Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Does anyone know how to complete the first battle of April Battles without any losses?

Centurion, a well-known player and streamer in niche circles, has uploaded a new video:
TOP 5 Remixes of FAMOUS MAPS / Interesting Maps
Download links for these maps from Google Drive are in the description.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPLv0jZnmcg

I used exactly the same tactic! But for some reason, one troll always dies on my side.

http://www.heroes3maps.com/map/8397-matrix
Map: Matrix (author unknown, no descriptions or author contacts in the map description)
Difficulty: Impossible

Brief walkthrough.

I completed the map based on a tip from a good person :).
Language: Chinese, Mandarin (Simplified) – this is my specialty :).
The map is not very difficult and will suit many who want to complete it.
The map didn't surprise me with anything fundamentally new, didn't "hook" me, so to speak, but that's just the whims of a spoiled player :). My overall IMHO rating is, say, 6-7 out of 10.
Overall, the map is well made; we get to play as Necropolises, which is not typical for custom maps. Usually, there are: Archmages (Castle), Titans + Wizards (Tower), in some cases, Bears (Stronghold), or Archdevils (Inferno). But here, it's like Necropolises, which seems unbalanced. Well, okay.
Overall, during the walkthrough, you can gather too many forces, more than 1 million skeletons, 20,000 Azure Dragons, etc., and the enemies are defeated without much difficulty.
We play with 2 heroes, then unlock 3 more.
No bugs or problems were noticed; all quests are solved, and everything works.
Let's go!

1. Start.
We start with a free Septien and a blocked Sandro. Their skills are pre-set, so there's no need to worry about choosing. Both have Intelligence – that's good! Both are professional mages with all the elements.
Just in case, I gave Septien the "Despair" spell, a purely Necropolis-style spell. I immediately planned for Septien to raise Necropolis creatures and capture as many as possible to build Vampires + Stronghold, so that later I could crush everyone without losses.
I move her clockwise from the south to the west along the route: sawmill, cursed temple + skeletons, experience stone +1000, and up to 121, we take a vampire dwelling, and twice bypass the peasant dwellings (which we will later farm into skeletons, a total of 200). In Septien's castle, in a week, we built everything from skeletons to Vampires + Stronghold.
By 126, we reach the castle back, farm peasants into skeletons, and with 4 Vampires and over 200 skeletons, we go to the western part of the respawn, where by 133, we take 10 free Liches and have already gathered 350 skeletons.
We return to the castle, upgrade the Vampires, and with 24 upgraded Vampires, on 136, we go north, take another Vampire dwelling, wander around the respawn, build 4+5 Mage Guilds, fly to our 3 castles, buy Vampires, defeat the guard of green dragons near the second castle, and by 147, we have 191 Vampires. All this can be played more optimally, as it seems to me, but that's not the point; at the end of the month, almost 200 Vampires is already a force. Sandro is still locked up.
From 211 to 217, Septien travels around the respawn because we cannot leave it due to the protection of the antimagic garrison, which is guarded by a Necromancer army, and we cannot take them with Vampires in any way (+100 only Bone Dragons). With nothing to do, we travel to Vampire dwellings, peasants, etc., and gather an army.

2. Sandro joins, we farm skeletons.
On 221, in Sandro's castle, they build a town portal, and he teleports out and also starts leveling up.
On 223, we open the guard near Sandro's castle and go to the surroundings; by this time, we already have 293 Vampires, and Septien fights without losses while Sandro levels up.
On 232, after teleporting after killing the golems, Sandro gets the "Berserk" spell! The battle is long; we need to kill 7,000 gold and diamond golems with 293 Vampires and (not necessarily) 1,000 skeletons.
On 237, we have 11,500 skeletons, 302 Vampires, and 170 upgraded Liches (those who were bought).
On 241, with 555 Vampires, we jump into the dungeon, start gathering resources, and farm skeletons on the Legion of various creatures. See the screenshot – typical battles. It's "difficult" to fight 1-2-3 battles against golems, but then, having farmed skeletons for 3 days – 131,000 – we go to break the magic garrison. The farming tactic is simple: we cast mass slow, then cast quicksand, and kill any forces with Vampires.
On 244, we break the antimagic garrison. See the screenshot.
On 312, we have almost 400,000 skeletons.

