My crusader armies are getting wiped out nonstop.

[The Last Monke]

They have to go up against demon armies that are 10000 times more powerful. How can I defeat these demon armies? Do I just have to resort to cheating?

[Razer]

Don't know where you are in the game, but I found that stacking large number of archers and using a caster general really help making these fights a lot easier. Also choose the maneuvers ability that allows you to get more units in your army can be helpful. Get scorching ray and heal wounds as spells.

[Raikon]

My suggestion if your struggling is to build archer/stable/barracks garrisons in each fort. Each one increases the amount you can recruit by 25%. Since you wont be getting inn financing, you will probably blow through a lot of money converting your gold to finance.

I'd go on to suggest that this stratedgy you would want the salvage feat on all your generals. This game does give you obscene amounts of gold, but I still don't like using my own funds for the Queen.

[The Last Monke]

Originally posted by Raikon:

My suggestion if your struggling is to build archer/stable/barracks garrisons in each fort. Each one increases the amount you can recruit by 25%. Since you wont be getting inn financing, you will probably blow through a lot of money converting your gold to finance.

I'd go on to suggest that this stratedgy you would want the salvage feat on all your generals. This game does give you obscene amounts of gold, but I still don't like using my own funds for the Queen.

How do I acquire a fort? I just have multiple camps. And all I can do is sleep there and barter.

[Raikon]

Ok I think I can hone in on your problem better. Talk to the female orc in your encampment, and talk about reinforcements. For 7500 she will give you many more troops. Her name is Irabeth.

[The Last Monke]

Originally posted by Raikon:

Ok I think I can hone in on your problem better. Talk to the female orc in your encampment, and talk about reinforcements. For 7500 she will give you many more troops. Her name is Irabeth.

I recently did that but even with the reinforcements from Irabeth, my armies were no match for the demon armies.

[Razer]

Originally posted by The Last Monke:

Originally posted by Raikon:

Ok I think I can hone in on your problem better. Talk to the female orc in your encampment, and talk about reinforcements. For 7500 she will give you many more troops. Her name is Irabeth.

I recently did that but even with the reinforcements from Irabeth, my armies were no match for the demon armies.

What's the number of units per unit type you have in your army? Archers for instance?

[Raikon]

There are 2 armies I generally save till later. The 7 lvl demon army full of undead, they give a badass item, but they are way to strong to fight early. The lvl 4 army full of flies, they simply have to much iniatitive to be taking on at a low level general.

Now there is another uncommon problem you can run into with your army, at Lepers smile. If you spend to much time collecting bonus crap, your army will start getting annihiliated.

I reccommend that if you did this, you reload a save and rush the queen.

That aside I dont really know how to help you, all the generals should have a pretty smooth transition into the crusade. Casters are pretty overpowered, but even other generals are still quite good.

[Balekai]

My Strategy: Ignore barracks in outposts. Build supply depots, Archery Ranges, Stables and Hospitals in them in that order as you take them. Optimize Drezen layout by using biggest collection of squares for main barracks, stables, archery range and mage trainer buildings + unit stat buildings, making sure your cavalry and archers get the most/most beneficial stats for those units. Focus on Kingdom upgrades that augment cavalry and archers, picking Marksmen and Hedge Knights as your main recruitable units. Make sure archers get initiative (if you can), attack and damage bonuses while cavalry and infantry get hp, AC bonuses. Profit.

Also make sure you pick a Kingdom upgrade from Seelah I believe that allows you to build monuments. They give a +5% to combat morale. More combat morale = more chance to act twice on unit actions. Stack those in forts and if you're playing Trickster, you get a similar building in the Brewery that can also be geared to give you +1 damage reduction to all units per brewer. Stack those too. You can get tons of Unit damage reduction and all units pretty much act rwice before the enemy can even attack you later on.

[The Last Monke]

Originally posted by Balekai:

My Strategy: Ignore barracks in outposts. Build supply depots, Archery Ranges, Stables and Hospitals in them in that order as you take them. Optimize Drezen layout by using biggest collection of squares for main barracks, stables, archery range and mage trainer buildings + unit stat buildings, making sure your cavalry and archers get the most/most beneficial stats for those units. Focus on Kingdom upgrades that augment cavalry and archers, picking Marksmen and Hedge Knights as your main recruitable units. Make sure archers get initiative (if you can), attack and damage bonuses while cavalry and infantry get hp, AC bonuses. Profit.

Also make sure you pick a Kingdom upgrade from Seelah I believe that allows you to build monuments. They give a +5% to combat morale. More combat morale = more chance to act twice on unit actions. Stack those in forts and if you're playing Trickster, you get a similar building in the Brewery that can also be geared to give you +1 damage reduction to all units per brewer. Stack those too. You can get tons of Unit damage reduction and all units pretty much act rwice before the enemy can even attack you later on.

