SandroXXL
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Birth of a Barbarian
A heartbreaking scenario. The main character Yog has long studied magic and now possesses it in all its manifestations, but you won't even see first-level spells. The entire campaign is played without a spellbook; there is no need to level up magical skills or knowledge/power. The adventure takes place on snow, swamps, rocky terrain, and mud, so we need to take abilities that modify movement. Additionally, magic resistance, armor, and ballistics won't hurt either. It is the shortest campaign of all.
1) On the Move
Size: M, single-level
Conditions: capture the city of Groa within 5 months, Yog must survive.
The hero starts in the eastern part of the map near the red player's castle. Capturing the city now makes no sense, but we simply need a city. Pay attention to the witch's hut near this city; get Logistics or Pathfinding. Cross the entire map heading southeast; at the first blue outpost, find a monk who can teach us Pathfinding, then find the city and capture it. The little town, of course, needs to be built up, so free Terrek or hire a hero in the tavern and pick up everything that isn't nailed down. The enemy hero Ain tends to move south, so while she is gone, you can capture the castle and recruit creatures. Eliminate this hero at the first opportunity. These skirmishes will take about 4 weeks of game time. Next, we need to go down from the city of Kalarnen, capturing mines and monster dwellings, visiting attack and defense modifiers. But our goal is the blue keymaster, curse him. He is initially guarded by 15 nagas, but by the time you arrive, there will be about 30-40. Now you can capture the castle located behind the blue border gates without much trouble. In theory, Yog should be fleeing from Bracada, but in practice, Yog is hunting Bracada's troops. There is a shipyard near the city. Rest assured, the enemy has already crossed to the other side and is waiting for you. Gather your troops and sail north. And here—STOP! It is very important that you keep your composure because during my first playthrough, the landing zone was cluttered with ships, I didn't have the "Sink Ship" spell, and none of my heroes wanted to summon them. If there is nowhere to land, try to find a hero with water magic and then recall some ships, or wait until the red player sails to you. If everything is fine, move forward. North of the landing zone will be a city. Then go, winding your way into the mountains, hitting all modifiers for attack/defense. You need to reach the upper right corner of the map. Along the way, you will encounter 35 ancient behemoths, and the city itself will be guarded by these troops: 80 hobgoblins, 56 raiders, 50 orc chieftains, 45 thunder birds, and 40 cyclops kings. After taking the Stronghold, you can celebrate victory.
2) The Meeting
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: capture Ulgak, Yog must survive.
Once again, we are given a chance to play on grass. However, the map is terrible; 6 castles on grass is too many. But the map can be completed at 180% (I played it) without much trouble. The player starts in the lower right corner; gather an army and slowly build up. Know that we cannot break through the garrison, and the purple player will first be held back by neutral monsters. Therefore, assemble a detachment, deal with your own territory, and go underground. The portal leads to an area with a crystal mine and orc towers, but upon exiting, thunder birds will attack you. Exit the Dungeon in the west of the map, head south, and capture the Stronghold, which we also begin to build up. You can even be bold and capture the northern city, but you won't hold it for long: you must hurry back to your starting castle. Build up to behemoths, gather an army so that monsters of the first three levels are within 100-200 units, and set out on a campaign toward the castle in the same Dungeon we know. Give the player some more troops from the southwestern Stronghold, capture the northwestern castle, head east and underground, then further east to exit to the surface. Keep in mind that the enemy is already capturing your castles, and you won't be able to help them. Then go sharply down to the next Dungeon; there is only one road, at the end of which 20-30 behemoths will oppose you. Exit to the surface and attack the castle—that's it: victory is ours. By the way, in a quick battle I couldn't take the Stronghold, but when I restarted the turn and played myself, I had 130 orc chieftains and about twenty thunder birds left, so you will succeed too.
3) A Difficult Beginning
Size: M, two-level
Conditions: obtain the same courage charm, Yog must survive.
