Armored Princess Analysis Extra: Military Academy Corruption Training

In addition to regular training at regular Military Academies, you can corrupt your Officer's Patent at a specific place in Sheterra. (You'll need to do some quests for Hephaestus the demon before the relevant location will do business with you; offer to sell your soul to Hephaestus when the option shows up, as nothing bad will happen) This will prevent you from accumulating further Trophies, but you'll be able to transform non-Demon units into Demons at this particular location with your remaining Trophies.

Notably, this does not convert by equivalent Leadership, but rather by raw numbers. That is, if you convert 200 of a unit into a Demon unit type in Sheterra, you'll end up with 200 of that Demon type, no matter how far apart the Leadership of the non-Demon is to the resulting Demon.

Also notable is that they always have exactly one conversion option, where a decent number of regular Military Academy upgrade options have multiple options. The presentation of conversion options is adjusted appropriately; with regular Training, you have to pick a specific unit to Train for the game to show you what its options are, whereas when you're considering demonic conversion the game tells you all your current unit conversions simultaneously, no need to click into a specific unit.

Otherwise, it works much the same as regular Training: pick a unit, spend gold and Trophies, the slot swaps from the original unit to the new unit.

So on to the specifics.

Units that can't be converted into Demons

All Demons, for starters. You have to go to a regular Military Academy for that. I'm not going to include their icons for this list.

By a similar token, all Undead; once again, I'm not going to include their icons in this list.

In case you can't see the icons, this list is: Repair Droids, Guard Droids, Orc Chieftains, Ents, Ancient Ents, Unicorns, Black Unicorns, Cave Spiders, Venomous Spiders, Fire Spiders, Thorn Warriors, Thorn Hunters, Royal Thorns, Lake Dragonflies, Fire Dragonflies, Devilfish, Beholders, Evil Beholders, Griffins, Royal Griffins, Emerald Green Dragons, Red Dragons, Black Dragons, Snakes, Swamp Snakes, Royal Snakes, Cyclops, Hayterants, Gobots, Chosha, Brontors, and Tirex.

Not really any big surprises here. I suppose there's an argument that it would make sense for Unicorns and Black Unicorns to be able to be converted into Cerberi? (As we'll see, it's not like the game restricts Cerberus conversions to canines) But really, whatever.

Demonic Conversion Options

->
70 gold/trophies

70 gold is exactly the difference between purchasing a Peasant and purchasing an Imp, meaning that getting Imps this way costs you the same gold as if you'd simply bought the Imps directly from a store. This is actually the default when it comes to demonic conversion; the majority of the time, you pay the same gold as you would buying the unit directly.

As such, it's only really worth bothering with demonic conversion in most cases if you've run out of the Demon you want in stores, or if you've previously bought the non-Demon stack and would like to switch to the Demon it converts into. After all, demonic conversion isn't saving you gold, while it burns a lot of Trophies and is actually less convenient than checking Sheterra's stores.

In the case of Peasants to Imps, its obvious merit is that you always get a Horde of Peasants and Peasants aren't something you want to use in combat except as Sacrifice fodder, making them theoretically a decent choice for getting more Imps if Sheterra's stores run out and you don't want to run through the stocks of a less common and more useful unit.

Frankly, I'd like to recommend you use a different unit that's closer to the Imp cost so you at least reduce the Trophy cost, but there's actually surprisingly few units that convert into Imps: only three other units do so! Of those three, only one other isn't actively throwing gold in the trash, and it's not a unit you get loads of normally; Peasants may genuinely be your best option if you manage to burn through your Imp stocks and still want more.

Speaking of that other cost-efficient Imp option...

->
30 gold/trophies

As with Peasants, Robbers to Imps is just charging you the difference between them and Imps.

On the one hand, this is saving Trophies compared to using Peasants, which it's worth emphasizing that if you have the ability to convert people into Demons you by definition are no longer able to acquire Trophies.

