Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps. Auto-translated

Map by author Woxin - 生死百年第三版.

On this map, by the way, I received further proof of the cheatiness of mods like HD and others.
Another condition was obtaining advanced artillery on the first level-up, but that's not relevant here

I have obtained Dimension Door and only the final boss remains. Since I don't see a way to beat him yet, I've planned 3-4 tricks just to at least cut down his archangels.

How is your progress on this map? Are there any key timings, even just 2-3?
I am on day 136; if I recall correctly, I landed from the boat near the swamp dweller's castle, killed the hydras, and took the tier 3 canned goods.
Somewhere around the 2nd month, I circled the north, where all magic is learned in 3 towers, and then started circling back and forth across the map. Although realistically, everything could have been done faster.
What is your army structure? I have archangels + titans, of course, plus azure dragons. The libraries guarded by azure dragons are broken through with vampires, which unfortunately I hadn't been stockpiling for a long time.

This is a map by the author Woxin - 生死百年第三版.

How are you doing on this map? Are there any key timings, at least 2-3?
I landed near the Swamp Castle on day 136, I think.

Interesting option, for some reason, it didn't work for me. I attacked the castle on week 4. Now everything is quite tedious - they are coming from all sides, it's the beginning of month 3.

Interesting approach, but for some reason, it didn't work for me. I attacked the castle in the 4th week. Now, everything is quite tedious – they keep coming from all sides; it's been almost 3 months.

In general, you seem to have your own approach to the walkthrough.
I tried to eliminate heroes during that period so they wouldn't escape. This way, I got a lot of artifacts and increased my stats. As far as I understand, some enemy heroes, if they escaped, wouldn't be "re-bought" by the enemy, so, for example, if a hero escaped using a special ability against devils, I wouldn't get anything. However, other heroes can be re-bought (for example, Sandro and Ignat), which allows you to re-learn Blind from Sandro and, in the case of Ignat, get a highly leveled-up hero.
You can get the Shackles in the dungeon from Octavia, but you need to get there earlier, which is theoretically possible, but in practice, I did it with a delay.
I hope to defeat the final boss soon and post a report.

Hello! I played it the other day, but on version 1.6.1. On 1.5.4, the window opens, but I can't enable the "invite hero" function for some reason.

This doesn't depend on the version of the game; it's the same for both SOD and HotA. You need to enable this option in the settings (see the screenshot):
UI.Tavern.InviteHero> = 0
You need to change 0 to 1.

This doesn't depend on the version of the game; it's the same for both SOD and HotA. You need to enable this option in the settings (see skirmish).

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. But a different window popped up for me:


I've already fixed it. I found a text file for HotA in the settings folder (HD3_Data - Settings), and I changed it there.

Hello! I played it the other day, but on version 1.6.1. For some reason, version 1.5.4 launches with a window, but I can't enable the "invite hero" function.

I've been playing for a little over a week and haven't found out why the map is unplayable on 1.6.1. It seems clear how to defeat the main bosses; I've checked that. This map keeps trying to make you test and try things out in advance, not to mention the great possibilities for creating a good starting save. On one hand, this is good, but I can imagine many people generating setups until they're blue in the face, thinking that's how it's supposed to be, or rolling back because they didn't get the right monster/artifact/hero.

By the way, about the setups – the starting save requires very little generation for a normal game and more for a very easy game, but within reasonable limits. I chose the second option, which is why almost all battles, except for the very first ones, are played on quick battles (well, if you're not in a hurry), which makes me think, "I must have gone wrong somewhere and broken everything again." Therefore, I didn't continue further; the map needs to be diagnosed by the author to detect bugs. I sent the save in a private message.

I'll duplicate the answer here. This might help those who will play it. Caution: moderate spoilers.

I analyzed the saves.
Everything broke because of the hero Ayaya – the summon elementals spell ended up in her spellbook due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. The original idea was that in the first week, the player should not hire anyone in the tavern except for the Red hero and should spend all resources on building the black dragon lair in Ravensburg, rescuing the angel from the summoning portal in Lichtenburg, and studying earth magic at the university in Mauthusene.

