Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

sprocket73, welcome to our forum and thanks for the map! Frankly speaking it gave me nightmares but it's really something unique!

Genre: RPG.
Actual Difficulty: below average (but this is not a flaw — see further).
Description: Einst gab es ein Land der Helden, dessen Glanz unübertroffen war. Die Zeit hat gezeigt, dass Glanz unumgänglich schwindet, jedoch Neues neuen Glanz erschaffen kann. Schaffst du es, neuen Glanz in die Welt zu bringen, deren Mythen und Helden längst verwelkt sind? Nur für Profis möglich!
Translation: Once there was a land of heroes whose brilliance was unsurpassed. Time has shown that brilliance inevitably fades, but something new can create a new splendor. Can you bring new splendor to a world whose myths and heroes have long since withered? Possible only for professionals!
According to the plot, a boy once found by villagers grew up and decided to leave the village to uncover the secret of his origin and his destiny. A beautiful Sorceress will help him in this. Together they must prevent an invasion of demons from the Dungeon.
To make it easier for those who wish to complete the map, I am attaching a translation of the texts (as usual, I used Google Translate and then slightly edited the output).
Victory Condition: defeat hero Xamandaras. Since each enemy has one inaccessible city in the Dungeon, this is the only way to finish the game.
After reading various opinions about the map, I wanted to find out for myself what it was like.
In nature, it is more of an exploration map than a combat map. The interest here lies specifically in examining the world. On the other hand, lovers of epic battles will find the map long and boring. Personally, despite the long Walkthrough, the map did not manage to bore me.
Please note: there is a version refined by player CloudTemple; it is posted on the German KartenArchiv under the name "Brothers of Mercy and War 2". It is claimed that it plays more intensely because enemies are strengthened, but I still recommend the original author's version: the "2nd version" was actually created from an older version of the map; this is evident by the presence of a Tome of Air Magic in one place where the author replaced it with a Dragon Blood Vial.

Presence of an original concept.
Presence of a plot. The author even remembered to write biographies for the heroes.
Very thorough drawing. The surface and underground worlds, as well as the seas, are carefully filled and pleasing to the eye.
Our story heroes have all the necessary secondary skills set by the author at the start, so you don't need to worry about them.
There are taverns in the cities, and you can hire or dismiss additional heroes when needed.
We play with Wizards and snipers, whose numbers constantly grow.
No strict linearity; we have a fairly large degree of freedom while exploring and conquering the surface world.
No timing (tasks with time limits), with one small exception at the very beginning.
There aren't too many tasks, and there are no unnecessary optional ones at all, so you won't get confused or rack your brain over where to go and what to do (although some things will have to be located using the editor).
The Grail is placed by the author in a spot where it certainly won't be reached by the grasping claws of enemies.
It lacks that flaw found in some maps where almost half the map is optional to visit (sometimes even the entire Dungeon): you will need to look into almost every corner of this large world.

Seizure of all resources every 2 weeks (specifically at the start of a new week, every 1st and 3rd week), and from the 6th month — weekly. A very crude and unpleasant way to increase difficulty. However, in the text, this is justified quite elegantly (people must share with each other — it's the only peaceful way to prevent revolutions). And after finding one treasure, you will always have enough money.
Something else is more disappointing: when you already have plenty of gold, enemies can still flee the battlefield because you don't have Shackles of War since they are required for one quest. It would be better if the guard required a Bird of Knowledge or an Envoy's Ribbon or some similar trinket instead of the Shackles.
In some key locations for disembarking from a boat, there is only one free cell — the appearance of monsters in them can make the map impassable if this happens before you visit. Use the SOD_SP plugin.
By the author's design, we have no ability to summon or sink boats until we visit one place in the Dungeon (the Admiral's Hat is in the Dungeon near the Tomes of Magic, but it can only be taken closer to the finale). You have to make do with the boats placed by the author. To sail away from the island where our 2 Castles are located, there is only 1 boat — this limits our ability to transfer troops (Town Portal will also come late).
Although there is no possibility to learn level 5 spells in the mage guilds, you can build the 5th level — it would have been better to block the construction of the 5th level as well. Otherwise, valuable resources may be wasted.
Fire birds at the exit of the yellow monolith in the Dungeon have a random mood and may join. Some of the dragons on the path we take to free Abbadon may also join.

