Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

To avoid cluttering the thread "The most difficult maps for you" with discussions about maps that clearly cannot be called "very difficult," I decided to create this topic. In it, I will talk about various interesting custom maps that I have completed, and I suggest you do the same. Here, we can discuss the difficulties encountered during gameplay, ask questions, etc.

And to start, I want to briefly tell you about a map whose walkthrough I finished today: "Darkness Attacks."
This map is XL in size but does not include a Dungeon. There are 5 warring factions; the enemies are Necropolis and Stronghold, and we play as allies with two other races, having the option to choose any of them: Castle, Rampart, and Tower.
Features of the topography: the map is very simple; there are only 5 zones, corresponding to the number of opponents. At the borders stand border gates of three colors, and on each ally's land stands a tent of the same color. From their own territory, everyone goes through the gate into barbarian territory, and from there, through the second gate – to the necromancers. The good news is that the enemies cannot come to us. The bad news is that all conditions have been created for the necromancers to gather a huge army and gain strong upgrades. Regarding what "every hunter wants to know":) Flying and Dimension Door are prohibited, but fortunately, Town Portal is available. However, it’s not that simple: it is forbidden in the Guildhalls of magic cities, and the only way to learn it is to complete the quest of the Seer (there is one on the land of each ally and enemy). Flying, by the way, is also possible, and not in the city: on the barbarian land stands a Scholar, ready to teach it, but he is guarded by 500 Titans, who also have Titan Roar!
After thinking about it at the beginning, I figured that I play Castle and Rampart relatively well anyway, and I had recently played them, so I will choose a more difficult option, i.e., Tower. In my opinion, the greater difficulty of playing as Tower lies in its greater dependence on resources, the relatively low maximum speed of units (11), which should play a role in clashes with necromancers, and the comparatively weak flying units (gargoyles and djinns).
From the very start of the game, I was convinced of the correctness of my assumptions: starting on impossible difficulty without resources here greatly delays construction and development, which means that mages are very weak for some time and lag behind in development compared to AI allies, who "have everything." :( However, friends do not forget about us and occasionally throw us bones from their table.:)
Our and allied starting heroes set a certain tone for the game: Jela, Dragon, and Roland. Dragon is, of course, my favorite when playing as Castle or Tower, but at the beginning, he only has 2 wizards, and almost everywhere there are monsters, and it turns out that every pile of wood and every mine has to be conquered. Artifacts are also available, and they are also guarded.
Thus, I developed quite slowly for a long time. The allies were the first to reach the barbarians and began fighting them. The barbarians were both ignorant (magic up to level 3) but strong and numerous.
When I finally reached the barbarians, I first headed towards the Cartographer, who was guarded by a couple of dozen Hydras. After destroying them, I saw that this operation brought much more benefit than I expected. True, the ground cartographer only revealed to me the lands of the allies and barbarians, which were already almost completely open at that moment; the necromantic possessions still remained hidden in darkness. But I took the Tome of Fire Magic from the hydras! At that time, I already had one, obtained in battle on my land, but it could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the barbarians!
Dragon's development went well: he learned all schools of magic and effectively used advanced magic, including Berserk. There was even an excess of Literacy: it was as many as 3 heroes, including Dragon! I kindly passed on my knowledge to the allies. They, by the way, did not interfere with me in any way, and were quite strong, and safely lived until the end of the war.:) I defeated the main barbarian, Tiraxor, myself. After defeating the greenskins, we and our allies entered the undead lands. Thanks to the participation of friends, the finale came rather quickly. Contrary to fears, only one main necromancer, Nagash, turned out to be strong enough. I prudently doubled my mana reserve by drinking water from the Magical Fountain and attacked Nagash. There was enough mana both for combat actions and for resurrecting the dead, so in the end, I achieved a "clean" victory!
The only thing that upset me: the Grail remained lying in the ground, and I already knew exactly where it was, and two of my heroes arrived there, but there weren’t enough days left for excavations: the last miserable necromancer attacked the city where the garrison was stationed and died ingloriously, and they announced my victory.
Therefore, the result in numbers is not very good: victory on 5-4-5 and 432 points. But now I can say for sure that playing as Castle or Rampart would have led to victory much faster.
P.S. It was during this map walkthrough that an incident occurred about which I wrote in the HD mod topic: a bug with changing the color of an ally's city after an unsuccessful attack by an enemy. I will add that I attacked this enemy without troops a couple of days later... and received half a dozen useful artifacts.:)
I also got lucky twice: once when 14 archdevils joined me (they gave Dragon speed 17!), and the second time I met the necromancer Septienna in the tavern, who was no longer a beginner, and hired her. She helped "clear" her native land while Dragon fought far away, and gradually gathered a decent number of skeletons and "leveled up." And then I assembled the Necromantic King's Cloak, and she started "cutting down" liches!
And another moment that amused me: the necromancers found out where the Grail is located... but for some reason they were digging in the wrong place!

