How to beat the Dremor? Armageddon DLC

[Lord Douglias]

The Dremor are kicking my butt. Last time I tried with these settings:
Huge World, Islands-I figured my territory would get hit by Dremor Meteors less often...Boy was I wrong.
Casual Difficulty - I thought they may not be as tuff at that setting because I had been playing at Impossible. Not sure if that was wise because the Dremor seemed to be just as tuff but the other Warlocks seemed to go out meekly facing the Dremor, however there were only 3 anchors reported. So maybe that was because I was playing on Casual? if so that is a good Setting!
I played Humans. I thought that I did everything right following tips on this forum. Despite the Islands setting I had a pretty large densely settled Home Continent with lots of good resources. I was kicking their butts pretty soundly when they landed in my realm. I took my time...Then I decided I better go look for those anchors. I sent out an assault force by sea of my best units...Every land I sailed to the coast was packed solid with powerful Dremors. I couldn't even make a landing. it was insane...I gave up.
Here is what I propose to try next. please tell me if you think this is sound tactics?
Medium Size World ( so I can find the Anchors quickly), Large land masses (so I don't need to make many Landings) Casual Setting (so I hopefully get less Anchors).
What do you think?

[Undead Llama]

Islands is perhaps the easiest map to fight the Dremor on imo; they cannot leverage army overwhelming to isolated kingdoms. (well, not easily, anyway)

Easiest path to victory would involve securing a path to, then securing an Astral Plane ASAP. The Dremor do not* goop up the Planar Realms, which gives you safe haven from which to mount tower raids from. (if you get really lucky with early spell rolls, you can even move your capital site off Ardania - victory is then in the bag)



*Okay, I lied - the Dremor can enter through the planar portal, and will goop up the place if they somehow manage to take one of your towns. So, as ever, defending your stuff is important.

[Lord Douglias]

Thanks for the tips...I said above that I gave up on a huge island map because every time my transport ships found a new island or continent the coastline was packed with Dremors to the point that I could not make a landing. Well I went back to an old save when I first set out to find the Anchors. I recalled a tip that I had read recently on this forum, and that is use Raise Land to make water into barren land. I did not know you could do that. I actually obtained by luck Greater Land Raising which turns up to 5 sea hexes into land. So I use that to make a land bridge or a beachhead for transports. Land your troops far enough out so that you are not pummeled by Dremor immediately upon landing. Then I slowly but surely carved out new lands, although I have found and destroyed only one Anchor so far. There are only 3 anchors on this huge map. My guess is that because I am playing Casual difficulty the game gave me a break on Anchors, but otherwise the Dremor seem just the same as when I tried and failed on Impossible and Challenging.
Regarding cleanup of Contaminated land...I recently got Nature Forrest which turns up to five hexes to Forrest. What a boost that is! One of my gripes about this game is it is so stingy with how often you can cast spells. I have not beat the Dremor yet but I think I am on the way.

[hruscz]

Tips on get succesful landing on dremor-infested land: Use waterwalking and invisibility on your strongest range units and heroes. If you have an ogre hero, lead with him and kill/weaken three units at once while attacking the one with weakest counterattack. Use ice trap or other form of stun on dremer mages. Their attack hurts. Give one of your front unit better sight (by the cheap spell - IIRC eagle eye?) That way you'll be better prepared for their attacks, it gives suprisingly big strategic advantage.
Anchors are often in the Astral worlds.

[Undead Llama]

Agreed, Ice Trap is probably the best offensive, non-volcano spell you can cast - that 3 turn incap is so good, anytime it turns up I ask it out research it straight-away, no matter what type of game I am playing. Particularily as you can create a bottleneck made entirely from enemy units (which you are able to destroy at your lesuire* - attacking doesn't break stun)

Remember to build cities close to each other, and station units in empty spots to prevent the Dremer from filling them till you can build over it. For non-island maps, my preferred set-up is settling 6 new towns in a hexagonal pattern around the capital, 4 hexes from central.

^The above set-up gives you more than enough space to develop in, and you can field a ranged army from the central city to defensive hotspots. That, and it looks purty.


As hrusvc said, anchors can be found easiest in Astral worlds - generally 3 to a plane, compared to Ardania's 3~5. I still reckon clearing then colonising Astrals is a good idea, as you can move your capital site there - which prevents a game over due to unexpected volcano + dremer invasion.

*at least until they reseach dispel - but even then, you are still able to use it to prevent counter-attack, aswell as forcing a spend of mana/spellpower.