Use HD-mod with the SOD_SP plugin: as I already said, the appearance of monsters in some cells can make the map impassable.
I mentioned above the regular seizure of all resources. Therefore, at the initial stage while you have money, don't be idle and spend it constantly: build buildings, hire troops, etc. Limit yourself to collecting shooters, cavalry, and griffins. Save by upgrading creatures in the fort on the hill and stables.
Be careful when boarding a boat and going ashore: you need to ensure that you can always return where necessary and board the boat again or disembark again. After obtaining the Summon Boat and Sink Boat spells, you will no longer have to worry about this.
You must defeat 5 Pink heroes in the central lands: Turis, Aeris, Moner, Gretchen, Halon. This is necessary to visit the blue tent, after which you can learn Town Portal. Without it, completing the map may be impossible. Therefore, these named heroes must be beaten without letting them escape, even if the battle results in losses.
Another enemy hero that must be defeated is Gehilfe (Red).
The green tent can be visited by bypassing all ambushes: most of them are in cells with pits, others — in cells with other landscape irregularities. It is convenient to go to it by disembarking from the sea on the eastern shore.
If you cannot find the treasure that will save you from the regular gold reset yourself, then it is located on the peninsula south of the fire birds' dwelling.
If you cannot solve the author's text puzzle with playing cards, then just go to the very corner of the Dungeon: there you will get Town Portal. Do not touch the boxes: you can't beat the azure ones in them anyway.
Only one of the 3 guards on the island with fairy dragons will open the way to them, and you will only have one Ring, so do not make a mistake!
Before entering the yellow one-way monolith, save the game: it has two exits, and the second is guarded by fire birds.

We play as Green. We start with 3 heroes, but one only visits the observatory and cannot step anywhere else, so he can be forgotten. The active ones will be Varn (sniper specialist) and Kijara (Wizard specialist). Since Varn lacks wisdom, Kiara will be the main warrior heroine. In the beginning, we have a Rampart, but it is inaccessible, so that can also be forgotten.
Since Kiara is behind a guard who requires Varn to open, the main task of the initial stage is to reach the guard. There is a time limit for this (16 days), but we easily make it, not forgetting to visit the seer on the way (who hints at Varn's complex origin and gives the task to bring Abbadon) and capturing Castle Zabar.
On 1-2-7 I freed Kiara and took Castle Marksfold. The freed Sorceress said that we must visit the Island of Ghosts in the northeast, where the seer will give us the necessary instructions.
...
On 15-3-3 Abbadon visited the witch's hut where Varn began his journey, learned the main secret of the whole story, and received the Sacred Charm.
On 15-4-6 Abbadon entered the monolith, behind which the final battle awaited him. He stayed there for 2 days while Kiara dug up the Grail, and on 16-1-1 he defeated Xamandaras.
Result: 421 days.
Summing up, I must say: I liked the map very much. Although there were no particular difficulties or heavy battles here, exploring this world was interesting and not tiring despite the long journey.

Searching the thread didn't yield any results, but I probably don't know how to use the search function properly. As you know, Xiedu is in Chinese, and there's supposed to be a lot of text there. I found a thread on Heroes Community: http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=33577. In the last post, it says: "Anyways, that's the link to the English Language Xiedu, so called here "Blasphemy": http://www.heroes3.eu/download/mapy/1506-blasphemy". Has anyone tried this version?

I couldn't find any results by searching the thread, but I probably don't know how to use the search function.

Xiedu, as you know, is in Chinese, and there should be a lot of text there. I found a thread on Heroes Community: http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=33577
In the last post: "Anyways, that's the link to English Language Xiedu, so called here "Blasphemy": http://www.heroes3.eu/download/mapy/1506-blasphemy "

Has anyone tried this version?

It's a bad auto-translated version of the official map from Gamerhome that I did a while back.

It's a bad auto-translated version of the official map from Gamerhome that I did a while back.

So a language is the only difference from the version http://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=784&game=3 ? Gameplay have not changed?

Playing with auto-translated texts is still better than with totally unreadable ones. Interestingly, I came across an attempt to translate my map using Google on one English-language forum. Even then, the author of the idea got tired of it and said there was too much.

I'll revive the topic with a small off-topic story. I haven't played the game for two months, but this weekend I decided to try an unfamiliar format for myself – to complete a map without loading/replaying battles and without предварительное изучение in the editor. I chose the map "Back for Revenge" (translated as "Return for Revenge") without an ally. As far as my childhood memories tell me, this is one of the most challenging maps in the standard set, where you need to destroy 300 ancient creatures in 5 months.