I'll say the same. I haven't played much on the classic maps, preferring only the X-El maps, downloaded ones, and my own creations, but I decided to catch up a bit. And I noticed many strange things from the developers, some kind of oversight. The wonderful, virtuoso map 'Brave New World' has some simply idiotic quests. Buy, and then give away, a crystal dragon for a +10 attack bonus. Who needs that on such an intense map, where I had as many as five hero characters circulating around, constantly engaging in interesting and costly battles with an unexpectedly clever AI (I even saw for the first time that the computer can effectively clone archangels). Or, near the end of the game, I entered a house where they required all stats to be 10. And what did they give me? A +3 bonus to morale. It was hardly worth the effort, as they say. Or, take the less successful map 'Dragon's Gorge'. It's designed primarily for playing against a human, as the computer will stall and hesitate to break through the guards in vital areas until the very end. So, one of the players on this map has an additional event-based increase in creatures of levels 1 and 2. The others don't. I don't understand why at all, especially since the map is more geared towards human players.

My very first game was the standard campaign from Heroes 3. It seemed not too difficult to me, and the standard maps seemed even easier. Before that, I occasionally played Heroes 2, and therefore I easily found new maps and campaigns. And the first campaign that truly opened up the "WORLD OF HEROES" for me was the Mahuuta campaign. My skill level wasn't very high, and I spent almost the entire winter playing these campaigns whenever I had time. The author's concept, with complex maps and elements of humor, sometimes made it impossible to tear myself away from the game for days. Even after completing these campaigns, I still occasionally replay them to experience the pleasure of the classic Heroes 3 game again. I downloaded almost all the maps and campaigns, but I didn't find anything even remotely similar. It's a pity that there aren't more campaigns like that :(

