jonathan ellis

Well, those strategies didn't help in the slightest.

However, I managed to pull off a really satisfying bit of timing... I built
up for defence, rather than attack, had a whole room stuffed full of
barricades and sentry traps for the enemy to march into, and I also did NOT
breach the enemy fortress, although I went around the side of it and claimed
right up as far as just outside his lair. (Learning from previous
experience: when I breached Asmodeus's fortress, the heroes all swarmed
around behind me and I was caught between the heroes and the enemy.)

When the attack was launched, the creatures from the eastern hero fortress
poured out, saw no direct route into Asmodeus, and began pottering kind of
semi-aimlessly about for a while, while the creatures from the western
fortress came in and attacked me. 35 sentry traps all attacking a single
one-tile wide corridor protected by a double layer of barricades all really
hurt the heroes - then I dropped my distance attackers on them, particularly
the Mistresses, and the invading heroes were absolutely slaughtered. A few
Bile Demons to hold them in place also helped, as did the captured hero
Guards and Giants - both mainly there to soak up damage and stop the heroes
attacking my traps.

Meanwhile, the eastern heroes had been delayed by the fact that Asmodeus's
fortirications were still in existence, and were just in the process of
getting a dwarf to tunnel through his front door as I was mopping up the
heroes on my end of things. They got in, wasted a bit of time demolishing
his front guard room... meanwhile I'd gotten hold of the Heal All special,
used it, cast a Tremor spell and breached the weak spot in his
fortifications *now* - after the Hero attack had already settled on its way
in, rather than actually creating the way in for them: so it was Asmodeus
who was caught between his adversary and the heroes, rather than me.

Asmodeus's creatures and traps were putting up a reasonable fight, but a
losing one, against the heroes: I let them fight it out while my creatures
got the easy way in, without heroes following them, and got straight through
to his Heart chamber at about the same time as the heroes. A battle royal
followed, but it was my collection of crack slimebags who had the upper
hand - not enough heroes with distance attacks had gotten into the chamber
in time, and my nine Mistresses cut them to ribbons with lightning as the
remaining half of the heroes arrived piecemeal (I saw about ten more trying
to get in, but blocked by their fellows, and took the opportunity to cast a
Tremor spell on top of them, they scattered in terror and came back a few at
a time, to be heavily outnumbered.) Eventually there were only half a dozen
heroes left - then three, then two, then one, then my minions could turn
their attentions to the enemy Heart undisturbed ;-)

It was *so* satisfying to actually destroy all the heroes. The last time I
played DK2 (several years ago) I'd only gotten past this level by chance at
about the tenth attempt, smashing through to Asmodeus's Heart and destroying
it with about a quarter of my minions still alive but badly hurt, a strong
army of heroes about to break into the room, and my own Heart itself almost
dead from the attack of the other hero army. Technically a victory, but
highly unsatisfactory - my few remaining creatures actually died in the ten
seconds it took me to actually hit the "end level" key after Horny took the
gem, and I heard the message "Your Dungeon Heart is dying" and could do
nothing about it apart from get out of the level before it fell. It was so
much nicer to be able to carry on playing instead, afterwards, and take over
the hero fortresses for fun...

Jonathan.


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

philhibbs

Well done. I actually did this level on Sunday night, and it was a
breeze. First I build a small library, workshop, hatchery and training
room. Once they are established and working and the hatchery up to 5x5
I built a prison and broke through the sides. Then I took the four
Hero Gates that surround me and turned all the heroes into skeletons.
Broke through the front, bridged all over up to half way across, kill
heroes with 2 of each kind of monsters and more skeletons. Drop the
monsters back on on their lair and pick up 2 more of each kind, and
clear the other half of the water with them and more skeletons.
Careful use of healing and lightning to take down the tougher heroes.

This left me with about 10 minutes remaining, so I claimed the
treasure over to the left and claimed and dug around to the right hand
side up to his hatchery wall. Deep breath, start digging, drop all my
troops by the wall, Earthquake, and plant a flag in the hatchery. Tap
out the bits of wall on the way to his dungeon heart, another
Earthquake, and move the flag into the heart. Use of Level Up and Heal
All during the fight keeps my troops going. Got the portal gem just as
the hero invasion is announced.

I never worry about my dungeon heart being destroyed as I claim the
gem, I'm moving on to the next realm anyway and my minions mean
nothing to me. They are just arrow fodder.

Phil.