Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

By the very beginning, I mean either the end of the first week or the start of the second. The moment when La Discorde first runs past us.

Regarding repeatedly buying the same hero in one day. I used this on this map to kill the strongest of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, shackled by War, and save a few game weeks, but this tactic certainly doesn't make the player honorable.

And about not killing a key hero for the scenario when you can do it at any time. It doesn't seem like normal gameplay :)

Added 2 minutes ago
But I also liked the map overall, even though I couldn't complete it, despite killing all the AI opponents on the map except for the inaccessible Angel Castle.

I also really liked the map; I would give it an 8 or 9 out of 10. Everything is great, but the author didn't fully develop the moment with the possibility of quickly killing La Discorde. In fact, you can do it by scouting only 10-20% of the map. He should have given him the opportunity to escape somewhere. Although, perhaps this option was left for the "faint of heart" who decide not to fight the legions of enemies but to kill one weak hero :)
I don't often use dismissing and hiring heroes. But on this map, I wanted to overtake the AI and take control of all its heroes. I set exactly this goal when playing and followed it. In essence, I managed to prevent the apocalypse, as the author intended :) The map is definitely worth paying attention to.

Has anyone played the Dejavu Dreality map? http://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?game=3&map_id=1051
It looks interesting, but I'm concerned about the replayability. Also, the situation with the castles, where only creatures of one level are available, and the type of these castles must be chosen before the start of the game, is a bit strange. Furthermore, judging by the comments, AI players without an alliance can fight and kill the quest heroes :(
P.S. Did you know that a cyclops under hypnosis can break its own wall? :)

I played a few maps with gamerhome; those Chinese guys are something else. All the maps are designed for extremely complex logistics and battles where you have to replay them 100,500 times to get all the creature morale and skills to trigger, so you can win a battle with minimal losses – maybe a couple of level 1 units =)

Now I've found the ultimate in absurdity. You're fighting against Hellspawn, and you have to make sure that each unit revives at least one demon so that you get more experience and can then pass the Guardians xD. By the time I figured out this trick, I had already replayed the start of the game several times, hoping that I had missed something.

Has anyone played the Chinese Lord Rings? I don't understand what to do when a pink hero with Titans appears at the start and attacks our castle at 1.2.1. We might have a maximum of 2 angels, 13 archers, and 30 imps, but you can't win with that army.
The problem is that the space where the pink hero lands occupies 3 cells, and even if we free up 2 heroes, we don't have time to dig up the port and prevent the computer from landing at 1.1.7. Or maybe there's some mechanic for transferring units so that you can dig up a cell and then move the hero?

Map Title: Where the Beauty
Author: Hans C. & Aeris Quamarine C.
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog

Where the Beauty is a rework by Chinese mapmaker Aeris of Hans C.'s Eternal Love map. I am not familiar with the original version of the map, but Hans C.'s works (including The Long Knight and The Uprising) are highly regarded in the Heroes community and often appear in various rankings of the best maps. Aeris, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive mapmakers in recent years, with an original vision of the Heroes foundations. This is already his fourth map for me, after Harry Potter, Qin the Supreme, and Qian. After Where the Beauty, I plan to continue playing his maps. Fortunately, there are still enough of them on maps4heroes.

Where the Beauty is the complete opposite of the previous Chinese map I played, namely Ira the Mage. There, the basis of the scenario was poverty and minimalism; here, there is an unprecedented breadth of opportunities, which you just need to use wisely. The map is in English; in the corresponding thread on maps4heroes, Aeris provides his own tips for completing the game. In general, Aeris differs from his Chinese colleagues in that he focuses not only on the gamerhome forum audience, which is reflected in the English language of the maps and the presence of hints for various moments that are not obvious to most players.

The win and loss conditions are standard. Four factions are available to start the game: Tower, Rampart, Swamp, and Stronghold. Accordingly, the choice of faction will determine the specific starting hero: Tower – a specialist in ranged attacks, Rampart – a specialist in resistance, Swamp – a specialist in defense, Stronghold – a specialist in attack. However, in the future, you can develop any of these heroes as you see fit, as they will be available for re-hiring, and there are taverns on the map.

