“Elia’s Quest” – “The Showdown” [Campaign 3, Mission 5]

I wanted to add a few nuances regarding the very beginning of the mission. At the very start, there are only 2 heroes, so you have to choose between Ilia and Isabel. And the most important thing: the other heroes join after lifting the siege of Horncrest, but ONLY if you take the first demonic Castle in the Dungeon on day 2 or 3. If you don't do this and rush straight to Horncrest, lifting the siege will still be counted, but the heroes won't join after the cutscene; instead, 2 or 3 powerful groups of orange enemies will immediately emerge one after another and easily crush the meager remnants of your starting army, and that's game over. I did that at first and then had to replay because these three don't join, and it's impossible without them. Since Isabel had better combat stats, I assigned her to take the first demonic Castle, leaving Ilia with 2 knights and 4 units of Fury in the front row. With this setup, she easily overcomes the obstacles on the way out of the Dungeon towards Horncrest because the Furies distract the enemies, and on her turn, she casts Fireball, Ice Storm, or Meteor Shower, depending on how the computer-controlled neutral Cerberuses and other units are positioned. And when Isabel clears the demonic Castle, they manage to switch places, and Ilia goes to Inferno, while Isabel goes upstairs and deals with the siege. Although "deals with" is an overstatement, because for some reason, the battle with Lorenzo resulted in very heavy losses, but in the end, she was left with 4 Twilight Witches and eliminated all the besiegers. Next, I stationed her in Horncrest, sent old Wulfstan to capture the mines in the region for now, gave Duncan's troops to Frieda, and now I'm sending her to the Dungeon to deal with the remaining demons. And during this time, our Horncrest forces should gather. :smile13: I saved the game at this point. P.S. Version 2.1, difficulty level "recruit".