Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Iron

Well, well, well.  We have a trivial map of all things to close out this DLC.  Now I never mind the iron mode of the last level of an elite campaign being easier or different - it takes me back to Blackburn Castle iron in the original game, which was easy but fun in that it had you shooting down flying sheep.  But a map that is not only single hero but also not worth assigning grades for?  That hasn't happened since Misty Ruins iron - the first map of the Undying Fury campaign.

A big part of the issue is we have an iron mode with no surprises.  We get the Tricannon, which is already practically giving away the farm, and the Dune Sentinels.  The Sentinels are there for one obvious purpose - to deal with the Drones coming in from the top right.  The Necromancers are here to generate blockers for us, making the placement of Tricannons near them extremely obvious (as if those weren't already the best places for them anyway).  The only thing remotely subtle is the order of upgrades.  Start with a fully upgraded Dune Sentinels so the Drones aren't an issue, then focus on getting three Tricannons with Bombardment up and running.  The Necromancers aren't a priority - the skeletons they produce are the same regardless of the level of the tower - but they can provide additional firepower towards the end.

You will, however, notice that I did play with the upgrade order through the course of making the videos.  Originally I completely left the Necromancers until everything else was done.  Occasionally there were some close calls with the Drones, but no slip-ups.  Then, however, I got some bad RNG back to back and had a couple of losses due to a Drone slipping through.  So I decided to upgrade the right Necromancer a couple of levels earlier on to just to eliminate the possibility of any problems.  It's a minor thing, and it certainly doesn't change this being a trivial map.  So 'A's for everyone and we move on to the next campaign!

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Iron

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Heroic

I had a solid feeling when doing my test runs that this was going to be a two hero kind of map, and boy am I glad I didn't try to solo-hero it.  This one was rough with the lower tier heroes, and I highly doubt I would have been able to finish it.

Strategy-wise it's pretty straightforward - rely on Tricannons with Bombardment to do the heavy lifting (as per usual) and otherwise weather the storm.  I will absolutely not miss the Darksteel Fists once this DLC is over.  I would honestly rather face a never ending stream of Darksteel Hulks and Guardians than waves of Fists.  They're really the only thing making this map (or heck, this whole DLC) hard.  By the way, I just now realized that for all the blog posts on this DLC, I've been referring to Fists as Hammerers by mistake.  Sorry about that.  The Hammerers are the basic-Becky mobs with no special abilities.

Impressions

Talk about clear separation.  We have eight heroes in 'C' tier, only two in 'B', and five in 'A'.  Oddly only Broden earns an 'A+' this time around.  The other flying heroes were fine of course, but he was the only one where I felt I could be ultra-aggressive in calling waves.

As for the bottom tier, well, they just aren't cut out to handle Darksteel Fists efficiently.  They're either melee heroes and get stunlocked trying to deal with them, or they're ranged but lack the DPS to take them down quickly.  Either way that's kind of been the story of this DLC.

Final Grades

• Vesper - C-
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - C+
• Torres - C
• Anya - C+
• Grimson - C
• Broden - A+
• Therien - C+
• Onagro - B-
• Warhead - B+
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A
• Stregi - C+
• Bonehart - A
• Sylvara - A

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Heroic

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Campaign

This DLC wraps up with a campaign mode that is fun, if not terribly challenging.  This was another case where I got it on my first test run, and I don't think I even did a second try before I started recordings.  It's one of those were I probably could have done a single hero solution, but it would have been super painful with the worst heroes, and after doing that in heroic and iron modes for the previous level I just didn't have it in me.

It's impossible to overstate how much heavy lifting the Tricannon's Bombardment ability has done throughout this entire playthrough, and it seems as though that's been especially true in this DLC.  It's more than a bit overpowered, and takes me back to special abilities like Overcharge for the Tesla and Wasp Missiles for the Mecha that made those towers ludicrously OP.

One of the reasons I like this map is because there are some good opportunities for micro work.  I don't think I discovered this technique in the previous levels, but the Darksteel Guardians can be completely neutralized with some fine micro.  Their attack is so slow and so telegraphed that you just have to have your blocker move out of the way right before it lands and then quickly move them back to keep the Guardian blocked.  It's cheesy, but it works wonders for heroes that don't have any natural tanking ability.

The boss fight here is rather disappointing, I must say.  He's pretty trivial, all things considered.  There should be way more mobs that start appearing as soon as the fight starts to distract your towers and make killing him actually a challenge.  As it is, stalling him with reinforcements and DPSing him down is all too easy.  And speaking of micro, it's very easy for your heroes to dodge his fist-launching ability just by moving at the last second.  Nyru racked up quite a lot of damage for the Dark Army heroes just by following behind him and constantly hitting him with ranged damage while easily dodging his attacks.

Impressions

With two heroes in play grades improve compared to what they have been.  Raelyn, Torres, and Streggi still end up in 'C' tier, but that should not be terribly surprising.  Sadly I could not give Kosmyr an 'A+' like the rest of his flying comrades.  For whatever reason his performance was just not quite as fluid as the rest of the 'A+' crew.  He still gets an unadorned 'A' though, of course.

Ongaro was a pleasant surprise here as well.  Honestly I considered and would have been justified in giving him an 'A-', but to be fair there was a lot of heavy lifting on Nyru's part.  I know I said I wasn't going to adjust grades based on whether there was a second hero or not anymore, but this case kind of felt extreme.  So sorry, Onagro, I know you could use the GPA boost, but I'm keeping you at a 'B+'.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B-
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - B+
• Torres - C+
• Anya - B-
• Grimson - B-
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B+
• Onagro - B+
• Warhead - B
• Lumenir - A+
• Kosmyr - A
• Stregi - C+
• Bonehart - A+
• Sylvara - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 27. Dominion Dome Campaign

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 26. Replication Chamber Iron

We finish out this map with an iron mode like heroic - pretty trivial with two heroes, so we go for the solo hero attempt.  And just like heroic mode, this turned out to be a tale of two maps - or two hero tiers, really.

The top end heroes were all able to use my original build plan, which started with two Cannoneers and a single Flamespitter, and it all worked out fine.  However, the weaker heroes ended up needing an altered build plan, one where I started with two fully upgraded Flamespitters and only started building the Cannoneers after the fact.  Even still, this was a rough map with the bottom tier heroes, as we'll see in the grades below.

Impressions

This was legit painful with the bottom-end heroes, with five ending in 'C' tier and Vesper getting a dreadful 'D'.  These heroes lack the tools - generally the DPS, that is - to deal efficiently with the Hammerers, which are honestly the most dangerous enemy to come out of this DLC.  What's a poor hero to do, honestly?  Vesper can either engage in melee and get stunlocked, or else stand at a distance and plink arrows off their armor for trivial damage.

As with heroic mode, we have a small middle tier of 'B's and then a top tier of the usual suspects with 'A+'s.  I have to say I'm getting a little disappointed in Alliance for having such poor hero balance, with most of the heroes competing either for the very top or the very bottom.  Hopefully the remaining campaigns will provide a little more variety in the grades.

Final Grades

• Vesper - D
• Raelyn - C-
• Nyru - B
• Torres - C
• Anya - C-
• Grimson - B-
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B+
• Onagro - C
• Warhead - C+
• Lumenir - A+
• Kosmyr - A+
• Stregi - B-
• Bonehart - A+
• Sylvara - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 26. Replication Chamber Iron