King's Bounty

[sirdilznik]

It's been a long time since I've played strategy games. It was never one of my favorite genres, I can name 3 right off the top of my head I like more (RPG, Point 'n' Click Adventure, Racing). Still I used to play and enjoy these types of games on a somewhat consistent basis way back in the day (Lord known I sank countless hours into Dune 2. Good times.) but I had gotten away from the genre in the past half decade or so.

Anyway when I scooped up my 3DS one of the two games I got with it was Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, and I've been having so much fun with it and loving it so much that it rekindled my passion for strategy games, turn-based strategy in particular. So when I saw GOG was having a sale on King's Bounty amongst other 1C games I jumped at the chance and got the game ridiculously cheap, plus a couple other games. Frankly the game doesn't completely fit the description of GOG: Good - Check. Old: No check. Game: Check. But whatever, it's a good game and I paid about as much as 3 cups of coffee for it so I'm not complaining.

So I've been playing the game for a while now and I'm thoroughly impressed. For those that don't know it's a bit like Heroes of Might & Magic. I didn't put this in the RPG section despite the fact that it's got definite RPG elements because it's first and foremost a turn-based strategy game. I'm sure I'm still in the beginning stages of the game with a Level 7 Warrior (nearing level eight) and my army of Bowmen, Swordsmen, Royal Snakes, Bears, and Priests (I'm currently fighting undead so Priests are really useful, against most other creatures they pretty much suck) and the game is really well made and really fun from what I've seen. I'm still refining my strategy but I can beat "Very Weak" enemies with zero casualties every time, "Weak" enemies with zero casualties most of the time, "Slightly Weaker" enemies sometimes with zero casualties, usually with minimal casualties, and "Match" enemies usually with only a few casualties. Against "Sightly Stronger" enemies I will pretty much always win with light to significant casualties. Against "Strong" enemies I'll win maybe about 60% of the time but my casualties will be quite heavy. I've never beaten an "Overpowering" enemy yet.

Anyway has anyone played this game? If so what do you think? Any tips?

[ManusDei]

Very fun story, but somewhat too much combat to my taste.

Only played a Paladin so far. Try getting a wife quickly, and have kids, they bring interesting bonus. Spells (non-damage) are very usefull, you can stack some scrolls to compensate for lack off mana.

Other than that... I don't know.

[llew silverhand]

I played a bit - then had to reformat my PC, and never fired it back up. It's definitely fun, IMHO - the combat can be challenging, depending on your army. I picked up Armored Princess on D2D last summer, haven't gotten around to playing that yet.

[Systius]

Chances are at this point you don't need any advice. But for an army I kept the bowmen and got elves and hunters as soon as I could. There is an artifact. Name escaping me at the moment that doubles the attack of bow using units. I kept priests and royal snakes with the 2 upgraded snake rings. Name also escaping me ATM to increase the snakes attack by 6 combined as poison damage. With this set up you can generally slaughter most enemy stacks. Royal snakes do the most damage of any unit in game cause of their low leadership cost and moderate damage per unit. Coupled with those rings and they MURDER stuff. But double the attack of your archer units and they give the snakes a run.

One of the more useful gimmicks to exploit in game is the time back On the keepers rage attack. Send in the snakes to take some shots and quickly murder a stack then timeback to completely replenish their numbers. Also you can use gift to allow your priests to ressurect more often and the sacrifice spell to build units back to max.

With this set up leadership is your most important value as a warrior and likely pally as well second is attack power. Stack those with the tricks I listed and you will MURDER your opponents. As for the wife the demon wife is the best cause she allows you to use 2 weapons for her slots and children are a bad idea. They eat up item slots on your wife and the are completely random. Until you get to demonis stick with the frog wife. Forgive me for not remembering names. I don't feel like looking them up and it has been a while.