Title pretty much says it all. First time player, I've managed to get to level 8, not exactly in style, but whatever. I just can't beat that one, I guess I'm just not getting how the game works or what is expected of me (and/or how to effectively carry it out). I'm going to try and break out my observations so far, see if you can provide any advice (or point out any obvious mistakes I migt be making).

I'm basically a defensive player. I don't enjoy combat at all in this game. For me it's all about building an efficient dungeon, then go on the offensive whenever I feel I'm ready and/or I please, barricading myself in with walls if need be. I also dislike save scumming, so I try to make do with the cards I'm dealt and start the level over only when I feel it's hopeless.

Anyway, this game very obviously punishes that approach because of sky-rocketting training costs. I just throw my minions in the training room and wait for them to get all buff before I even consider attacking my enemies, but long before I get them up to their full potential, they start rapidly draining my gold, so I end up having to lock the training room under key and throw just a couple creatures in there at a time. Is this by design? How am I to get my minions to level 10 unless I can secure some gems? Or am I rather supposed to have one or two very strong creatures and throw some cannon fodder around them to take the heat for them?

Again, I dislike combat quite a lot. Since any creature can be teleported anywhere within your own territory, the enemy AI will never allow a cloak and dagger approeach, so I end up zerg-rushing my way in and hoping that my strength in numbers will make up for my lack of training (which often fails horribly as the enemy throws in a handful of level 5+ creatures that proceed to wipe the floor with my poor beasties. And since it's in real time and it's all nerve-racking growling and screaming, spells (which are implied to be crucial) end up being useless to me, as I find myself quickly outmaneuvered before I can even start figuring out who needs healing and/or buffing the most (and that's when I can afford it at all, because, again, spells also drain gold).

Then there's the possess spell, which again is implied to be crucial and I seldom use, because it means pretty much neglecting everything else while you bring the possessed creature to do your bidding, and I waste too much time just trying to navigate the corridors with that shaky mouse camera. I tend to think dropping a creature somewhere (including a combat ridden area) should be enough, as they should know what they're doing already, but I'm guessing possessing might be the only way for them to use their spells and skills efficiently, which, again, I'd find virtually unfeasible due the the fast-paced combat. I keep thinking my game might overall be running faster than it was originally conceived to run, but I've seen videos where it runs the same, so maybe my brain's just running too slow :-(.

Anyway, since, if I'm right in my assumptions, I guess this game is all but hopeless to me (unless I'm doing something wrong), is there any specific area you'd advice me to focus on in terms of training myself to suck less? Because otherwise I may be about to throw in the towel.

There is nothing wrong with being defensive. I do it all the time, too. Though, depending on the level, you may need to go on the offensive earlier than you would like. Hitting the P key on your keyboard pauses the game. You can't interact with anything, but it does give you a chance to look around the map and think about your next action.

Don't train everything you have either. That eats up way to much gold (unless you have access to gems, then train away!). I usually train Bile Demons(my favorite in DK1), Orcs, Mistress(also a favorite), and Trolls(for Workshops). Imps only to lv.3 to get a speed boost.
Dragons and Demon spawns and Warlocks are also good, if you don't have the above. Early on, lvs4-5 are usually sufficient to take out your enemy.

The possession spell isn't crucial, but can help you scout the area to reveal it on your map. That's all I personally use it for. And occasionally to zerg rush the enemy keepers heart, with the speed and invisibility spells, if things start to go south. Doesn't always work, but it's saved me a few times.

Try to use spells sparingly, unless you have gems. Keep about 8 to 12 imps, more could be to annoying to manage, since you can only hold 8 creatures at a time.

There is also a easy money making trick involving the workshop. Build a workshop 7x7 minimum, smaller can work but will be slower, bigger is better. Throw as many creatures as you can fit, Bile Demons, Trolls, Orcs, work best. Create a long hallway or two if possible. Now build all the doors you have and sell them off. They cost nothing to build, but they sell for gold. As long as you don't build any traps, your creatures will continue to create doors in the workshop that you can then build and sell for profit! the better the door the more money you get!

Wooden: $250
Iron: $500
Steel: $750
Magic $1500

Hope this helps.

