The infamous spider.

[76561198105675618]

This spider is really a pain in the backside. I did most of the quests and cleared off all the opposing troops and so came up to level 18. I used trolls (since they regenerate before each turn) and war maidens (spear-throwing) as my shock troops, plus bersekers and assassins to handle the spiders and soothsayers as a reserve. BUT... the spiders came so thick and fast that it was impossible. AND.. the spider responded to EACH attack (up to 4 times if necessary - with melee as well as ranged attacks) and so he whittled down my troops while his own attacks increased.The only way I found was to cheat (I leveled up to lvl 22 and used 5 trolls). I think that at lvl 18 and with 3 trolls this one is mostly a matter of luck - it is my impression that the designers got too enthusiastic with this boss :-). Or did I miss something?

[red255]

I think they were having difficulties because they were trying no-loss.

and in ice and fire you get no trolls.

so its quite impossible.

but if you allow losses sure just take a team of melee and kill the spider.

Melee because it counters everything melee or ranged and Melee is better at tanking, plus all the spiders.

[panzerdivision]

i have finished this before 15 round on impossible... just buy all kinds of pirates and buy this skill when you getting +2,+4,+6 for killing an enemy, first kill small spiders, then cast blessing and attack giant spider, one attack can deal about 2k-4k

[red255]

yeah I went thru it with a bunch of melee, I found trash, focus on the big spider. (Vikings, Jarls, Beserkers, ...etc)

alot of them died but yeah just don't bring ANY ranged units you'll get hit back, hard.

I actually found some trolls for sale at the witch in the smuggler basement. but its far less reliable in fire and ice to have trolls at this point.

But yeah my team was Jarls, Beserkers, Vikings, Trolls, Assasins. (game has given me tons of assasins on this roll)

Just wander thru any map stack of like 50-100 assasins for sale.

So I'm using assasins.

[Kir]

Snakes are very useful for cleaning up the spider stacks. Royal and Swamp Snakes are 80% poison resistant. Swamp Snakes won't do great damage back, but the spiders love to attack their low defense. Venomous Spiders can also subsitute. Snakes do better damage, but also take more. Royals do physical damage and tend to obliterate even large spider stacks, while not taking much damage if they get attacked.

If you're desperate, you can send the Royals to attack in the middle since the poison counter by the boss isn't any worse than the melee counter to a Royal Snake.

Books of Evil are also great, as they are resistant to boss attacks and basically immune to spider attacks.

The fight is dumb. At the very least it shouldn't curse you on top of everything else.

[Gyrotank]

Well, with Ice and Fire DLC the Spider isn't as much pain since you can travel to the Elf island before fighting him and get some experience and troops there, and then get back to him. For instance, I fought him on Impossible being lvl 22 Skald, and won with no losses and under 10 rounds. If you are interested, I have a video about it with comments in Russian in my profile and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTcIQkbsP0.

[red255]

Yeah, I didn't go to elf island until plot required it and I was around level 50. it was hilariously easy, I spent the fights farming.

then I went to the frozen gardens and kicked myself because they sold me a hat that was +1 rune per level up.

[Gyrotank]

The original sequence with you having to beat the spider and that druid to leave the Viking islands seems much more natural plot- and balancewise. I think they should have made the quest about Elf island become available only after you've reached the main continent. Although with flying becoming available only after you have all the Valkyries (which is logical, too, since gatting flight on the second island already feels a little like overpower) and without trolls and yotuns the spider would become a real monster to deal with... Still, they could make the 'flying with all valkyries only' into a feature of the Impossible difficulty. That would be flavourful :)

[Sprocker]

引用自 red255：

and in ice and fire you get no trolls.

so its quite impossible.

Untrue on both counts. I'm playing Ice and Fire right now and have four trolls in my army. Plus I just got the achievement for doing it in under 15 rounds (only on normal difficulty)

Link to screenshots with troops used as it might help some people out: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723547487
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723548259

[.posetcay]

I just attacked the spider with all my units as a Skald on impossible, I didnt care about casulties since I wasnt doing a no-loss run and I was going for the fast kill achi (arachnophobia). It died in about 10 rounds. Soothsayer is all about cheap tricks in this game, so if you want to fight like a true viking I recommend choosing another class :)
PS: I didnt have any trolls. Just standard viking units.

[Lampros]

How do people even get to level 18-19 by this stage?!!! I think I was level 16...

[Lampros]

引用自 red255：

yeah I went thru it with a bunch of melee, I found trash, focus on the big spider. (Vikings, Jarls, Beserkers, ...etc)

alot of them died but yeah just don't bring ANY ranged units you'll get hit back, hard.

I actually found some trolls for sale at the witch in the smuggler basement. but its far less reliable in fire and ice to have trolls at this point.

But yeah my team was Jarls, Beserkers, Vikings, Trolls, Assasins. (game has given me tons of assasins on this roll)

Just wander thru any map stack of like 50-100 assasins for sale.

So I'm using assasins.

But I've been using ranged all game. So if I pick up melees for this fight, then they will all be rank 1 vs. my rank 8-9 ranged. Will my melees still be effective?

And sorry for the necro; I re-started the game due to frustration and felt desperate - at Normal difficulty! I don't recall ever struggling this much at a tactics game in normal difficulty. I've been doing well enough till now; it's just that this boss fight spikes the difficulty to untold heights...

[Lampros]

引用自 Gyrotank：

Well, with Ice and Fire DLC the Spider isn't as much pain since you can travel to the Elf island before fighting him and get some experience and troops there, and then get back to him. For instance, I fought him on Impossible being lvl 22 Skald, and won with no losses and under 10 rounds. If you are interested, I have a video about it with comments in Russian in my profile and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTcIQkbsP0.

What? Level 22?! And how can you get experience on the Elf island when every fight there has an "invincible" opposing force?

[red255]

I use slingers as my main for most of the game, level 1 unit thats cheap as dirt and gets a few bonuses from being a warrior. I think the medal gives +50% damage or something absurd.

you pass actions with the jarl and whatnot

and yes pretty sure it does more damage since the enemy doesn't get counters even at level 1. but I would level it up a tad. Slingers, Axe throwers and uh god knows what else you can get your hands on.

melee should be used on the spiders, ranged is used on the boss. fastest take down in my opinion. maybe you could manage something else better. phantom image on the slingers to increase damage (and reduce the amount of squares that can fit spiders) maybe royal snakes if you got them.

invincible is just a difference in size of the forces. I'm sure with enough cheese you can manage the fights. some of the spells are quite powerful. melee can be made a joke of with a proper placement of barriers.

[Aglet Green]

引用自 Lampros：

How do people even get to level 18-19 by this stage?!!! I think I was level 16...

I haven't even been to the Elf Island yet, but I was level 22 when I fought the spider.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2054913820

[Gards]

How about if you don't have mana spring or trolls? Im playing a mage playthrough, no losses (which has failed from the two bosses on the 1st island) I'vve got
sooths, jarl, assassin, Jotun and WMaidens. spiders ranged attack means "no losses" are unlikely. (edit) "Book of Evil" to the rescue! No losses and in under 15 rounds. Nice!