Battle of the Celestial Gates

In February 2014, to be exact.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad that at least someone liked it.

Come on, I liked it too! There was just a slight mismatch between expectation and reality – well... I had a slightly different idea of what a Castle would be like. And 7 heroes is unusual.
I already wrote about my first impression, I started playing it today (I had to work before that).
I'll write when I finish, it will be soon (without false modesty, I can say that I know how to carry the game with a hero, especially such an overpowered one as The Hir).
I already know about the Prophet, I'm saving up wood and sulfur xD. I won't build Dwellings, I noticed a lot of Fortresses on the horizon, one is guarded by Arcata Warriors, they will be easily defeated by Chaos. I read the reviews, I think I'll level up Zehir and Findan, I'll use them to clear everything and defend against enemies, the rest are "minor heroes".

In theory, it shouldn't be difficult to create a Walkthrough, we can defeat any army (thankfully, if I get lost, Remix has a lot of guides).

Added 4 minutes ago

If the map was isolated from everything, then yes. But it is integrated into a specific plot, and in the plot, all these heroes are the main ones. I can't just take and remove a hero ("Hey, Faidaen, you're useless, go away").

It was quite possible to add a plot twist like "Findan went to Irollan for reinforcements..." Or just give control of some heroes to the computer.

Added 23 hours 48 minutes ago
I finished the playthrough with the hero.
I mainly played with Zehir, using Chaos and Summoning, although I didn't have much luck with artifacts, but I still got the necessary ones. In the second week, I captured a Fortress on a hill with Arcata Warriors, upgraded the Golems to yellow, and then everything went smoothly: Golems defend, I bombard the enemy with Chaos, then I attack myself (:)). The Mentor was heavily guarded, so I played with useless Summoning for a while.
At the same time, I gave as many Archers as possible to Findan, he cleared everything he could on the right. I leveled up Findan as a Warrior with Light + luck. I used the others to scout, but not beyond the outer fortifications.
Somewhere in the 2nd-3rd week, the computer unexpectedly captured one of the garrisons, I rushed to recapture it.
In the first month, I killed neutrals... Sometimes, yellow demons suddenly captured garrisons, although I didn't see how they got there. In general, I developed. The same happened in the second month, I periodically defended against tough opponents, barely killed Shadowear and a tough Deleb, who was doing some kind of weird thing (maybe slightly reduce the number of computer opponents?). I tried to control outposts with GG-s, alternately ran to capture Dwellings and kill mobs, but there weren't enough heroes, so I quickly leveled up Railag as a Warrior... with a human army, I don't want to go to the Dungeon). Reinforcements could not break through, I didn't realize that I needed to attack the outer outposts xD

Another hero appeared... well, at least a leveled-up one, although not as much as I would like, but at least with an army!)

In short, Zehir defeated everyone! Neutrals were defeated with a single stack of 92 fire elementals, the computer also ate them and finished them off with a spell. I had to reload many times due to problems with logistics (either Shadowear in the climate control was defeating Zehir and Findan, or I ran past, or the outpost was captured...).

Marbas and other opponents, who cannot be approached and do not move themselves, and Nimue with a huge army (tons of dogs) confused me. Here is a screenshot:


So as not to spoil the game completely, I will only say that it is very tedious (many reloads) to defend against these tough demons, especially Ir-Kha-...Br-br-br and Istilktiya :). I used the following tactics: when I killed the mobs and alternately leveled up the main GG-s at the Mentor (we teach mentoring, give experience, reset - I barely had enough gold), I stood at the edges of the city at the outer outposts with Zehir and Findan, and Railag defended the garrisons of the second line (yellow demons didn't cause any problems, because, after standing in place for 5 turns, they disappeared...). Autosave is on, so I always have the opportunity to change the direction of movement. I repeat: IMHO, reduce the army size.

I'm tired of writing the report, I liked the ending, if I wrote it not very coherently - mille pardon, I'm already tired!

Thanks for the map!

Added 8 minutes ago
I forgot to say: A terrible violation of traditions!!! Arantir opened his mouth in the cartoon... The world split in half!