Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Thank you! By the way, I have another real challenge of this kind, because of which I postponed completing one map, thinking about how to handle it in other ways. Briefly: I need to defeat a Barbarian whose army is much stronger than mine, but he doesn't have advanced magic, while I have resurrection and other spells. But, unfortunately, the enemy got the Cloak of Negation from Utopia!

You can try to combine any cloak with a computer unit. Computer units automatically place items into their slots, and if a stronger item appears in an occupied slot, it won't be equipped (though this isn't certain). After that, you can win it using any magic.

The AI never equips artifacts obtained from defeating a hero or Utopia.

Added 2 minutes later
Actually, I wanted to understand not a specific situation, but the very mechanics of transferring artifacts between AIs in general, because this aspect of the game mechanics is hardly ever discussed, and, as we can see from recent posts, it can sometimes be very important. Regarding the question on maps4heroes, I'm interested in knowing what the map author thinks about this. Since he created such a puzzle on his map, he probably knows how it works (but that's not certain).

I'm curious to know what the map author thinks about this. Since he created such a puzzle on his map, he probably knows how it works (but that's not certain).

Has the map author ever revealed his secrets to anyone in the last ~10 years? :) I saw some messages from him somewhere in a discussion, but they were very old and related to an equally old version (1.4 or 1.6). I only remember that he said he thought the version could be completed in 5 months.

Campaign Name: The Fabulous Four Return
Author: Maxuta-Phoenix
Download: from this message

The epic saga with another campaign by this author has finally come to an end. I played through it leisurely over about a month of real time. Compared to "Risen from Hell," "The Fabulous 4" is simultaneously easier and harder. Easier because the individual missions are simpler, but there are more of them (12 versus 7). Harder because they proceed in blocks developing 5 different plot lines that merge all heroes in the campaign's final mission. In "Risen from Hell," all seven scenarios were a sequential development of the starting heroes.

The plot is quite simple: there is a certain Lord Max, who has grown completely frail with age. Therefore, his buddies decided to save him by searching for the components of the wizard's well. Overall, there isn't much text throughout, but it is presented in a very funny, witty style. The campaign's humor reminded me of jokes about Petka and Vasily Ivanovich. The author worked especially carefully on the names of enemy heroes; in some places, it was hard to keep from laughing.

The gameplay in the campaign is quite similar to "Risen from Hell," but the missions are not as tedious or stressful, so there was more enjoyment in playing. I won't describe every scenario in detail this time, but will briefly describe the Walkthrough according to the plot blocks.

Anastasia's Missions
1. Artyukha's Problems
2. Mountain Pass
3. In Search of an Exit

Anastasia (Mephala) enters the game first. Her final goal is to find the mana amulet. The first two starting missions are perhaps the simplest of all those I've played by Maxuta-Phoenix. In "Artyukha's Problems," you need to defeat Dungeon heroes using Castle troops (predominantly knights). To do this, you'll have to fight several medium-difficulty battles to shift the balance of power in your favor. There will also be a need for jumps in the underground using Dimension Door to get the cloak of speed. Notably: the same loss condition is the death of an allied hero (!), who sits motionless in the city so that the AI can actually kill them. Otherwise, based on my observations, the AI does not touch our roaming allies unless they block their path. Special attention must be paid to upgrading the hero's secondary skills: this is a key point for completing the campaign, and you can only properly figure it all out by studying the mission blocks before playing. I will post my same upgrade options for all key heroes in the screenshots.

In the second mission, you need to deal with Barbarians on the surface part of the map and Ramparts in the underground, eventually gathering an alliance of angels and delivering them to the only Tower on the map, which must not be surrendered to enemies (the loss condition is losing the city—the most stressful loss condition in the game, in my opinion). The map reminded me of the 3rd mission of "Risen from Hell," where there was also running around with Barbarians, but in "The Fabulous Four," the mission is simpler, although I still had to run a lot since the map terrain and the layout of colored border gates and monoliths significantly hinder the rapid liquidation of Barbarians. Before completing the mission, I fought 4000 azure dragons in a head-on battle just to level up the hero to the maximum 35.

