Jules Winnfield
Auto-translated
Map: "Picturesque Land" ("Picturesque Tien-Shan") BT《江山如画》
Author: Chen5262
General Impression
If I were to describe this map in just a few words, the first thing that comes to mind is tempo, tempo, and again tempo. As of now, this is the most time-consuming map for me; even xiedu was completed faster. I had to replay sections many times, especially at the beginning of the map, because I didn't use help from Chinese forums, only familiarized myself with a detailed overview by kolotok. The map reminds me of woxina's works—I think the author was inspired by them, using the same principles: an open world, computers running all over the map, freedom to choose your walkthrough strategy. A large number of difficult, grueling battles, logistics calculations—everything we "love" Chinese maps for is present here in abundance. No concessions from the author, like berserker, medal of vulnerability, or legions of Azure Dragons, fairy tales + КВ behind a column—you won't get that (greetings to the author of Jedy strike backs). On top of that, the author gives no army or artifact quests, except for 100 Snipers, which seems like outright mockery, because by the time we reach that seer, they are of no use. This makes the walkthrough harder, but the end result brings even more satisfaction, as beating such a "tough nut" takes a lot of mental effort and energy.
Walkthrough Tips
Speedrun, otherwise problems are simply inevitable. The main thing to focus on is getting Grail, as early as possible; this is the foundation of our victory. If you get the Grail after the wave-like spawns of enemy imba heroes begin (starting from day 331), the game will most likely drag on, and you might encounter the problems kolotok had during their playthrough (a huge number of roaming enemies with giant armies due to repeatedly visiting the troop event). The second important point is control of the citadel at point 58-56-1 with a tavern—our only castle with a tavern for almost the entire game. Near the castle there is a sanctuary where we can constantly keep a hero and retake the castle. The third point is the economy. The map has 3 Strongholds with treasuries; controlling them is also very important, because we need gold to buy stolen growths, hit & runs, plus it's a source of Elves whom Gelu will turn into Snipers. You also need to collect quest gold, which significantly boosts our treasuries. The fourth point is to steal the enemy's growth. A very important point, because the army growth is small, and we will constantly lack troops. For this purpose, in the mid-game we will have Dessa, and it's important to wisely use her specialty in logistics. The external dwellings of the main damage stacks must be bought every week (Arch Devils, Behemoths, Arch [Angels], Elves, Marksmen, Titans). The fifth point—try to trap enemies in castles; it's much easier to break through superior enemy forces this way, especially with Ayden who has 2-3k mana, or even more. The sixth point—hit & run is not cheating on this map, but a means of survival; don't hesitate to use it, I'm more than sure the author intended it that way. Especially when enemies start appearing with many shooters and dragons—either trap them in a castle, which isn't always quick to do, or remove the shooter stacks with hit & run, and then they are quite killable even in the open field.
About My Walkthrough
Beginning of the map.
