bolotnik
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Are there any plans for WoG map reviews in the future?
thank you very much for the feedback
WoG definitely no, HoTa might be, but it's unlikely; for now, only all parts of the 3rd one
Added after 12 hours 48 minutes
I GIVE UP!!!!
Overwhelmed, crushed, and completely defeated without a chance by the map
Dunkler Horizont
Previously Marmot already wrote about the great and mighty impassability of this map
I decided to try and complete this map; first I played on 160%, where after prolonged suffering I managed to win because I was able to get Archangels, Mage Guild-4 before active actions with the AI began, and I could obtain expert earth quite quickly....
But on 200% they just tear everything to shreds and it's completely unclear how to act....
and another interesting point: on 160%, the enemy hero Tant immediately ran into my one-way portal with his entire huge starting army and stayed there, but on 200% he runs home, and it is no longer possible to remove him from the game... and then very quickly he begins his raid....
I played several times, tried different approaches, but the result and outcome are always the same - from day 241 to 311 hell begins and the Walkthrough ends....
During this time I manage to knock out the Barbarians and swamp dwellers (purple and brown), enter battle with the pink one, who usually comes to the brown one himself, breaking through the garrison...
but then the Necromancers fly in, with such troops that it is physically impossible to defeat them all and still continue the Walkthrough
And now I'll try to describe the Walkthrough, the author's idea for the map (or rather as I managed to understand it), the difficulties, and so on...
Start.
Hard and very tense.
Even though we are given troops immediately, and we already have 2 heroes on the map from day 1, it's still hard to start; most battles consist of spreading crowds with single units and blocking shooters, but all this is done WITHOUT slowing, i.e., often through the sacrifice of those very single units. That is, only a few battles can be conducted without losses.
Hero Casmir, who must not be lost under any circumstances, since he will be the one opening most things (passage guards require only him). He is located right in the middle of enemy land
- a huge starting zone for Necropolis (the main and most terrifying enemies). With a small army, which will later be slightly replenished and will be more than enough to return home.
As for the second hero, we choose them in the standard way.
I tried different options, but the start as Turis seems most profitable to me, as Tactics is most useful for blocking shooters before the battle begins, and then strengthening horses is also good, but this is because I usually level up not the main provided hero, but the one we choose...
if the plan is to level up the author's provided hero with the Prayer specialty, but without Water Magic skill (and it doesn't come to him quickly), then you can take any other hero, though Valeska or Caitlin are preferable... but then there is a risk that losses in battles will be higher (a mage doesn't handle attack and defense stats as well, and it's not certain Tactics will arrive)...
and the starting bonus in resources here would be appropriate, as being completely without resources is worse than being without gold...
We quickly deal with neutral creatures on the map, but not all of them, only those we can handle, and there are quite a few of them; it's likely that you, like me, will have to replay some battles with neutrals sometimes to keep losses to a minimum.
We also have another neutral Castle at our respawn, but there is no point in capturing it immediately, as there will be significant losses, and there won't be resources for its construction anyway.
And all other neutral cities are guarded even more securely, so you'll have to play with one city.
Moreover, at the home respawn we only have two mines: one wood, one ore; the rest must be obtained in battles.
Walkthrough.
The map consists of zones, the passages between which are guarded extremely securely, 5-7 lvl units in huge quantities.
And to the Necropolis, every passage is guarded by 100 Rust Dragons.
There is also an option via the shipyard and then either through killing legions of water elementals (which is possible, but very, very long with a caravan of endless arrows), or through the whirlpool.
Since shipyards are heavily guarded, and we simply lack the strength to fight the Necromancer, there is no point in thinking about sailing to him. Also, the Walkthrough has a logical sequence.
First we go to the purple one - Stronghold (Barbarian). There we get a club and shield for +5 attack and defense by defeating Crag Hack. He is defeated quite easily, but with losses (the main thing is not to lose horses, angels, and minimum shooter losses); everything else as it goes, but preferably do not lose troops, as we have very few on the map.
Then further through the passage guard we come out to the brown one - Fortress
(swamp creatures).
And from this moment the most interesting part begins, as the pink one - Conflux, usually breaks through the garrison himself and starts crushing either the brown one or us; it's a total mess when our invasion of the brown one happens simultaneously with the pink one's invasion, but usually the pink one beat me to the attack on the brown one, so the struggle with the pink one begins immediately, who is many times stronger than the previous ones...
