hall of the astral song

how do I beat this map I know that the shadow attacks in a cross at North South East and West and the mote is at Ne Se Sw Nw, but in the first move they hit me every time. Doing eight damage each nothing I have seems to block it either. I have tried it nine times now. I have a Mage, Warrior, and Priest I have beaten the first mission but the second mission I just can't seem to do anything.

 

You can find suggestions from these threads:
https://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/return-to-the-astral-shrine-help.3796/
http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/how-do-you-beat-return-to-the-astral-shrine.3273/

Whirlwinds could help get the enemies off the victory points and out of line of sight. Spellthwart Shield is good protection from the magic hits (or other items with Missile Block). Wall and smoke spells prevent the enemies from targeting you.

 

o thanks I beat it, I got super lucky. I looked for threads in here before I made this I didn't see those two.

 

Gratz! Yeah, it would probably be a good idea to move those threads into this subforum. @Pengw1n?

 

Thanks, Jon!

 

Ya thanks Jon! and thanks for showing them to me Jarmo!

 

Gary wins in 6 turns.

His monsters never need to move, as the rooks cover all the victory points. You have to move in order to occupy VPs, and get close enough to do meaningful damage.

The rooks armor only fails against their own powers, never the player's attacks, in my experience.

There are 5 VPs, 5 monsters, and only 3 of you (in single player). Since you have to go to him to win, he never needs to occupy more than 3 VPs to get the star for the round.

It's not just that it's hard, it's that it is mathematically ridiculous, in its current state, for a player to win.

If you have to have specific cards, and there's one specific way to beat an adventure, that's bad design.

 

You might want to consider playing some cards in this time frame.

They make cards to remove armor, and cards that ignore armor. Also, while it may be your personal experience that the armor tends to do better against your attacks than monsters', it really doesn't.

Also, because his rooks don't have to move doesn't mean they don't. Ir's not like you're playing a win at all costs member of the Multiplayer ranks.

I'm familiar with irrational, imaginary, and unsolvable as they apply to math. Pray tell, what is the mathematical definition if "ridiculous"?

Agreed. Glad they don't do things that way.

 

Pretty sure they don't target. Hence, auto-block is useful.
There's multiple ways to beat the Astral guys. You can sunder/melt armor off of them, use terrain tiles, push/slide them, use Penetrating attacks...
Adapting to foes is a big part of this game.

 

Now, see, that's just not helpful, particularly when a reasonable person could infer from my previous post that I was already frustrated. I mean, I can see how it might be reasonable feedback at lower levels, but we're talking about a level 14 dungeon. Obviously we're all playing cards as best we know how by now.

This seems like good feedback, but it's not. It would be great for anyone complaining about low-level dungeons, but by the time we're at a level 14, any player probably already knows this. I mean, I would hope so. I certainly do. I'm using such cards.

Well, here I have to hang my head and be sheepish. Very next time I tried, their armor failed a lot. I apologize for my original comment, which was born of frustration.

True, they do move. The issue is not that they don't, but rather that they don't have to. The range of their attacks, combined with the design of the map, means that they can sit on VPs and destroy the player. Up until about this point in the campaign, enemies (for the most part) have to move to reach you. If this is a feature of play, it should be introduced sooner (with appropriate adjustments for level), so players know to build their decks with the possibility of long range attacks (both for the player, and requiring the player to defend against).

I can't imagine how horrifically punishing this adventure is for players who like dwarves.

And yes, I know a player can leave a dungeon and purchase new cards. That means starting a dungeon over from scratch, which does not reduce frustration or increase enjoyment of the game. I've done it, but only as a final act of desperation.

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize we required strict terminology use. I doubt any of us really wants to do that.

If you'd rather make snarky remarks than constructive ones, that's your right. I think I'll go try to find some auto-block cards and see if I can do any better on my own.

 

Perfect! They do help a lot. Since you're running a priest, I'd suggest Nimbus, if you have any items with it. If you're lucky enough to have the boots with Force Field, use them, but you may not have found any yet.
From my personal experiences, enemies don't tend to like standing on terrain such as acid or lava, and Acid can double as armor removal. Maybe your mage could benefit from that?
As far as warrior goes, obviously auto-block would be great, but some decent armor such as items with heavy armor, etc. would be useful. Either use Sundering Strike or Penetrating attacks to get through the armor.

 

I will admit the tone of my comments was not particularly constructive, and that was a bad job by me. However, implying Gary was winning in six turns implies you're not doing a whole lot there. I've known some pretty aggressive people on the pass button, which is often an excellent strategy, although not in this case.

Excellent. You're a step ahead of me, then, I rarely if ever had used them by that point.

We've all been there, I suspect, and you're a better man than most for admitting it.

