Kingdom Rush Origins (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Redwood Stand Iron

This is one of those weird maps that isn't necessarily all that hard, but is very intense and nerve-wracking anyway.  That's because even when you have good strategy and are using an ideal hero, it's still possible (unless you're using Wilbur) to get bad RNG and have a hyena slip through your defenses.  That's because of a rather infuriating way the game works.

If you haven't figured it out already, ranged attacks are not guaranteed to hit in this game.  When a ranged attack is made at an enemy, the projectile is aimed at the spot the enemy will be at.  As long as the enemy is in fact in that spot when the projectile lands, it does damage.  However, the projectile trajectory does not take into account possible changes in the enemy speed.  This is why you'll see artillery towers at your choke point make seemingly bizarre shots sometimes - they're aiming where the enemy would have been if they had not been blocked by your melee towers.

All this applies to hyenas and their sprint ability - ranged attacks don't account for the possibility of them speeding up and slowing down, which sometimes allows them to run right through your defenses if the RNG is just right.

I knew all this already coming into this map, but I did learn something new about the game here as well.  Hyenas can be blocked if they are stunned!  Bruce used his King's Roar ability that happened to stun a hyena right next to him, which he then proceeded to melee to death.

Impressions

Aside from the above-mentioned hyena shenanigans this map isn't really that hard, so no one gets worse than a B, and honestly that mostly goes to non-ranged heroes who can't help with the hyenas.  I was pleased to give Arivan his first non-trivial A for this map, and Durax has the distinction of being the only non-ranged hero to get an A, because he's just that awesome.  Other than that there's not much to say.

Final Grades

• Eridan - B
• Arivan - A
• Catha - B
• Reg'son - B
• Prince Denas - B
• Razz and Rags - B
• Bravebark - B
• Vez'nan - A
• Xin - B
• Phoenix - A
• Durax - A
• Lynn - B
• Bruce - B
• Lilith - B
• Wilbur - A
• Faustus - A

Best Choice

"Death from above" Wilbur again.  As the video shows, he can lock down both the hyenas and the Gnoll Gnawers on the right side, meaning the left side just has to take care of a few paltry gnolls.  He only allowed a single hyena to get past the tree, and I could have even prevented that if I had bothered to use his Hero Spell.

Kingdom Rush Origins Impossible Hero Challenge - Redwood Stand Iron