Recently, I've had very bad luck with good maps: one turned out to be dull, another wildly unbalanced and impossible to complete. And then, finally, not long ago, I started playing through another map and soon realized that it is simply a masterpiece! It deserves close attention not only from players but also from map makers, as it can be considered an excellent example of how they should be made and a model to emulate.
So, the map is "Fatum", author - Griffin Eye (on HeroesPortal, where it was taken from, there are several more of his maps and campaigns that I intend to complete later). The map is not new at all: from 2002, and this is not surprising: as I wrote before, most of the best maps were made quite a long time ago. The language of the map is English, but there is very little text, so there's no need to fear that. ;)
The map is XL size with a dungeon, difficulty - impossible (I will talk more about this later!). You can play as any of the 8 sides (all races are represented except Conflux, although their cities and heroes are also present). Players have no random cities (only neutral cities are random), and each player's respawn (starting zone) is located on their native land — in contrast to other creations where you sometimes get such a wild layout that it's simply a disaster! :(
There is a plot here, but it is quite simple and short, and the reading will not tire anyone. Once upon a time in a certain kingdom there lived a kind king, and he had... no, not a daughter, ;) but a crown with a unicorn horn. And then one day a magical unicorn suddenly appeared before the king and began to complain about how hard his life was without a horn. The king, out of kindness of heart, gave him his crown. The subjects, seeing their monarch with an uncovered head, decided: a king without a crown is not true, :) stopped recognizing him as their lawful ruler and immediately started an internal strife. Now, to end the war, one must find that very crown and deliver it to the city of Fatum Wing. Or, if you prefer, you can, as usual, kill them all (defeat all enemies). :) Of course, this will not be easy: where the crown is now is unknown, where this city is — also, and enemies will hinder the search. But real heroes are used to difficulties, aren't they? ;)
Starting with the choice of race, I decided to play as Inferno. My respawn turned out to be in the southwest of the dungeon, in the very corner (as it later turned out, this worked in my favor: for the first 2 months, enemies never reached my domains). At the start, I already had 2 heroes, and each already had all 8 secondary skills, and all 8 were truly valuable! Of course, this is the author's merit. Evaluating both heroes (both are good!), I decided to appoint Aiden as the main hero with a specialization in intelligence. My choice was correct: Aiden with Wisdom, all schools of magic, good spells, and a huge reserve of mana was able to fight very effectively! And not only fight: since all spells and artifacts are allowed and present on the map (this is just great!), he soon learned Dimension Door (in the pyramid), and Xeron, freed from prison, already had Town Portal in his book (he also had all 8 valuable skills, just slightly different ones)! True, I found a hero with literacy relatively late, but then I was able to pass all valuable spells up to level 4 inclusive to the three strongest heroes.
An unexpected and pleasant surprise was that the Capitol in the capital was already built! And, barely leaving the capital, I saw: the map abounds with resources and artifacts! Therefore, despite the impossible difficulty, there is no problem of poverty in the first weeks on this map, which is practically a scourge of many maximum difficulty maps! The main hero actively developed, cleared his lands of monsters, picked up artifacts, while assistants collected resources and brought reinforcements. When almost the entire respawn was cleared, I decided to go traveling; my lava zone is separated from others by void, but 3 roads lead north, east, and northeast. And right then in the east, a pink (Dungeon) jumped out of the darkness, picked up a chest... and ran away! That's good, I thought, since I didn't want to hold a defense yet: the army is still not good enough for that, and enemies have already leveled up significantly.
After beating the Admiral's Hat, I set off on the road north: scouting showed that Conflux was nearby, and further one needs to sail. The Hat is very useful on this map: until you conquer enough cities in different parts of the world, you will first have to move through whirlpools, and it's also not worth losing days on boarding and disembarking! Later, having expanded my domains, I can quickly get where needed using Town Portal, and from there, if one needs to hurry — we ride with Dimension Door, and many places are also connected by monoliths and Dungeon Gates. Perhaps the only thing this map lacks is garrisons, Border Gates, and border guards: naturally, with Flight or Dimension Door, they won't stop anyone!
When the clashes with enemies began, almost all of them were stronger than me: after all, they didn't start from zero! The strongest turned out to be Pink and Blue, and Pink had the most cities in opposite ends of the dungeon. Emerging onto the surface, I found myself in the east and first marched triumphantly through the lands of Red (Castle), capturing all his cities. Then I headed southeast, where Green (Rampart) lived; for some reason, the elves turned out to be very weak and couldn't even leave their own lands. I crushed them quickly and without effort. I don't know what the deal is: later I'll examine the map better and figure it out; maybe the author still deprived Rampart of something or miscalculated.
Approaching the lands of Blue (Tower) in the northwest of the surface world, I tried to attack a couple of his heroes, but one was stronger than me, and another was relatively weak, but he happened to stop on cursed land! :( Therefore, I didn't touch Blue for now, although I captured the Tower in the northwest corner and took 12 titans from there: benefit for me, and fewer troops for the enemy. ;)
A turning point in the course of the war occurred sharply and completely unexpectedly, thanks to a rare combination of circumstances: during the turn transition, I saw how Pink's hero jumped out of a monolith, captured Orange's Fortress, and rode away into the darkness to the south. After this, I discovered that Blue's hero (Dragon) was standing in the same monolith... without an army! Aha, so Pink beat Blue, and the result is a manifestation of a known game bug (AI vs AI battle proceeds inadequately and leads to the appearance of a ghost hero). Deciding to find out which hero of Pink had ridden off and where, I set off after her. It turned out it was the main hero (Mutare), and already weakened by the preceding battle with Blue's main hero. I attacked Mutare and defeated her (poor thing, it turned out she put on the Sphere of Vulnerability, which doomed her: 30 black dragons obediently obeyed my magic, otherwise I would have had a hard time)! And after this, it turned out that the enemies no longer had the strongest heroes, and I became the strongest player! Of course, more effort is still needed for victory: explore the unopened part of the map, don't let enemies raise their heads, visit obelisks, try to find the Grail, and then one can deal with the Helmet with the unicorn horn and the city that needs to be captured.
I defeated Brown's main hero, Kilgor (Stronghold, south of the surface world), quite easily.
The next strongest opponent was Turquoise (Necromancer), his domains were located in the northeast of the dungeon. Invading there, I captured 3 Necropolis in one day (and on the way — a Stronghold and a Dungeon) and beat 2 of his heroes (though weak ones). Dimension Door and Town Portal contributed to this: three heroes can do three times more than one! ;)
Of all possible "treats," Xeron took Armageddon's Blade from Pandora's Box! And he has decent primary skills, Expert Fire Magic, and Sphere of Fire! Tremble, adversaries!
It's not worth describing in detail further; although playing became easy, one thing is slightly disappointing: it seems there will be no more complex or spectacular battles.
The main goal: I will try to do the maximum possible — capture all cities, dig up the Grail, place it in the city, find the Unicorn Helmet.
Hooray! A relatively "serious" enemy has finally been found: Crellion. His "seriousness" consists, however, only in the fact that he has the Cloak of Denial (I've already written how I hate such things). Of course, Aiden will beat him easily, but it is important to minimize losses, since avoiding them because of the Cloak is impossible.
In further progression, as it turned out, there were still battles worthy of heroes: in the dungeon — Conflux with Rainbow, next to it — little boxes, and a bit further, through a monolith, my hero reached a glade where that very unicorn with the coveted Crown grazed... but on the way to him there were as many as 2 ambushes with huge guards!
The city of Fatum Wing is perhaps the only thing I didn't like: it stands on cursed land, which means losses are inevitable! But the author understood: for a leveled-up mage with a barrel of mana and all spells, victory over almost any opponent is just a question of "How much mana will this take?" ;) Otherwise, I had to fight more carefully, but the city was captured with minimal losses.
I searched for some obelisks until the last day, but I found the Grail, dug it up, and took it to the city.
The last enemy was defeated on the 3rd month, 3rd week, 2nd day.
Result: 72 days, 498 points — better than all previous achievements ("Hellaen" was completed by me in 90 days)!