The beginning of this map reminded me a lot of the beginning of The Last Crusade, only less confusing. Four sides to choose from at the start, while the computer-controlled sides receive a huge bonus to creature growth, and on the map area of each of these flags, there are tents that need to be visited. The task for the first week is to buy Lord Haart, level 6424, from the tavern on day 2 (the bonus from the specialist is about 160,000 gold income per day), capture the guarded castle in your area of the map with him, clear out as much of the respawn area as possible, and build a castle in the city near the guardian who requires the hero Maysh to pass. Then, on day 7, defend the city with Haart and some fast creatures and minor troops. Maysh is a logistics expert, level 868, with 99 in all parameters, so it is extremely unlikely that you can defeat him with someone else. It is most convenient to defend when playing as the Tower, as fire magic on expert difficulty and Haart's high spell power affect the damage of city defenses, allowing them to deal 1090 damage. When playing as other factions, the focus will be on chain lightning. I played as the Tower, although the choice was not tied to this moment; I just wanted to play with a focus on ranged attacks.

In the second week, the gameplay becomes completely free. I divided the army into parts and advanced in several directions at the same time: capturing castles in the center of the map, as well as conquering the three neighboring respawn areas. Lord Haart has about one hundred thousand free experience points in reserve before it is reset, so he can only be used for minor skirmishes and tricks. It is better to gradually level up other heroes.

In the third week, Maysh appears in the tavern. Exploring the map becomes MUCH faster, because at level 868, the logistics expert with boots, gloves, a visited stable, and maximum upgrades has 29940 movement points at his disposal. A serious imbalance, but Aeris did not give this hero magic schools as secondary skills, and his spell power at level 868 is equal to one. The fact that this can be corrected by wearing the Sky Thunder helmet, I noticed when checking after completing the game. In general, this hero is not for serious battles. Nevertheless, I was able to level him up to 6424. At this level, his maximum movement on the start of the day is 196620 movement points. One-fifth of the value when entering nwcnebuchadnezzar!

In the middle of the third week, I was already ready to go underground, but the quest to obtain four elemental spheres became an obstacle. All spheres are located in zones closed off by a passage guard, requiring 300 units of each resource. Two spheres were given to me by strong computer-controlled factions; the other two I had to take myself. With Lord Haart and the Horn of Plenty, the process took only a week. During this time, Sylvia and Voy completely cleared out the entire sea area of the overworld map.

In the underworld, the computer-controlled factions turned out to be much tougher. I had to organize tricky strategies against two Necropolises. But the further you go, the less necessary tricky strategies become, as the map is structured on the principle: destroy the enemy hero, and immediately hire him to continue exploring the map. The battles are interesting, but not hardcore. The forces of the opponents are superior, but we have any necessary combat magic at our disposal. The most useful units in battles are archdevils. There are locations on the map where random creatures are generated for joining. The best choice is devils or archdevils.

After killing Malekith in the underworld, I reached the final stage with the most interesting battles: Medusa (Conflux) with legions of archers in the Fortress of the Dragon Father and with a sniper bow (defeated with the sacrifice bug and explosion; I had few archers due to the early stage of the game, and the cart did not save during the battle, so I brought an intelligence specialist with 10000 mana into the battle), Irene (Mephala) with huge legions of troops (defeated with a berserker custom on mighty gorgons, and then with an earthquake custom), Ash with an Inferno army, including 32.5 thousand mages, with a sniper bow and a sphere of prohibition (!) (the most difficult battle on the map, passed, as often happens in battles with ultra-superior Inferno forces, based on the behavior of mages), Aphrodite (Sandro, level 6424) with 13 thousand phoenixes and a cloak of defiance (the battle is similar to killing Metatax on the Metataxer's Revenge map; it is not excluded that its idea was taken from this map), Bloodruby (Vidomina) on cursed land with legions of megadragons (defeated with ifrit sultans under Aphrodite), Marva (Moander) with 32.5 thousand mighty liches with a sniper bow (defeated by any hero who has previously learned flight and has high parameters, and has his own liches from Bloodruby's cloak).

In the battles, I would like to note a curious moment that I had not encountered before. I know that the computer can cheat and attack in melee with fantastic dragons instead of casting spells when it is advantageous. But, it turns out, it can do the same with ranged units. The enemy titans ran away from allied ancient behemoths under a berserker and immediately attacked my troops in melee. At the same time, no one blocked the titans!

Another interesting thing: this map does not have object replacements, which Aeris likes to use in his other maps. The only similar, not obvious moment: some castles turn out to be without a fort when they are besieged.