For the walkthrough, I of course chose the BT variant (how else :D). We start with Alamar, who has Resurrection and Scholar in his skills, which creates the deceptive impression that the map won't cause many problems. As a starting artifact, you can take the +2 Attack hatchet, the +1 Attack and Defense ring, or the +1 Knowledge and Spell Power kneepads; these seemed like the best options to me. For leveling, it's important to get Advanced Earth Magic as soon as possible (to break through Efreets without losses) and Pathfinding (can be taken from a hut); Logistics can also be taken from a hut. In general, all heroes absolutely need Logistics and Pathfinding in their skills, because there is a lot of swamp terrain, snow, and sand. Intelligence is also very important, as in most Chinese maps. From the start, we run without looking back, breaking through everything we can by the skin of our teeth and capturing the external dwellings of Red Dragons—our main damage stack in the early game (important: they can be resurrected, so there's no need to upgrade them). We free Sephiroth from prison and kill the first enemies—Gunnar and Maleekita. Then there are several movement options: 1) the passage to the citadel with the tavern, and moving towards the Inferno castles in the north of the underground, 2) freeing Voy on the swamp lands with a Ship Summon and then getting Water Walk, and only then capturing the citadel with the tavern and proceeding to Inferno. I chose option 1. As it turned out, there is also a 3rd path, which I learned about after already finishing the map and watching how Chinese comrades played it—capturing the citadel and moving south to free Tazar. This path seemed unpromising to me because, in the early and mid-game, Ayden, whom we free in the Inferno lands, will be more profitable. But Chinese comrades don't look for easy paths :). On day 134, I captured the citadel. Then I broke through the Fairy Dragons guarding the prison with another hero—Saurug. With heroes bought in the tavern, we capture the surroundings. Our Dungeons that were at the start will soon be captured, so there's no need to build anything there; we'll take them back later. Our main task is to break through to the Inferno lands and capture the growth of Arch Devils—our main stack for roughly the first half of the map; there's no other way to break through enemies with high stats and armies, and also an even more important point—this is the stack with which we can get the Grail in the fastest way, it seemed to me. To get the Grail, we need to break through 4k Efreets. We can break them with shooters (Snipers or Lizardmen from Fortress castles), but again, this path seemed more time-consuming to implement, and tempo, as I noted earlier, is the most important thing. In the Inferno lands, I barely managed to beat the encountered heroes (the battles were quite tough, enemy stats were higher, and mana could be insufficient). I could only afford to lose the Fodder stacks; luckily, we have Resurrection. On day 213, I freed Ayden—our daddy for most of the game. After all, Intelligence as a specialty is a hidden imba, not all hero enthusiasts understand this. With Ayden, we level up on stat boosters and by beating encountered enemies. The goal is to pump up Ayden's Knowledge and Spell Power as much as possible to quickly break through the Efreets with Arch Devils. I also gave him Fire Magic in his skills; Expert Fire Resistance (again, to reduce fire damage from Efreets when breaking them with Arch Devils) and Frenzy (the stat difference is offset by Expert Frenzy) proved to be excellent aids in the walkthrough. The next task is to free Voy from prison and get Water Walk (days 221 and 226 respectively). Then we head west in the underground towards the prison with Tazar and the Barbarian lands. We free Tazar—our main hero in the late game, who spent most of the walkthrough leveling up in fights with neutrals and visiting stat boosters. Again, some Chinese players made Tazar the main hero from the start, and Ayden was more of a support; those who wish can try this walkthrough variant.
On day 237, Ayden with 40+ Arch Devils broke through 4k Efreets (there is a Force Field, the author gives it quite early, unlike in Season, for example) and got the long-awaited Grail, which all our heroes receive through Alamar's Scholar.
Mid-game.
Before the first strong enemies appear on day 331, I capture all citadels, Strongholds, and Necropolises of the underground, while killing roaming enemies (they don't cause us any particular problems, as was the case at the start of the game), and I start exploring the surface part of the map. This is the easiest stage of the walkthrough, a breather before the coming storm. I free Gelu (day 314) and gradually start churning out Snipers—one of our main damage stacks in the mid and endgame. By the time the first imba enemies appeared, I managed to capture the entire underground and started exploring the surface (captured 2 Flax, killed a strong Kilgor with 60+ Attack and Defense stats against my 30+ and 20+ using Ayden in a castle siege. Parts of the MoD were obtained in battles, the AoD was assembled, parts of the Titan's Thunder and even the Armor of the Alliance were obtained—important stat artifacts). The next task is to repel the enemies spawning in waves every week and free Dessa (our Leonardo DiCaprio from "Catch Me If You Can" :D). Most enemies have an Anti-Blindness Pendant (luckily, we have Hypnosis), and then medallions, so you shouldn't rely too much on Blindness, which we will retrain from Dessa. The first wave of enemies is the most numerous—4, then 2 each week, and this is on top of the enemies that have been and still are roaming freely around the map, dozens of them. From this, it's clear how important it is to get the Grail as quickly as possible. The toughest battles were against Necromancers—undead immune to Mind Magic, just lovely (no). On day 336, I free Dessa and steal the growth from the Angel castles in the south of the surface (Archangels and Marksmen whom we will convert into Snipers); without stealing growth, things would have dragged on immensely. It's important to break the Crystal Dragons (day 324) guarding the Horn of Plenty and get a bunch of experience for Ayden or Tazar, as well as the Rust Dragons guarding the Shackles, because enemies love to flee, and replaying many long battles multiple times isn't particularly appealing. The next task is to capture the snowy lands in the north of the surface—these are our Titans (I didn't need them, as I couldn't steal the Titans properly and managed without them), as well as breaking 4k Azure Dragons (day 416) guarding the Legion Statue and the Legion of Rust, Crystal, and Fairy Dragons (day 347) for the +2 Speed Cape. It's also important to capture the Azure Dragon dwellings and the quest pile of 1 million gold guarded by a Dragon. On day 422, Orrin was killed—a very important kill, because his head gives us access to the scholar with Clone and a Pandora's Box with 20 million experience for Tazar. The battle wasn't particularly difficult because, although he had 3 large shooting stacks, he had neither an Anti-Blindness Pendant nor a medallion; the main thing was to neutralize the Titans.
