Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Campaign

So I feel like I'm in awkward place with this Impossible Hero Challenge.  The maps are getting tougher, to be sure, and this one did have a decent challenge.  However, the challenge still is more in finding the right build that works for everyone versus really challenging the heroes.  I'm having a lot of trouble deciding when to start actually giving grades.  It's not that I can't tell a difference between the heroes - there's a world of difference between Veruk and Eiskalt, of course - but it's more distinguishing whether their performances are an 'A+' versus an 'A-' compared to an 'A' versus a 'B'.

I don't think I've talked about it yet in this series, but here were my original interpretations of the grades:

• A - an ideal hero to take on the map with
• B - the hero can get the job done, but they're subpar compared to 'A' heroes
• C - you can win with this hero, but it's going to be hard and painful
• D - you're only going to win with this hero with really good RNG
• F - I wasn't able to complete the map with the hero

Fortunately I never had to hand out any 'F's in my Impossible Hero Challenge for Kingdom Rush Origins, and I certainly don't expect to in this game.  I'm honestly doubting whether I'll even have to hand out any 'D's.

To go back to my example, of course I had more trouble doing this map with Veruk than Eiskalt, but does it mean Veruk deserves a 'B'?  Or is he still technically an ideal hero to take on the map with, just not quite as ideal as Eiskalt?  For now I've decided to still give everyone an 'A', as while I did have to work for a good while to find the right build order, in the end it worked out well for all the heroes.  As we get into the third phase of the game I'll be scrutinizing things a lot more closely, as I'm really ready to start ranking these heroes.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Iron

So this was an easy one, but at least it was a fun easy one.  It gave a lot of the heroes a chance to really shine in showing how well they can hold back endless waves of mobs:

• I've really come to appreciate the power of Asra's Spider Bite ability.  At first it seems kind of weak - other heroes past and present have had insta-kill abilities, but since this one is a guaranteed kill but not instant, it would seem to be weaker by comparison.  However, the problem with other heroes' insta-kills is that it's often very hard to control when they go off.  If you really need to control it, it often means pulling them out of battle altogether so they don't accidentally use it on the wrong mob, which of course weakens your DPS.  But Asra has three things going for her ability: 1) it's only applied in melee, so since she's a ranged character you can precisely control when it gets used, 2) her Shadow Dance ability means that as soon as the proper enemy appears, she can teleport, apply it, and teleport back, so that the enemy is probably dead by the time it gets to your chokepoint, and 3), Shield of Shadows insures she doesn't take any damage while doing it.
• Margosa started out completely soloing the Dragur stream on the left, and ultimately only needed serious support towards the end where the numbers get ridiculous.
• Every time things started looking a little dicey for Jigou, Earth Slam would come off cooldown and he would simply stomp the mass of mobs to death.
• Beresad like Margosa took on the left side with only reinforcement support.  The ridiculous extra gold he made from killing countless Draugr made building up the right side a total breeze.
• All the dragons did well, of course, but Eiskalt completely soloed the left side with no support whatsoever - not even reinforcements.  I was pretty much expecting this, but it was still gratifying to see his power in action.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Iron

Skyrim 100% Legendary Difficulty Playthrough

Don't worry, I'm not giving up on my Impossible Hero Challenge for Kingdom Rush Vengeance, but since it's turned out to be a bit more tedious than I had anticipated, I realized I just need a second game going at the same time to keep me from getting bored.  I read an article recently about the fact that Skyrim will celebrate its 10 year anniversary this year, and it put the itch in me to play it again.  You may recall in my Road Ahead post some time back I said I really didn't plan to ever do Skyrim, mostly because of my quirky playstyle that I doubt anyone else would appreciate, but I figured as long as I was playing it I might as well record it as well, so here it is.  I'm just doing this one post to kick the series off - I'll handle the job of chronicling the journey in the video descriptions.

Skyrim 100% Legendary Difficulty Playthrough

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Heroic

I will give this map credit - it made me work for it.  It took me quite a while to figure out the right build order to make everything work right, and the build also has to be adjusted for ranged attacking heroes - and in different ways depending on whether they are physical or magical damage.  In the end I was able to build a strategy that worked well for all heroes, so all heroes get 'A's again, but at least I can say it took me a while.  It gives me hope that we're getting into actual challenge territory.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Campaign

Ugh, sorry, but still nothing interesting here.  This one was so tedious and boring there wasn't anything worth saying about it.  At this point we might get through the second boss fight without having a map worth grading.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Dragons' Boneyard Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Northerners' Village Iron

Sooooooo close!  I was ready to give in and do the first set of grades here - not because this map is hard, but because I felt I couldn't excuse Oloch any longer and really needed to give him a 'B'.  All the other heroes easily earned their 'A's, and I was really disappointed to have our first set of grades be just to give out a single 'B'.  I was almost done writing up the blog post when I had that feeling of "Hmmm, what if I tried..." (a feeling instantly recognizable to any long time Kingdom Rush player).  And there it was - Oloch just needed a different strategy from the rest of the heroes (to account for how weak he is, naturally) and he earned his 'A'.

So that explains why you'll see him use a completely different strategy from the other heroes.  I didn't go back and change any of the other heroes to use it.  My initial strategy was working perfectly well, and I didn't feel that this new one was necessarily superior, just better for Oloch in particular.  If you're wondering about the details, the only trick on this map is keeping your elite trolls on the left side alive so you're not wasting gold replacing them that needs to go into upgrading the right side of your defense.  That's not a problem except for the Nanoq Warbears.  All other heroes didn't have a problem with them - they could tank them, DPS them down before they killed a troll, etc. - but Oloch just doesn't have the tools for it.  So I switched to a strategy of using Dark Knights to tank the bears and sent Oloch to the right side instead.

I still have a bad feeling that my first set of grades will in fact be giving Oloch a solo 'B', but I'm happy that I've forestalled it for at least one more map.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Northerners' Village Iron