Marlo_Stanfield
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Map Title: Where the Beauty
Author: Hans C. & Aeris Quamarine C.
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog
Where the Beauty is a rework by Chinese mapmaker Aeris of Hans C.'s Eternal Love map. I am not familiar with the original version of the map, but Hans C.'s works (including The Long Knight and The Uprising) are highly regarded in the Heroes community and often appear in various rankings of the best maps. Aeris, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive mapmakers in recent years, with an original vision of the Heroes foundations. This is already his fourth map for me, after Harry Potter, Qin the Supreme, and Qian. After Where the Beauty, I plan to continue playing his maps. Fortunately, there are still enough of them on maps4heroes.
Where the Beauty is the complete opposite of the previous Chinese map I played, namely Ira the Mage. There, the basis of the scenario was poverty and minimalism; here, there is an unprecedented breadth of opportunities, which you just need to use wisely. The map is in English; in the corresponding thread on maps4heroes, Aeris provides his own tips for completing the game. In general, Aeris differs from his Chinese colleagues in that he focuses not only on the gamerhome forum audience, which is reflected in the English language of the maps and the presence of hints for various moments that are not obvious to most players.
The win and loss conditions are standard. Four factions are available to start the game: Tower, Rampart, Swamp, and Stronghold. Accordingly, the choice of faction will determine the specific starting hero: Tower – a specialist in ranged attacks, Rampart – a specialist in resistance, Swamp – a specialist in defense, Stronghold – a specialist in attack. However, in the future, you can develop any of these heroes as you see fit, as they will be available for re-hiring, and there are taverns on the map.
The beginning of this map reminded me a lot of the beginning of The Last Crusade, only less confusing. Four sides to choose from at the start, while the computer-controlled sides receive a huge bonus to creature growth, and on the map area of each of these flags, there are tents that need to be visited. The task for the first week is to buy Lord Haart, level 6424, from the tavern on day 2 (the bonus from the specialist is about 160,000 gold income per day), capture the guarded castle in your area of the map with him, clear out as much of the respawn area as possible, and build a castle in the city near the guardian who requires the hero Maysh to pass. Then, on day 7, defend the city with Haart and some fast creatures and minor troops. Maysh is a logistics expert, level 868, with 99 in all parameters, so it is extremely unlikely that you can defeat him with someone else. It is most convenient to defend when playing as the Tower, as fire magic on expert difficulty and Haart's high spell power affect the damage of city defenses, allowing them to deal 1090 damage. When playing as other factions, the focus will be on chain lightning. I played as the Tower, although the choice was not tied to this moment; I just wanted to play with a focus on ranged attacks.
In the second week, the gameplay becomes completely free. I divided the army into parts and advanced in several directions at the same time: capturing castles in the center of the map, as well as conquering the three neighboring respawn areas. Lord Haart has about one hundred thousand free experience points in reserve before it is reset, so he can only be used for minor skirmishes and tricks. It is better to gradually level up other heroes.
In the third week, Maysh appears in the tavern. Exploring the map becomes MUCH faster, because at level 868, the logistics expert with boots, gloves, a visited stable, and maximum upgrades has 29940 movement points at his disposal. A serious imbalance, but Aeris did not give this hero magic schools as secondary skills, and his spell power at level 868 is equal to one. The fact that this can be corrected by wearing the Sky Thunder helmet, I noticed when checking after completing the game. In general, this hero is not for serious battles. Nevertheless, I was able to level him up to 6424. At this level, his maximum movement on the start of the day is 196620 movement points. One-fifth of the value when entering nwcnebuchadnezzar!
In the middle of the third week, I was already ready to go underground, but the quest to obtain four elemental spheres became an obstacle. All spheres are located in zones closed off by a passage guard, requiring 300 units of each resource. Two spheres were given to me by strong computer-controlled factions; the other two I had to take myself. With Lord Haart and the Horn of Plenty, the process took only a week. During this time, Sylvia and Voy completely cleared out the entire sea area of the overworld map.
In the underworld, the computer-controlled factions turned out to be much tougher. I had to organize tricky strategies against two Necropolises. But the further you go, the less necessary tricky strategies become, as the map is structured on the principle: destroy the enemy hero, and immediately hire him to continue exploring the map. The battles are interesting, but not hardcore. The forces of the opponents are superior, but we have any necessary combat magic at our disposal. The most useful units in battles are archdevils. There are locations on the map where random creatures are generated for joining. The best choice is devils or archdevils.