The Endgame of the Map.
We break the surface bosses, each of whom has parts of the Angel Alliance. First, Xeron was killed in a castle siege, then Gird in a castle defense (day 443), Alkin in a castle siege (day 445). All this time, in addition to the trigger heroes, we are pestered by previously killed heroes, because the computer has 3 castles with taverns in zones currently inaccessible to us and constantly rehires heroes, so we must constantly ensure they don't capture our castles and eat our growth. On day 512, Solmyr was killed in the field by Tazar (with Battle Frenzy; it only took 5 months for him to be needed :D :D :D). For killing these 3 heroes, we get access to 3 tents and 3 previously inaccessible castles with taverns, and importantly, it's preferable to capture them with Tazar, because there is a +5 stat event before the castles. By this time, all trigger heroes have also been killed. An important point: in the 2 central castles of the underground and surface that were previously inaccessible to us, taverns are being built, from which previously killed strong heroes emerge. These heroes receive troops from an event—1k Titans, 1k Arch Devils, 555 Crystal Dragons, and 666 Rust Dragons. It was precisely at this stage that kolotok encountered the problem where cheater heroes visited the troop events multiple times and gathered monstrous armies. I didn't face this problem; or rather, only once did Solmyr, whom I had killed earlier, visit the event twice, but after reloading the day, the computer rehired another hero, who didn't cheat :). These heroes don't pose particular problems; Tazar easily defeats them in the field (they don't have a medallion or pendant, so they can all be Blinded, except for Titans, who can be killed with brute force. While Tazar fights the rehired heroes, Dessa and Ayden, with a couple of hit & runs, eliminate the shooters of Gundula (the penultimate boss). On day 516, Tazar defeated Gundula. And finally, the megaboss—Mephala (screenshots comparing her to my Tazar are in the post above). With a bunch of hit & runs, I eliminate her shooter stacks, leave her without mana, and only then kill her with Tazar easily using Fly. Despite all this, 2.7k Snipers under Frenzy and Bless killed only about 50 Azure Dragons (that's Mephala at level 59, not even 88 or 100-108). For killing Mephala, we get the Angel Wings; using them, we capture the last castle and achieve the long-awaited victory on day 523. It's hard to single out just a few memorable battles; there were many, but the most difficulties were at the beginning and in breaking through the trigger Necromancers, as well as Eleshar with a huge amount of mana (I almost aged waiting for her mana to run out). And with Adria, it was significantly easier because I didn't wait for mana to deplete but killed her with brute force :). Mephala is like Nila from xiedu on steroids; thankfully, the author is not insane and understood that it's simply unrealistic to kill her in one go at such a stage.
Summary
A magnificent map—8.5 (9) out of 10, hardcore as it is. I recommend it to all fans of Chinese and other hardcore content. In terms of authenticity, it's certainly far from Season's works, but nevertheless, the map gave me a lot of positive emotions and suffering simultaneously. :) P.S. After a short rest, I plan to play through 6424 heroes; where would I be without it.