Next, we deal with that same famous map "In Search of an Exit." There are three months to collect the components of the admiral's hat, each guarded by 700 black dragons. Here, the upgrades from previous missions, including the set of learned spells, will fully pay off. An essential but non-obvious requirement: Eagle Eye for resurrection. The generation of utopia is of huge importance. Gameplay follows this principle: you need to visit tents in different corners of the map while fighting off enemies that cross your path and recapturing accessible Castles along the way so as not to die within 7 days without cities. In the first few weeks, you can still fight through roaming heroes, but then they gather armies, and we become a punching bag for most enemies. Unreal action unfolds as AI units run from all sides to kill us, requiring maneuvering with no room for error. All this time, we collect minotaurs in caches along the way and try to steal Minos growth in available AI cities. By the way, Hypnosis was very useful on this map (access to Blindness is traditionally limited until the final mission). Two moments stand out: 1) a battle guarding the city where I hypnotized all enemy stacks and sent them to be slaughtered in the moat (it was problematic to kill them in melee due to AI Fire Shield casting); 2) an artifact for hypnosis immunity held by one of the enemy leaders :) I also got lucky with Armageddon dropping from Necromancers in a surface city (I didn't generate it on purpose, but it helped a lot later).

Mission of Gena's Wife (Karasuchka)
4. Rebellion

Lord Gena went to help his friends search for artifacts to assemble the wizard's well, leaving the command of the Necromancer forces to his wife (Tamika), who has a volatile temperament. The wife fell out with the Necromancers and also with the underground residents, who raised a rebellion against her.

Overall, the mission looks suspiciously easy, and herein lies the author's cruel design: we will have to play against all the Necromancers we use in this scenario during mission 12. That is, we are upgrading our future enemies with our own hands! And you can upgrade them such that you'll have to replay the campaign from this very 4th mission if you teach them spells like Fly and/or Dimension Door. I figured this out in advance, so I didn't upgrade anyone properly, but the author still managed to surprise me. All these Necromancers entered mission 12 with the troops they had left at the end of the map—which were legions of skeletons and hordes of other undead :)

Lord Gena's Missions
5. In the Line of Fire
6. Son of Saint Alexander

A fairly difficult branch. Lord Gena is a sort of undercover agent. He seems like a Necromancer, but he actually serves the forces of good. In the fifth mission, you need to obtain the angel's wings. The surface part of the map belongs to mages, and the underground traditionally belongs to the Dungeon. Both mages and Warlocks caused quite a bit of trouble. The key to success is generating a pathfinding route to the witch's hut near the starting Castle and instantly getting Logistics on level-ups; otherwise, we will be killed quickly. Another important feature of the scenario is that enemy heroes are available for hire by the human player, allowing control over the map via AI leaders. The turning point is buying out one of the two resurrectors. But remember that Lord Gena follows in the campaign, so he needs to be maximized in stats and secondary skills in this mission.

I took the sixth mission by blitzkrieg because I saw no way to control the map, which I regretted for a long time. Above are the domains of our foolish ally (again, you cannot lose an allied hero, this time an active one), and in the underground, there is hell—both literally and figuratively. Several Inferno flags on a cramped map, all heroes are powerful and mobile, and they are not available for hire. The goal of the mission is to take the mana talisman from the King of Hell. Since almost all cities above belong to our ally, we have nowhere to really get an army. Therefore, the plan was to break into the upper left corner, take a consort four, and run straight to the King of Hell, placing Haven orders in any Inferno they encountered along the way (I think I visited only a third of the available castles). There is also a red orb on the map guarded by azure dragons—apparently a hint at a positional warfare option—but I didn't see where its tangible benefit would be.

