Posts from Demon invasion.

it's unlikely you'll succeed by just staying put, and Grobok will arrive soon. I completed it with a rush strategy: first, the standard restarts for the Colossus on the dolmen, then I cleared the forest and mine during the first week and immediately headed to the purple Castle. Its strong hero (usually Krag) would come to my Castle, I would eliminate its weaker units and take both cities. I would kill Krag in the city with my second hero - . I would defeat Sigrif with my hero and then return to the Castle. Around this time, the brown hero (always Haggeesh) would arrive, and I would defeat her in the Castle. Then, I would immediately sail to the brown lands and destroy them. It gets more complicated after that - you need to clear a portal with a hundred level 7 creatures. This requires Darkness, and it's best to build the guild to its maximum in one Castle, sacrificing everything else (anyway, the orange player will destroy it later). Or, you can convert the brown Castle, but that takes longer. The portal leads back to the purple lands; you need to retake its Castles that the orange player has captured and then go underground to storm the garrison. It's easily done with Behemoths and Darkness, but you usually have to kite the last squad with waves. Then, you capture the orange cities - after a week, he loses, and the mission ends. Grobok and other powerful heroes hang out underground during this time because they don't have any travel spells. I finished it on 3/3/4 difficulty.

By the way, the fifth map is quite easy, again, if you don't just stay in the Castle. With a magic build, I finished it a couple of days before the two Necropolises arrived, and just running around and using navigation with a sextant solves a lot of problems.

I wasn't lucky with magic – I got Blind and Unholy Word (I built the latter and saved the game) – as far as I remember, only Castle and Utopia are available here; if I knew what I was getting, I would have taken Mentor or Pyrokinesis instead of Darkness.

I remember the cost of converting Orc Castles; I won't pay it. :)
The Orcs don't arrive at the Castle in full force; before that, they are weakened by magic and arrows, sometimes even by their own Cyclops. :)

But for now, I've built up a decent defense, with creatures from levels 1 to 5, I'm at level 24, I have a portal to the city (and that's very important; I'm almost at the required level of 25, with only 10k experience left), I have some good artifacts, I traded for Cyclops at the artifact merchant for Mentor and acquired the Phantom Staff – it won't be superfluous, and I hope that the Succubi in that quantity will be able to destroy the catapult (or force the Orcs to destroy it), because in battles outside the Castle, I lose only up to 14 units of troops. And, which is not so bad, with the Guild, there is still a general Scatter effect on Expert difficulty :) (but no Slow). But I only have 6 Spell Points (at the same level 24) – 2 of my own, 2 from the staff, and 2 from the armor.

Grobka has a well-developed catapult, and it seems to have a Ring of the Magi. Theoretically, if you can get enough berserkers, you should be able to defeat him by repeatedly running away and attacking. I think there should be a Tome of Darkness on the map, but I don't remember for sure.

4 months, 1 day, 1 week - he hasn't visited once.

What's good is:
29 Bloodeyes and 38 Cyclops with clubs, 113 Green Geese, 186 Wolf Lords, 210 Yellow Shamans, 481 Orcs with clubs. The 402 War Centaurs under Pure Rage won't decrease in number or become manageable anytime soon - I'll keep trying; he'll eventually come and kill them, but for now, he hasn't touched them. Haggeesh is constantly running around, providing experience. I've acquired more artifacts, but the levels are lacking - they've been giving me some garbage for 4 levels in a row, but the garrison with the mentor is still strong.

Dwellings are the same as before, levels 1-5, hero level 28, https://c2n.me/3ZEzrFJ, army.

4 Cave Demons, 32 Horses, 58 Succubi, 54 Dogs, 154 Demons, 164 Imps, two Outer Dwellings, levels 1-2, artifacts https://c2n.me/3ZEzo5O (Haggeesh and Tilshek have stopped bringing artifacts; they only carry experience, and that's enough).

A depressing level-up. But the Orc Chieftain hasn't visited once because the Castle is still alive; he's hanging out at his place, herding geese :)

And this https://c2n.me/3ZEzy25, is it supposed to be in the Guild of Mages??? I've never seen it before.
//Since the screenshot will disappear in a month, it's the Chaos spell "Devil's Strike" in the Guild of Mages.


