YbodGuH
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Of the prizes, the most useful is "+10 vampires". The deck is so-so, especially since when I tried to take it—law of irony—the skeleton lying by the graveyard had the exact same deck. You stand there like an idiot, with two decks in your hand and no army... total fail. In other words, such an artifact exists on the map, so taking it is pointless. "+6 liches" is also alright, but if only they were upgraded... as it is, losses during the capture of the first Castle are high. With vampires, they are relative—a few archers, all skeletons (normal), all zombies (not necessarily). With liches, however, I lost everyone except the liches and skeleton archers.
I played on "Hero difficulty, version 3.1 from Buka".
The Castle should be taken on the last day of the first week; we capture the graveyards (+40 skeletons) and raise them all, as there is enough dark energy for this. Don't rush the Castle immediately; instead, veer slightly south, where the resources are guarded by skeleton archers, and the mercury mine by skeletons (or vice versa). Join them and then go take the Castle; don't waste moves picking up resources if you don't have Logistics.
In total, you have 93 skeleton archers, 140 skeletons, 22 vampires, 53 carcasses, and other critters.
After capturing the Castle, we hire 2 heroes (the initial army is small, and neutrals need to be cleared), transfer the armies, and send them on reconnaissance. First, capture the sawmill and the ore mine (unguarded near the second Castle), occupy everything we can (all buildings with creeps), and don't forget the mill.
Clear the area of creatures like this: when you have dark energy (i.e., once a week), kill the living opponents. Preferably without losses. This can be done using only vampires, putting the others in reserve. (For those who don't know, hold Shift and drag the creature to the creature image panel). When you accumulate 70 vampires, any critter is killed without losses or mana spend. Try not to lose warriors, as we have to take a second Castle.
The enemy hero usually stays in the Castle if his army is at least 1.5 times smaller than your main hero's. However, he might covet the collector (auxiliary hero) at the mill if he has at least one skeleton. He usually wipes out the collector and occupies the ore mine. That's where his moves end. He cannot bring "Greater Liches" with him (which is exactly why it's impossible to occupy the Castle in the first few days), a hundred or two of skeletons with maces, or a horde of rotting carcasses. Take advantage of this. In such cases, it's desirable to have the main hero one move away from the mine. Since the AI doesn't consider the possibility that my hero can reach him using a portal, he calculates by distance. Additionally, it's preferable for the hero to be able to block the exit from the mine, but not reach the mine itself by 2-3 horse-steps (maybe it's because of this, and not the portal). Then it's a done deal. That's how I blocked his exit and destroyed him on the next turn. Without the hero and two weeks' worth of creature growth, taking the second Castle is easier.
To keep losses relative while taking the second Castle, you need to have 100 Greater Vampires with you (previously chat with the witch; for 50 zombies, 10 units of glowing ore (plutonium) and oral lesbian sex, she reveals the secret of upgrading creatures). Also, accompanying creatures. In my case, these were 22 liches (12 died during the take), 180 zombies (useless, just there for show), 400 skeleton shooters (about a hundred of those fell too), and 110 Greater Vampires (40 survived).
Level up the hero like this: Expert Dark Magic, Fallen Knight - Supervision - Weakening Strike (reduces our vampire losses), Mind Controller (Mass Slow will help when taking the second Castle, 100% Mass Dispel will ensure minimal losses when taking the green Castle). If you get it—Expert War Machines - Catapult - Sulfur Rain. But this is optional, as vampires will be the main strike group for the entire mission. Therefore, it's easier to take Defense (you'll definitely get it; a knight always gets it) - Expert Defense and Arrow Evasion - always useful when taking Castles. Don't take anything else—the level 12 threshold makes any other skills ineffective in this mission. Prayer especially—it's nonsense for undead. If there's no choice, level up Counterattack—at least it's something—or Luck (always useful). If you're a Logistics nerd—Pathfinding - Death Step. Although I think it's redundant. With maxed Dark Magic, I captured the green Castle with a loss of 5-7% of my army (half of which was due to towers).
Take the second Castle by the end of the second month, around week 2-3. Otherwise, it's not profitable—the losses during the capture won't have time to pay off.
