Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Map: Leon's Redemption

Author: Barbuta [spoiler=in case of author monitoring this topic] I will write english version of review on maps4heroes a little bit later[/spoiler]

Version: 1.4 (on maps4heroes the author recently uploaded 1.5)

A few introductory words 

A map with huge potential and quite diverse content. In terms of difficulty, it's almost perfectly suited for players who have completed the "amateur starter pack" - Paragon, UtB, ViM, Way Home and want to try something slightly harder, rather than start sweating on well-known hardcore maps. Veterans are unlikely to discover anything new here, but the map is made very high quality indeed, so in my opinion even seasoned players can enjoy the walkthrough. However, there are nuances. Personally, I would have been glad to have read about them, at least in general terms, in this topic before starting my playthrough, so I decided to break my read-only mode of viewing the topic and write this for posterity 🙂 

Clear advantages of the map

• Excellent geography and terrain design
• Well-developed storyline
• Most battles are well-balanced (more on the combat part below)
• Excellent choice of main stack
• You'll have to solve several interesting puzzles 
• There is virtually no casino gameplay like "six genies and a stack of titans". [spoiler=The reason is very simple] there will be only 5 genies 🙃[/spoiler]
• A recognizable authorial style is felt throughout the entire walkthrough

Nuances of the map

• The story, although developed, is not particularly deep, and the delivery is lacking. I personally got tired of reading the spiel about Zenthino and Wizardino 100500 times in different events.
• There are almost no replaced objects, but their appearance is confusing.
• Some battles are simply awful
• In certain areas, the map looks as if the author simply ran out of ideas, so they look a bit bland compared to other areas
• A recognizable authorial style is felt throughout the entire walkthrough

Combat component

For the first half of the map, battles are moderately interesting and not very difficult quests for no-loss fights. Questions like "where to fight" and "how to fight with my current army composition" rarely arise. If they do, you've probably missed something (I twice missed the modified garrison with reinforcements and a spell book hidden right under my nose). If you're sure you haven't missed anything, then a question like "Barbuta, do you really want to make me do

this?"

for example, kiting Black Fiona's entire army with 80 snipers during a siege, casting haste, slow, and forgetfulness, having a limited mana pool and spell power around 6

pops into your head almost immediately and is the sought-after answer. In the second half of the map, there are no revelations, only occasional use of siege mechanics with elementals.

Moreover, most battles don't depend on randomness and are generally easy to replicate if you understand the idea of the fight, which in turn is not too hard to grasp. As an example, you can analyze the fights with

ShockContent

You have 210 snipers, and the enemy has much higher stats, a powerful army with about a thousand magic elementals and a cloak of retribution? Great, so you at least need a cart. Hmm, why does the enemy have two stacks of 10 champions? Ah, to lead them to the right spot, cast blindness, barricade yourself from the rest of the army and shoot it down

and with  

Destruction

The enemy has a large army of two-hex units? I'll hide behind the force field. Oh, does it have a red orb? That means the fight should be fought on special terrain with harpies, which the author specifically hinted at.

.  

They won't let you abuse clone+archangels, there's only one authorial fight for berserker (though it can be completed without it), you'll have to run without resurrection for the first third of the game; they also don't let you use AoE skills to break the catapult 🙃 - so the overall range of battles is quite diverse and varied in the mid and late game stages (my solutions absolutely did not match the author's), which can't help but please. (though subjectively there are many fights based on the "figure out how to blind everyone" -> "blind them" -> "raise all the hobbits and shoot them with a sling" tactic).

However, some battles are terribly, maddeningly annoying - from the very start it's clear what and how to do, but the execution is either RNG-dependent or quite tedious. It would seem, fight it once and forget it, but remember? Because of the recognizable authorial style, some fights will have to be replayed many, many times. From what stuck in my memory:

• 1 sniper and 1 dog against 15 upgraded dwarves with no magic.
  Title

  WHAT PREVENTS THE AUTHOR FROM PUTTING CURSED GROUND UNDER THE DWARVES TO REMOVE MORALE? Answer: the recognizable authorial style.
  
  Actually, after the section with the dog, any player will simply hate this unit, oh well.
  
• The fight for the external dwelling of pegasi (from memory, 170 snipers against 1000 upgraded pegasi). What prevents the author from making the pegasi unupgraded so that you can consistently budget your mana?
  Answer:

  the recognizable authorial style.
• About 5 similar long fights on cursed ground.
  Actually,

  it's not all that bad here, just monotonous. I suspect the author doesn't realize that if you shield your ranged stack with singles and kite with a more valuable stack, snakes will never fly at the ranged troops
   
• The finale will definitely leave no one indifferent

Also, in two battles I encountered a wtf moment, please veterans comment in the topic:

• The fight against Zenthino. Why don't the dragons fly out at the archangels when the titans have no shots left? You can watch
  here
  
  
  
• In the finale, I received messages about the inability to cast clone, supposedly due to 20 units on the battlefield (the game incorrectly handles clones that expired due to a timeout)? I haven't heard of this bug before.

 

Logistics

Where to go and what to do is generally always clear, the geography is easy to remember, which is a definite plus. There are a few simple logistical puzzles:

• Zenthino and obtaining the grail. Two single fairies next to a bunch of oases hint unambiguously
• "Towing" boats from Wizardino.
  Solution

  I heard a long time ago about arrow keys and boats, plus the author hinted at it, so the puzzle wasn't a revelation
• Getting the last part of the AotD
  Solution

  Jumping into a town by pressing space when you have wings is a well-known trick
• Getting the hands of legion. This one even impressed me.
  Solution

  I hadn't heard about moving through underground voids using arrow keys
• Getting the head of legion. Here it became interesting how this is implemented at the editor level.
  Solution

  The head needs to be dug up and then picked up; it will appear in place of the pit

You don't need to rush headlong at all costs, but you shouldn't linger either. The author has set timings, but they are quite forgiving and easy to meet, perhaps except for the first one - you simply physically cannot get there much earlier.

