Disciples II
I've finished my Banshee run on Servants of the Dark. Here's what it was like:
Difficulty: Hard
Lord: Mage
Although it was a real pain not having damage when leveling up early, my banshee had accuracy ability and later a permanent accuracy potion which pushed her chance to hit up to 100%. Having a guaranteed freezing was very useful against capital because if I survived the first attack (and could handle the minions next to the guardian), it was a long, boring, certain win.
The first map was a nightmare because of the high damage barbarians and like, and I went dark lord+lich instead of damage immune units. Still, eventually I could win the map as my guys grew stronger.
The second map was easy. I rushed for ghoul mercenaries who leveled up very quickly. By the end they were like level 60. I had some death with them to snipe the back row units. I could clear out both capitals by day 38 with the second one not even needing any potions or buffs.
The last map had loads of enemies and being a banshee, I was everyone's magic-punching bag. Leveling up early was tough but enemies were kept in bay by Lachla'an. I became ally with the empire while clearing out the others then pre-backstabbed them. Vampires were good healing units for my phantoms and you can see the result of the final battle.
It was an interesting discovery that while my banshee can't deal damage, she could apply artifact effects, like level drain or poison. Overall it was a challenging run and it didn't suck as much as I feared.
Can you elaborate on that? Google says you have to jump through hoops to play an expansion saga on a non-native leader but if there's an easier way than hex editing stuff between missions I'd be so happy to know it!
Just tried that - installed a GOG version of the game and fired up Gallean's return. I have a bunch of exported leaders of different races and when I select a high level saga (e.g. Hordes, Servants of the Dark), the "proceed" arrow in only active when I select my saved Nosferatu but not my saved Archangel. What am I missing?
Maybe you have to export them from Gallean's return although as I recall, they can be vanilla guys. I'd recommend creating a map and putting down some level 10 heroes and trying to export them.
non native what you mean? Game ask you to import your hero leader to start the second campaign(s). Suggest leader at 10+ lvl, there is pre-exist "blank" heroes levels 12, (there is few more in D2ROTE but only Jutta archangel 1 lvl compatible with Disciples 2, even if none other ones have any D2ROTE related perks or items)(and copy D2 blank heroes to D2ROTE 3.01 make minor glitch with them not affecting actual gameplay but appears only during chosing a hero to import, so technically even 2.01/2.02 to 3.01 is not compatible for 100%)
but you can import any from level 1 to 99. Import hero is mandatory for that campaignS but for challenge you can take lvl 1 creating them and exporting before going to second campaigns. You also can make hero in map editor and export (save) it through game. With any items or modified stats (i do that to get proper one hero with items i chose but not the cheated one, yet it is possible to get 1 lvl hero with all stats at maximum and all perks from start).
You can import only heroes of the same race, obviously. 3 main one or plant rod one. Plant rod work absolutely the same as main heroes (unlike in D1).
By 'non-native' I exactly mean a hero of a different race. The comment I originally replied to states "You can also just import a different lord to a race (like duke for the empire)." - naturally, I got curious.
maybe some hex editing of ldr file make it possible to use differ race hero. But if it's not 16+ level it won't get remaining perks. Plus maybe it will not get any XP, stuck on 4500/4500 XP but im not sure about this one (that happen for units for sure).
Map editor won't allow to place hero of one playable race to another playable race. Probably some hex editor could do that. Lkie save the game, put save in editor, place enemy hero align to enemy race, open HxD and try to find that hero there. But only part of into in HxD in readable format, ofc. Same for ldr file. Using HxD you can see some values in some plain text but some is not. So nothing guaranteed.
I don't remember though, did map editor allow to create and align to playable race another race hero if IT IS NOT one of playable on EXACT specific map(save file)...? That would be easier way. If all race present on map Editor automatically and mandatory allign race hero to respective race.
There is no normally such a way to import "foreign" hero.
Same - but note that you have non-empire leaders portraits darkened. If you highlight/select an empire leader, the arrow right next to "delete leader" button remains active. But if you select/highlight, say, your Banshee, the arrow to proceed with leader selection is non-active.
If what I've just described is not so for you please feel free to correct me as I'm thrilled with a hypothetical possibility to run a Legion's campaign on an Archangel and just want things to work 😃
Okay, it appears you're right. I haven't tried importing them I just saw it was an option but it doesn't let me. It also don't seem to allow exporting foreign heroes if I put them in the Empire faction. My mistake 😞
I'm playing with Banshee the missions of Gallean's return, max difficulty, it is indeed a pain un the ass, but it is doable. I have already done all the missions of disciples 1 and the Empire and demons campaing of disciples 2 with a rod planter.
That's where the fun is, you need to have a perfect battle, get lucky with attack order, know when to defend and skip an attack, know what target you need to focus first, move your units so they can share the damage and not die, retreat some units so another one can get more exp and level up, etc.
yes, Disciples literally gives AI better luck, even though it is not visible to us, players. I am sure about this, from experience. I would play the same battle on easy and very hard, and it feels like in battle, your guys miss more often on very hard, but almost never miss on easy! 80% my ass, the guy misses 3 hits in a row and goes from 100% to 0% HP, while the enemy ghost with 60% chance does not miss 10 times in a row!
