Walkthroughs for custom maps.

An old "classic" RPG map. There is a plot, but it is delivered in small portions and isn't overwhelming (by the way, the author writes: "This map was based on my ‘Ralkor’ unfinished adventure game for the Commodore 64").
Author's description: You are Ralkor, chosen to bear the Sword of Judgement and put an end to the reign of terror of Worghol, Master of Chaos. Find other heroes to aid you: the master wizard Zatorius; the barbarian king, Vultak; and Lyrine, a sorceress who has already fought your enemy... and died.
Thus, it is the story of a fugitive who will become the Chosen One, save prisoners, punish enemies, and bring peace and tranquility to the land.
The map is quite well thought out, but I was not able to understand the author's design immediately, only after studying the map in the editor and Prospector and reflecting on this information. Finally, the pieces fell into place, and I understood everything. The map is not as complex as "Ringing of Victory," and it's smaller in size, but a number of moments in it are not obvious. Therefore, I decided not to write about how I played through it, but rather how (in what order) it should be done so that you don't have to guess or make mistakes. So, if you want to figure everything out on your own - do not read further.
At the very beginning, it is important to move in the right direction immediately, because without a town, every day counts! The correct path: slightly east and north, across the bridge, then along the road up to an event (which is misleading!) where you are asked to go west, where the elves have an important task for you ("Go to Algaria, to the west, into the forest. Seek the seer."). You will go there later; for now, turn east immediately from this spot, where mages will unexpectedly join you, and then past a red bush (clearly the work of mages) - north. Golems will also take your side, and you will receive the Sword of Justice! Now, the first priority is to capture the Tower. Do not rush to attack the scorpicorns; they aren't bothering you yet. It's better to focus on construction and exploring the surroundings.
The map differs slightly from most RPG maps in that the separation of zones is not as noticeable, and the player is granted a greater degree of freedom than usual: the entire northern snowy zone can be explored as you wish, fighting through monsters in some places and occasionally intercepting enemy scouts. Try to open up as much territory as possible in all directions, including the Castles in the west and east and the underground passages: the sooner you see an approaching enemy, the better (a Town Portal remains a dream for now). By the way, regarding my playthrough, I'll say that Green (excluding the very beginning) and Blue sit quietly in their capitals, so Brown and Pink will be the ones bothering you.
Since there are as many as 4 Castles on the map, it is better not to let the enemies gather a large army from them; later, you can put together a decent force yourself (though there are no angels in the Castles, and cavalrymen can only be upgraded at the stables).
First and foremost, as soon as possible, you should go through the tunnels to the southern exit (but not west, where there is a cross-shaped structure and entrances to 3 monoliths: you need to go there later). There you will emerge into the lands of the Barbarians, defeat Orange heroes, visit the blue tent, capture the Stronghold, and free the first ally: the barbarian king Vultak. He will take over the development of the surrounding lands.
Pay attention to the Fort on the hill southeast of the Stronghold: upgrading buildings is not mandatory, but you must capture all the dwellings in the area, which will allow you to soon assemble a decent army (the Castle and 3 external dwellings provide 8 creatures per week). But more importantly, since the giant dwelling in the Tower cannot be upgraded, this is Ralkor's first opportunity to significantly strengthen his army.
After that, you can capture the Necropolis in the east.
It is important to keep in mind: at the beginning of the 5th month, you will receive a message that an invasion has begun by the most terrible enemy, Turquoise (Necromancers). His heroes will appear from the exit monolith in cell 13,33 on the cursed land area in the northwest and, using Water Walking, cross the lake and roam your land. They can be defeated, but it will take time. Therefore, it would be good if you had managed to do everything described above by then, as further actions must follow a plan without distractions.
So, to win, there are only 2 options:
a) after accumulating troops, use brute force to break through the anti-magic garrison and then capture the Dungeon Harnakzar in the south, where Worghol resides. Since you already have the Sword of Justice, this is enough; but what kind of Liberator would you be then? However, seeing what the main enemy is capable of, I realized that this option wouldn't work. Therefore, only one remains...
b) long and persistently exterminate all enemies. This will reveal the full potential of the map and bring maximum pleasure, but it will require a lot of patience and attention.
Order of actions for a "full program" win (option "b"):
Make sure that the current situation allows the main hero to leave the surface for several days, as it won't be possible to return immediately if necessary.
Through the yellow monolith in 53,54, teleport to the Inferno zone in the southeast of the dungeon belonging to Purple. Defeat Urik, free Zatorius, and learn Ship Summon at the Shrine. Now you need to capture the Inferno in 101,65: although we don't have a Town Portal yet, there is a Portal in the Inferno. It will help us a bit later.
Now for an unpleasant but necessary action in this sequence: Zatorius (not Ralkor, as his escape is excluded by the defeat condition!) with a minimum of troops that are not a pity to sacrifice, and a set of "Boots + Gloves + Necklace," must teleport to the surface world by fighting neutrals (ifrits before the black border guard), where he should summon a ship, sail through the Whirlpool, pass through the red one-way monolith, take the archangels, and pick up the Town Portal scroll (the 3 obelisks can be visited later: tempo is more important now!). Now you can return to Inferno and give all artifacts back to Ralkor, who will continue the journey.
By summoning a ship on the lake in the northwest of the surface world, you must land, pass through the green two-way monolith, summon a ship, and visit the black tent.