Usually this trio can be overcome. Roughly by the end of the 2nd or middle of the 3rd month we knock out 3 weak AI from the game.
And it seems everything is finally improving: cities have appeared, mines, resources; we can calmly build everything we need, BUT not so fast...
The author apparently calculated everything so that around this time the same-colored (grey) one comes to us - Necropolis, he is the main adversary...
Moreover, he pops out of one-way portals in various places with such troops that even with a full buyout of all troops from all cities, you cannot defeat the Necromancers....
And so every time, every attempt at a Walkthrough is cut short by a fierce and powerful invasion of Necromancers. Therefore I give up, as I cannot manage to reach the red one (who for some reason usually slows down with breaking guards and garrisons) attacking pink lands, not to mention the Necromancer and so on, specifically on 200% difficulty, when construction is delayed, as is buying troops and hiring heroes.
On 160% it's quite realistic to build a portal; moreover, all necessary troops can be bought out, and most importantly on 160% the Necromancer arrives significantly later (for me not before the 5th month), when I am already practically ready to attack him.
On 200% an invasion in the 3rd month becomes fatal. And the game ends :smile21:
A bit about the author's idea and the map itself.
After some such same torments, a thought occurred to me: what if the author intended for us to move forward without returning? Necromancers jump into one-way portals, but usually don't decide to break through 100 Rust Dragons, nor will he hurry via the shipyard through the whirlpool... And after that we need to fly faster to the next lands of our enemies.
There is only one victory on this map - defeat the enemy hero.
Slow, Blindness - a number of other important spells are forbidden by the author, but some can only be learned in shrines. But in shrines we will be given shield, slow, blindness.
Two skills are forbidden - Navigation and Literacy.
A logical prohibition for relearning spells. But not all heroes with starting Literacy skill were banned, so relearning spells between heroes will still be possible.
The insane Necromancer respawn and small respawns of others add to the difficulty.
The problem is that guards are placed in huge numbers, and the Necromancers are given artifacts for +Necromancy immediately, plus there are quite a few Necropolis cities, so they will be necromancing at least 70-80%...
So we're left waiting for thousands of liches or hundreds of thousands of skeletons.
In the end, it turned out to be a very difficult map, and its passability is still under a very big question.
And after so many games it starts to seem to me that winning on 160% was more of a lucky accident than a logical occurrence.
Objects and artifacts.
Thanks to the author for the conservatories. On 200% they are the only source of angels (you can build a portal, of course), but I often sin by smelting resources into gold to buy troops.
As for everything else, it's just an absolute minimum. Only the most necessary and that's it. In the beginning we have only a few artifacts, and later their number won't increase much.
And another point. As soon as someone from the Necromancer reaches level 30 (most likely this will be Tant from the start with 20k experience), he can visit the green tent at his respawn and come straight to our home. And if one of his side heroes got caught in a trap with a one-way portal and green gates, they can get out.
If anyone managed to complete the map or somehow got record-breakingly far, tell the world how you did it.
There is no problem killing thousands of creatures in a stack; there is a problem with the timeliness of this.
And for those interested, I'm adding two links to Yandex Disk. Both are the same - my daily saves up to the middle of the second month. Later I forgot to check the box, and after 324 there's no point in playing anymore; the Necromancers came and took everything they could.....
1. https://yadi.sk/d/1qxlSsIknDt8s
2. https://docviewer.yandex.ru/?url=ya-disk%3A%2F%2F%2Fdisk%2FDunkler%20.zip&name=Dunkler%20.zip&c=569c35bacd5c
And now we wait again for map Walkthroughs from Marmot, because after this map I am in a daze.
I liked the map very much; yes there is difficulty and originality even with neutrals, artifacts are scarce and you have to fight for them, but either my level of play is so sad that it doesn't allow me to complete this map, or the author overdid the balance in this version of the map.
Previously I only had such a stop and inability to complete a map with "First Blood 2.4", but that was widely discussed, and there at least it was clear that the map could be completed, that one needed to think and a solution existed; you could see tips and screenshots, saves and descriptions of actions. And in the end, the map was completed.
But here it's completely unclear what to do if several heroes with several hundreds, if not thousands of Necropolis units in stacks jump out in two places with a difference of a few days.