Posts from Ambassador

RedHeavenHero, your scenario is indeed good. Perhaps the dialogues lack a bit of maturity, or maybe I'm biased.
The fact that the scenario doesn't contain any mods is definitely a plus. I completed it on Hero difficulty in 110 days (lava dragon, 2269 points). I'm curious, how long did it take you to complete it on Hero difficulty with the Thunderlord?

There's a mentor there; I didn't choose Dark Magic at the beginning either, but what prevents you from retraining?

If you take and rebuild 3 outposts, with an army focused on Dark Magic, it should be good. I had both Dark Cloaks, but for the most difficult battle against the dwarf, I used the Necromancer cloak with a bonus to Morale and Luck.

Another advantage is that you can prepare for the final battles, collect all the buffs on the map (and there are plenty), and discard unnecessary Leadership and Logistics skills, taking the most combat-oriented ones. Also, you have 2 sets of dwarves, and you can break his Luck with artifacts. I had this happen in that battle: http://c2n.me/3SRMuSk, http://c2n.me/3SRMy4k. I played it about six months ago, judging by the save date. It seems the computer didn't resist magic very well, so everything was fine. You can choose between the ability to subdue dragons and berserkers and breaking their spirit and luck. I also needed to discard Overseer and Experienced Commander for Deadly Misfortune, but I didn't bother.

You can weaken the undead with secondary heroes, leveled up under the mentor and equipped with the Sandro's Cloak, but I completely overwhelmed them.

I skimmed through the thread and didn't see anyone who managed to get the Thunderlord after playing the latest version of the map. In my opinion, it's impossible to obtain due to the strict resource limitations. Even with a log, you'll play for a maximum of 5, maybe 7 days. I'm talking about the final stretch after defeating the dwarves for the rune, leading up to the battle with Bertrand.
After trading resources in the Factory for 100 each, I received the following: 0 wood, 0 ore, 0 mercury, 46 crystals, 4 sulfur, 4 gems, and 24712 gold. And that's despite the fact that I had a week of alliance (creature growth is tripled, and the production of all resources in mines and cities is tripled).
Perhaps, with the remaining crystals and gold, I could have acquired and fought for the rune one or two days earlier, plus an additional 5-7 days. At best, it takes a week, but that's nowhere near the Thunderlord with a Lava Dragon.
I repeat, if anyone has managed to do it, please share your experience.

Update: I understand that it's probably too late to suggest anything, but still. The second set of dwarf kings is completely unnecessary. It would be logical to receive it after winning the rune battle, just in time for the final battle with Bertrand. The rune battle without the set was more challenging. Replace these artifacts with others, possibly random ones, and add a restriction to the dwarf kings to prevent duplicates.

I have Epic War Age (EWA) installed, and it's completely different.

EWA is for veterans. It has many different mods, including Dynamic Groups, TE scripts, and Mega AI and EE. And a lot depends on the settings. You can configure it so that even a Warrior can't pass.

Played through it again, but without logging, in 124 days (2037 - Cyclops). The catapult doesn't appear if you don't control all the mines. In the tavern of the Dwarven Castle, you might not find any heroes, and they won't appear until the end of the scenario. This forced me to replay. Lorenzo fled the battlefield from the turquoise enemy, and the heroes appeared in the tavern. If you equip Bertrand with the King of Dwarves set before the battle, he becomes weak. He stops dispelling enchantments and almost always attacks with his bare hands.

I don't know, I couldn't manage to defeat the guard of the war machines. In my opinion, it's just too difficult. I enjoyed playing and completing your campaign, but maps like this one only diminish my interest in the game. Again, this is just my opinion, and I want to thank you for your work.

I used to play this map on Veteran difficulty, and now I tried it on Hero difficulty. It was a tough challenge, and I finished it in 174 days (I got a Hydra – “what a pain”). Unlike other maps by this author, I didn't enjoy this one: it's too stressful because the whole game feels like walking on a knife's edge. You have to manage your time to capture the first castle, escape to the dungeon, fight off a bunch of evil gnomes, grab the axe before a couple of hundred dragons get to it, and gather enough resources to fight the fat gnome, thinking that's the final boss, only to fail and encounter an even tougher Bertrand on the way to the finish. I understand that the game is built around leveling up light and dark magic and mastering logistics, but somehow, not all the necessary spells appear on the map. Overall, I don't understand this kind of misanthropy. But, as they say, we have to make do with what we have, and I thank the author for that.