Author: Chen5262
General Impression
If I were to describe this map in just a few words, the first thing that comes to mind is tempo, tempo, and again tempo. As of now, this is the most time-consuming map for me; even xiedu was completed faster. I had to replay sections many times, especially at the beginning of the map, because I didn't use help from Chinese forums, only familiarized myself with a detailed overview by kolotok. The map reminds me of woxina's works—I think the author was inspired by them, using the same principles: an open world, computers running all over the map, freedom to choose your walkthrough strategy. A large number of difficult, grueling battles, logistics calculations—everything we "love" Chinese maps for is present here in abundance. No concessions from the author, like berserker, medal of vulnerability, or legions of Azure Dragons, fairy tales + КВ behind a column—you won't get that (greetings to the author of Jedy strike backs). On top of that, the author gives no army or artifact quests, except for 100 Snipers, which seems like outright mockery, because by the time we reach that seer, they are of no use. This makes the walkthrough harder, but the end result brings even more satisfaction, as beating such a "tough nut" takes a lot of mental effort and energy.
Walkthrough Tips
Speedrun, otherwise problems are simply inevitable. The main thing to focus on is getting Grail, as early as possible; this is the foundation of our victory. If you get the Grail after the wave-like spawns of enemy imba heroes begin (starting from day 331), the game will most likely drag on, and you might encounter the problems kolotok had during their playthrough (a huge number of roaming enemies with giant armies due to repeatedly visiting the troop event). The second important point is control of the citadel at point 58-56-1 with a tavern—our only castle with a tavern for almost the entire game. Near the castle there is a sanctuary where we can constantly keep a hero and retake the castle. The third point is the economy. The map has 3 Strongholds with treasuries; controlling them is also very important, because we need gold to buy stolen growths, hit & runs, plus it's a source of Elves whom Gelu will turn into Snipers. You also need to collect quest gold, which significantly boosts our treasuries. The fourth point is to steal the enemy's growth. A very important point, because the army growth is small, and we will constantly lack troops. For this purpose, in the mid-game we will have Dessa, and it's important to wisely use her specialty in logistics. The external dwellings of the main damage stacks must be bought every week (Arch Devils, Behemoths, Arch [Angels], Elves, Marksmen, Titans). The fifth point—try to trap enemies in castles; it's much easier to break through superior enemy forces this way, especially with Ayden who has 2-3k mana, or even more. The sixth point—hit & run is not cheating on this map, but a means of survival; don't hesitate to use it, I'm more than sure the author intended it that way. Especially when enemies start appearing with many shooters and dragons—either trap them in a castle, which isn't always quick to do, or remove the shooter stacks with hit & run, and then they are quite killable even in the open field.
About My Walkthrough
Beginning of the map.
For the walkthrough, I of course chose the BT variant (how else :D). We start with Alamar, who has Resurrection and Scholar in his skills, which creates the deceptive impression that the map won't cause many problems. As a starting artifact, you can take the +2 Attack hatchet, the +1 Attack and Defense ring, or the +1 Knowledge and Spell Power kneepads; these seemed like the best options to me. For leveling, it's important to get Advanced Earth Magic as soon as possible (to break through Efreets without losses) and Pathfinding (can be taken from a hut); Logistics can also be taken from a hut. In general, all heroes absolutely need Logistics and Pathfinding in their skills, because there is a lot of swamp terrain, snow, and sand. Intelligence is also very important, as in most Chinese maps. From the start, we run without looking back, breaking through everything we can by the skin of our teeth and capturing the external dwellings of Red Dragons—our main damage stack in the early game (important: they can be resurrected, so there's no need to upgrade them). We free Sephiroth from prison and kill the first enemies—Gunnar and Maleekita. Then there are several movement options: 1) the passage to the citadel with the tavern, and moving towards the Inferno castles in the north of the underground, 2) freeing Voy on the swamp lands with a Ship Summon and then getting Water Walk, and only then capturing the citadel with the tavern and proceeding to Inferno. I chose option 1. As it turned out, there is also a 3rd path, which I learned about after already finishing the map and watching how Chinese comrades played it—capturing the citadel and moving south to free Tazar. This path seemed unpromising to me because, in the early and mid-game, Ayden, whom we free in the Inferno lands, will be more profitable. But Chinese comrades don't look for easy paths :). On day 134, I captured the citadel. Then I broke through the Fairy Dragons guarding the prison with