Doctor Marjatta

[Ginnungagap]

This wielder is insane. Constantly smashing my troops with the best destruction/creation/arcana magic. In my first run through the first song campaign she was a constant thorn in my side. Always softening me up and ruining entire runs for me, forcing me to start over now knowing the entire map and using that knowledge to out smart her. This wasn't too bad in the first song because having lots of ranged troops you could war of attrition her faction down and those pesky necromancer troops. But in the second song campaign with the slow guards and chelun troops and only shamans and a few eth'dra she is impossible for me to kill. Does anyone have a secret to killing her in map 3 of song 2 campaign?

[madracc00n]

Bird riders works pretty well if u spam them,or u can bait her into attacking u while defending good settlement.

[Syiss]

I just tried this map, I hate Marjatta with all my heart now. Every time I kill her she takes most of my army with her, then shes right back with another full army. I turtled up in my main base and killed her full army 5 times, then she showed up LITERALLY 2 turns later, which doesnt seem possible given the distance between our bases, but at this point I had blown through all my resources and couldnt fight off her ANOTHER 100 rats AND 100 toxicologists.

I already know the mistake I made though, which is that I didn't find the glimmerweave mine up in the north until like 50 turns in, which cost me a lot of resources since I wasn't able to upgrade my troop buildings and had to fight off the first few armies with basic troops. If you beeline for it you can probably get by like turn 15-20 (maybe sooner, I forget how strong the enemies in front of it are), and have upgraded tier 1/2 units before you even take on Marjatta the first time.

I also think it would be beneficial to use the new hero instead of your main guy, since he has an inherent 40% magic resistance AND starts off with level 1 magic resistance skill (gives an extra 25% magic resistance), which would be extremely beneficial fighting Marjatta.

Just need to make sure not to forget to level up your main hero before finishing the map, in case he is important in the final map of the campaign.

[Ciuy]

game combat speed is ridiculously high and battlefield is to small. Combat is toxic & very tight with zero room to maneuver anywhere except headlock frontal brawl.

[Ginnungagap]

I finally beat it after 3 tries and like 6+ hours. Doctor M never stops coming from their massive base through the portals. It's 2 turns before they're back in your face. I let them clear the path to the glimmerweave mine and only used the turtle wielder because he has better magic skills and magic resist. This helped a ton. Then I stacked the ravagers, shamans, lil froggies and giant turtles. Eventually I was able to fend her off with losing only a few troops.

Because the map is all portals I had no idea I could get to the dragon egg without taking their base. But by the time I realized that I had already destroyed Dr M. But again with them invading every 2 turns there was really only two ways to beat this map. 1) use turtle to defend constantly while frog wielder gets egg. Which probably takes longer or unlikely unless you know the map inside and out or 2) use turtle hero to eventually destroy Dr M. settlement and then chill and stomp your way to the egg.

I just didn't find the mission very fun overall as there wasn't really much flexibility in how to win. Maybe it's because I'm so used to playing HOMM. But if you didn't use the turtle hero to fend off the boss and didn't stack ravagers and ranged units then I bet there is no way you can win.

This seems like a game where you have to counter whatever your enemies strategy is but I'm not sure that's something you can just change on the fly once you've committed to it for 20-40 turns.

[badger vortex]

Here's the thing, just don't fight him, bounce through portals and get the dragon egg. You then have a free army of dragons to kill the main enemy. If you do happen to aggro him, it is possible to confuse the a.i. into taking a longer path, or if you move far away enough they might start attacking your town instead.

[FredDie]

Yep, dont fight him...Its not hard to kill, but he will come back in 3 turns with 200 rats and 80 toxicologist. Its scripted sadly. Just build big army to win all fights up to the egg and then push.

[madracc00n]

Originally posted by FredDie:

Yep, dont fight him...Its not hard to kill, but he will come back in 3 turns with 200 rats and 80 toxicologist. Its scripted sadly. Just build big army to win all fights up to the egg and then push.