Also, some killed heroes come to the tavern with grails after death. As a result, I placed grails in all the cities I had. The daily income at the end of the scenario is a record for author maps – more than 500,000 gold.

I would also advise hitting all enemy heroes with chains of war and always keeping track of the number of artifacts in your bag. There will be a lot of artifacts, and you will have to dig through a pile of junk to find the ones needed for the quests.

The game was completed on 2.2.2, without using the admiral's hat bug and re-hiring heroes in the tavern after their death or dismissal on the same day. I scored 500 points. The map is very good, but not hardcore; it is suitable for a wide range of players.

I don't quite understand what's so wrong with bidding Maysh up to 117/121.

In my 1.2.1 version, the tavern is empty. Maysh doesn't appear.

Authorship: Hans C. & Aeris Quamarine C.

Haven't you played the {Rise of Devils} map? On the 2nd week, the AI has armies with legions of all 7 types. How can you counter that with a regular army without magic and artifacts? =)

Not yet, haven't played it.

Not yet, haven't played it.

I tried another map by this author, called legend_of_heroes; it's also quite challenging. On week 2, a hero with 99/99/99/99 skills comes through a portal to your castle and wipes everything out. There aren't even any ideas on how to beat such maps. You can't run away, and there are no visible troop reinforcements on the map:smile32:

There must be some way to improve. Looking at the maps Aeris has already completed, I can say that he takes testing his work seriously.

Language: English.
Genre: RPG.
Description: God Eater - Chapter II.
Ridiculously difficult map with tones of very hard quests.
Hope you will enjoy. Good luck!
Despite the author's stated quest-based nature of the map, you can go quite a long time without completing quests or even thinking about them: this way you can defeat all enemies on the surface, and only when the most powerful enemy (Orange) remains in the same dungeon, remember the tasks of the seers and guardians.
As for the cryptography mentioned by the author, you can find messages ranging from perfectly clear to completely incomprehensible. Some are not so much encrypted as "lightly powdered," but they are easy to read. Where we see text that truly resembles Zodiac killer cryptograms, few will likely be able to decipher it. Fortunately, this is not necessary, as we have the editor and Prospector. ;)
The main advantages and disadvantages here are practically the same as in "God eater I". The first significant difference is the smaller size of the human player's starting zone (Red or Blue) and the number of cities in them: there are 2 instead of 4. Pluses compared to the 1st part include having a berserker right in the capital and the ability to obtain the Cloak of the Undead King earlier. A minus is that neutrals joining "ordinary" enemies makes them unpleasant and forces you to strain if they manage to recruit strong stacks of high-level monsters. Other pros and cons are in the corresponding sections.
Attention! Since different players have identified a game freeze on this map after several months, it is necessary to use the HD mod with the HD+ option enabled!
Additionally, I encountered a well-known annoying game bug where an AI hero flies without having the required spell or artifact. Therefore, it is highly desirable to use the SOD_SP plugin, which prevents this and a number of other troubles.
You should also remember the danger of main hero experience point overflow and the resulting resetting of skill values at levels above 75. Therefore, closer to the finale, it is better not to visit knowledge trees unless necessary. The same plugin will save you from such a disaster.
Finally, I remind you once more that regular game saving helps overcome unexpectedly arising problems and is very useful in any case.
The author's Walkthrough video may also be useful: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Ability to choose color and race at the start: you can play as Red or Blue (see warning below!) and set races for all enemies except Orange. This, combined with various random factors and depending on the human player's actions, makes each playthrough unique.
The map has no plot and almost no text, so not knowing the language will not be an obstacle for you.
Progress moves at a good pace without "stalling"... until you defeat all enemies on the surface.
There is no strict linearity in the order of clearing enemy zones, except for Orange.
The map rendering is good; the topography is more interesting than in the 1st map.

