Language: Polish.
Genre: RPG.
Description: Your task is to defeat all enemies; to reach them, you must overcome the Legions of Monsters. To start, you can choose between a Necropolis or a Stronghold—the choice is yours.
Google Translate: Your task is to defeat all enemies, to get to them, you need to overcome the Legions of monsters, at first you need to choose Necropolis or Stronghold, the choice belongs to you.The essence of the map is in its name (Legions of Monsters). It is a large battle map with a linear Walkthrough without complex quests or the need to strain oneself figuring out how to get something, get somewhere, or defeat someone (in some cases, the editor will help you). Necromancy lovers should enjoy it.
Features:
(depending on your skill level, these can be considered either advantages or disadvantages)
With the exception of the first rival enemy, all other enemies sit motionless in their cities; after eliminating the first enemy, you can proceed calmly and without haste, as no one will attack you. Weaker players will like this, but stronger ones will find such a state of affairs boring.
Advantages:
The ability to choose color and race at the start: you can begin either as Blue with Necropolis or Pink with Stronghold (though later you will have to play as a Necromancer hero regardless: I will explain why below).
There is almost no text on the map, so you don't need to make an effort to understand it without translation.
Almost all artifacts and spells are available, except for those that allow own flight and plot artifacts required by guards or seers.
The game quickly picks up pace, which does not slacken until the finale. The only place where a slight delay in accumulating creatures will occur is the guard, whom I will mention in the disadvantages.
Shortly after the initial stage, you will have plenty of resources, cities, and troops.
There are no timed quests on the map or any specific requirements for completion deadlines.
The map can be comfortably completed by an average player or even below average.
The map allows one to fully reveal the power of a Necromancer with a massive army of liches.
Disadvantages:
If a map author makes it possible to play as 2 or more races, they should balance their capabilities. Here, there is a
wild imbalance that I only discovered after completion by starting as Pink: just look at the screenshot. Also, the monthly event gives additional troops to both Necropolis and Stronghold, but the
number of creatures is too unequal: Stronghold receives twice as many thunderbirds and ancient behemoths (while necromancers get roughly twice as many skeletons and zombies). Given these factors, it is much more profitable
at first to play as Barbarians; if you are not a strong player, there's no one to think about.
The pace and overall success of the game depend heavily on random factors (more details below).
The starting Necromancer hero, Lord Haart, has all 8 skills, among which
there is... no necromancy! This means you must immediately hire a "normal" necromancer and make him your main. However, after comparing the skills of the starting heroes, I realized the reason for this misunderstanding: the author simply gave them identical skills, forgetting about necromancy.
For Necromancers, it is extremely important to obtain the Cloak of the Undead King, and not too late. Neither the Cloak nor its components are explicitly on the map, and the player must assemble it themselves from what they manage to get or buy, relying solely on luck.
Furthermore, when a player has only one city during the 1st month, it is very important not to rely on chance regarding which spells appear in the Mages' Guild, but rather to specifically set at least some. In particular, for necromancers—Raise Dead. Accordingly, Barbarians should ensure Resurrection even in the Dungeon.
Obtaining the Sphere of Vulnerability is a similar lottery.
There could have been more enemies (there are 5, but there could have been 7), and the periods of dealing with neutrals between battles with enemies could be shortened.
There is no Grail buried in the ground, but that's understandable: almost all cities on the map already have Grails.
The mandatory quest for a passage guard requiring 35 boar riders is poor, as the player must not only wait 5 weeks to accumulate them in the single dwelling but also has nothing to do during this time since everything around is already "cleared." It would have been better to require fewer boar riders or place about 3 dwellings. However, a player can be clever and shorten the wait. More on this in the next point.
About my Walkthrough
I chose Blue and Necromancers because I saw that there are many monsters on the map and powerful anti-magic garrisons; both are particularly convenient to break through with undead. Just look at the garrison of 3000 ifrits near the first Inferno Mirydorium: breaking it with living troops is agonizing, with huge losses. However,
if anyone completes this map using only living troops, please tell me about it!The first time I started the Walkthrough unsuccessfully and had to stop in the middle of the 2nd month and start over. Pink (Barbarians) developed faster than I did. He captured the Dungeon located in the middle of the path from my city to his. On 2-1-7, he suddenly broke through 20 chaos hydras on the road ahead (cell 19,61). And on that same day (what a coincidence!), large reinforcements appeared in the city (alas, for the Barbarians too). After about a week, I tried to fight Kilgor, who was sitting in the Dungeon, and realized that I would perish in this battle.
The second time, I started generating a lucky starting save. After several attempts, I managed to get Raise Dead in my Necropolis, without which survival here is impossible. I also got lucky with Berserker. Checking the skill drops for the main hero, I found one successful generation where Earth and Fire magic dropped. I played from this save.
