Posts from Pyramid

Name: Pyramid
Map name: Pyramid
Map type: Single-player
Two-level map: no
Number of players: 4 (1 vs 3)
Size: L
Map author: WizardNazyr
Map description: The enemies have united against you. And each of them is stronger than the other. Is it possible to win here?

P.S. The task is standard - defeat all enemies, however, the map is not easy.

!!This map is a remake of the map of the same name from Heroes II.

Changes:
Version 1.1:
- The Academy outpost has been replaced with a Conflux, and now a road leads to it.
- A road now leads to the sulfur mine near the main city.
- Now, in the left city of Necromancers (86, 63), you can build a "Necropolis".
- The neutral Castle in the desert is now always the same as the player's faction. It now has more buildings.
- The peasant huts (68, 76) and the war dance arena (136, 72) have been replaced with a graveyard and a crypt.
- The archer Tower (79, 106) has been replaced with a blood arena.
- The war dance arena (59, 103) has been replaced with a random building that is always the same as the player's faction.
- Now, all the player's resources at the start = 0.

A familiar map. Let me take a look!

Won the Time Trial map in 40 days using a "hero." The map is interesting and I enjoyed it. The gameplay is dynamic, every turn matters, and the game is engaging. The map offers great opportunities for strategic development and tactical maneuvers. However, I have serious doubts about whether it is equally suitable for all factions. I tried playing as Humans, but it didn't work out, so I switched to a simpler strategy with the Time Trial. While playing, I felt that the map lacked polish. The castle used is random, but all the external buildings are from the "Academy" castle. The starting terrain is a desert, which is again only favorable for this castle. The Time Trial castles look very strange on snow. Overall, there is potential for improvement.

A random castle is used, and all external structures are from the "Academy" castle.

In the original map, there are lamps with djinns, which are neutral creatures. In Heroes 5, there are two buildings with neutral creatures: a refugee camp and a confluence of elements. However, I decided not to include them and instead placed two dwellings from the Academy with djinns.

The starting terrain is a desert, which is again favorable only for this castle. Castles from the Academy look very strange on snow.

Again, the map is a remake – in the original, it was the same.

So, these are not shortcomings; they are features.

In my opinion, those genies are more akin to Death Knights – since those genies are neutral, quite powerful compared to the current five-tier ones in the game's balance, and had a deadly attack – they could eliminate half of a unit with a certain chance.

I played as a Human hero and completed the map, though it wasn't easy, taking 44 days. I must say, it felt like I was in some kind of infested place, and I'm still shuddering. Seeing that the author's other two maps are roughly the same, but smaller in size, I decided to deny myself that pleasure. Nevertheless, thank you to the author for the new maps.

I played this map with the Necropolis faction (with a hero) and it seemed too easy – the only difficulty was in the first two weeks while Lethos was building up his plague army, and then the slaughter began – the addicts were taken down with spikes, and the brothers with plague. (I finished in four and a half weeks). I decided to try playing it again with the Barbarians (also with a hero) – it turned out to be much more fun: I chose the agile Argat as my starting hero. On the second day, I defeated the neighboring Barbarian, but it was a pity that the opponent was a local archer (the leader of the centaurs), because I would have liked to have her as an ally. I started to slowly establish myself in two Castles, but on the fifth day, the Undead appeared, and at the end of the week, the Necropolis faction joined them – the fun began (there were 4 battles with the Undead in three days and another four with the Necropolis faction). On the eighth day, I captured the main Castle of the Undead, and on the 10th day, I completely defeated them. After that, the Necropolis faction somehow faded away, and Argat marched quickly to their first Castle on the left (which turned out to be the capital) and captured it exactly on the 15th day, and also took another one. After that, I had to almost completely change my army because only the warriors and centaurs remained relatively intact from the Barbarian army, all the goblins were killed, and only three shamans remained. There was neither time nor opportunity to bring new orcs across the entire map, so I had to hire dragons, hydras, lizardmen, furies, and scouts. And with the new army, I captured the remaining Castles of the Necropolis faction in two days, and then ran for another two days to the neutral Castle (which turned out to be a Human one). The result – victory in 19 days. My impression of the map is mixed – on the one hand, its liveliness, dynamism, and unusualness are appealing (the Necropolis faction in the snow, and the addicts on a green lawn with grass), but on the other hand, there are a huge number of objects on it that are not of interest to either the player or his opponents. For example, it is not clear why the Order outpost is needed; in my opinion, an Elemental Tower would be more suitable there (because it is neutral), but even in this case, it would be an unaffordable luxury in terms of time to go with the main forces and capture it at the beginning of the game, and later there is simply no way to get there, and it becomes uninteresting. By the way, the same thing happened with the pyramid and the sulfur mine (to get to them across the sand without a road, you need to spend three days, but they are not available at the beginning of the game). And it is also not possible to explore the teleport (between the 3rd and 4th cities), because it appears at the very end of the game, when you need to quickly finish off the enemies and not explore the area. Well, I won't even talk about the fact that the ocean remained terra incognita, or rather, water incognita.

and scouts...

