tedious first experience for olympus

[Mooguy]

So i started campaign on hard, went through the first two small islands on the left of the main one - then moved to the island that is the 'forever winter.'

i switched to a bear, and actually died because i tested that the charge attack isnt indefinite and can get you killed if you charge multiple at once. thats okay, i guess ill start again.

i go back to the winter island, and am working with 4 archers/4 spears heading toward the second portal near the frozen goddess - the objective i presume.

this is where it gets awful.

ive probably spent an hour going back and fourth with the 4 spears/slingers trying to bring down the health of the portal.

what is happening is after about 4 slings hit the portal, a large head-banging greed appears with a fast crab greed behind it. this combo spawns every time. ive tried moving back slowly, but eventually a m spear dude gets caught by a small greed/big greed grab and pulls the formation back. so eventually after 1000 sling hits the crab/head-bang greed die.,

okay.

so i wait a bit for the soldiers to spawn back and go at it again.

well, just 4 tiny sling hits against the portal later , the grab/big greed slam head appears and we go through the whole ordeal again..

ive been doing this it least 10 times.

im presuming there must be a better mount with maybe a long-range attack, or an upgrade for the units - but it sure takes away from the mystery of the game when i start to have to think 'i neeed to do it in the right order' for it not to be a slog.

played all previous titles.

[teleshoes]

send knights like in previous games. you can also carry the banner with spears+boats+etc and walk alongside the knight attacks....but if i recall correctly, no crabs appear for regular knight assaults on small portals if you do not hold the banner. been awhile since i played through, but i think the game is just easier if you ignore the banner+boats :(

[teleshoes]

like, a portal assault with 6 knights and 24 archers will usually crush a small portal without any spears or boats

[Mooguy]

Im trying to think back to other dlcs/titles. Yes, you could have two squads join you.

But ive noticed i seem to only get one squad to join me in CoO so far in the campaign. even if ive stacked multiple spears/slings at the shop.

Is this something to do with needing to upgrade the Starting camp? Because i cant unlock stone until ive completed this island.

Originally posted by teleshoes:

like, a portal assault with 6 knights and 24 archers will usually crush a small portal without any spears or boats

[Mooguy]

Okay i figured it out. just needed my main campsite to be a higher lvl to have 4 squads.

[teleshoes]

in all two crowns, you can have unlimited knight squads attack, not just the two per side on the island. while you can only hire four on an island (without the knight hermit), you can bring up to 7 knights in the boats in olympus (3 on the main boat, one on each of the four miniboats). this means you can easily get 5 in one attack, and often you will need this.

also, try NOT using the flag+spears, and JUST sending 4 or 5 four-coin knight attacks. walk to the portal with your knights without the banner and see how they do. i think the portal defenders are weaker when you dont hold the flag, and that there are no crabs.

btw, i think the stone technology is always on the first big island you visit, and the iron technology is always on the second. it has been awhile tho, since ive played

[Mooguy]

Originally posted by teleshoes:

btw, i think the stone technology is always on the first big island you visit, and the iron technology is always on the second. it has been awhile tho, since ive played

Yes youre right. i couldn't make squads up until that point and was getting destroyed on that island until i unlocked the stone.

funny enough, even with the two squads + flag/spears, they were still getting decimated by the crab/head-thumper combo. it took about 4 tries with 18 dudes in each wave to get it.

i'll take your advice and try not to use the spear+flag, which is actually a little sad haha.

[teleshoes]

yea, i feel that! it is kinda sad. kingdom adds new exciting game features all the time that just aren't practical for strategic gameplay. for example, every DLC they add new incentives to expand your walls, and you just...never should. almost every mount, every hermit except in very narrrow cases, even basics like the catapults and arrow towers - they're all fun and thematic, but ultimately very rarely worth it strategically

[Stardustfire]

the banner is a noob trap. it is needed as long you dont get the first tech upgrade on the first big isle, but after that its a drawback to use it. the defenders get way waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy more stronger when you approach a portal with a banner instead of only sending knights.

catapults and arrow towers - they're all fun and thematic, but ultimately very rarely worth it strategically

not sure what game you talk about, but i guess you gone to the wrong forum for the wrong game.....

[teleshoes]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

the banner is a noob trap

yea, its a little bit sad. the devs clearly intend for you to keep using the flag, as you dont have all four boats until pretty late in the game, but once you have knights, the flag just makes the game harder with no benefit at all. (except for unlocking persephone from her cage, i think it doesn't make that defense any harder).

lol, as for the catapults/firebarrels and archer towers, these are also noob traps my friend. :D
the time it takes for you build these things is almost never worth the increase in the day count. neither is building more than 3 walls, total, on any map. speed is the most important strategy in any of the biomes.

[Stardustfire]

you shoud play on cursed than, its nearly impossible to dont loose walls/knights/other stuff without catapults thnx to the brute masses running your way very soon in the game....

[GKnight]

Originally posted by teleshoes:

speed is the most important strategy in any of the biomes.

Well, you're right, it's *one* strategy that works. If you're fast enough, you can even use the "bomb" squad to waltz through 3 portals and destroy the cave.

But it's only one of the strategies that work. I like to make things harder for myself and destroy the dock-side portals before going for the cave(s). And I wouldn't survive that without catapults and many (many) archers. One of my play-throughs was way over day 200...

And yeah, I played on the "cursed" difficulty and honestly I did't notice a big difference to "normal". Just saying...

[Stardustfire]

you see the ramp up most cleary at end of first winter, admit before that its only nuances in normal waves, but during retalation bigger gaps are earlier seeable (especialy when you do a complete cleanup at both sides, i stoped that, excluding in olympus and beeline onesided instead).

[teleshoes]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

you shoud play on cursed than, its nearly impossible to dont loose walls/knights/other stuff without catapults thnx to the brute masses running your way very soon in the game....

heh. my last call of olympus run was cursed, single reign, destroy all portals, finished on day 132. i could probably get it down to 110 without too much difficulty, and sub-100 would be a piece of cake without destroying all portals.

my norselands single-reign cursed difficulty day count is 85 with skipping small portals on each side, and day 132 with destroying all the small portals before the cave portal on each island.

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

admit before that its only nuances in normal waves

i played a 'normal' run through not too long ago just to check, and i agree. the difference starts out small but by day 50 its so easy you barely need to do anything.

Originally posted by GKnight:

But it's only one of the strategies that work. I like to make things harder for myself and destroy the dock-side portals before going for the cave(s). And I wouldn't survive that without catapults and many (many) archers. One of my play-throughs was way over day 200...

i agree that playing slowly and building up your defenses makes the game more challenging, and can thus make it more fun. i played a no statues, no powerups, no mounts norselands play thru once, and beating that single-reign was a nightmare of a slog. walls fall down like paper after day ~200. going back to destroy the caves took many boat trips from completed islands, dropping off teams of knights and escaping greed just in time to go back and do it again, and then survive a single night with enough to bomb squad.
but yea, i stand by the fact that speed is the most important strategic element. its easier to beat the game without the archer statue (easily the most important powerup) than it is to wait out two winters doing nothing.


edit: i also want to add that the no-powerups run was boring, tedious, took me SEVERAL failed attempts (once all the way on the last island with a cave left), and was probably the least fun i had playing kingdom, ever, even including plague island pre-hotfix. there were some nice fun bits in there, though. playing island6 was a challenge but it wasn't cartoonishly awful like returning to islands 1/2/3 afterwards.