And for the 2nd time, Pink captured the Dungeon before me. But this time I was lucky: on 1-3-6 Kilgor attacked 20 green dragons standing in the same place (they generated instead of hydras) and... vanished! The dragons also vanished (miracles? No, later I found out: it was the result of careless use of Armageddon; the barbarian died by "miscalculating" the damage). I realized: this is a chance that must be taken! On 1-4-1, I attacked the Dungeon and, taking advantage of the absence of a hero in the garrison, easily captured it (there were even more skeletons, although mana was low). I immediately doubled my mana reserve and learned many new spells. The Earth Guardian is already in the Dungeon. I built artifact traders and bought a Telescope and
Vampire's Mantle from them.
Then I went south along the road, defeated 3 barbarians, and on 1-4-6 captured the Stronghold. After that,
on 2-1-2, I finished off the barbarian hiding near the Dungeon.
Pink vanished. Now I can develop calmly and systematically.
On 2-1-6, I bought
Dead Man's Boots and Legion's Loincloth from traders.
On 2-4-4, I defeated 85 red dragons (more accurately, 12 of them were upgraded to black) on the way to the shipyard using only 116 vampire lords with magic. Other troop combinations did not ensure completion of this battle without significant losses. And here I also raised 50 skeletons. Looking closer at the battlefield, I saw a great spot in the south behind a mountain where vampires can be attacked by only 2 stacks of dragons, and they are even afraid because they burn through the vampires and wound each other. I replayed the battle, casting only Shield, and spent only 20 mana.
On 2-4-5, I visited the
green tent.
On 3-1-2, entering the Dungeon, Nagash bought the
Undertaker's Amulet and assembled the
Cloak of the Undead King. On that same day, he got into a boat.
At sea, I obtained several useful artifacts and raised the first 10 liches.
On 3-1-4, I removed the green guard and sailed south. I defeated 750 water elementals and raised 524 liches!
On 4-1-2, I tried to break through the anti-magic garrison with ifrits (1600 ordinary and 1450 sultans). After several attempts with different variations, I managed to break through, losing 1146 liches and 5 ifrits (hired to protect the liches), but in return, I raised 3050 liches.
On 4-1-3, I took the Sphere of Fire (which also had hidden guards), as it will be needed later by the passage guard.
On 4-2-3, I defeated 400 crystals before the western utopia without losses, raising 400 liches. I took the Guardian's Shield. In the utopia, I received the
Sphere of Vulnerability, Cloak of Speed, Ring of Life, Unicorn Helmet, and 20000 gold. There are already more than 20000 liches!
On 4-3-6, I defeated 475 azure dragons and took the
Tome of Earth Magic, Titan's Armor, Ring of Precious Stones, Sphere of Water, and Cloak of Renunciation. I didn't get anything particularly valuable in the utopia.
Exactly on 5-1-1, giving the Spirit of Despair and Hourglass of the Unlucky Hour to the guards, I visited the
blue tent. After this, helper heroes opened access to additional external dwellings behind the blue guards and joined dozens of level 7 creatures waiting there.
On 5-1-6, I removed the blue guard at sea and gave the Sphere of Fire to the guard to sail toward the enemies. On that same day, I landed on the shore next to an anti-magic garrison and the road leading to Turquoise. Since the number of liches is increasing greatly and it's necessary to be able to temporarily give part of the troops to another hero, Gunnar landed shortly after.
On 5-2-2, I defeated the Dragon without strain or losses.
Turquoise vanished.
After that, hopping between cities and replenishing troops, Nagash passed through the small green monolith into the Valley of Mad Dogs, where the red tent is located. Now I have to constantly divide liches into stacks and sometimes give them to Gunnar to avoid numerical overflow.
Nagash now leads only azure dragons and liches forward.
On 5-2-7, Nagash, cutting a path through hordes of dogs like an icebreaker, finally visited the
red tent.
On 5-3-6, I boarded a ship in the Tower area and sailed further northeast.
On 5-4-3, I freed level 23 Catherine from prison, who has
Town Portal in her book and 240 phoenixes, 120 archangels, and other level 7 troops. Catherine immediately went to study and pass Town Portal to the scholar Rozik, who would teach the others.
After defeating rusty dragons and passing through the blue monolith, I found myself in a spiral.
On 6-2-3, the Soul Dungeon and Monument to the Gods of War were built in the starting Necropolis and Stronghold. For this, some resources were taken from us, but there are still plenty. And on that same day, I captured the first Conflux, where everything is also built, including Radiance, and all spells are present except for Fly and Dimension Door. All heroes capable of it teleported there and also learned all spells. Any school of magic can be learned there as well.
On 6-2-7, I removed the red guard, sailed southeast, and landed before Orange's anti-magic garrison.
On 6-3-4, Xeron was defeated and
Orange vanished. The battle was not difficult; it only required a lot of mana to raise fallen liches and resurrect phoenixes. The most unpleasant factors were the tactics and high morale of Xeron, which caused his flying stacks to attack mine after berserk, and almost all enemy troops managed to exit through the gates.
