![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I was right about the Swan's Pool being easier on the serpent side. The lotus who attack do so in smaller groups and their hero waits until the very end when he's all alone to charge in. It doesn't hurt that you start with three crossbowmen and right next to a thieves guild. With weakness bolts you chew right through the lotus. Weakness bolts + Critical strike = $$$.
That being said both battles for Serpentholm are a PITA for the serpent. The first time you fight to take Serpentholm the wolf and lotus generally ignore each other to attack you. The second battle is the hardest scenario in Battle Realms. You fight two camps of wolf and dragon and start in a really crappy base right next to the wolf. On my first playthrough I managed to destroy that wolf base after many a reset. Many, MANY resets and still lost Kenji to destroy the tower they start with.
This time I ran south and gutted the weaker dragon camp. It took a couple of tries to keep them from partially rebuilding and costing me precious time to wipe them out and get facilities up and running. If you aren't fast enough the wolf will deploy an attack squad and come rushing in from the east side.
To give an idea of just how hard this scenario is I've been playing the game on the highest difficulty setting up until now. Normal is usually too easy. With this battle the sheer number of enemy troops makes it challenging. I probably could have cleared it on hard but I was getting grumpy and tired of being stun slammed, stun speared, and flash powdered. The main difference between the two is that the AI uses more battle gear on hard. Not to mention being up to my proverbial eyeballs in werewolves. The average attack squad is only slightly larger on hard, moreso in skirmishes then story mode. The main difference is the AI uses battle gear more effectively--which is to say that on engagement the gear starts flying all over the place.
At least in Kenji's journey there are no guardians to concussion smash.
I am soooo sick of hearing them shout "Taste my power!" and "Retribution will follow!"
The best combo I've developed for the serpent against the wolf in story mode is to form two attack squads. The main force has two ronin tanks bloodbonded to Shinja and Kenji with a fan geisha each. Three or four musketeers armed chiefly with explosive rounds to deal with werewolves (and groups) alongside a pair of crossbowmen with weakness bolts. An extra geisha assigned to the artillery will be critical when you are swarmed. Any fewer then three fan geisha in an assault squad is screaming Kill Me. Add on additional units as needed.
For best results buy the Art of Love and Poisoned Weapons upgrades. All fan geisha should have razor fans. Keep razor fans and weakness bolts activated when idling. That way when an enemy is spotted the crossbowmen will fire the bolts on their first shot for a quick kill.
The second attack squad is all raiders armed with a combination of caltrops and brush fire. There is a 30 caltrop max to the number that can be active at any time so no more then three raiders (each unit will have 10 caltrops each) should be armed thus. Use brush fire to burn away any trees around your base and in your path. Trees are evil. They block ranged attacks, limit sight, and the AI will try to hide in them. Put them to the torch.
This group will pull, burn down towers, and provide general back-up for the main squad. Raiders run fast but they'll be overtaken by cavalry unless they have caltrops active. Position the main squad away from the enemy base with a clear running path. Any trees nearby should be destroyed. Set them on stand ground with the tanks in front. Now run the raider squad out to attack a building. When you see enemy troops running to them flee to the main squad and let them kill the defenders. Wash, rinse, repeat until all critical enemy structures are eliminated. Then send in both teams to clean up and run reinforcements to them as necessary.
If the raiders are pursued by an enemy force that is too large instead run away from your main squad and switch to proximity pulling. Send a lone raider to get just close enough to where the enemy troops are gathering so that he is spotted and drag those that give chase back for killing. If you are particularly adept at multitasking you can kite the bigger force around while others kill the stragglers.
I've just started the last battle today and this system has worked very well so far. I've recruited Vetkin, Utara, and Budo and opted to bind the ninja to me. Budo is pretty useless except as a blood bonding but the last time I did the serpent story mode I only had Shinja and Vetkin for the last stages. Now I use Utara in my main assault squad for her short-range stuns. The AI is actually pretty good about avoiding hitting her but in a swarm it's inevitable.
Now let's see, what other difficulties have I had? The battle to win the necromancer was easy. Just disable the zombie generators then run a musketeer up to the summit ignoring the spirit warriors. The scenario after that was harder. Destroying a dragon village with Shinja, two fan geisha, a raider, a bandit, and the necromancer isn't easy. I lost one geisha and the raider to the ambush squad. Fortunately the necromancer can summon three spirit warriors and can zombify any nearby corpses at the cost of stamina. So I sent in my spirit warriors to focus on buildings not caring if they were destroyed.