Vasyok Cherep's Missions
7. When Vasyok Cherep is Sober
8. When Vasyok Cherep is Drunk
9. When Vasyok Cherep is Sane

From the author's description: "When Vasyok Cherep (Clancy) is sober, he tries to become governor. And if for this he needs to slaughter settlements of dwarves and elves, he will do it without even wiping the sweat from his bald skull." Essentially, Vasyok Cherep's storyline begins with a punitive operation against forest dwellers. The same is true that they will resist with all their might. Overall, it's a fairly standard mission involving a lot of running around (the map this time is L-size instead of the usual M). We visit tents in different corners of the map and engage in prolonged skirmishes with AI. It is important to learn as many spells as possible in the cities on the map; secondary skills can be upgraded however you like.

But the eighth mission surprised me greatly with its unusualness. Vasyok Cherep became governor and went on such a binge that he woke up in a swamp, having forgotten all his secondary skills. Along the way to the castle, events force secondary skills upon us: mysticism, diplomacy, estate, ballistics, artillery, first aid, resistance, and pathfinding. Moreover, you cannot increase your level in this mission, and all these skills are basic. The most curious thing is that the most useful skill from the list is probably mysticism, as there are no guilds in the cities on the map, and the well in the accessible area takes all your money upon visiting. Overall, the enemies aren't anything supernatural, but since our hero is a complete idiot, it still took quite some effort.

In the ninth mission, Death chases Vasyok Cherep. An enemy Necromancer with an enormous advantage in stats, mana, and troops. And he must be killed. The catch is that we cannot do this with our main hero because there are simply no arguments for a conversation. The key to completion is buying out auxiliary heroes and organizing dozens of tricks against Death. The map itself is easily controlled; you just need to properly upgrade your secondary skills in this mission. It is especially important to take Literacy. This can only be done here, and it will be the path to teaching all heroes resurrection and other magic in mission 12. Also, Vasyok Cherep takes the final component of the wizard's well.

Lord Max's Missions
10. Don Quixote
11. Old Age is No Joy

Lord Max (Jelu) decided to clear his head a bit while the others assembled the wizard's well for him. The peculiarity of Lord Max's branch is that it is absolutely impossible to upgrade his stats adequately. He starts the game as a pathetic loser and ends that way. In the first mission, Lord Max searches for holy sandals (so his feet don't sweat), and I had to artificially delay my progress to upgrade him in battles with AI to get a second magic power on level-up (!), because the next mission wouldn't work with only one. Total trash. Also, mission 10 had the longest battle of the campaign—a three-hour capture of a dwarf hold using 9 snipers and 3 knights. A million restarts due to same morale of dwarves on grass :)

I liked mission 11 even more than the third. The task is to build a capitol! This map takes the prize for the poorest map in Heroes from Limes Inferior. You'll have to cherish every stone and piece of wood; furthermore, you must generate stone in the only mill on the map and convert gold into wood at one of the external markets. And own robbers roam around. Literally. There are dozens of thief hire-points on the map, and you'll have to destroy a very large number of them before we scrape together enough for the capitol. Robbers with ballistas are especially scary :)

Finale
12. Revival

The Fabulous Four are assembled. You need to simultaneously set things right in four local areas. The mission begins with a verbal spat between the four and Karasuchka, after which we see who will be one of our enemies. Here, most players likely experienced real shock, as the probability that they'll have to replay the campaign from mission 4 is quite high, and we see this immediately at the start of mission 12. I also realized that the Necromancers entered the mission with their armies intact, which I couldn't even suspect because the campaign editor is still a dark forest to me in such matters.