Critical error: the author did not place some guardians in the dungeon for Blue, so it will be impossible to play through to the end with this color. But this is easy to fix: for example, you can place border guardians of any color there, as only the human player will reach that spot anyway.
The quest component of the map overall is its main drawback. You feel this especially strongly when you have defeated all enemies in the overworld and suddenly have to slow down and deal with a pile-up of tasks. What to do first, what later, where to go, and where to get what is needed? Without the editor and Prospector, you will get bogged down in this and risk never getting out.
Perhaps most of all, I disliked puzzles of the "find a hidden event with the required artifact" type, and there isn't just one or two here. Good puzzles should be logical, not like these. Moreover, some of these events are masked even from being found in the editor (at a glance): for example, one is behind a veil of darkness, clearly placed there only for this purpose, as elsewhere 2 veils of darkness, inaccessible for visiting, hide the exit of a one-way monolith.
Second on the list of things I disliked most is a joke prepared by the author for anyone who wants to dig up the Grail. I won't spoil it; you'll see for yourselves. Just keep in mind that not all chests should be opened.
All artifacts are banned except for the Bowstring. It would have been better to ban only those involved in quests. Furthermore, 3 tasks require bringing N identical items (7 Lucky Clovers, 6 Dragon Blood Vials, 10 Life Charms). Yet when a guardian requires 2 Father of Dragons' Might - on the contrary, you don't need to search and collect them: both lie side by side, only one is disassembled.
Question: why is there a chest giving +95 to all skills behind a guardian who requires all skills at 99? Another joke?
Piles of gold lying in the south, which require Lucky Clovers to obtain, would be very useful in the early stages when resources are still lacking, but they are unavailable at that time; by the time we can take this gold, we already have much more than needed.
3 key-holder tents in the dungeon stand practically next to each other. Two of them could be moved to other zones, as there is plenty of room left.
Here, it seems all monsters guarding objects have a neutral disposition, so the further you go, the more likely they are to join strong heroes. And the number of these monsters increases over time. It follows that for those who play relatively slowly, enemies will recruit creatures after some time and dealing with them will become increasingly problematic. Additionally, each "ordinary" AI enemy also has a scholar providing necromancy and a witch's hut providing diplomacy. Apparently, the author wanted to make playing as these colors possible, but then changed his mind.
9 stacks of 4000 orcs on boars is 36000, which leads to overflow when they are gathered into one stack. It would have been enough to remove one stack or reduce the number of orcs in 1 stack to 3640, and everything would be fine. And in general, why are they needed (they aren't used in quests)?
I noticed a surprising thing by chance: in cell 59,20 you can pass to level 4 dwellings (vampires in my case) past the guards, although it is unlikely this was intended. What's surprising is that in the editor's accessibility mode, this place looks impassable. And in my case, Green passed through there and captured 2 out of 4 dwellings (and then I stopped him). If not for this, in a longer game, the enemy would have gathered a huge number of these creatures.
2 cities of the same race have the same name Giruvegan. Because of this, I had to portal to the wrong place a couple of times.
The mage's hut, by the time the player reaches it, no longer provides any useful information; only experience and liches for destroying the guards are useful. I had hoped that such a heavily guarded object would reveal something very important.
The same can be said about the sea cartographer: by the time you reach him, you have already opened almost all the sea on the map, except for a tiny spot with one hut, which you can visit anyway. But there are no guards here at all.

