Hi, I have beaten it in last version! (having your replay as a strategy guide and with a few saves)
I wonder how many times you tried it without reloading saves and figuring out the right tactic.
First of all, congratulations. Even knowing "how" to beat it and "executing that how" is still quite difficult! I am still hoping that someone beats it in a different manner than I did (well,
I did beat it a second way, and I'm surprised that only one person downloaded/has ever seen that modification!)
Second of all, I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I recently posted a live game recording of me beating a more intense AI (also in r5503) without pausing or reloading saves.
Knights and Merchants (KaM) Remake: Let's Play Invasion. I just noticed that someone very recently downvoted the video. Whatever.
...Just in case you were "guessing" what I pay attention to in my replay and wish to know for sure.
When I Started
I first found out about the map when Skypper told me about it
here. (
August 7, 2013)
I'm sure you noticed that there is an autofeed feature (you don't have to feed your troops: they get fed every 10 minutes or so). Well, this first 60 wave version of the map is the one I studied and the one I "trained for" to beat. It didn't have an autofeed feature, and it gave you fewer recruits and weapons and it made you fight against a more intense AI than Invasion's (from wave 43 onward).
Knowing that it would take "forever" to figure it out if I just played it "blindly", I started to do some analysis and first started posting my thoughts
here in Skypper's thread.
What I did to start playing "smartly" was edit the script I removed all created groups coming from all directions except one, played against the armies coming in that one direction for all 60 waves, and optimized my setups by using trial and error to see which formations of ranged units (and how many) would result in the fewest casualties. It's not an exact science (because it's random, and definitely since reloading saves was not an option if I wanted to show everyone how to win), but I found patterns. You will see my latest/most successful setups in the video I linked to above.
Further along my journey, when I started to play all of the AI simultaneously, I posted
my thoughts, and my winning setups were starting to develop.
When I First Beat the Autofeed Version
Andreus implemented the autofeed feature when he was trying to beat it,
and the first time I played it, I beat it (no joke) on
November 20, 2013, whereas my peak points with the non-autofeed version without saves was about 29,000. So if you want to know what my first actual win "looked like", feel free to watch that replay, because it is one I will never (well not soon, anyway) forget. Especially the ending.
Since Andreus' Autofeed version was so much easier that I beat it without saves (and have always beat without saves it except for one loss) since I've played it,
we can never tell how long it would have taken me to beat the current version of Invasion from start to finish because I was training for something A LOT harder, but we can clearly see that it was a maximum of 105 days. I didn't play every day (I even took a few NEEDED two week breaks in between, but I'm guessing it was about 100 total games)!
However, I strived to beat the original 60 wave version (in r5503, of course) which:
- Gave you fewer recruits
- Sent an extra group of swordfighters (from wave 43 onward)
- Did not have autofeed.
When I Beat the Non-Autofeed Original (Hardest Version) in r5503 without saves
Then on
December 1, 2013, I beat it.
I'm a fan of movie scores, and
this particular track is the one I was listening to around the time of this breathtaking accomplishment!
Although I didn't beat it in the manner that I beat the autofeed version (which is equivalent to the current version of "Invasion") with
a few days later (this is the replay that KaMRemakefan used for his video which I have a link to in my signature (Invasion)), I finally beat the "unbeatable" map without reloading saves, in r5503!
My Goal Now
My aim now is to beat that "black demon" (the color of the AI in the original version was black)(from the map I beat on December 1, 2013) in r5503 without reloading saves. I have been improving my game, but still no success. (I only play it once or twice a month now, as I don't have the time I used to.)
Should I finally beat it in r5503 without relying on the buildup of pikes and crossbowmen, I might request KaMRemakefan to make a video about it. Such a game requires about "double" the attention, work, mouse clicks, and energy of beating it when compared to beating the Autofeed version. And of course, beating it in r5503 is about 1.5 times more difficult than in the current release.