vasik
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No, staying put won't work; you could actually lose that way.
At the moment Red appeared, he had a pretty large army (hundreds of dogs, dozens of vamps, a decent amount of skeletons, and later another group of goblins was added). If he hadn't been chasing Yellow, he could have caused some serious trouble, considering that the Mage's city is just in the way, some spots are impossible to escape from, and the Mage himself needs guarding because he is uncontrolled and unlikely to flee back to his own city. There is also no portal to the city, meaning you have to haul the entire army from the cities to fight back.
You need to level up the Knight for full combat, and the Elf, who has two difficult locations (the Elf city in the counterattack is far away, Necromancers are roaming there before the hero arrives, and neutrals will simply wipe out an unleveled Elf on the way—he simply won't reach the city), and if you know about the fire army, it's even worse there.
Regarding the Barbarian, I didn't level his scouting (combat-tactics-order-life-nature); there's no point in it, since he already has map movement, and with the tactics slot, he'd be under-magical. Of course, if I had known how many altars were where further on, I would have put fewer level-ups into scouting for the Thief and more into chaos or combat; almost all scouting altars went to waste, much like the tactics altars in the Knight and Elf campaigns.
The Mage would have struggled for a long time not because of the messages, but because he is weak. He has combat 4, some order magic 3, and couldn't even handle 700 bandits guarding. The troops in the Castle—nagas, titans—are slow, and they still need to be built, and you have to wait for reasonable growth and so on; 2 dragon golems is only 2. Every battle would be a problem, with losses and all that, plus waiting for growth. But I visited the Knight, leveled up, bought what was missing, and then returned home with him—a quick passage of monsters without much trouble)
As for what comes next
The Necromancer scenario—basically, by analogy with other Necromancer scenarios, tactics/vampires, cleaning up one by one. I maxed out the tactician (even though it said their paths would diverge later), there were plenty of extra death altars left, so I maxed out the vampire too; all crystals went to him, as before. I even had to run away from Yellow to take the crystals before defeating him, as well as visit his castle, since both heroes leveled up magic in this scenario. Basically, the Mire and that's it.
Next, the Chaos Druid scenario. At first, boots, 7 efreets, and a bit of magic. It would have been very sad without the efreets, but they are there, so while not without effort, I cleared the starting location and altars. Obviously, losing efreets is not an option. We only build griffins (though they didn't come in handy, despite my hopes), I also built elves for castle defense (found a little wood; I didn't notice the external tiger dwell in time, but it doesn't matter). We level nature; in spells, I took griffins and, I think, owls.
The guards on the path to the Chaos caster—titans and djinns—made it clear we didn't belong here. I cleared the terrain and went to take down the Knight. The lower castle—no problem. After taking the lower city and something nearby, nature 4 leveled up; I retreated home without efreets from some neutrals, then reunited. Problems with gold; I bought 1 nectar and almost regretted that it was so little.
The second city—tacticians, catapults, monks, ballistas in the castle, very nasty. Tried to zero them out, didn't really work. From one life castle to another it's relatively far, about 4-5 moves; knocking out 1 catapult at a time isn't great. I bought mage potions at the forge on the map, took summoned wolves and efreets, and decided to take the city. Almost regretted drinking only 1 mage potion before the battle. It took about 10 tries to take the city; the first lightning strike took out the tactician, then it seems a miss on the catapult, while the troops defended. When the efreets ran out, I summoned griffins; no catapults were left, and the griffins stayed in defense until the monks ran out of ammo, while the hero gulped mana potions without nectar and with almost no hp, just so the griffins wouldn't run out.
Ammo ran out, the griffins went to bash the ballistas, and that's how I won. No efreets left, but they aren't needed anymore; champions are taking their place. A decent amount (around 20) accumulated relatively quickly while I cleared the terrain, then I went underground—after all, titans and djinns are not a passage.
Underground, I came across the Mage's city, took it, and heavily leveled order (buying 4 skills in total, not counting charm), ultimately reaching the 3rd level. A portal was also found.
I wanted to go home for new champions, but plans changed abruptly—the Chaos caster approached the nightmare dwell, knocked out the guard, and there were 2 chaos altars. I had to load a save from a couple of days earlier and go hit the devils—the guards of the passage from the Order caster to the Chaos casters. He did break through the guard, but I arrived in time; he fled and the altars went to me. Then clearing the cities, we leave him one with a garrison of dragons, level nature 5 (magic dragons), order, combat, life. But something didn't work with the leveling; it seems he ended up with chaos 3 and without 4 spells.
With a difficult battle and full buffs, I defeated the dragons, lured the army out of the city, entered the city using spells and 3 attacks, and finished off the remains.
Next, back to the Elf-Archmage. For now, he can't defeat 1500 ghosts—there is hypnosis, but no crown, no general slow, so the spearmen will go first, then the Necromancers.