For the capture of the green Castle, it's better to take this setup—Archliches (Greater Liches make no sense since the strike group is vampires, and they will resurrect themselves), Vampire Lords (Stun in a crowd is very handy), Rotting Zombies, Harbingers of Death, Ghosts (though it doesn't matter, they still won't manage to drain mana from demons), split Skeletons into archers in a ratio of 7 to 3 respectively (place defenders between the skeleton archers and liches to reduce damage from shots; if you have maxed Dark Magic and 100% Mass Dispel, this point is optional)
I played on "Hero difficulty, version 3.1 from Buka".
The Castle should be taken on the last day of the first week; we capture the graveyards (+40 skeletons) and raise them all, as there is enough dark energy for this. Don't rush the Castle immediately; instead, veer slightly south, where the resources are guarded by skeleton archers, and the mercury mine by skeletons (or vice versa). Join them and then go take the Castle; don't waste moves picking up resources if you don't have Logistics.
In total, you have 93 skeleton archers, 140 skeletons, 22 vampires, 53 carcasses, and other critters.
After capturing the Castle, we hire 2 heroes (the initial army is small, and neutrals need to be cleared), transfer the armies, and send them on reconnaissance. First, capture the sawmill and the ore mine (unguarded near the second Castle), occupy everything we can (all buildings with creeps), and don't forget the mill.
Clear the area of creatures like this: when you have dark energy (i.e., once a week), kill the living opponents. Preferably without losses. This can be done using only vampires, putting the others in reserve. (For those who don't know, hold Shift and drag the creature to the creature image panel). When you accumulate 70 vampires, any critter is killed without losses or mana spend. Try not to lose warriors, as we have to take a second Castle.
The enemy hero usually stays in the Castle if his army is at least 1.5 times smaller than your main hero's. However, he might covet the collector (auxiliary hero) at the mill if he has at least one skeleton. He usually wipes out the collector and occupies the ore mine. That's where his moves end. He cannot bring "Greater Liches" with him (which is exactly why it's impossible to occupy the Castle in the first few days), a hundred or two of skeletons with maces, or a horde of rotting carcasses. Take advantage of this. In such cases, it's desirable to have the main hero one move away from the mine. Since the AI doesn't consider the possibility that my hero can reach him using a portal, he calculates by distance. Additionally, it's preferable for the hero to be able to block the exit from the mine, but not reach the mine itself by 2-3 horse-steps (maybe it's because of this, and not the portal). Then it's a done deal. That's how I blocked his exit and destroyed him on the next turn. Without the hero and two weeks' worth of creature growth, taking the second Castle is easier.
To keep losses relative while taking the second Castle, you need to have 100 Greater Vampires with you (previously chat with the witch; for 50 zombies, 10 units of glowing ore (plutonium) and oral lesbian sex, she reveals the secret of upgrading creatures). Also, accompanying creatures. In my case, these were 22 liches (12 died during the take), 180 zombies (useless, just there for show), 400 skeleton shooters (about a hundred of those fell too), and 110 Greater Vampires (40 survived).
Level up the hero like this: Expert Dark Magic, Fallen Knight - Supervision - Weakening Strike (reduces our vampire losses), Mind Controller (Mass Slow will help when taking the second Castle, 100% Mass Dispel will ensure minimal losses when taking the green Castle). If you get it—Expert War Machines - Catapult - Sulfur Rain. But this is optional, as vampires will be the main strike group for the entire mission. Therefore, it's easier to take Defense (you'll definitely get it; a knight always gets it) - Expert Defense and Arrow Evasion - always useful when taking Castles. Don't take anything else—the level 12 threshold makes any other skills ineffective in this mission. Prayer especially—it's nonsense for undead. If there's no choice, level up Counterattack—at least it's something—or Luck (always useful). If you're a Logistics nerd—Pathfinding - Death Step. Although I think it's redundant. With maxed Dark Magic, I captured the green Castle with a loss of 5-7% of my army (half of which was due to towers).
Take the second Castle by the end of the second month, around week 2-3. Otherwise, it's not profitable—the losses during the capture won't have time to pay off.
For the capture of the green Castle, it's better to take this setup—Archliches (Greater Liches make no sense since the strike group is vampires, and they will resurrect themselves), Vampire Lords (Stun in a crowd is very handy), Rotting Zombies, Harbingers of Death, Ghosts (though it doesn't matter, they still won't manage to drain mana from demons), split Skeletons into archers in a ratio of 7 to 3 respectively (place defenders between the skeleton archers and liches to reduce damage from shots; if you have maxed Dark Magic and 100% Mass Dispel, this point is optional)
