used all my replays messing around on the following level, though taking a bathroom break without noticing that there was a timer counting down was a contributing factor for that. Edit: Decided to restart from the beginning and while the first chamber was a bit more of a challenge than usual; casting multiple lava pools on one turn and then multiple blooming grounds the following turn tends to make things hideously painful for *everyone*. Stupid AI. Sailed through Die Hard without a retry this time around, too. While I'm sure that the RNG will mess me up now and again, I believe I've got the hang of it.
I think i do not get you . Your starting position is with 2 characters right next to the door with the ogre, third is very close (bottom) and the only one far away is the dwarf. First move you play 'move other' card by human or just dwarf 'running' across the room. Most of the cases you will be able to get all 4 characters against the ogre. Just 'run' with the dwarf and get away wit the bottom priest after the first berserker step into your attacking range. Sometimes the dwarf can be cached up by goblins but he is tough dud, can slowly pull back, can be supported and healed. He will slow down the progress of the goblins while the rest will kill the ogre, and he most probably will kill one of the enemies. Just don't waste cards on healing doors or attacking other goblins till the ogre and his mage is down. It always works for me
I kinda took your advice as a general "break out in one particular direction and kill things there" rather than specifically "go for the ogre", but I see that you did mean exactly that. With Mindless Battlerage in play, the ogre tends to kill his attendant shaman anyway once the doors and other goblins start falling. In any case, I seem to have got the knack of the scenario well enough; my biggest mistake was always that I let my priests get separated trying to hold on to the VPs, and they couldn't fully support each other or make (m)any kills. As stated; it seems there are a bunch of ways to do it. What's funny is that I think I'm now able to win this scenario more consistently than the first one. Thanks for the advice!
I believe now we got the same feeling about m#1. In the first battle if the geomacer put a stone barrage and you don't have particular cards to delay/slide off ogre and get through the door you can loose one or two characters. It is still possible to deal with the rest of the group with one but usually it is much difficult then the second map. I must admit that i have tried the second battle few times and sometimes i overdo it against the ogre and get killed... just being over-cocky.
Yep, Rockfall is a nasty card to deal with in that initial confined space. I'd also say that the third scenario would probably be horribly difficult for anyone who didn't know about the option to speed up animations hugely in the options menu. I think you'd need to be pretty lucky to win in the time limit given on the game's default animation speed. Or maybe I'm just getting slow in my old age?
I bundle up on Die Hard, in a T-shape near the S and W doors. It can go wrong if you're unlucky, but generally the priests can help each other. They only have to stay alive and kill a certain number of the enemy. It would be harder if the enemy fled more effectively when badly injured .