I played as the orange (Inferno) Aydan as the starting hero. Due to the unfamiliarity, the first attempt ended very ingloriously. In the first couple of weeks, I lost my entire army to neutrals several times (demons near the chest under the city spawned in a quantity of 48 with an upgraded stack :p then a neutral village turned out to be guarded by 16 Gogs and 4 dogs!). In general, while I was losing again and again, the purple player came to me from the other end of the island with a superior army. I tried to sneak past this hero and take his castles, but they stopped me and forced me to retreat, and then this purple player attacked my starting castle, and he had an expert in ballistics! He crushed me :D

In the second attempt, I played carefully and didn't lose, but due to the starting limitations, the purple player still developed much better (there aren't many resources and gold on this map, it's not Jebus), so I again ran behind his main hero and finally took the main city, but to my surprise, when the day changed and Aydan, who had captured this city and was replenishing his mana, was attacked from the darkness by a second purple player and killed with a lightning strike :D A cruel failure, but then a streak of luck began. After a couple of weeks, Aydan returned to the tavern (I turned off the hero-digger). The hero who killed me before took my stat-boosting items and learned diplomacy, as he joined all the guards on the map, so I had to swim away from the island on a ship. I managed to dock at a built-up neutral Inferno, where there was a city portal on level 4 of the GM, and archdevils had joined in front of the city. This became the beginning of a comeback. Among the fun things: the scholar Aydan learned necromancy, and after I managed to get a dimension door, I accidentally found a comp who was trying to dig up the Grail with several heroes. I scattered that gang and the next day I dug up the Grail myself with one of the loafers on the second dig :D The Grail went to the tower, and then everything became easy, as controlling the movement of the comps greatly simplifies everything. I ran around a bit more and destroyed the creatures in the 4th month. In general, I had a lot of fun and I recommend this format to those who are tired of all the maps. It's very fun :)

P.S. Earth and air scouting are worth their weight in gold in these conditions.

Hello, fellow Heroes players! I stumbled upon this topic online while searching for new maps to play and learned a lot of interesting information about playing custom maps. I would like to share my impressions and a small addition to the review of the Chinese map "Road to Destruction" by "kolotok."

I enjoyed this map, unlike "Brave People," where it was only interesting until the liberation of Tazar; after that, I was frankly bored, except for a couple of interesting battles. It is highly desirable to play at a fast pace from the very beginning, as "kolotok" indicated, but the map is still passable even if you don't meet the two timing goals (the seer who gives the amulet of courage no later than day 241 and the passage guard no later than day 341). I managed to meet these timings myself. The battle with Solmyr was a real ordeal in trying to get the right setup (I can't imagine how this battle can be passed on tight timings other than the method described by "kolotok"). After 60-70+ attempts, everything worked out, and after losing 46 archdevils, I accepted the results. After getting resurrection, there were only a couple of unpleasant battles; the difficulty became approximately at the level of "Jennifer's Journey" (I really liked this map, I recommend it to fans of corridor maps like Wayfarer, UTB). In fact, there are 2 taverns on the map, not 1 as "kolotok" indicated in the review; I learned about the existence of one of them by chance when I captured the Rampart at 129-112-0 near the castle; Solmyr, whom I had previously killed, was standing nearby. In the tavern, I bought Rashka, who had the quest artifact, and Tanta to create liches. Later, during the events on the water to the right of the Rampart at 85-109-0, I farmed 300k+ liches (although I could have farmed more than 500k). After that, the map is practically passed on autopilot, but I used this pack of liches only for the battle with Gundula because Gundula has the sphere of prohibition, and I didn't want to take losses and break through the garrison of 70k azure dragons guarding the grail and the outer tavern (from which there is no further upgrade). I sold the liches in the citadel (those who don't want to bother can simply finish the map on autopilot), but even without them, we have more than enough troops. I killed Nellu by using a hit-and-run tactic with a berserker, leaving her only with titans, and finished her off the next day, winning on day 834.

In conclusion, I recommend this map to players of medium and higher levels; it is quite engaging and interesting (especially at the beginning). I do not recommend it to weak players and those who do not like the total presence of the resistance skill on companions and resistance artifacts. I would rate the map 8.5 out of 10.

Yes, it's working out well - at level 125, the LLB is freed, and at level 126, Dessa learns Wisdom.

