Posts from Heart of the Night Auto-translated

it's something like a special hero ability, similar to Watchtower, Wizard's Sign, and so on.

The "Secret Paths" quest – is there a significant reward for completing it by discovering all the paths? Or is it better to conserve experience and try to unlock as few paths as possible?

There is a reward for fully exploring the map, which is very useful for a Mage, especially if you also complete a quest in the tavern. And the usefulness of paths increases significantly over time, making it harder to ignore them.

There is a reward for fully exploring the map, which is very useful for a Mage, especially if you also complete a tavern quest. And the usefulness of paths increases significantly over time, making it hard to ignore them.

Yes, they are useful, but there are a couple of them that seem a bit out of the way, and it's a shame to lose that experience. I hope the reward is worth it.

my Mardakor strategy (or however I keep confusing it)
losses: 4 nymphs and one red ent. The red one simply didn't resurrect. I had to upgrade them once; the culprit of this whole mess went next, so I decided not to tempt fate, just in case he casts something nasty. We'll manage.

the idea was this:
I took a tactic to counter his tactic. What else does he have? Light and darkness, all area-of-effect spells.
the battle also took place during the Week of Renunciation, meaning we definitely need to dispel buffs in large numbers. He casts spells based on luck; in this playthrough, he cast Mass Slow right away, but I managed to destroy one unit of vamps. There were options that he wouldn't cast Mass Slow immediately, but instead things like Stone Skin or Confusion on us, etc. The latter is also unpleasant at the beginning, so I preferred Mass Slow. The main thing is to hold out in the Castle and then we'll deal with it.
Storm Wind to slow down the vampire dragons and ghosts.
of course, the Staff and Cloak of the Embrace of Death reduce speed and initiative; in Sanctuary, they give +1 initiative on Fridays.

extra troops – dragons, unicorns, dancers, and fairies – go into the mine. We lure the enemy into the desired locations with 4 individual nymph kamikazes, covering them from those who can fly in.
one can be placed directly at the gate, and the first dead horse will block the entrance to the Castle – then place another nymph there, then the Wall of Swords. During this time, we will have time to do everything we need – create a Phantom, speed it up, destroy his machines, etc.
and as usual, we sit back, smoke bamboo, and shoot at whoever flies in and messes around at the gate with the swords.
the ents cover the archers and druids in the corner. We place them at the other end and buy machines. Whoever flies over the fence will spend even more turns dealing with the machines.
something like that.

it's a pity that this is, they say, the last one, because Greta was just getting into the swing of things, building up her army.
I don't know about you, but I liked the Necropolis; at first glance, it seemed a bit creepy, but then everything was fine.

I replayed, there was a version with two holes in the Castle, and at first, he cast not mass slow, but stone skin, then scatter, and it all went downhill... in general, everything was the same, the tactics were similar, the losses were - 4 nymph kamikazes, and the Ents (who were damaged once by dragons) all resurrected. The main thing is to have a blessing giver.

completed the scenario) it was awesome. After the last Necromancer and until the finale, there were no problems at all. Turgal completed it without any losses, and the losses against Baal aren't that important; I replayed it several times, and it turned out that I didn't even need to use the Phoenix's resurrection ability. The final battle wasn't difficult either. Those who move and fly distract the demon; they will have to die. At the same time, we cast antimagic on the archers, somehow gather them together, and cast sword walls around them. Then, we cast the Wizard's Sign on the demon and finish it off with everything we have. We watch the cutscene, feel emotional, and cry. Huge thanks to the author, respect, and kudos for such a well-developed scenario, excellent battles; we'll be waiting for the sequel.

Thank you for your feedback! I'm working on the continuation, but there's a huge amount of work ahead, so it will be a while.

I don't usually play hero-based adventure games like this one (especially those with a misanthropic slant), but I decided to give it a try (I was tempted) out of sheer curiosity. The difficulty of the battles at the beginning and during sieges was appealing. That's probably the only merit of this map. The heroes are strange and, for some reason, invisible (so you can't do without a mini-map), and the author has deprived them of their natural qualities ("good" will, all-knowingness, and true luck), forcing them into the author's harsh idea of a "heroic" destiny. Player creativity is punished by Baal (is that a Phoenician deity?). It was aptly noted earlier about the "jump in place" as a provocation, but during my playthrough, I kept remembering a phrase from a famous comedy: "Everything has been stolen before us." In general, the author clearly overdid it with the gameplay algorithm. I only made it to the third siege. Then, a certain Orris (level 29, 15-23-29-21, +5 luck) appeared with a horde of undead (mainly 80+80 liches and about 800 skeletal archers) and put an end to it. Greta was level 27 (9-27-8-19, +6 morale and +9 luck) with light magic and Elven luck, and a decent army (mainly 147 forest archers and 96 high druids). And, strangely, there wasn't even a real battle: the initiative necromancer (probably with his own set of artifacts) immediately created phantoms of all the archers and summoned a hundred shooting elementals, they naturally fired, and that was it – game over. I've seen a lot, but I didn't expect such "cheating." I looked at the reviews and realized that no one has completed the map without using the console. Well, we'll have to wait for a classic.

