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Re: Walkthrough of author's maps (challenge on Chinese maps)
Map: Jennifer's Dream Journey (Memorial of Love)
Chinese: 珍妮弗环梦之旅（情之祭奠）
walkthrough review
1. Overall rating 8/10
Another map from the Chinese collection.
The map is VERY similar to the map from my previous review of the "Brave People" map. This map is also very similar to Wayfarer in all respects:
- for the first week, we play without a castle, calculating moves in advance to be able to take a castle within a week (which is done without much difficulty on day 6 or 7),
- the map is completely corridor-like; we cannot enter a new area until we finish clearing the zone. Exception: the game can be completed without taking 2 castles on the map, i.e., without opening 100% of the map,
- the LARGEST number of hidden artifacts and passages (and even a couple of events are hidden), which I have not seen in any map before.
- almost all the enemies are immobile. In essence, the map is a series of searching for artifacts and battles with a stronger enemy.
Nevertheless, either I haven't played Wayfarer in a long time, or this map seemed more difficult to me in terms of battles.
Positive distinctive features of this map: the battles can be diverse, with different strategies (in the castle, supporting the castle, in the field, etc.). Some battles required a lot of thought.
Many battles require the use of the landscape. The most interesting solutions can be seen below in the screenshots.
As the map progresses, the difficulty does not decrease significantly, despite our growth from all the castles.
In essence, the entire map is a series of searching for hidden artifacts, passages, and killing enemies in castles, although there are exceptions.
But I enjoyed the map and liked it, although I cannot give it a 10 out of 10, it lacks dynamics (there are no triggers or difficult puzzles).
The map is not bad for a speedrun, but I finished it at the end of the 11th month. Considering the corridor-like structure, I think a good result would be 8-9 months, and whether it is possible to complete it in less time, I don't know, those who want to can try.
The Chinese text is not important.
There are no buggy areas; everything in the map works 100%.
2. Nuances and map description:
- there are no taverns. Only after 2/3 of the map can you capture one single castle where you can build a tavern and buy the necessary heroes there, primarily Jela for archers. But the "daddies" remain the ones we played with from the prisons.
- there are no spells of flight and dimension door,
- berserk can be learned by buying someone from the enemies in the tavern who knows this spell and retraining them. IMHO, the author may have anticipated this option.
- there is no artifact sphere of prohibition, and the sphere of vulnerability is given only for a couple of final battles,
- there are no necropolises and no undead in general (and it makes no sense to take them from the tavern at the end, since the map is coming to an end), demons are also not profitable,
- there are all collections of artifacts (alliance of angels, titan's roar, AOTD, sniper bow, etc.),
- I could not dig up the grail because I opened the obelisks, but it was impossible to dig it up because it said "look for it in another location." IMHO, the author made a mistake here, or he deliberately made it impossible to dig up the grail.
- the map encourages accumulating money and increasing it due to the 2 ramparts, because at the end of the map there will not be enough money (especially if you are recruiting creatures for money).
3. Walkthrough and heroes.
I will not go into details here. The strategy is similar to other Chinese maps: the number of heroes is limited; we mainly play Orrin (at the beginning) and then Mephala (from the middle to the end of the game).
Only the armorsmith could adequately fight against forces that greatly outnumbered him. A logistician is also helping, but he does not lead serious battles.
Be careful and do not exceed your experience due to experience trees. For example, I played Mephala at level 74, and that was enough.
You cannot stall for too long, and there is no need to.
There is no need to choose skills; they are all "pre-installed."
It will be too late to recruit new heroes from the tavern, and it is not necessary.
4. Battles
The enemy's forces are superior, but since the map is static, we MUST ALWAYS double our mana + PASS the MORALE and LUCK BOOSTS, because our army is almost always "negative" in morale. We also select a set of troops for each enemy. Up to 80% of the battles are 2-3 ranged stacks (titans, wizards, and cyclops, later you can take snipers).
In the final stage, only titans remain among the ranged troops, the rest of the troops are archs (for clone/resurrection), as well as dragons (azure dragons are a must, and the rest are optional - rusty, crystal, etc.).
