Jules Winnfield
Map: Darkman
Author: wklhy
You cannot fully consider yourself a "walker" of hard maps until you have the scalp of this monster. I planned to complete it for a long time—started, quit, started again—I think this is familiar to everyone who has played this scenario, but I finally closed the gestalt. In general, my walkthrough is similar to Marlo's, so I don't see the point in detailing it extensively; I'll describe only the key moments.
The Beginning.
Along Aine's line, I took 80k gold near the titans, which came in handy when buying artifacts from the merchant in the Tower and in general during the initial stage.
117 both towers are captured and Orrin is freed.
124 the Dragon is freed
127 Aine breaks through the dragons for the scroll of resurrection, while Orrin breaks the titans and captures the 3rd tower with an unbought growth.
141 the boss of the snow location, Ivor, is killed (one of the hardest fights at the start)
143 we enter the Barbarian location and level up Orrin with the Dragon, preparing Orrin's exit to Zidar/Pyrr's location
214 Orrin stands before the brown guard for passage into Zidar/Pyrr's zone
With the Dragon, we break through neutrals to get into the castle with the tavern
Along Luna's line, we proceed normally to Flax by the end of day 3, burning everyone in our path
114 Crag is freed, we level up both heroes and prepare to capture the Barbarian castles
121 both castles are captured, killing obstructing heroes along the way
125 Kyrr is freed
Crag levels up, obtains blindness and forgetfulness, and prepares to break through Brohild and visit the blue tent
141\142 Brohild is broken during the castle defense (an extremely RNG-dependent fight)
143 the blue tent is visited; Luna and Kyrr level up and collect creatures for the CL quest
Crag moves to the elven zone to meet Zidar
Along Pyrr's line, Zidar is freed on 112
117 we break the cerberi guarding the scientist with an explosion, as well as the garrison
126 we break the titans guarding the seer with Armageddon
133 Fafnir is broken (another extremely RNG-dependent fight)
134 the green tent is visited, Zidar takes the box with claws. Zidar breaks into the elven zone where he meets Crag; Pyrr stays to capture the boots of levitation and the blade of Armageddon, and also reaches the elven zone by the end of the first month
The Middle
212 one of the key kills on the map—Loinis; access to the castle with the tavern is obtained, as well as access to the quest for GP for the Dragon
The key event of the mid-game is completing the CL quest and collecting creatures from the quest pillars by 311. Luna collected nomads, thieves, and hobbits; Orrin collected mummies and trolls; Zidar collected peasants; Crag collected boars. On 234, the Dragon submits the creatures for CL. From the troops behind the pillars, I took everyone except the birds (absolute trash).
237 Gunnar level 108 is killed, the main problem of the mid-game. Managed to catch him right before the castle; Zidar burned all the shooters with Hithran, and Crag finished him off on the castle defense; one can breathe a bit now, the main thorn has been removed. Preparing to break Malekith and free Astral with literacy (key end-game goals)
312 the guard of the thunder titans is broken (the most RNG fight on the map), killed using Marlo's tactic, the Grail is dug up
314 Jeddit level 868 is killed (helped by the cloak of renunciation looted from Gervulf earlier)
The End
315 Malekith is killed, who was tricked previously by as many as 4 heroes per turn (Kyrr twice).
317 the event before Astral is broken; all our heroes learn a bunch of useful magic including GP and clone.
After breaking Astral, the game accelerates significantly, heroes are killed in bunches
317 Tazar is killed during the tower siege (5.7k rounds, not hard, but the longest fight), as well as Kalh with 3 large shooting stacks (scorpikors helped)
325 Myllich is killed and access to the castle with the Grail and stable is obtained
332 Gundulla falls in the field (used deaf cell, archdevils, phantom dragon, fairies, djinns), as well as Mutare Drake (previously cleared fairy tales and some titans by burning), access to the BS is open
334 the BS is taken and all remaining bosses no longer present such problems
335 Thorgrim is killed by Crag in the field with an anti-blindness amulet and 2 huge shooting stacks
336 Nimus is killed by Orrin and Solmir level 868 by Crag in the field (deaf cell helped, as in the fight with Gundulla)
337 Haart is killed by Orrin
341 Moandor with a huge army is killed by Crag
342 Xeron is killed (hypnosis of the remaining stack of balls and dispel, not the hardest battle, the main thing was to pick the right number of balls and attack with Caitlin beforehand so that Xeron swapped the liches and balls), the quest for CW is taken and the jailers and the last few heroes are finished.
Managed to finish the map quite quickly, though it can't be called a speedrun, of course. Impressions of the map are positive—an extremely well-thought-out and difficult map, except for small, non-critical moments. Probably the best dynamic map I've had the chance to complete.
Screenshots of some battles are attached