I defeated the mentor's guard with 70 Succubi and 18 Imps, losing the latter and 26 Succubi. I only used Blindness (80%+ of the battle, the hero did nothing but blind), one Phantom from the staff, and once at the very end, Grief and Disintegration Beam. I defeated the Dark Elf army of the 3rd upgrade: 24/60/120/240/420/450/600. However, without the Phantom, I could have almost achieved the same result by destroying the Crystal of Secrets. Even with Blindness, something can be achieved :)
As with the previous 5 levels, the offered skill is garbage, but this is a battle for the mentor, so it doesn't matter.
The mentor comes with a Necromancer's Cloak and 6 Cave Horrors. In general, the gameplay revolves around defense and killing Haggeesh for experience (to the extent that the main Orc is herding geese at his place).

4 months, 1 day, 1 week - he hasn't come even once.

What's good is:
29 Bloodeyes and 38 Cyclops with clubs, 113 Green Geese, 186 Wolf Riders, 210 Yellow Shamans, 481 Orcs with clubs. The number of Battle Centaurs under Pure Rage won't decrease or become manageable in any way - I'll keep trying, he'll come and kill them eventually, but for now, I haven't touched them; Haggeesh keeps running around and providing experience. I acquired more artifacts, but the levels are lacking - they gave me 4 levels in a row that were not very good, but the garrison with the mentor is still strong.

Dwellings are the same as before, levels 1-5, hero level 28, https://c2n.me/3ZEzrFJ, army

4 Cave Demons, 32 Horses, 58 Succubi, 54 Dogs, 154 Demons, 164 Imps, two Outer Dwellings, levels 1-2, artifacts https://c2n.me/3ZEzo5O (Haggeesh and Tilshek stopped bringing artifacts; they only carry experience, and that's enough).

A boring level-up. But the Orc Chieftain hasn't come even once because the Castle is still alive; he's hanging out at his place, herding geese :)

And what about this https://c2n.me/3ZEzy25? Should it be in the Guild of Mages??? I've never seen it before.
//Since the screenshot will disappear in a month, it's a Chaos spell called "Devil's Strike" in the Guild of Mages.


I defeated the mentor's guard with 70 Succubi and 18 Imps, losing the latter and 26 Succubi. I only used Blindness (80%+ of the battle, the hero only blinded), one Phantom from the staff, and once at the very end, Grief and Disruption Ray. I defeated the Dark Elf army of the 3rd tier: 24/60/120/240/420/450/600. However, without the Phantom, I could have almost achieved the same result by destroying the Crystal of Secrets. Even with Blindness, you can still get something out of it :)
As with the previous 5 levels, the suggested skill is useless, but this is a battle for the mentor, so it doesn't matter.
The mentor comes with a Necromancer's Cloak and 6 Cave Goblins. In general, the gameplay revolves around defense and killing Haggeesh for experience (to the extent that the main Orc is herding geese at his place).

He won't come to you. As long as you don't touch the Brown and Purple, he'll hang out at his place. As soon as you attack them, he comes out of his lair.
I played through mentorship, leveled up my main character to 31, and then in the Castle, I only bought Necromancers and Dark Elves (they have the most spells) and used Darkness and Chaos to take them down one by one. It turns out to be very easy.
If you want to be sure to complete it, it's better to restart the map each time until you find Darkness on the map (the artifact is not far from the Castle, where the dragons are). And then everything will be fine

I don't think it's worth restarting the map with such artifacts and levels :)
https://c2n.me/3ZHVQ4m + there are handcuffs for finding new artifacts.

Found a bug that is not related to the campaign - I have access to a phantom from a wand while it is in my inventory. There is a plus and a minus: the plus is +2 spells per battle (and now it's the Staff of the Underworld) and the phantom is available. The minus is that auto-battles deplete the wand :)

https://c2n.me/3ZHVXhf
Now I'll quickly get some Dark Essence near the mentor and buy a mentor unit, train 3 assistants, return the Dark Essence and go attack :)

I'll upgrade the assistants with BDP + machines + fire arrows + logistics + herbalism/chaos (a surprise attack against cyclops with clubs is an argument, and at the same time the radius of merging enemies will increase)

I got a mage's robe from the dragons, and I lost so many troops on it, more than I've ever lost in any other battle :)

But seriously, I don't see the point in replaying :) Almost 4 months have passed, I have a mentor/level in my pocket and a lot of good artifacts :) If I hadn't gotten the robe, I would still be struggling with many neutrals, but now a Haggeesh with 5 growth levels falls in 2 turns of the hero without an army)

