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Map: "Brave People" 勇者闯天关 (BT) version
walkthrough review
1. General Rating 7/10
Continuing the challenge of completing little-known or unknown Chinese maps from gamerhome.
In terms of style, the map is very, very similar to Wayfarer:
- completely corridor-based; you cannot skip sections or choose the order of progression,
- you can only enter a new location once you kill a hero in the old one or bring specific artifacts,
- all artifacts and secret passages are hidden behind objects or castles; on water, you must take a hidden chest or sink an obstructing boat,
- AI (with rare exceptions) are immobilized; almost all are stormed in their castle with smaller forces,
- as you progress, the AI's strength becomes simply insane (see screen 4, for example), but our growth also increases.
I would say it is Wayfarer No. 2, but without the initial quest and a softer version.
In particular, there are many secret passages and artifacts, but in 2018 they are all found without any effort. The map file itself is dated 13.04.2013, though I don't know how accurately that reflects the creation date.
The map loses 3 points for absolute corridor-linearity and lack of choice in actions, for complete staticity (only a couple of enemy AI can move anywhere, but they don't have time to), for the total uniformity and duration of battles with AI, the absence of puzzles or any innovations for solving them, and the lack of a "traditional" start with a series of battles to test mechanics knowledge. It is simply a sequence of "epic" battles with AI using well-worn techniques. The map only allows for speedrunning competitions, but I didn't set that goal for myself and finished it on day 943.
The Chinese text has no significance; there is very little of it.
No bugged zones or AI actions were noticed; everything is logical, everything opens, all quests are completed, guards — open. No complaints on this point.
The map took a long time to complete due to prolonged battles, but it wasn't difficult.
2. Walkthrough Nuances and Tips
- no taverns,
- no Fly or Dimension Door spells, no Berserk (a magic book is given for a couple of battles, but doesn't change much),
- no Sphere of Disjunction or Sphere of Vulnerability artifacts (except the final battle with Rashka), no magic books (except a fire book for a couple of battles),
- no necromancy; demonology is possible but not promising,
- all artifact sets are present (Angel Alliance, Titan's Roar, AoTD, Sniper's Bow, etc.),
- place the obtained Grail immediately in the only Rampart for +2 Luck, as you will later have a Castle with a Grail for +2 morale. The Grail cannot be placed in Flux, and it is not needed in other castles,
- try to play with smaller forces in months 4-5-6-7, buying creatures from external dwellings. The Rampart will provide +10% income per week, and by month 8 with 13.5 million I was able to buy all necessary creatures. Otherwise, for example, on day 611 our weekly income is 52k per day x 7 = 364k per week, but buying 60 Titans and 24 Archangels a week costs 420k, and that's without counting Fanatics, Archmagi, and their upgrade to Wizard!
- try to buy all creatures from strike stacks in external dwellings,
3. Walkthrough.
At the start, we are given a Dragon who turns Fanatics and Mages into Wizards, locked behind guards of Orrin, a shooting specialist.
With the Dragon, we must reach the Titan castle within the first week, while trying to assemble as large an army as possible along the way by buying Titans and Mages/Fanatics from dwellings.
On week 4, I went north and freed my 3rd hero — Sylvia, a swimming specialist.
On day 211, I captured the second castle and killed the first hero — Serena, and immediately the next day — Jonah, then we capture the second castle. We have no restoration, so we try to lose as few forces as possible in battle (we can use weaker units for one-way firing or sacrifice someone, or play with morale/luck of Titan shots, but this saves Wizards in battles).
After that, we get the Resurrection spell near the first castle and begin conducting further battles without losses.
225 — capture the first Stronghold, 231 — second Stronghold.
On day 233 — our KEY castle is the only Rampart on the map (not counting another one — the final). It is thanks to this that we can accumulate 10% weekly; this is important because there won't be enough money to buy everyone!
Next, kill Brohild on day 237 and Korbak on 311; now we can free Orrin. From then on, Orrin becomes the main force, and the Dragon only helps him.
By this time, the armies against us are impressive (see screen 1 against Korbak).
Then follows a series of killing enemy heroes in castles until I freed Tazar on day 447. Now he is our main hero for the remaining 90% of battles with enemy heroes until the end of the game. Plus, only Tazar gets clones from the Seer, and we begin to fully utilize Archangels.