On the other hand, where Peasants don't run out, Robbers are uncommon and do have some unique value. (Their Talent for teleporting next to a chest) Running through your stocks of Robbers is quite realistic, and you may be pretty unhappy with doing so. So maybe you don't feel that's a worthy sacrifice for reducing Trophy expenses.

->
40 gold/trophies

Marauders to Scoffer Imps charges you the usual: the difference between the cost of the two.

I'm unsure why you'd specifically use this option, though. Where Imps have surprisingly few units that can convert into them, Scoffer Imps have plenty of options. By a similar token, where Imps have half their conversion options flagrantly waste gold, Scoffer Imps have most of their conversion options only charge you the cost difference. Importantly, several of the Scoffer Imp conversion options are extremely common units; instead of using the uncommon Marauders you might actually run out of, why not use Swordsmen or the like?

I suppose if your run bought a lot of Marauders but you're completely convinced you're not going to use them anymore, it's not the worst thing... assuming you actually also ran out of Scoffer Imps from stores...

->
50 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Swordsmen and Scoffer Imps.

If you're going to convert something into Scoffer Imps, Swordsmen are one of the better options; no gold-wastage, Swordsmen are extremely common, and even if you somehow run through your stocks of Swordsmen you're unlikely to find yourself regretting it.

->
1 gold/trophies

Guardsmen and Scoffer Imps have the same cost per-head, hence the token cost of 1.

Of course, this means this is inherently wasteful, throwing away a gold for every Scoffer Imp you buy compared to just buying them in stores.

Admittedly, it does make this easy on your Trophies, and it's a lot easier to run out of Trophies than gold by the time you have this option. As Guardsmen are actually a ridiculously common unit, there's a decent argument for turning to this... assuming you've run though your Scoffer Imp stocks, of course.

->
600 gold/trophies

This is a horrendous waste of cash; Knights already cost nearly 350 gold more than Demons-the-unit, and now you're spending 600 more beyond that per head? Yikes, no thanks.

Demons-the-unit have a wide enough variety of options there's never any reason to waste resources on this. Even if you're sitting on a huge pile of Knights you generated via Sacrifice shenanigans, this is still a horrid waste; don't bother.

->
100 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Paladins and Executioners.

There are only three other options for converting up Executioners, and they're all pretty consistently rarer than Paladins. One of them is further hampered by being overpriced. As such, Paladins probably are your best option for converting up Executioners.

As Executioners are legitimately on the rare side, it's actually very plausible to run through their stocks and still want more. This is especially true when you consider they're best off thrown into a mob to repeatedly get retaliations and free turns from being attacked, and Demons of any kind are a nuisance to undo casualties with; if you like using Executioners and can't be bothered to jump through all the hoops necessary to avoid them suffering casualties, it's really easy to burn through their store-based stocks. 

So this is actually one of the more plausibly appealing options for demonic conversion.

->
500 gold/trophies

Another case of the game charging exactly the cost difference between material and outcome.

Horsemen are on the uncommon side, so even though I feel they're generally less useful than Paladins I'd still usually rather convert Paladins into Executioners rather than Horsemen, especially since the Paladins will burn through Trophies far less quickly. Still, this isn't the worst deal.

->
20 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference...

... but Bowmen cost 20 gold more than Imps, not the other way around, so you're effectively paying 50% more gold than it takes to buy Imps directly. Don't do this!

->
566 gold/trophies

Exactly the cost difference.

Personally, I'd be reluctant to do this even considering how common Priests are simply because it burns Trophies like mad, and there's plenty of less Trophy-intensive options for producing Demons-the-unit.

->
366 gold/trophies

This is also exactly the cost difference, but shaves off a lot of the Trophy cost. As Inquisitors are also ridiculously common, I'd sooner turn to this than Priests if I ran out of Demons-the-unit and found myself still wanting more.

->
700 gold/trophies

Why is the game charging more than a Demon's base cost for this conversion???

Don't ever convert Archmages, it's a colossal waste.

