Oh, it was not a good idea to start this game; the map is a complete brain explosion.
The goal is to capture a town. I set Necropolis as the default on the available options, since the author promised a tough challenge. I played as Red, with the necromancer Isra.
The starting necropolis was Justice, below Green Wood, with weak defenses; further below were a couple others with much stronger defenses. The mage guild in Justice taught Isra the town portal spell by week 2. Also, on our lands there are two seers. One requires level 30, the other level 60.
To our left are the lands of Blue, with the main hero Clavius. The lands are separated by green and red gates. None of the tents were visited initially, and you have to visit all of them without fail.
Next to the necropolis Atos Mortis (I'm not sure about the exact name) is a red tent, guarded by 4000 champions. There is no Cloak of the Undead King, not even any of its components; the battle is fought with only skeletons.
By month 3, having raised the number of skeletons to 50000, I captured Mistiapoulus, then Atos Mortis, killed the champions, and visited the red tent. After breaking through the legion of wizards behind the red gates, I picked up the Boots of Levitation.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the movements of Gray (his lands were to the right). His hero tried three times to cross a section of the lake and disappeared each time. A similar invisible guard was on the lake next to my lands. Isra was attacked by hundreds of Azure Dragons, thousands of Water Elementals, and many others as well. After defeating them, I got the Admiral's Hat, the Sphere of Rain, and a couple of other artifacts.
After defeating Blue, I eliminated him from the game. To proceed further, I needed to visit the green and blue tents. The blue tent turned out to be near Green's lands, despite all his attempts to hide it with the Veil of Darkness.
Going through a one-way portal in the upper left corner from my lands, I found a neutral Necropolis, Comfort Gabriel, also with a legion guard. I took it for myself. A nearby seer rewarded Isra with 4000 Faerie Dragons for my stats being at 99!! Fantastic!! Next to Comfort Gabriel is the green tent.
After crossing the lake, I landed on neutral lands not far from Gray. In the center stands the Necropolis Gabriel with a legion guard. I defeated it and captured it. Below is another necropolis with a similarly strong guard, and next to it is a brown tent, defended by 4000 Gold Golems. I defeated them too and took the town. Between the necropolises lie 3 Pandora's Boxes, with a legion of Phoenixes in front of the first, a legion of Archangels in front of the 2nd, and a legion of Azure Dragons in front of the 3rd. And in front of each is a guard requiring stats of 45 (for the 1st), 75 (for the 2nd), and 99 for the 3rd. By month 5, Isra's stats reached 99/99/99/99, so I decided to attack the boxes. If there's a catch, it's for a reason.
After opening the guard, I defeated the Phoenixes and opened the box. I used quick combat, defeated the legion of Phoenixes (6 or 7 thousand, maybe more) and got 1000 Phoenixes as a reward. I did the same with the 2nd box. After breaking through the Archangel defense, I captured the box and got 1000 Angels. The 3rd one was unlucky; after defeating the legion of Azures, I couldn't take the box. I turned off quick combat to see what was inside. I looked and was stunned - the guard consisted of 4000 Faerie Dragons and several groups of 9999 Azures. It's impossible to defeat them, and even if I got 1000 Azures in the end - no thanks, it's not worth the trouble.
While I was messing with the boxes, Gray approached Gabriel. Teleporting Isra to the town, I defeated him. For his insolence, Gray paid with his life - I captured both of his necropolises and Gray left the game. Then I headed east, into Green's lands. The goal was to visit the blue tent. On the way, I visited two seers and received rewards. Green couldn't get to the tent and the nearby necropolis because of 4000 Naga Queens blocking the path. At the sight of Isra, the Nagas fled, I captured the necropolis and visited the blue tent. In the process, I also killed Green.
The blue tent allowed me to open the gate guards at the very bottom of the map and visit the orange tent. Returning to Gabriel, I opened the gate guards below and attacked Cyan's hero - the Undead King, with legions and stats over 75. Using Shackles of War, I eliminated him and captured 2 Cloaks of the Undead King. Hooray! Later I recruited him from the tavern (despite the stats, the hero turned out to be level 1).
Returning to Comfort Gabriel, I opened the purple guard (visited the tent after the orange one), added a squad of Faerie Dragons to my army, picked up the Boots of the Saint and the Armor of Wonder (both artifacts were guarded by Archangels). The battle with them gave me several thousand Liches.
Going higher, I opened another Pandora's Box. A message appeared, something like "don't go there, you'll regret it." I didn't regret it, holy crap, the victory over who knows what gave me 25000 Sharpshooters!!! Plus the number of Liches reached 40000.
I was curious - what would the seer give for level 60? I already have the Cloak of the Undead King, I collected the Angelic Alliance piece by piece, the Power of the Dragon Father lies behind the purple guard (there was a funny incident with that). Through victories and visiting trees, I reached level 57.