I second all that fine information. Especially the P key. It's the "so what if I'm not great at RTS, this isn't a Korean starcraft tournament" key.

For level 8 (Tickle?) I would try this. Make 5x5+ lair, 5x5+ hatchery, get like 6-8 bile demons. Then build library and training room, train bile demons up to level 4 (they get Fart at 4, and already have the ranged gas bomb attack, and so are pretty much as good as they are going to get).

To keep lean with cash, kick demon spawn or put them in library to help there. Or even guard post duty- permanent job that costs nothing.

Use call to arms versus the enemy keeper with the Bile Demons. The reason thealienguy (and me too) like the Bile Demon is the massive, and stacking, area-of-effect damage. The enemy keeper will dump all his forces in against them and get absolutely rolled.


edit: As I remember, I think the last time I played DK I beat that level without a hatchery. Built library and imprisoned the warlocks when they got hungry. Built training room eventually and attacked with well-trained skeletons. Skeletons train very fast and do not eat.

Wall-o-Text incoming!

Training is going to rapidly drain gold. For me it is mostly for if you have an infinite gold source. Doors are a god-send for keeping natural trainers out of the training room. Train small groups at a time to control how fast gold is spent.

Creature Level 10 isn't something to strive for unless you have the aforementioned amount of gold. Do become familiar with what creatures are decent combatants (flies go splat, spiders are a little better, demon spawn are fairly tanky), and focus on training those that will actually do some fighting (not beetles). Most of your better fighters will go train if they don't have any orders or pressing needs (like hunger).

I almost never bother with buff spells, except maybe Speed Up when a creature is training. I'll use Heal in combat; target the spell by expanding the battle notification window (a little sword notification icon which will flash when your creatures are actually fighting) and cast on the creature head icon in the window there. You can see health bars to see who is getting hit and who needs some healing. Alternatively, just pull the creature straight out of combat by clicking in the same window to pick them up (great for getting a Fly out of an enemy dungeon, assuming it isn't dead by the time you can click).

I'll use Lightning Bolt (in combat or in an enemy dungeon) to deal some hefty damage if I have spare gold. A fully charged Lightning will kill any level 1 enemy imps near the target point, and do damage in a fairly wide radius. If you have lots of gold, or a decent gem block, you can get vision using Sight of Evil (full charge lasts a long time and gives a large sight radius) and proceed to kill all the enemy imps you can find with Lightning Bolt. This is also possible with creatures, but they tend to have a lot more hp than imps.

You can heal prisoners either with the Heal spell (faster, spends gold), or by picking up chickens and dropping them on the prisoner (more tedious). The chicken heal also works if they are being tortured. Chickens are effectively time-delayed freebies, just make sure you don't empty your hatchery while your minions are actively searching for a meal.

Your monsters are moderately efficient at their tasks, but some things you can do more efficiently if you take a direct hand. For example, you can very quickly dig out an area of dirt if you possess an imp, claiming the land at the same time. You can possess a Fly to rapidly explore new territory, with a focus on uncovering the map. You can use the Dragon's breath attack on an enemy and just keep it going non-stop to rapidly drain an enemy's health (my favorite tactic for the map where you are under siege). You should be able to get by without using Possess, but it can be useful (especially if you don't have any other pressing tasks at the moment). For combat, unless I'm not busy and it is a small scale battle (my one monster against a small group, or me trying to finish off an enemy dungeon heart a little faster), I just let the monsters do their thing.

The workshop is an amazing room. Bigger is better here, no questions asked. If a creature isn't doing something more important, and if they'll work in your workshop (warlocks won't, for example), then put them to work in the workshop. Expand it when you can. Alienguy already talked about building and selling doors for profit, and his suggestion for building a series of long corridors is a good one for making life easier. I'll build a series of three parallel halls, as long as will fit on my screen, fill them with doors on every space, then sell the doors. It won't show a money pop up, but you do get money. Traps can be done the same way, but occasionally a trap won't disappear from your workshop, and it just takes up space. If your workshop gets too clogged with traps that don't register in your trap menu, then sell off the workshop and rebuild it.