My main beef with the serpent story is the low population cap you're stuck with. In the second to last battle the max is 40 but the last and most battles is only 30. Retaking Serpentholm would be less annoying if you had a higher body count. You start out with four enemy bases on a cramped map. For the final serpent scenario there are four wolf encampments but it's best to immediately eliminate the smallest and take over that space as your own. It's cramped but there is only one narrow entrance. You start with the necromancer so there's no reason to build a throne unless he gets killed. With a 30 man cap I'm not exactly looking forward to the slow, steady crawl to wipe each enemy base.
That will be done...probably tomorrow.
This time I ran south and gutted the weaker dragon camp. It took a couple of tries to keep them from partially rebuilding and costing me precious time to wipe them out and get facilities up and running. If you aren't fast enough the wolf will deploy an attack squad and come rushing in from the east side.
To give an idea of just how hard this scenario is I've been playing the game on the highest difficulty setting up until now. Normal is usually too easy. With this battle the sheer number of enemy troops makes it challenging. I probably could have cleared it on hard but I was getting grumpy and tired of being stun slammed, stun speared, and flash powdered. The main difference between the two is that the AI uses more battle gear on hard. Not to mention being up to my proverbial eyeballs in werewolves. The average attack squad is only slightly larger on hard, moreso in skirmishes then story mode. The main difference is the AI uses battle gear more effectively--which is to say that on engagement the gear starts flying all over the place.
At least in Kenji's journey there are no guardians to concussion smash.
I am soooo sick of hearing them shout "Taste my power!" and "Retribution will follow!"
The best combo I've developed for the serpent against the wolf in story mode is to form two attack squads. The main force has two ronin tanks bloodbonded to Shinja and Kenji with a fan geisha each. Three or four musketeers armed chiefly with explosive rounds to deal with werewolves (and groups) alongside a pair of crossbowmen with weakness bolts. An extra geisha assigned to the artillery will be critical when you are swarmed. Any fewer then three fan geisha in an assault squad is screaming Kill Me. Add on additional units as needed.
For best results buy the Art of Love and Poisoned Weapons upgrades. All fan geisha should have razor fans. Keep razor fans and weakness bolts activated when idling. That way when an enemy is spotted the crossbowmen will fire the bolts on their first shot for a quick kill.
The second attack squad is all raiders armed with a combination of caltrops and brush fire. There is a 30 caltrop max to the number that can be active at any time so no more then three raiders (each unit will have 10 caltrops each) should be armed thus. Use brush fire to burn away any trees around your base and in your path. Trees are evil. They block ranged attacks, limit sight, and the AI will try to hide in them. Put them to the torch.
This group will pull, burn down towers, and provide general back-up for the main squad. Raiders run fast but they'll be overtaken by cavalry unless they have caltrops active. Position the main squad away from the enemy base with a clear running path. Any trees nearby should be destroyed. Set them on stand ground with the tanks in front. Now run the raider squad out to attack a building. When you see enemy troops running to them flee to the main squad and let them kill the defenders. Wash, rinse, repeat until all critical enemy structures are eliminated. Then send in both teams to clean up and run reinforcements to them as necessary.
If the raiders are pursued by an enemy force that is too large instead run away from your main squad and switch to proximity pulling. Send a lone raider to get just close enough to where the enemy troops are gathering so that he is spotted and drag those that give chase back for killing. If you are particularly adept at multitasking you can kite the bigger force around while others kill the stragglers.
I've just started the last battle today and this system has worked very well so far. I've recruited Vetkin, Utara, and Budo and opted to bind the ninja to me. Budo is pretty useless except as a blood bonding but the last time I did the serpent story mode I only had Shinja and Vetkin for the last stages. Now I use Utara in my main assault squad for her short-range stuns. The AI is actually pretty good about avoiding hitting her but in a swarm it's inevitable.
Now let's see, what other difficulties have I had? The battle to win the necromancer was easy. Just disable the zombie generators then run a musketeer up to the summit ignoring the spirit warriors. The scenario after that was harder. Destroying a dragon village with Shinja, two fan geisha, a raider, a bandit, and the necromancer isn't easy. I lost one geisha and the raider to the ambush squad. Fortunately the necromancer can summon three spirit warriors and can zombify any nearby corpses at the cost of stamina. So I sent in my spirit warriors to focus on buildings not caring if they were destroyed.
My main beef with the serpent story is the low population cap you're stuck with. In the second to last battle the max is 40 but the last and most battles is only 30. Retaking Serpentholm would be less annoying if you had a higher body count. You start out with four enemy bases on a cramped map. For the final serpent scenario there are four wolf encampments but it's best to immediately eliminate the smallest and take over that space as your own. It's cramped but there is only one narrow entrance. You start with the necromancer so there's no reason to build a throne unless he gets killed. With a 30 man cap I'm not exactly looking forward to the slow, steady crawl to wipe each enemy base.
That will be done...probably tomorrow.
◾ Tags:
