The Necromancer's Path.

So, the Necromancer's path turned out to be completed. The first month was crucial to properly prepare for the visit of our old acquaintance, Giovanni. The first encounter with him was not easy. Then the battles with him became easier, and I already thought that he would become a minor nuisance on the map for me, but then he performed a ritual and significantly increased his stats - if Arantir knew the details of this ritual, maybe the march to the Duchy of the Bull would have ended faster). It was possible to withstand the encounter with the enhanced Giovanni, and in principle, Benedict then defeated him once, and then he just started hanging out only on his territory. At the beginning of the game, Giovanni visited me quite often, but after two encounters with his enhanced version, he decided to curb his temper and spent more time on his lands. Of the Blue Knight's enemies, Benedict turned out to be tolerable; I am even grateful to him, he helped me so many times - he brought me the Tome of Summoning, killed Giovanni for me once, and teleported to the Orcish city. I hope Arantir, at least, did not turn him into a zombie for his merits. The Orc, on the other hand, was quite unpleasant, and, in my opinion, the main difficulty of the map, especially if you try to fight him in his own city with hordes of Cyclops. And yes, despite the concerns expressed in the patch announcement that the Blue Knight might not clear the map well, I did not notice this; by the time I arrived, almost all of his territory already contained a negligible number of neutrals. Vessel did not cause much trouble. Special respect for the amazing battle arena. Bertrand turned out to be more difficult - insane combat stats, leadership, overpowered knights, who are more like Tier 7 than Tier 6 - in short, not an easy hero. Additional quests, despite being optional, turned out to be very useful and appropriate on this map. There is a piece of the map inaccessible to the player, with a giant crystal and undead worshipping it - is this an Easter egg? And here is what, in my opinion, allowed Arantir to make this successful campaign to the Duchy of the Bull - it is, as strange as it may sound, well-coordinated teamwork. As the Lich wisely said in one of the additional quests (not quoting, from memory) - even if Arantir is great in himself, he must also be a good mentor, and he must be accompanied by worthy students. Well, Arantir really turned out to be a worthy mentor, and each of his students played a significant role, thereby bringing the success of the Chosen One of Ash closer. Giovanni has problems with this. Kaspar managed to get the cloak and skull from the Ghostly Grove before Giovanni or any of his minions could, and also protected our brave vampire, Nar-Shein, while Arantir broke through the Imperial legions. Zoltan performed various small tasks, and also managed to distract Kagra from the Orcish city so that Arantir could take it peacefully. Ravenna went to the witches to bind Giovanni's forces during the final stage of the campaign for the Dragon Scrolls. And Naadir, who almost constantly followed Arantir, was able to defeat Bertrand. Teamwork is everything! It is not surprising that with such a team, Giovanni might be cornered in the future and forced to flee. Regarding the plot - in a conversation with Samuel, Arantir mentions Anastasia - is this the same Anastasia from the Griffin clan that we know from Heroes 6? It will most likely be revealed almost at the end of the story, but the motives of Elissar are interesting - what prompted her to start doing what she is doing. Her plan is very radical, in my opinion. And of course, I hope that the next scenario will reveal the backstory of Giovanni - his return, how he established contacts with the witches of the Sabbath... Bertrand, by the way, mentioned that he was expecting a minor vampire, not Lord Arantir - this gave me the idea that before Arantir, Giovanni also waged some kind of war with the Imperials, or at least the relations between them were very tense. It is only unclear who started the conflict between these two sides. And in the starting video, Giovanni kills an Imperial scout, and our brave vampire cannot be accused of sympathy for Arantir. Well, and special respect for the interesting author's presentation of the plot. Thank you again for this interesting scenario!