[Lord Douglias]

OK, I tried a lot of the spells and tactics recommended above vs. the Dremor. Most worked pretty well except Warlock is so stingy with spell casting time that these strategies unfold at a snails pace. I was playing on a huge world so if you have more than one front but can only cast one or two spells a turn... I played about 300 turns. I could not find the 3rd Anchor It took forever to search all the map because the Dremor protect their lands well. Sure you can send in a flying invisible scout but invisible only last a limited number of turns and often my spy would be seen and killed after only one turn. If I am casting invisible every turn I may lose a hero because I have no mana left that turn to cast healing. I could not find the last Anchor on the surface, so I started searching the other worlds. One was packed solid with dragons...I waited too long to go down there. Then the game started crashing everyturn...I guess it was just to big a map and too many units. I pretty much defeated the Dremor but could not get to their world.
So I stated over, Medium size Map, Normal difficulty, Defeat Dremor winning condition, Islands, Elves. I will get those fiends this time!

[Geist]

Trying to beat the dremor myself on challenging difficulty. Have to keep reloading because those cheap ass OP mages keep sniping my heroes! Yes the biggest flaw in this game is the late game that can take 30min to an hour to play and the limited spell casting. You really have to prioritize your casts! I figured out that range is the best way to take out those f**king mages but
I'll have to sacarifice some units to make the kills.

[Lord Douglias]

Ok I finally beat the Dremors!!! after several failed maps. The following is a summary of what I learned through trial and error, and from the good tips by others in this forum.
First you must learn how to deal with the Dremor Gates that drop from the sky and the Corrupt
Land spell that they cast.
As others have advised, do no not melee the Gates until the gate and it's defender are low on hit points. Set your melee unit between the gate and ranged units and select defend as soon as you can.
Good missile units if you are Human are catapults which have a range of 3. To get catapults you need to build a Mechanics guild .
Corrupted land will kill your economy. There are also random meteor attacks that leave volcanic wastelands which have a similar effect. Take out the Dremer Gates quickly before they spread their vile corruption.
Here are some spells you need as soon as they are available:
Clean Land, but it is slow only cleaning one hex.
Nature Forest, turns 7 hexes of Corrupted Land to neutral forestland that you can subsequently turn into Fertile or other lands.
Fertile Lands. turn those Forests into good farmland. Also turn 7 hexes of volcanic wasteland into farmland.
Barren Land, turns one corrupted hex Barren.
Lower the Land, works well if they are hiding behind mountains.
Raise the Land and Greater Raise the the Land, are essential when you want to make an assault by sea to a coast that is packed with Dremor or other enemiss. Use Greater Raise Land to raise 7 sea hexes to be barren land. Raise them outside of enemy sight or range if possible.
Also Dremor gates will not land on mountains you can create between your cities, nor will they land on hex with a building or a unit.
Wipe out Dremer castles, which are cities that have fallen to the Dremers, before they explode and leave a Wasteland around them that is unpassible except to flying units and unusable and not able to be altered and does damage to all units except Dremers who it heals.
Find the Dremer Anchors. you will eventually get a quest that says there will be 3 to 5. They will be located on the main map or in other world portals, but if your mission is to find 4 there shold be more than 4 if you searched everywhere.
After you have defeated the Anchors, then cast a spell that takes 3 turns to go to their world. You better have 7 very buffed up Lords and/or units. Some flying units and healers are essential.
What I did was sent my best 7 in and then immediately cast the same speel again that took 3 more turns to send in another 7, but that means you need to tuff it out for 3 turns with no spells! Ouch!!... The catch is the longer you wait to invade their world the more packed it is with Dremers but it does not pay to go in before you party is really tuff and buffed. Carve out a safe zone for yourself because this place is packed with Dremers and castles and every hex is corrupt. Locate the boss with the magnifying glass icon on your quest screen. It took me like 20 or 30 turns to kill the boss once I first attacked it. It changes resistance on every hit so check every time before you attack what are its resistances and then with a unit that can do damage and then retreat.
A few very handy spells, besides Heal, are:
Dispel and Nullify, your units get stunned a lot here.
Vampiric Weapon enchant, gain back hit points for melee damage that do.
Spear of Damage, 30 Spirit damage points, from temple to Fervus.
Finally Armor perks like Adamantium and Nervil armor are highly recommended plus every other perk you can get.

[nephilimnexus]

Assuming you survive long enough:

Create Greater Artificat - Misc - Levitation, Regeneration, Haste and Invisibility. Give one of these to every hero.

Also, put a Beastmen town near a Pumkin Patch and build the Shrine of the Rotten Pumpkin ASAP. That +3 regeneration for every unit is possibly the best standard buff around.