kolotok
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Map: "Road to Destruction" (improved version) 毁灭之路 BT 改良版
walkthrough review, Chinese map
1. General comments. Rating 8/10
Another challenge on a Chinese map from gamerhome. For those who download it, don't forget to rename the map file, as the program won't recognize the same filename if it's in Chinese.
The map kept me engaged, revealed some new aspects of gameplay, and the map art itself looks cool.
Although the map is somewhat linear, it still allows for different walkthrough options.
All quests, tasks, passages, etc. — everything works; knowledge of Chinese text is not required.
I liked the beginning; I was most impressed by the fight with Solmir—special respect to the author for that.
The second half of the map is completed without much difficulty.
Battles don't drag on for hours, which I also liked about the map.
There is a distinct Chinese style:
- taverns are missing (there is only 1 behind insane guards),
- Fly and Dimension Door spells are missing,
- we go a very long time without Resurrection, which complicates the game, although Berserk appears not too late and it's OP,
- there may be "necro-ing" and "demo-ning".
At first, we play as Xeron with Arch Devils, then for almost the entire game as Tazar. Orrin wasn't particularly useful during the run.
The battles are varied. Especially in the first 2 months, it is advisable to know basic mechanics to avoid losses.
Our main strike stacks: Arch Devils and Archangels. At some stage, we can use Efreet, make snipers at the end, or buy Titans. But generally, the first two are enough for the whole game. I didn't buy any Titans until the final week.
Overall, the map should appeal to a wide range of enthusiasts who want to play something new and not too difficult. The main thing is to survive the fight with Solmir; everything else can be handled!
2. Beginning (111 – 121)
Quite traditional for such maps.
We start with two heroes without a castle: a very over-leveled Rashka level 59 with stats over 90, AoTD and the red orb. Unfortunately, this hero will die on day 2 and cannot be saved. His function is to take 5k gold and open the purple tent on the island to clear the way for our other hero. The odds are uneven: we have 1 Efreet against 100 of the opponent's Azure Dragons. I tried searching the original and modified HD+ terrain for a cell surrounded by obstacles to hide the Efreet in tactics and kill the 100 Azures with Armageddon. This is possible (Armageddon deals 4720 damage with 1840 mana), but there is no spot to hide like in Ira the Mage (harpy vs red dragon). My search could be called a game of "find me"; I found 2 almost suitable spots, but they don't hide us, see screens 1 and 2. In short, I checked ALL available cells on the island and nearby, but Rashka cannot be saved—that would be too OP, having such an over-leveled hero so early with a fire magic collection: Berserk, Armageddon, etc. Here you have a choice (and I'll give advice immediately): simply dismiss Rashka along with the artifacts (so the enemy doesn't get the KS and AoTD, which looks very painful against Azures), or lose and hand over the arts. I eventually gave the arts to Roland, and he can later be killed to retrieve them.
In the northwest of the map, Xeron opens the purple guard and begins his journey through the 1st location. Here, the map author immediately gives us a task: how to get the Town Portal spell (costing 10k gold) by day 113. I'll say right away, this can be done "to the letter," but you have to dig into the physics/mechanics for something and generate the correct STARTING SAVE. Without generating the correct starting save, it is impossible to get Town Portal on day 113. The task isn't super difficult, but I've seen such a task for the first time; overall, I liked it.
Next, with 1 Devil, you need to travel through the location and kill either Archs, gold dragons, or Titans. You also need to have some basic knowledge of attacking with Arch Devils, use magic reasonably, and save resources. On day 115, we capture the 1st Inferno.
Overall, everything is not as difficult as it seems, but I highly recommend checking the quests and passage guards for the 1st week via the editor so you don't get frustrated and have to replay the first week 5-6 times.
The fight with 5 Arch Devils against 10 Archs was also hard if you wanted to lose no one. I replayed it about 20-30 times, but managed to save everyone, see screen 3 — start of the battle, the terrain helps :)
On day 122, we get the 2nd Inferno; the beginning is complete.
3. Development from 122 to 147
At this stage, there is also some thinking to be done.
As I noticed, the AI quite often generates a Devil week, which allows us to get +5 Devils in the growth castle, which looks very OP. But in that case, we cannot upgrade Devils to Arch Devils in that same castle. I had to remember that increasing creatures via weekly growth doesn't work with upgraded units. Therefore, from a growth perspective in one castle (PROBABLY, NOT SURE), it is better not to upgrade the Arch Devils. But from a tempo and availability of upgraded units perspective, this will slightly delay development, though a troop fort can be found in the neighboring location a bit later.
