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Map Name: 绝地反击(铁人版)/ Jedi Strikes Back (Iron Man Edition)
Author: road
Source: from the map collection by Glenn’s stream
The map is one of the widely recognized hits in the same-game Chinese community. kolotok has already written a review of it on our forum. You can find it here. The scenario was released in 2008, although I wouldn't be surprised if such a work came out now, for example, because the author's ideas feel fresh and original even from the perspective of a seasoned player. Iron Man Edition is a harder version of the map. By the way, the version name is very fitting, as the player will be tested for strength and endurance more than once or twice here. There is a popular belief that all Chinese maps are incredibly difficult across the board, and an unthought-out step to the left or right leads to execution—which, of course, is not true. However, this characteristic, with some caveats (which I'll mention shortly), is quite accurate regarding Jedi Strikes Back.
The map is very demanding in terms of logistics planning and combat management. On the first day, you need to choose your main hero. There are four candidates: Orrin, Craig, Malekith, and Tazar. Depending on the choice made, subsequent gameplay will vary greatly, both due to specializations, secondary skills, and the nature of primary stat progression for the offered heroes, as well as bonuses granted by the author to each chosen hero throughout the scenario. I chose Malekith, as he was the least overused option available. Among Malekith's obvious advantages compared to others: he is the only one the author gave Intelligence to, and mana will be a constant struggle here. The downsides: Warlocks scale poorly in attack and defense, so this hero will have problems with physical striking power; therefore, battles lasting 1000+ rounds in the midgame are normal when choosing Malekith on this map. But in the late game, Malekith becomes a monster and can destroy enemies using only offensive magic. In other words, he starts slow but moves fast. Given my understanding of the map's specifics after completion, I can say that Malekith and Craig are the best options for "father" roles here. Orrin is slightly worse. And Tazar is quite poor, as his specialization is barely useful here since battles are not built on the principle of enduring damage, but rather on avoiding physical damage from enemies at all costs.
The game very quickly points out the importance of selecting a good starting save. In his review, kolotok detailed his vision of criteria for initial generation—very strict ones, by the way. Such a vision certainly has its place, but it is not the only correct option. A big plus of the map is that while the author is undeniably demanding regarding the player's calculation of actions, they have built in gameplay variability at all stages of completion. I settled on one criterion for my generation: our first opponent, Gurnisson, must not get Ballistics upon leveling up; otherwise, he couldn't be killed during the city defense on 1.1.6, and I couldn't think of a way to kill him in the field before that. In general, Gurnisson is the first stress test on the map; you need to defeat him while having worse stats, a smaller army, and less mana than he does, all while Gurnisson blasts you with offensive magic. However, one non-obvious point much later can be of great importance for generation: the creatures that spawn on water near Thorgrim's castle. There are several random level 5 stacks there, and I used them to gain experience to reach level 42 for the Town Portal. If some monks or liches spawn on cursed ground, you won't be able to farm anyone.
Besides Gurnisson, an event with a thief ambush caused problems at the start; I first tried to break through them with Malekith from the Stronghold side using six devils, but such a battle proved beyond my strength, so I had to come up with another tactic
On the second week, you need to move into the "one-way" area behind the red gates. Here is a curious nuance: it is implied that different heroes exit in different places. Malekith toward the dungeon, Craig toward the Stronghold, Orrin toward the Tower, Tazar toward the Rampart. The trick is that the support hero, Iona, can move independently of the main hero. In my case, Malekith went to his mini-zone, and Iona went to the Tower. Her specialization allows her to cast Anti-Magic via a djinn on the Magic Dragon before the enemy titans' turn, and the dragon handles everyone himself. The bonus addition for Iona in the form of 7 titans will be very useful. Malekith, meanwhile, breaks through his opponent with monsters. You cannot afford to lose devils; they will be our key stack for the rest of the game. Build a Mage Guild in the dungeon and move further. The next task is serious: you need to figure something out against Kyrr, who has imba stats and 1000 Pit Lords. kolotok described how this hero can be defeated immediately. But the trick is that you don't have to defeat Kyrr; you can run away from her with two (!) heroes at once, even though she levels up through events along the way and is given boots and gloves. In general, a real action sequence unfolded at this stage, where you need to slip under Kyrr's nose, reach the saving Inferno, and teleport through the city gates back to the starting castle. Another cool point is that while fleeing, one of our heroes—by maximizing movement modifiers—can run around the legion of Arch-Devils and collect external dwellings of devils, a dolphin, gloves, and a beacon (preferably the main hero, as stats are given along the way). Even 50 mp, not even 100, will matter in implementing this idea. I was exactly 50 mp short of claiming both devil external dwellings. I suspect I didn't get lucky with the heroes' positioning at the start of the day.
