FireCool
Auto-translated
I want to share my strategy for completing this mission with the community.
First of all, this strategy will only work if you have really leveled up your hero, and haven't just rushed through the missions. It is necessary that Railag is 100% leveled up with objects such as the arena, tower, crystal, and others that provide a constant increase to characteristics. In addition, it is very important to level up the hero correctly. There are probably two options. They differ in what your fifth skill is, because the rest should be taken without hesitation. These are:
1) Attack (frenzy, ranged attack, tactics)
2) Education (magic attraction, deciphering secrets)
3) Sorcery (wisdom, arcane knowledge)
Unfortunately, we don't get to choose the fourth skill - it's defense. I would prefer luck or leadership.
You can choose darkness or chaos as the fifth skill.
I focused on chaos magic, as I initially got lucky with an artifact in the first mission (ice pendant) and spells (ice block and ring of cold). Be sure to take the storm lord - in the later missions, we will be able to survive battles with superior forces precisely due to timely lightning strikes. In no case should you take mana burst - it's a useless waste of one level. I took chaos secrets because it was difficult with mana at the very beginning, and the lord of cold. If you manage to level up dark ritual early, you can take the lord of flame instead of secrets - this will also help a lot in serious battles.
Now, hoping that your hero is really leveled up intelligently, I will tell you the essence of the strategy!
The key point is our audacity. Why waste time in dungeons when we have such a good army at the beginning, and our hero is an army in himself? We will immediately go to the nearest enemy castle and take it by storm, before they overwhelm us with their huge increase in creatures. This will be easy, I assure you. Shadya, meanwhile, collects everything that is not nailed down: chests (gold, of course, we don't need experience anymore - we'll get more than enough from battles), resources; she also captures various mines. Don't be afraid to let her run around alone - there are no patrols in the first few days.
After the first castle, we go through the upper garrison to the second, which is located below and to the left. Along the way, we may encounter an enemy who has gathered all his forces in a panic.
Should I even say that those who like autobattles should not use this strategy?
We eliminate the enemy, trying to save as many hydras, witches, and our wonderful assassins as possible. They will all be very useful in sieges, especially hydras. During the siege, you can save archers by not deploying them, and split the hydras into two detachments - just in case. By the way, after taking the first castle, we will be given a random fifth-level spell, but this is more of a nice bonus at the end of the game than a real reward.
As a result, if you hurry, all three castles will be destroyed by the end of the second week. This means that there will be no patrols running around the map, and all the resources will be ours. All that remains is to prepare for the battle at the very end. This will already be an act of your creativity. I will only advise you not to rush and collect several artifacts from the dragon set - you can't have too much initiative.
When I myself completed this mission, I spent quite a lot of time on it because I decided to dress the hero perfectly and collect at least 50 black dragons for him. I just didn't know that at the very end I would face such a weak enemy. And perfectionism required that Railag become level 30 and defeat all the garrisons that prevent moving along the shortest paths between artifact shops and objects that give a bonus to luck/spirit.
That's all. The strategy is simple and dynamic, its implementation will be interesting and much more exciting than just running around in a basement and hiding later)
And by the way, as bonchik rightly wrote above, you need to try to get out of battles with minimal losses, I will only add that, firstly, it is better to avoid losses as much as possible (for example, in my game, I am playing with a hero, and all 350 assassins, 15 dragons, and 35 shadow ladies are still alive + another 35 joined, only half of the hydras were eaten by the enemies, but they are fat, so I don't really care, plus they are on the map anyway and join us without any problems) and I gave the rest of the rabble to Shadya, she runs around the dungeon, clearing it out)
And secondly, it's even more interesting to play, you test yourself, how much you can think through all your moves and anticipate the opponent's moves in order to save the precious dragons and assassins.
I have already destroyed 2 demonic castles and opened half of the map. And by this time, I managed to save all the assassins without losing even one of them, as well as all the dragons, only thanks to constant luck combined with sorcery, without it, the losses would have been quite significant.