Walkthroughs for custom maps.

This map caught my eye precisely because the showcase Chinese Walkthroughs for it exceed a 20-month in-game duration. The map author is Woxin, by the way. The author of "Brave without Fear" is ljmvbc. This map is designed on the principle of ultra-dynamism, and the walkthrough will proceed to the accompaniment of an endless computer onslaught in all zones.

I know the author Woxin firsthand; I've completed almost all of his maps that I could find (somewhere around 6 out of 8). They are characterized by this very dynamism and the freedom of where to go (or rather, where to run away from the AI :)
But this map, Legend of Shan Hai, is, to put it mildly, too dragged out.
The AI armies are such that it's unclear when I'll have the strength to break them :)
Well, my update is that at 10-1-1 there is progress:
1) Killed 2 swamp-dwellers without losses and captured their castles, see screens. Done via mass blindness, then a strike from a blinded stack, 2 shots, and blindness again.
2) Broke through the guards at the "event" and in the north conquered another angel stash + 2 gold mines,
3) Finally captured a neutral Tower with minimal losses: fed 2 Faerie Dragons, 19 Wood Elves, and the main forces—1 Crystal Dragon, 1 Archangel, and the ones) received a growth of 39 Titans, though there is no money to buy them out. See screen, for example, taking the castle almost without losses (no Resurrection).
4) Freed Tazar, but he is not leveled up, and he has no chance to learn Intellect (it is locked on the map), so Tazar will likely remain a loser until the end of the map.
5) Elleshar reached level 42, stats grew to 16-19-18-33, but still significantly lower than the enemies (see screen for artifacts and leveling). It's a pity Elleshar got Attack; Air would have been significantly better at this stage. Perhaps Attack will pay off later.
6) The Admiral's Hat artifact helps a lot, as there are many landings/boardings to deliver troops and loot from stashes. It must not be swapped for the Path Guardian at point 130-89-0 (perhaps this should be done later).
In the 10th month, only 30-40% of the surface and 5% of the underground are still open :) ....

I've already accepted that I need to travel from castle to castle for growth. It's not very difficult, given the navigation available to Tsielka. The biggest problem remains the lack of restoration. Archangels can only restore once, and fighting against Azure+Faerie and/or ranged stacks and Archangels is extremely difficult, as neutrals immediately crash into all the shooters. In general, I need to amass enough strength to break through the next obstacle without losses or almost without losses.

Plans: visit the underground, get the Armageddon spell and Summon Elemental (this will take 2-3-4 weeks). And then either break through Bron and free the hero with Town Portal and/or burst into the enemies' central zone (this can be done in several ways—entry monolith, killing the Barbarian Shiva with a more or less reasonable army). In the central zone, I can take the blue tent + kill a couple of AI losers (though I think it will be very difficult to do without losses). In general, progress in the 8-9 month doesn't make the map hopeless :)

So, it's quite realistic that this map will stretch to 20 months. I remember someone on YouTube completed Wavewarer in 60 months, or something around that :)

P.S. It wouldn't be Woxin if the map were static :) at 10-1-4 the elite enemy heroes open the prisons and guards and fly to all parts of the respawn! Here we go! Given this, I rebuilt my strategy, and immediately after killing the 2nd swamp-dweller 9-2-7, I fly north with all my might. There, an enemy hero opens a green guardian and at 10-2-1 Elleshar enters a castle with restoration and Clone. It should be easier from here. Now I can catch weaker AI players and start minus-ing them.

Update: after learning Clone and Resurrection, the enemy armies are still impressive for conducting battles. Therefore, I lured all the enemy heroes in the north one by one into water traps on islands, and captured a Tower with BERSERK in the northwest, after which in the northeast I broke the wild neutral guards, took another castle, and the green tent. Almost all of the surface north is captured. 2 main AI heroes with Boots of Levitation—Müllich and Dessa (oh, how she travels half the map) descended into the underground and for some reason aren't coming out (?!). At 14-4-4 I killed the quest hero—the kindred spirit Andru, and at 14-4-6 I learned Town Portal with Elleshar. By 14-4-6, Elleshar's army is already impressive: 3 Azure, 170 Archangels (there are another 70-80 not yet bought), 125 Titans, etc.
Further completion of the map with Berserk, Town Portal, Resurrection, and Clone is just a matter of time.
It turns out that completing the map is "boring" only until the 7-8 month; after that, events develop rapidly.
Two things are a pity: I didn't manage to save Kiry from prison, the AI opened her, but she is also not leveled up and cannot learn Intellect, so it's not too bad, it seems.
And Tazar (not Yog, as I thought) still cannot level up with Intellect since it is forbidden, and 100-200 mana per battle is clearly not enough. Perhaps Tazar will be useful in the future in some anti-magic garrison. For now, the only "daddy" is Elleshar.
Plans: capture the second Tower in the north, as well as try to capture the Stronghold, minus all enemy heroes who are in traps on the islands and who are not immune to Berserk, and try to enter the center of the map.

UPDATE #2. According to the previous plan: captured the second Tower in the north, broke through Tiraxor with difficulty, then easily captured the Stronghold with Berserk, killing Kilgor. Now the bear growth is 25 per week, plus 100 added at events. Bears have become the strike stack. Killed many heroes on the map, cleared the center. Currently unable to defeat 3-4 heroes (lack of army), but they are locked in water traps, awaiting their hour. Almost all the surface is under control in the 17-18 month, but the AI aren't wandering underfoot. In the 19th month, I broke the guards to the underground, going to open the white tent. At 19-2-7, Elleshar travels with 20 Azure, 366 Archangels, 391 Titans, 8000 Grand Elves, 411 bears, and fanatics with archers (mostly for fodder in battles).