Need Paladin class tips.

[The Gunslinger]

I play on hard and need some tips on my paladin character, what skills should I choose and what item buffs, attack, defense, int. should I be looking for, i just cant seem to get the hang of this game. I will not move to normal. And what types of magics, damaging magic, or buffs,debuffs?

[Razor Shin]

Redundant question but... are you talking about Warriors of the North here, or Armored Princess/Crossworlds? Assuming it's about the former, i might make time to post something tomorrow.

[The Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Razor Shin:

Redundant question but... are you talking about Warriors of the North here, or Armored Princess/Crossworlds? Assuming it's about the former, i might make time to post something tomorrow.

Well it is Warriors in the north game hub, if you didn't know that already.

[Razor Shin]

Bleh, i've seen people make more basic mistakes. Anyway, was just too lazy for a long post yesterday. Anyway, playing Skald(Paladin, if you prefer) on Impossible, done a lot of the major things on the third island (fastland), mopped up Nordlig, two mobs left on Vestlig. Sitting on almost 250k gold, played all viking troops from beginning to now (don't mean to brag, just putting that out so you'll know i know what i'm talking about), will probably transition to a full human army once i get access to everything i want there.

Anyway, first things first - if you are struggling, odds are strong your basics are off, so I'll start with that.

To begin with, one of the mechanics that this game has that most games don't is that the internal achievement system actually contributes to the game in a meaningful way. One of the most meaningful early game achievements is the Grand Strategy one (which you get for not taking any losses). It's critical to get it early, because later on, it gets harder to win fights without losses, and, more importantly, +1000 leadership when you have around ~5k (that's about as early as you'll get it, assuming you play it right), even on a skald, makes a LOT of difference. If you manage to get that, you essentially have a 20% larger army than you should have had for 3-4 levels worth of fighting. There also other achievements worth mentioning, including the +exp from finishing off troops with Rage Abilities (it's 5% per level, big deal), or the one that increases initiative (or the durability one), if you cast more than "x" spells of a specific type. Those make it meaningful to actually use mana/rage abilities to finish off enemy units. Again, it's better to get those early, because later on, you'll need to cast the spell you need, rather than w/e counts towards the achievement.

Other Core thing? Do the training. Always. Losses don't matter there, but you should be able to finish the whole thing without any regardless. Be dilligent with digging. (usually, anything that looks like a dead end, or like it should have had something there, in the whole game - will have something worth digging).

Another Major core thing - Full Racial Armies will almost always be better than mixing in anything else. You might want to throw in a high tier neutral troop if you can get one, but it's usually not worth it. The big reason for that being that you get a Morale bonus for having all X troops. Also, all races will have a morale booster for units of that race, and morale boosters from items and abilities tend to be race based, not global. Also, generally speaking, Racial units are typically designed to work well together. E.g. elves have great ranged units, and have two units that summon fodder to keep the ranged units safe, humans tend to never die, etc, etc.

Big core thing as well - as far as possible, avoid all hard fights (evenly matched and above) unless you absolutely have to. For the first island, that means running around, avoiding fights with harder stacks until you are absolutely sure there wasn't an easier fight you've missed. Once you gain access to more than one island, that means moving back and forth between islands once you've exhausted all the easy prey on one island. Typically, there will be 10 mobs left on one island around the time where you are ready to start hunting soft targets on the next island. Pound on those until you gain a level or two, then double back for those last few mobs.

The final, most important thing though, is that you don't have to fight your way to all items. You can pull the mobs away from them, grab the item/shop/w/e, then get out. It seems a bit weird at first, but eventually, you'll start doing it w/o thinking. Towards this end, it's crucial you get the pegasus asap.

Ok that's out of the way.

Let's talk about abilities and items.