On days 73x-811, we kill a group of four orange enemies in the field (Müllich, Voy, Arlash, and Halon). Luckily, we have a magic book for a short period that contains Berserk. For example, I managed to "freeze" Arlash with Berserk around a lake, see screen No. 2, and pass the battle on the first attempt. Screen 3 shows Müllich and his army.
On day 834, thanks to the accumulated +10% weekly money, we have 13.5 million, but after spending it to buy all necessary growth, 5 million remains.
On day 942, we kill Rashka with the largest army (seemingly over 15 million XP of creatures) and finish the game on day 943.
4. Heroes
We have only 4 heroes for the game; there are no taverns in castles or externally, so these are who we play with.
Obviously, you can't be tricky here, but it's not required.
All heroes are limited to level 63, so when approaching 50-55, you can start visiting experience trees specifically to reach level 63. I didn't know this and left the trees for "the final upgrade," but it turned out to be pointless since Tazar reached level 63 through battles.
Skill selection is not required; they are all "pre-installed" on heroes, so there is no choice. All have Intelligence; when doubled, mana is enough for both manual Resurrection without clones and later for Archangel clones.
Tazar — the main hero; only thanks to his ability can we withstand shots from superior enemy ranged forces, and with a Life Elixir equipped, he can endure tower shots without health loss. From the moment he appears, he leads all major battles.
Orrin — shooting specialist; he leads only those battles where tactics are needed, as Tazar lacks them. When attacking a castle to prevent the AI from leaving, we use Orrin. Orrin is also well-suited for tasks involving killing dragon legions (Azure, Rust, etc.) and secondary battles. Unfortunately, Orrin cannot take hits well, and a few shots from enemy Titan legions can kill our entire army.
Dragon turns units into Wizards and performs only economic-logistical functions with Sylvia (buying growth from dwellings and castles, traveling far for artifacts, etc.).
5. Battles
In every single battle, the opponent has superior forces, sometimes by a lot; see screens.
Our advantage is Tazar's ability, as well as having Intelligence + doubled mana in pools.
80% of battles with opponents occur while they are in castles. Very rarely do they stand in the field; those battles are harder.
But with this amount of mana, almost all battles are uniform and similar:
1) attack the castle and destroy our own ballista,
2) wound ranged stacks enough so that their advantage keeps the AI in the castle and it doesn't come out.
3) then either try to maximally damage or kill flying stacks and/or ranged ones, and at a critical moment jump Azure Dragons or Archangels together with Titans or Wizards behind the forcefield.
4) after many rounds, the AI spends all its mana, and we begin to slow it down, weaken it with a Destruction Beam, blind it, hypnotize it, cast Quicksand, make clones of ranged units, etc. etc.
In general, all battles follow a very similar scenario.
Almost all battles last more than 100 rounds, which is at least 20-40 minutes. So you need to use accelerators and SoD_SP for casting forcefields and other spells using hotkeys.
I didn't use anything fundamental in the battles.
Standard set for any battle: strike stacks of Wizards, Titans, Archangels, and Azure Dragons; additionally take an Archmage, Pegasus, and optionally a Djinn or another unit.
You can also accumulate and buy strike bears, Gorgons, and Cyclopes in castles, but due to limited funds I didn't take them + they cost too much mana and time to resurrect, even though ranged units deal most of the damage.
Almost all enemies have little mana (you can exhaust them), but almost all have resistance + resistance artifacts, so you can play with randomness. Many have a charm against blindness, and some even a badge of courage against everything.
So depending on what the opponent has, we either blind their forces, hypnotize them, or simply leave them behind the castle walls and shoot from a distance.
We all know that units' morale drops if Bone Dragons or Archdevils are against them in battle. What I learned as something new is that in Devil's Fog, the -1 morale of Archdevils does not work. In Devil's Fog, creatures of light get -1 to morale, and creatures of darkness +1. Therefore, in a battle in Devil's Fog, you can have +1 morale for Archdevils and Black Dragons, but -1 morale for Gold Dragons, Archangels, and Titans. A Hydra will be neither here nor there, with "0" morale. We also get -1 to luck on such a respawn.