In some cases, you have to take exactly as many ranged troops as needed so that the enemy does not want to leave/flee the castle. Then it turns out to be clever: the enemy tries to kill our azure dragons with his ranged troops, and our arch clones raise them. At the same time, we kill his flying units in the castle with our ranged troops and "drain" the enemy's mana. According to practical observations, the enemy must outnumber us in ranged troops by 2-3 times, then he will not flee. The enemy is also very afraid of cyclops (so it is better to take titans and wizards). I discovered this strategy for myself for the first time, but it will only work with the armorsmith.
I would like to emphasize once again that quite often you have to use the landscape, especially this helped in the battle with Halon in the desolate lands, see the screenshot. Later, having found a Chinese guide, I saw that the Chinese passed it in a different place and in a different way, but also with the landscape. I chose my own option.
There are many battles, and the strategies are different, and this is what I like about this map.
Gorgons were needed only in one of the initial battles and in one battle in the middle of the game (to kill azure dragons). In general, bears pierce azure dragons much better.
A feature of almost all enemies: the presence of the skill magic resistance + always 3 artifacts for resistance. So you will have to experiment with random effects quite a bit.
P.S. What I learned new on the map is from a battle with a hero who has a lot of power and only 2-3 spells (blindness + healing + dispel magic). In another case, this is a hero with 56,000 phoenixes and also dispel magic and the second spell is armageddon. So, in a head-to-head battle, you cannot kill them, they are too strong. You can hide behind a force field with azure dragons and archers, but there are not enough shots (something will only work with frenzy). So, a useful observation: the enemy uses dispel magic only when you put buffs on your stacks that increase damage (blessing, prayer) or, for some reason, a fire shield. Then the enemy immediately dispels our force field (there is no sphere of dispel magic on the map), and we are finished. To prevent this from happening, I hid the archdevil + archer with a cart behind the force field + all the artifacts for speed + I gave the archdevil the spells "speed" and "protection from fire." The latter spells do not annoy the enemy, although he could dispel everything and finish us off. Therefore, we can sit behind the force field until the enemy runs out of mana, and only then we start shooting everyone with frenzy.
Map: Jennifer's Dream Journey (Memorial of Love)
Chinese: 珍妮弗环梦之旅（情之祭奠）
walkthrough review
1. Overall rating 8/10
Another map from the Chinese collection.
The map is VERY similar to the map from my previous review of the "Brave People" map. This map is also very similar to Wayfarer in all respects:
- for the first week, we play without a castle, calculating moves in advance to be able to take a castle within a week (which is done without much difficulty on day 6 or 7),
- the map is completely corridor-like; we cannot enter a new area until we finish clearing the zone. Exception: the game can be completed without taking 2 castles on the map, i.e., without opening 100% of the map,
- the LARGEST number of hidden artifacts and passages (and even a couple of events are hidden), which I have not seen in any map before.
- almost all the enemies are immobile. In essence, the map is a series of searching for artifacts and battles with a stronger enemy.
Nevertheless, either I haven't played Wayfarer in a long time, or this map seemed more difficult to me in terms of battles.
Positive distinctive features of this map: the battles can be diverse, with different strategies (in the castle, supporting the castle, in the field, etc.). Some battles required a lot of thought.
Many battles require the use of the landscape. The most interesting solutions can be seen below in the screenshots.
As the map progresses, the difficulty does not decrease significantly, despite our growth from all the castles.
In essence, the entire map is a series of searching for hidden artifacts, passages, and killing enemies in castles, although there are exceptions.
But I enjoyed the map and liked it, although I cannot give it a 10 out of 10, it lacks dynamics (there are no triggers or difficult puzzles).
The map is not bad for a speedrun, but I finished it at the end of the 11th month. Considering the corridor-like structure, I think a good result would be 8-9 months, and whether it is possible to complete it in less time, I don't know, those who want to can try.
The Chinese text is not important.
There are no buggy areas; everything in the map works 100%.
2. Nuances and map description:
- there are no taverns. Only after 2/3 of the map can you capture one single castle where you can build a tavern and buy the necessary heroes there, primarily Jela for archers. But the "daddies" remain the ones we played with from the prisons.