The imps from demon portals feature similar range, although not with anywhere near the bulk of the astrals. However, the astral's key drawback is the straight lines they have to operate with. Step attacks can ruin their day, and I recommend never using your last move on a character without a rather compelling reason. If you almost never have more than one move a turn, that probably isn't ideal for this map. Don't be afraid to use surging shield block or thick hide armor, for example, to get out of that straight line.

Seth's tips have all been pretty much on point, and I don't blame you if you'd prefer to deal with him. But there are far toughet modules than this in Cardhuntria, and without actually seeing how you play, advising can be difficult.

I hope you have much success!

Edit - I forgot to mention also, I found gusts and/or winds of war tremendously handy here as well, especially if using terrain. Don't forget you can target yourself with them too!

 

The Astral modules have changed dramatically since the original post. (We also had Wall Of Stone back then, which blocked everything.) The map for Hall of the Astral Song has changed little, if any, but the monsters have. Enchanted Mail replaced Crude Plates, they have more blasts, and now have Charge and Brutal Charge instead of just Shuffle. Guardians of Mist have gone from strictly magic to strictly melee. This is to say that the posts linked above aren't up to date, but their strategy of positioning and patience still works. Just remember that many players have beaten this module with a wide variety of builds, and you can too when you get the hang of it.

Positioning: It's important to have enough movement. Step attacks and team moves help a lot, even team shuffles. Elvish Scamper is awesome if you're running elves.
Pay attention to where the rooks or bishop might move with their charges, and try to position yourself to ensure they can't fork (in the chess sense) two or more of your characters.
You will often only need enough movement to get off the orthogonal or diagonal. Having an additional move to enable you to run away is best, but isn't always possible. (At least for me. I'm probably too impatient.)
Try to avoid ending your turn in a position where you'd be vulnerable to an opening blast.
Movement boosts, such as Quickness Aura and especially Energizing Move, are useful for getting out of a tight spot or into attack position. I usually use them on my dwarves, and often on my humans and elves.
You probably already knew all this, but I wrote it anyway. These threads hang around a long time, and someone might find it useful.

Nimbus: As @seth arue said, Impenetrable Nimbus can work really well here. The AI doesn't recognize it, and will usually keep attacking until its attacks are exhausted. One method is to nimbus an attacking character, which works pretty well. My preferred method is to nimbus the priest, stand at the convergence of LOS for the rooks and bishop, draw all their attacks, then move my warriors in and beat the stuffing out of them. It's kind of important to remember the line about, "Try to avoid ending your turn in a position where you'd be vulnerable to an opening blast," if you use this method, because it's very easy to leave characters vulnerable. Particularly if your target has an extra move you didn't anticipate.

Whirlwind Enemies: This spell can destroy your foe's LOS, get them off the VPs, and cause them to exhaust their movement. It can work very well in conjunction with Volcano. If you don't have Volcano yet, acid or lava terrain also work quite well. (Blister Stones are cheap and available.)

Terrain Attachments were lightly discussed in the preceding paragraph, and I decided to give them a heading here. They can be a little tricky to use sometimes, but when they work, they work well.

Control Spells: As @seth arue mentioned, these are also very useful here.

Armor Removal: The astral beasties now have very good armor, so armor removal is worth bringing along if you have it. If not, penetrating attacks also work. I usually use Sundering Strikes and high damage attacks with all the buffs I can muster, which also works pretty well.

I hope you found at least some of this useful. Good luck, and good hunting!

Edit:

Something I didn't realize until after I finished the campaign is that you can "Return To Map", use the shops in multiplayer, and return to the dungeon without losing your progress.

 

@Sir Veza *slow clap* thanks for hitting all the points I forgot. (I'm still a bit new, compared, and typing this on my phone so )

 

Considering Sir Veza is the premier authority on single player farming in all of Cardhuntria, we're all a bit new comparatively, no matter how long we might have had an account.

 

Only since it released on Steam....

 

Another strat that's not showing when I CTRL-Fed it is a warrior running Cushioning Armor who gets in-between the chess pieces and lets them tear each other to shreds while he takes 5 damage from each hit (or 3 of he can draw reliable mail as well). Then, all you need is armour removal and maybe a soothing darkness to keep him in the green.

 

That's kind of misleading. There are many players who are much better at the campaign than I am. There probably aren't many (maybe any?) who have run it as much, but that's mostly because I'm retired and have a lot of time to kill. If I'd actually been paying attention I'd be a much better player by now, but I'm a casual player at heart. To me, studying and working at it would kill the fun.

@Happenstance - I haven't tried that one yet, but it sounds great! (And I'm going to.)

 

Haha, I just tried it in level 4 of Caverns - not with the cushion, but because I had mobs around the rooks and plenty of healing. Worked like a charm, the two rooks basically took each other out (even with 2 x enchanting) and half of the enemy mobs with them.