Yog is in the service of the Barbarians; he needs to scatter parts of the Angel Alliance artifact around the vicinity. Apparently, the developers decided to compensate for the lack of a spellbook with a powerful artifact. Build up your Stronghold and gather creatures; we need beasts of levels 1-3. There is only one way east from your territory; that's how we get out. There will be no attacks from the sea. Hire another hero to collect monsters and resources. Slightly north of the exit, you'll notice a Fortress of swamp dwellers. Capture it and, if possible, eliminate all enemy heroes. Start building up the city; in your adventures, gorgons, basilisks, and wyverns are indispensable. Gather a small army and move south along the path; the castle there is the weakest, so build that one up too, take a hero, and periodically move monsters to the central swamp city. Now a bit about the central city—it is our mainstay. There is a portal nearby, but you don't really need it yet. It's better to deal with the enemy first, then quests, etc. Enemy Fortresses are located in the northwest (along the road) and northeast (past the monks). Pay special attention to gold mines, as there are many here, and serpent hives to obtain a large number of wyverns. One hive is in the south on same Barbarian territory; another: along the road south to the sawmill, then east. Upgrade gorgons and other creatures whenever possible and set out against the enemy. The enemy far from us (in the northwest) is weaker; that's who we will kill, while the closer one is stronger, but they have a nasty spell like expert-level Slow. It's better to kill the enemy outside the castle—it will be easier; your Stronghold troops will likely be heavily depleted, so move to the swamp. Then focus on the nearby city. After several awkward moments (battles without magic!), start building chaos hydras and save up 15 of them. Sulfur can be obtained by teleporting from the central Fortress to a separate piece of territory where there are 2 mines. Move the hydras northwest (to the former enemy castle) and give them as payment for entry. Free a hero from the Dungeon and take 7 chaos hydras, 15 gorgons, and 24 dragonflies. Ahead is a shipyard. 20 guarding hydras are no problem for us; buy more troops and sail to the island. There, collect all spheres, which will be guarded by elementals in squads of a hundred—each territory has its own elemental. Then sail south as far as possible, find the seer at the portal exit, and exchange the elemental spheres for the sphere of banning. Take the sphere of banning to the seer on Barbarian territory to receive the hell sword; take the sword to the center of the map to the Dungeon, exchange it, descend, defeat 35 chaos hydras, disassemble the alliance, and give the magic armor and holy sandals to the seer; they will give you the courage charm as proof that you did everything correctly. And one more thing. In the south after the teleporter, you'll find a well-built city which they will exchange for a clover of luck, but where to find the clover is the question. The clover lies slightly east of this castle, just above the sulfur mine, and it looks so much like a tree that you won't even notice it when you first pass through here. This is probably a joke from the developers.
4) Falor and Terven
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: obtain the courage charm, Yog must survive.
Another small map; by the way, it's also the easiest in this campaign. Build a castle, capture mines; a tea (in some versions turquoise) player teleports to us, whose heroes are very weak and who is easy to kill. Repel 2-3 attacks, take a boat, and cross to the other shore toward the castle. Capture the castle; the blue keymaster is right under it, guarded by 30-40 monks. Then quickly visit the second castle to rid yourself of the annoying player. If some overly curious hero dared to capture your castle on the other side, teleport after them and finish them off. Sail to the central island, go underground, and eliminate a dozen archangels at the green keymaster's. Have one of your heroes visit the red keymaster at the Stronghold, while Yog eliminates another dozen Archangels and gives the necklace and shield to the seer's hut.
5) Return to Bracada
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: obtain the courage charm, Yog must survive.
Ain is waiting for Yog to catch him and hand him over to the authorities of Bracada. Still, Yog is keeping something secret. She isn't hunting him for no reason. You will be told that it's better not to encounter Bracada's armies, but this is impossible, so set difficulty to 80-100% and don't show off. Build up the city very quickly, using the advantage in resources: creatures of levels 1-5, Stronghold, buildings up to the capitol, upgrades. Pick up everything that isn't nailed down, recruit creatures: goblins at the castle, orcs by the road, cyclops in the upper left corner. After defeating champions, get 20 crystals from the seer; don't overextend, wait for the enemy. But there is no point in sitting around for more than three weeks, as an army could arrive that would be overwhelming. The enemy has two vanguard heroes: Ain and Astral, each leading an army. You need to achieve a position where you can take them out one by one (with relatively small armies). I only defeated Astral on the third attempt. Mages have Chain Lightning and Blindness, so if you didn't level up magic resistance (I didn't!), it will be very rough. It is also necessary to visit the white keymaster—his guard consists of 25 ancient behemoths—and break through along the road to the Dungeon, then in the Dungeon to the purple keymaster, then exit and move east along the bottom of the map. Visit the seers and celebrate victory!
Summary: Yog discovers new horizons. Meanwhile, Sandro gets to work; soon truly interesting campaigns will follow, with spellbooks.
