"Escape to Salvation" - "Magnificent Retreat" [Campaign 4, Mission 4]

Well, I finally completed the Orc campaign, playing on Veteran difficulty. I got stuck on the last mission for six whole months. I wasted my time because I read 23 pages of comments here about how people complained about various problems in the mission. So, I decided to level up secondary heroes and attack Biara with them first. In the end, it wasn't necessary because Zehir had 118 Titans, 118 Cyclops, and 188 Black Dragons, Lava Dragons, and Archangels. First, I sent in a human hero with 350 Archers and 35 Erlings, plus a few peasants. I managed to eliminate more than fifty Horsemen and about 30 Succubi, then he surrendered; artifacts are useless to give away. Second, I sent in a hero with elf troops and 500 Shadow Lords. I cast Vampirism on them first, then Anti-Magic. I took out more than two hundred Succubi from Biara, subdued her Horsemen, and first attacked the Cave Lords with them, then the Archdevils, then subdued them and attacked the Alt. Devils. When I had only half of the Witches left, I retreated with them. Third, a mage with native troops and Spellpower should have gone in (the second one also had it, but I didn't have time to cast it; Biara's troops had high initiative), but I decided not to let him in because Zehir would have already defeated Biara.

Even with standard leveling, the only thing you need from your army is to prevent it from collapsing while Zehir defeats enemies with magic. Although, maybe someone completed it without magic, but that would be absurd.

You won't believe it, but I only cast magic three times in the battle with Biara. The first two were Anti-Magic on the Cyclops and Archangels, and the third time was an Explosion (I was wearing Emerald Boots, dealing 2K damage) on the Succubi. That's it; Zehir's ability wasn't even needed. He crushed Biara, and I was lucky with the artifacts. In the previous missions, I found the Cloak of Deadly Shadow and the Staff of the Underworld. Zehir was wearing two rings: one +10 initiative, and the other +20. As a result, all Biara could do was cast Subdue on the Cyclops once and perform her Chain Attack a second time. She also managed to target my Archangels with Black Dragons, but if they hadn't been there, I wouldn't have lost 70 Archangels. As it was, I lost 20 Black Dragons and a few Cyclops and Lava Dragons.

In general, I don't see any point in getting stuck on this map for more than three months, just as I don't see any point in Zehir's ability in the final battle. So, next time I play, I'll level up using a non-standard approach. I'll even try not to use Darkness with Light, and instead take Attack, Defense, Machines, Luck, and Leadership. That will be hardcore.

PS Regarding breaking through the demon castles, I didn't have any problems at all. I don't know why people struggled so much; maybe they leveled up their heroes incorrectly and forgot about the artifacts. I saved more than half of my army for Wolfshtein; Rune Magic is the key. Especially when dragons attack twice in a row or attack all nearby stacks without retaliation. That's just insane. I also didn't have any particular problems with Frida; I saved half of her army as well. As for Kujin, well, Vadimh will understand: D. I didn't take Horde Fury for her last time, and I regretted it. I even thought about replaying the second map for the Orcs. But in the end, she went into battle with this spell in her spellbook, even though I hadn't taken it. It was probably already in the script, but the funniest thing is that I almost didn't use it until the end of the battle: D. I was just too busy scaring the Succubi, who, by the way, never attacked my troops during the entire battle.
I also completed Ilay without any problems. I didn't put the dragons in the front line; I waited for the long-range stacks to move out of the castle, and then I eliminated more than half of the Demonesses with one attack.
PS 2 And in general, I think 900 Cyclops is cheating