On 6-4-7, giving the Sacred Charm to the guard, I opened Pandora's Box. After defeating 400 rusty dragons, I received experience, mana, 555 of each resource except gold, and level 7 creatures: 25 azure dragons, 700 phoenixes, 400 black, 380 ghost dragons, and 340 ancient behemoths. These troops would be a priceless gift to a player wishing to complete the map using only living troops.
On 7-1-4, giving the Charm of Freedom to the guard, I descended into the dungeon. I immediately had to defeat 4000 black dragons. Then I went west; in the east, the guard requires 35 boar riders, but I only have 8 so far. Looking around and checking my guesses in the editor, I confirmed that there is only one boar hollow on the map, and I cannot get anywhere else yet, so I'll just have to wait and accumulate these creatures. If lucky, they may appear in Dungeon summoning portals (I have 3 now). Also, I need to check the refugee camp south of the Tower that belonged to Turquoise. If I restart the save for the 7th day many times and check immediately, I might get lucky, then the waiting period will be shortened.
On 7-2-1, after a dozen restarts, boar riders appeared in one of the Dungeons. From this, I decided to continue the Walkthrough. If I manage to repeat the successful generation once more, I'll only have to wait 2 weeks (8+16+16=40).
On 7-3-1, boar riders appeared in the refugee camp. Collected 35 together and gave them to the guard.
On 7-3-5, I reached the sea and got into a boat. Crossed the sea, passed through the purple monolith, and ended up on the northwest shore of the land world near a whirlpool.
On 7-4-1, I gave the Symbol of Knowledge to the guard and landed on the shore.
On 8-1-4, I slaughtered azure dragons and visited the
brown tent.
Having captured the Fortress, I went north toward the black tent; near an anti-magic garrison, I found a hidden path, but it led not to the tent, but to
1500 peasants wishing to join. Visited the
black tent.
Removed the black guard and passed through the monolith. It has 3 exits: the path to the last enemy in the snows behind a guard requiring the Silt Sphere, the angelic gates, and the hellish gates.
On 8-3-7, I broke through another garrison, which suddenly turned out not to be anti-magic, and took the Sphere of the Celestial Vault. Now I can visit the
purple tent and go toward Purple.
On 8-4-3, I broke the garrison before the first Tower, easily defeated Solmir, and captured the Tower. Kira in the 2nd Tower and Daremith in the 3rd were also easily defeated. Finally, Theodore was overthrown, and
on 8-4-5 Purple vanished. Only Green remained.
Breaking through another garrison with dragons, I took 3 Charms of Negativity, for which I received generous rewards: 600 azure dragons and 2500 phoenixes.
Took the Stronghold and saw a
white tent to its south. Breaking almost all the way to the tent, I found out that the guard before it needs a Magic Cloak, which I don't have yet. Thanks to Prospector, I found out that
the cloak is held by azure dragons in cell 59,129.
On 9-2-1, I recovered the Magic Cloak, visited the white tent the next day, and rode toward the shore.
Removing the white guard, I sailed north.
On 9-2-4, I reached the figure of the Steadfast Sentinel. The battle for it resulted in heavy losses, so I combined all of Nagash's liches into one stack and destroyed the fairy dragons before others (after their attack).
On that same day, I landed on the shore before an anti-magic garrison of fairy dragons. It is convenient to use the Sphere of Forbidding or Cloak of Renunciation against them (I have both artifacts). Using the Sphere of Forbidding and Elixir of Life, I was able to conduct this battle with a positive result.
On 9-3-2, I captured the last neutral city, Fortress, and could have finished the game faster by fighting Green. But for the sake of fully exploring the map, I wanted to take troops from Pandora's boxes in the snows, spending another couple of days. Unfortunately, I accumulated fewer boar riders than required by the seer who gives phoenixes for them, but I won't wait another 2 weeks for that.
Giving the Legion Statue to the guard, I proceeded to the dwellings and boxes. Some level 7 monsters joined. Since Nagash had already reached level 72, Lord Haart opened the box, receiving 10 million experience and 6 squads of creatures. Almost the same happened in another box, only some creatures differed.
On 9-3-6, I fought Rashka. He was the only enemy hero who was pleasant to fight, as he was not much weaker and could offer resistance (Prayer from the Angel Alliance even allowed him to attack first).
Green is destroyed; I won.
Result: 244 days, 442 points.
For interest's sake, I tried replacing all liches with living troops and facing Rashka with such a composition. I took the "bonus" creatures that Lord Haart led—among them there were not even shooters—and did not collect additional troops from cities. Even in this case, Rashka was defeated without losses.
As a bonus, I attach a screenshot of the final stage of the battle with Rashka, where the liches' staffs lined up in one perfectly straight line.