I'm unable to build anything though.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

at the beginning, get general who can shot fire stringy thing, level up that general, eventually he/she can cast what basically is Nuke Bomb.

That general is basically going to be your one man army while the soldiers are the meat shield or doing cleaning up duty.

[Tao314zdin]

For ez-mode - get caster general and blast them all down.

Otherwise you need to manage the battles so you do not lose more units then you can restore. To help with that you have:
-healing spells from general (need to be picked up somewhere on level up)
-healing units (one type you should get right from the start as mercenaries)
-hospitals that you can build to increase the number of losses that you can restore

Also:
-if certain caster general enemies give you troubles - you can send suicide squads of one unit each to drain their mana so they can't cast at all when you main army comes
-if you pick ranger general - use those traps and siege spells
-if you pick fighter general - you should get hold and latter mass-hold to make enemy units unable to do anything
-and once again - heal you need on every any general

[Steffan]

Do not attack a more powerful an army for a start. The highest you would go is your level. Later on you could try to plus 1 but too eary for now. Get clean vitories with 100% recoverin casualties.

[Yannir]

Originally posted by The Last Monke:

Originally posted by Balekai:

My Strategy: Ignore barracks in outposts. Build supply depots, Archery Ranges, Stables and Hospitals in them in that order as you take them. Optimize Drezen layout by using biggest collection of squares for main barracks, stables, archery range and mage trainer buildings + unit stat buildings, making sure your cavalry and archers get the most/most beneficial stats for those units. Focus on Kingdom upgrades that augment cavalry and archers, picking Marksmen and Hedge Knights as your main recruitable units. Make sure archers get initiative (if you can), attack and damage bonuses while cavalry and infantry get hp, AC bonuses. Profit.

Also make sure you pick a Kingdom upgrade from Seelah I believe that allows you to build monuments. They give a +5% to combat morale. More combat morale = more chance to act twice on unit actions. Stack those in forts and if you're playing Trickster, you get a similar building in the Brewery that can also be geared to give you +1 damage reduction to all units per brewer. Stack those too. You can get tons of Unit damage reduction and all units pretty much act rwice before the enemy can even attack you later on.

I'm unable to build anything though.

I believe you're still in Act 2?
Just focus on leveling up your chosen general. Pick and choose your fights carefully. You don't have to kill them all now, you can come back for them later. Don't worry about armies that aren't blocking your progress, enemy armies in Act 2 don't move, and there's no downside to just letting them sit there. Remember to recruit any time you can.

You should try to get through Act 2 with 0 losses to your army, other than Leper's Smile that forces some losses on you. You're going to need to build your strength and taking a lot of losses is contrary to that.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by The Last Monke:

They have to go up against demon armies that are 10000 times more powerful. How can I defeat these demon armies? Do I just have to resort to cheating?

If you are still in Act 2 then you need to understand a few things and restart to act if you need to:

1. Pick a mage general. You only need one for Act 2. It must be a mage general though.
2. You can get some additional soldiers from Izabeth for a bit of money. Get them.
3. Archers/marksmen are overwhelmingly your best units. Get as many of those as you can.
4. You do not need to defeat every demon army on the map to get to Drezen. You can come back for them later in Act 3.
5. Do not take on battles that involve taking losses, even if you can win. You task is to build up your army, not lose it.
6. Any demon army with a mage general is much, much stronger than one without.

I think you have to beat one demon army with a general to get to Drezen in Act 1 IIRC. That's the toughest battle. Build up your strength for it.

The bottom line is your mage general, who will have Scorching Ray from then get go, and your archer stack are what will get you through these battles. Once you get the hang of it it's actually quite easy except when a demon mage general is involved in which case it can be touch and go.

Remember the game throws an autosave for you on turn 1. You can therefore experiment with tactics freely to figure out how to win specific battles. Sometimes you will get taken by surprise by a particular demon unit's abilities, for example, and in this case you can reload and figure out how to dispatch this unit on turn 1 before it can do any damage.

[The Last Monke]

Originally posted by Yannir:

Originally posted by The Last Monke:

I'm unable to build anything though.

I believe you're still in Act 2?
Just focus on leveling up your chosen general. Pick and choose your fights carefully. You don't have to kill them all now, you can come back for them later. Don't worry about armies that aren't blocking your progress, enemy armies in Act 2 don't move, and there's no downside to just letting them sit there. Remember to recruit any time you can.

You should try to get through Act 2 with 0 losses to your army, other than Leper's Smile that forces some losses on you. You're going to need to build your strength and taking a lot of losses is contrary to that.

I haven't taken over Drezen yet so I think I'm in Act 2.