3. Leaving the respawn and expansion (Swamp, Elves, Inferno, Humans, Titans). 315-621
On 315, we leave (SAIL) the respawn, dividing our forces: Sandro sails to take the green tent and then to the Elven lands (army – 1 Crystal Dragon + all skeletons, about 412,000), and Septien sails to the Swamp respawn (all other forces: 964 Vampires, 700 upgraded Liches, 974 Gorgons, 165 Bone Dragons, 30 Azure Dragons).
Keep in mind that there are many events on the water respawn on the islands, where you can get significant armies, for example, +15 or 30 Azure Dragons. Therefore, the INTEREST is to leave as early as possible and collect all these events on the army so that the computer doesn't do it.
We clear the green and Swamp respawns until 335, when Septien kills ALL the brown creatures, and we take the brown tent. Immediately after that, Sandro (313,000 skeletons, 1 Azure Dragon, 2 Bone Dragons) sails to the Inferno lands, and Septien (200,000 skeletons and the rest of the army) finishes the Elven respawn. The army is shown in the screenshots.
414 green (Elves) is killed.
Sandro goes to kill the Inferno respawn, and Septien returns to the initial respawn in the dungeon and continues to farm skeletons on resources; they will be needed soon. 35,000 Stirges or other unique creatures are killed very easily.
425 red is killed. We pass through the captured respawns, take stats (knowledge, defense, attack, magic power), although this is not necessary, but desirable.
443 – we go to the Archmage respawn, pass through it, and completely capture the respawn.
513 – orange is killed.
531 – we go to the Titan respawn to the Tea Dragon; we have more than 4,000 Vampires (!). 545 Tea Dragon is killed.
621 – we have 1.1 million skeletons (!!!), and we take the strategic Stronghold with the Grail.

4. Towards the end
631 – we free Adelaide – the 3rd hero.
635 – we travel around neutral respawns, opening quest pillars, getting stats, and upgrades.
We have about 750 Archmages, 350 Titans, more than 1 million skeletons, 5,000 Vampires.
645 – Sandro lands in the dungeon with a full mana supply and goes to the enemy dungeon with 1 Azure Dragon and 5,046 Vampires. Septien and Adelaide solve quests and increase their stats.
On 717, we land on the respawn, where there is a concentration of dragons: Azure, Crystal, Fairy, Sulfur. We cast the "See Invisible" spell, kill the "disagreeing" ones, and join the "agreeing" ones. In fact, by 724, we have 1,000 Archmages, 3,700 Titans, 1,000 Archdevils (most of them joined), as well as 20,000 Azure Dragons, 4,000 Crystal Dragons, 12,000 Sulfur Dragons, and 13,000 Fairy Dragons.
It is clear that with such an army, you can crush anyone on the map.
We go to the pink dungeon, kill the entire enemy army with Vampires, and 742 pink is killed.

5. Finale
In the 8th month, we visit the black and purple tents. It should be noted that you can only open the tent with a "one-way ticket." That is, when sending a hero to the tent, he cannot return because it is Necropolis land. Therefore, we send Adelaide to the purple tent and Septien to the black tent.
And Sandro is sent to level up, killing quest heroes.
On 845, there is a more or less difficult battle against 9999 * 7 stacks of Azure Dragons. We kill them with about 7,300 Vampires. It's long, risky, but possible.
On 845, the game ends.

Impressions after completing the game: the map can be completed in one sitting in 5-7 hours.
Liked/didn't like: I liked it. I didn't learn anything new from the map, but it's a good way to pass the time; it's made with an idea, and the world is open: go and solve tasks in the order you need. If you sit for too long, the computer may gather a more significant army by collecting events in certain locations. This may create problems.

Thank you for the detailed feedback! I'll try to play it after "Elite".