Added after 14 minutes
Regarding the messages, in the Knight and Elf mission, the Mage asked for the Amulet of Fear, but it was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the enemies have it, but I didn't look at what I took from Yellow, and it was almost right before the finish
At the moment Red appeared, he had a pretty large army (hundreds of dogs, dozens of vamps, a decent amount of skeletons, and later another group of goblins was added). If he hadn't been chasing Yellow, he could have caused some serious trouble, considering that the Mage's city is just in the way, some spots are impossible to escape from, and the Mage himself needs guarding because he is uncontrolled and unlikely to flee back to his own city. There is also no portal to the city, meaning you have to haul the entire army from the cities to fight back.
You need to level up the Knight for full combat, and the Elf, who has two difficult locations (the Elf city in the counterattack is far away, Necromancers are roaming there before the hero arrives, and neutrals will simply wipe out an unleveled Elf on the way—he simply won't reach the city), and if you know about the fire army, it's even worse there.
Regarding the Barbarian, I didn't level his scouting (combat-tactics-order-life-nature); there's no point in it, since he already has map movement, and with the tactics slot, he'd be under-magical. Of course, if I had known how many altars were where further on, I would have put fewer level-ups into scouting for the Thief and more into chaos or combat; almost all scouting altars went to waste, much like the tactics altars in the Knight and Elf campaigns.
The Mage would have struggled for a long time not because of the messages, but because he is weak. He has combat 4, some order magic 3, and couldn't even handle 700 bandits guarding. The troops in the Castle—nagas, titans—are slow, and they still need to be built, and you have to wait for reasonable growth and so on; 2 dragon golems is only 2. Every battle would be a problem, with losses and all that, plus waiting for growth. But I visited the Knight, leveled up, bought what was missing, and then returned home with him—a quick passage of monsters without much trouble)
As for what comes next
The Necromancer scenario—basically, by analogy with other Necromancer scenarios, tactics/vampires, cleaning up one by one. I maxed out the tactician (even though it said their paths would diverge later), there were plenty of extra death altars left, so I maxed out the vampire too; all crystals went to him, as before. I even had to run away from Yellow to take the crystals before defeating him, as well as visit his castle, since both heroes leveled up magic in this scenario. Basically, the Mire and that's it.
Next, the Chaos Druid scenario. At first, boots, 7 efreets, and a bit of magic. It would have been very sad without the efreets, but they are there, so while not without effort, I cleared the starting location and altars. Obviously, losing efreets is not an option. We only build griffins (though they didn't come in handy, despite my hopes), I also built elves for castle defense (found a little wood; I didn't notice the external tiger dwell in time, but it doesn't matter). We level nature; in spells, I took griffins and, I think, owls.
The guards on the path to the Chaos caster—titans and djinns—made it clear we didn't belong here. I cleared the terrain and went to take down the Knight. The lower castle—no problem. After taking the lower city and something nearby, nature 4 leveled up; I retreated home without efreets from some neutrals, then reunited. Problems with gold; I bought 1 nectar and almost regretted that it was so little.
The second city—tacticians, catapults, monks, ballistas in the castle, very nasty. Tried to zero them out, didn't really work. From one life castle to another it's relatively far, about 4-5 moves; knocking out 1 catapult at a time isn't great. I bought mage potions at the forge on the map, took summoned wolves and efreets, and decided to take the city. Almost regretted drinking only 1 mage potion before the battle. It took about 10 tries to take the city; the first lightning strike took out the tactician, then it seems a miss on the catapult, while the troops defended. When the efreets ran out, I summoned griffins; no catapults were left, and the griffins stayed in defense until the monks ran out of ammo, while the hero gulped mana potions without nectar and with almost no hp, just so the griffins wouldn't run out.
Ammo ran out, the griffins went to bash the ballistas, and that's how I won. No efreets left, but they aren't needed anymore; champions are taking their place. A decent amount (around 20) accumulated relatively quickly while I cleared the terrain, then I went underground—after all, titans and djinns are not a passage.
Underground, I came across the Mage's city, took it, and heavily leveled order (buying 4 skills in total, not counting charm), ultimately reaching the 3rd level. A portal was also found.
I wanted to go home for new champions, but plans changed abruptly—the Chaos caster approached the nightmare dwell, knocked out the guard, and there were 2 chaos altars. I had to load a save from a couple of days earlier and go hit the devils—the guards of the passage from the Order caster to the Chaos casters. He did break through the guard, but I arrived in time; he fled and the altars went to me. Then clearing the cities, we leave him one with a garrison of dragons, level nature 5 (magic dragons), order, combat, life. But something didn't work with the leveling; it seems he ended up with chaos 3 and without 4 spells.
With a difficult battle and full buffs, I defeated the dragons, lured the army out of the city, entered the city using spells and 3 attacks, and finished off the remains.
Next, back to the Elf-Archmage. For now, he can't defeat 1500 ghosts—there is hypnosis, but no crown, no general slow, so the spearmen will go first, then the Necromancers.
Added after 14 minutes
Regarding the messages, in the Knight and Elf mission, the Mage asked for the Amulet of Fear, but it was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the enemies have it, but I didn't look at what I took from Yellow, and it was almost right before the finish