Marlo_Stanfield
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Map Name: First Blood
Version: English, 2.5
Author: shooo
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog
Paid homage to hero classic in a new wrapper (version 2.5 was released by the author in 2015, although the map itself is old). Unlike Wayfarer, I liked this map; it had several interesting moments.
By modern standards, First Blood is fairly simple to complete. I'd say it's not yet Vengeance Is Mine, but no longer Way Home. That is to say, a solid map that should be manageable for an average player. I can also understand why the scenario caused and still causes extreme difficulties for many. The main thing required from the player here is to formulate a preliminary plan and play with tempo, rather than just moving your hero across the map in a random order.
Notable features: magic problems at the start (available towns have guilds, but no spells, so you'll have to use Eagle Eye to learn Resurrection from the red player); Literacy is banned, so initially only one hero is suitable for any serious battles—in my case, that was Ingham; conditions for purple and red to spawn on our respawns, while getting to their respawns is very problematic (a big shout-out to "Risen from Hell"); a serious roadblock in the form of 4000 Ice Elementals, which halts further progress.
Essentially, the start of the map revolves around the task of breaking through these elementals. In version 2.5, getting going is somewhat harder than in 2.4, since Angels do not join on the Castle territory, but this didn't cause me a major delay; I broke the Ice Elementals with Ingham in week 3. This task presents the player with several sub-tasks: you need to level up the hero well for breaking the elementals, have them learn Resurrection from Jeditte, learn Earth Magic and Intelligence, have someone learn Water Magic for Summon Boat, take the Golden Bow from 350 Sharpshooters, use the Barbarian to get the Captain's Hat from the Seer's Hut, and break a Utopia (it generated a Chalice and Titan's Cuirass by the classic formula), then transfer all the valuable artifacts upward.
Besides the complications, this version also has some elements that actually simplified the game: Dessa starts with 1 Azure Dragon instead of 2 Cyclopes, so joining troops to break the Utopia isn't necessary; the dragon alone breaks the pre-maximum with support from Goblins. The second key point for the entire walkthrough: the prison with Kaitlin is now moved closer to purple, rather than red. I had to put in some effort to get the AI to free her, learn control spells, and then jump where needed, but the procedure didn't cause major issues. By the start of month 2, Kaitlin was already under my flag.
After that comes a ruthless exterminatus of everything that moves. Kaitlin captures enemy towns with Jump and Fly, while a bunch of heroes scatter in all directions and also capture enemy castles. So in a couple of weeks, I cleared the entire upper area and all the useful parts of the underground.
In the finale, Gelu, Deymer, and Sandro remain. The most problematic guy in version 2.5 is Gelu, who has seventy thousand Sharpshooters with the Bow of the Sharpshooter and the Sphere of Inhibition. Through various manipulations, a way was finally found to remove his Sphere. This was achieved by trading artifacts with Gelu using an enemy weakling, after feeding that weakling the Golden Bow and the Book of Water. Using the Cloak of the Undead King, we turn the Sharpshooters into Skeletons (previously, Skeletons were also made from 7000 Cyclopes), upgrade the Skeletons in a Fort, and then sell them for Gold and Gems. After that, I ran Gundula through the level-up buildings, learned Fly in exchange for the Book of Earth, flew into the Book of Air quest zone from the upper exit monolith (the book, by the way, wasn't needed), learned Dimension Door for the Pendant of Seeing, and using Dimension Door jumped onto the tile in front of Deymer (this way, mana isn't drained and combat with neutrals isn't triggered). Against 1250 Arch Devils, Deymer had no chance. The next day, Sandro fell on auto-combat. Victory on 3.1.1.
Version: English, 2.5
Author: shooo
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog
Paid homage to hero classic in a new wrapper (version 2.5 was released by the author in 2015, although the map itself is old). Unlike Wayfarer, I liked this map; it had several interesting moments.
By modern standards, First Blood is fairly simple to complete. I'd say it's not yet Vengeance Is Mine, but no longer Way Home. That is to say, a solid map that should be manageable for an average player. I can also understand why the scenario caused and still causes extreme difficulties for many. The main thing required from the player here is to formulate a preliminary plan and play with tempo, rather than just moving your hero across the map in a random order.
Notable features: magic problems at the start (available towns have guilds, but no spells, so you'll have to use Eagle Eye to learn Resurrection from the red player); Literacy is banned, so initially only one hero is suitable for any serious battles—in my case, that was Ingham; conditions for purple and red to spawn on our respawns, while getting to their respawns is very problematic (a big shout-out to "Risen from Hell"); a serious roadblock in the form of 4000 Ice Elementals, which halts further progress.
Essentially, the start of the map revolves around the task of breaking through these elementals. In version 2.5, getting going is somewhat harder than in 2.4, since Angels do not join on the Castle territory, but this didn't cause me a major delay; I broke the Ice Elementals with Ingham in week 3. This task presents the player with several sub-tasks: you need to level up the hero well for breaking the elementals, have them learn Resurrection from Jeditte, learn Earth Magic and Intelligence, have someone learn Water Magic for Summon Boat, take the Golden Bow from 350 Sharpshooters, use the Barbarian to get the Captain's Hat from the Seer's Hut, and break a Utopia (it generated a Chalice and Titan's Cuirass by the classic formula), then transfer all the valuable artifacts upward.
Besides the complications, this version also has some elements that actually simplified the game: Dessa starts with 1 Azure Dragon instead of 2 Cyclopes, so joining troops to break the Utopia isn't necessary; the dragon alone breaks the pre-maximum with support from Goblins. The second key point for the entire walkthrough: the prison with Kaitlin is now moved closer to purple, rather than red. I had to put in some effort to get the AI to free her, learn control spells, and then jump where needed, but the procedure didn't cause major issues. By the start of month 2, Kaitlin was already under my flag.
After that comes a ruthless exterminatus of everything that moves. Kaitlin captures enemy towns with Jump and Fly, while a bunch of heroes scatter in all directions and also capture enemy castles. So in a couple of weeks, I cleared the entire upper area and all the useful parts of the underground.
In the finale, Gelu, Deymer, and Sandro remain. The most problematic guy in version 2.5 is Gelu, who has seventy thousand Sharpshooters with the Bow of the Sharpshooter and the Sphere of Inhibition. Through various manipulations, a way was finally found to remove his Sphere. This was achieved by trading artifacts with Gelu using an enemy weakling, after feeding that weakling the Golden Bow and the Book of Water. Using the Cloak of the Undead King, we turn the Sharpshooters into Skeletons (previously, Skeletons were also made from 7000 Cyclopes), upgrade the Skeletons in a Fort, and then sell them for Gold and Gems. After that, I ran Gundula through the level-up buildings, learned Fly in exchange for the Book of Earth, flew into the Book of Air quest zone from the upper exit monolith (the book, by the way, wasn't needed), learned Dimension Door for the Pendant of Seeing, and using Dimension Door jumped onto the tile in front of Deymer (this way, mana isn't drained and combat with neutrals isn't triggered). Against 1250 Arch Devils, Deymer had no chance. The next day, Sandro fell on auto-combat. Victory on 3.1.1.