At this stage, we finally secure the Inferno respawn, complete quests, make sure to buy growth from Devil dwellings, go to the sandy respawn, and then to the snowy spit, where we kill Josephine, Theodore, Loins, and Jeditta. I killed Jeditta with -6 black dragons — my minimum. The beauty is that the spell arsenal is very limited for both us and the AI, and there is no Resurrection :) therefore all battles are conducted with minimal losses. I'll say right away that it's not worth carrying anyone else besides Arch Devils and a couple of Efreet for distractions; this is our entire army.
Generally, the battles are very interesting: how to kill everyone and lose almost nothing :)
4. From 211 to 317 (killing Solmir)
On day 212, we free Tazar, get him the necessary skills from seers, and level him up on neutrals right there. Be sure to give Tazar Pathfinding: it will be useful 100 times on the map + Fire Magic is also a must; Berserk will be available later. As for intelligence, see Tazar's stats in screen 4.
Then you need to manage the timing to take the quest for the Amulet of Courage by day 241, pull the trick with opening the blue tent and running away from Dessa (or Kirri); it's better to open the path to Dessa, though.
Next, we capture the neighboring respawn with 2 angel castles, kill Stig (using Xeron via blinding his Archs), then 2 dungeons.
Here is another important tip: do not give the seer the anti-hypnosis artifact for passage to the dragon utopia. This artifact will be needed a bit later to open the way to the Azure Dragon caches, and this artifact is unique on the map.
And then the difficult stage begins: capturing Titan castles, where you must kill Cutberg, Fafner, Than, and the location boss — Solmir, one by one. This is where things get brutal, because we still don't have Resurrection!!! The only question is how many losses we will take in these battles. If the first three same-types can be killed without significant losses, then Solmir is just brutal. I would even say it's one of the most difficult fights in my experience.
See screen 5 — start of the battle. I took 142 Arch Devils, a dozen and a half split black dragons, and 460 demonized Horned Ones and 68 joined Pegasi (although the last 2 stacks weren't that necessary). Solmir blasts with Chain Lightning for almost -30 (!) Arch Devils each; we have no Resurrection! My strategy for this fight: use an Elixir of Life and definitely a cloak for +10% magic resistance, visit as many morale and luck spots as possible. In short: you need to wait on the 1st round and ensure that Solmir's Chain Lightning hits the 10% resistance. Then cast Berserk on Arch Devils and must catch morale, i.e., perform a double strike on Titans; even better if one of them has luck. Catching this coincidence is VERY AND VERY difficult. Next, you need to find a positioning where Arch Devils are surrounded only by wounded enemy stacks and deal minimal damage, then finish off the Titans. It's also important to catch as much morale and luck as possible so the AI doesn't get lucky. He also likes to cast anti-magic or other unpleasant things on us. A VERY AND VERY HARD battle. As a result, the best outcome I achieved was -38 Arch Devils (out of 142), which satisfied me.
The trick with the Solmir fight is also that if we tempo too hard and arrive early, there won't be enough Arch Devils and we won't kill him; but if we come very late and hoard strength, we might not make it to the passage guard 14-51-0 by 3-4-1, where important goodies and upgrades await us. Also, our Arch Devil growth is 4+4 (in castle) +2 from dwellings = 10 per week. Meanwhile, Solmir gets +9 Titans and a bunch of other troops. So time is not on our side. Therefore, perhaps for the first time in my gaming experience, I encountered a case where arriving neither too early nor too late was key—arriving exactly on time! In short, on day 317, Solmir was killed with a result of -38 Arch Devils.
5. From 321 to the finale (Nella)
After killing Solmir, we free Orrin, relearn Resurrection and start playing normally. The difficulty level of the walkthrough drops.
Especially when we capture the respawn with angel castles; we try particularly hard to do this to get all the uncollected growth. For example, in one castle I got more than +350 Archangels and +2000 Monks.
Capturing the castle at point 112-56-1 and 20 (TWENTY!) external dwellings of Arch Devils looks completely OP. After this, farming Devils becomes a natural imbalance.
There's no real sense in describing the rest of the walkthrough. Just a few tips:
- once you capture all Rampart castles, save money and get +50% income weekly,
- break the Azure garrison; behind it is the Grail and the only tavern on the map. Place the Grail in the castle with +2 morale.
- In the tavern, buy out the logisticians and MAINLY: your hero Rashka with artifacts (if dismissed) or Roland. The artifact from them is needed to free Gela or the Dragon (you can choose one to free; I chose Gela because he has +1 speed). Also buy a Necromancer; we will have the opportunity to "necro" over 60k Liches for the final battle (though it's possible without them),
- Nella in the final battle can be outsmarted with Berserk, as she is far too strong for us. Alternatively, you can open a passage for her, drive her into a castle and then attack while blocking the castle, but that would take longer.
walkthrough review, Chinese map
1. General comments. Rating 8/10
Another challenge on a Chinese map from gamerhome. For those who download it, don't forget to rename the map file, as the program won't recognize the same filename if it's in Chinese.