So what merits of this map make it a hit? (I will repeat myself, but I'll bring them together in one place)
* Fast start and high pace of the entire game.
* Presence of a sufficient amount of resources and mines.
* Ability to get all desired artifacts and spells.
* Strong opponents, but at the same time not set by the author, but becoming so in the process of war.
* By genre it is a "pure" strategy: the player can go in any direction and act as they find most convenient — no imposed mandatory tasks!
* The player can choose how to achieve victory: by one condition (bring the Helmet to the city) or by another (destroy all enemies).
* Ability to choose race (any, except Conflux).
* Replayability: the map can be completed again for each of the sides, and the layout can be different every time due to random artifacts, cities, monsters, and resources.

I attach 2 screenshots: the "coolest" battle with an ambush in the glade with the unicorn - disposition of forces and result.

Although no one has responded to the previous review yet, I hope that offline players interested in author-made single-player maps are still around and that someone will find this interesting. Yesterday, I finished playing another excellent map by the author Griffin Eye, called «Central law». The plot here is very short and simple: in the center of this world lives an evil king (Red, Castle), and his reign must be ended. Currently, his lands are surrounded by strong monsters on all sides, and there is a chance to win if forces are gathered while the king is surrounded. This map also has an XL size with a dungeon and an impossible difficulty. In general, it has almost all the same advantages as «Fatum», but there are also fundamental differences: there is no Flight or Dimension Door, and a blitzkrieg is not possible. Moreover, the Town Portal is also globally prohibited, but it can only be obtained in certain places and not right away. Therefore, fighting here is noticeably more difficult, but this may actually appeal to hardcore fans. However, here we play with an ally, which on an impossible difficulty is not only pleasant but also very useful! After thinking for a while, I decided to play as Dungeon. As it turned out, this decision had its own strengths and weaknesses. First, about the weaknesses: the surface world consists of open areas, while the dungeon is a system of narrow, winding tunnels with few exits to the surface, as well as several canals and whirlpools. As a result, only our lands and the ally's lands (also playing as Dungeon) are located underground, but it is very difficult to reach each other: our respawn points are at opposite ends of the dungeon, there is no Town Portal, and there are very "serious" monster squads in the way. And if enemies were to descend to us, it would be almost impossible to maneuver around them in these tunnels! But on the surface, there is complete freedom of movement! The advantage is that (possibly due to luck) the enemies were not very interested in what was underground: they sailed around the seas a little, captured a couple of neutral cities, and returned to the surface. In the event of bad luck, the game would have been lost altogether: Red had a powerful hero (Sir Mullich) with a huge army and was a terror to all enemies until almost the very end! Another advantage: my starting hero turned out to be a Warlock, Alamar; he had Wisdom, Earth Magic, and Literacy, and his starting spell was Resurrection (one of my favorites)! Without much hesitation, he was appointed commander-in-chief. After some time, Red found a prison in a cave, from which, after defeating the guards, he freed Orrin with a powerful army and valuable artifacts and spells, of which, in my opinion, the most important is the Town Portal: by capturing each new city, he expanded the controlled territory, and it was necessary to move very carefully on the surface to avoid his sudden attack. One of the difficulties was that Berserk, although not prohibited, could not be learned in any city; only closer to the end, when I met the ally for an exchange of spells, did I acquire it. I also didn't like the fact that the ally was the first to reach the Dragon Utopias, and one of his heroes had 2 Vulnerability Spheres, and the other had 3! And I had none! Unlike me, the ally managed to reach the underground prison first, from which he freed Mutare – a pumped-up hero with dozens of neutral dragons, powerful spells, including Town Portal, and valuable artifacts. In general, this is one of the few maps where the ally not only successfully survived to the end but was also one of the strongest players! The fiercest enemy hero, Mullich, was strong and terrible, but when I attacked him, I was able to defeat him quite easily: he lined up before the attack, and 3 or 4 stacks were next to each other, and I cast Berserk on them and fought only with the rest! This time, I was also very lucky with the Grail: it also turned out to be on our lands, and its location could be determined before visiting the last obelisk; the enemies did not reach it, and shortly before the end, the Grail was dug up and installed in the city. The luck lies in the fact that, if the Grail had been on the surface, the enemies would most likely have dug it up earlier. The last enemy city was captured on the 6th month, 1st week, 5th day. Result: 145 days, 490 points – not bad at all, although in the "personal standings" this is only 8th place.