Items first, because i don't have much to say. Items are randomly generated, but the starting castle should sell the bezerker shield. Buy it, and hold on to it as long as you have to (for me that that was until i stopped using bezerkers alltogether, which can be pretty late into the second island if you are unlucky). Also, consider buying rage potions to kick start fights. They are usually worth it before major fights (ahriman, necromancer dude, not-so-secret-end-of-island-boss, etc)

Abilities - For mind, I worked my way to level 1 Edda as my no.1 priority. Because rune gain are random (at least i think they are), you might even want to pass on getting anything in other trees until you have it. Once you have edda, you'll have svata for gold, and, most importantly, helheim for dealing for the crapton of undead this game throws at you. Seriously, Helheim alone makes the Skald worth it.
Once you have edda, you should work towards tactics. Post tactics, it's your call what you level up. Personally, i maxed learning, then edda, but really, it's w/e you want. Tactics is a big must to help cut your losses, because it will help you re-arrange your troops to consistently take advantage of the terrain. After that, you can just get w/e strikes your fancy.
For might, pretty simple, bum rush bloodlust. And max it first. Then do w/e. As simple as that.
As for magic... meh. Currently, i have only 3 spells - healing (started with it), slow, and stone skin. Stone skin is good in an of itself, and it builds up the achievement counter. Slow is game breaking if you are smart with your casting. Healing, you get for free, and it's solid when it comes to cutting losses in your higher tier units. Also doubles as an extra nuke against undead early game, keep that in mind (great for dealing with say, vampires). Once i get the final achievement for stacking crystals, i might bother learning more spells (i'll probably have to, but meh, w/e). Generally though, you'll want to see what spells are in the different magic types, then opt for one to max. Long term, you'll want maxed artifactor, soothsayer, concentration, transmutation, and one maxed magic type. As a rule of thumb, order magic is a no-brainer candidate for maxing, because as a skald, you'll be relying on your troops to do the damage, and order magic has some pretty good buffs. The other magic types are all quite versatile, but order magic is just more straightforward.

Ok, let's look at some practical tips for the first island - most importantly, making effective use of Soothsayers.
Ok, the revive on these guys is pretty pathetic. Most of the time, don't even bother, unless you've lost like, 1 unit of a stack. Even then, you'll need to heal them first generally, otherwise it won't revive anything. The big thing about them is that, if you combine them with helheim vs. undead, their freeze cloud can instantly generate up to 3-4 rage points early on (slingers can do that as well, but soothsayers tend to go first). That's just enough for a rage ability, and should help even the odds greatly. When not against undead, you can combine loki with svata to turn one of their own units on them before the fight even starts, then pelt away at them from a safe range.
The big problem in the first island is that there's a finite supply of these guys, and axe throwers as well (your two big units). Ergo, you can't afford ANY losses with them. Well i'd say you can't afford any losses, period, but these ones least of all. So yeah, early game, play with slingers, vikings, bezerkers, soothsayers and axe throwers.
Eventually, ditch vikings for Skalds (or warrior maidens, once you have them - the skald isn't much of a fighter, you get him for the morale boost and the buffs/debuffs), and zerkers for Jarls. That should keep you going until you get access to other racial armies.
On a sidenote, don't mistake "try to take no losses" and "never take any losses". For example you'll probably lose 1-2 units against ahriman, or against the necromancer. As long as those units aren't things you can't replace readily (i.e. you don't see any shop where you can get anymore), then that's fine.
Similarly, as soon as you get to the second island, it's worth it to take a few losses to get the first valkyrie in the temple ruins of the mountain, because that not only unlocks her rage ability (and level ups for rage abilities), but also gives you access to another island where you can potentially ninja loot stuff (ninja loot, not fight). After that, a few losses to grab the bombo mushrooms and free the soothsayer are equally worth it, because you'll get the pegasus (which will let you fly and ninja loot stuff without having to fight), a big supply of Soothsayers from him, and access to another island, which should give you every viking troop you could possibly want (with the likely exception of warrior maidens).

[The Gunslinger]

great advice ty