Teleporting to the starting Inferno marks the next stage of the game, which can be described as "the calm before the storm." The author gives us over a month to get on our feet before the AI onslaught comes from all sides. At this stage, the tasks are: freeing resource-heroes with navigation, having the main hero learn Water Walking and Resurrection in special locations, obtaining a Blindness scroll, and clearing/developing nearby territories. A less obvious trip is south to Xeron's zone, visiting three tents, and pocketing the Sword of Justice and 3 million gold. To the east, you need to quickly break through Erdamon and establish control over an extremely useful Inferno zone. There are a couple of points here that should be mentioned separately. In the aforementioned zone, we dig up the Grail. I carried it around for several weeks but eventually placed it in the Inferno on 119.3.1 for the following reasons: this city is further from potential AI attack points than other cities, and also consider that a Fire God will automatically be built over time in the Inferno at the crossroads where we escaped Kyrr. You can place the Grail in another type of city, but an additional growth of Arch-Devils, in my opinion, solves more than other factors. The next point, in my view, should be listed as a major minus of the map. Behind a pillar that simply requires being a red hero, you are given 1500 Azure Dragons, 1500 Faerie Dragons, and a Book of Air! This handout completely contradicts the "Iron Man Edition" concept, and the reasons why the author did this remain a mystery; the decision rests on their conscience. It seems to me that this is something like an appeal to the player: "Can you complete the map without this?". On the other hand, if the author provides such opportunities, there's a probability they intend for the player to use them reasonably. In short, it's a handout of the sort "take it—you'll regret it; don't take it—you'll also regret it." I thought about it and settled on a compromise: using the dragons and the book. Not a single dragon from either pack was brought into any battle, but on certain days, heroes stayed with them in cities to avoid AI attacks. At the end of the run, I even tried sacrificing them to level Malekith above level 88 (the maximum allowed by trees in the original game), but those 3000 dragons aren't enough to even reach level 100. As for the Book of Air, you can completely break the map's gameplay with it. But it would be simply stupid to completely refuse such a tempo accelerator if it exists. In general, the book was used with two serious restrictions: the movement zone must be accessible within a few days of normal travel (1-2-3 days), and no items are taken or zones visited that require defeating certain heroes or completing certain tasks before such defeat or completion. Be that as it may, and whatever guided the author, such a decision for a map is a 100% minus and prevents the map from being classified as hardcore. Additionally, there are other moments of a similar nature. If you try hard enough, you can free Boragus from prison with Fire Magic and Berserk. And Berserk also completely breaks the gameplay on the map. I didn't have time to do it, nor did I have much desire.
After developing the starting Inferno zone, by the end of the second month, we set out for the Town Portal. It can be obtained in two ways, but only one is reasonable: by killing Yog and reaching level 42 in the south sandy zone. We move from the upper-right Inferno zone to pick up Forgetfulness along the way. On Malekith's path, a curious battle for the Sphere of Fire awaits. A hero with 2000 Terror Knights on cursed ground with healing, haste, and slow. He was broken through using one Gold Dragon and a Magic Arrow. If the arrow damage doesn't significantly finish off the knight, the AI heals him every round; otherwise, haste is cast.