I've recruited a garrison leading to Dragon Utopia. Dragon Utopia gave the spells Heavenly Shield and Explosion (cannot be learned, remembered in case I get the skill), but it also gave the Tome of Darkness :) I still have the Tome of Summoning...
In general, in a month, if I get Subjugation or Vampirism, I'll put the Tome of Summoning - Wall and Phantom are worth taking up a slot, and let the dragons give Black Magic :)
But - the Tome of Darkness was found :)
As far as I remember, when I played as a Warrior, the main orc came before I went to their castles, but as a Warrior, I didn't dare to attack him in a direct battle, but he was also afraid to attack the castle - but that's a Warrior. Well, anyway, I need to go back to the mentor, train the assistants, which will be Knight Vittorio, demons Nibros and Grol, and I'm also waiting for Deleb - what kind of spell is there for 150 green geese and a hundred cyclops (with pure rage and halving the orcish spell power?) And the Necropolis' machine doesn't hit very hard.
Black Elves don't show up in the tavern, but I don't see the point in them either.

I've upgraded the heroes - each has Subjugation, Vampirism, no Berserk. Vitia independently killed a 29th level Haggeesh with 5 growth levels with 14 imps. I gave more than half a million gold to Skarn the mentor (and maybe even a million), there's no army to buy. Before that, I took a mentor unit, then returned the defense, now I've returned the mentor unit for 100k, decided that for now I'll be without defense, and experience will accumulate faster

Assistant heroes, 4 pcs, 29th level:
1) https://c2n.me/3ZIQ1Sy / https://c2n.me/3ZIQ5y6 (I'll give the ring to someone, both don't work)
2) https://c2n.me/3ZIQ7oM / https://c2n.me/3ZIQ9lB
3) Vitya (machine attack 44) https://c2n.me/3ZIQcot / https://c2n.me/3ZIQehx
4) https://c2n.me/3ZIQgLU / https://c2n.me/3ZIQidh

And the lack of gold for the army is obvious https://c2n.me/3ZIRNvc :(

No Berserk, the dragons haven't given it yet - it's time to go beat the centaurs :) I'm waiting for the orc to visit, so I can send him away :)

Still no Berserk, I got a ring of machines, it's a pity that only one, Vitya would have been useful :)

Victory over the serious child, Krag - high danger, the hero casts Berserk (from under the tome) and only - at the end of the battle, 1 turn - regen for resurrecting 2 horses.
12k orcs under the command of a strong hero - however, he defeated all 9 Archdemons with his specialization - and their ability played a good role in the battle. Battle in a set for experience, which means - Lion's Crown and -6 spells. They didn't come to me - I started beating the purple one, and they came to him in the underground. This orc is not the main one, I'll go to the home castle, buy troops, of which there are more than the entire hero's army)
The main orc has a dwarf shield and anti-magic, so the lack of Berserk in the assistants is not a problem :)

The army of the Necropolis is equal to the army of Krag, but he is much harder to kill due to high stats (39-32-15-14), dwarf shield and anti-magic, so now I've dealt with the orcs, killing the right hand of their leader and quickly fled, without even taking the purple one's second city :) But the Arghat has already come to my territory, but Vitia will quickly deal with her with his 14 imps :) (Deleb figured it out - the hero was very rich in junk artifacts for his number of troops, but there was no mana left for a portal to the city)

In short, I angered the orcs, and he came to break my castle :) and the purple one bought Arghat. Both approached the castle, the Necropolis was a little behind, and Arghat attacked 14 imps, slightly weakening all the centaurs.
The main hero attacks, kills this Arghat with minimal losses and jumps through the portal into the city.
The Necropolis approaches the castle alone.

Vitia and Nibros attacked him, I didn't dare to conduct more than 2 battles and put more than 2 heroes at risk, because they are very expensive and valuable, I'm sorry to lose them if they don't get bought back from the tavern. In general, Subjugation + cyclops, with great difficulty, most of the orcs with clubs flew away, half a hundred of the Bloodcrazed Cyclops and 1k centaurs. The danger is still high, but the orc was somehow afraid to attack the castle. - the same Nibros and Vitia stood in his way, and the GG is sitting in the castle - he only defeated Nibros, losing half a thousand of the remaining orcs with clubs. He didn't go to Vitia or to the castle itself - maybe he considers it average :)

The remaining army - 88 cyclops with clubs, 69 Bloodcrazed (there were 130), 169 geese (there were +100), 522 warlords, 489 shamans, 1113 centaurs (there were 2k and there were also 1k orcs with clubs).