To be continued.
A heartbreaking scenario. The main character Yog has long studied magic and now possesses it in all its manifestations, but you won't even see first-level spells. The entire campaign is played without a spellbook; there is no need to level up magical skills or knowledge/power. The adventure takes place on snow, swamps, rocky terrain, and mud, so we need to take abilities that modify movement. Additionally, magic resistance, armor, and ballistics won't hurt either. It is the shortest campaign of all.
1) On the Move
Size: M, single-level
Conditions: capture the city of Groa within 5 months, Yog must survive.
The hero starts in the eastern part of the map near the red player's castle. Capturing the city now makes no sense, but we simply need a city. Pay attention to the witch's hut near this city; get Logistics or Pathfinding. Cross the entire map heading southeast; at the first blue outpost, find a monk who can teach us Pathfinding, then find the city and capture it. The little town, of course, needs to be built up, so free Terrek or hire a hero in the tavern and pick up everything that isn't nailed down. The enemy hero Ain tends to move south, so while she is gone, you can capture the castle and recruit creatures. Eliminate this hero at the first opportunity. These skirmishes will take about 4 weeks of game time. Next, we need to go down from the city of Kalarnen, capturing mines and monster dwellings, visiting attack and defense modifiers. But our goal is the blue keymaster, curse him. He is initially guarded by 15 nagas, but by the time you arrive, there will be about 30-40. Now you can capture the castle located behind the blue border gates without much trouble. In theory, Yog should be fleeing from Bracada, but in practice, Yog is hunting Bracada's troops. There is a shipyard near the city. Rest assured, the enemy has already crossed to the other side and is waiting for you. Gather your troops and sail north. And here—STOP! It is very important that you keep your composure because during my first playthrough, the landing zone was cluttered with ships, I didn't have the "Sink Ship" spell, and none of my heroes wanted to summon them. If there is nowhere to land, try to find a hero with water magic and then recall some ships, or wait until the red player sails to you. If everything is fine, move forward. North of the landing zone will be a city. Then go, winding your way into the mountains, hitting all modifiers for attack/defense. You need to reach the upper right corner of the map. Along the way, you will encounter 35 ancient behemoths, and the city itself will be guarded by these troops: 80 hobgoblins, 56 raiders, 50 orc chieftains, 45 thunder birds, and 40 cyclops kings. After taking the Stronghold, you can celebrate victory.
2) The Meeting
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: capture Ulgak, Yog must survive.
Once again, we are given a chance to play on grass. However, the map is terrible; 6 castles on grass is too many. But the map can be completed at 180% (I played it) without much trouble. The player starts in the lower right corner; gather an army and slowly build up. Know that we cannot break through the garrison, and the purple player will first be held back by neutral monsters. Therefore, assemble a detachment, deal with your own territory, and go underground. The portal leads to an area with a crystal mine and orc towers, but upon exiting, thunder birds will attack you. Exit the Dungeon in the west of the map, head south, and capture the Stronghold, which we also begin to build up. You can even be bold and capture the northern city, but you won't hold it for long: you must hurry back to your starting castle. Build up to behemoths, gather an army so that monsters of the first three levels are within 100-200 units, and set out on a campaign toward the castle in the same Dungeon we know. Give the player some more troops from the southwestern Stronghold, capture the northwestern castle, head east and underground, then further east to exit to the surface. Keep in mind that the enemy is already capturing your castles, and you won't be able to help them. Then go sharply down to the next Dungeon; there is only one road, at the end of which 20-30 behemoths will oppose you. Exit to the surface and attack the castle—that's it: victory is ours. By the way, in a quick battle I couldn't take the Stronghold, but when I restarted the turn and played myself, I had 130 orc chieftains and about twenty thunder birds left, so you will succeed too.
3) A Difficult Beginning
Size: M, two-level
Conditions: obtain the same courage charm, Yog must survive.