At the start of the third month, the green AI gets access to the green tent, and Yog heads north, gathering armies from other heroes. I had to face a damn hard battle in the Tower. The particular difficulty was that Yog took titans from Edric, and this was the only battle where having Rust Dragons—which I collected for some reason—became critically important, because Arch-Devils, which essentially solo the entire map, absolutely could not withstand the pressure of uncontrolled titans with Golden Bows. At the same time, two moments in the battle both amused and stressed me: 1) after blinding the cyclops, the tower stubbornly continued to shoot specifically at them for some reason; 2) there is a very obscure bug-feature in the game where a hero without Water Magic can teleport creatures through a wall only from certain points on the battlefield. The enemy cyclopes occupied exactly such a point, and the AI teleported them
Obtaining the Town Portal and teaching it to everyone via Calid significantly adds maneuverability. Among further milestones is obtaining 100 Arch-Devils for level 46 near the Inferno at the crossroads. Such a level can be reached in a series of battles in a special zone near Xeron's castle. Later, level 59 was also reached there for access to the Trees of Knowledge zone. The next key task is breaking through Thorgrim and immediately after, Nila. In both cases, I had to struggle with enemy resistance. With Thorgrim, I first tried to win using a tactic of exhausting shots, mana, and Faerie Dragon casts, but it's much easier to win by locking yourself behind elves; for this, you need to cast Forgetfulness on Thorgrim in the first round, and then over several rounds, while the elves are dying in melee against our arch-devils, we have time to try and blind them. The battle with Nila is even worse: it feels like her 50% resistance works even better than Thorgrim's. An interesting trick with her is that if you surround yourself with blinded units and then hit someone weakly (which Malekith is only capable of), Nila casts healing. Therefore, you need to hit hard, which triggers resurrection. Malekith could only hit hard with Explosion. After the battle with Nila, we get the Medal of Vulnerability, which determines the entire subsequent combat pattern of this map. Almost all enemies that flood toward us in the middle of the third month or occupy static positions and wait for us in the late game will have Pendants of Clairvoyance. Therefore, the key means of controlling enemies in Jedi Strikes Back is Hypnosis. You must either bring AI stacks to the required size to hypnotize them, or surrender castles or wait to visit external dwellings so that the AI gathers "trash" stacks. Then you create pockets and place Arch-Devils there. The tactic more or less boils down to this in most battles, but there will be many nuances. Some cast Anti-Magic on a screen, some like to dispel or heal shooters, some set up swings with slow/haste/prayer, making it difficult to hold behind a force field until the right moment. There are many details. By the end of the third month, I managed to clear almost all wandering heroes. Particular difficulties were with Clancy (the hardest battle on the map), who gathered armies from Elleshar and Xeron. The key snag is that he has 7000 Efreet Sultans in his army, whom Arch-Devils cannot hit, and Malekith's magical abilities in month 3 are insufficient to break them with magic. Therefore, Clancy's Efreets were killed by my own Gold Dragons. To do this, at the start of the battle, I arranged it so that I could burn the Efreets twice; in total, this had to be done about 8-9 times. I used a series of manipulations to hide behind an enemy tent with arch-devils, drain all the AI's mana, and then spent 1000+ rounds killing enemy Arch-Devils and Unicorns. After that, a game of cat-and-mouse with the AI began—specifically, attempts to position my own Efreets against enemy Efreets and dragons by moving them so that the dragons would burn them. This is very difficult to do. Also, the AI often positions itself for a "fake-burn," where the dragons seem like they should blow through the Efreets but don't. In general, it was fun. Also a hard battle with Andra, who has 4000 mana and all of it must be drained. Andra behaved very erratically during the fight, casting either dispel or healing after a hundred casts of Clone on wyverns, for example. Vokial with a pack of Azure Dragons was also quite problematic. To kill them, special precautions are needed (see screenshot). Regarding battle specifics, I should note the usefulness of the Mage Ring throughout the entire run, as recasting several spells every 50 rounds—and every 100 rounds for Malekith—is a big difference on this map. Another distinctive feature of my specific run (choosing Tactics instead of Fire Magic in Malekith's last slot, which turned out to be the right choice) is that for a long time, Frenzy was unable to provide any benefit because the gap between our and enemy stats was huge, and in the midgame, it was impossible to overcome the minimum damage threshold even with buffs and Frenzy.