As before, I briefly examined the starting positions of Red and Blue and decided to play as Red with Castle. For the starting hero, I chose Caitlin: wisdom, intelligence, and 350 gold income. I set other colors as follows: Brown - Tower, Green - Necropolis, Blue - Inferno, Pink - Fortress, Turquoise - Stronghold, Purple - Dungeon.
The main hero is immediately given necromancy (scholar) and diplomacy (witch's hut). For a while, diplomacy was of no use; only later did gold golems, cyclops, and archmagi join. And I soon forgot about necromancy for a long time since all 7 army slots were occupied.
At the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd month, when Brown broke through the garrison separating us, I had to "lead by the nose" Vokial, his main boss, for several days. I timed it right and captured Brown's southern Tower East Sands when no one was in it or nearby. Vokial lacked movement points to reach the nearest city in a day, while I portaled from one to another; he didn't want to attack. Gradually buying up troops (resources were still few), on 3-1-3 I attacked Vokial and beat him.
After that, I captured the northern Tower Threzold.
On 3-1-6 I beat Fafnir, and Brown disappeared.
After this, Caitlin crossed the river and approached the Hammerklavier Tower. I didn't take the tower since there was strong own guard, but went into a green two-way monolith and found out where it led: it has another exit in the east, near Fortress Vio Regan, also unclaimed and with a powerful garrison. I returned and broke through the garrison in the northeast of the sandy lands, stepping onto Green's lands. Then I captured Necropolis Tihiy Don, went further east, and took Necropolis Holivia.
On 3-4-4 the main villain Lord Haart approached Tihiy Don with a large army. From there, everything became extremely interesting. I prepared for battle in this city, but Lord Haart did not attack; instead, he went northwest, where he recruited 2 more powerful stacks of neutrals. After that, he attacked me in the field, and Caitlin died in this battle. Then I loaded a save where I was waiting for the siege and attacked. Everything worked out very well for me, and in the end, I lost no one.
After victory over Lord Haart, Green disappeared.
On 4-2-4 I visited the white tent and the observatory. It became clear that further progress was only possible by passing through Blue's lands.
On 4-3-2 I besieged Fortress Valhala, where Solmir himself, Blue's main boss, resided. The battle was successful, without losses.
Then I went through the swamps further south and passed through a garrison to the lava toward Blue. Captured both Infernos.
On 4-4-1 I beat Ash, and Blue disappeared.
On 4-4-3 I beat Cuthbert, capturing Fortress Raktapaksha, and Pink disappeared.
Then I crossed by water to Turquoise's lands.
On 4-4-7 I stormed Citadel Krakatoa, where the barbarian boss Zubin resided. In the 1st attempt he escaped, but later I was able to defeat him outright.
On 5-1-2 I visited the black tent.
On 5-1-4 Struker attacked the city and died. Turquoise disappeared. Only strong enemies remained: Purple and Orange.
On 5-2-5, playing without HD+ and SOD_SP, I first encountered a game freeze during Purple's turn. Terminated the task, enabled both functions, and everything was normal thereafter.
On 5-3-3 I took the Vampire Mantle from the guards.
On 5-3-4 I took the Undertaker's Amulet.
The same day a miracle happened: Sephinorof came out of the monolith north of the white and black border gates and... flew to my land! Checked in Prospector: there is no legal way for her to fly! Re-enabled SOD_SP, finished the last day — yes, in this case, Sephinorof's flight did not occur.
On 5-3-6 I took the Dead Man's Boots. Thus I assembled the Cloak of the Undead King.
On 6-1-3 I passed through a monolith to Purple and stormed Dungeon Vivian. After the battle, I saw that something unusual happened. The reason was that earlier Purple's hero had recruited orcs on boars south of Hammerklavier Tower. There were 9*4000=36000, and after merging into one stack, a numerical overflow occurred and the number became negative. Then the enemy put these orcs in Vivian's garrison. As a result, for the battle I received a negative number of experience points! Fortunately, I compensated for this trouble by visiting a knowledge tree.
On 6-1-7 the game froze again on Purple's turn, despite SOD_SP being enabled. Disabled it, repeated the turn transition, and there were no more freezes until the finale.
On 6-4-7 I captured Dungeon Temeluchus and visited the purple tent.
On 7-2-1 the long-awaited battle with Jaegar, Purple's main boss, occurred. He turned out to be fast and easy; on the 2nd attempt, I completed it without losses.
On 7-2-3 I found and beat Malekith, and Purple disappeared. Only Orange remained. The entire overworld became mine.
After that, through a blue monolith, I descended into the dungeon.
On 7-3-2 I visited the brown and red tents and opened a view of Bahamut Tower in the southwest of the dungeon.
On 7-3-4 I visited the blue tent.
On 8-3-5 I gave the guardian the last Life Charm, the seer the Death Charm, and received the coveted Angel Wings.
On 8-3-6 I visited a seer who required reaching level 70 and received the Sphere of Vulnerability.
On 9-1-3 Caitlin tried to attack Blue Moon. It turned out she has the Cloak of Renunciation, and it's impossible to destroy her creatures in one round, so losses are inevitable. Then I decided to return up top, exchange gifted angels for archangels with seers, Golden Bow for Sniper Bow, and kill Blue Moon a bit later.
On 9-1-6 Caitlin visited another 5 knowledge trees. The last one gave her level 75, and immediately after it several more up to 88. Fortunately, skill overflow did not occur.
The same day I visited the green tent.
On 9-2-4 I attacked Blue Moon again. Replayed several times, changed artifacts. One attempt gave a perfect result thanks to fear of my azure dragons triggering twice: no losses.
On 9-2-6 I encountered the next villainess Red Moon. Fortunately, she has no anti-magic artifacts, and the battle went without losses.
On 9-3-1 Valeska captured Bahamut Tower.
On 9-3-6 I found and visited the last obelisk and opened the entire puzzle map.
On 9-3-7 I dug up the Grail.
On 9-4-1 I placed the Grail in Threzold Tower, opening the whole map.
Opening the chest with the power of gods, Caitlin brought all skills to 99 (did this with SOD_SP enabled, and nothing bad happened).
On 9-4-5 I reached Lavia Mron and fought her. The battle is unpleasant because it takes place on cursed land, so losses are irreplaceable, and one must try to minimize them since this is not the last battle.
On 10-1-1 Valeska freed Morturgaah from prison.
On 10-1-2 I attacked Violet Moon. She turned out to be the most evil of all enemies: she has Cursed Armor and Sphere of Forbidding. 4 spells are cast on us, and it's impossible to remove them. But our Cursed Armor also manages to trigger. In this battle, liches need a Sniper Bow. Losses are huge, but fortunately, this is already the last battle, and only winning it matters.
On 10-1-4 Caitlin opened a chest and learned Dimension Door.
On 10-1-6 Caitlin rode across islets in the void to Conflux Victory, and I was declared the winner. If one waits for Morturgaah, he will only reach the city on 10-2-3.
Result: 258 days, 486 points.
Summing up, I want to say that I liked the map overall, but it would have been even better if its nature repeated the 1st part: an honest action game without "complications". Otherwise, unfortunately, not everyone will be able to reach the finish. What is most impressive: I don't think I've ever had such a huge army before. Nor have I defeated enemies with such armies. Finally, this is the first map where I encountered so many technical difficulties at once: game freezes, AI hero flights, negative number of creatures and experience, leveling the hero to "dangerous" experience levels, and the threat of skill value overflow. Fortunately, all of this was overcome.
I probably won't play through the 3rd part; besides, I want a break from necromancy for a while.