Regarding the generation of the starting save, there are only two random things. You need to roll a starting artifact (I would recommend a cloak, not a necklace), and the Dark Soul should not get a point in magic power on the first two levels – then she will be able to successfully defeat the Pomonis with a wave of death. You should also take the choice of the starting city for each of the eight colors seriously.

In 1.6, the boots of swiftness and logistics have been nerfed. If you don't use cheat heroes from the tavern, then the admiral's hat, in theory, will not be available for a long time, and you will have to cross to the island in the northeast of the underground level by walking on water, not by summoning a ship. There won't be enough steps for this in 1.6. There will be other places that cannot be passed without logistics.

I was very concerned about how Ostap blocked Hippolytus. In theory, this shouldn't happen because green goes before turquoise. As Rince would say, if the computer can mess up, it will mess up. The original idea was that Roland should play a "draw" with Hippolytus to prevent the computer heroes from bringing the shackles of war to the quest marker.

As for generating the starting save - there are only two random elements. You need to roll for a starting artifact (I would recommend a cloak, not a necklace).

I generated the following:

1. Artifact - for my plan, it could have been armor with + spell power or any artifact that increases the duration of spells. Units turned out to be sufficient, and I settled on that. A cloak never dropped.
2. One of the starting heroes had to be Mel, due to her having dwarves, which are useful for killing Shmoner.
3. The ability to develop Ayaya's Eagle Eye skill on stones and hermit huts in the early levels (a bonus for experience in the dungeon also helped).
4. The ability to find Jupiter in the tavern (a ring for gems).

It's not difficult to create this setup because the number of heroes is limited. To make the setup easier, I chose the Tower as my starting city - then Sho is guaranteed to appear in the tavern (golems for killing Muller). I didn't bother with other cities; I put dungeons everywhere because many of them have a portal for summoning creatures (well, only the orange one was a victim of a misclick during creation). For the blue player, I chose Necropolis in case I needed a good stack of skeletons.

In general, the main task was to retrain Armageddon and Chain Lightning from Shmoner (the most RNG-dependent battle on the map) and kill Gundula on day 3 with Ayaya. The task turned out to be feasible, although pointless - when I started testing the killing of the main bosses after the start of a new week, it turned out that Armageddon and Chain Lightning are not even needed there; just elementals are enough.

The islands in the northeast of the underground level will need to be crossed by walking on water, not by summoning a ship. There won't be enough steps for this in 1.6. There will also be places that cannot be passed without logistics.

That's true. I had a spare ship for this. I also saw several "runners" near Kasmetra, but, of course, in my case, they were killed by Ayaya.

I was very concerned about how Ostap blocked Hippolyt. In theory, this shouldn't happen because green goes before turquoise.

This happens if we have enough monks; according to my tests, at least three, and, it seems, one snake. In this case, Hippolyt opens the column, but is afraid to attack us, which means there is an opportunity to bribe Ostap with one monk and a snake. A monk is needed to quickly get a necklace, and a snake is needed for the first speed in the battle with Shmoner. Because of the snake, there is no need to spend money on an angel, and the task was to develop Ayaya.

I would also like to note that with this setup, Hippolyt may also attack; there is a factor of randomness here, however, the solution to the problem without his attack, in my opinion, is less obvious than simultaneous defeat. We have already seen the latter, but conducting a close battle and achieving the desired behavior is more interesting. This could have been a good task for players, as well as killing Gundula on day 3.

Regarding the advantages of playing on 1.6.1 - upgraded items help a lot, and once, the experience bonus from Dark Soul helped to summon a boat.

In general, we are waiting for a new version; I will put it aside for now, but I will see how others play. By the way, you can send the map to Glenn; he plays the maps that are sent to him, as far as I know. However, there is too much text here for any Twitch stream, but otherwise, it's the icing on the cake :D

I can record some battles myself.