another hero—Saurug. With heroes bought in the tavern, we capture the surroundings. Our Dungeons that were at the start will soon be captured, so there's no need to build anything there; we'll take them back later. Our main task is to break through to the Inferno lands and capture the growth of Arch Devils—our main stack for roughly the first half of the map; there's no other way to break through enemies with high stats and armies, and also an even more important point—this is the stack with which we can get the Grail in the fastest way, it seemed to me. To get the Grail, we need to break through 4k Efreets. We can break them with shooters (Snipers or Lizardmen from Fortress castles), but again, this path seemed more time-consuming to implement, and tempo, as I noted earlier, is the most important thing. In the Inferno lands, I barely managed to beat the encountered heroes (the battles were quite tough, enemy stats were higher, and mana could be insufficient). I could only afford to lose the Fodder stacks; luckily, we have Resurrection. On day 213, I freed Ayden—our daddy for most of the game. After all, Intelligence as a specialty is a hidden imba, not all hero enthusiasts understand this. With Ayden, we level up on stat boosters and by beating encountered enemies. The goal is to pump up Ayden's Knowledge and Spell Power as much as possible to quickly break through the Efreets with Arch Devils. I also gave him Fire Magic in his skills; Expert Fire Resistance (again, to reduce fire damage from Efreets when breaking them with Arch Devils) and Frenzy (the stat difference is offset by Expert Frenzy) proved to be excellent aids in the walkthrough. The next task is to free Voy from prison and get Water Walk (days 221 and 226 respectively). Then we head west in the underground towards the prison with Tazar and the Barbarian lands. We free Tazar—our main hero in the late game, who spent most of the walkthrough leveling up in fights with neutrals and visiting stat boosters. Again, some Chinese players made Tazar the main hero from the start, and Ayden was more of a support; those who wish can try this walkthrough variant.
On day 237, Ayden with 40+ Arch Devils broke through 4k Efreets (there is a Force Field, the author gives it quite early, unlike in Season, for example) and got the long-awaited Grail, which all our heroes receive through Alamar's Scholar.
Mid-game.
Before the first strong enemies appear on day 331, I capture all citadels, Strongholds, and Necropolises of the underground, while killing roaming enemies (they don't cause us any particular problems, as was the case at the start of the game), and I start exploring the surface part of the map. This is the easiest stage of the walkthrough, a breather before the coming storm. I free Gelu (day 314) and gradually start churning out Snipers—one of our main damage stacks in the mid and endgame. By the time the first imba enemies appeared, I managed to capture the entire underground and started exploring the surface (captured 2 Flax, killed a strong Kilgor with 60+ Attack and Defense stats against my 30+ and 20+ using Ayden in a castle siege. Parts of the MoD were obtained in battles, the AoD was assembled, parts of the Titan's Thunder and even the Armor of the Alliance were obtained—important stat artifacts). The next task is to repel the enemies spawning in waves every week and free Dessa (our Leonardo DiCaprio from "Catch Me If You Can" :D). Most enemies have an Anti-Blindness Pendant (luckily, we have Hypnosis), and then medallions, so you shouldn't rely too much on Blindness, which we will retrain from Dessa. The first wave of enemies is the most numerous—4, then 2 each week, and this is on top of the enemies that have been and still are roaming freely around the map, dozens of them. From this, it's clear how important it is to get the Grail as quickly as possible. The toughest battles were against Necromancers—undead immune to Mind Magic, just lovely (no). On day 336, I free Dessa and steal the growth from the Angel castles in the south of the surface (Archangels and Marksmen whom we will convert into Snipers); without stealing growth, things would have dragged on immensely. It's important to break the Crystal Dragons (day 324) guarding the Horn of Plenty and get a bunch of experience for Ayden or Tazar, as well as the Rust Dragons guarding the Shackles, because enemies love to flee, and replaying many long battles multiple times isn't particularly appealing. The next task is to capture the snowy lands in the north of the surface—these are our Titans (I didn't need them, as I couldn't steal the Titans properly and managed without them), as well as breaking 4k Azure Dragons (day 416) guarding the Legion Statue and the Legion of Rust, Crystal, and Fairy Dragons (day 347) for the +2 Speed Cape. It's also important to capture the Azure Dragon dwellings and the quest pile of 1 million gold guarded by a Dragon. On day 422, Orrin was killed—a very important kill, because his head gives us access to the scholar with Clone and a Pandora's Box with 20 million experience for Tazar. The battle wasn't particularly difficult because, although he had 3 large shooting stacks, he had neither an Anti-Blindness Pendant nor a medallion; the main thing was to neutralize the Titans.