Nah it is not scripted,i beaten the undead fairly easily and they only bring big army maybe 1-2 times after that they dont have alot of troops left.U probably expanding way too slowly aswell.Since Ai starts with builded town and gets troops everyturn so their reserves could be huge by turn 50+.

[Takiro]

I tied this mission 4 times until I beat it. I didn't fight the wielder directly I rushed for the first tiny settlement and build a rally point there, this was at turn 15, I ignored every fight on the way that I could. so I basically still had my full army restocked at the settlement the enemy once owned and then they came at turn 20 or so.

the turtle guy stayed at the first one past the portal and inside since they had no units ( gave it to the frog at the start), he slowly restocked through a rally point.

I ran to the city while the enemy was taking the small settlement i captured back and roamed the area for a while, cleared the area of enemies for me. I took over their main base, was doable without the wielder present and converted it. After it was my town I could restock my losses from the already present buildings. The AI then seemed to be confused which gave me some time restock. My plan was to fight them while they take the city back but the enemy didn't dare after I built the walls.

I then carefully tracked back to the second small settlement and took it back. I was awaiting the attack from inside. While gathering more troops from the (now two) main bases. The AI didn't seem to know what to do, went north for a while and then into the direction of the starting base and eventually ceased to exist on their way there after being without any settlements and cities for too long. Now, after the enemy was gone I was free to explore the area.

Previously I tried to rush for the egg but lost to many units on may way there.

[Goemoe]

I believe you should not need a strange way to win a map, or know a map inside out. Where is the fun of sxploring here?
After reading all your posts I think this script or the doctor need to be patched. It is a game and a game should be fun. If it is intended not to fight her, the game should hint at it.

[FredDie]

Originally posted by Goemoe:

I believe you should not need a strange way to win a map, or know a map inside out. Where is the fun of sxploring here?
After reading all your posts I think this script or the doctor need to be patched. It is a game and a game should be fun. If it is intended not to fight her, the game should hint at it.

+1. If you explore and chill, you are done.

[Seswatha]

I've beaten him with relative ease, but it's probably because I have experience from skirmishes before getting into campaign and know good builds.

You're granted P'Cha in this mission, who most likely is a far better hero than your higher level Rasc (and will also accompany you into the next mission). So focus on leveling him first.

He has:
Magic resist - 2
Arcana - 2
Creation - 2

Which is pretty much perfect for countering the Doctor, prioritize getting these to 3 and maybe getting a bit more command. At higher levels I would add destruction & channeling into the mix. (Order would be great for t3 strengthen essence but chances of rolling it with Rana are low)

Strategy: Use Elder Chelun, as much as you can buy, have some full stacks if you can afford it and fill the rest of the troop cells with 1s. Don't use any other units, they'll just die. Elder Chelun are extremely tanky vs ranged attacks, vs magic you have your 115% magic resist (you still take some damage, it's either capped or the spell damage boost counteracts it somewhat but you take very little) and vs melee you can buff them with 75% melee resist spell. Focus on trapping enemy troops where they can't attack you by spamming earth block and pushing them away with repel into positions where they are not a threat and cover it with acid clouds. Spam channel with Chelun, although with your big stack you can bonk people if someone gets into melee. The AI is actually relatively smart and may sometimes cast destroy essence on you, but it's not smart enough to keep spamming it, so you might need to tank though a couple of rounds. Eventually you'll have mana to dimension door your big Chelun stack into their ranged units and bonk them to death. Destroy essence gets worse as you upgrade your command and have some unaffected Chelun stacks.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809912221

Eventually you'll get enough Chelun and a high enough level to defeat him like 3-4 times in a row without going back at which point you can just push out and take his castle. It doesn't take too long, I've beaten him maybe 6-7 times until he was dead and probably could've taken him out earlier but I didn't know the map.

