Posts from MIDERTH3AGE.MX2

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Name: Middle-earth T.E. (Third Age)
Map name: MIDERTH3AGE.MX2
Number of players: 6 (1 player, 5 AI)
Size: XL
Difficulty: Expert
Map author: S.D.
Map description: The Third Age of Middle-earth invites you to join the legendary battle for the One Ring...
Author's note: According to the author's intention and for a deeper immersion in the atmosphere of the adventure based on Tolkien's work, it is recommended to:
1. Familiarize yourself with the map of Middle-earth. (The author created his "creation" based on this material): https://tolkienists.ru/photo/6-0-432-3?1527586693
2. If possible, avoid using the dimension door to overcome barrier doors and inaccessible areas (or use it only as a last resort)
3. For a more immersive experience, pay attention to rumors from the tavern, read signs and the names of locations and cities. And before starting the game, watch the video The Lord of the Rings • May It Be • Enya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJVxEaGrHS4
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I haven't played the second game in a long time, but I give the author a big thumbs up. Both for the idea itself and for the sources of inspiration, which evoked a wave of nostalgia in me.

After studying the map based on the author's recommendations, I would like to note that a truly enormous amount of work has been done. Kudos to the author!!!

If anyone managed to complete it, share your achievements. How much time did it take, and what difficulties did you encounter? And any wishes or suggestions would be welcome!

If anyone has managed to complete it, please share your progress. How much time did it take, and what difficulties did you encounter? Any wishes or suggestions would also be welcome.

The map is interesting, but it needs to remove the Witch and Dimension Door spells, as after learning Dimension Door and buying the Witch, all the final bosses become easy – I killed ten squads of 4k units each in just a few turns, and 40k Witches leave no one a chance. Alternatively, you could make the final bosses have 500k dragons, genies, and titans.

Hmm...
- It's impossible to remove the "Dimension Door" (it can appear in any castle at level 5 of the Grand Mage). Also, see point 2 in the map description;
- The "Sorceresses" fit into the lore (Aragorn and the ghosts in "The Return of the King"). They are inherently overpowered (like the "Dimension Door"), although it's difficult to obtain them without the "Dimension Door". Consider them as a reward for those who can't complete the map without using cheats)).
Thank you for your feedback!

Am I the only one who can’t beat this map?

Am I the only one who can't beat this map?

Apparently, that's why you had problems with maps from the "Ser de Aout" series (by the way, it will soon be expanded), but they are all beatable. Improve your skills!

Finally, I managed to achieve victory. It took a long 16 months, 2 weeks, and 3 in-game days of battles. My rating is low (Steel Golem), but for me, completing this map is a great achievement. Huge respect to the author!!!

harrypoher, well done, such perseverance is worthy of praise. "You remember the last time. Everything comes with experience" (quote). Perhaps one day you will manage to complete the story of Sir Chill de Outa)))

Hi everyone. This is the best map I've ever played. It was quite challenging. I spent almost a whole day playing it, about 13 hours. I managed to complete it in 145 days. I'll write down what I did while it's still fresh in my mind. It's difficult, especially at the beginning of the map. I was lucky, and I got an Expert Diplomat skill very early on. I recruited all the Orc archers and upgraded them for free to Orc Chieftains. The difficulty comes from the fact that on the fifth day, 9999 gold and 10 of each resource are taken away. I somehow managed to save up enough to upgrade to a Knight's Castle. I took the Elven and Barbarian castles. The biggest problem was that Blind and Slow spells only appeared somewhere in the middle of the game, as well as Dimension Door. Without it, it's almost impossible to win (or it takes a very long time). There aren't many artifacts, but there are all the important ones, including the Armor of Anduran, a compass, boots, and leather shoes. The Fire Elemental spell appeared in one of the castles. This was a real lifesaver because even True Resurrection doesn't help much, as there are almost no Titans. I had to recruit trolls, and in the end, I had 800 of them. The most interesting part was, of course, at the end. The purple and red players were holed up in castles with a full complement of troops. There was no way to take them, except to wait until I had a large army gathered from all the castles. The purple player was tough. He had 500 dragons and 4000 witches, plus other creatures. I dealt with the witches and other creatures by taking Phoenixes and using them as bait for the dragons. The dragons would attack, and in the process, they would kill their own creatures. But even so, I didn't have enough troops to kill 500 dragons. I had about 15 Djinns. In the end, I used them to attack the purple player's dragons until he had about 250 left. Then I finished him off with Elementals. Each summoning produced 250 Elementals. The red player was even tougher. He had 1000 Djinns, 1500 Archmages, 250 or 500 dragons, and 500 Titans. In the end, I cast Berserk on his own Djinn, and it halved the Titan's health twice, and the Djinn was reduced to 200 health. I then attacked the dragons with my own Djinns several times until he had 65 dragons, 5000 Hydras, 200 Djinns, and 60 Titans. I had 800 trolls, 800 archers, 1500 Hobbits, and 100 Druids. He had 29 points of defense. In the end, I cast Berserk on 5000 Hydras, and they destroyed 60 Titans in two hits. I then destroyed the dragons outside the castle with trolls and Elementals. And then I easily overwhelmed the 5000 Hydras, reducing their defense. In general, the author is a genius. Usually, you would gather a few dozen Titans and simply crush everyone with them, resurrecting them. It always worked because Titans are very durable. But on this map, they were hard to get. I had to come up with a non-standard strategy. This is truly the best game out of all the maps I've played. And I've played them all from the internet.