I am attaching screens and the map file itself.
walkthrough review
1. General Rating 7/10
Continuing the challenge of completing little-known or unknown Chinese maps from gamerhome.
In terms of style, the map is very, very similar to Wayfarer:
- completely corridor-based; you cannot skip sections or choose the order of progression,
- you can only enter a new location once you kill a hero in the old one or bring specific artifacts,
- all artifacts and secret passages are hidden behind objects or castles; on water, you must take a hidden chest or sink an obstructing boat,
- AI (with rare exceptions) are immobilized; almost all are stormed in their castle with smaller forces,
- as you progress, the AI's strength becomes simply insane (see screen 4, for example), but our growth also increases.
I would say it is Wayfarer No. 2, but without the initial quest and a softer version.
In particular, there are many secret passages and artifacts, but in 2018 they are all found without any effort. The map file itself is dated 13.04.2013, though I don't know how accurately that reflects the creation date.
The map loses 3 points for absolute corridor-linearity and lack of choice in actions, for complete staticity (only a couple of enemy AI can move anywhere, but they don't have time to), for the total uniformity and duration of battles with AI, the absence of puzzles or any innovations for solving them, and the lack of a "traditional" start with a series of battles to test mechanics knowledge. It is simply a sequence of "epic" battles with AI using well-worn techniques. The map only allows for speedrunning competitions, but I didn't set that goal for myself and finished it on day 943.
The Chinese text has no significance; there is very little of it.
No bugged zones or AI actions were noticed; everything is logical, everything opens, all quests are completed, guards — open. No complaints on this point.
The map took a long time to complete due to prolonged battles, but it wasn't difficult.
2. Walkthrough Nuances and Tips
- no taverns,
- no Fly or Dimension Door spells, no Berserk (a magic book is given for a couple of battles, but doesn't change much),
- no Sphere of Disjunction or Sphere of Vulnerability artifacts (except the final battle with Rashka), no magic books (except a fire book for a couple of battles),
- no necromancy; demonology is possible but not promising,
- all artifact sets are present (Angel Alliance, Titan's Roar, AoTD, Sniper's Bow, etc.),
- place the obtained Grail immediately in the only Rampart for +2 Luck, as you will later have a Castle with a Grail for +2 morale. The Grail cannot be placed in Flux, and it is not needed in other castles,
- try to play with smaller forces in months 4-5-6-7, buying creatures from external dwellings. The Rampart will provide +10% income per week, and by month 8 with 13.5 million I was able to buy all necessary creatures. Otherwise, for example, on day 611 our weekly income is 52k per day x 7 = 364k per week, but buying 60 Titans and 24 Archangels a week costs 420k, and that's without counting Fanatics, Archmagi, and their upgrade to Wizard!
- try to buy all creatures from strike stacks in external dwellings,
3. Walkthrough.
At the start, we are given a Dragon who turns Fanatics and Mages into Wizards, locked behind guards of Orrin, a shooting specialist.
With the Dragon, we must reach the Titan castle within the first week, while trying to assemble as large an army as possible along the way by buying Titans and Mages/Fanatics from dwellings.
On week 4, I went north and freed my 3rd hero — Sylvia, a swimming specialist.
On day 211, I captured the second castle and killed the first hero — Serena, and immediately the next day — Jonah, then we capture the second castle. We have no restoration, so we try to lose as few forces as possible in battle (we can use weaker units for one-way firing or sacrifice someone, or play with morale/luck of Titan shots, but this saves Wizards in battles).
After that, we get the Resurrection spell near the first castle and begin conducting further battles without losses.
225 — capture the first Stronghold, 231 — second Stronghold.
On day 233 — our KEY castle is the only Rampart on the map (not counting another one — the final). It is thanks to this that we can accumulate 10% weekly; this is important because there won't be enough money to buy everyone!
Next, kill Brohild on day 237 and Korbak on 311; now we can free Orrin. From then on, Orrin becomes the main force, and the Dragon only helps him.
By this time, the armies against us are impressive (see screen 1 against Korbak).
Then follows a series of killing enemy heroes in castles until I freed Tazar on day 447. Now he is our main hero for the remaining 90% of battles with enemy heroes until the end of the game. Plus, only Tazar gets clones from the Seer, and we begin to fully utilize Archangels.
