Just Enough Rope (Ludicrous) Tips

[aquaricorn]

Any tips for this map? Some of the guides and youtube vids of people beating this one on Ludicrous seem to be outdated from whatever recent patch we have (i.e., the "rush-kill the two farm centers and starve Troy of food because the game doesn't rebuild - except the villagers absolutely do now rebuild).

The tips I read are rush Minotaurs, try to rush to Hydras, try to focus on donkeys for gold, build away from the main starting base, wall off at least the two paths towards where those stables get put up.

I've managed to survive to the 2nd colossus wave and with my best run I had like 5 minotaurs and a few hydras out, but I end up getting curbstomped. My heroes can't focus-kill the collosi quick enough, and 3 catapults just ruin the day.

I manage to get a decently surviving army for the first all-cavalry raid, but they take out a lot of those guys so by the first colossus wave it's all down to how good my economy is.

I think that's the main hurdle too - my economy just doesn't get off the ground in time to pump out myth units. I started throwing out a stables to get counter-cavalry but still.

So, any tips to tweak or add to my strategy here! I'm really trying to beat it on Ludicrous vs just beat it generally, so, dropping to Titan wouldn't be ideal unless it becomes too much a pain in the ass.

[Astrylan]

Well, my first thought would be to attempt it on Titan once or twice first and see if you can even beat that.

(Edit: Btw, it's been a bit since I've played that specific mission, so Idr if it starts you in heroic or classical, but I'm going to assume classical with it being a semi-early missions)

If you can, than for Ludicrous it might be a matter of maybe going for counter units over Myth Units. Yea, Myth units are great, but honestly Colossi are weaker to mass numbers over a few elites a they have no real way to kill off so many units quickly. If you can get the colossi to focus a hero, while you pick off the regular units and leave the colossi for last, that might work better. Especially if you can get some archer in the backline to make up for the fact only so many units can surround them. I know they have pretty high pierce armor, but damage is damage. Also, imo, depending on the size of the army they are sending, Manticores would work better at killing off the basic units, making it easier to finish off the colossi. Plus the Sun Arrows to help with the Colossus high pierce armor, and the Healing Temples for between and during waves.
At least that's my opinion on it without actually having played on Ludicrous.
I personally don't have the APM to play on such a high difficulty level so take this all with a grain of salt.

[aquaricorn]

Originally posted by Astrylan:

take this all with a grain of salt.

I'll take those grains. Worth a shot anyway! You start at III (Heroic I guess?) so that's not so bad. The guides/vids all seemed to go with a rush mythics strategy but something more basic like deploying counters maybe is the better way to go at least early game

[VorpalAura]

Medusa was very useful for me when holding down Colossi since they just petrify them. I usually have them target each of them individually and turn off the skill for some of them so they stop trying to petrify the same target (right click to turn off auto). I did abuse the "pause" cheat so I could do more actions faster since I couldn't do so many things in real time.

I walled off the eastern area and originally the east gold mine area as well, but the gold mine area often got wrecked by catapults. Surprisingly, when I built a military building on the left gold mine area their armies started to go in that direction instead of in the middle so I always kept a handful of cavalry available to hit and run their catapults by going through the middle. The majority of my units consisted of counter types. The last time I completed this mission was about a week or two ago on the same difficulty.

In the end, I made sure they couldn't build their stables or destroy them all if they tried to, but they managed to build a fort on the right gold mine, I didn't take that down until I had enough resources to get myself some catapults and take it out myself. Donkeys kept me alive from being starved of gold since the right gold mine often gets raided too much. Early resource management was hunting down all the deers, before switching to entirely farms and moving my wood collection south near the allied town center. I actually lost my my TC a couple of times and my farms ended up in the walled area on the eastern side. My fort was even built behind the TC but I walled it off with houses in front so it held fairly long especially when you can remove catapults out of the picture and hold colossi down.

[aquaricorn]

Well I got to the third wave of Colossi and the suggestion that I was stabilizing - then I faced 6 catapults and 5 colossi. Do the waves increase in number or did I need to do something to prevent that?

[VorpalAura]

I think that was the biggest possible wave combination of colossi and catapults. If you really were that overwhelmed and unprepared, I would suggest thunderstorm or try baiting the army away while you take out catapults. Don't run too close into their base until you're ready, because that will just make them more aggressive. I do always take out their farms at least though. Remember to use your armies for what they're strong against when possible.