->
170 gold/trophies

Rune mages cost nearly three times what Archdemons cost, why is the game adding yet more expenses to that?

To be fair, all your Corruption options for producing Archdemons use up a Level 5 unit, which means it's always based on burning up a unit you have limited stocks of. Rune Mages are surprisingly common, so there's actually an argument for using them over one of the other choices, given the other options are probably quite a bit less common in your run.

I don't feel it's a strong argument, but it wouldn't be completely insane. You can also make this less gold-inefficient by Training Archmages into Rune Mages, though of course that makes it less Trophy-efficient, and Archmages aren't a super-common unit...

->
80 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Miners and Scoffer Imps.

The game gives you tons of Miners and they're mostly not very appealing in player hands; there's certainly worse uses for them than topping off your Scoffer Imp supply once stores run out.

->
446 gold/trophies

This too is exactly the cost difference between Dwarves-the-unit and Demons-the-unit.

Much like Priests, this is using a common enough unit to be theoretically worth considering, but is very Trophy-intensive, and there's plenty of less Trophy-intensive ways to get Demons-the-unit. I have difficulty imagining this being all that worthwhile to take advantage of in practice, as a result.

->
800 gold/trophies

Another unit where you're paying more than a Demon's base price: I don't know why, but Demons-the-unit in particular suffer from this a lot, making a lot of the options for producing them awful traps.

Skip. Even if Cannoneers weren't somewhat uncommon and uniquely appealing, this would be awful.

->
680 gold/trophies

Yet another unit where you're paying more than the Demon's base price!

Yeah, don't use Alchemists to get Demons.

->
450 gold/trophies

An Engineer costs almost twice what a Demon costs. Why do you have to spend another 2/3rds of a Demon to finish the conversion?

Skip.

->
1,000 gold/trophies

I'm confused as to why this isn't 600, which would be the cost difference between Foremen and Executioners. As-is, you're just throwing 400 gold in the trash compared to buying Executioners directly.

Unless you somehow burn through all your Executioner stocks and all your stocks of units that convert more efficiently into Executioners... don't do this to yourself.

->
1 gold/trophy

Giants cost 1,000 more gold than Archdemons for some reason, so you're throwing a fair amount of gold in the trash to do this. Still, if you have a bunch of Giants lying around and want to switch over to Archdemons, this is at least easy on your Trophies. Its certainly cheaper than using Rune Mages.

Sadly, this is arguably your best option for converting up Archdemons.

->
484 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Lake Fairies and Demonesses.

There's only three options for converting up Demonesses, and they're not particularly different in value; if you feel the need to convert up Demonesses, Lake Fairies aren't a clear winner or loser.

->
480 gold/trophies

This too is exactly the cost difference between Forest Fairies and Demonesses.

Which fairy do you prefer? Or flip a coin. Or use whichever is most common in your run. Whatever.

->
450 gold/trophies

Lastly for Demoness options, once again you pay exactly the cost difference between Dryads and Demonesses.

This is the option I'd be most hesitant to turn to simply because Dryads are honestly a pretty ridiculous unit. It is the option that's least spendy on Trophies, but only by a small margin; using Dryads instead of one of the fairies will make nearly no difference in how far your Trophies go.

Still, if your run has poor access to both kinds of fairies and Demonesses and you either won't or improbably can't Sacrifice up a Demoness supply, it's theoretically nice to have the option.

->
396 gold/trophies

Another case of exactly the cost difference.

Personally, I have difficulty imagining why you'd want to burn up Elves-the-unit to get Demons-the-unit, but at least it's not actively trashing gold?

->
900 gold/trophies

Yes, to turn a Hunter into a Demon-the-unit you have to spend nearly 50% more gold than buying a Demon directly.

Don't inflict this on yourself.

->
426 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Druids and Demons-the-unit.

Druids are a sufficiently lackluster unit, even with Armored Princess having buffed them hugely, that you're unlikely to miss them if you burn up your supply of them. On the other hand, this is pretty hard on your Trophies... probably better to go for one of the other options.

