What realms do you win fastest with?

[rgp151]

What realms d you win the fastest with, not counting 11 book strategies?

[rgp151]

I'd say death is by far the fastest to win with. The last few times I played Death I didn't even get into Very Rare spells. Typically by the time I have gotten Wraiths it's already almost over and Wraiths just seal the deal. Practically the only spells needed from Death are Ghouls, Black Sleep, Black Prayer, Shadow Demons and Wraiths. I hardly cast anything else. Wall of Darkness can be useful if against someone with a lot of ranged units, but it's rarely needed. 10 books with Conjurer is perhaps the most effective.

This seems to indicate pretty clearly that the Death summons are significantly overpowered.

After Death I'd say all Chaos is the next fastest. Probably all Chaos books with Conjurer + Chaos Mastery and possibly Archmage. This doesn't have the same mid-late game power as Death, but the start is typically better due to Hell Hounds. Still, with a solid start from Hell Hounds and expansive use of Doom Bats and/or Chimera, Flamestrike often caps things off. If not, then there are plenty of Very Rare spells that can end things quickly.

After that I'd say Sorcery, despite the weaker start, as once you get going Word of Recall and Flight and Magic Immunity can make for stacks that are able to really expand and conquer quickly.

Slowest of all I'd say is Life. Life is powerful and pretty solid, but lacks the ability to quickly win IMO, due in part to the slower and weaker starts due to lack of good summons. Just Cause can help you develop your town faster, but it doesn't make up for not being able to field a good army of fantastic units early on. I'm much more likely to use Very Rare spells with Life and Nature than any of the other realms.

[joonkp1976]

Well for me, it isn't about how fast you can beat the game more than how much of the game you exploit/clear... I like getting all 13 books and full retorts in my games...

[ibanix]

I'd say death is by far the fastest to win with. The last few times I played Death I didn't even get into Very Rare spells. Typically by the time I have gotten Wraiths it's already almost over and Wraiths just seal the deal. Practically the only spells needed from Death are Ghouls, Black Sleep, Black Prayer, Shadow Demons and Wraiths. I hardly cast anything else. Wall of Darkness can be useful if against someone with a lot of ranged units, but it's rarely needed. 10 books with Conjurer is perhaps the most effective.

This seems to indicate pretty clearly that the Death summons are significantly overpowered.

After Death I'd say all Chaos is the next fastest. Probably all Chaos books with Conjurer + Chaos Mastery and possibly Archmage. This doesn't have the same mid-late game power as Death, but the start is typically better due to Hell Hounds. Still, with a solid start from Hell Hounds and expansive use of Doom Bats and/or Chimera, Flamestrike often caps things off. If not, then there are plenty of Very Rare spells that can end things quickly.

After that I'd say Sorcery, despite the weaker start, as once you get going Word of Recall and Flight and Magic Immunity can make for stacks that are able to really expand and conquer quickly.

Slowest of all I'd say is Life. Life is powerful and pretty solid, but lacks the ability to quickly win IMO, due in part to the slower and weaker starts due to lack of good summons. Just Cause can help you develop your town faster, but it doesn't make up for not being able to field a good army of fantastic units early on. I'm much more likely to use Very Rare spells with Life and Nature than any of the other realms.

I know the thread says "without 11 books" (why the artificial condition?), but Life has an almost impossibly fast 11-book strategy: Guardian Spirits with Bless, Endurance and Invulnerability. You can wipe the map clear with a few of those.

[mxb2001]

I play for fun and relaxation. Not speed. So my answer is not listed since it is none of the above/irrelevant. : )

[rgp151]

Sorcery has always been very fast for me, and still is, along with Death, but I just played out a game on 1.5 hard that may have been the fastest I've done without 11 books and without any kind of amazing start.

It was Warlord+Alchemy, 4 Life books, 4 Nature books, Barbarians. Did a Spearman rush.

I used a single Spearman with Endurance, Heroism, Giant Strength and Water Walking, along with Earth Lore, to quickly find and take out the first two wizards. Then Sharee cracked a tower from Myrran so I tracked her down and took her out with 2 Cavalry and a hero. I think by that time I had Bless, Stone Skin and Resist Elements on them as well. I also took Healing as a starting spell to keep the Spearman topped up at first. Then I had to get water walking onto a stack to finally take out the last wizard with Cavalry and some heroes.

That initial Spearman was amazing. With all those buffs he was effectively like a Berserker unit. 8 figures with 8 attack each at +3 to hit. That's an average of 35 damage per attack, with almost half of the damage being done before contact!

[drake178]

I know the thread says "without 11 books" (why the artificial condition?), but Life has an almost impossibly fast 11-book strategy: Guardian Spirits with Bless, Endurance and Invulnerability. You can wipe the map clear with a few of those.

That doesn't work so well past v1.31. Part of the reason it's so excessively powerful there is the coding oversight that causes +To Block (gained from Prayer) to also apply -1 To Hit to enemy melee attackers. This is removed in v1.40 onward, making the IGS much easier to kill piece by piece, and limiting the types of opponents that it can destroy in larger numbers. Insignificant as this change may seem, it can easily mean the difference between victory and defeat against the third and fourth wizards, especially if the Myrran one is left last. But you shouldn't just believe me of course, you should try it, and see for yourself.

[rgp151]

I know the thread says "without 11 books" (why the artificial condition?), but Life has an almost impossibly fast 11-book strategy: Guardian Spirits with Bless, Endurance and Invulnerability. You can wipe the map clear with a few of those.

That doesn't work so well past v1.31. Part of the reason it's so excessively powerful there is the coding oversight that causes +To Block (gained from Prayer) to also apply -1 To Hit to enemy melee attackers. This is removed in v1.40 onward, making the IGS much easier to kill piece by piece, and limiting the types of opponents that it can destroy in larger numbers. Insignificant as this change may seem, it can easily mean the difference between victory and defeat against the third and fourth wizards, especially if the Myrran one is left last. But you shouldn't just believe me of course, you should try it, and see for yourself.

Yes, and it also depends on what difficulty you play. If you play on Hard or lower in 1.5 then these things can be doable, but on Extreme or Impossible it just ain't. They develop so insanely fast you can't possibly kill them all fast enough to just do it with a single GS. Taking Plane Shift does help, but even still. The other big problem is Sprites. As soon as they get Sprites up, you can't defeat them with a GS, the Sprites just won't attack and you can't win the fight. Also Alchemy. If they have Alchemy then they will still do significant damage through Invulnerability, which kind of ruins the strategy.

Its still a good strategy, but you can't just wipe the map like that in 1.4+ (On Extreme+).