On days 73x-811, we kill a group of four orange enemies in the field (Müllich, Voy, Arlash, and Halon). Luckily, we have a magic book for a short period that contains Berserk. For example, I managed to "freeze" Arlash with Berserk around a lake, see screen No. 2, and pass the battle on the first attempt. Screen 3 shows Müllich and his army.
On day 834, thanks to the accumulated +10% weekly money, we have 13.5 million, but after spending it to buy all necessary growth, 5 million remains.
On day 942, we kill Rashka with the largest army (seemingly over 15 million XP of creatures) and finish the game on day 943.
4. Heroes
We have only 4 heroes for the game; there are no taverns in castles or externally, so these are who we play with.
Obviously, you can't be tricky here, but it's not required.
All heroes are limited to level 63, so when approaching 50-55, you can start visiting experience trees specifically to reach level 63. I didn't know this and left the trees for "the final upgrade," but it turned out to be pointless since Tazar reached level 63 through battles.
Skill selection is not required; they are all "pre-installed" on heroes, so there is no choice. All have Intelligence; when doubled, mana is enough for both manual Resurrection without clones and later for Archangel clones.
Tazar — the main hero; only thanks to his ability can we withstand shots from superior enemy ranged forces, and with a Life Elixir equipped, he can endure tower shots without health loss. From the moment he appears, he leads all major battles.
Orrin — shooting specialist; he leads only those battles where tactics are needed, as Tazar lacks them. When attacking a castle to prevent the AI from leaving, we use Orrin. Orrin is also well-suited for tasks involving killing dragon legions (Azure, Rust, etc.) and secondary battles. Unfortunately, Orrin cannot take hits well, and a few shots from enemy Titan legions can kill our entire army.
Dragon turns units into Wizards and performs only economic-logistical functions with Sylvia (buying growth from dwellings and castles, traveling far for artifacts, etc.).
5. Battles
In every single battle, the opponent has superior forces, sometimes by a lot; see screens.
Our advantage is Tazar's ability, as well as having Intelligence + doubled mana in pools.
80% of battles with opponents occur while they are in castles. Very rarely do they stand in the field; those battles are harder.
But with this amount of mana, almost all battles are uniform and similar:
1) attack the castle and destroy our own ballista,
2) wound ranged stacks enough so that their advantage keeps the AI in the castle and it doesn't come out.
3) then either try to maximally damage or kill flying stacks and/or ranged ones, and at a critical moment jump Azure Dragons or Archangels together with Titans or Wizards behind the forcefield.
4) after many rounds, the AI spends all its mana, and we begin to slow it down, weaken it with a Destruction Beam, blind it, hypnotize it, cast Quicksand, make clones of ranged units, etc. etc.
In general, all battles follow a very similar scenario.
Almost all battles last more than 100 rounds, which is at least 20-40 minutes. So you need to use accelerators and SoD_SP for casting forcefields and other spells using hotkeys.
I didn't use anything fundamental in the battles.
Standard set for any battle: strike stacks of Wizards, Titans, Archangels, and Azure Dragons; additionally take an Archmage, Pegasus, and optionally a Djinn or another unit.
You can also accumulate and buy strike bears, Gorgons, and Cyclopes in castles, but due to limited funds I didn't take them + they cost too much mana and time to resurrect, even though ranged units deal most of the damage.
Almost all enemies have little mana (you can exhaust them), but almost all have resistance + resistance artifacts, so you can play with randomness. Many have a charm against blindness, and some even a badge of courage against everything.
So depending on what the opponent has, we either blind their forces, hypnotize them, or simply leave them behind the castle walls and shoot from a distance.
We all know that units' morale drops if Bone Dragons or Archdevils are against them in battle. What I learned as something new is that in Devil's Fog, the -1 morale of Archdevils does not work. In Devil's Fog, creatures of light get -1 to morale, and creatures of darkness +1. Therefore, in a battle in Devil's Fog, you can have +1 morale for Archdevils and Black Dragons, but -1 morale for Gold Dragons, Archangels, and Titans. A Hydra will be neither here nor there, with "0" morale. We also get -1 to luck on such a respawn.
I am attaching screens and the map file itself.