Today I want to tell you about another old but magnificent map that I have just finished playing: "Titanic Pride". By the unanimous opinion of veteran players, it is rightfully considered one of the peaks of "Heroes" map-making and is included in all collections of the best maps.
So, back in 1999, Jason Russell created the "Prides" trilogy:
Titanic Pride: Episodes I, II, III
Angelic Pride: Episodes IV, V, VI
Devilish Pride: Episodes VII, VIII, IX
(and announced The End of Pride: Episode X, however, unfortunately, nothing is known about the fate of this part: it was probably never released).
Essentially, these 3 maps are a complete campaign consisting of 9 story episodes. The action takes place in one region, but in different parts of it (a general map is attached). For each map, the author also provided a description and very sensible, useful Walkthrough tips; there are almost no spoilers, but reading them helps avoid serious mistakes and prevents getting "stuck"; the most important goals and what needs to be done (as well as what should NOT be done!) are listed for each stage.
In terms of nature, the map is a combination of the best features of an RPG, a quest, and a strategy game.
Brief description from AG.RU:

Size: XL
Dungeon: yes
Heroes III Version: RoE (The Restoration of Erathia)
Map difficulty level: 5 (impossible)
Number of opponents: 3
Victory condition: defeat the hero named Graven
Defeat condition: lose the hero named Theodorus
Description: This map is the first part of the "Prides" trilogy. Gunnar, a high lord, intends to become the ruler of the whole world. Unfortunately, Gunnar has no sulfur, which prevents him from hiring dragons. Therefore, Gunnar sends his brother, Deis, to search for sulfur in the dungeon. On the surface, Gunnar is opposed by King Graven and his angels, but fortunately, the wizard Theodorus quarrels with Graven and thereby plays into Gunnar's hands.

By the way, perhaps it was from this map that the epic debate began about whether titans rule: :D

The King has been bragging all day that HIS Angels are the best in the Land.
Theodorus has had enough and decides to leave the King and seek a solution to prove that HIS Titans are better!

From the very beginning and throughout the first episode, the player's heroes are separated and act independently in 3 locations: Gunnar sets up his Dungeon, exploring the surroundings, Theodorus escapes from King Graven and finds a temporary asylum in the swamps, and Das must make a long journey through caves and by sea to gather a decent army of golems and find a way to reach Theodorus.
Having started the Walkthrough of this map, I became completely immersed in it and could barely tear myself away: the gameplay proved to be so exciting! Each stage consists of completing many separate small and large tasks, which are different for each hero. Although there is little story text, almost every day turns out to be packed with events, and the player is not bored at all! The depth of the map's design is so profound that it evokes indescribable admiration; I can say "Hats off!" to the author's talent. The AI heroes act surprisingly sensibly—furthermore, the author used only the capabilities of the standard "The Restoration of Erathia" editor, and there is no talk of any WoG scripts: all control is organized only by events and border guards of different colors.
The only thing players might reproach the author for is the "boring" visuals, on the level of standard maps and campaigns, but by today's standards, this is "not quite right": spoiled players love "prettiness."
In the first episode, the player's heroes start from zero, with no army, no spells, and no artifacts, but gradually their strength grows, and when the long-awaited meeting occurs at the beginning of the second episode, they exchange spells and artifacts, and the game becomes easier. And when the heroes learn Town Portal and Dimension Door, the pace of the game will increase rapidly, and there will be little left until the finale!
In one place, one can do better than the author suggests: instead of Theodorus, you can send Gunnar (mine was an expert in Earth Magic) into the one-way monolith leading to secluded snowy lands, from where he can then easily return using Town Portal. If Theodorus goes there, without Earth Magic he will be forced to tread water until the end of the game—but such an experienced commander would be useful in the main theater of military operations!
After capturing all the Tower towns, my army was supplemented with titans. Figuring that I had now become strong enough for it, I defeated Xiron, although the author wrote that this was not necessary to achieve victory. Having dealt with the Blue, I assessed my strength, decided that I didn't need to "drag it out," and set off to capture Alandria, the king's domain.
After visiting all the obelisks, I realized where the Grail lay, and, after waiting about 3 days since the king's destruction, I dug up the coveted treasure.
King Graven in his last city was defeated on the 4th month, 2nd week, 4th day.
Result: 95 days, 444 points—the score, of course, is not impressive, although all enemies are defeated, all cities are captured, and the Grail is dug up, but this result takes the last, 11th place in my personal record table. However, few maps have given me so much pleasure (which I wish for you too)!

Appendix: land map; the action of Titanic Pride unfolds in the east, Angelic Pride in the north, and Devilish Pride in the west.

Although no one has responded to the previous review yet, I hope that there are still offline players interested in custom single-player maps, and that someone will find this interesting.

I play those kinds of maps, but before starting each map, you need to check it to avoid any problems. I even encountered a map that turned out to be endless (although I checked it several times), and it only became clear at the finish. There can also be maps that are ridiculously long or unbalanced. In short, making a map is not difficult, but making a good map is! And ideally, the maps should not be simple, otherwise it's not interesting.
And reviewing maps is a good thing, I support this work!

Titanic Pride: Episodes I, II, III

The map is really well-made.