Continue with the files:

Hello, I want to share my opinion about this scenario. Without going into details, I would rate it a solid 4 out of 5. I will try to explain why I came to this conclusion.

1) START - cutscenes, a familiar map, we play for the other side, all this is interesting, but... At the start, there are two heroes: one near the Dwarven Castle, our main hero, Varen, and Lorenzo (also known as Dugald). There are no questions about the story; everything is logical and concise. It's unclear what Varen should do, which is basically what is indicated: find a clue to the book. Everything is clearer with Lorenzo, but I almost messed up and was already thinking of replaying, but it seems I managed.

Lorenzo vs. Dugald

The main problem was the time limit for capturing the castle. Again, a deadline, and we need to speed up. The main problem at the start is Dugald, who comes to us quite quickly. In general, everything else is relatively simple to clear, except for the stack guarded by a machine. My mistake was that I arrived on the second to last day of the week, and I managed to break through with minimal losses Battle for the machines, and then they tell me I need 10,000 and 50 wood, which I didn't have. I thought, "Okay, Varen is clearing stacks and gathering some resources in the meantime..." So, I thought I would buy them, and the task would be completed, but no, I also had to reach the castle, which I didn't manage. Luckily, there was an autosave from the previous day, so I loaded it and managed to do it at the last moment....

Varen, in turn, was running around, it's unclear what to do, and Laslo is just standing there like a dummy. At least I could steal his army (just kidding).
And in general, it's unclear what to do, so I just run around, clear everything as much as possible, and gather some skills, like luck, attack, defense, and magic resistance. It's good that there was a mentor later. After the supposed siege of the castle, all the heroes appear, remove my siege, and Wulvsten runs to the Dwarven castle. Laslo brilliantly defeats him, and we are given access to a portal that we couldn't enter before. Then, for some time, these heroes run around: Frida, Duncan, Isabel, and Wulvsten... After capturing the Dwarven castle, they simply disappear... The funny thing is, we can return to the starting location, repaint all the mines, take the T1-3 dwellings, and hire units, and we can even capture the castle in one day, although we can't buy anything in it, but if there was at least a magic guild, I could learn something...

2) Mid-game - the underground

I liked this stage of the map more; it's more interesting. I liked that there are our units and immediate upgrades, although to get them, I had to rebuild the Dwarven dwellings for a certain amount of resources... But now, as they say, it's okay, nothing terrible. Since I followed the advice at the beginning of the post and downloaded the fixes to bring back the Fallen Angels (they are OP guys with drain life) and give Adepts the Blind skill in the book.

In the underground, we meet a familiar lord, Eris.


He tells us that we need the Flame Rune, etc....

The Dwarves, who were actively running around, caused some problems at first, BUT, with the OP Tier 7 units, it was quite easy to pass, although not immediately....
The passage is locked, and we need to go to the local seer to help us, I think it's some amount of resources and a runic battle axe, because in the castle that we have at the beginning, there was no hero, and then Gabrielle (I think) appeared, so I had to go back, but that's okay. I mentored my first hero... Some battles:

vs. Ingvar

vs. Helmar



As I thought, a good build, but in the end, I had to re-specialize because the game itself even "subtly" hints that you can't play here without Darkness, what makes me think this, looking at one castle, and at these spells



For the upper castle

And here, whether you like it or not, Darkness is a must-have, not only because of the castle. Although, I think you don't necessarily have to conquer it. Ingrid (I think) sits there and doesn't come out, but she occasionally buys a hero and runs out to repaint the mines, but I trapped him with a cockroach and that's it.
A funny moment: although you can't buy Dwarves from the castle that we have, you can bring them from the surface and upgrade them, which probably shouldn't work, but it does (although it takes a VERY long time).

but you can abuse it))


cockroach is OP)

Well, okay, in the end, I had to re-specialize my main hero into Darkness because there was no other way, and before the battle for the upper castle, and with Brand, our Varen looks like this:



But I'm getting ahead of myself. Despite the rather obvious battles, there were also quite a few interesting encounters, which I will attach below:

against a stack of Dwarves

Stack of Mages (for the library)

Stack of Demons

863 Phoenixes

Undead stack

Undead stack (for the portal to the Fire Rune)

Before meeting Brand, I decided to buy everything, but with our income, and even considering that I was trading resources, it wasn't enough... And then it turned out that to open the portal, I needed 100 of each, and I was spending them left and right, but I was very lucky, I got a week of gold, and in the end, I bought everything and went for the Flame Rune)




Against Brand

There were no problems with this guy, as you can imagine, with such an army... Then we go to Arantir, but then a nasty human breaks the portal, and we beat him up. It also didn't cause any problems, although the area is not very convenient...