Now go back to Inferno, remove the black guard, and visit the red tent. Now return to the surface and open the path to the Rampart, free Lyrine, and receive the Flight scroll and the Necklace of Divine Grace! Now you can also take the Holy Sandals and not fight the anti-magic garrison before Blue's Dungeon. Be sure to return to Inferno and fly to the neighboring town: there you will learn Resurrection, Fire Shield, and Explosion (at least that was my experience)! And Purple will be destroyed.
Capture the same Inferno in the dungeon at 18,32: there is another Portal. But for this, Boots of Levitation are needed, as it is impossible to land on the shore from a boat there. Therefore, you'll have to give the Sword of Justice to the seer in 12,27. Don't worry: the second Sword is held by the enemy, Lord Vartren, at this very Inferno. His castle stands on cursed land, but I won't lose any troops in this fight. Now we have the Sword of Justice again, and Zatorius will move to the surface world.
An interesting and non-obvious point: how to capture the necropolis Ingabrod, since all the surrounding land is cursed and you need to fly there? You must start Flight from a piece of land on the surface, fly into the monolith, and continue flying north. It's only important that you have enough movement points: stand closer to the green monolith!
After capturing these towns, Turquoise will also disappear, and raids from the dungeon will stop bothering you.
When Blue is the only enemy left, you can fly to attack him.
For a complete mastery of the world, you should also capture the Dungeon in 57,96 and dig up the Grail. By the way, to the author's credit (unfortunately, many still leave this aspect to chance), it is located where only we can dig it up, while it remains inaccessible to enemies. Hint: if you don't find the last obelisk, it's in a cave in cell 12,70. There, if you already have Flight, it's advisable to capture the dragon cave: Blue will have fewer of them.
You can also recruit the titans standing at the monolith exit in 50,77. However, you won't be able to reclaim the Wizard's Hat in 43,70 from the evil eyes (I tried: it's impossible to fly there).
The game finale brings several surprises.
The biggest unpleasant surprise is the main enemy, Worghol: he has maximum magic power and knowledge 92, with a mana reserve doubled by Mana Vortex. His army consists of black dragons, and he possesses Armageddon. Therefore, for victory over him, a Sphere of Forbidding is highly desirable. It's in Pandora's Box in 10,90 (dungeon). And so: Ralkor spent all his time diligently studying magic, only to return at the end to the option we seemingly moved away from (the brute force method). However, in practice, it's not that bad.
The anti-magic garrison turned out not to be scary: I tried breaking through and suffered minimum losses. But troops are needed for dealing with Worghol, so it's better to save them.
When besieging the Dungeon with a sufficiently large army, you can choose whether to fight with magic or without (with the Sphere of Forbidding). I won both ways. The next surprise is the strange behavior of the AI (it glitches, simply put): the black dragons do not attack but wait for something — and this works in our favor!
Another surprise: Worghol's troops are immune to Berserk and Blindness (it would have been great to blind the last stack and resurrect the fallen). However, we don't have Spheres of Vulnerability, and black dragons are immune to magic.
Then, after defeating Worghol, do not rush into the Dungeon: you have a choice regarding the criteria for victory. This affects the final score entered into the record table. If you captured all towns and dug up the Grail, it's better to wait a week and ultimately get more points.
The next surprise: after Worghol's destruction, the Blue opponent did not disappear! The Thieves Guild shows us someone named Calha. What's going on? It turns out Calha is hiding in an inaccessible place north of the Inferno zone (in cell 100,44).

To sum up, I will name the main advantages and disadvantages of this map. For fairness, it should be noted that the author had the RoE version of the editor, which lacked several important features, and this seriously limited him.
Advantages:
- original and well-thought-out design (appreciate, for example, this aspect: bridges not only connect shores but also prevent you from obtaining key items prematurely, as shipyards are only further up the river, and you don't have Boat Summon until later);
- presence of a story;
- a sufficiently high degree of player freedom;
- absence of hidden objects that would be necessary for completion;
- no need at any stage to spend long periods accumulating troops or leveling up a hero just to pass through a certain area.
Disadvantages:
- lack of clear instructions on what, when, and in what order should be done, especially at the very beginning; it would have been better to limit player freedom so that the inability to get somewhere implied something needed to be done first (this primarily concerns one-way monoliths);
- without a careful study of the map in the editor, it's unlikely you can complete it blindly: you need to make a plan first and then act according to it;
- most of the main hero's secondary skills are left to chance, including very important ones (Earth Magic, primarily), as witch huts and the university provide random skills; I was lucky (Ralkor learned Earth, Water, and Fire magic), but you might not be;
- for quite a while, we have no units in our army faster than Master Djinns (speed 11). Even with the Stronghold army (also 11), this minus remains noticeable: when Turquoise comes from the dungeon, his spectral dragons will attack first in large numbers, and you won't be able to do anything about it (unless you got Tactics)! In two battles, I lost almost all my archmages. Where to get faster troops: external snake dwellings (but they still need to be upgraded), refugee camp, Necropolis (the same spectral dragons), Inferno in 104,64 (devils, who also need to be upgraded). Therefore, once you get archangels, protect them!
One last thing to add: G.S.Reis also has a campaign "A Trilogy of Shadows" (can be downloaded from the same site) which received good reviews from players, but I haven't played through it yet.