The mission is very difficult and extremely sophisticated. Definitely the hardest in the campaign. It took me several days of thinking through a plan before I even sat down to play it. You need to distribute the four across different zones via one-way monoliths. Meanwhile, enemies on locations vary in strength, and through testing, I had to establish who could fight in which zone. The largest zone belongs to our Necromancers; the other three are swamp-dwellers (all heroes with high defense), Barbarians (moderate strength), and Dungeon (the toughest, as they have tons of mana for element spam). Locations are difficult in terms of logistics. In all zones, castles behind the brown tent cannot be taken. To visit the brown tent, 4 heroes must simultaneously leave their zones and defeat a truly hellish hero in the Tower, after which they return via buyout to the four zones. And this return question is very delicate. For this, you'll have to use the remaining four completely useless heroes. In the Dungeon and Barbarian zones, these helpers must break through the enemies' central city behind the brown tent. At the same time, you must time it so that in both cases no heroes are guarding, as they are all well-upgraded and won't be broken by our losers. To the swamp zone, a loser must be dragged from the start and protected at any cost until he reaches the island with the tavern and fortifies it. For the Necromancers, the fourth hero reaches the tavern without much trouble once other return issues are solved. Also, I had a Barbarian hero named Banzai jumping across the map like a mountain goat using Dimension Door. Once he even jumped into the swamp-dwellers' zone and killed my helper near the tavern. I had to roll back a couple of days so that Banzai would change his route.

Because of all this, you need to hit a precise balance. Income on the map is very low, so you'll have to rack your brain over where and what troops to gather so that the losers can later take central cities in parallel while we defeat the Dragon in the Tower. This Dragon surprised me greatly: stats around 80 versus our 20-30 for the best heroes, nearly a thousand mana, all schools of magic, spells for every taste, 45% resist, and troops from the Tower with an established Grail. I barely killed him with Mephala in the middle of the second month. The battle's difficulty was on the level of particularly obsessive battles from Metataxer: alternating depletion of shooters' shots, mana exhaustion on the brink of failure due to element spam, Armageddon through resist, and finishing off golems with minotaurs, which I had to think to collect first. And this is in a 2001 campaign!

Overall, the plan was implemented smoothly. Result: 2100 points for completing the campaign and the rank of archangel.

The screenshots show the upgrades for all heroes. For Lord Gena, it would have been ideal to take Navigation instead of Eagle Eye, but this became clear too late; regardless, I managed to pull through. This campaign, as I wrote, was more enjoyable than "Risen from Hell." Some of the author's ideas are mind-blowing, although the principle of mission design is still more or less similar, which slightly reduces the overall positive impression.

You’re doing great! How do you have the patience to play such long matches? :D

So, no one is really rushing me. That’s why I’m playing at my own pace. :)

the mission seems suspiciously easy, and this is where the author's cruel plan lies: against all the undead we encounter in this scenario, we will have to play through 12 missions. In other words, we are essentially leveling up our future enemies ourselves!

Cunning at level 80! Perhaps no one can match the author in this! I wonder if the Chinese (if they even create campaigns) or anyone else came up with this? But it's probably better if they didn't!
This convinced me almost 100% that the author created these campaigns with friends for their own small circle; the character names clearly come from there, and it would be incredibly difficult for outsiders to decipher the author's cunning plan! Especially considering that in 2001, there was no Prospector, and no one even knew that such a tool would exist (and that it would only be for single-player maps).

Great review! It seems that the campaign is very interesting and involves many original elements even for today. It's a pity that the author preferred not to leave hints for choosing the right skills and other things; Marmot's comment on this topic in the old thread is still relevant. Here's another thing: was there a moment in this campaign where we had to run away from an enemy hero along a fixed route, hiding in various spots? I distinctly remember such a moment when I played one of his campaigns as a child, but I don't remember which one. The campaign was downloaded from heroesportal; now all of the author's works have long been deleted from there, for some reason. Or is this not a campaign? Also, while running along this route, the author says something like, "You know how much time I spent testing this? Right. A lot." I definitely remember a similar phrase. Please let those who have played it respond. There is a suspicion that part of the author's work has disappeared. I looked at the campaigns "Strength and Intelligence. Intelligence and Strength" and "In Search of the Sword," but didn't find anything similar. In "Strength and Intelligence," there is such a funny battle in the first mission. It's a light version of the Valley of Heroes battle :)

Also, in the 10th mission, there was the longest battle in the campaign – a three-hour siege of a dwarven stronghold with 9 snipers and 3 cavalry units. A million restarts due to the dwarves' morale on the grass.