->
50 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Werewolf Elves and Cerberi.

This probably isn't worth taking advantage of. Leaving aside the issue that Cerberi are lackluster, there's overall better choices for producing them; Werewolf Elves are less common than some of the competition and more useful to boot.

->
1 gold/trophy

Fauns and Imps cost the same, so you're throwing 1 gold/Trophy in the trash per Imp made this way.

If you happen to have a pile of Fauns lying around for some reason, I suppose this isn't that wasteful to do? Maybe you're Sacrificing up tons of Fauns, I dunno.

->
70 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Goblins and Scoffer Imps.

There's better options for converting up Scoffer Imps, but there's certainly worse ones as well.

->
60 gold/trophies

This too is exactly the cost difference between Furious Goblins and Scoffer Imps.

See my commentary on regular Goblins to Scoffer Imps.

->
476 gold/trophies

Another case of exactly the cost difference, this time between Orcs-the-unit and Demons-the-unit.

Nonetheless, I'd rate this as a poor option. Basic Orcs are less common than I'd have expected, and then their low cost means this is very Trophy-intensive to boot. There's plenty of options if you want Demons-the-unit, too.

->
286 gold/trophies

Another case of exactly the cost difference between Orc Veterans and Demons-the-unit.

My own experience is that Orc Veterans are actually more common than basic Orcs, though it's entirely possible I've just had weird luck in this particular case. Assuming you have a decent supply of Orc Veterans, this is certainly one of the better choices if you need to convert up Demons-the-unit.

->
486 gold/trophies

This is nearly four times the cost of a Scoffer Imp, what?!?

Yeah, don't be converting Goblin Catapults, it's a horrible waste of resources.

->
66 gold/trophies

Another case of exactly the cost difference.

Shaman are the least Trophy-intensive option for producing Demons-the-unit through demonic conversion, so if that's your primary concern they're the best choice. (Assuming you're out of Demons in stores...) They're also generally not too uncommon, so you're not particularly likely to tear through your supply of Shaman, especially if you didn't turn to conversion until you ran out of Demons in stores.

->
3000 gold/trophies

Another example of the conversion charging exactly the cost difference.

Ogres are one of your two options for converting up Archdemons without it effectively costing more than purchasing Archdemons directly, which makes this worth consideration. Ogres are pretty rare and this is their game to shine, so I'd personally be reluctant to burn them on this, but the other option is also rare and good, so if you're needing more Archdemons there's not really any Just Plain Great choice.

->
166 gold/trophies

Here's another case of being charged exactly the cost difference.

Orc Trackers are weirdly common and one of the less Trophy-intensive options for converting up Demons-the-unit, so they're actually one of the better choices if you feel the need. By the time you have access to Sheterra, Orc Trackers have long since passed their early-game impressive performance -not that they're bad or anything, but if you used them for a bit in the very early game, ran low, and upon finding a new supply were expecting them to be just as amazing you'll be disappointed. Which is to say that using up Orc Trackers to get Demons-the-unit isn't a case of sacrificing a great unit to produce a not-so-great unit.

I'd rather use Shaman, but maybe your run already ran out or some such.

->
700 gold/trophies

Once again, this is more than a Demon costs to buy normally!

Don't convert Blood Shaman, it's a horrible waste.

->
316 gold/trophies

This is actually saving you 100 gold compared to purchasing a Demon directly.

This is unique; the Goblin Shaman to Demon conversion is the only case where demonic conversion saves gold over just buying the resulting unit directly.

Not that this matters much given that you tend to be sitting on tons of gold by the time you have access to Sheterra... I doubt it's intentional, in any event. Like so many of the cases of being over-charged, this is probably just that somebody missed that the number they put in isn't actually the cost difference between the two.

I'd say this gold savings is a reason to use Goblin Shaman for conversion, but Trophies is going to be the thing you worry about running out this late in the game, not gold, and Goblin Shaman to Demons is pretty Trophy-intensive. So... not really.

