Best strategies for lunatic (CoM II)?

[zuzzu]

Hello everyone!

What are the current best strategies to play against lunatic, with CoM II?

I've been trying a sorcery + nature run (focus magic, flying sprites; aura of majesty; etc). 

I'd like to try a new one with death, or perhaps with fire.

Suggestions are welcome!

[GMBarak]

This is my strategy:
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...?tid=10818

it's 4 life, 4 sorcery, 1 nature,
Artificer, Archmage and Astrologer,
I was able to win a few games in Phantas, 13 wizards, normal map with the high elves.
Chose the spells:
Blur - can trade for any sorcery spell,
Confusion - can kill monster easily.
Phantom warriors - can kill nagas 70% in node and can kill all air elementals, you need 28 SP to cast them twice, send a spearman.
Heroism,
Just cause - will increase your income and allow you to hire 10 fame heroes
holy armor - very important to heroes who will get hit.

Build order: Market, magic market, stables, 2-3 cavalry.
You can clear the easy lairs with the cavalry for example phantom warriors (use the first strike - attack and move back) node/lairs, nodes/lairs that you cast confusion and evade the monsters with the cavalry 5 movement and also use their first strike if the monsters have low hit points after a battle with your phantom warriors.

create 1 movement + pathfinding artifact and save money (500 gold with 10 fame) for the hero coming after June 1502. if you get archer make bow with exorcise and +1 movement. if you get a mage, make wand with exorcise and +1 movement.

A few examples:
An good archer archer with 5 movement can clear 2 dragons node/tower (huntress) by itself
zaldron can clear 7 vampires with 6 movement and the exorcise staff/wand (maybe you will also want to send 4 spearman to stand in the front in the start of the battle).
cavalry can clear lair and towers (not nodes) with gorgons/Cockatrices using confusion.
just remember to case resist magic/resist element on the unit your confusion worked on so they will kill the other gorgons/Cockatrices and not die themselves.

Also, block other wizards from settling near you, discovering your cities, especially chaos wizards so they cannot cast harmful spells on your cities and their soundings and from taking nodes/lairs near you using spearmen/trireme etc...

You can see example here of a spell of mastery win at about 1518:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

If you have questions, feel free to write them...

[zuzzu]

This is my strategy:
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...?tid=10818

it's 4 life, 4 sorcery, 1 nature,
Artificer, Archmage and Astrologer,
I was able to win a few games in Phantas, 13 wizards, normal map with the high elves.
Chose the spells:
Blur - can trade for any sorcery spell,
Confusion - can kill monster easily.
Phantom warriors - can kill nagas 70% in node and can kill all air elementals, you need 28 SP to cast them twice, send a spearman.
Heroism,
Just cause - will increase your income and allow you to hire 10 fame heroes
holy armor - very important to heroes who will get hit.

Build order: Market, magic market, stables, 2-3 cavalry.
You can clear the easy lairs with the cavalry for example phantom warriors (use the first strike - attack and move back) node/lairs, nodes/lairs that you cast confusion and evade the monsters with the cavalry 5 movement and also use their first strike if the monsters have low hit points after a battle with your phantom warriors.

create 1 movement + pathfinding artifact and save money (500 gold with 10 fame) for the hero coming after June 1502. if you get archer make bow with exorcise and +1 movement. if you get a mage, make wand with exorcise and +1 movement.

A few examples:
An good archer archer with 5 movement can clear 2 dragons node/tower (huntress) by itself
zaldron can clear 7 vampires with 6 movement and the exorcise staff/wand (maybe you will also want to send 4 spearman to stand in the front in the start of the battle).
cavalry can clear lair and towers (not nodes) with gorgons/Cockatrices using confusion.
just remember to case resist magic/resist element on the unit your confusion worked on so they will kill the other gorgons/Cockatrices and not die themselves.

Also, block other wizards from settling near you, discovering your cities, especially chaos wizards so they cannot cast harmful spells on your cities and their soundings and from taking nodes/lairs near you using spearmen/trireme etc...