The map kept me engaged, revealed some new aspects of gameplay, and the map art itself looks cool.
Although the map is somewhat linear, it still allows for different walkthrough options.
All quests, tasks, passages, etc. — everything works; knowledge of Chinese text is not required.
I liked the beginning; I was most impressed by the fight with Solmir—special respect to the author for that.
The second half of the map is completed without much difficulty.
Battles don't drag on for hours, which I also liked about the map.
There is a distinct Chinese style:
- taverns are missing (there is only 1 behind insane guards),
- Fly and Dimension Door spells are missing,
- we go a very long time without Resurrection, which complicates the game, although Berserk appears not too late and it's OP,
- there may be "necro-ing" and "demo-ning".
At first, we play as Xeron with Arch Devils, then for almost the entire game as Tazar. Orrin wasn't particularly useful during the run.
The battles are varied. Especially in the first 2 months, it is advisable to know basic mechanics to avoid losses.
Our main strike stacks: Arch Devils and Archangels. At some stage, we can use Efreet, make snipers at the end, or buy Titans. But generally, the first two are enough for the whole game. I didn't buy any Titans until the final week.
Overall, the map should appeal to a wide range of enthusiasts who want to play something new and not too difficult. The main thing is to survive the fight with Solmir; everything else can be handled!
2. Beginning (111 – 121)
Quite traditional for such maps.
We start with two heroes without a castle: a very over-leveled Rashka level 59 with stats over 90, AoTD and the red orb. Unfortunately, this hero will die on day 2 and cannot be saved. His function is to take 5k gold and open the purple tent on the island to clear the way for our other hero. The odds are uneven: we have 1 Efreet against 100 of the opponent's Azure Dragons. I tried searching the original and modified HD+ terrain for a cell surrounded by obstacles to hide the Efreet in tactics and kill the 100 Azures with Armageddon. This is possible (Armageddon deals 4720 damage with 1840 mana), but there is no spot to hide like in Ira the Mage (harpy vs red dragon). My search could be called a game of "find me"; I found 2 almost suitable spots, but they don't hide us, see screens 1 and 2. In short, I checked ALL available cells on the island and nearby, but Rashka cannot be saved—that would be too OP, having such an over-leveled hero so early with a fire magic collection: Berserk, Armageddon, etc. Here you have a choice (and I'll give advice immediately): simply dismiss Rashka along with the artifacts (so the enemy doesn't get the KS and AoTD, which looks very painful against Azures), or lose and hand over the arts. I eventually gave the arts to Roland, and he can later be killed to retrieve them.
In the northwest of the map, Xeron opens the purple guard and begins his journey through the 1st location. Here, the map author immediately gives us a task: how to get the Town Portal spell (costing 10k gold) by day 113. I'll say right away, this can be done "to the letter," but you have to dig into the physics/mechanics for something and generate the correct STARTING SAVE. Without generating the correct starting save, it is impossible to get Town Portal on day 113. The task isn't super difficult, but I've seen such a task for the first time; overall, I liked it.
Next, with 1 Devil, you need to travel through the location and kill either Archs, gold dragons, or Titans. You also need to have some basic knowledge of attacking with Arch Devils, use magic reasonably, and save resources. On day 115, we capture the 1st Inferno.
Overall, everything is not as difficult as it seems, but I highly recommend checking the quests and passage guards for the 1st week via the editor so you don't get frustrated and have to replay the first week 5-6 times.
The fight with 5 Arch Devils against 10 Archs was also hard if you wanted to lose no one. I replayed it about 20-30 times, but managed to save everyone, see screen 3 — start of the battle, the terrain helps :)
On day 122, we get the 2nd Inferno; the beginning is complete.
3. Development from 122 to 147
At this stage, there is also some thinking to be done.
As I noticed, the AI quite often generates a Devil week, which allows us to get +5 Devils in the growth castle, which looks very OP. But in that case, we cannot upgrade Devils to Arch Devils in that same castle. I had to remember that increasing creatures via weekly growth doesn't work with upgraded units. Therefore, from a growth perspective in one castle (PROBABLY, NOT SURE), it is better not to upgrade the Arch Devils. But from a tempo and availability of upgraded units perspective, this will slightly delay development, though a troop fort can be found in the neighboring location a bit later.