Having thoroughly played through “Titanic Pride,” I immediately started the sequel – Angelic Pride: Episodes IV, V, VI.
After being defeated by Gunnar, King Grayven is forced to settle in a new location. Unfortunately, “angels no longer live here” (for some inexplicable reason), and necromancers are pressing in from the west and east. For now, border guards are holding them back, but they will only be able to hold out for a couple of months until the invasion.
The king’s scout, Caitlin, was captured by lords and imprisoned in an underground dungeon, but she managed to escape.
Ivor rushed to the king with important news, but his ship ran aground and sank off the desolate shores.
So, an excellent authorial move: this time, we play as a former enemy – King Grayven – and our main goal is to find the angels. Moreover, the king has the opportunity to get even with the traitor Theodore and other recent enemies.
The map has all the same advantages as the first one, “Titanic Pride,” and it is just as difficult to tear yourself away from it. :) We play again with 3 heroes, acting independently, but after some time they must unite.
On this map, the middle stage of the war (dealing with Blue) lasts longer, but it also brings more pleasure: Blue has several strong heroes, and it was not easy to defeat him.
However, there are a couple of moments here where the author gives strange advice, and I would like to warn other players that they should not follow it.
When Ivor and Caitlin reach the southern sandy shore to get to the island from which they can sail and land in the king’s territory, the author writes that Ivor should exchange the Medal of Diplomacy for Water Walking at the seer. But Caitlin can also do this (especially since she has expert water magic). Water Walking will only be needed twice, and it doesn’t matter which hero does it the second time. Besides, later I was able to transfer this and other useful spells to all heroes capable of learning them using a hired hero-scholar.
But further on, there is a much more important point.
In the transition from the 4th to the 5th episode, you need to act very carefully and thoughtfully! After destroying the necromancers, the next most important step is to visit the purple tent of the key keeper in the dungeon (where Caitlin escaped from, next to the black tent). And here I completely disagree with the author and even think that the player has the right to be offended by him! Why?
So far, all the author’s tips for completing both maps have been exceptionally sensible, but here something is completely wrong. Judge for yourself: the only way to the purple tent is a one-way monolith near Centreton; along the way, you need to pass two brown border guards (the hero with Water Walking could visit the brown tent immediately upon arriving in the king’s territory). The author writes the following:

After Red is Dead, Ivor can "Water Walk" to the small island and read the Brown Tent. Caitlin (when all is ready) can re enter the underground and read the Purple Tent. Her Seer will help her escape.

So, in my opinion, the author is either mistaken here, or he just wanted to “trick” the player, because:
1) by clearing the two brown border guards, we inevitably free two powerful enemies, one of whom will immediately start pursuing Caitlin;
2) the seer gives the Medal of Bravery for... the Banner of the Messenger! I thought that the words “will help her escape” meant that she would receive the City Portal, but this deal is a complete scam: for a valuable artifact, we get a trinket! I checked with Prospector and in the editor: the Banner of the Messenger is not required by any other seer (there are no passage guards on the map at all), which means that it is not necessary to take it – and I didn’t!
3) it is practically not necessary for Caitlin specifically to go to the dungeon: any hero can make (or not make) the exchange! It is only important not to lose him.
There are two options here: either go without an army to escape as quickly as possible and buy your way out in the capital, or take an army to defeat the blue hero who will be at the dungeon gate (our hero needs expert logistics, Boots of Swiftness, and fast troops to break away from the pursuit). I chose the first option: defending the homeland is more important! :) So, any hero with one unit with a speed of more than 8 (for example, a royal griffin) can go to the dungeon, visit the Purple Tent, and immediately attack the Cyclops King to escape and buy his way out in any of his cities. The Banner of the Messenger is not needed, and you don’t need to pay a ransom (only for re-hiring the hero)!
At this point, after visiting the purple tent, the Blues will break through the borders and attack from several sides at once.
The author also mentions several times that we will need 5 relic artifacts to find in the surrounding lands, but nothing more specific: neither what these artifacts are, nor where to look for them. But later it becomes clear: by exploring the lands of Blue, we will see and collect these relics (4 parts of the Titan’s Roar and the Tome of Earth Magic).
The most powerful hero of Blue turned out to be Crag Hack: the Cyclops King gave him his cyclops (almost 2000!). However, after a couple of months, having prepared well, King Grayven was finally able to defeat him!
Since one of the necromancers had the Cloak of the Lich King, when I saw Isru in the tavern once, I hired him, gave him the cloak, and decided to make him another warrior. After a while, I was convinced that I was right to “pump up” the necromancer: attacking Inferno, where Aiden was stationed, Isru, thanks to the Cloak, “raised” 329 liches! And in the battle for the last city of Blue, Isru, although he suffered losses, “raised” 471 liches!
It was not difficult to deal with the Purple enemy, and it did not take much time. Of course, the Sphere of Vulnerability was especially helpful in the battle with Theodore.
I captured the Portal of Glory on the 6th month, 2nd week, 4th day.
Result: 151 days, 440 points. (The first time, I almost didn’t reach the monolith in the south, through which you can get to the last castle of Blue, so it remained unconquered, and I replayed the last day, but the score didn’t increase).