Then my story took a strange turn. Ahead was Purple with Inferno. Even before that, after opening the gate guards on a small island to the right of Comfort Gabriel, I visited the purple tent. On the upper island, behind purple, blue, and orange guards, stands Cyan's hero, Heimit. In front of him are 4000 Faerie Dragons.
Seeing his army, the core of which is 9999 Red Dragons, I decided not to attack. I captured Purple's Inferno, killed the weak hero Belzebub, the passage to the last Inferno required killing the hero Azazel (Zeron). Azazel was standing still next to a portal, and nearby were also a Pandora's Box and the Sphere of Vulnerability.
Azazel's stats were equal to mine; his army had about 6000 Devils, the same number of Arch Devils, 7000 Ancient Behemoths, Chaos Hydras. I thought, forget it, my dragons and sharpshooters will deal with them in no time. Damn, how wrong I was! It was an epic fail! I don't know how, but a bunch of Behemoths killed 30000 Liches instantly!! I couldn't believe my eyes, I tried hitting them with a phantom, tried to resurrect the Liches. Then it got worse. In an instant, Azazel killed both the dragons and the 25000 Sharpshooters. I guess that's how King Darius III felt when Alexander the Great laid waste to his million-man army...
I reloaded the battle again and again - nothing helped. Okay, I'll try a different approach, but I'll kick Azazel's infernal ass. I sent Isra to gather troops from all the necropolises. I attacked everyone to increase the number of Liches. I defeated the remaining legions of Crystal Dragons and other dragons. I jumped across lakes, hoping to stumble upon the invisible guard that killed Gray's hero. I found it and got the Armor of the Damned. I already had the Spirit of Oppression.
I find it hard to believe what happened next myself. Having gathered 40000 Liches, along with hordes of Vampires, Knights, and other Necromancers, I attacked Azazel. First, I killed the Behemoths, then the Liches mowed down everyone in their path. What I couldn't achieve with 4000 Faerie Dragons and 25000 Sharpshooters, the Liches did. All honor and praise to them! Azazel turned out to have 2 Sharpshooter's Bows, a Hell Sword, a Sphere of Fire, and a couple of insignificant artifacts.
After taking the Sphere of Vulnerability and the contents of the Pandora's Box, I attacked the Inferno where Satan (the necromancer Lord Haart) was sitting. After killing him, I eliminated Purple from the game. Later I recruited him too (with all-99 stats, he also turned out to be level 1).
The death of Satan opened a passage to the underground gates to the right of Comfort Gabriel. Additionally, the guard required delivering 1 Azure Dragon and the Power of the Dragon Father. There's only one Frozen Cliff on the map, and in front of it are 4000 Azure Dragons guarding the Lion's Shield of Courage from the Angelic Alliance.
After defeating them, I took the shield. With another hero, I was collecting Azures (10 Azures were required by another guard to open the passage to another of Cyan's heroes, whom I also eliminated). He was blocking the upgrade fort, which is also needed to proceed (a couple of guards require Phoenixes, which can only be obtained by upgrading Firebirds from Fire Elemental summoning points).
There was a funny incident with the Power of the Dragon Father)). It was lying behind the purple guard, and I sent Clavius to get it. The attempt to take the artifact scared me - a message appeared: "So easy? Seriously?" Fearing a legion guard, I moved Clavius away and went in with Isra. The author was trolling - the artifact was guarded by 1 Ghost Dragon)).
The path to the dungeon is clear; I went to a clearing with several obelisks, a legion of Titans in the middle (they fled), and artifacts - the Statue of the Legion, 2 Titan's Thunders, and a few others. To the left are artifacts locked behind a black guard, below is a guard, and behind him a white tent. The guard required killing Heimit.
By the way, behind the white guard, near Green's necropolis, lie the Angel Wings.
Yeah, Heimit is a worse enemy than Azazel. In addition to 9999 Red Dragons, his army has 9999 Naga Queens, 9999 Evil Eyes, 9999 Liches, and others.
Before the fight with Heimit, I finally reached level 60 and claimed the reward - Armageddon's Blade. Naively, I thought the Armageddon spell would take out a large part of his army. No such luck, the effect was like a mosquito bite.
I attacked this bastard three times, killed everyone except the Red Dragons. Out of 9999, 7000 remained.
Marlo_Stanfield, god, how I miss your skill at killing dragons!.. I'll keep trying; his death will open the path and allow me to take the wings.
(I suspect the town that needs to be captured for victory is Conflux, standing on an island behind the black guard. The guard is minimal; with the wings, you can easily fly over the guard and finish the game. Although, maybe I'm wrong and the hardest part is yet to come).