You can see example here of a spell of mastery win at about 1518:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

If you have questions, feel free to write them...

Great, fantastic tips.
Do you have any strategy where there is one primary spell realm? e.g. 8 or 10 books with death, or chaos, or nature?

[GMBarak]

This is my strategy:
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...?tid=10818

it's 4 life, 4 sorcery, 1 nature,
Artificer, Archmage and Astrologer,
I was able to win a few games in Phantas, 13 wizards, normal map with the high elves.
Chose the spells:
Blur - can trade for any sorcery spell,
Confusion - can kill monster easily.
Phantom warriors - can kill nagas 70% in node and can kill all air elementals, you need 28 SP to cast them twice, send a spearman.
Heroism,
Just cause - will increase your income and allow you to hire 10 fame heroes
holy armor - very important to heroes who will get hit.

Build order: Market, magic market, stables, 2-3 cavalry.
You can clear the easy lairs with the cavalry for example phantom warriors (use the first strike - attack and move back) node/lairs, nodes/lairs that you cast confusion and evade the monsters with the cavalry 5 movement and also use their first strike if the monsters have low hit points after a battle with your phantom warriors.

create 1 movement + pathfinding artifact and save money (500 gold with 10 fame) for the hero coming after June 1502. if you get archer make bow with exorcise and +1 movement. if you get a mage, make wand with exorcise and +1 movement.

A few examples:
An good archer archer with 5 movement can clear 2 dragons node/tower (huntress) by itself
zaldron can clear 7 vampires with 6 movement and the exorcise staff/wand (maybe you will also want to send 4 spearman to stand in the front in the start of the battle).
cavalry can clear lair and towers (not nodes) with gorgons/Cockatrices using confusion.
just remember to case resist magic/resist element on the unit your confusion worked on so they will kill the other gorgons/Cockatrices and not die themselves.

Also, block other wizards from settling near you, discovering your cities, especially chaos wizards so they cannot cast harmful spells on your cities and their soundings and from taking nodes/lairs near you using spearmen/trireme etc...

You can see example here of a spell of mastery win at about 1518:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

If you have questions, feel free to write them...

Great, fantastic tips.
Do you have any strategy where there is one primary spell realm? e.g. 8 or 10 books with death, or chaos, or nature?

if I had to win with death, I think I would focus on creating undead from monsters in nodes and rampaging monsters, if I had to win with chaos, I think I would focus on creating chaos creature and damaging the other players cities/tiles, to win with nature, I guess I would focus on summons. I would also try to lvl up my heroes and use any artifact I get my hand on to the max.

Seravy wrote a few lines about the strengths and weaknesses of each school before the listing of the spells, I recommend you read that if you look for a good strat in each of them. if I had to play with only 1 of these schools I think I would only be able to win at Master difficulty and below.

[Anskiy]

Chaos is very difficult to play well on its own, its early game is pretty crap and Gargoyles don't pack enough of a punch to handle any serious threats.

Nature is fairly middle of the road, Sprites are good lair breakers but have lots of blind spots, Giant Spiders are strong fighters but struggle against anything resisting Poison, Cockatrices have a good resist based attack but low regular attack power, and Great Lizard is vulnerable to a million resist based effects, despite being strong on paper. Their high end summons, specifically Stone Giants and Colossi, are pretty good, but come a bit too late, and on high difficulties you need to hit the road running.

Death has a fairly good early game with Ghouls and Werewolves, but then struggles to transition to anything solid. Its best bet really is to farm undead from rampaging monsters/lairs, and use them to sweep over its foes before they become too strong. Later on, it struggles to put up a good fight, as it lacks powerful general purpose summons, and undead creation falls off until you get Demons. It also has a wide array of counters, from Life's banishes to Nature's stoning attacks. Night Stalkers are a cute game changer in the right situations, though.

None of them are good enough to win Lunatic or Phantasmal imo, unless you set the number of opponents very low and get to rush them all down quickly with early game summons.