Map: "Field of Wonders" 《壮志雄心》
author: no, not Leonid Yakubovich, but Woxin
Other creations by this author can be found on maps4heroes, for example, Tear in Long March, Enemy at the Gates

1. Another Chinese map, rating 8/10
I am continuing my series of walkthroughs for Chinese maps, mostly selected from gamerhome. I try to choose maps that aren't overexposed on this site, as well as those without a walkthrough (or if one exists, I only look at it after completing the map).
As is typical for Chinese maps: everything is in Chinese, but there is little text; no impassable areas were noticed; lack of spells, absence of taverns, etc.
It is highly recommended to use Prospector and a map editor to understand where to go.
I classify this as a dynamic map: the AI roam the ENTIRE map, build up their strength, and head toward you. You, however, are limited to certain territories and passage guards and/or tents. Therefore, arriving and killing any of the AI in the short term is not possible.
The whole map is like an open thoroughfare. The AI move around mixed together, swarm you collectively, and try to capture your castles.
No tricks or bugs are intended for completion; simply fight the enemy and follow the designated route. It's a pure combat and strategy map. There is no real novelty or level 6424 heroes. Overall, it gets a 7-8 out of 10.
Map feature: Grails are placed EVERYWHERE + there is a constant weekly additional creature growth in all castles (it varies from castle to castle), so over time the AI can accumulate VERY large forces and endless money. In a couple of weeks, any AI can amass significant strength, so the strategy of "I'll build up troops first, then go fight" won't work. If you don't hurry, the AI will eat all the perks at the starting respawn.
In one of the Stronghold castles, by the time I arrived, there was an overflow of level 1 troops exceeding 37 thousand, so I couldn't buy them out! Yes, EVERY castle has a grail. Creature growth from events is huge.
No bugs or impassable areas were noticed on the map.
We have no Necromancer; the number of heroes in the first hard-to-reach tavern is strictly limited (you cannot buy AI heroes). You can try to be clever, but it's ineffective (I didn't do it once), as you then have to spend a couple of days leaving the tavern.
Artifact sets can be collected (Angel Alliance, Titan's Roar, AOTD, Sniper's Bow, etc.).

2. Locations and Walkthrough Route
The map can conventionally be divided into 4 locations:
Overworld 1: our starting respawn, southern peninsular-water area. Inferno, Haven (elf), same Haven (archangel), and Swamp castles.
Overworld 2: north of the map, snows. Castles: Temple, Stronghold.
Dungeon 1: 3/4 of the map is a swamp respawn, all types of castles.
Dungeon 2: far south of the map, water-island respawn, MANY angel external dwellings.
Passages from location to location are guarded by bosses.