In my opinion, the most optimal way to complete this map is to quickly obtain the King of the Undead cloak and use a Necromancer. That's exactly what I did because defeating a hero who starts with 2000 Cyclops is a major challenge, especially considering that the hero you can't afford to lose can be easily cornered in a limited area, and strong enemies keep pouring in through the monoliths, preventing you from establishing a solid foothold in the starting territory. However, obtaining the cloak is easy and straightforward within the first few days, and then you can wage a guerrilla war!

Devilish Pride: Episodes VII, VIII, IX.

This is the final part of the “Prides” trilogy.
Plot: Queen Alaria’s defeated Estor Xyron is sent to work in the mines; there, our old acquaintances, Gunnar and Das, also toil. Xyron dreams of conquering the world, and he has already devised a plan, but for now, he needs to be patient. Xyron’s bride, Octavia, received instructions from him before his imprisonment and set off to an island from which she will begin to implement the great plan of her betrothed. At the same time, the Cyclops King, who has lost all his castles and been exiled to a foreign land, begins to gather his forces to return and reclaim his homeland.
At first, I couldn’t get the hang of this map; I had to start it for the 3rd time! The first time, I simply got distracted and didn’t capture the city before the end of the week. The second time, I made a couple of mistakes, which resulted in the Cyclops King being hopelessly blocked, which made it impossible to continue the game properly.
Unlike the two previous maps, here we start without a city. However, on the 7th day, Xyron reveals the location of the Grail to us, and immediately after capturing Inferno, we dig it up and erect the God of Fire.
I will write about the map’s shortcomings a little later, but for now, I will talk about the “feature” that I really liked as an original idea (remember, the map was made back in 1999!): in one place, in the sea, a boat blocks the way, preventing Octavia from meeting the Cyclops King and obtaining the City Portal scroll she needs.
Minor and more significant flaws were revealed almost immediately:
1) The punishing club of the ogre, which the Cyclops King would very much like to have, is located to the right of the shipyard (cell 90,9) in an event, which means it is invisible, and the cell with it is located in such a way that the player may not even visit it – that’s what happened to me the first time, and then I looked in the editor to see where it is (the ogres, who join him a little west of there, tell the Cyclops King about it). An annoying oversight or a deliberate act? And this is at the very beginning of the game! And this is not the only “hide-and-seek” element on the map: in the west, where Octavia begins, in cell 33,4 behind the volcano, lie the Boots of Levitation she needs; and in cell 43,3 behind the Nest on the cliff, lies the Sphere of Prohibition (although it is at least slightly visible), which is necessary to complete the map. Perhaps the author of this trilogy was the first to use “hide-and-seek”.
2) Even with the author’s advice, it is not clear enough what the Cyclops King should do and in what sequence, in order to, after visiting the green tent, defeat Astral, which can lead to an unpleasant situation, which I encountered in my second attempt to complete the map. So: after joining the ogres, you need to immediately sail southwest, where the crusaders guard the Shrine of Magical Thought, which gives us the Forgetfulness spell we need. And only after that should you sail east and south to land near the green tent and capture the Cyclops cave. And there, if we get in the boat again, Astral with 500 master gremlins will definitely attack us.
3) The necromantic respawn here consists of 3 adjacent areas, separated by white border guards; the outermost area, where the weakest heroes are, has an open exit to the sea (and the first guests from there arrived as early as the 2nd week). And the white tent at the necromancers stands in the middle area, guarded by ghost dragons. I realized that if I don’t let the necromancers visit this tent, they won’t be able to leave the 3rd area (where their strongest heroes are). Therefore, I invaded the second area and timed it so that the necromancer Septienna, who lived there, went to sea, and I captured that Necropolis and later defeated Septienna.
4) When I, prepared, invaded the 3rd necromantic area, it turned out that the main enemy, Tamika, was holed up in a Necropolis standing on cursed land and did not want to come out of it! This is one of the most frequent and most unpopular tricks of map authors, and perhaps Jason Russell was the first to use it.
5) The main drawback of the author’s design of the map: when Octavia enters a one-way portal, from which she ends up on an island among the swamps, she must visit the mage’s hut so that Xyron can see the magical island in the south and be able to go there across the water. But at the same time, Octavia is inevitably defeated by Verdish with a thousand chaos hydras, puts on the Boots of Levitation, and goes to the Fortresses, visiting the blue tent and releasing her purple heroes from the other lands they own (Tower, Dungeon, and Inferno). This all goes strictly according to the author’s plan, but Octavia before that visits the black tent, and then the blue one. Understanding that it will be much easier to deal with Purple, I myself invaded his lands, defeated the heroes who were there, and captured the cities. After that, Purple had only the Inferno zone in the dungeon left, which I could only get to after Octavia visited the mage’s hut, and the swamps. If the author wanted a more difficult game, he would have made it so that it would be impossible to get to Purple before Verdish was freed.
6) Finally, the presence of Flight and Dimension Door in Purple’s last respawn, in Inferno, although it is very pleasing, is completely unnecessary for further progress. Having obtained these spells, we can not eliminate the Red border guards, and we will finish the game by destroying Pink in 2 days!
And also – a moment that evokes both a smile and bewilderment: why does Purple have three blue tents almost next to each other in one zone, when one would be enough?!
So, the thoughtfulness of “Devilish Pride” leaves something to be desired. Taking all of the above into account, if the first two maps of the trilogy can be called excellent, then this one is only good.
Another interesting point: as in the previous part of the trilogy, after defeating the necromancers and taking the Cloak of the Lich King, I decided: it shouldn’t go to waste, and, meeting Isra in the tavern, I hired him, gave him the Cloak, and sent him to the desert to learn and “shear” liches. Only this time, the end of the game was already near, and Isra did not have time to bring any real benefit. However, this is not important.
The funniest thing: the Hourglass, required for victory, suddenly turned out to be with Olema, whom Octavia defeated near the Library with ease, because Olema had almost no troops. But for complete satisfaction, I did not immediately take the Hourglass to the castle, where I would immediately be congratulated on my victory: I wanted to defeat all the enemies, including Verdish (although defeating her will clearly be difficult).
For lovers of big battles, there are several pleasant battles here: with 2000 giants in the garrison, with golden dragons at the Utopia of Dragons (when I got to them, there were 3362 of them instead of the initial 500!), and finally, with the queen Est herself.
Having dealt with Pink, Xyron defeated Verdish: Blindness with expert fire magic helped.
Victory came on the 6th month, 2nd week, 1st day, when I captured Purple’s last Fortress.
Result: 148 days, 490 points; it could have been completed faster, but that’s not bad either.