Yog is in the service of the Barbarians; he needs to scatter parts of the Angel Alliance artifact around the vicinity. Apparently, the developers decided to compensate for the lack of a spellbook with a powerful artifact. Build up your Stronghold and gather creatures; we need beasts of levels 1-3. There is only one way east from your territory; that's how we get out. There will be no attacks from the sea. Hire another hero to collect monsters and resources. Slightly north of the exit, you'll notice a Fortress of swamp dwellers. Capture it and, if possible, eliminate all enemy heroes. Start building up the city; in your adventures, gorgons, basilisks, and wyverns are indispensable. Gather a small army and move south along the path; the castle there is the weakest, so build that one up too, take a hero, and periodically move monsters to the central swamp city. Now a bit about the central city—it is our mainstay. There is a portal nearby, but you don't really need it yet. It's better to deal with the enemy first, then quests, etc. Enemy Fortresses are located in the northwest (along the road) and northeast (past the monks). Pay special attention to gold mines, as there are many here, and serpent hives to obtain a large number of wyverns. One hive is in the south on same Barbarian territory; another: along the road south to the sawmill, then east. Upgrade gorgons and other creatures whenever possible and set out against the enemy. The enemy far from us (in the northwest) is weaker; that's who we will kill, while the closer one is stronger, but they have a nasty spell like expert-level Slow. It's better to kill the enemy outside the castle—it will be easier; your Stronghold troops will likely be heavily depleted, so move to the swamp. Then focus on the nearby city. After several awkward moments (battles without magic!), start building chaos hydras and save up 15 of them. Sulfur can be obtained by teleporting from the central Fortress to a separate piece of territory where there are 2 mines. Move the hydras northwest (to the former enemy castle) and give them as payment for entry. Free a hero from the Dungeon and take 7 chaos hydras, 15 gorgons, and 24 dragonflies. Ahead is a shipyard. 20 guarding hydras are no problem for us; buy more troops and sail to the island. There, collect all spheres, which will be guarded by elementals in squads of a hundred—each territory has its own elemental. Then sail south as far as possible, find the seer at the portal exit, and exchange the elemental spheres for the sphere of banning. Take the sphere of banning to the seer on Barbarian territory to receive the hell sword; take the sword to the center of the map to the Dungeon, exchange it, descend, defeat 35 chaos hydras, disassemble the alliance, and give the magic armor and holy sandals to the seer; they will give you the courage charm as proof that you did everything correctly. And one more thing. In the south after the teleporter, you'll find a well-built city which they will exchange for a clover of luck, but where to find the clover is the question. The clover lies slightly east of this castle, just above the sulfur mine, and it looks so much like a tree that you won't even notice it when you first pass through here. This is probably a joke from the developers.
4) Falor and Terven
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: obtain the courage charm, Yog must survive.
Another small map; by the way, it's also the easiest in this campaign. Build a castle, capture mines; a tea (in some versions turquoise) player teleports to us, whose heroes are very weak and who is easy to kill. Repel 2-3 attacks, take a boat, and cross to the other shore toward the castle. Capture the castle; the blue keymaster is right under it, guarded by 30-40 monks. Then quickly visit the second castle to rid yourself of the annoying player. If some overly curious hero dared to capture your castle on the other side, teleport after them and finish them off. Sail to the central island, go underground, and eliminate a dozen archangels at the green keymaster's. Have one of your heroes visit the red keymaster at the Stronghold, while Yog eliminates another dozen Archangels and gives the necklace and shield to the seer's hut.
5) Return to Bracada
Size: S, two-level
Conditions: obtain the courage charm, Yog must survive.
Ain is waiting for Yog to catch him and hand him over to the authorities of Bracada. Still, Yog is keeping something secret. She isn't hunting him for no reason. You will be told that it's better not to encounter Bracada's armies, but this is impossible, so set difficulty to 80-100% and don't show off. Build up the city very quickly, using the advantage in resources: creatures of levels 1-5, Stronghold, buildings up to the capitol, upgrades. Pick up everything that isn't nailed down, recruit creatures: goblins at the castle, orcs by the road, cyclops in the upper left corner. After defeating champions, get 20 crystals from the seer; don't overextend, wait for the enemy. But there is no point in sitting around for more than three weeks, as an army could arrive that would be overwhelming. The enemy has two vanguard heroes: Ain and Astral, each leading an army. You need to achieve a position where you can take them out one by one (with relatively small armies). I only defeated Astral on the third attempt. Mages have Chain Lightning and Blindness, so if you didn't level up magic resistance (I didn't!), it will be very rough. It is also necessary to visit the white keymaster—his guard consists of 25 ancient behemoths—and break through along the road to the Dungeon, then in the Dungeon to the purple keymaster, then exit and move east along the bottom of the map. Visit the seers and celebrate victory!
Summary: Yog discovers new horizons. Meanwhile, Sandro gets to work; soon truly interesting campaigns will follow, with spellbooks.
To be continued.
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