I know Legends is an old game, but I discovered some interesting methods for winning the game on difficulties way higher than I could normally win on. Did any one else use these? Here they are in order of frequency that I used them.
1. King rush: You just run your king up alongside an enemy's keep before he builds anything and summon your bodyguards on the king. When using Arthurian factions, this should be enough - the enemy king will die. When using a different faction, your bodyguards are less powerful so you have the extra step of attacking the enemy king with your king after he's been weakened. Either way, it's a really easy way to take out an entire enemy in the first minute of the match. Works every time. If there's a clear shot to the enemy's fortress at the beginning of the game, he's dead.
2. Towers as walls: Build towers or gates (which are better since they cover more horizontal distance) all the way around your castle instead of walls. Once you defeat the siege engines, the laddermen will just stand there. The enemy will not be able to attack again until the last attack is defeated, which means that from now on, the enemy will never attack you again. Works on almost every map - you have to have a lot of trees to work with. Also, it doesn't work on levels in which you are attacked by giants at regular intervals because they are equal-opportunity bashers. If you're up against waves of giants then gate-trapping them inside their own castle is pretty much the only easy cop-out you have available to you.
3. King sally: When the enemy troops are coming in to lay siege, your king rides out to meet them alone. When he gets close enough to the enemy siege camp to cast his spell, you summon your magical bodyguard to take out the enemy camp before it builds anything. The enemy army will then have to attack you without siege engines or ladders, and your king will be far enough away to just ride back to your castle. Works every time.
4. Gate trapping: On certain maps, the AI is usually stupid enough to let you do this. Self-explanatory. Really easy if you have vampiric creepers since they can just walk up to the enemy's castle and do it.
5. Witch swarm: When using the Ice faction, just build about 100 witches and swarm the enemy. Since dragon harpoons can take out entire rows of witches, it is better to attack them in waves instead of all at once. It is also a good idea to keep half of the swarm over the enemy towers and barracks to shoot new troops while the other half shoots the enemy king, which takes several minutes but works.
6. Other types of swarms: Maceman, werewolf, hellhound, white wolf, etc. Build an army of a couple hundred blitz troops, then use Bedevere or some sort of siege equipment to knock a hole in the wall (or capture a gate using a creeper), then just click the enemy king until your finger hurts. Enough of them will get through to kill him. Of course it helps if you have him stuck using method #2 above, which gives you the time to build such a large army.
I used all of these tricks to beat every challenge in the game. And I'm generally pretty horrible at the military aspect of this game to begin with - it's almost like I cheated.
1. King rush: You just run your king up alongside an enemy's keep before he builds anything and summon your bodyguards on the king. When using Arthurian factions, this should be enough - the enemy king will die. When using a different faction, your bodyguards are less powerful so you have the extra step of attacking the enemy king with your king after he's been weakened. Either way, it's a really easy way to take out an entire enemy in the first minute of the match. Works every time. If there's a clear shot to the enemy's fortress at the beginning of the game, he's dead.
2. Towers as walls: Build towers or gates (which are better since they cover more horizontal distance) all the way around your castle instead of walls. Once you defeat the siege engines, the laddermen will just stand there. The enemy will not be able to attack again until the last attack is defeated, which means that from now on, the enemy will never attack you again. Works on almost every map - you have to have a lot of trees to work with. Also, it doesn't work on levels in which you are attacked by giants at regular intervals because they are equal-opportunity bashers. If you're up against waves of giants then gate-trapping them inside their own castle is pretty much the only easy cop-out you have available to you.
3. King sally: When the enemy troops are coming in to lay siege, your king rides out to meet them alone. When he gets close enough to the enemy siege camp to cast his spell, you summon your magical bodyguard to take out the enemy camp before it builds anything. The enemy army will then have to attack you without siege engines or ladders, and your king will be far enough away to just ride back to your castle. Works every time.
4. Gate trapping: On certain maps, the AI is usually stupid enough to let you do this. Self-explanatory. Really easy if you have vampiric creepers since they can just walk up to the enemy's castle and do it.
5. Witch swarm: When using the Ice faction, just build about 100 witches and swarm the enemy. Since dragon harpoons can take out entire rows of witches, it is better to attack them in waves instead of all at once. It is also a good idea to keep half of the swarm over the enemy towers and barracks to shoot new troops while the other half shoots the enemy king, which takes several minutes but works.
6. Other types of swarms: Maceman, werewolf, hellhound, white wolf, etc. Build an army of a couple hundred blitz troops, then use Bedevere or some sort of siege equipment to knock a hole in the wall (or capture a gate using a creeper), then just click the enemy king until your finger hurts. Enough of them will get through to kill him. Of course it helps if you have him stuck using method #2 above, which gives you the time to build such a large army.
I used all of these tricks to beat every challenge in the game. And I'm generally pretty horrible at the military aspect of this game to begin with - it's almost like I cheated.
[This message has been edited by Klw7 (edited 06-22-2012 @ 05:04 PM).]