Battles with Ascension. Although Ayaya received an overpowered spell in the book, and Roland avoided the fate of a double kill, there were still some interesting battles. Especially for those interested in the topic of controlling randomness in HD+. Roland vs Ayden - I had to play around with the randomness using the auto-battle function. In HD+, this is one of the ways to change the randomness, in addition to spell combinations, wait/skip, creature abilities, etc. The stun from the scorpi-core also helped a lot; in this case, it stops attacking the monks, but the stun needs to be triggered at the right moment when the monks deal the main damage. It is important to cancel the auto-battle in time, and the outcome of the battle depends on which creature it is done on. Here, this happens after the second snake's turn. Ayaya vs Shmoner - Another battle where the auto-battle trick came in handy. The goal is to retrain Armageddon and Chain Lightning. To do this, at least two gnomes must survive after Armageddon, and the first of the remaining ones must reflect Chain Lightning, because the elemental prefers to target gnomes. Another point is that you need to summon earth elementals in the right place so that the elemental hits them in the second round, and not the gnomes. To do this, disable the "Creatures" function in the auto-battle settings and leave the "Spells" function active; otherwise, the snake will rush to the elemental, and it's GG WP. These functions are quite important for controlling randomness in HD+, especially if we don't need a cast (the computer, damn it, casts the wrong spell), but we need a creature's turn to change the randomness or a war machine's turn. After the elemental hits the earth elementals, move the gnomes further away from each other, wait with the earth elementals, and reactivate the "Creatures" function, hit the earth elementals with the auto-battle, and voila, we catch the reflection of Chain Lightning. The position and number of creatures in this battle are also important; for example, if you reduce the number of gremlins by one in the main stack, the results will be different, and nothing will work. Ayaya vs Gundula - Having dealt with Shmoner, it was time for Gundula. Losses in this battle are not important; it is enough to simply survive. If you are too lazy, you can even cheat. But Gundula left part of his army - mages and champions - in another castle, and he also has a terrible morale/luck rating, so it would be a sin not to take advantage of this! The auto-battle is used here only once - for the earth elemental attack. But the main way to control randomness is the initial arrangement of creatures, which causes the asps and both stacks of archers to lose their turn + you need to experiment with the combination of turn/defense for other creatures. As a result, out of 6 shots from the archers, they miss 5 due to anti-morale, and the remaining one hits the pirates with anti-luck, causing no damage. Again, if you attack with a smaller number of pirates, even by one in the stack, the randomness will be different, less favorable. Melieu captures the dungeon - While Ayaya was busy traveling to the tent with one angel, Melieu had nothing to do, so he decided to arrange a couple of battles for her. The first of these is the capture of the dungeon. The battle is interesting because it will be useful to catch the petrification from Vasili on our vampire; then the enemy will not attack but will prefer to leave the walls and hit the catapult. We can eat his archers at this time. The initial luck cast on the vampire is needed for the petrification to trigger after Vasili's counterattack. Then it's a matter of not getting hit by the gnolls and not catching the lightning from the bird. Vampire vs two giants - Having eaten the dungeon and the chaos hydra near the mine, Mel hits the anti-magic garrison with two giants. And this is a battle without randomness! Which can be significantly accelerated and simplified if you conduct it with a ballista (you could buy it in the dungeon or in an external building nearby). The battle itself is interesting because the vampire's cycle contains two repeating patterns at once, in which one of the giants stands in the way of the other, which allows us to press wait and another pattern when the giants simply do not reach us.

Map Title: Alexandretta
Author: Grigor Minchev
Downloaded: from the maps4heroes map catalog

As I mentioned earlier, when reviewing unplayed maps by the author, “Alexandretta” seemed to be the most sophisticated of them all. Therefore, the decision to play was made in favor of this scenario. I won't go into too much detail about the walkthrough, as a detailed account of what and how was done on this map would be a complete spoiler, and constant, well-planned actions are key during the game. Among the potential difficulties that attracted attention, firstly, there's a ban on intelligence, logistics, pathfinding, and also wisdom (the correct way to obtain wisdom and logistics will make the main hero think at the beginning; intelligence cannot be obtained on the map), secondly, a very limited pool of heroes in the tavern (only two classes: knights and priests, but without Mullich and Orrin), thirdly, special problems with gaining access to spells such as blindness, forgetfulness, prayer, and clone, although even basic spells like slow, shield, and stone skin are not learned easily here. There are no Berserkers. With various spells for moving around the map and, in general, transport options, things are difficult again. We are playing as the hero Gen. Kendal (Tazar). Yes, once again, an armor hero has to handle a difficult map. We are opposed by six allied flags, each of which can cause problems, but it is clear that the most challenging opponent is the orange dungeon. He has such a large number of black dragons that it will be a serious challenge. This flag has several main heroes, the most unpleasant of which is Gunnar, as it was in “A Long Way.”