The tasks of month 4 boil down to visiting the island of trees, reaching level 88, breaking through static heroes or heroes on a radius, and specific final bosses: Gundula, Mephala, and Gird. At this stage, Malekith became capable of burning enemies, which was done to Sir Mullich, Sandro, and Mutare Drake. Gundula (level 868) was chosen as the first mega-boss in order. She is the only hero for whom I selected special terrain, as it's problematic to hold out even one round against her, and she flatly refused to enter a city. Next followed the battle with Mephala (level 108), which Malekith played through Faerie Dragons, who get a decent boost from his specialization. One detail prevented the battle from concluding for a long time: sooner or later, Mephala always threw Diamond Golems into the city, and this is her most problematic stack, as it not only cannot be broken physically but also has 95% ignore of magical attacks even under the Sphere of Vulnerability. The solution was to close off one side with remnants of vampires and the other two sides with force fields until the AI's mana was completely drained. The battle with Gird (level 3732) is easier for Malekith than the others, as she could be forced into a city, and Malekith's blade counters Gird's blade. We exhaust the titans' shots and Gird's mana, raise arch-devils, and chop everyone up. Lacus remained last in line, as he only gathers the required number of fire birds for exit on 5.1.1, and I didn't collect any birds myself. The only battle I assigned to Thorgrim was this fight with Lacus. Here again were swings with haste/slow, and I was already quite fed up with that, so Thorgrim came in very handy.
In conclusion, I can say that the map is undoubtedly of the highest class, but a number of points mentioned earlier prevent me from giving it a maximum score. Various Books of Air, free dragons, and berserkers should have been saved by the author for other versions, not Iron Man. Also, not all blue heroes fulfilled the author's intentions. Tazar went somewhere other than where he was supposed to, and Craig didn't leave his location at all, although he should have.
I recorded two battles for memory: with Sir Mullich and Mephala. I am attaching the map for convenience.
Author: road
Source: from the map collection by Glenn’s stream
The map is one of the widely recognized hits in the same-game Chinese community. kolotok has already written a review of it on our forum. You can find it here. The scenario was released in 2008, although I wouldn't be surprised if such a work came out now, for example, because the author's ideas feel fresh and original even from the perspective of a seasoned player. Iron Man Edition is a harder version of the map. By the way, the version name is very fitting, as the player will be tested for strength and endurance more than once or twice here. There is a popular belief that all Chinese maps are incredibly difficult across the board, and an unthought-out step to the left or right leads to execution—which, of course, is not true. However, this characteristic, with some caveats (which I'll mention shortly), is quite accurate regarding Jedi Strikes Back.
The map is very demanding in terms of logistics planning and combat management. On the first day, you need to choose your main hero. There are four candidates: Orrin, Craig, Malekith, and Tazar. Depending on the choice made, subsequent gameplay will vary greatly, both due to specializations, secondary skills, and the nature of primary stat progression for the offered heroes, as well as bonuses granted by the author to each chosen hero throughout the scenario. I chose Malekith, as he was the least overused option available. Among Malekith's obvious advantages compared to others: he is the only one the author gave Intelligence to, and mana will be a constant struggle here. The downsides: Warlocks scale poorly in attack and defense, so this hero will have problems with physical striking power; therefore, battles lasting 1000+ rounds in the midgame are normal when choosing Malekith on this map. But in the late game, Malekith becomes a monster and can destroy enemies using only offensive magic. In other words, he starts slow but moves fast. Given my understanding of the map's specifics after completion, I can say that Malekith and Craig are the best options for "father" roles here. Orrin is slightly worse. And Tazar is quite poor, as his specialization is barely useful here since battles are not built on the principle of enduring damage, but rather on avoiding physical damage from enemies at all costs.