Do you have a mod that allows you to change the gender of a level 1 Dungeon creature?
:D

Do you have a mod that changes the gender of a level 1 Dungeon creature?
:D

No, it's just a typo :D

I tried playing again with the Warlocks, hoping to improve the Barbarians' result, but it didn't work – it took one more day. (and that's because they can't run as fast as Arghat) :smile48:. Ah, but with the Barbarians, by slightly improving the ending, I managed to save one day ;)
I didn't change the army, but instead went to capture the remaining two castles with what I had left (it worked, but it was close to a foul, and towards the end, I even had to surrender to the neutrals to have time to intercept the fleeing enemy hero). And the forces from the Warlock castle, along with a random hero hired in that same castle, were sent to capture the human castle.

I also wanted to switch to a more aggressive strategy:smile13:. I played as the Orcs, and my main hero was Argath. This was a campaign where the outcome of battles was decided by the last soldier of the last unit. On the second day, the Elves were defeated, and on the sixth day, all the Necropolis castles were captured. Their main hero, Lucretia, moved to capture the former capital of the Elves. On the seventh day, she was defeated in a fierce battle by Krag, who almost lost his second eye. Meanwhile, a stream of Warlocks began to flow in. From day 7 to day 10, there were heavy battles with the Necropolis. Krag covered the rear areas. Orcs died in droves from Warlock magic, but he fulfilled his task – the Elves did not break through. Argath fought his way through in bloody battles towards the castles of the Necropolis. On day 10, he captured the first of them, the easternmost one. At that moment, his army consisted of 6 Vampires and 4 Ghosts. By day 12, 3 castles were under the control of the Orcs. Argath had only 2 Vampires left, and he was just a few steps away from capturing the last empty Necropolis castle. On its turn, the computer bought Erin with one Ranger. Argath can no longer storm the Fortress. Day 13 is spent in philosophical reflections: there are no troops in the castles, and there are no heroes in the tavern – the Elf and the Orc look at each other. Day 14, a new week, the last battle, the Warlocks are defeated.
The idea behind the map is good, but the execution is clumsy.

The mages managed to achieve victory on the 13th day; it's a pity that they couldn't find any Boots of Swiftness anywhere, otherwise they could have saved another day. The battles went quite smoothly:
on the second day, victory over the Barbarian;
on the 3rd day, capturing the chests behind the Barbarian Castle, gaining experience;
on the 4th day, breaking through the outpost and reaching the right Castle of the Dungeon faction;
on the 5th day, capturing both Castles of the Dungeon faction;
on the 6th day, destroying the rearguard of the Dungeon faction;
on the 7th day, returning to the Barbarian Castle;
on the 8th day, destroying the remaining forces of the Dungeon faction and recapturing the Barbarian Castle (while the main hero fled to the Dungeon faction's Castle).
On the 9th and 10th days, the main hero marched into the lands of the Dungeon faction, capturing the first Castle and destroying two heroes. At the same time, all available forces were gathered near the Castles of the Dungeon faction, and three additional heroes were hired (bringing the total number to 7).
On the 11th day, the main hero captured the next Castle. Near the Dungeon faction's Castle, there were battles with one of the Dungeon faction's heroes, with three defeats inflicted on him, and a 4th victory, followed by the elimination of the second fleeing hero with a small army.
On the 12th day, the third Castle was captured, and the path to the 4th was cleared.
At the beginning of the 13th day, the main hero reached the last Castle and killed the two remaining heroes.

As a result, the most difficult part was defending their Castles with the secondary heroes. The battles conducted by the main hero did not cause any problems, because he immediately focused on learning and magic, so he crushed his enemies with his magic like a tank :smile14:.
It's a pity that he didn't have the opportunity to bring Fire Golems to the end of the game; otherwise, it would have been even more fun

Yes, the map is interesting, but it’s one of the more challenging ones – for experienced players.

Version 1.1: - The Academy outpost has been replaced with a Conflux, and a road now leads to it. - A road now leads to the sulfur mine near the main city. - In the left Necromancer city (86, 63), you can now build a "Cemetery." - The neutral castle in the desert is now always the same as the player's faction. It now has more buildings. - Peasant huts (68, 76) and the war dance arena (136, 72) have been replaced with a graveyard and a crypt. - The archer tower (79, 106) has been replaced with a blood arena. - The war dance arena (59, 103) has been replaced with a random building that is always the same as the player's faction. - Now, all the player's resources at the start are = 0.

Interesting...