Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Recently, I've had very bad luck with good maps: one turned out to be dull, another wildly unbalanced and impossible to complete. And then, finally, not long ago, I started playing through another map and soon realized that it is simply a masterpiece! It deserves close attention not only from players but also from map makers, as it can be considered an excellent example of how they should be made and a model to emulate.
So, the map is "Fatum", author - Griffin Eye (on HeroesPortal, where it was taken from, there are several more of his maps and campaigns that I intend to complete later). The map is not new at all: from 2002, and this is not surprising: as I wrote before, most of the best maps were made quite a long time ago. The language of the map is English, but there is very little text, so there's no need to fear that. ;)
The map is XL size with a dungeon, difficulty - impossible (I will talk more about this later!). You can play as any of the 8 sides (all races are represented except Conflux, although their cities and heroes are also present). Players have no random cities (only neutral cities are random), and each player's respawn (starting zone) is located on their native land — in contrast to other creations where you sometimes get such a wild layout that it's simply a disaster! :(
There is a plot here, but it is quite simple and short, and the reading will not tire anyone. Once upon a time in a certain kingdom there lived a kind king, and he had... no, not a daughter, ;) but a crown with a unicorn horn. And then one day a magical unicorn suddenly appeared before the king and began to complain about how hard his life was without a horn. The king, out of kindness of heart, gave him his crown. The subjects, seeing their monarch with an uncovered head, decided: a king without a crown is not true, :) stopped recognizing him as their lawful ruler and immediately started an internal strife. Now, to end the war, one must find that very crown and deliver it to the city of Fatum Wing. Or, if you prefer, you can, as usual, kill them all (defeat all enemies). :) Of course, this will not be easy: where the crown is now is unknown, where this city is — also, and enemies will hinder the search. But real heroes are used to difficulties, aren't they? ;)
Starting with the choice of race, I decided to play as Inferno. My respawn turned out to be in the southwest of the dungeon, in the very corner (as it later turned out, this worked in my favor: for the first 2 months, enemies never reached my domains). At the start, I already had 2 heroes, and each already had all 8 secondary skills, and all 8 were truly valuable! Of course, this is the author's merit. Evaluating both heroes (both are good!), I decided to appoint Aiden as the main hero with a specialization in intelligence. My choice was correct: Aiden with Wisdom, all schools of magic, good spells, and a huge reserve of mana was able to fight very effectively! And not only fight: since all spells and artifacts are allowed and present on the map (this is just great!), he soon learned Dimension Door (in the pyramid), and Xeron, freed from prison, already had Town Portal in his book (he also had all 8 valuable skills, just slightly different ones)! True, I found a hero with literacy relatively late, but then I was able to pass all valuable spells up to level 4 inclusive to the three strongest heroes.
An unexpected and pleasant surprise was that the Capitol in the capital was already built! And, barely leaving the capital, I saw: the map abounds with resources and artifacts! Therefore, despite the impossible difficulty, there is no problem of poverty in the first weeks on this map, which is practically a scourge of many maximum difficulty maps! The main hero actively developed, cleared his lands of monsters, picked up artifacts, while assistants collected resources and brought reinforcements. When almost the entire respawn was cleared, I decided to go traveling; my lava zone is separated from others by void, but 3 roads lead north, east, and northeast. And right then in the east, a pink (Dungeon) jumped out of the darkness, picked up a chest... and ran away! That's good, I thought, since I didn't want to hold a defense yet: the army is still not good enough for that, and enemies have already leveled up significantly.
After beating the Admiral's Hat, I set off on the road north: scouting showed that Conflux was nearby, and further one needs to sail. The Hat is very useful on this map: until you conquer enough cities in different parts of the world, you will first have to move through whirlpools, and it's also not worth losing days on boarding and disembarking! Later, having expanded my domains, I can quickly get where needed using Town Portal, and from there, if one needs to hurry — we ride with Dimension Door, and many places are also connected by monoliths and Dungeon Gates. Perhaps the only thing this map lacks is garrisons, Border Gates, and border guards: naturally, with Flight or Dimension Door, they won't stop anyone!
When the clashes with enemies began, almost all of them were stronger than me: after all, they didn't start from zero! The strongest turned out to be Pink and Blue, and Pink had the most cities in opposite ends of the dungeon. Emerging onto the surface, I found myself in the east and first marched triumphantly through the lands of Red (Castle), capturing all his cities. Then I headed southeast, where Green (Rampart) lived; for some reason, the elves turned out to be very weak and couldn't even leave their own lands. I crushed them quickly and without effort. I don't know what the deal is: later I'll examine the map better and figure it out; maybe the author still deprived Rampart of something or miscalculated.