Thank you for the flattering feedback; I'm very glad that my humble work provided you with a few hours of enjoyable gameplay. However, you're being a bit disingenuous:

"I was lucky, and in the very first level-ups, I got an expert diplomat" - Gandalf has diplomacy from the start.
"On the fifth day, they take 9999 gold and 10 resources" - the Eye of Sauron starts working on the 19th day.
"And there's the dimension door. Without it, it's impossible to win, in my opinion" - it's quite possible, and if it were up to the author, he would be banned.

"The most interesting part was, of course, at the end..." - do you think we should reduce the strength of the final bosses? And how was the mid-game in general? Were there any problems with the Nazgûl? Did the Eye of Sauron's development slow down too much? Did Elrond, Galadriel, and someone from Rohan survive in your party?

And most importantly, did you pay attention to the signs, rumors in the tavern, and other atmosphere, or did that take a backseat during the playthrough? And any wishes/suggestions would be welcome.

The Diplomat skill for Gandalf was only at the basic level; it needs to be leveled up to expert, and this can sometimes only be found towards the end of the game. I got it in the very early levels. I was lucky. As for the archer, the basic one dropped somewhere in the middle; before that, it was a real struggle to capture castles.
By "Eye of Sauron," I meant that it affects every fifth enemy, and the fact that it doesn't activate immediately is true.
It's possible to play without the Dimension Door spell, of course, but in the end, the rating at the end will drop to an extremely low level because it will take too long. And having an awesome army, spending weeks chasing after minor heroes, just isn't fun.

The Eye of Sauron really slows things down. In fact, without it, the game would be too easy, given the diplomacy and the subsequent investment in powerful units like trolls. But with it, you also need to accumulate enough money to recruit units.

Regarding the atmosphere. For me, only the original version of the game works consistently without the Russian localization. The localized versions crash very often, so instead of text, I just see dots. And I'm used to playing quickly, without reading the text.

As for witches, I haven't used them in a long time because they make the game too easy; they are imbalanced units, worse than cheats.

The last and most important question is how relevant it is to weaken bosses before the final battle. I don't really agree with that. I always want to defeat them all at once, but in this case, to defeat them, you either need to level up the hero to attack and defense values above 40 (so that even a thousand dragons can be defeated by a hundred titans), which is impossible due to the small number of ultimate artifacts and upgrade locations, or wait until you have a large army and enough gold, and then use the town portal to gather them and fight. But this will result in fewer points after the victory. And the main goal of the game is to complete the map in the fewest number of turns. And, of course, it doesn't take much intelligence to gather troops and strike, so that all the enemies are destroyed.
Weakening them requires some skill.

Got it! If you like challenging maps, you might also want to check out this series (/topic/14853/; it was created for a fan of Heroes II who got tired of easily defeating everyone with "a thousand dragons and a hundred titans" – he especially spent a lot of time on the third part)