Rasc could take him too in theory but would need a much bigger army you don't have time to build, so I would use Rasc to keep clearing neutrals behind this while P'Cha deals with the necromancer.

P.S. P'Cha showing Merkoth who's boss in the next mission (he has like 15 turtles for an army) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809913150

[jetsetsoaper]

IDK what im doing wrong, but i legit cannot do anything. She has more movement speed than i do, and can chase me down; she can easily kill 30+ troops with her 9 troops, she has 3 troops of high legions, which have double the HP and double the defense of my queens guards, ive explored the map in three directions with the 3 wielders the entire time, and i have not found any thing to help against power like this.

even with 2 fully upgraded guard towers, a full garrison, and 8 troops, i can hardly put a dent in her army. then she captures my town in 1 turn, and chases down my next wielder.

worst of all, the difficulty feels great until i "trigger" something that causes all 3 of their wielders to attack me at the same time. All with insane magic damage, and all with high legions.

the same thing happened to me in mission 2. no enemy wielders for the first half, then 2 at the same time. at least i was able to win that one, even if it cost me a few towns.

[Wondervice]

Originally posted by Takiro:

I tied this mission 4 times until I beat it. I didn't fight the wielder directly I rushed for the first tiny settlement and build a rally point there, this was at turn 15, I ignored every fight on the way that I could. so I basically still had my full army restocked at the settlement the enemy once owned and then they came at turn 20 or so.

the turtle guy stayed at the first one past the portal and inside since they had no units ( gave it to the frog at the start), he slowly restocked through a rally point.

I ran to the city while the enemy was taking the small settlement i captured back and roamed the area for a while, cleared the area of enemies for me. I took over their main base, was doable without the wielder present and converted it. After it was my town I could restock my losses from the already present buildings. The AI then seemed to be confused which gave me some time restock. My plan was to fight them while they take the city back but the enemy didn't dare after I built the walls.

I then carefully tracked back to the second small settlement and took it back. I was awaiting the attack from inside. While gathering more troops from the (now two) main bases. The AI didn't seem to know what to do, went north for a while and then into the direction of the starting base and eventually ceased to exist on their way there after being without any settlements and cities for too long. Now, after the enemy was gone I was free to explore the area.

Previously I tried to rush for the egg but lost to many units on may way there.

You bet wrong.
I only used Rasc, and fought them head on. As long as you are aggressive you should be more than a match for the AI on that map.
You should take settlements early, but you should also fight neutrals as they give you resources and xp. By this time, you should be able to take on equal size or larger neutral armies with close to zero losses. You have a wielder, they do not.

[Lavapotion]

Originally posted by jetsetsoaper:

IDK what im doing wrong, but i legit cannot do anything. She has more movement speed than i do, and can chase me down; she can easily kill 30+ troops with her 9 troops, she has 3 troops of high legions, which have double the HP and double the defense of my queens guards, ive explored the map in three directions with the 3 wielders the entire time, and i have not found any thing to help against power like this.

even with 2 fully upgraded guard towers, a full garrison, and 8 troops, i can hardly put a dent in her army. then she captures my town in 1 turn, and chases down my next wielder.

worst of all, the difficulty feels great until i "trigger" something that causes all 3 of their wielders to attack me at the same time. All with insane magic damage, and all with high legions.

the same thing happened to me in mission 2. no enemy wielders for the first half, then 2 at the same time. at least i was able to win that one, even if it cost me a few towns.

Would you mind telling me what difficulty you where playing? A lot has happened (and a lot of time has passed) since the start of this thread SO I want to be sure I answer from the correct place as it is.

[jetsetsoaper]

Im on "fair" difficulty ( the easiest), and im on mission 4 of the first campaign. But it feels completely broken. I tried restarting the 4th mission from scratch, but i got jumped on my 16th round, by a guy whos cultists have over double the defense of my queens guard.

im no noob to strategy games, so this feels downright broken. Here is a link to the other thread that has more info:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/867210/discussions/0/4364628251564282187/