We can say that the orc's siege failed and I withstood it - despite the high danger, he was afraid to attack the castle, I have at least one turn (3 battles, Nibros + Vitia + Sigrif). For some reason, it seems that he will not attack. He doesn't have a ring of machines, but he has sulfur rain, but 40% of the army didn't reach the castle :) The purple one's castle, which I took, the main orc took for himself, but that's okay, it only interfered with the portals :)

I managed to sit it out ))
There was a moment in the game - an orc with a club has a charge. He kills an imp, the angel of this imp raises him, the second attack of the orc on the imp raised by the angel ignored BDP.

Sigrif has no BDP and no defense, which complicates the battles. The army is 11 devils (a few devils from the weekly growth joined only once out of ten) + 17/106/371/667/1519/1378, artifacts are staff/necro cloak, ring +20, ring of machines, knight's hat, mage's robe, dragon boots/necklace and moon blade with horseshoe. It works, and Vitia takes artifacts for battles once, had a battle - bought himself in the tavern, returned the artifacts :)

I've noticed a bug in the first mission for the first time, but it's happening again now that I'm replaying it. I won the Dungeon faction in 7 weeks and 4 days, and the stats (27 - 9 - 19 - 17) reset to 0 - 0 - 1 - 1 and aren't increasing. It can be fixed by using the console to give myself 1 point in each stat, and then they start increasing again. But I'm not sure what stats I need to build up so they don't reset so drastically. Or, maybe it's because the stats are actually being removed twice (immediately upon transfer and again the next day). Is this how it's supposed to work? Starting with a Sorceress is definitely a fun experience on the surface.

I decided to play this campaign and downloaded and installed it (especially since, according to the author's description, it is a logical continuation of the one I recently finished). But after reading the description on the forum, I suddenly realized that I probably played all these maps in single scenarios several years ago :smile07:. And here is, apparently, my walkthrough for the first part: /topic/at/776878/ - forum page /topic/at/776878/ - my description, continued on the next page The third part: /topic/at/992129/ - forum page /topic/at/992129/ - my description And this seems to be the second one: /topic/11089/ - forum pages from 1 to 4 (my first post is dated September 17, 2014, 20:03, and the last one is November 10, 2014, 17:36) I would be grateful if anyone who has played through the campaign or the author could confirm or deny my assumptions. If that's really the case, it's a pity that by getting ahead of events, I spoiled my enjoyment of playing through this campaign as a whole :smile39:, now I guess I'll have to look for something else :smile32:.

As far as I know, these maps have been rebalanced here. Otherwise, there is no difference from individual missions.

Added 15 minutes later
And it seems there are missions here that are not available separately. The last ones.

After completing the first half of the first mission and collecting absolutely everything I could, I had a negative stat: -0-0-1-1. The next level was empty, and then it started to increase, and I didn't add anything to it myself. But there, you can play in waves, in a chain, and the spells of Darkness return when you learn the skill, plus the starting mana reserve of 250-300 helps you get through the first battles.

After completing the first half of the first mission and collecting absolutely everything I could, I had a negative stat - 0-0-1-1. The next level was empty, and then it started to increase; I didn't add anything myself. But there, you can play in waves, in a chain, and the spells of darkness return when you learn the skill, plus the starting mana of 250-300 helps you get through the first battles.

Yes, that's true, but I wasn't leveling up after 5-6 levels, so I had to edit the stats. I was already thinking of restarting, but for testing purposes, I sacrificed the purchased Orson at the altar, and after leveling up, my magic skill increased, and it offered me "Artful Darkness." On Berserk difficulty, I managed to break through the guard of the magic skill upgrade and then things went normally:

In general, I won against the Dwarves in about 4.5 months, and the whole mission took 6.5 months, which is an improvement of about a month compared to my previous result. In reality, you can win much faster if you use the previously described bug - make Wolfsten capture the demon castle, and he will die when it is destroyed (a side effect of the RazeTown ability). But I played fairly. However, after clearing the map without any losses (including Hangwul - ), with an army of 4 caravans, I defeated Wolf in one go without giving him much of a chance - . I hope that now I can definitely get the Thunderlord and finally finish this campaign, especially since I did very poorly in the second one last time; there's a lot of room for improvement...