At this stage, we finally secure the Inferno respawn, complete quests, make sure to buy growth from Devil dwellings, go to the sandy respawn, and then to the snowy spit, where we kill Josephine, Theodore, Loins, and Jeditta. I killed Jeditta with -6 black dragons — my minimum. The beauty is that the spell arsenal is very limited for both us and the AI, and there is no Resurrection :) therefore all battles are conducted with minimal losses. I'll say right away that it's not worth carrying anyone else besides Arch Devils and a couple of Efreet for distractions; this is our entire army.
Generally, the battles are very interesting: how to kill everyone and lose almost nothing :)
4. From 211 to 317 (killing Solmir)
On day 212, we free Tazar, get him the necessary skills from seers, and level him up on neutrals right there. Be sure to give Tazar Pathfinding: it will be useful 100 times on the map + Fire Magic is also a must; Berserk will be available later. As for intelligence, see Tazar's stats in screen 4.
Then you need to manage the timing to take the quest for the Amulet of Courage by day 241, pull the trick with opening the blue tent and running away from Dessa (or Kirri); it's better to open the path to Dessa, though.
Next, we capture the neighboring respawn with 2 angel castles, kill Stig (using Xeron via blinding his Archs), then 2 dungeons.
Here is another important tip: do not give the seer the anti-hypnosis artifact for passage to the dragon utopia. This artifact will be needed a bit later to open the way to the Azure Dragon caches, and this artifact is unique on the map.
And then the difficult stage begins: capturing Titan castles, where you must kill Cutberg, Fafner, Than, and the location boss — Solmir, one by one. This is where things get brutal, because we still don't have Resurrection!!! The only question is how many losses we will take in these battles. If the first three same-types can be killed without significant losses, then Solmir is just brutal. I would even say it's one of the most difficult fights in my experience.
See screen 5 — start of the battle. I took 142 Arch Devils, a dozen and a half split black dragons, and 460 demonized Horned Ones and 68 joined Pegasi (although the last 2 stacks weren't that necessary). Solmir blasts with Chain Lightning for almost -30 (!) Arch Devils each; we have no Resurrection! My strategy for this fight: use an Elixir of Life and definitely a cloak for +10% magic resistance, visit as many morale and luck spots as possible. In short: you need to wait on the 1st round and ensure that Solmir's Chain Lightning hits the 10% resistance. Then cast Berserk on Arch Devils and must catch morale, i.e., perform a double strike on Titans; even better if one of them has luck. Catching this coincidence is VERY AND VERY difficult. Next, you need to find a positioning where Arch Devils are surrounded only by wounded enemy stacks and deal minimal damage, then finish off the Titans. It's also important to catch as much morale and luck as possible so the AI doesn't get lucky. He also likes to cast anti-magic or other unpleasant things on us. A VERY AND VERY HARD battle. As a result, the best outcome I achieved was -38 Arch Devils (out of 142), which satisfied me.
The trick with the Solmir fight is also that if we tempo too hard and arrive early, there won't be enough Arch Devils and we won't kill him; but if we come very late and hoard strength, we might not make it to the passage guard 14-51-0 by 3-4-1, where important goodies and upgrades await us. Also, our Arch Devil growth is 4+4 (in castle) +2 from dwellings = 10 per week. Meanwhile, Solmir gets +9 Titans and a bunch of other troops. So time is not on our side. Therefore, perhaps for the first time in my gaming experience, I encountered a case where arriving neither too early nor too late was key—arriving exactly on time! In short, on day 317, Solmir was killed with a result of -38 Arch Devils.
5. From 321 to the finale (Nella)
After killing Solmir, we free Orrin, relearn Resurrection and start playing normally. The difficulty level of the walkthrough drops.
Especially when we capture the respawn with angel castles; we try particularly hard to do this to get all the uncollected growth. For example, in one castle I got more than +350 Archangels and +2000 Monks.
Capturing the castle at point 112-56-1 and 20 (TWENTY!) external dwellings of Arch Devils looks completely OP. After this, farming Devils becomes a natural imbalance.
There's no real sense in describing the rest of the walkthrough. Just a few tips:
- once you capture all Rampart castles, save money and get +50% income weekly,
- break the Azure garrison; behind it is the Grail and the only tavern on the map. Place the Grail in the castle with +2 morale.
- In the tavern, buy out the logisticians and MAINLY: your hero Rashka with artifacts (if dismissed) or Roland. The artifact from them is needed to free Gela or the Dragon (you can choose one to free; I chose Gela because he has +1 speed). Also buy a Necromancer; we will have the opportunity to "necro" over 60k Liches for the final battle (though it's possible without them),
- Nella in the final battle can be outsmarted with Berserk, as she is far too strong for us. Alternatively, you can open a passage for her, drive her into a castle and then attack while blocking the castle, but that would take longer.