It's worth pointing out that you can make this even larger gold savings by having Rakush Train up Goblin Shaman, if you like. I feel the Trophy cost is a bit much, but maybe you're fine with it and using Rakush anyway.

->
150 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Wolves and Cerberi.

There's less Trophy-intensive options for producing Cerberi, and also Cerberi aren't terribly appealing in the first place. I have difficulty imagining a situation this would make sense to make use of.

->
190 gold/trophies

You're effectively throwing away 20 gold per head; don't convert Hyenas into Cerberi.

->
50 gold/trophies

This too is exactly the cost difference. Bears to Cerberi is also the least Trophy-intensive option for getting Cerberi via demonic conversion, so in the event you want to do that it's probably the best option.

I'm not sure why you'd want to convert up Cerberi, mind, but Bears are the best choice if you care.

->
1 gold/trophy

When converting Ancient Bears to Cerberi you're effectively throwing 31 gold in the trash per head; no thanks.

->
1 gold/trophies

By using Polar Bears you're more than doubling the effective price compared to just buying Cerberi directly; no thanks.

->
70 gold/trophies

Anther case of exactly the cost difference. Pirates to Scoffer Imps isn't the worst thing you could do. The main flaw with it is that the following exists;

->
20 gold/trophies

Sea Dogs to Scoffer Imps also charges exactly the cost difference, with Sea Dogs generally being very plentiful and the closeness of their respective prices keeping the Trophy cost down. This is in fact probably the best option for converting up Scoffer Imps. (In the unlikely event you feel the need to do so, of course)

->
60 gold/trophies

Another case of charging exactly the cost difference.

I'd honestly rather use Barbarians directly. If there weren't so much competition for the niche of producing Scoffer Imps it might be nice to have the option, but as-is Barbarians are one of many options and not even the best or second-best option for Trophy efficiency.

->
50 gold/trophies

This is also exactly the cost difference being charged.

It's not the worst way to use your Berserker stocks? Certainly, it's one reason why I have difficulty imagining converting Barbarians, when Berserkers will shave off some Trophy cost and are generally much less desirable to use in combat than Barbarians.

->
800 gold/trophies

This is exactly the cost difference between Assassins and Executioners.

You'd probably rather use Paladins as the base, as I covered earlier.

->
400 gold/trophies

Also exactly the cost difference.

Nonetheless, Paladins are generally a much better choice for converting up Executioners than Demonologists.

->
366 gold/trophies

Yet another case of charging exactly the cost difference.

There's better options than Witch Hunters for converting up Demons-the-unit, though.

->
2400 gold/trophies

This is the other case for converting up Archdemons that charges exactly the cost difference. Like Ogres, Trolls are on the rare side and are uniquely good units in their own right, where it's a bit painful to sacrifice them to get a hold of more Archdemons. Pick whichever one you like least, I guess... assuming you run out of Archdemons in stores and all, of course.

->
486 gold/trophies

Yes, for some reason you pay more than three times a Scoffer Imp's price for converting Gorguls into Scoffer Imps.

Don't do this. There is zero reason to inflict it on yourself.

->
316 gold/trophies

By contrast, Gorguanas to Demons-the-unit charges exactly the cost difference. It's... still dubious to do given how Trophy-intensive it is, but still.

-------------------------

Unfortunately, while the demonic conversion variation of Training is an interesting idea, it's severely hamstrung in practice. Just looking at the numbers, there's a fair few conversions that are colossal wastes of money that make no sense to ever actually do -in part because there's so much redundancy that you can easily get Demons without blowing Engineers on it, and so on- and most of the ones that aren't that bad are still no better than buying the unit directly.

This then comes back to probably the keymost problem: that you can't access this entire system until Sheterra, when Sheterra reliably provides the ability to purchase Demons directly in huge numbers. If demonic conversion was available somewhere within the first four islands, then you'd have the interesting option to spend Trophies to get early access to Demons; as-is, there's really no reason to not just buy Demons directly.