The game very quickly points out the importance of selecting a good starting save. In his review, kolotok detailed his vision of criteria for initial generation—very strict ones, by the way. Such a vision certainly has its place, but it is not the only correct option. A big plus of the map is that while the author is undeniably demanding regarding the player's calculation of actions, they have built in gameplay variability at all stages of completion. I settled on one criterion for my generation: our first opponent, Gurnisson, must not get Ballistics upon leveling up; otherwise, he couldn't be killed during the city defense on 1.1.6, and I couldn't think of a way to kill him in the field before that. In general, Gurnisson is the first stress test on the map; you need to defeat him while having worse stats, a smaller army, and less mana than he does, all while Gurnisson blasts you with offensive magic. However, one non-obvious point much later can be of great importance for generation: the creatures that spawn on water near Thorgrim's castle. There are several random level 5 stacks there, and I used them to gain experience to reach level 42 for the Town Portal. If some monks or liches spawn on cursed ground, you won't be able to farm anyone.
Besides Gurnisson, an event with a thief ambush caused problems at the start; I first tried to break through them with Malekith from the Stronghold side using six devils, but such a battle proved beyond my strength, so I had to come up with another tactic
On the second week, you need to move into the "one-way" area behind the red gates. Here is a curious nuance: it is implied that different heroes exit in different places. Malekith toward the dungeon, Craig toward the Stronghold, Orrin toward the Tower, Tazar toward the Rampart. The trick is that the support hero, Iona, can move independently of the main hero. In my case, Malekith went to his mini-zone, and Iona went to the Tower. Her specialization allows her to cast Anti-Magic via a djinn on the Magic Dragon before the enemy titans' turn, and the dragon handles everyone himself. The bonus addition for Iona in the form of 7 titans will be very useful. Malekith, meanwhile, breaks through his opponent with monsters. You cannot afford to lose devils; they will be our key stack for the rest of the game. Build a Mage Guild in the dungeon and move further. The next task is serious: you need to figure something out against Kyrr, who has imba stats and 1000 Pit Lords. kolotok described how this hero can be defeated immediately. But the trick is that you don't have to defeat Kyrr; you can run away from her with two (!) heroes at once, even though she levels up through events along the way and is given boots and gloves. In general, a real action sequence unfolded at this stage, where you need to slip under Kyrr's nose, reach the saving Inferno, and teleport through the city gates back to the starting castle. Another cool point is that while fleeing, one of our heroes—by maximizing movement modifiers—can run around the legion of Arch-Devils and collect external dwellings of devils, a dolphin, gloves, and a beacon (preferably the main hero, as stats are given along the way). Even 50 mp, not even 100, will matter in implementing this idea. I was exactly 50 mp short of claiming both devil external dwellings. I suspect I didn't get lucky with the heroes' positioning at the start of the day.Teleporting to the starting Inferno marks the next stage of the game, which can be described as "the calm before the storm." The author gives us over a month to get on our feet before the AI onslaught comes from all sides. At this stage, the tasks are: freeing resource-heroes with navigation, having the main hero learn Water Walking and Resurrection in special locations, obtaining a Blindness scroll, and clearing/developing nearby territories. A less obvious trip is south to Xeron's zone, visiting three tents, and pocketing the Sword of Justice and 3 million gold. To the east, you need to quickly break through Erdamon and establish control over an extremely useful Inferno zone. There are a couple of points here that should be mentioned separately. In the aforementioned zone, we dig up the Grail. I carried it around for several weeks but eventually placed it in the Inferno on 119.3.1 for the following reasons: this city is further from potential AI attack points than other cities, and also consider that a Fire God will automatically be built over time in the Inferno at the crossroads where we escaped Kyrr. You can place the Grail in another type of city, but an additional growth of Arch-Devils, in my opinion, solves more than other factors. The next point, in my view, should be listed as a major minus of the map. Behind a pillar that simply requires being a red hero, you are given 1500 Azure Dragons, 1500 Faerie Dragons, and a Book of Air! This handout completely