vbn
Day 1.After a preliminary exploration of the map (editor+nwcwhatisthematrix), I set the completion timeframe to no more than 15 days. Initially, I didn't even dream that it would be possible to complete it in 7 days.
I say this because in the first few days of the game, I have a bad habit of buying as many heroes as possible who bring +350 gold, or +1 mercury, etc., depending on the map and completion conditions.
As it turned out later, with a 7-day result, a gold-bearing hero brings only 350*6=2100 gold, meaning they don't even pay for themselves. But! An extra hero can still be useful to pick up missing chests of gold in time or reinforce an army transfer chain; so let it be a gold-bearing hero who at least partially offsets their own existence, and I will spend 5 minutes on save-loading to dig them out (the probability of such a hero appearing in the tavern is 9 out of 150, i.e., about 6%, every 15th-20th hero, 20 load-saves).
Furthermore. Having participated twice in a tournament for the 3rd game, I became convinced that a good result can only be achieved using a Logistics hero. And as a result—I replayed the map 3 times.
1st time - main Gurnisson (Ballista + attack 4 at start), result 8 days.
2nd time - main hero (finally, it clicked!) Kyrr, result 7 days.
3rd time - main hero Dessa, significantly increased stats and amount of mercury.Now I'll answer why Dessa in the end. The question of which one to take arose even before the start of the second attempt. Dessa or Kyrr. I saw that Kyrr had lower starting attack and no spellbook. But she was the one who received secondary skills in the order I needed. So I had to play her.
Having completed the map a 2nd time (quickly, since the completion tactic hadn't changed), I thought about it. After all, Dessa has a spellbook, which means she doesn't need to enter her castle to buy one. And that saves almost half a move. And same for Dessa is equivalent to almost a full move for another hero. So, Dessa!
1) Oh, no. First we have Jelu. From him on this day we need to collect at least 5 wood and 3000 (gold)—500 tavern and 2500 hero. And here he has two options—north or east.
Maybe I'm writing too long, but on the first day of completion, I had 5 heroes. Moreover, each of them was unique in their own way, intended for a specific task that only such a hero (the only one in the game overall) could successfully solve.
So, Jelu went north. Why not east will become clear later. Jelu's "uniqueness"—he was the starting hero. He collects 3500 gold.
2) The second "unique" hero— Jem. It was absolutely necessary to buy her so that the required heroes would appear after her. After buying tavern + Jem, 500 remained in balance. Task for Jem: find 2000. And here there is only 1 option. Not south, because there are 3 chests and she is unable to grab all 3 at once on this day, meaning someone else will do it. Not east—again, why—will become clear below. Therefore, she goes south, then northwest, where she manages to find 2000.
Aha, I'll pause here again. One might think: why so many heroes, wouldn't it be better to buy an army or save on the municipality? And the answer is this: our most important task is to buy two heroes at once—Dessa and the hero with the ballista. For this, there must be 5000 gold in the treasury. Or calculate moves such that the first hero, say with the ballista, manages to collect gold and return the ballista to the newly bought Dessa. And for this operation we needed as many as 5 heroes, because only then was it possible to simultaneously collect 5000 to buy 2 heroes at once and manage to transfer the ballista.
3) So, the third unique hero became, of course, the gold-bearing hero. And specifically one who could grab those aforementioned 3 fat chests on the first day. There are only 2 such heroes—Grindan and Jelar. Well, Jelar was dug out faster; he's off to the south. At the end of his move, the treasury was rich with 4000 gold. Another 1000 was missing.
4) And in the tavern, Pir was already waiting for her same hour. Exactly Pir! Her uniqueness lay in the fact that only she has a ballista and is also gifted with the Logistics skill. This means she will be able to grab that necessary 1000, after which we will buy Dessa and return the ballista to her. And only Pir was allowed to take the chests in the east—since this way she didn't have to go far from the castle.