(I finished it back in April, but I couldn't write the review for a long time)

Last Real Heretic

This is another excellent map by the author Griffin Eye.
Plot: For some time now, a new order has been established in the world; now angels and demons rule all other peoples together. The Heretic Aiden does not agree with this and seeks to return the world to its former state.
We start as the Tower, but unlike other maps where the early game as the Tower on "impossible" difficulty is long and difficult, here everything is different. We will have plenty of resources throughout the game for both building and recruiting troops; we will regularly receive reinforcements of both. Of course, our enemies will also receive such gifts, so with each week they become stronger, and fighting them in the middle stage is difficult, but interesting!
The second important difference: although our main cities will be Towers, our army will soon be reinforced by neutral dragons of all 4 types, and with each week their contribution in battles will become more noticeable. For this reason, you can skip recruiting units of the first levels in the Towers (gremlins, gargoyles, and golems). In addition, in the middle and late stages, it is useful to recruit more phoenixes.
In the early game, there are RPG elements; we have only two heroes and no taverns; we need to complete several simple tasks: reach the Nth level of hero development, free a prisoner from prison. Once we go out to sea, we gain complete freedom of action, independently choosing where to sail and who to fight. And only in the finale will we have to complete another mandatory task in order to invade the possessions of the Red, under whose leadership the angels and demons serve.
All the few mandatory tasks are clear and understandable; there were no difficulties that required resorting to the services of an editor or Prospector; I didn't even remember about them (recently, unfortunately, there are almost no such maps – in almost every game, players are waiting for various surprises and "perversions").
The map has all the artifacts and spells, except for Flight and Dimension Door (they can be obtained closer to the end, although there is no need for them, but this will give a huge amount of experience... and pleasure).
For lovers of spectacular battles, there are powerful enemies here, pumped up to the maximum ("all primary skills are 99!").
Victory came on the 3rd month, 4th week, 4th day. The game ended with a complete defeat of all opponents and the capture of all cities.
Result: 81 days, 448 points; however, there is no Grail on this map, otherwise the result would be higher.

The map is great, but it's not clear why the taverns had to be removed.

Belendor: Taverns were deliberately removed, and I even agree with the author: firstly, it enhances the RPG-like nature of the game in the early stages, and secondly, taverns offer the possibility of recruiting previously defeated strong enemy heroes into your army. There are taverns on the map, but not from the very beginning – you still need to reach them. Soon, a LawKeeper appeared in my tavern – the same one who was standing near the Observatory at the beginning, and he even had "huge" initial stats (see the screenshot). Yes, I hired him, but I didn't make him the main hero to avoid disrupting the author's vision and making the game too easy for myself: Aiden remained the main hero.

The reason for this is the mapmaker's inexperience. He didn't set the options so that those powerful computer-controlled heroes couldn't be recruited by the player.
I only learned about this feature myself relatively recently, about a year ago.