Ice Map - Mutators

[Màv]

Doing all mutators (Excluding Snake God), anyone been able to progress past the 2 waves of Crossbows + Battering Rams? I can reliably make it to that wave but the enemy crossbows just output so much damage, I can't change anything up because if i do the slime waves just overwhelm me early and am just out of ideas as I've tried so many different perks and build paths, I am lost as of right now, so am hoping someone who has progressed further or been attempting it with these mutators could share their success.

Perhaps it's just impossible at the current demo max level, another perk point would go such a long ways.

My Current high score on it is 15,638 (4 Mutators, Falcon/Destruction/Wasp/Death).

[MysterioEnigmaticus]

Dunno what sort of perks you run, but I've found success on that wave with 5 mutators (-turtle, -falcon) by building the left wall closest to the town hall (I use Architect's Counsil, otherwise the walls probably won't be unlocked that early). It lets you protect your archers by anchoring them behind the wall and use your character/melee units to manipulate the enemy crossbows and siege weapons. With no unit targets in front of the wall, the crossbows will naturally head south to go the super long way around, giving you a chance to take out the siege which wants to hit your wall. Then you can bait the bows back if you alternate between letting your melee units run forward through the gate and grabbing them to pull them back in. Can be tricky but effective, since the crossbows line up single-file, and you can let your archers go crazy on them. Definitely gonna lose the gold mine, though, and I haven't tried to adapt the tactic for falcon yet. There might be some shenanigans you could pull by also building other walls if need be.

Another thing I've tried that worked for that wave is to build the trio of left-side towers and taking the Castle Blueprints perk. Then you just have to keep your archers as safe as you can. You might lose quite a few left-side buildings, though.

6 mutators is crazy! Best of luck, I'd be interested to hear what strategy you're working on.

[Màv]

Originally posted by MysterioEnigmaticus:

Dunno what sort of perks you run, but I've found success on that wave with 5 mutators (-turtle, -falcon) by building the left wall closest to the town hall (I use Architect's Counsil, otherwise the walls probably won't be unlocked that early). It lets you protect your archers by anchoring them behind the wall and use your character/melee units to manipulate the enemy crossbows and siege weapons. With no unit targets in front of the wall, the crossbows will naturally head south to go the super long way around, giving you a chance to take out the siege which wants to hit your wall. Then you can bait the bows back if you alternate between letting your melee units run forward through the gate and grabbing them to pull them back in. Can be tricky but effective, since the crossbows line up single-file, and you can let your archers go crazy on them. Definitely gonna lose the gold mine, though, and I haven't tried to adapt the tactic for falcon yet. There might be some shenanigans you could pull by also building other walls if need be.

Another thing I've tried that worked for that wave is to build the trio of left-side towers and taking the Castle Blueprints perk. Then you just have to keep your archers as safe as you can. You might lose quite a few left-side buildings, though.

6 mutators is crazy! Best of luck, I'd be interested to hear what strategy you're working on.

Thanks, we'll see how my sanity holds up. I've managed the other two maps fairly easily with these 6 mutators but the ice map is differently an entire tier above the others. I got a few more ideas I need to try, just refreshed my memory and did a handful of attempts, finally got past wave 7 reliably by switching in crossbows over fire archers but now wave 8 just rolls through like a freight train. Feel like I need another set of flails or fire archers, just another source of AoE.

Anyways, my set-up and build path is below! Will most likely look different after trail and error today.

Weapon: Lance
Perks: Architect's Council, Elite Warriors & Castle Blueprints
- Architect's Council and Elite Warriors are mandatory I feel, Castle Blueprints is my flex perk here that I change around.

Wave 1: ~7 Gold~ Keep(3) --> Archery Range(4) (Hunters) --> Hold Hunters beside keep, release when swords get close using lance to tank for as long as possible.

Wave 2: ~4 Gold~ Barracks(4) (Flails) --> Aggro as many slimes as possible for as long as possible, troops handle it fine!

Wave 3: ~4 Gold~ Barracks(4) (Knights) --> Eat pot shots from the crossbows without dying, troops handle it fine!

Wave 4: ~2 Gold~ House(2) --> Same as Wave 2

Wave 5: ~4 Gold~ Archery Range(4) (Crossbows) - Position Knights slightly into cave, cram all other units behind the knights. Can delay the Ram by confusing it's pathing by surrounding it and using yourself.

Wave 6: ~7 Gold~ House(2) x3 --> Position ranged spacing them out so that they don't overkill targets, wasting attacks.

Wave 7: ~11 Gold~ Tower(3) x2 --> House(2) x2 --> Position your knights forward on the far side of the cave with flails slightly behind them, crossbows & hunters top of cave, slightly outside it. Ram SHOULD spawn in the top corner of the cave and confuse it's pathing while your knights/flails mostly engage the crossbows (If ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan, you'll survive but probably lose a tower).

Wave 8: ~15 Gold~ Upgrade Keep(7) (Builder's Guild) --> Wall(5) (Bottom) --> Tower(3) (Closest to other towers) --> Position troops behind wall, get ran through, lol. Also, a few spiky boys take the long way, hence why you want another tower at the top path (Not many but enough that will destroy your keep).