The Endgame of the Map.
We break the surface bosses, each of whom has parts of the Angel Alliance. First, Xeron was killed in a castle siege, then Gird in a castle defense (day 443), Alkin in a castle siege (day 445). All this time, in addition to the trigger heroes, we are pestered by previously killed heroes, because the computer has 3 castles with taverns in zones currently inaccessible to us and constantly rehires heroes, so we must constantly ensure they don't capture our castles and eat our growth. On day 512, Solmyr was killed in the field by Tazar (with Battle Frenzy; it only took 5 months for him to be needed :D :D :D). For killing these 3 heroes, we get access to 3 tents and 3 previously inaccessible castles with taverns, and importantly, it's preferable to capture them with Tazar, because there is a +5 stat event before the castles. By this time, all trigger heroes have also been killed. An important point: in the 2 central castles of the underground and surface that were previously inaccessible to us, taverns are being built, from which previously killed strong heroes emerge. These heroes receive troops from an event—1k Titans, 1k Arch Devils, 555 Crystal Dragons, and 666 Rust Dragons. It was precisely at this stage that kolotok encountered the problem where cheater heroes visited the troop events multiple times and gathered monstrous armies. I didn't face this problem; or rather, only once did Solmyr, whom I had killed earlier, visit the event twice, but after reloading the day, the computer rehired another hero, who didn't cheat :). These heroes don't pose particular problems; Tazar easily defeats them in the field (they don't have a medallion or pendant, so they can all be Blinded, except for Titans, who can be killed with brute force. While Tazar fights the rehired heroes, Dessa and Ayden, with a couple of hit & runs, eliminate the shooters of Gundula (the penultimate boss). On day 516, Tazar defeated Gundula. And finally, the megaboss—Mephala (screenshots comparing her to my Tazar are in the post above). With a bunch of hit & runs, I eliminate her shooter stacks, leave her without mana, and only then kill her with Tazar easily using Fly. Despite all this, 2.7k Snipers under Frenzy and Bless killed only about 50 Azure Dragons (that's Mephala at level 59, not even 88 or 100-108). For killing Mephala, we get the Angel Wings; using them, we capture the last castle and achieve the long-awaited victory on day 523. It's hard to single out just a few memorable battles; there were many, but the most difficulties were at the beginning and in breaking through the trigger Necromancers, as well as Eleshar with a huge amount of mana (I almost aged waiting for her mana to run out). And with Adria, it was significantly easier because I didn't wait for mana to deplete but killed her with brute force :). Mephala is like Nila from xiedu on steroids; thankfully, the author is not insane and understood that it's simply unrealistic to kill her in one go at such a stage.
Summary
A magnificent map—8.5 (9) out of 10, hardcore as it is. I recommend it to all fans of Chinese and other hardcore content. In terms of authenticity, it's certainly far from Season's works, but nevertheless, the map gave me a lot of positive emotions and suffering simultaneously. :) P.S. After a short rest, I plan to play through 6424 heroes; where would I be without it.