contradicts the "Iron Man Edition" concept, and the reasons why the author did this remain a mystery; the decision rests on their conscience. It seems to me that this is something like an appeal to the player: "Can you complete the map without this?". On the other hand, if the author provides such opportunities, there's a probability they intend for the player to use them reasonably. In short, it's a handout of the sort "take it—you'll regret it; don't take it—you'll also regret it." I thought about it and settled on a compromise: using the dragons and the book. Not a single dragon from either pack was brought into any battle, but on certain days, heroes stayed with them in cities to avoid AI attacks. At the end of the run, I even tried sacrificing them to level Malekith above level 88 (the maximum allowed by trees in the original game), but those 3000 dragons aren't enough to even reach level 100. As for the Book of Air, you can completely break the map's gameplay with it. But it would be simply stupid to completely refuse such a tempo accelerator if it exists. In general, the book was used with two serious restrictions: the movement zone must be accessible within a few days of normal travel (1-2-3 days), and no items are taken or zones visited that require defeating certain heroes or completing certain tasks before such defeat or completion. Be that as it may, and whatever guided the author, such a decision for a map is a 100% minus and prevents the map from being classified as hardcore. Additionally, there are other moments of a similar nature. If you try hard enough, you can free Boragus from prison with Fire Magic and Berserk. And Berserk also completely breaks the gameplay on the map. I didn't have time to do it, nor did I have much desire.
After developing the starting Inferno zone, by the end of the second month, we set out for the Town Portal. It can be obtained in two ways, but only one is reasonable: by killing Yog and reaching level 42 in the south sandy zone. We move from the upper-right Inferno zone to pick up Forgetfulness along the way. On Malekith's path, a curious battle for the Sphere of Fire awaits. A hero with 2000 Terror Knights on cursed ground with healing, haste, and slow. He was broken through using one Gold Dragon and a Magic Arrow. If the arrow damage doesn't significantly finish off the knight, the AI heals him every round; otherwise, haste is cast.
At the start of the third month, the green AI gets access to the green tent, and Yog heads north, gathering armies from other heroes. I had to face a damn hard battle in the Tower. The particular difficulty was that Yog took titans from Edric, and this was the only battle where having Rust Dragons—which I collected for some reason—became critically important, because Arch-Devils, which essentially solo the entire map, absolutely could not withstand the pressure of uncontrolled titans with Golden Bows. At the same time, two moments in the battle both amused and stressed me: 1) after blinding the cyclops, the tower stubbornly continued to shoot specifically at them for some reason; 2) there is a very obscure bug-feature in the game where a hero without Water Magic can teleport creatures through a wall only from certain points on the battlefield. The enemy cyclopes occupied exactly such a point, and the AI teleported them
Obtaining the Town Portal and teaching it to everyone via Calid significantly adds maneuverability. Among further milestones is obtaining 100 Arch-Devils for level 46 near the Inferno at the crossroads. Such a level can be reached in a series of battles in a special zone near Xeron's castle. Later, level 59 was also reached there for access to the Trees of Knowledge zone. The next key task is breaking through Thorgrim and immediately after, Nila. In both cases, I had to struggle with enemy resistance. With Thorgrim, I first tried to win using a tactic of exhausting shots, mana, and Faerie Dragon casts, but it's much easier to win by locking yourself behind elves; for this, you need to cast Forgetfulness on Thorgrim in the first round, and then over several rounds, while the elves are dying in melee against our arch-devils, we have time to try and blind them. The battle with Nila is even worse: it feels like her 50% resistance works even better than Thorgrim's. An interesting trick with her is that if you surround yourself with blinded units and then hit someone weakly (which Malekith is only capable of), Nila casts healing. Therefore, you need to hit hard, which triggers resurrection. Malekith could only hit hard with Explosion. After the battle with Nila, we get the Medal of Vulnerability, which determines the entire subsequent combat pattern of this map. Almost all enemies that flood toward us in the middle of the third month or occupy static positions and wait for us in the late game will have Pendants of Clairvoyance. Therefore, the