HIVE

Hi deepstrasz, I remember about Champion's recent review where he also stated that this mission is pretty hard. I'm sorry but it has been a while since I re-played this campaign, so I can't remember much of the enemies' positioning or their behaviors.

Can you tell me what weapons you use? What are the most powerful skills you have? IIRC, I always have a healer and mage (Pike can fulfill both of those roles easily). And the mage's AoE spells are powerful, I believe you already have access to the Darkmoon spell? Be sure to give your mage plenty of mana (through wearing robes or using pots). Also, new armors are not as essential as weapons as the stats you gain with each upgrade are pretty small.

As they are triggered, using spells ignore the armor & evasion of your enemies. So if you're having a hard time damaging the enemies, these are your best bet.

Lastly, don't ignore attack and armor types. Always hit the weak spots & don't expose your units if they're weak to certain attacks.

Also, if you can, be sure to buy healing items and mana potions since IIRC, there will be no more new equipment coming to the shops from now on so you can pretty much waste all your gold on consumables.

If you are still having a hard time, be sure to finish the hive quickly using spells and don't try grinding for XP on the bonus units.

Sorry man, if those aren't of much help.

Well, the spells from the items don't appear exactly after you bought the weapons but after some time (as the hero needs to level up?). I have Dervish, Blackbomb and Thunder Clap as AoE spells. Others from the items I currently have, don't show in the spells menu.
I'm short on gold, 300 or something.
I'm trying to protect the heroes against certain attack types but the ranged ants move the most and they easily get behind my archers. Besides, most heroes dies in 2-3 back attacks or 3-4 side attacks. I have them cluttered together but it's not much help if I only use spells because spells usually deal 80-90 damage and the enemy's frontal attacks deal 100.

Oh no! Why are they not showing? Are the spells' % less than 100? Or are you maxed out on spell slots? If it's the former, the only way to charge your spells is to attack the enemies, there's no need to level up. If your spell slots are full, I believe you can delete old spells while you're in town. Press Esc and a dialog box will appear (together with the story continuation dialog). Then with an empty spell slot, drop and repick your current weapon to store its spell. It will only be permanently stored in your slots once it reaches 100% though, if a spell isn't fully charged and you dropped the weapon it belongs to, the spell will get deleted.

Btw, you don't have the higher damaging mage skills? Darkmoon & Shinestorm?

I'm not maxed out on slots. After my first two-3 spells, there are only percentages instead of anything else, like 100% or 65%, stuff like that.
I think I might have Darkmoon on the weapon but not in a spell slot. Shinestorm, sold that item for this other one and still didn't have that in the a spell slot either.

Are those percentages blank spells? Can you delete those? Please try going to town now and try deleting those. Btw, if you have a charging skill (not yet at 100%) and it's useful be careful not to unequip the weapon or else it will be deleted.

Good you have Darkmoon in your weapon, please do what I told you above and see if it can be learnt. Btw, you will also need a healing spell, preferably Heal Up, do you have one?

I recommend deleting the weaker spells, Blackbomb is pretty weak.