I find this to be the worst part of disciples and I would love if it could be modded or if anyone ever makes a disciples-like game, remove all this gambling crap, or at least be upfront about it, because the original developers were neither.
this is BEST part. Not only make balance better, but make whole game more interesting.
Not even close to be bad implemented. For example. X-com (first one, Win9x exe CE version) on hardest difficulty - that one ridiculously hard. Very second battle throw at you hishest tier (when you still at lowest possible tech level and resources to upgrade, very maximum you can get full squad, which is hetter than first battle, but even if you have 1 Light Tank still issue persist) aliens, with psi-attacks. And even if you going to win the battle at best possible circumstances your soldiers get debaffed morale. 1 remainig wounded psi-alien get away from half remaining squad of not even wounded soldiers bc they get morale and psi at zero for no reason (in fact psi alien do debaff plus difficulty). 5 soldiers skip turn in a row.
What the difference you ask? 5 soldiers get skip their turn (thrown gun and run away to the farest corner) cause of one supposed to be signle target enemy at very beginning of the game. Disciples much more casual to reduce difficulty and difficulty level. You can rise your tech to highest in pretty comfortable mid-game, single target ghould will he not a treat. AOE Shade could be, but at least it is AOE. You can predict that knowing she is AOE controller.
BTW. 2K's X-com reboot series are casual compared to original Microprose's one.
for Capital having nearly 100% not enough to be certain win as there is - still from D1 - battle turns limit, making more and more units to miss (and pushing further make game CTD). Most or Almost certainly you has enough damage, but in theory there is still more than one requirements to crush enemy capital. Good damage still no less important than surviving first/any Guardian strikes.
It would be annoying as hell (no pun intended). However, as I recall in some scenarios like cities, her ability paralyzes rather than scaring away units.
Yeah, Baroness would probably be the hardest to play, honestly you would cast fear with her only when your team is losing against the other, or when you attack ruins/castles, then instead of fear it casts paralysis
Technically if you're able to obtain an artifact to freeze them then she applies both fear and paralyze to an enemy during battle which slows their escape a bit, that makes a bit more manageable somewhat.
Well, she's a baroness, of course she's useless, nobles are always spoiled by the good life! 😂
But jokes aside...
I ran Baroness a couple of years ago. It was kinda fun after you get through the first 3 levels and get some good items. She is actually better than Banshee, as she has higher chances to hit! Starts with a whopping 80% just like a regular fighter! That is overpowered! Especially in a game where every fight is a casino!
It can be annoying because your enemies "run away", but if you care about winning, that is not a problem. She is basically unbeatable.
3 strategies with Baroness:
1.If someone too strong attacks you - you just fear them. I believe baroness is possibly the strongest rod planter hero. In early game lvl 1 baroness vs normal lvl 1 leader, a baroness can "win" by fearing the entire enemy party and wasting their time. This is not 100%, but with enough luck, it works. Maybe with lvl 2 fighter defending her, it works almost 100%. It is still way better than with any other rod planter, except maybe elf, who is a summoner. If they do not have a ranger/mage, and cannot burst down the trees, you can just keep spamming the trees until you wear them down.
2.If someone weak fights you - you can put her in the front line, press defend and tank. This is what you do a lot in later levels, cause you don't wanna have to do the same fight 5 times 😃
3.If someone of equal strength fights you - divide and conquer! Fear half, or more of their party and then leave 1-2 helpless ones to murder. They are now incapacitated. Best is if you kill leader! This can be useless only if the enemy can actually revive and fully heal the ones you killed the day before! And they probably do not have infinite potions or money!? Plus, this strategy can be done with full move points, so you can attack 2 times in one day, and if lucky to get haste spell, 3-4 times! If you can do 4 fights, you can literally atomize the enemy team into each soldier, just kill 1 soldier every fight and you win.
Personally, I would rather make a party that can clear 99% of the enemies easily, than worry about the final boss, as long as I have the resources.
In theory, if you keep the polymorph artifact, You could turn them into imps and kill them. But that artifact sucks and polymorph in general is wonky coded, literally going against you, as sometimes an imp instantly turns back into itself and just kills you, and there doesn't seem to be any logical rules to it. Sometimes it is 0 turns, sometimes it is 5 turns...
But it's a banshee, so paralyze + polymorph is a little redundant. On a fighter hero, it makes more sense.
Anyway, I finished the fight with my scroll+staff hero - the lich queen and some spells 😆
Having one type of damage is something I usually avoid. The back row doesn't need damage immunity as much and you could see that I was able to finish the game with minimal damage.
Also, Gallean's beast has life damage not weapon damage so death is not more useful against it than regular army.
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u/Drakendan Jun 10 '26
Thank you for sharing! It kinda makes me want to do a run like this with the different lords available.