key means of controlling enemies in Jedi Strikes Back is Hypnosis. You must either bring AI stacks to the required size to hypnotize them, or surrender castles or wait to visit external dwellings so that the AI gathers "trash" stacks. Then you create pockets and place Arch-Devils there. The tactic more or less boils down to this in most battles, but there will be many nuances. Some cast Anti-Magic on a screen, some like to dispel or heal shooters, some set up swings with slow/haste/prayer, making it difficult to hold behind a force field until the right moment. There are many details. By the end of the third month, I managed to clear almost all wandering heroes. Particular difficulties were with Clancy (the hardest battle on the map), who gathered armies from Elleshar and Xeron. The key snag is that he has 7000 Efreet Sultans in his army, whom Arch-Devils cannot hit, and Malekith's magical abilities in month 3 are insufficient to break them with magic. Therefore, Clancy's Efreets were killed by my own Gold Dragons. To do this, at the start of the battle, I arranged it so that I could burn the Efreets twice; in total, this had to be done about 8-9 times. I used a series of manipulations to hide behind an enemy tent with arch-devils, drain all the AI's mana, and then spent 1000+ rounds killing enemy Arch-Devils and Unicorns. After that, a game of cat-and-mouse with the AI began—specifically, attempts to position my own Efreets against enemy Efreets and dragons by moving them so that the dragons would burn them. This is very difficult to do. Also, the AI often positions itself for a "fake-burn," where the dragons seem like they should blow through the Efreets but don't. In general, it was fun. Also a hard battle with Andra, who has 4000 mana and all of it must be drained. Andra behaved very erratically during the fight, casting either dispel or healing after a hundred casts of Clone on wyverns, for example. Vokial with a pack of Azure Dragons was also quite problematic. To kill them, special precautions are needed (see screenshot). Regarding battle specifics, I should note the usefulness of the Mage Ring throughout the entire run, as recasting several spells every 50 rounds—and every 100 rounds for Malekith—is a big difference on this map. Another distinctive feature of my specific run (choosing Tactics instead of Fire Magic in Malekith's last slot, which turned out to be the right choice) is that for a long time, Frenzy was unable to provide any benefit because the gap between our and enemy stats was huge, and in the midgame, it was impossible to overcome the minimum damage threshold even with buffs and Frenzy.
The tasks of month 4 boil down to visiting the island of trees, reaching level 88, breaking through static heroes or heroes on a radius, and specific final bosses: Gundula, Mephala, and Gird. At this stage, Malekith became capable of burning enemies, which was done to Sir Mullich, Sandro, and Mutare Drake. Gundula (level 868) was chosen as the first mega-boss in order. She is the only hero for whom I selected special terrain, as it's problematic to hold out even one round against her, and she flatly refused to enter a city. Next followed the battle with Mephala (level 108), which Malekith played through Faerie Dragons, who get a decent boost from his specialization. One detail prevented the battle from concluding for a long time: sooner or later, Mephala always threw Diamond Golems into the city, and this is her most problematic stack, as it not only cannot be broken physically but also has 95% ignore of magical attacks even under the Sphere of Vulnerability. The solution was to close off one side with remnants of vampires and the other two sides with force fields until the AI's mana was completely drained. The battle with Gird (level 3732) is easier for Malekith than the others, as she could be forced into a city, and Malekith's blade counters Gird's blade. We exhaust the titans' shots and Gird's mana, raise arch-devils, and chop everyone up. Lacus remained last in line, as he only gathers the required number of fire birds for exit on 5.1.1, and I didn't collect any birds myself. The only battle I assigned to Thorgrim was this fight with Lacus. Here again were swings with haste/slow, and I was already quite fed up with that, so Thorgrim came in very handy.
In conclusion, I can say that the map is undoubtedly of the highest class, but a number of points mentioned earlier prevent me from giving it a maximum score. Various Books of Air, free dragons, and berserkers should have been saved by the author for other versions, not Iron Man. Also, not all blue heroes fulfilled the author's intentions. Tazar went somewhere other than where he was supposed to, and Craig didn't leave his location at all, although he should have.
I recorded two battles for memory: with Sir Mullich and Mephala. I am attaching the map for convenience.