Excellent, wonderful start. I like it. Just like chess :)
5) And finally, Dessa. She isn't proud at all and sacrificed one move cell to approach Pir and take the ballista (well, Pir didn't have time to return from the east!). So, on earth elements with one sniper and an imp (Pir transferred a centaur)!!! And then, after 10 hours of sleep... Tut! After a 10-hour automatic-ballistic battle with earth elementals, Dessa receives so much experience that she manages to learn the following skills:
Expert: Wisdom + Logistics + Archer + Ranger + Earth.
Ye-e-es, expert logistics in VDV_forever's gift was not needed. That's why Kyrr was taken at first. She was offered the necessary skills without reaching expert logistics. But Dessa had to level up logistics so that secondary skills would be granted in the correct order later. So what! Instead, +20 snipers. Thanks, VDV!
P.S. Don't forget to dismiss the imp!
Day 2.Jelu captures the sawmill (and later directs his horse east).
Jelar continues south, where he collects available resources and gold.
Jem returns for one pile of ore, after which she moves west again, finds the last free chest, and rushes back to the ore mine.
Pir—to the east, then north, for the campfire that still has unburnt wood, so needed for the Mages' Guild—it's time for Dessa to learn something new.
6) And now another unique hero appears on the arena, called upon to teach Dessa spells from the Mages' Guild. Of course, this is a hero with Literacy. But it wouldn't hurt if he also tried to pay for himself. No options—it's Octavia +350 gold (only she starts without a spellbook).
We build the guild, buy Octavia a spellbook, take a sniper and pick up wood near the mine. Dessa approaches. Octavia manages to teach her spells and return to the castle gates.
And Dessa is already rushing toward the beholders! She destroys zombies first, then the evil eyes. Dazed, she collects all the gold they guarded and ends her move a few cells from the monks in the east.
Day 3.Jelar warms himself by the last free campfire, after which he sets off for home.
Jem collects ore, captures the mine, and heads to the mercenaries' camp.
Octavia buys 7 elves, and takes another 6 from the garrison (and centaurs too).
She transfers the elves to Jelu, who transforms them into snipers, after which Pir brings 6 snipers to Dessa, while the rest of the army stays with Jelu.
Jelu rushes toward the goblins in the southeast.
Battles!
4 snip+1cent+1cent+1cent+1cent+12cent+5snip against 250 (hob) goblins. Managed to keep 5 snipers alive and also collect the guarded gold.
Dessa, with 27 snipers and 5 mana (Slow, plus unlike Kyrr—Spell Power 6), destroys 5*20=100 griffins without losses, then easily takes out external griffins, and finally stops before the outer tavern.
7) Grindan, a fast gold-bearing elementalist, Jelar's "brother," leaves the tavern.
8) Following Jelar, Kyrr appears (well, I'll skip uniqueness).
The trio of heroes distributes armies: Dessa and Kyrr get one angel each for speed; Grindan gets a fairy + snipers.
After this, Grindan finds the unicorn bowstring in the tomb (after all, he didn't enter the stable, losing 1-2 mercury on this).
Kyrr enters the stable and stops near the vampires.
Dessa, after visiting the stable, rushes to the well.
Day 4.Pir reaches the fountain of youth, and with added movement points, reaches a chest of gold.
Grindan destroys orcs, takes the +4 attack chain, gives the bowstring, chain, and snipers to Dessa, and runs for a row of lying chests.
Dessa replenishes mana to 87 (after leveling on griffins, basic intelligence was given) and prepares to attack vampires. For this, Kyrr gives her a second angel.
Battle. Dessa 1 angel+26 snipers+1 angel destroys 150 vampires without losses (used 18 mana—2 slows, 2 arrows; I think it was possible to manage with only slow).