Approaching the lands of Blue (Tower) in the northwest of the surface world, I tried to attack a couple of his heroes, but one was stronger than me, and another was relatively weak, but he happened to stop on cursed land! :( Therefore, I didn't touch Blue for now, although I captured the Tower in the northwest corner and took 12 titans from there: benefit for me, and fewer troops for the enemy. ;)
A turning point in the course of the war occurred sharply and completely unexpectedly, thanks to a rare combination of circumstances: during the turn transition, I saw how Pink's hero jumped out of a monolith, captured Orange's Fortress, and rode away into the darkness to the south. After this, I discovered that Blue's hero (Dragon) was standing in the same monolith... without an army! Aha, so Pink beat Blue, and the result is a manifestation of a known game bug (AI vs AI battle proceeds inadequately and leads to the appearance of a ghost hero). Deciding to find out which hero of Pink had ridden off and where, I set off after her. It turned out it was the main hero (Mutare), and already weakened by the preceding battle with Blue's main hero. I attacked Mutare and defeated her (poor thing, it turned out she put on the Sphere of Vulnerability, which doomed her: 30 black dragons obediently obeyed my magic, otherwise I would have had a hard time)! And after this, it turned out that the enemies no longer had the strongest heroes, and I became the strongest player! Of course, more effort is still needed for victory: explore the unopened part of the map, don't let enemies raise their heads, visit obelisks, try to find the Grail, and then one can deal with the Helmet with the unicorn horn and the city that needs to be captured.
I defeated Brown's main hero, Kilgor (Stronghold, south of the surface world), quite easily.
The next strongest opponent was Turquoise (Necromancer), his domains were located in the northeast of the dungeon. Invading there, I captured 3 Necropolis in one day (and on the way — a Stronghold and a Dungeon) and beat 2 of his heroes (though weak ones). Dimension Door and Town Portal contributed to this: three heroes can do three times more than one! ;)
Of all possible "treats," Xeron took Armageddon's Blade from Pandora's Box! And he has decent primary skills, Expert Fire Magic, and Sphere of Fire! Tremble, adversaries!
It's not worth describing in detail further; although playing became easy, one thing is slightly disappointing: it seems there will be no more complex or spectacular battles.
The main goal: I will try to do the maximum possible — capture all cities, dig up the Grail, place it in the city, find the Unicorn Helmet.
Hooray! A relatively "serious" enemy has finally been found: Crellion. His "seriousness" consists, however, only in the fact that he has the Cloak of Denial (I've already written how I hate such things). Of course, Aiden will beat him easily, but it is important to minimize losses, since avoiding them because of the Cloak is impossible.
In further progression, as it turned out, there were still battles worthy of heroes: in the dungeon — Conflux with Rainbow, next to it — little boxes, and a bit further, through a monolith, my hero reached a glade where that very unicorn with the coveted Crown grazed... but on the way to him there were as many as 2 ambushes with huge guards!
The city of Fatum Wing is perhaps the only thing I didn't like: it stands on cursed land, which means losses are inevitable! But the author understood: for a leveled-up mage with a barrel of mana and all spells, victory over almost any opponent is just a question of "How much mana will this take?" ;) Otherwise, I had to fight more carefully, but the city was captured with minimal losses.
I searched for some obelisks until the last day, but I found the Grail, dug it up, and took it to the city.
The last enemy was defeated on the 3rd month, 3rd week, 2nd day.
Result: 72 days, 498 points — better than all previous achievements ("Hellaen" was completed by me in 90 days)!

So what merits of this map make it a hit? (I will repeat myself, but I'll bring them together in one place)
* Fast start and high pace of the entire game.
* Presence of a sufficient amount of resources and mines.
* Ability to get all desired artifacts and spells.
* Strong opponents, but at the same time not set by the author, but becoming so in the process of war.
* By genre it is a "pure" strategy: the player can go in any direction and act as they find most convenient — no imposed mandatory tasks!
* The player can choose how to achieve victory: by one condition (bring the Helmet to the city) or by another (destroy all enemies).
* Ability to choose race (any, except Conflux).
* Replayability: the map can be completed again for each of the sides, and the layout can be different every time due to random artifacts, cities, monsters, and resources.

I attach 2 screenshots: the "coolest" battle with an ambush in the glade with the unicorn - disposition of forces and result.