Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Dear bolotnik! A huge thank you for such a detailed and insightful analysis of the Paragon map! Writing reports is sometimes even harder than completing maps, especially in summer when laziness takes over. I have finally finished one report. The maps I completed are incomparably simpler than Paragon, but they are still interesting, at least for lovers of adventure and exploration. I nibbled at Paragon a bit, stopping at 1-2-7; the very beginning goes quite smoothly, and then the "horror" begins with the editor and magnifying glass in hand. But the map is a masterpiece, I admit that!

I tried to complete this map 5 years ago, immediately after downloading it, but without success: everything was heading toward defeat. Having gained more experience and possessing the knowledge from my first attempt, I decided to repeat the walkthrough and this time achieved victory.
Plot: More than a hundred years have passed since the victory of the Haven over the Dark forces and their exile underground... But new states formed in their place... Necromancers, Barbarians, Elementalist... But they are all nothing compared to the legions of the Dark Demon.
Here you play as Red (Castle); your enemies: Pink (Necropolis), Orange (Dungeon), Turquoise (Stronghold), Green (Conflux) and Purple (Inferno) – the main, most powerful enemy. Fortunately, you have allies: Blue (Fortress) and Brown (Tower).
The difficulty suggested by the author is impossible.
For success, even the correct choice during the formation of the starting layout is important, so there is no need to rush here. Note that you can choose the type of starting city or leave it to the game's discretion. Since all the dwellings around the capitals are castle-based, it is best to choose Castle specifically. I chose gold as the starting bonus for all sides, as always. Since we are also allowed to choose a hero (after choosing the castle), given the initial poverty, I appointed Caitlin as the leader with her +350 gold daily. By the way, anyone who wishes can start from my starting save.
The start is not easy: in our capital, there are initially no dwellings, nor even a fort! Therefore, we quickly join friendly halberdiers and crossbowmen, grab a cart of wood and a wagon of ore, subdue the sawmill and mine, and enter the mills. Right here we see the first enemy – a necromancer, who will soon need to be killed, and the first tent that needs to be visited - the red one.
Fortunately, the author understands our difficulties (alas, not all authors are so kind) and soon we manage, for the most part, to finish building our capital.
At the initial stage, the most important thing is to develop as quickly as possible. The sooner you capture all the mines and the second Castle (it stands directly to the south, where the road leads), the easier it will be later.
Now we can reveal a bit of the current layout: we and our allies are separated by border gates (red, blue, and green), and the tents (except for the red one) are relatively far away and well guarded (the location of the blue and green tents will be revealed by the mage's hut in the southwest). They can only be reached by normal means by taking a large detour past the Rampart occupied by a strong necromancer (to the northeast of our capital). And you can also enter the Rampart only through the green gates.
Further on, much depends on the factor of chance: sooner or later, strong enemies will rise from the dungeon to the surface and engage in looting and robbery. The first time I developed too slowly, and it soon turned out that the allies were also doomed (they were also significantly weaker than the enemies), and a necromancer rode up to me whom I could not defeat, and there was nowhere to run (tents had not been visited yet).
The second time, the necromancers also scared me a lot, but fortunately, they did not head toward my lands. Here (exactly at 3-1-1, I saved this state) a notable incident occurred: a necromancer visited the blue and green tents and... flew north to Blue (and if he had gone south to me, that would have been the end of the story)! This is a cheat, absolutely: I checked in the editor, Fly and Dimension Door are forbidden on the map (although DD can and even should be obtained, but more on that later)! Further, the enemies rampaged on the allies' lands until the finale (Orange and Green also broke through there).
I don't know how things will go for you at this stage. Pay attention to the Veil of Darkness south of the Rampart (it will help confuse enemies and hold back their onslaught) and the blue gates opening the way to the sea (you need to get there later). I had to use a flanking maneuver (although perhaps intended by the author): in the second Castle, I learned Town Portal (later checked in the editor: lucky; if you don't get it, you'll have to hire a hero in an allied city), hopped between allies' cities where I received useful spells and bonuses to defense and knowledge, and also visited the green tent. After this, I was able to reach the Rampart and defeat the necromancer sitting there. An important bonus awaits us here: from the prison we free the elven king King Wind, a specialist in snipers, which is what we will turn our halberdiers into. And the Rampart will give us a ready-made Grail and elves, who will also become snipers.
By visiting the blue tent, we can go out to the sea. There on the southern shore awaits a big surprise that you should know about: Dimension Door in Pandora's Box (and Town Portal if you haven't learned it yet)! DD must be taken: not even for yourself, but so that the enemies don't get it, otherwise fighting them will be much harder, and in general, they could get where they definitely aren't supposed to!
Next, you need to get into the desert in the northeast, visit two more tents, and through the green monolith reach Inferno on the island: there black dragons guard the Berserk scroll. By the way, to defeat the Dark Demon we need a Sphere of Vulnerability and expert fire magic, otherwise he will probably be too much for us. But more on that later.
Then you must set off across the sea to the barbarians (Turquoise): they will turn out easier to overcome than other enemies. Capturing Strongholds will provide the opportunity (in extreme cases) to escape from strong enemies and another Rampart (also lucky).
From the barbarians, through the Gates, we enter the dungeon. There are valuable artifacts along the roadsides and a path to Orange and Green, and from them – to Pink. From Pink, the path along the river of fire leads to the domains of Purple.
The hardest part will be beating the Dark Demon: in his domains there are 5 Inferno and the Fire God, and he will always surpass everyone in troop numbers, and capturing his cities without clashing with him is unrealistic. I was unlucky: Caitlin did not get fire magic. But I managed like this: I took advantage of the moment when the Dark Demon was riding along the river of fire in the southeast and attacked him there. Expert Berserk helped defeat the monster, and completing the rout was then a piece of cake.
Besides the Dark Demon, Mutare Drake (Orange) proved to be a very unpleasant enemy with a bunch of dragons of all colors and the Power of the Father of Dragons.
Unfortunately, the Blue ally disappeared from the map, losing all cities shortly before total victory.
The last enemy was defeated on the 5th month, 2nd week, 6th day (total 125 days), result – 442 points (unfortunately, there is no buried Grail on the map).
Another interesting episode was at 4-4-7: this time an ally's hero (Brown) performed a flight over the sea forbidden by the rules and even picked up the Hell Sword and Shield of the Damned in cell 59,122, directly from the island inaccessible. But fortunately, this did not hinder further completion (but if some guardian had required these artifacts and the player didn't have Dimension Door, it would have been very frustrating!).
Result: an interesting map, strong enemies, a short walkthrough for an XL+U map – those are its strengths. The weaknesses, perhaps, are that the exit to allies could have been made less difficult, and red gates could be placed on our land so that at least one castle remained inaccessible to enemies, or create a possibility for retreat.