So, we start in Overworld 1, likely as Mephala (photo changed :) and starting skills.
Already at 1-3-1, the first AI arrives with great strength!
There are almost no taverns on the same map; we recruit heroes gradually from prisons. At the starting respawn, immediately release Christian (will be a loser until the end of the game) and Elezar with Resurrection magic – our main for 90% of the battles on the map. Level him up immediately as the primary hero. Later, free another loser – Aeris.
Since the respawn is water-peninsular, movement consists of hiring a boat / boarding / disembarking. A great waste of time since we don't have Water Walking, and neither does the AI.
You need to hurry very much on this map, because very soon the AI start arriving with far greater strength, and escaping them while boarding/disembarking boats is often impossible.
Main tasks at this stage (you can choose the order yourself):
1) free Orrin at point 122-99-0; he is the first of ours who knows Town Portal magic (did it at 2-2-6),
2) free Nilu at point 42-70-0; she has Boots of Levitation, which must not fall into AI hands, and they can release her (did it at 3-2-7),
3) capture the Stronghold at point 74-41-0, kill Gretchen there, then immediately take the Earth book from behind the guard (did it at 3-4-2),
4) capture the Rampart at point 4-106-0, where everyone should learn Water Walking magic (did it at 4-1-3), and immediately block this castle so no AI can enter!
Along the way in other castles, learn important magic: Blindness, Summon Boat, Flood Boat, etc.
at 3-2-5 an AI visited a red tent and came to visit us with all their strength.
At the end of the location, visit the blue tent, go to Fafnir, kill him; slightly above, free Kirry with the BOOK OF FIRE MAGIC (Berserk + Rage are everything). To move to a new respawn, you need to kill Brohild (lots of strength, but only Healing magic).

In Overworld 2: it is advisable to move very quickly from the west to the far east of the location, capturing all castles and killing Solmir; this can be done in 1 – 1.5 weeks. Because after that, all AI start heading to this respawn, and since it's a corridor, there's nowhere much to run. Be sure to buy up all Azure Dragons along the way (at least 10-14 per week should be bought).
At the end of the location, you need to kill Keg Heck, which is done quite easily by Orrin with 3 stacks of archers and a Golden Bow, practically without losses. And immediately after – Tazar. For the fight with Tazik, take bulls; only they can break through his Azure and Crystal Dragons quickly.

Dungeon 1: capture it from east to west, visit upgrade trees, double mana in the dungeon. You need to kill 3 bosses: Jedidiah, Grindan, and Aenain; with Elezar's abundance of mana, this is not very difficult. By this point, Elezar already has about 3.5 thousand mana; after doubling – 7 thousand! you can do anything! For Grindan, we get the Water magic book from the seer; we can finally make clones for archangels for resurrections.

In Dungeon 2: quickly capture all castles on the respawn and especially quickly – the archangel external dwellings. With all external dwellings and the Legion Statue, we can get 22 archangels per castle x 6-7 castles (depending on which were captured by AI at the end of the week), getting more than 100-150 archangels a week (including angels from external dwellings). Accumulate strength as needed (or not) and go to the final boss – Lord Haart. You can fight him with Elezar (by this point we have over 10 thousand mana!), but Mephala is better. Mephala has enough 1000 mana for archangel clones/resurrection, plus we have the Medal of Vulnerability; we can spawn Azure Dragons – oops, and he cannot heal them!

3. Our Heroes
Our main hero is Elezar, an Intelligence specialist. He will handle most battles, resurrecting our forces.
First castle: Orrin, handles many easy battles with archers, especially after leveling to 30-40.
Second castle: Kirry, chases down AI losers, captures castles with growth, circles the north of the map in a week, buying Azure Dragons, etc.
Adelaide – knows Town Portal, transports/moves/sells/buys troops, transfers artifacts, etc.
Mephala / starting hero – a loser until the very end of the game; only at the end of the map did I level him for the final battle with Lord Haart, essentially for just one battle. You can build him up from the start, but in my opinion, this would detract from the game since Elezar is more effective in the first half.
At the very end of the game, you can free Roland who knows Clone, Dimension Door, and Town Portal, but there's almost no use for it anymore as the map is nearly completed. Roland is only needed to finish off AI castles that are otherwise inaccessible (guarded by Azure Dragons on cursed ground) + he gives the Medal of Vulnerability.
In terms of magic in castles, there is ABSOLUTELY NO: Fly and Dimension Door, Town Portal, Clone, Rage, Berserk. All of this is obtained either from scrolls or magic books.
There is no Town Portal magic in other castles, and no one to teach it, so it's important to skillfully use our heroes who know Town Portal (Orrin, Kirry, Adelaide, Roland). One Earth book is hard to share between Elezar and Mephala, so I gave up on Mephala, left her for secondary functions, and the book traveled with Elezar since he doesn't know Town Portal, and mobility on the map is important.
Logistics and pathfinding are important for everyone, as half the map is in snows and swamps.
Towards the end of the map, heroes can be passed through upgrade trees; before the finale, Tazar and Elezar can be boosted to level 88.