Against Bertrand

Let's summarize: the start and the first phase are vague in my opinion, although in general, all the tasks are clear, but there is some kind of internal feeling. The underground was more enjoyable, but I didn't like the intrusive promotion of Darkness, although you can't do without it here. Well, and the Fallen Angels are definitely a plus, although they are really OP.
After playing another work by the author, I am very satisfied. Not as much as with the previous map, but this one is more complex. Now, in the chain "Campaign - Unicorn Empire," I'm looking forward to something good).

Played through it for the third time. The idea was to defeat the gnome guarding the "rune of flames" with Plague and without any losses. The recording is below. 116 days, received the Archangel.

Build

Update: I corrected the build and replayed. "First Aid" is simply useless. Also, there was a mod that restored "Blindness" to Adepts and "Drain Life" to Seraphs.

Where did you find a mentor? I've explored half the map and haven't seen any mentor. Is there an open map or a photo showing where this mentor is located?

Where did you find your mentor? I've explored half the map without using any magic, and I don't see any mentor. Is there an open map or a photo showing where this mentor is located?

My Varenik didn't have much magic either. But certain knowledge helped to get out of the battle without losses. Empathy + Prayer + Regeneration actively affected all units. Fortunately, Varenik had extremely high Leadership, and he moved faster than any mage, with upgraded Sorcery. Storm Wind prevented flying creatures from getting too close. The tactics of the first turns of ranged combat worked well. Archers + Adepts + the joined Monks suppressed the enemy's archers and strong units. Then, Knights and Seraphs attacked the stunned units. And Adepts (sometimes Seraphs) cast Punishing Strike on them. With a shortage of troops and spells, each battle was fought with a well-thought-out tactic, taking into account all the features of one's own troops and the enemy's troops. And this is no longer an ordinary "meat grinder". If at least one warrior died in battle, the battle was replayed. It could have been skipped, but there was no confidence that more troops could be hired. Therefore, reaching the transformable dwellings, there was no limit to happiness. Yes, and the studied dark magic came in handy. "Fallen Knight" + "Light and Darkness" turned Varenik into a decent spellcaster. By a miracle, he received Slow and Weakness from random spells, without reaching the dungeon. And in the first city, he also received Haste. And when he found the tome of Darkness, life seemed like paradise , although not until he met the Guardian. There, after the first three replayed battles, he needed corvalol and valerian . And cheats, cheats don't give complete satisfaction from the game in the end. The map is designed for a game with full use of the brain, all skills and knowledge in this game.
Perhaps the author should make two versions: Hard and Light . Then the game will be comfortable for players of all levels. Good luck to everyone)

//////////....and he moved faster than any mage, with upgraded Sorcery///////////// How much luck is needed for a 2% Sorcery skill to appear on a Knight?))
P.S. This map is difficult even after the author has nerfed it. I'm playing it for the third time, the main thing in the beginning is to get what you need. I started over many times. The main thing is to know where to go for high-level Darkness... at the bottom, the magic Temples and Leadership are a must-have, along with Empathy.

Why create maps that are impossible to complete...? I struggled for two days. I tried on Hero, Veteran, and Warrior difficulty levels, and still couldn't finish it. I barely managed to capture the last Dwarf castle. And now I have nothing to use to break through the undead portal... Ugh... What a waste of time... Definitely a dislike.

Added 7 minutes later
I understand that there is a certain percentage of the Heroes community that "only plays on Hero difficulty, installs mods to make the game more challenging, and so on." But most players are either beginners or have average skills... I decided to play a Heroes scenario once a year, and then I encounter this...

Hello everyone!
The scenario is absolutely amazing; I replayed it because I didn't read that you need to install a mod for angels and monks, and it's not quite as good without it + I collected all sorts of unnecessary junk for Varen, like machines.
Respect to the author - 3 days of pure enjoyment from playing!!!
P.S.: The gnome that needs to be killed in the castle was much harder than the last knight)).