There is a specific order that determines which door/trap your creatures will construct next. They will work on items lower in the list only if there are fewer of that item than everything higher in the list. Doors and traps are interwoven here, with weaker items higher in the list. Not every door/trap is available in every level (look at the traps tab to see which ones you can have). For example, if you have 3 Wooden Doors, then they'll only build Magic Doors until you have 3 Magic Doors, after which they'll start on a new Wooden Door. If you have 7 Wood Doors and 5 Iron Doors, and 2 Magic Doors, they'll build Magic Door (3) -> Magic Door (4) -> Magic Door (5) -> Iron Door (6) -> Magic Door (6) -> Iron Door (7) -> Magic Door (7) -> Wooden Door (8) -> Iron Door (8) -> Magic Door (8) -> etc.

The biggest things are to become familiar with monster's general strengths and weaknesses (including immunities), their natural proclivities (what they'll do on their own, what they'll refuse to do, who they'll fight with when laired together), how they tend to fight (don't drop a bunch of bile demons to fight beside most of your other monsters) and making money off your workshop.

Even though the above strategies all work, for the main campaign they are not needed at all. Your enemies are generally quite weak if you attack when you should. However, if you train just a few of your creatures while you let your rival continue to train, you'll fall behind.

First, remember you can throw useless creatures back into the portal. These are the insects, and after the beginning trolls, demon spawn and warlocks as well. If you keep doing that they will be replaced by orc, bile demons, dragons and mistresses which are much more powerful.

Second, always turn imprisonment on. Adding heroes or skeletons to your already maxed army will win every level.

And finally, what seems to be your problem is that you wait to long. When you run out of gold from training, dig towards the next gold on the map so you can continue to train. On level 8 where you are now you can safely dig out all of the gold in the east. Then proceed to the north-west (bile demons completely destroy fairies if you let them fly into your dungeon), the gold near the barbarians and finally proceed north to mine the gems. By this time with the added barbarians you can easily destroy the lone keeper on this map.

What always really helps is bringing a lvl 10 Dark Mistress over from the previous level that will research all rooms really quickly and is a very powerful fighter. Vampires work as well, but are a bit more of a hassle.

Thanks a lot for the great advice and the reassurance, guys. It's not like I consider myself an exceedingly skilled player, able to adapt to any genre or playstyle, but it had been years since I last hit a wall as hard as this one. I had started to think I might be losing my gaming mojo :-P. I'll try it again one of these days, see how it goes.

Looking back at the specific level, the keeper (mainly his imps) will try to make progress toward your dungeon when your tiles and his tiles touch. Your imps will end up in fights with his over land, and imps die pretty quickly even to other imps (this applies to your imps and his imps).

Turn imprisonment on when you can, and drop a creature or two behind the enemy imps (between them and the enemy keeper's dungeon) to try and capture his imps (retreating imps will run straight into your creatures). Don't use bile demons, because they will use a gas attack that hurts/kills everyone's imps! Make sure to heal the captured imps with the heal spell (minimum charge) before torturing them into conversion; imps will typically convert very quickly, so they shouldn't need a second round of healing.

Dig to the gold seam all the way to the east, and get the creatures in the hidden area behind that gold. Keep an eye on the hell hounds, because they like to run off and explore/fight, and they'll run right through lava since they are immune to it. Hell hounds are aggressive, but not exceptionally durable.

Don't dig out the gold straight north until you've got the creatures to the east.

The temple has a very useful feature: sacrificing imps. Normally, creating a new imp costs more money as you have more imps, with a minimum cost of 150 if you have zero imps. Each imp you sacrifice in the temple increases the number of imps you can purchase at the base cost, and the higher costs are always based around something like "Last imp cost +150". Make sure to have imps drop any gold they are carrying before you sacrifice them (drop them in a treasure room that isn't full, then grab them again after they drop their load of gold).

You can get large numbers of imps for a lot cheaper by running through some sacrifice cycles (sacrifice all your imps, then create imps at the base cost, sacrifice those, create more imps at the base cost, sacrifice those, rinse and repeat until you can summon however many imps you want for 150 each). The imp costs will typically be cheaper overall, AND the replacements will be cheaper if you lose any later in the level.