Kyrr takes the gloves from Dessa and one angel back, after which Dessa attacks scorpicors (5 mana) and manticores near the green castle. There it is, the mistake! I only saw it now while writing the description, reviewing each save. It wasn't necessary to remove the angel from Dessa. I just wanted to give Kyrr a movement boost the next day because of the angel, but for this, Kyrr spent a move cell on the transfer. In the end, the benefit is zero, and against green now we'll have to fight with only 1 angel—a difficult battle, when it could have been simplified (actual loss—buying 1-2 extra heroes, which cost 2-3 mercury). Then Dessa kills nearby Gunnar with a bunch of beholders (it happened that he was near his castle on this day) and captures the empty castle.
In this castle, a tavern is built (though it would have been possible to build the military academy first—loss of 1000 experience), Dessa leaves snipers in the garrison and runs toward the dungeon exit. But she only has 3 cells left to run. And luck! At exactly this distance during the turn transition, the second computer-green hero fails to attack Dessa and fails to capture the castle, but approaches the castle closely!
Kyrr rushes south, past Utopia, and ends her move before fire elementals.
Jelu, with the help of Jem who buys 7 elves in the mercenaries' camp, transfers a total of 12 snipers to Jelar (seven elf-snipers turned out to be extra—loss of another 2-3 mercury). Jelar manages on this day to destroy troglodytes guarding chests and a telescope.
Day 5.A very long day. 30 intermediate saves, almost a third of all saves in the game (for other days 10-15 were enough, and there were 100 saves total in the game).
Jelu hides in the castle to allow other heroes to leave the tavern.
Jelar collects chests and destroys golems guarding resources slightly further south.
Jem manages to collect some resources, after which she is set free.
Octavia rushes toward the mill near the castle.
Grindan collects chests and moves toward the sand.
Pir—her most important role in this game has already been fulfilled, but oh well, let her run around more, you never know—she might be useful (no, she wasn't; I had to dismiss her later due to the maximum number of heroes).
9) In green's castle we buy Darkstorm (uniqueness—troglodytes and harpies in hero's army).
10) Then we also buy Solmir (uniqueness—starting Chain Lightning spell), give him 4 troglodytes, and move one cell away from the castle.
11) Finally, we buy alchemist Torosar. Uniqueness—possession of a ballista, spellbook, and Tactics skill. Although now I don't understand why he needed a ballista. Probably, the uniqueness is that initially only he has a spellbook + tactics. Though maybe the ballista somehow affected the outcome of the battle with green (but it could be borrowed from Dessa, and as I said, I forgot to take 1 angel). No, unlikely; dragons didn't touch the ballista at all.
In the castle we build a military academy.
Solmir returns to the castle, receives 1000 experience and +1 power at the stellar axis. And with power 4 destroys 1 red dragon and other fodder of green hero (Adjit), after which he dies (no point in fleeing, no mana left anyway).
Darkstorm also levels spell power to 4, then hits some more of Adjit's fodder twice with lightning strike, and dies following Solmir.
Finally, Torosar, having leveled power to 4, approaches Dessa, takes the bowstring, gnoll chain, and angel, and attacks green.
Battle. Torosar (primary skills 5-1-4-2, mana 20) v.s. Adjit (6-8-3-5, mana 9).
Basic Tactics + 27 snip + 1 harp+1 harp + 1 harp + 1 angel + 29 trogl against
1 RD + 3 medusas + 1 beholder + 1 harp + 20 trogl + 24 skeletons.
Losses: 2 snipers (from magic arrow) + 2 harp + 28 trogl.
The initial placement of heroes on the map and armies in battle can be seen in the attached screenshots.
I note that the outcome of the battle did not depend on morale/luck. This was the case for all battles throughout the game.
After victory, Torosar gives Dessa all artifacts and army, keeping 1 troglodyte for himself.
Dessa visits the pyramid (experience+explosion), using 5 mana for slow, then Kyrr breaks through fire elementals in the southern part of the desert and opens a passage for Dessa to dendroids.
Dessa uses another 5 mana to slow dendroids, takes the dragon crown (another +8 to stats) and manages to reclaim the contents of Pandora's box from flying snakes.
Battle. Opponent: 350+50 snakes.
Angels move first since their speed is 13 due to the necklace of speed taken from green hero.
Tactic: cast slow on snakes; shoot with snipers, and distract snakes with an angel.
Spell power for Dessa is already 12, so 10 mana was spent (2 slows).
Then Kyrr takes snipers and harpies from Dessa and gives her 1 angel, after which she joins medusas and heads southeast toward blue's castle. At the end of the move, Kyrr finally sets the medusas and harpies free to manage to reach the gates of the blue castle tomorrow.
12) In green's recently captured castle we buy a hero who could collect nearby resources south of the castle. And of course, that's a hero from the elemental castle—more movement cells, and of course—Tunar-treasurer. Since he will receive +1000 experience in the academy, he will now bring 2 times more gold.
13) In this same castle we also buy Rizzu +1 mercury.
Day 6.Jelar collects crystals and heads toward the castle.
Octavia visits the miller near the castle and returns south for snipers, to meet Jelar.
Jelu leaves the castle and moves northwest to take some more resources from a pack of orcs.
Grindan moves across the sand toward chests of gold.
Torosar and Tunar collect gold and resources in the dungeon.
Kyrr breaks through harpies and destroys the first blue hero—Galtran, losing 4 snipers, after which she captures empty blue castle and shelters there for the night.
And from the castle toward the outer market comes logistics-elementalist Moner, taking 9 snipers from Kyrr.
Dessa heads southwest to brown's castle. On the way she destroys dendroids and earth elementals, visits the tree of knowledge, manages to take a chest of experience, and ends her path before scorpicors.
At night, the second blue hero is smashed by Moner's army.
Day 7.Jelar transfers snipers to Octavia, Octavia—to Jelu, after which the latter takes resources from orcs and heroes leave the map.
Grindan—on sand, while Torosar and Tunar—in the dungeon collect remaining resources, then also leave the game.
To destroy the last blue hero, Adriana comes to help, who using combat magic destroys most of the gargoyles and shooting units of Dragon.
And finally, Ciel, with 12 snipers and a magic arrow, banishes Dragon forever.
Dessa with 2 angels destroys 25 scorpicors (spent 25 mana—1 slow, 4 heals, but could be done in 3, doesn't matter), then 15 manticores (without using magic). Then she captures empty brown castle, where a military academy is built, visits the stellar axis and attacks Sinka—brown's main hero.
Battle!2 angels against 1 RD +2 KD + 17 beholders + 11 harpies + 41 troglodytes.
Tactic: in army placement mode, angels fly to the upper part of the battlefield so that RD can no longer reach them.
Round 1. Angels wait, Sinka uses last mana points to cast air protection on beholders. KD are destroyed using explosion. Harpies fly in, troglodytes approach. Angels go into defense. RD fly in. They were lucky (all the better)—angels responded once (105 damage).
Round 2. RD strike again, and after angels' response they have 91 HP left. With remaining mana we heal angels. Finish off RD. Harpies move (they were lucky, hit an angel) and troglodytes, beholders shoot. Angels have 275 HP left.
Round 3. Strike on beholders + their strike and angels' response—and only 1 beholder is left, while angels still have 219 HP.
Round 4. Strike on troglodytes etc.
Sinka is crushed!
Losses—1 angel (could have been avoided using mana saved on scorpicors, and even without that, but it's not important now).
After victory, Dessa rises to level 20, having stats 14+7+13+12
(including artifacts: +4 attack + 4 power + 4 knowledge).
Her skills: expert wisdom + logistics + archery + ranger + earth magic + intelligence + tactics.
Wisdom was useful only for 1 explosion, but could have been done without it.
Intelligence—not useful at all.
Tactics—useful once, but could have been managed without it too.
And finally Moner enters the outer market, and after short negotiations, 156 mercury appears in the royal treasury.
Last battle—Dessa v.s. Das, 1 angel v.s. 1 harpy.
Victory!
