Shades of Darkness

Um, Revera was never supposed to be redeemable by the AI. More than that, he can't appear in the tavern anymore. So, for me, it doesn't make sense that he's available for the blue player. Do you have any mods that affect hero recruitment? In principle, if there was a mod for campaign heroes, maybe the AI could redeem him.

Added 22 minutes ago
I even checked, although I have no doubts: Revera hasn't changed since I created him, and there have been no such glitches in the history of the map.

Revera (who is actually Alaric with changes) is a story hero, which already means that he cannot appear in the tavern on his own.

Alaric is not in the list of available heroes for the blue player, which eliminates one of the two possible ways for him to appear in the tavern.

There is also no function in the scripts to return Alaric to the tavern after defeat. This eliminates the second option.

So, the question is: why did the blue player redeem Revera if it's impossible on the map itself?

Added 9 minutes ago
As the most stubborn person in the world, I quickly checked the blue player's recruitment using cheats by eliminating his heroes, and there are no Revera there. Only standard Knights of level 1.

Added 31 minutes ago
Next, 25k cold damage to the boss... I respect Chaos League, but 25k damage with luck against an opponent with magic immunity... yes, Railag, as a true Warlock, won't spare even his own black dragons, but nevertheless, the damage to a unit with magic immunity should be lower than usual, even with a masterwork amulet. Railag doesn't have any League cities on the map at the moment to incredibly boost his elemental affinity. Where did that much damage come from? This is beyond my understanding. I would believe in ten thousand, and even then with great doubt, but 25... That's a total damage of about 35k, if we take into account the amulet again.

I even ran a small test. I took Railag, level 37, gave him an amulet, maxed out Chaos and racial skills with a super ability, gave him 50 spells... and got 3500 damage to black dragons with luck and 4500 to a regular target. Of course, this was enhanced cold damage). It's still far from 25k, even if we multiply the damage by three, imagining an incredibly powerful elemental chain. Now I suspect some kind of mod even more.

Added 19 minutes ago
Well, now we can go over the rest.

And first of all, another question: why is Railag so good with Chaos if his specialty on the map is +initiative for his units? I have a small theory that you had Railag with a different specialty. This is quite consistent with the reappearing Revera. And no, Chaos magic is really a must-have in the first part of the map, but then it loses its relevance due to insufficient damage.

I had no problems dealing with the second guardian even without green boots, and with proper grinding, you can even beat him without logistics, with just one stable, but that's already an advanced level. I don't recommend it). The Guardian is just a Guardian. The stable and objects help a lot to gain an advantage over him, although you will need extra rounds in the labyrinth from time to time.

The old man is there in the second half. He's chilling with the elves. If you need to transfer perks, you can return to the battle with the Faceless, as it's really simple.

The Faceless didn't deceive Railag: you can get an army!

The endless cutscene is endless for a simple reason: Revera dies exactly once and will not appear again.

Map crashes when loading are due to game optimization. From the point of view of Heroes 5, this content weighs a ton, and therefore the game often overloads when loading from the map.

Spoiler: the elite troops of the Empire are green humans from Red Haven. Tough guys. Knights with double speed... archers with double shot and retaliate on ranged attacks... they will appear at the end of the fourth mission.

I don't even know how to summarize this walkthrough, because it's very strange, but thank you for playing and there will be a sequel soon.

Added 2 minutes ago

understood... Heroes optimization sucks
...
realized that I have to mentor for the third time! ...the first time I dumped the log and took Darkness...
the second time, I dumped defense and took attack...
now, because of the knight-junkies, I have to take Light only for regeneration and resurrection
and also, the mutant Frederick with the horde ability to counter Darkness... what a mess?)) Should we give the computer everything so that it doesn't overwhelm him?)) In essence, this is like in a detective series... where from the first episode it is clear that Vasya was killed by Petya, but you need to release another 300 episodes so that it will be interesting to watch for a year. Initiative for everyone (even for random stacks of creatures) is cranked up as if they have rings of speed on their hands and feet, and I have +2 rings of initiative with my speed ability.... I killed a knight, and he has only one brooch.)) Is he under a winch or did they attach a motor somewhere?)). No, this is called playing against a cheater, it's too frustrating and there is no Heroes mechanics here.

Hmm. I didn't notice that you added more text to the message. This is not obvious, strictly speaking. No, there are no initiative boosts for enemies. I don't use additional modifiers, only standard perks and stats. I don't even know how initiative is boosted. It seems to be done through a combat script.