4. Strategy and Tricks on the Map
There are many enemy heroes; they are released by controllers from prisons one after another. They build strength very quickly. Most of them have a bravery icon, so Blindness, Forgetfulness, or Berserk don't work. Some even travel with a Cloak of Denial; these are extremely hard to kill without losses. Some cannot be killed at all without huge losses: Thorgrim with magic immunity, Mutare Drake with the Power of Dragon Fathers, etc. Often forces consolidate on one hero. Therefore, general tips for this map, at least those I followed:
1) At the starting respawn, use free heroes to "dig in" around islands and peninsulas. All Inferno castles + almost all Swamp ones can be dug in very quickly. Since the AI doesn't know Water Walking, they will never get into them. Angelic castles are harder since they can be reached via one-way teleports, but it's recommended to dig those in too. The point of "digging in" is huge: the AI won't capture the castles, and all growth is yours.
2) There is a constant lack of money on the map; it's impossible to buy everyone out. Therefore, where it's obvious the AI will capture a castle, you must buy out the forces and sell them in the Stronghold. That is, constantly buy out and immediately sell forces so they don't go to the AI.
3) Due to constant growth and lack of money, it's advisable to save up for a couple of weeks. We can have 4 Ramparts. If you keep them until the end of the week, 40% gold is added. This way you can accumulate impressive sums for the final buyout. Ramparts and archangel castles are our priority for strength.
4) Since there is VERY large growth in all castles, you can save money, buy out everyone from levels 1-4, and DEMONIZE. With 15-20 thousand demons, you can pull off very difficult battles. For the finale, I gathered over 160 thousand demons, but it's possible to win without them.
5) If you stay in one place too long, the AI will arrive with superior forces and we will suffer defeat. You must take back their castles and creature growth.
6) It is not necessary to kill all AI heroes; you can lure them into water traps, capture their castles, and the AI will die off on their own (that's how I dealt with Thorgrim and a couple of others). Though this trick is optional.
7) Standard troop set for battles (depending on situation): demons (in case of demonizing), archangels, archdevils, azure dragons, grand elves, castle archers and fanatics, bulls from the swamp, titans.
8) Since Elezar is an Intelligence specialist, many battles are based on draining the AI's mana (in the field or in a castle – doesn't matter). Try to leave the AI with a unit that hits without retaliation (psychic elemental, hydra, fairy, archdevil, harpy) or a shooter with a cart for endless shots; resurrect ourselves while the AI uses their attack magic on us, or better yet, casts Blindness one by one. In short, wait until the AI's mana runs out, then fully resurrect. With 1.5-3 thousand mana, these are standard battles. Of course, don't forget to equip Shackles of War; the AI might flee.
9) A couple of AI heroes actually know Water Walking: Dessa, Lorelei, Tunnar, Gird. They should be caught and killed at the first opportunity since they can capture "dug-in" castles.

Something new I learned on this map is that you can assign Titan's Roar magic to the AI, but they only use it when their mana hits "0". Therefore, you need to either equip an artifact for lightning block or finish the battle with the AI before their mana hits "0".
I liked the map. Below are the save file and screenshots of some battles.

166k demons, I've never seen that many before! Well done! Chinese maps are quite specific and clearly not for everyone.

With 1000+ pits and a clone on some hidden creature spawns, you should be able to quickly clear things out, but I've never seen such a large horde of demons myself.

166k demons, I've never seen that many before =) Well done! Chinese maps are very specific and clearly not for everyone :)

I would never have made that many, but during this map, our attack/defense stats are around 20-30, while the computer's are 50-70, and the army wasn't enough... plus, there's a very large increase in creatures in all the castles, so you have to put them somewhere! :)
For almost the entire map, I had 10-20k demons. I gathered 166k in the last week before going to the final boss.