Furthermore, Sheterra being an endgame area makes it less realistic to burn through your stocks of purchasable Demons; by the time you have access to those stocks, you're close enough to the end of the game you'd have to immediately switch to Demons and then play extremely sloppily to be liable to burn through any given supply before you've beaten the game.

Since the majority of these options cost at least as much gold as purchasing the Demon directly, demonic conversion mostly isn't even a way to make your gold last longer, even aside the point that Trophies will almost certainly run out far faster regardless.

It's fortunately a fairly harmless misstep of a system, as I imagine most players either don't manage to stumble into the system at all or very quickly go 'but I can just buy Demons from nearby stores?' and just ignore it, but it's still a bit disappointing. There's potential to this idea, but Crossworlds doesn't realize its potential. Dark Side revisits the idea of demonic conversion to somewhat better effect, but only somewhat.

Alas.

Next time, we move on to our next project.

Though probably most readers are from ~the future~ and more interested in moving on to the Warriors of the North posts.

Either way, see you then.

Comments

  1. Internal comment call this mechanic by the word that usually means 'gas van/wagon'. Yes, a German one.

    This mechanic has some weird non-existant units in it's list that, I think, are not mentioned anywhere else in game. Like 'Fanatiks' who can be converted to Demons or 'Lighmages' who can be converted to Executioners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have absolutely no idea what to make of that internal comment.

      And I've seen 'Fanatiks' and 'Lighmages' digging around inside the txt files. I assume they were planned units that didn't get completed, or got cut, or whatever. That 'Lighmages' would've been able to convert to Executioners suggests they'd have been a relatively elite unit. 'Fanatiks' sounds like it would've been a Priest/Inquisitor variant; 'fanatic' is similar to 'zealot', which is of course the name for the elite monk unit in HoMM 3, and it's really obvious the Priest/Inquisitor design is drawing heavy inspiration from the Zealot design. I'd guess 'Lighmage' would've been another Archmage reskin, though I've no idea how to guess what the mechanics might've been... maybe something themed around casting Order Spells?

      Delete
  2. Same. My best guess is that converting supposed to be just as horrible?..

    'Lighmage' should be 'Lightmage'. I skipped a letter again >_< Through 'Fanatik' indeed written this way.
    I had the same thoughts. Elite monk from HoMM3 actually is 'Фанатик'/'Fanatic', so that instantly comes to mind.
    Do you remember where exactly you saw them? They are nowhere in scripts outside academy training. Their specific placement in the unit list here suggests they were supposed to be a Crossworlds' new human units but that's it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, that Fanatic bit is very strong evidence, yeah.

      And no, I don't remember. It's been literally like four years since I last seriously dug around in the internals of the game -these Military Academy posts were researched through manually checking everything in-game. I can say that, assuming I'm not just misremembering something (I wouldn't be surprised if I actually saw this in Ice and Fire's files, for example), it would have to be in a .txt file or part of a 'flat' image file; I never opened any lua files, and only a handful of times tried to dig around inside 3D-related image files. 95% of my time was spent combing through .txt files and image files.

      Delete
    2. When I wrote about HoMM elite monk being called 'fanatic', I meant in Russian version. Why do I constantly skip something?!

      Ah, well. Maybe I'll find them somewhere else.

      Delete
    3. No no, that was contextually clear to me. That's why I was saying it's strong confirmation -not only are zealot and fanatic similar words, but the Zealot who is the obvious inspiration for KB Priests and Inquisitors is literally called Fanatic in the Russian release; thus, this Russian game using Fanatic (Well, 'fanatik') as a name is strongly suggestive that this Fanatic unit would be a Priest/Inquisitor reskin.

      Delete
    4. There is also Firemage here too - he becomes Executioner too. Mentioned exactly once. Interesting.

      Sidenote: it's somewhat amusing to me that the file is organised in such way that it's much easier to quickly get info on upgrades/cost for units with multiple upgrade options (like peasant) than for ones with a single upgrade/conversion.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts