Differences between existing difficulties and Maddening Mode
Before you start, here's what to expect. You'll need to plan your strategy based on these elements:
- Enemies have higher levels, and their statistics are inflated. This means that, most of the time, you will face enemies of a higher level than your troops. For reference, the enemies in the final mission of the Church route are Level 50–52, with stats that can exceed the threshold of 50 in their preferred domain — Speed, for example. They have an Attack stat between 50–70, and in some cases, Life Points approaching 100.
- Enemies are also more numerous in general.
- Experience gains are divided by 2, which means that your units will gain levels much more slowly. This is partly compensated by the higher level of enemies and their greater number, but it is far from being equivalent.
- Enemy reinforcements can act on the same turn they enter the map. If your units are in the vicinity, this can cause a fair bit of drama.
- More bosses are able to move freely on the map. This is especially true of the Death Knight in Mission 5, which is a massive peak in difficulty.
- Enemies also have more special talents — for example, Thieves have Passage, Archers have Poison, Priests have Regeneration, etc.
