How do I counter shadow stalkers?

[Poob]

So I'm doing the elven court story right, and I encountered an issue which is how do I counter shadow stalkers??? Like I got so pissed off at my numerous attempts during the saphire archipelligo mission that i just used cheat commands to avoid that mission. Afterward I ended up doing the destroy all humans path, and it started off okay, but then I got spammed with shadow stalkers again and I don't have anything resembling a clue as to how I'm suposed to deal with them.. They solo kill my generals and a single 6 stack of shadow stalkers completely ♥♥♥♥♥ 3 6 stacks with my generals present in manual and auto combat, literally what do I do?

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Well, firstly, if the enemy has mass shadow stalkers you're likely taking too long in the campaign. You can't keep up with the AI (except sometimes on easy difficulty) in the campaigns because they have so many more cities than you, and will outproduce you. Doesn't matter if it's shadow stalkers or manticore riders or shrines of smiting, if you take too long you can get overwhelmed.

If you have equal strength you should be able to defeat them, but they can still be a pain because of their resistances and immunities. And if you let the game go on long enough that they get their shadow step teleport upgrade... well, that is just painful.

That said:

* Elemental damage. Spirit, shock and fire is the best way to kill them. Ideally on tough units or units that are resistance to cold or physical damage.
* Spells that lower their resistances. Degenerate and especially Cardinal Cleansing are great, but you won't have those in the campaigns.
* Bring your own Stalkers. You play a rogue in most of these campaign missions, so you can fight fire with fire

If I recall correctly, in the kill-all-humans path you play either a rogue or a sorcerer. Rogue is a mirror match: if they have many MORE stalkers than you do, that means you're not conquering them fast enough, and there's little else to be done.

End game Sorcerer summons such as Eldritch Horrors and Node Serpents inflict plenty of damage, but also take a lot. They're also likely to be outnumbered. On the plus side, your spells should be pretty effective. On the down side, Stalkers can't be stunned.

For your heroes, getting their frost resistance up is critical. Weapons that inflict fire, shock or spirit damage likewise. If she has good items and is max level, Sundren should at least be able to kill some of them on her own. With good enough items (something that gives Tireless) and the Shadow Form spell she could even, theoretically, take on whole armies of them.

If you can find them, Earth Elementals are pretty much a hard counter to Shadow Stalkers. They resist their attacks and just keep on regenerating damage. But I don't think you have the Earth Mastery magic either, so you'll only get them if you're lucky and find a spell.

In general, Shadow Stalkers are a tricky opponent with few direct counters. If you have equal number or better of equal quality troops you should be able to defeat them if you don't let them backstab you and pin them down with your toughest units, but it will never be easy.

In the later campaign missions the AI will massively outnumber you if you give them the time to build up, so there the best answer is "don't give them that time."

There are also lots more threads on this on the forum, search for them for more tips.

[AmySloth]

I have to second a lot of what Iguana said. In the campaign, the sooner you take the AI's cities, the better. Even if you feel like you're spreading yourself thin, it's often better than waiting to let them build up since they start with way more economic buildings than you do. Plus, often you'll find troops on the map who will ally with you and can reduce that "spreading thin" feeling.

Edit:

Honestly, don't let them get a stack of shadow stalkers. If it's at that point, you're taking too long to take their cities.

But yeah, the campaign is not friendly at all to people who like the Turtling strategy. Usually this is my type of gameplay and I learned the hard way not to do that in the campaign XD

[Pie Master]

Not an expert, but cant you banish them too?

[LezDole]

If you want to fall in love with this game, and enjoy it. Just dont play the campaign. The random map is just much better experience overall. I almost refunded it because of the campaign, and I would be very angry if I had done it so now, and would regretted it a lot.

[Move2Bastyon]

mods make this game amazing and random maps too

but some campaign missions I also really enjoyed and were extremely challenging and worth doing later when you get more experienced with the game

[Crimson.-]

Just go to the east and the south at the start of the archipielago campaign. Dont cap your elf cities and conquer the orc village in the island in the middle. From there try to explore the upper left to the mid left zone of the map while you upgrade THAT village until you can build shadow stalkers, getting all the chest and mana drops.
Once you got at least 4 or 5 shadow stalkers you can go east, starting with the giants village (and their quest maybe) and the first 2 elf cities. All of that while making at least 10 or 15 shadow stalkers and spreading into your leaders troops.
You must get the void skill in the Orc leader (i dont remember the exactly name atm), that skill that cost 70 mana and sorcery levels to be able to use that skill once per battle, With that skill you can even hold your base with that leader and some trash units.

[sinobas]

Shadow Stalkers are bad MFrs. If I know I'm going to encounter a Rogue, I make plenty of support units that have damage the shadow stalkers are not resistant too (storm sisters, forge priests, human priests, tiger mystics.

You can also use some lesser unit to be the sacrificial victim to engage the shadow stalker while the ranged units attack. Another trick with that, don't make that unit attack, just go up and defend so they last more rounds.

[sinobas]

Oh...another thing. You can get heros that can grant cold protection to your units. Druid-Warm at Night, Dreadnaught - Force Field

[KBz]

well, shadow stalker will look easy when you compare it with dread reaper. They can straight up murder you if you are not prepared. Plus they have invoke death, which somehow have a cooldown. That stuff will kill you or seriously maim you.

To kill shadowstalker is to have superior number alongside the mentioned support unit. Blight and cold resistance also help. Also, bring down the enemy production capacity because that stuff is build on the city.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

The difference is that Dread Reapers have obvious counters. They're very nasty if you're unprepared, but if you bring units with strong will and spirit or fire damage, especially if they're also immune or resistant to blight or cold damage or life drain...

For example, a Dreadnought flame tank is immune to all of their abilities and resists 2/3rds of their damage, whilst dealing damage they're vulnerable to.

Even if you don't have such a counter, abilities like the human priest's iron will or the warlord hero's blood brothers skill can make ordinary units immune to many of their nastier abilities.

Shadow Stalkers have few natural counters, which can make them more frustrating to fight.