Map Title: 新锦绣天下 / New Splendid World
Author: 沅子 / Scorpion
Downloaded: from the gamerhome forum

I decided to play after a break, choosing one of the maps I had downloaded a long time ago from a Chinese forum. I settled on a map called “New Splendid World” or “The Splendid New World.” I was intrigued by the “BT super map” label in the scenario description, the impressive artwork, and the interesting start. The author’s words that he had been gradually working on this map for almost ten years were also encouraging.

I can say that the map did not live up to my high expectations, simply because I don’t enjoy this type of gameplay. The thing is that the scenario is 99% static. Several enemy heroes roam freely on the starting respawn point, and one theoretical ally hero can come to our starting location, but I can’t imagine when that would happen, as I killed him before he could gather enough champions to leave.

In general, the map is of medium difficulty, and in terms of level/quality of development, it can be placed in the same row as well-known Heroes games: Unleashing the Bloodthirsty, Wayfarer, Paragon 2.0, To Tame a Land, Vengeance Is Mine. In terms of gameplay, New Splendid World most closely resembles Vengeance Is Mine; I recommend it to fans of VIM. There is even one of the playable heroes named Commando, with the same portrait and specialization in defense.

I’m not sure why the “BT” label was added to this map; it seems to be used to denote not so much difficult maps as “meaty” maps with legion battles.

The original feature of this map is that we play as the Conflux, and the entire game is played with Conflux units. In the later stages, you can recruit some other troops, although there is no point in doing so except for the final battle. The start in New Splendid World is, as they say, a fast start. You need to eliminate the roaming neighbors and capture their castles. Based on my experience with complex Chinese maps, I started playing aggressively. In the first week, I killed three enemy heroes and established control over three cities. Each battle turned out to be unique; I even had to rely on spells to defend against air attacks, using specially designated Storms. In the second week, I had to work hard to defeat a hero in the upper right Conflux. Among other things, he had 20+ Firebirds and about four hundred Energy Elementals, and a mass speed-up spell was also dropped. In the third week, I cleared out an external dwelling of Firebirds. After that, I could go out to sea, and that’s when I realized what type of map this would be. The next opponent, sitting in a brown Inferno, cannot be defeated if you approach him at the beginning of the second month. There is too much “meat” and too few arguments in response. In general, you need to buy about a hundred Phoenixes and 400+ Storms, and then you can defeat him in a difficult battle, which I did at the end of the second month. The sad fact was that this battle remained the most difficult for me on this map; after that, everything went smoothly. By the middle of the map, the overall power of the army and the available opportunities turn all battles into a massacre. The only exception is the final boss, but he should not create big problems for an experienced player. Moreover, no one is rushing you here, and the reinforcements and issued troops are abundant, so even for slow players, the final battle may turn out to be easy on, say, month 40+.

But the main feature of this map is not in the combat component. New Splendid World follows the path of Vengeance Is Mine and Wayfarer and surpasses them in the number/quality of hidden paths, deceptive routes, and hidden items. A frequent question that arises during the playthrough: “What the heck should I do next?” In general, the map is quite confusing, not The Last Crusade or A Long Way, but still. And it has a number of gameplay moments that will surely play skillfully on the reflexes of the average player and put him in a dead end more than once or twice. It can also be added that there is a kind of connection between the zones here, and only one hero can be actively used, so the map is very time-consuming in terms of playing time. 12 months is the result of a fairly quick playthrough.

In conclusion, although I didn’t like New Splendid World, it has all the prerequisites to become a popular Heroes hit if people find out about it.

P.S. I encountered a funny thing on this author’s map for the first time when a Titan’s Roar dropped from a grave. It’s doubly funny that I needed it right away in the next battles.

It has all the potential to become a popular hero game hit if people find out about it.

They already know about it – so it will become one. ;) Especially since

the map has a medium difficulty level, and in terms of its level/quality of development, it can be ranked among generally recognized hero game hits.

And not everyone likes exclusively hardcore games. I also downloaded it for the future. There is a link to the author's article in the description; you can read it using Google Translate.
It is also worth noting that there are very few custom maps where we play as the Conflux. The weakness of this faction: only phoenixes and fairies can be resurrected. But if we have enough cities or external phoenix dwellings, then the power of the Conflux in SoD grows very quickly. As an example, we can recall "Wings of Heaven" (where we have a Conflux with a bunch of external camps and Towers).

a Titan's Roar dropped from the tomb.