P.s. I found an old, non-campaign version of the first map, where stats are reduced by 1 when transferred. Here, they are also reduced the next day, which is probably why they go into a hard negative

Hmm... In the first mission, 16 green dragons joined (no diplomacy involved), and I wiped out the rest of the map using vampirism (on those I didn't directly attack). I finished it in an hour. Before that, it took me 2 days to slowly eliminate them all. WTF?
P.S. Of course, it was a Warrior (otherwise, it's like "kicking" with your foot... it's a tough map)....attack/defense/BD (Battle Damage Points)/darkness (vampirism if it appears)/(devourer as a mandatory skill)/spells/luck + 2 rings and a staff (all focused on initiative). Level 30, could have been 31 if I had defeated the boss earlier.
And then I started the second mission and lost interest.

You’re wrong, the Warrior class is actually quite manageable, moderately challenging, and quite interesting. I only managed to lose on the 5th scenario on my first try with the Warrior, and I’m playing all the Master campaigns for the first time with the Warrior.

But with the Hero class, it’s a different story. The second scenario is very difficult, and I can imagine the 5th one being even harder. I’m also a bit worried about the 4th scenario, considering there are several enemies that move together, the mentor’s guard is strong, and it’s problematic to protect both the mentor and the Darkness spell (as well as the Machines and Attack spells) without the help of a Mind Master. There are only two towns (the second one without Dogs), and the guild limit is 3/2 (which will allow you to give up Darkness magic before reaching the mentor if you’re offered a bad skill at level up), because the value of Darkness magic at that stage is only in the Mind Master and nowhere else. (But there’s a portal scroll and 2 pairs of boots in the town, which is very useful).

You're wrong to dismiss it; everything is actually quite doable on Warrior, moderately difficult and fairly interesting. I only managed to lose the 5th one on my first try, and I play all Master Campaigns on Warrior for the first time.

Now, Hero is a different story: the second one is very hard, I can only imagine the 5th, and I'm also afraid of the 4th, considering there are several enemies and they roam together, the mentor's guard is strong, and handling defense and the mentor (as well as darkness, machines, and attack) simultaneously without the help of a mind-controller is problematic. Only two cities (the second without dogs) and a guild limit of 3/2 (which allows giving up darkness magic before the mentor if a bad skill is offered for a level), because the value of darkness magic at that stage is only in Mind Control and nowhere else. (But there is a town portal scroll lying around and 2 pairs of boots, which is quite useful)

I'm not dismissing it—I just expressed my IMHO.
And Heroes is all about RNG—what you get or how it procs is anyone's guess. I just hate weekly rollbacks (because I play for pleasure, not trying to prove something to anyone or myself).

The difficulty is the highlight of this campaign; I've played it four times, and it's still challenging, which makes it interesting. Of course, playing on Hero difficulty requires a lot of luck, especially with the initial skill rolls, and for a quick playthrough, you also need to check the map for random neutral creatures. But playing on Hero difficulty is a challenge; most players don't need it, and the lower difficulty levels are perfectly acceptable. Although, even on Hero difficulty, it's not that difficult if you act strategically (and there are several guaranteed paths to success). Right now, in the second scenario, everything is going great. I rolled Sigrif with a leader from a chest and got a relic from a witch, but I had to struggle and even defeat bears with just one spell. Later, even with level 2 spells, it was difficult; I ignored many neutral creatures at the beginning, but then I faced Zealots + 2 packs of Golems, and I managed to get the Secret Keeper from them. After that, everything went smoothly. I found Chaos, got the Phoenix Cloak, and defeated Necropolis even without a Blood Dragon. By the time I reached Shio, I'm thinking of not rushing out of there and instead collecting and upgrading the local demons, but I don't remember if there's an extra mine there. On the surface, things are also going well; I found Djinns on the portal and defeated him by the third week. Before Beni arrived, I reached level 21, got good Darkness creatures, and a Wide Gate. I also got a week of alliance before his arrival, so I felt sorry for Beni - . Next, I'll try to act as quickly as possible, summoning as many troops as possible from the surface with Sigrif, so that I can defeat Kha-Belekh as quickly as possible.