Cannot beat Story Chapter 5 Grexolis

[Nirhildija]

So, how do you beat this chapter? The game gets less balanced the more I progress through the story. In this chapter:

-You start at a low level while the main enemy (angel dude) starts super strong, with multiple developed cities and all free cities locked to him loyally.
-You get to choose from 1 of 4 terrible effects; every time you kill an enemy, you get another terrible effect.
-Have to kill the angel dude by yourself, for your four teammates will take an eternity just to kill one guy despite having the stacks to kill 3 of them.
-Get constantly harassed by all free cities, infestations (you can clear them), and the angel dude, who has tiers iv and v that can fly, ignore all movement penalties, and have insane movement range.

I get it; you want to make the game challenging, but this is just absurd! I gave it six tries and got destroyed in each, fighting around 120-200 turns. He dominates all maps, kills you, gets magic victory, or expands infinitely. He is always at rank 1 in everything and even assisting my allies like crazy and taking 3 whole cities from him; with armies of tier V and IV, he is still rank one and keeps pumping stacks of units like crazy while fending off infestations and killing my allies. Holy &%^#.

I hate when developers fall in love with a character, making them a total Mary Sue. Super (not) enjoyable)

[Psipress]

i,ve tried this play threw like 8 times -all 4 battle plans [did the best with Nimue's plan} , different hero skills ect,,, what get me is how his angels get like 3 movements per turn in battle to my 1 he was lv11 by day 6 when i met him the 1st time lol i believe this is Star Treks version of the Kobayashi Maru ,,,,even if you have him beat down to like 2 citys one of his partners pulls off the magic victory they really need to relook at this one story for sure

[Nirhildija]

HIS ALLIES CAN PULL MAGIC VICTORY TOO! HOLY ^$%#!!!!!!!!!!
I get you, I try so hard! And took his cities, but in the end, it doesn't even matter!
What gets me is how he is always 1/6 no matter what starts with a significant transformation almost, and how he keeps pumping stacks like crazy of high tiers even after losing cities. Honestly, devs need to nerf this guy hard. PLAYING HIM ON EASY FEELS LIKE PLAYING ANY AI IN MAX DIFFICULTY!

[A.J]

Others who beat it did underground start and went magic victory.

[Nirhildija]

Thanks for the tip AJ!

[easytarget]

Then this scenario is very much in the same pattern as AOW3 and the end of PF.

Or in other words, more plain ole bad game design for the scenarios.

I admire their consistency.

[Passier Reis]

I managed to finish it in one try in 100 turns

I just clash with the main angel dude while Nimue just does magic victory for me, it was hilarious and quick

I picked the mirror buff in the beginning thus it allowed me to quickly raze two of his cities he planted near me due to the additional units I got

But yea, magic victory is the way to go... Otherwise the game will take too long even if you're winning the fights

[Maturin]

I played 2 times and I won by chasing magic victory....I killed 2 oponents but I would be lacking in time to kill two others so I decided that Iam just going to do it with magic...

My suggestion is to play agresive and create 3 armies as fast as you can to hunt one of opponents after that you gameplay will be preate much easy to manage (focus the one that is closest to you with cappital)

[Nimving]

Won from second try, magic victory.
Used spell from magick affinity that destroes enemy province and spawns big astral marodeur army. With this spell i was able to destroy enemy seeds\roots\hearts to prevent them from magic victory.
Mission with Meanor\Arachna was harder for me

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Maturin:

My suggestion is to play agresive and create 3 armies as fast as you can to hunt one of opponents after that you gameplay will be preate much easy to manage (focus the one that is closest to you with cappital)

The opponents start with pre-existing stacks including T5 units, with the ability to respawn replacements quickly, at least on normal difficulty. I don't think you are going to get anywhere by rushing a few stacks of low tier units. My first attempt on the map lasted about 20 turns, I saw the advantages the AI had and realized a normal assault probably wasn't feasible, so I quit and started a new attempt with an underground civ ready to turtle up and get a magic victory, didn't have any issue pulling off the win that time.

The enemies can attempt a magic victory, and they will probably beat you to the attempt, but they also suck at defending the nodes from the event enemies and probably will not succeed.

[SomeGuy1]

It's also super frustrating when your AI teammates will have three armies next to one of the Covenant enemies Throne City, have just killed their Ruler, and just... walk away.
Meanwhile, I'm busy defending my lands from the crazy onslaught and can't send much to finish my enemies off with myself.

Like, the intended map design is pretty clearly that you pick off the Covenant AIs first and build up more territory and support before your entire team gangs up on the angel dude... but your computer teammates refuse to actually win their fights.

[snuggleform]

It's super easy if you choose an underground race (it's under mental trait if you are building your own race), just hide underground don't do anything above ground whatsoever and they won't come for you. You just spend a few turns excavating your little starting area to open up space, clean up any little mobs hiding in the walls, dismiss any junky tier 1 units to save upkeep, build 2 more cities and tech for a magic victory. Do remember to mass some sort of tier 3 or 4 units since you will be fighting invaders around your magic beacons once you start the final spell.

I just did this and clowned them before turn 100.

[Kalenthraz]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

It's super easy if you choose an underground race (it's under mental trait if you are building your own race), just hide underground don't do anything above ground whatsoever and they won't come for you. You just spend a few turns excavating your little starting area to open up space, clean up any little mobs hiding in the walls, dismiss any junky tier 1 units to save upkeep, build 2 more cities and tech for a magic victory. Do remember to mass some sort of tier 3 or 4 units since you will be fighting invaders around your magic beacons once you start the final spell.

I just did this and clowned them before turn 100.

Tried this, turn 68 Angel Dude came underground (the underground entrance was the same province as the capital annoyingly, so you aren't actually safe underground he just takes ages to find you) they trashed the entire base instantly by spreading all units out onto each province and raiding the improvements there. Was no way to get back to the base in time with all my armies as they were excavating and traversing rocky terrain sucks.

Going to try again with an underground start and just be more vigilant in keeping armies near the capital but by god is this level freaking hard.

[Nirhildija]

I am going to give it another try; currently, on turn 43 with 2000 gold, 2000 mana, and an income of 120 on gold and 60 on mana. Got a wonder that lets me recruit dragons, and I have a dragon IV and a Phoenix IV with multiple units of III and a hero. Focusing on research to get that magic victory with 2 cities underground and the last city will have to be underground near the entrance. This might be it boys (hopefully).

[Nirhildija]

Last city will be above ground*I

[Mermidion]

First try. Astral focused character .Magic Victory.
My allies kept most enemies at bay, just had to deal with the stupid Guardian alot.
Around the time i destroyed the Guardian , Other leaders startet the "Age of .." spells to archieve mage victory.

Tome of teleportation granted me a spell that let my leader teleport to any tile i could see.
Teleportet to the Ally closest to the enemy who startet the spell. then teleport and move every round until i was close enough to his provinces. Use an "instant destroy Province" spell to stop the Mage victory, and next round teleported my character back where i needed him.

After that since i build three citys very close to each other i could build root,seed and heart all side by side which made them easily defendable for 15 turns. i think i archieved the victory around turn 154. kind of a slow burn.