bolotnik
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some feedback on this wonderful map (a full review will follow after I complete the Walkthrough):The Lone KnightLink: http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=The+Lone+Knight&type=&size=&difficulty=&sort=3
Author: Hans C.
A very good and challenging RPG-style map.
The Lone Knight
( https://heroesportal.net/maps/view/1341 )
I took on this wonderful map and decided to start with Conflux, without using a map editor, without looking at other Walkthroughs, etc.
The main heroes were:
Ciel (arrived at the tavern from the start): Wisdom, 4 Elements, Magic, Intelligence, Logistics
Adela (starting hero): Logistics, Armor, Archery, Wisdom, 4 Elements
Supported by Xeron (Devil specialist; after defeating him, he was actively used to clear out minor forces) and Boragus (arrived at the tavern and was hired after his defeat; he fought a very important battle thanks to Tactics and Ballistics) and Lord Elementalist (Logistics + Pathfinding + Navigation + Teleport + Literacy is ideal)
Beginning: everything went quite normally for Adela and Ciel thanks to the group of Fairies and magic, and later the birds; they cleared everything at the starting spawn. There's no point in describing it in detail; the Hat was obtained quite easily and quickly, I reached the sea, captured the nearest town with the green portal, then captured all the island towns and freed the Elementalist.
In the end, I had 4 fully built towns and two powerful mages.
After taking to the water, I went after the enemies: first Inferno, then Necropolis, and then the underground... I killed the guardians on the water, obtained their artifacts, and visited Utopia around the same time...
Literally just before I arrived on the water, only the Necromancer emerged; the others didn't manage to get out in time.
Here I lost significant momentum and time (I should have attacked the Necropolis and Inferno in parallel, but I ended up doing it sequentially).
I didn't trade the Mana Talisman at my spawn for Clone (turned out to be the right move, as the Conflux Elementalist is a Water specialist and I relearned the Clone spell from him).
However, I managed to trade the Mana Talisman at the Dungeon spawn for Armageddon, which made the subsequent game much easier up to a certain point.
Elementalists: I freed the remaining 3 myself, as the AI didn't reach them (they didn't make it in time, but I later had to spend gold to dig up the AI's starting heroes).
Ignissa on the water: I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches with her; I freed her using the Cult (unlocked the guardian quest, left, the Cult arrived and sailed) and then Ignissa went to towns and battles via TP.
In the end, the result was: Ciel, a most powerful mage, and with spheres for Earth and Fire magic; she mostly ran purely with Phoenixes (only taking main armies for 1-3 battles).
Adela, with the rest of the Conflux army, dealt with the auxiliary enemies.
The best part: the invasion of the AI (Blue, Green, and Red) began.
I was pleased that the map isn't entirely static, as enemies with quite formidable armies arrive at our spawns, so the combo of one hero at sea and a second on land ready to repel an attack worked perfectly; the harmless ones were repelled by the Elementalists, Boragus (after his defeat), and Xeron.
There are simply no difficult battles thanks to full magic and tons of mana, but there were a few tricky battles where I had to act unconventionally, though again, mostly Ciel with Phoenixes.
The exception was the battle with Kilgor: I fought him with Boragus, taking Magogs and a group of Vampires; in the end, losses amounted to 100 shooters.
(Otherwise, especially without Tactics, it would have been very difficult and required serious maneuvering).
Among such unpleasant battles, the fight with Tazar stands out, who proved impossible to defeat in the open field without a Pyrrhic victory and losing an unbelievable number of troops due to the nature of Elementals.
A brilliant plan was devised, which also took a significant amount of time: I had to lure Tazar so that he would attack Ciel and her Phoenixes during a castle siege; in the end, after Armageddon, all ground troops were trapped behind the walls and the enemy was defeated without losses.
I simply ignored the author's intent to accumulate Wizards and Snipers; I don't collect or use them (perhaps the game will punish me for this).
Dragons (Azure and others) are also not bought or accumulated.
I'm progressing without tricks, wiping out almost everything with Phoenixes.
Another exception was Zubin, but he was also beaten very easily with small losses, as I pitted the only resurrectable and combat-capable Conflux unit against him — the Phoenixes.
Anti-magic garrisons are beaten by Adela using AoTD and the full army of Elementals.
Thus, on 6-1-1, I arrived at Torgrim's castle; this is where I felt the difficulty and interest: how to break his army with only 301 Phoenixes and 3k mana with all spells, or if I need to bring more from Otjor and more "meat" for a successful breakthrough...
For a mage hero, a Resistance specialist is the most undesirable and unpleasant opponent, as practically no spells go through (Blindness works once every three tries, all mass spells hit 1-2 stacks or no one at all).
In conclusion: an interesting map, original battles, decent logistics, art, appropriate events and hide-and-seek, moderate text with useful information, but the map is semi-static, as enemies have the ability to invade, yet most of them are locked away and closed off, waiting for our arrival. I assume that either after Torgrim it will be significantly easier (no magic resistance), or, judging by the description, there will be a Vulnerability sphere, or it will be unbearable hardship, but we'll see. The map is definitely worth it and will be completed....
Now for some screenshots:
The first — the battle with Tazar in the open field, replayed from a save, until the second battle where he was defending the castle and was defeated without losses, after which I continued the game.
Right now, on 6-1-1, I'm struggling to breach Torgrim's bastion...