After killing Malekith in the underworld, I reached the final stage with the most interesting battles: Medusa (Conflux) with legions of archers in the Fortress of the Dragon Father and with a sniper bow (defeated with the sacrifice bug and explosion; I had few archers due to the early stage of the game, and the cart did not save during the battle, so I brought an intelligence specialist with 10000 mana into the battle), Irene (Mephala) with huge legions of troops (defeated with a berserker custom on mighty gorgons, and then with an earthquake custom), Ash with an Inferno army, including 32.5 thousand mages, with a sniper bow and a sphere of prohibition (!) (the most difficult battle on the map, passed, as often happens in battles with ultra-superior Inferno forces, based on the behavior of mages), Aphrodite (Sandro, level 6424) with 13 thousand phoenixes and a cloak of defiance (the battle is similar to killing Metatax on the Metataxer's Revenge map; it is not excluded that its idea was taken from this map), Bloodruby (Vidomina) on cursed land with legions of megadragons (defeated with ifrit sultans under Aphrodite), Marva (Moander) with 32.5 thousand mighty liches with a sniper bow (defeated by any hero who has previously learned flight and has high parameters, and has his own liches from Bloodruby's cloak).
In the battles, I would like to note a curious moment that I had not encountered before. I know that the computer can cheat and attack in melee with fantastic dragons instead of casting spells when it is advantageous. But, it turns out, it can do the same with ranged units. The enemy titans ran away from allied ancient behemoths under a berserker and immediately attacked my troops in melee. At the same time, no one blocked the titans!
Another interesting thing: this map does not have object replacements, which Aeris likes to use in his other maps. The only similar, not obvious moment: some castles turn out to be without a fort when they are besieged.
Also, some killed heroes come to the tavern with grails after death. As a result, I placed grails in all the cities I had. The daily income at the end of the scenario is a record for author maps – more than 500,000 gold.
I would also advise hitting all enemy heroes with chains of war and always keeping track of the number of artifacts in your bag. There will be a lot of artifacts, and you will have to dig through a pile of junk to find the ones needed for the quests.
The game was completed on 2.2.2, without using the admiral's hat bug and re-hiring heroes in the tavern after their death or dismissal on the same day. I scored 500 points. The map is very good, but not hardcore; it is suitable for a wide range of players.
Author: Hans C. & Aeris Quamarine C.
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog
Where the Beauty is a rework by Chinese mapmaker Aeris of Hans C.'s Eternal Love map. I am not familiar with the original version of the map, but Hans C.'s works (including The Long Knight and The Uprising) are highly regarded in the Heroes community and often appear in various rankings of the best maps. Aeris, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive mapmakers in recent years, with an original vision of the Heroes foundations. This is already his fourth map for me, after Harry Potter, Qin the Supreme, and Qian. After Where the Beauty, I plan to continue playing his maps. Fortunately, there are still enough of them on maps4heroes.
Where the Beauty is the complete opposite of the previous Chinese map I played, namely Ira the Mage. There, the basis of the scenario was poverty and minimalism; here, there is an unprecedented breadth of opportunities, which you just need to use wisely. The map is in English; in the corresponding thread on maps4heroes, Aeris provides his own tips for completing the game. In general, Aeris differs from his Chinese colleagues in that he focuses not only on the gamerhome forum audience, which is reflected in the English language of the maps and the presence of hints for various moments that are not obvious to most players.
The win and loss conditions are standard. Four factions are available to start the game: Tower, Rampart, Swamp, and Stronghold. Accordingly, the choice of faction will determine the specific starting hero: Tower – a specialist in ranged attacks, Rampart – a specialist in resistance, Swamp – a specialist in defense, Stronghold – a specialist in attack. However, in the future, you can develop any of these heroes as you see fit, as they will be available for re-hiring, and there are taverns on the map.
The beginning of this map reminded me a lot of the beginning of The Last Crusade, only less confusing. Four sides to choose from at the start, while the computer-controlled sides receive a huge bonus to creature growth, and on the map area of each of these flags, there are tents that need to be visited. The task for the first week is to buy Lord Haart, level 6424, from the tavern on day 2 (the bonus from the specialist is about 160,000 gold income per day), capture the guarded castle in your area of the map with him, clear out as much of the respawn area as possible, and build a castle in the city near the guardian who requires the hero Maysh to pass. Then, on day 7, defend the city with Haart and some fast creatures and minor troops. Maysh is a logistics expert, level 868, with 99 in all parameters, so it is extremely unlikely that you can defeat him with someone else. It is most convenient to defend when playing as the Tower, as fire magic on expert difficulty and Haart's high spell power affect the damage of city defenses, allowing them to deal 1090 damage. When playing as other factions, the focus will be on chain lightning. I played as the Tower, although the choice was not tied to this moment; I just wanted to play with a focus on ranged attacks.