Sorry for bringing up metataxers again. And again, a new strategy (Dandy is probably laughing his head off, it's been 2 years...).
After freeing the LLB, you need to defeat the golems to get Wisdom for Dessa.
For me, it turned out to be extremely difficult - the golems stubbornly target the enchanters. I somehow managed to win. Daddies, please explain why this happens and how to confidently win the battle?

Sorry for bringing up the Meta-Taxer again. And again, a new strategy (Dandy is probably laughing his head off, it's been 2 years...).
After freeing the Lesser Lich, you need to get past the Golems to reach the Wizard of Desse.
For me, it turned out to be extremely tricky - the Golems stubbornly target the Enchanters. I somehow managed to win. Dudes, please explain why this happens and how to confidently win the battle?

Maybe you and Dandy could try the Meta-Taxer again with a new strategy together? If it's such a problem, why not? :)

The battle isn't difficult; on a fixed-random setup, it's a breeze. In the first and third series of casts, we get Frenzy for the Djinns, so we shoot with Frenzy 4 times, creating a wait. The only surprise for me was that Enchanters can cast different spells even with a fixed-random setup.

I think the battle can be won without Slow, but it consistently appeared on the 4th cast of the Enchanters for me until the random started to glitch.

Initial moves. In the early moves, the stack of 8 Djinns safely withstands the attack of 1 stack of Golems under Frenzy and draws the rest to them.

It's also important to group up at the bottom due to the specifics of the obstacles.

Thanks, but I'm playing without HD, so the randomness is just randomness. In my case, it wasn't possible to eliminate the stacks that were targeting the enchantresses without losing some units. As a result, oil came into play, which allowed me to regroup the enchantresses on the right side of the map. And it's not difficult to lead the golems on the left side due to the convenient terrain.

Maybe you and Dandy could try a new meta-strategy together?

That would be interesting, of course.

Thanks, but I play without HD, so the randomness is just randomness. In my case, it wasn't possible to eliminate the stacks that were targeting the enchantresses without losing some units. As a result, luck played a role, which allowed me to regroup the enchantresses on the right side of the map. And leading the golems on the left side is easy due to the convenient terrain.

It would be interesting, though.

I checked just now, and without HD, luck is quite consistently found on the first round if you quickly press "start combat" and use all the djinns. If you slow down even a little, Stone Skin appears. But the trick is that it's best to get it on the second round so you can use Direct Strike.

P.S. I haven't played this map, but I can help with time-consuming battles. You can contact me privately or on the forum, whichever is more convenient. I'd like to get something moving here, because soon a new Paragon will be released, and many people won't be interested in this anymore.

I can help with the battles that require a lot of effort.

Okay, I'm currently struggling with Phantom, before this battle was easier, there were fewer Enchantresses and their stats were higher.

Okay, I'm currently struggling with Phantom, before this fight was easy, there were fewer Enchantresses and their stats were higher.

What mana/unit losses would be considered acceptable? It will be problematic to keep the units alive. For this, you need to roll a sequence of good casts. I found a fairly stable drop rate for Slow + Prayer, and that's what I'm playing with. But I also need a Shield drop in the next Djinn cast.

In the first successful attempts, all Enchantresses and 30 Archdevils are preserved.

I haven't played the game for two months, but this weekend I decided to try an unfamiliar format for myself – to complete a map without saving/replaying battles and without предварительное изучение in the editor.

Generally, it's a great idea, but if it's a more serious map with a large number of attempts, then not studying the editor loses its meaning – you would almost see everything about the map from previous attempts anyway.

Sorry for bringing up Metatax again. And again, a new strategy (Dandy is probably laughing his head off, it's been 2 years already...)

Well, it's really a bit funny) and at the same time, did you never complete it for ознакомительных целей? Or is the point that if you complete it to the end, even for ознакомительных целей, you will have a feeling of completion and motivation for a super-fast attempt will decrease?

Maybe you and Dandy could play Metatax together with a new strategy? Since there's such a fuss, why not?

Thank you, of course, but "this city needs a new hero":)
I'm also waiting for Paragon 3.0. Rinse is great for delaying it as much as possible, which is a positive thing for me personally – if the map had been released a couple of months ago, and I had started streaming it, the level of stress and lack of time for rest would have been incredibly difficult. Plus, I've wanted to make another video for a long time, but I haven't had the time... In general, Metatax is already a closed chapter for me (unless I come up with a way to complete it without save loads, which is unlikely and not soon) and I wish you good luck with the record, I sincerely wish you the best