Strange and, for some reason, invisible heroes.

In what sense are they invisible? Are the models not visible on the map?

deprived of the "kind" will of the author of their natural qualities (magical omniscience and true luck).

True luck can be obtained. Omniscience breaks the intended game mechanics, which is why it is prohibited.

In general, the author clearly overdid it with the walkthrough algorithm.

The presence of a clear walkthrough algorithm, as I wrote earlier, stems from the narrative framework in which the heroes are placed.

I looked at the reviews and realized that without the console, no one completed the map.

The map was completed by different players, on different versions and difficulty levels. It was completed on the Remix stream. I only suggested using the console for those who had problems due to a bug that has long been fixed.

isn't this some kind of Phoenician deity?

Its name was chosen not by chance, but there is no particular subtext to look for here

I've seen a lot, but I didn't expect such "cheating." I looked at the reviews and realized that no one had completed the map without using the console. Well, we'll wait for the classic version.

The easiest battle on the map, it can be completed without any losses. I don't know what problems there could be. I tried again, without really trying.

Necromancer's artifacts and perks
https://yadi.sk/i/v4eEJc8ByLr6lw
https://yadi.sk/i/AbMzYeT3x0541w

It's unclear whether "mass phantom" and simultaneous summoning are a new spell or just a random bug (version 3.1). As for the simplicity of the battle, is that a joke? The first seven shots in a row (and mine hadn't even moved yet) take out all the archers and weaker units, so there's no point in continuing.

Added 6 minutes later
I can't open the attachment; could you send the save file without archiving it?

It's unclear whether the mass phantom and simultaneous summon are a new spell or just a random bug (version 3.1). And regarding the simplicity of the battle – is that a joke? The first seven shots in a row (and mine hadn't even moved yet) take down all the archers and weaker units, so there's no point in continuing.

Added 6 minutes later
I can't open the attachment; could you please upload the save file without archiving it?

It's not a bug; it's a special ability of the Necromancer – at the beginning of his turn, he creates phantom archers. And summoning elementals is just his own initiative.
This is a really easy and boring battle.
The replay is attached; there's no archive.

It's unclear whether the mass phantom and simultaneous summoning are a new spell or just a random bug (version 3.1). And regarding the ease of the battle – is that a joke? The first seven shots in a row (before my units even moved) decimated all the archers and weaker units, making it pointless to continue.

Added 6 minutes later
I can't open the attachment; could you please upload the save file without archiving it?

As I mentioned before, the map is designed for the player to strictly fulfill certain conditions. Any deviation leads to a swift defeat:smile31:.
In the case of Orris, the mandatory conditions are:
1) Having the "Dragon's Eye" ring (hidden near the castle, guarded by demonic mares). Then, the blue archers shoot first and eliminate the skeleton archers.
2) Greta must have the "Arrow Storm" skill, preferably with an enchanted arrow. It's also essential to re-select sworn enemies for each Necropolis hero individually. For Orris, these are bone archers, liches, and vampires. If you charge Arrow Storm with a slowing effect, in addition to guaranteeing the destruction of phantoms, it also slows down the vampires.
It's desirable to:
1) Develop Greta – having a mass evasion skill that can be cast at the beginning significantly eases the battle. Therefore, an expert light creature with protection and storm wind (against vampires) is needed. It's clear that to have this "at the beginning," you need a leader with empathy, so that morale-boosting fairies can move Greta up the initiative scale.
2) Be sure to visit all the upgrade locations on the correct days.
3) Prioritize eliminating all the archers belonging to Orris; if you're lucky, you can manage to phantom your own archers. At the same time, you also need to eliminate the elementals as a priority, as they don't disappear when the rest of the army is destroyed.
4) An unpleasant surprise for Orris is Greta having "Elemental Equilibrium" – water elementals appear, which are effective against phantoms.
If these conditions are met, as Miru-mir wrote, everything is easy. Otherwise, you get what you experienced – with no options.
You can watch the battle at Miru-mir's by creating a "Replays" folder in your game profile and uploading it through the "battle recording" option in the settings.

my invisible heroes often appear in other maps as well; it was the same here, but I didn't pay attention to it – it's a bit less convenient than usual, and their images are partially visible when passing through a portal (an invisible hero on the map has a flag; when you hover over it, you can see everything, but there are inconveniences; you can't view it if it's out of range of movement/attack – that is, when the selected hero doesn't know the path to attack). It also doesn't look as good visually, but it's not critical. But how can you play without a mini-map at all (in any conditions, on any map, at any difficulty)? Are you supposed to memorize everything and move the mouse around half the map? And the battle with the archer is in no way more difficult than the first and last Necromancer battles. https://c2n.me/3Zmnb14, https://c2n.me/3ZmnjaY, https://c2n.me/3ZmnmBQ, https://c2n.me/3ZmntIk