In the second week, the gameplay becomes completely free. I divided the army into parts and advanced in several directions at the same time: capturing castles in the center of the map, as well as conquering the three neighboring respawn areas. Lord Haart has about one hundred thousand free experience points in reserve before it is reset, so he can only be used for minor skirmishes and tricks. It is better to gradually level up other heroes.
In the third week, Maysh appears in the tavern. Exploring the map becomes MUCH faster, because at level 868, the logistics expert with boots, gloves, a visited stable, and maximum upgrades has 29940 movement points at his disposal. A serious imbalance, but Aeris did not give this hero magic schools as secondary skills, and his spell power at level 868 is equal to one. The fact that this can be corrected by wearing the Sky Thunder helmet, I noticed when checking after completing the game. In general, this hero is not for serious battles. Nevertheless, I was able to level him up to 6424. At this level, his maximum movement on the start of the day is 196620 movement points. One-fifth of the value when entering nwcnebuchadnezzar!
In the middle of the third week, I was already ready to go underground, but the quest to obtain four elemental spheres became an obstacle. All spheres are located in zones closed off by a passage guard, requiring 300 units of each resource. Two spheres were given to me by strong computer-controlled factions; the other two I had to take myself. With Lord Haart and the Horn of Plenty, the process took only a week. During this time, Sylvia and Voy completely cleared out the entire sea area of the overworld map.
In the underworld, the computer-controlled factions turned out to be much tougher. I had to organize tricky strategies against two Necropolises. But the further you go, the less necessary tricky strategies become, as the map is structured on the principle: destroy the enemy hero, and immediately hire him to continue exploring the map. The battles are interesting, but not hardcore. The forces of the opponents are superior, but we have any necessary combat magic at our disposal. The most useful units in battles are archdevils. There are locations on the map where random creatures are generated for joining. The best choice is devils or archdevils.
After killing Malekith in the underworld, I reached the final stage with the most interesting battles: Medusa (Conflux) with legions of archers in the Fortress of the Dragon Father and with a sniper bow (defeated with the sacrifice bug and explosion; I had few archers due to the early stage of the game, and the cart did not save during the battle, so I brought an intelligence specialist with 10000 mana into the battle), Irene (Mephala) with huge legions of troops (defeated with a berserker custom on mighty gorgons, and then with an earthquake custom), Ash with an Inferno army, including 32.5 thousand mages, with a sniper bow and a sphere of prohibition (!) (the most difficult battle on the map, passed, as often happens in battles with ultra-superior Inferno forces, based on the behavior of mages), Aphrodite (Sandro, level 6424) with 13 thousand phoenixes and a cloak of defiance (the battle is similar to killing Metatax on the Metataxer's Revenge map; it is not excluded that its idea was taken from this map), Bloodruby (Vidomina) on cursed land with legions of megadragons (defeated with ifrit sultans under Aphrodite), Marva (Moander) with 32.5 thousand mighty liches with a sniper bow (defeated by any hero who has previously learned flight and has high parameters, and has his own liches from Bloodruby's cloak).
In the battles, I would like to note a curious moment that I had not encountered before. I know that the computer can cheat and attack in melee with fantastic dragons instead of casting spells when it is advantageous. But, it turns out, it can do the same with ranged units. The enemy titans ran away from allied ancient behemoths under a berserker and immediately attacked my troops in melee. At the same time, no one blocked the titans!
Another interesting thing: this map does not have object replacements, which Aeris likes to use in his other maps. The only similar, not obvious moment: some castles turn out to be without a fort when they are besieged.
Also, some killed heroes come to the tavern with grails after death. As a result, I placed grails in all the cities I had. The daily income at the end of the scenario is a record for author maps – more than 500,000 gold.
I would also advise hitting all enemy heroes with chains of war and always keeping track of the number of artifacts in your bag. There will be a lot of artifacts, and you will have to dig through a pile of junk to find the ones needed for the quests.
The game was completed on 2.2.2, without using the admiral's hat bug and re-hiring heroes in the tavern after their death or dismissal on the same day. I scored 500 points. The map is very good, but not hardcore; it is suitable for a wide range of players.