Still, I recommend this method for battles like these. Battles of the type "Limes Inferior" become enjoyable to play. Instead of 3 hours, it will take about 30 minutes. Specifically in this battle, if the fixed morale drops for the dwarf on round 7, then open the window once on round 6, wait until the creature animation starts in the window, and immediately close it; this changes the random number generation. If the morale drops after that, on round 12, then open the window on round 11, etc. This is an even more convenient way than just keeping the window open because there is no risk of missing the change in animation. Any randomness can be controlled, both ours and the computer's, even the location of quicksand.

Great review! It seems that the campaign is very interesting and involves many original things even for today. It's a pity that the author preferred not to leave hints for choosing the right skills and so on; Marmot's comment on this topic in the old thread is still relevant.

The author is some kind of alien, honestly. I would have understood if such maps were made around 2013, but in 2001? In the last mission of Dragon, I had to kill enemies using a complicated Chinese tactic. Maybe I didn't understand something, and there is some simple way to win, but it all looks strange :D

Here's another thing: was there a moment in this campaign where we had to run away from an enemy hero along a fixed route, hiding in nooks? I definitely remember such a moment when I played one of his campaigns as a child, but I don't remember which one. The campaign was downloaded from heroesportal; now all the author's works have long been deleted from there for some reason. Or is this not a campaign?

There's also a part where, while running along this route, the author says something like "You know how much I tested this? Right. Very, very long," I specifically remember that phrase. Please let those who played write back. I suspect that some of the author's work has disappeared.

Neither here nor in "Resurrected from Hell" was anything like that. It's somewhat similar to mission 9, where you need to defeat Death, but there you can run away from him in different directions right on the first day. Definitely not that.

I still recommend this method for such battles. Battles of the type "Limes Inferior" become enjoyable. Instead of 3 hours, it will take 30 minutes.

I remember your message about this, but I never got around to sitting down and figuring it out myself. I should test it.

No one seems to be rushing me, so I'm playing at my own pace :)

Try completing Warcraft. If you appreciate Warcraft, I think you'll like it.

I still recommend this method for such battles.

Just like in the good old days :smile54:

By the way, I have a somewhat superficial understanding of this campaign, as I've seen a couple of streams by Reddi. It seemed like it was played almost like an online game. That is, the blind playthrough format without downloads would probably be a good fit, otherwise I don't know. It's too easy.

By the way, I have some superficial knowledge about this campaign, as I've seen a couple of Reddit streams. It seemed like it's played almost in an online mode. So, the blind play format without loading saves would probably be a good fit, otherwise, I don't know. It's too easy.

Well, the difficulty of the map is the main thing, right? There was a tournament on this campaign on Heroes of Might and Magic Online recently, and no one participated because the maps were too difficult.

And if you want something challenging, the remake of "Dragon Slayer" should be a hit! If I have time, I might even try to play it myself. :rolleyes:

Dirty_Player, it seems like a new Paragon is coming out soon, so I guess I'll have to start playing it right away, otherwise I won't be able to avoid spoilers anywhere :D

I remember your message about this, but I haven't had the chance to sit down and check it out. I'll need to test it.

There are a few more nuances, I'll need to check them out and then I'll write in more detail.

On the topic of "what to play," there's this small but interesting puzzle map. I haven't played it completely, but I liked the beginning; the battles with small armies are interesting. However, it's for HotA.

Also, I recently found this one; it's an old map, but maybe you haven't played it.