Recognizable authorial style

Let's finally talk about the little details. The author constantly flirts with you on the edge, and sometimes even over the edge. If you don't study the map in the editor (maybe that won't even help), you'll have to replay often. No, not like that. Often. Sometimes you'll realize almost immediately what you did wrong. Sometimes - after a month. Sometimes - even longer. All this is seasoned with very specific authorial humor.

ha-ha

The first time you see this ha-ha, you might even laugh. But the fifth time, you want to find the author and look him in the eye. [spoiler=for those interested but don't want to play]ha-ha is an inscription made of mage hut eyes, visiting which turns the game into a slideshow for several minutes. The kicker is that you might potentially have to watch this ha-ha for another 10 minutes at the end to get the explosion, but I managed without it[/spoiler]

 

Despite the fact that the author gives hints, in some places the author outright fuck.. dissembles. For example, John Dastr must not only open the pillar and die (actually he can just open the pillar and die, but then the finale becomes a spectacle for the truly strong of nerve). You cannot lose two peasants (okay, you actually can - only it won't be those 2 peasants you first think of. Or rather, the second peasant-cannon fodder will be a bit later). 

What burned me most was the author's advice about the exiled quest at the very beginning. The author writes that the Exiled girl must sink the boat in the shadow, but of course I sank the boat in the wrong shadow, which I found out about 8 months of game time later. 

Overall, credit where credit is due - they skillfully prepare you for replays from day one:

• Jumped into a boat with two heroes? Load, because the event prevents disembarkation
• During the first Wizardino fight, you thought you could sweat a bit and save mana, but it seems to be just barely enough, so that's the author's intent? Load, because the author's intent was to deceive you
• Played Dastr's squire fight wrong? Load
• Got out of the boat without digging the pit? Load
• After a month of waiting, find out that one pit wasn't enough? Load, because you need to dig two more, and to not lose pace, you have to roll back a week.
• See a strange extra boat and think, hmm, can I do something with it so Crag Hack doesn't get in it? Well, probably not. Or rather, I can sail Wizardino across the entire map to have him steal it, but the author probably didn't intend that, so it's fine. Load, because that's exactly what the author intended.
• See another extra boat and think, hmm, but would the author stoop to such a dirty trick a second time? I don't believe it. Load, because a month and a half later, someone will reach this boat via an unexpected path.
• Loaded last time, replayed the whole segment to have Wizardino also move the second boat? Load again if you placed the boats incorrectly, because otherwise there isn't enough room on the shore! 
• Do I need to remind you about ha-ha?

After about 4 months of game time, you start getting used to replays and treat them as part of the gameplay 🙃 Halfway through the map, it seems like you're being given a break, but no, an incredibly tedious segment begins (capturing necro castles). Had a dull 15-minute fight against Dastr? Here's a random fight against azure dragons so you don't get complacent! Move on, and there's a fight against 2k azure dragons and one hex for a stack of 100 archdevils? [spoiler=yes, I beat it with archangels by disabling the original randomness]this was the first time I genuinely got angry.[/spoiler] 
 
Dealt with that, but then you see a pillar asking for Wizardino? Oh well, you'll just replay the previous fights! Gritting your teeth, you kill those 2k dragons, open the pillar and see what? That's right, a pillar for units you didn't bring!  The prospect of killing 2k azure dragons for the third time stirred up such intense emotions in me that it even made me look at the author's solution, which was in the author's spirit - amusing in its own way (I could have figured it out myself, but my brain wasn't working anymore). 

And this, while the most vivid, is only part of the description of the authorial style. Some people might even like this 🙃

Conclusion

Despite the previous section, I really liked the map, I would rate it 8.5-9/10 and will be happy to wait for the next installment of Barbitullon.

Here is a list of my suggestions for the author:

• I didn't understand if the author intended for the huge amount of money in the sea to be picked up, but I picked it up. There's nothing to spend it on; at the end I was trading crystals and giving them to the computer so its heroes would open their pillars faster
• If you place a one-time barrier of a legion of azure dragons, make the stacks as large as possible - some computer heroes are not afraid of such barriers and kill them, resetting their level, which breaks the author's intent (I killed Firelinda very easily this way; this behavior was also observed with Destruction)
• Increase the growth of harpies, some battles are very slow even using the q button
• Rethink Cursed Randy. If you don't release him to get the bonus with original Leon, he doesn't gain experience and is easily killed by upgraded Leon with one hit, and this doesn't affect the walkthrough at all, and even spoils the story in one place. (Zenthino says Randy killed the prince of Baradia, but I never let Randy out of his cage)
• Rethink the fights for hell against Huhlop, Belzebub, and Reciful - the fights are completed almost identically.
• The fight with Drongo is far too simple
• Rethink the final part of the map - getting the explosion and water elementals is not necessary for clearing, nor is breaking through the last mage town and taking the azure dragon external dwelling
• Almost all White Knights can be strengthened: Pain is dealt with by resurrecting archangels in a chain, Spectral Rage is no match at all, nor is Suffering (a wasted Meffala level 6424 =(), Annihilation could be given a spell book.
• Make Death's dragon stack less massive, otherwise the finale lasting 1500+ rounds is truly killing