- there are no spells of flight and dimension door,
- berserk can be learned by buying someone from the enemies in the tavern who knows this spell and retraining them. IMHO, the author may have anticipated this option.
- there is no artifact sphere of prohibition, and the sphere of vulnerability is given only for a couple of final battles,
- there are no necropolises and no undead in general (and it makes no sense to take them from the tavern at the end, since the map is coming to an end), demons are also not profitable,
- there are all collections of artifacts (alliance of angels, titan's roar, AOTD, sniper bow, etc.),
- I could not dig up the grail because I opened the obelisks, but it was impossible to dig it up because it said "look for it in another location." IMHO, the author made a mistake here, or he deliberately made it impossible to dig up the grail.
- the map encourages accumulating money and increasing it due to the 2 ramparts, because at the end of the map there will not be enough money (especially if you are recruiting creatures for money).
3. Walkthrough and heroes.
I will not go into details here. The strategy is similar to other Chinese maps: the number of heroes is limited; we mainly play Orrin (at the beginning) and then Mephala (from the middle to the end of the game).
Only the armorsmith could adequately fight against forces that greatly outnumbered him. A logistician is also helping, but he does not lead serious battles.
Be careful and do not exceed your experience due to experience trees. For example, I played Mephala at level 74, and that was enough.
You cannot stall for too long, and there is no need to.
There is no need to choose skills; they are all "pre-installed."
It will be too late to recruit new heroes from the tavern, and it is not necessary.
4. Battles
The enemy's forces are superior, but since the map is static, we MUST ALWAYS double our mana + PASS the MORALE and LUCK BOOSTS, because our army is almost always "negative" in morale. We also select a set of troops for each enemy. Up to 80% of the battles are 2-3 ranged stacks (titans, wizards, and cyclops, later you can take snipers).
In the final stage, only titans remain among the ranged troops, the rest of the troops are archs (for clone/resurrection), as well as dragons (azure dragons are a must, and the rest are optional - rusty, crystal, etc.).
In some cases, you have to take exactly as many ranged troops as needed so that the enemy does not want to leave/flee the castle. Then it turns out to be clever: the enemy tries to kill our azure dragons with his ranged troops, and our arch clones raise them. At the same time, we kill his flying units in the castle with our ranged troops and "drain" the enemy's mana. According to practical observations, the enemy must outnumber us in ranged troops by 2-3 times, then he will not flee. The enemy is also very afraid of cyclops (so it is better to take titans and wizards). I discovered this strategy for myself for the first time, but it will only work with the armorsmith.
I would like to emphasize once again that quite often you have to use the landscape, especially this helped in the battle with Halon in the desolate lands, see the screenshot. Later, having found a Chinese guide, I saw that the Chinese passed it in a different place and in a different way, but also with the landscape. I chose my own option.
There are many battles, and the strategies are different, and this is what I like about this map.
Gorgons were needed only in one of the initial battles and in one battle in the middle of the game (to kill azure dragons). In general, bears pierce azure dragons much better.
A feature of almost all enemies: the presence of the skill magic resistance + always 3 artifacts for resistance. So you will have to experiment with random effects quite a bit.
P.S. What I learned new on the map is from a battle with a hero who has a lot of power and only 2-3 spells (blindness + healing + dispel magic). In another case, this is a hero with 56,000 phoenixes and also dispel magic and the second spell is armageddon. So, in a head-to-head battle, you cannot kill them, they are too strong. You can hide behind a force field with azure dragons and archers, but there are not enough shots (something will only work with frenzy). So, a useful observation: the enemy uses dispel magic only when you put buffs on your stacks that increase damage (blessing, prayer) or, for some reason, a fire shield. Then the enemy immediately dispels our force field (there is no sphere of dispel magic on the map), and we are finished. To prevent this from happening, I hid the archdevil + archer with a cart behind the force field + all the artifacts for speed + I gave the archdevil the spells "speed" and "protection from fire." The latter spells do not annoy the enemy, although he could dispel everything and finish us off. Therefore, we can sit behind the force field until the enemy runs out of mana, and only then we start shooting everyone with frenzy.