Lucky you! :) By the way, I was also incredibly lucky the other day: I found a Mana Talisman in the sea and assembled a Wizard's Well, which I needed literally the next game day (after an event that drains mana).

But not everyone enjoys hardcore gameplay.

That's precisely why I decided to leave a review, as the map is objectively good.

It's also worth noting that there are very few custom maps where we actually play as the Conflux. A weakness of this faction is that only phoenixes and sprites can be resurrected. But if we have enough cities or external phoenix dwellings, the power of the Conflux in SoD grows very quickly. As an example, we can recall "Wings of Heaven" (where we have a Conflux with many external fire altars and Towers).

I was also reminded of Heroes of Jin Yong. But there, as far as I remember, you can quickly gather troops from other castles.

Recently, I decided to test the Invisibility spell. Usually, everyone says that it's completely useless and doesn't work at all. I conducted the following experiment: on a test map, I placed two heroes: one with an army of 1 Azure Dragon and 500 Peasants, and the other with an army of 100 Archons. Without Invisibility, the second hero would definitely attack the first, but when using Invisibility, the enemy does not attack.

I experimented with Camouflage and came to the conclusion that the developers made a mess and made one mistake. When there is no air magic, but there is basic and advanced magic, everything is fine, but look at the effect of the spell at the expert level of air magic and answer: WTF?

I encountered this quirk for the first time on a custom map when a Titan's Thunder spell dropped from a tomb.

Once, in a "hot seat" game, Armageddon's Blade appeared on one of the standard maps, although I don't remember where it came from. The opponent's reaction was priceless!))

Recently, I decided to test the Invisibility spell. Usually, everyone says that it's completely useless and doesn't work at all. I conducted an experiment: on a test map, there are two heroes: one with an army of 1 Azure Dragon and 500 peasants, and the other with an army of 100 Archdevils. Without Invisibility, the second hero will definitely attack the first, but when it's used, the enemy doesn't attack.

A save file is needed to show this happening, preferably with the map. As far as I know, Invisibility really doesn't affect the AI because it takes information about the strength of our army "directly." You also need to consider the factor of randomness and other parameters besides the army.

On the other hand, you can make Invisibility the most useful skill if you want. For example, create a situation where we need to force the AI to attack us. We have 1 Fire Elemental, 30 mana, and the Armageddon spell. The AI has 20 Pikemen. In this case, it won't attack us because it takes into account the one-shot potential of casting Armageddon. Accordingly, the only way to make it attack us is to cast Invisibility until we have less than 20 mana. =)

But how do you kill it after that? One way is to have Titan's Thunder, because the AI doesn't take it into account. ;)

And yes, instead of Invisibility, it could be Scouting Air/Earth, etc. It's a matter of taste.

Here is the map. I'm not saving, as everything happens immediately. The hero Orin has the Cloak of Disguise.

I experimented with Camouflage and came to the conclusion that the developers made a mess and made a mistake. When there is no air magic, and there is basic and advanced magic, everything is fine, but look at the effect of the spell at the expert level of air magic and answer: WTF?

My Camouflage works fine to deter companions at any level.

Here is the map. I'm not saving, as everything happens immediately. The hero Orin has the Cloak skill.

I tried it. In my case, he attacks regardless.

But I wouldn't be surprised if casting Cloak/See Invisible, etc., could lead to different random outcomes and, consequently, different AI behavior.

I don't know how a hero under the effect of Camouflage appears to the AI enemy, but I do know how the result of applying Camouflage is displayed when viewing the hero's army. For clarity, here's a screenshot:
1 - the hero's actual army;
2 - Camouflage applied (no air magic or basic level);
3 - Camouflage applied (advanced or expert-level air magic).
Now, pay attention, QUESTION: what is that strange thing in the 3rd frame, where is the logic of enhancing the spell's effect, and what does it lead to in the actual game? Will it help the player or, on the contrary, hinder them? :confused: