Posts from Wizard – “Audacious Wizard” [Campaign 6, Mission 1]

The Audacious Mage
First Mission

Backstory: Zehir, son of Cyrus, the Archmage of the League of Silver Cities, decides to avenge his father's death and punish his killer, Markel. The first step on this path is the capture of Kadashman, a former city of mages, now defiled by the undead.

Main Objectives:

• Reclaim Kadashman
  The once great and beautiful city of mages, Seyham, has been turned by Markel into Kadashman — a Necropolis where death reigns. But fate favors Zehir, and currently, this city is weakly defended; its capture could mark the beginning of the liberation struggle for the Silver Cities.
• Zehir must survive
  While achieving the set goals, Zehir must survive to continue the cause he has started.
• Reach level 10
  Zehir will have to work hard to liberate his homeland. To achieve his goal, he must become the greatest wizard among the great.
  However, war is a good teacher, and in a short time, Zehir is capable of mastering the wisdom of magic and the subtleties of warfare.

Walkthrough: So! The mission is monstrously difficult... I can hardly imagine how even an intermediate user could complete it... Hm! Let's start from the very beginning... :cool:
After the drunken rampage caused by Markel, the Silver Cities became centers of advanced bureaucracy and debauchery (read: Necropolises). The state of mages declined, queues for sausage and processed cheese appeared, the crisis grew, and no "subbotniks" or picnics could restrain the unrest... of the masses, naturally... The High Council of Mages thought it over and decided: we need a hero capable of breaking through the cursed iron... bony curtain; let's give him a polli... magic wand, put him on a tan... uh... elephant, and let him fend for himself. Just at that moment, the son—a vocational school dropout—of the former local boss, the now-deceased Cyrus (he really shouldn't have competed with Markel in "who can drink more"!) happened to be available. The son's name was Ziher. M-da! Quite a... telling little name... Oops! I misspoke! His name was Zehir... hm... though, what difference does it make? In principle, the mages' idea made sense, since Zi(e)he(i)r had a very specific reputation, which he regularly reinforced at all sorts of buffets and student gatherings; in short, he was stronger than his daddy in this regard, and could possibly even compete with Markel himself!

The mission begins in the western part of the map. You have a decent army, in principle, but I would recommend strengthening it with genies by choosing the corresponding option before the mission. Although there are few of them, they will be much more useful than the rest. The main goal, the city, is located almost in the center of the map, slightly to the south. That's where we head, killing various small demons along the way (it's not worth messing with anyone stronger than Cerberi or ghosts — that's a completely irrelevant activity. An exception should be made for the creatures guarding the sources that permanently improve stats, but only after capturing the castle. You still need to reach level 10 anyway...). When getting into fights, don't expose your troops to attack; let the genies cast, the shooters shoot, and the hero wield his club (summon elementals only in critical situations, for example, in battles with ghosts and Cerberi — so as not to lose troops). Also, genies can kill 14-16 imps in a single hit... The approaches to the city are blocked by outposts with fairly weak guards, while in the castle sits a hero with... o-o-o... just a massive army... there are probably only 25... thousand of them... he-he... just kidding, I'm kidding... just 25-30 units, from skeletons to (Oh horror!) ghosts. Summon elementals (it's great if they are water mages, as in my case, problems solve themselves; just don't cast "Ring of Frost" if it doesn't cover 3 or more squads, otherwise the magic will run out, and all your troops will be crowding under the gates, sadly watching the shootout between gremlins and the hero with the fortress guards... and there were gorgons flying there too (those creatures always amazed me, how do they even move? And how to kill them? Only by pouring cement on them and burying them in the ground... :) )). After taking the city, we hit the level cap and the mission ends. Yes, the longer you dawdle toward the city, the stronger the guards will be...
Now a few words about hero development. Initially, he has Artifact Mastery and Green magic. I would add Holy magic (resurrection is always relevant); Chaos magic (what's there to explain?); the-one-I-don't-remember-the-name-of: casting speed, wisdom, reduction of spell cost, etc. (a mage should sit in a pri... phew! should cast quickly, right?); Logistics is a must — we don't need a slow-poke hero (though for some reason it wasn't offered to me). Further — at your discretion...

Message from D12(ArchOnt)
...can't remember the name: spell casting speed, wisdom, reduced spell cost, etc. (a mage should sit in a... uh, no! he should cast spells quickly, right?);...

It's called "Fundamentals of Magic" (or simply "Magic"). And I liked your writing; it's humorous, lively, and easy to read. :)
P.S. Excellent analysis of the hero's name; it's funny. :D

Varg-Nar
Thank you very much! I won't add any more birds for you, okay?:D :D :D

Message from D12(ArchOnt)
Thank you very much! But I won't add any more birds, okay?

I don't think you need to thank me; otherwise, there are too few useful posts on the forum in a day (it's a pity:( ). It was nice to read this.:)
And our bird is an eagle. An eagle is a proud bird and doesn't fly into your hands (or get sent) unless it comes from the heart.;) And I never asked for it; thank you very much for trying to help me; I appreciate your attention to my comments. :)
P.S. May you have glorious victories, Varg-Nar!:)

Dear D12(ArchOnt), I have slightly reformatted your walkthrough to match the standard template.
Thank you for providing a worthy walkthrough.

To be honest, I'm a bit shocked by this mission. Considering that we've already completed 5 campaigns by this point, it's unclear what the developers were trying to entertain us with in this scenario:confused:
It's just a shoddy job.:smile08:

In the end, I wasn't offered any logistical advantages. It could have been achieved by restarting the third mission (there's a hut there), but I was too lazy. I took defense and became arrogant... Education.
In general, Zephyr is a beast; his specialty is no worse than that of Agra'il-Rai'lag.

In the end, they never offered me the logistics upgrade. It could have been achieved by restarting the third mission (there's a hut there), but I was too lazy. I took the defense upgrade and became arrogant... Education.
In general, Zehir is a beast; his specialty is no worse than that of Agrail-Railag.

Yeah, it's a great ability. But you're going to resurrect fallen units, only to find that elementals appear in their place. If you killed 5 gremlins, then, of course, it's not a big deal, but if you lost a squad of titans or mages (and most likely, djinn, which the AI units don't like), then you often can't resurrect them. The elementals are "locked" by the units that killed your units, and you can't free the "corpse." And even if you do manage to free them, the elemental, instead of fighting, just crawls back and forth on the next turn... very useful, who would argue.
Resurrecting ghosts instead of fallen enemies, like Naadir does, is a really useful thing. Especially when the units that were protecting the archers are killed - the archers are blocked, the enemy rushes to attack the ghosts, and "we don't care" - it's not a pity to lose the summoned ghosts.

It's okay, you can divert the elementals.
But then you can use them to block archers, close off passages between obstacles, and shield your own units – like the genies.
For a summoner, the more units on the battlefield, the better.

Added 5 minutes later
And in general, the main thing about his ability is the enhancement of the "Summon Elementals" and "Phoenix" spells. And it's a significant enhancement – +1 to spell power for every 3 levels.

With this ability, Zehir in the second mission can easily defeat liches; you attack with six units, one at a time, against a single gargoyle. And you lose one or two... So, you need to know how to use everything effectively... And in battles, single units don't just die in response; they continue fighting...

Yes, the mission is indeed quite challenging. D12(ArchOnt) provided a well-written guide on how to complete it. I would only add a few tips: you should attack the Undead Castle no later than the end of the second week; after the third reinforcement, it will be almost impossible to defeat the computer. Along the way, I only attacked Imps, Demons, and Skeletons guarding chests, and I focused on gaining experience rather than gold to develop my hero. I didn't attack the monsters guarding the magic power upgrades because there would inevitably be losses, and troops are scarce and more valuable than gold. Before the Undead Outpost, I killed the Skeletons guarding the mana well and the Plague Zombies guarding the artifact shop. I replenished my mana and bought as many artifacts as I could afford, mainly to enhance magic (to summon more Elementals). I cleared the Outpost and rushed to the Castle. On the way, I was attacked by an Undead hero with a main army, but I defeated him thanks to the Water Elementals. After the battle, I had almost no units left, but the computer also had very few units near the Castle. I killed the hero with 30 Bone Archers, and inside the Castle, there was a hero with only one Archer.

If we count the number of attempts, this mission is the most difficult for me compared to any of the ones I've completed in the five campaigns. It took me three attempts to break through the garrison. On the fourth attempt, I managed to kill the enemy hero. Only a few demons and 1 djinn remained of the army. The hero has no mana. There are 2 days left until the end of the week. Running to the well and dwellings is pointless. I hope to buy demons in the dwelling behind the garrison within 2 days and reach the castle. I defeated the hero who was heading to the dwelling. That's why they are there. We'll see what happens... In 2 days, I'll have enough mana for 2 lightning spells.
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I completed it on my second attempt – the mission didn't seem particularly difficult to me, especially after "Emerald" and "Conquest" – and I even tried not to upgrade Zephyr to level 10 right away, so I could visit all the upgrade locations.

I'm also afraid of reaching level 10 too early. That's why I didn't touch the imps and other minor creatures guarding the chests. I only cleared dwellings, mines (which was a mistake – I just wasted troops and time), and upgrade locations. If I get overwhelmed, next time I won't waste time on mines, or even on unclaimed resources.

After successfully completing it on the 5th try, the mission seemed very easy... if you forget about the 4 failed attempts.