Parallels with “A Long Way” are, of course, obvious. The terrain on these two maps partially overlaps, but overall, there are more differences than similarities. At the same time, the experience gained in “A Long Way” is useful before playing “Alexandretta” on one hand, as the basic features of the author's style do not disappear, but on the other hand, it can play a bad joke on the player, as seemingly familiar moments here need to be played out in a fundamentally different way. But what is the key difficulty that makes this map more sophisticated than “A Long Way”? In “A Long Way,” the initial phases of development involved building up a stack of archangels and obtaining a clone scroll; in addition to harpies, the player also had a stack of mobile and useful djinns. In “Alexandretta,” to create archangels and get a clone, you need to work much harder. And there is not much to fight with in the early stages, and the map is even more dynamic. For example, the AI does not hesitate to sail to our starting respawn, and no one is going to wait until we get ready. And the rate of AI development is not much slower than in “A Long Way.” In general, if we summarize, this is an illustration of the principle of “faster, higher, stronger.”

At the same time, the key item on the map, unprecedented for the author, is the book of magic earth in the south of the underground, behind seven castles and ten seals. Obviously, the key to success on the map is based on obtaining the КЗ. I suggest that, for general development, you don't even play this map, but simply sit down and track in the editor what path you need to take and what chain of quests you need to complete to get to the book :) Thus, before the game, I have created a plan for development, based on tough guerrilla warfare and ultimately aimed at obtaining the КЗ, and then we will somehow manage. But the most amusing conclusion comes to the player after playing the start of the map, and it boils down to the fact that the author draws a false path to the КЗ through the editor! In general, you can't figure it out without a bottle, but believe me, that's how it is.

The start of the map is a separate story. Those who have played “A Long Way” may know that there was a riddle for the first six days: a path, verified in every detail, gave the opportunity to capture the dungeon on 1.1.6, which greatly facilitated further progress. However, I didn't solve this riddle at the time, but even so, I managed to complete the map. In “Alexandretta,” you should also capture the nearest dungeon, but on 1.2.6, and if you don't do this, then “Alexandretta” will, with a probability close to 100%, not forgive you. The subsequent game will simply be a prolonged agony. The starting riddle here is so hardcore that it can be compared to completing the first day in “Rise of the Sun King.” So, lovers of special difficulties can try to take the dungeon on 1.2.6 in their spare time.

It should also be noted that this map does not shine with prospectors, so you will have to delve into the editor with redoubled zeal. There is also an absolutely special type of quest here: you need to constantly bring war machines to different huts and pillars, which I have never encountered in Heroes before.

In general, a well-played start indicates a path to the book of magic earth that is completely different from what the editor suggests. Oh yes, I should also say a few words about the starting save: you need to think carefully about choosing two secondary skills for Tazar. I chose, firstly, navigation, as you will have to sail a lot (it is problematic to get pathfinding for the main hero, and it is not very useful here), and secondly, the good old eagle eye. Access to any adequate magic is difficult here, so the best option is to retrain everything from the AI. And in the process, good spells were retrained. One blindness fully justified the idea with eagle eye. However, again, as it was in “6424 Heroes,” there were problems with retraining clone, so I took it for completing a quest.

As I said at the beginning, I will not go into detail about what and how I did on this map. I will only say that the number of veils of darkness in “Alexandretta” is traditionally not without reason. These objects are defining in the gameplay on the map. I will only go over the key timings:
1.2.6 – the dungeon of Koraxton was taken.
3.1.6 – the КЗ was taken.
3.3.2 – the red one is gone.
3-4-5 months – a difficult positional war with the AI with a very gradual establishment of control over the map.
7.1.3 – Mutare was killed in the corner dungeon after overcoming a long snake-like path; the orange one is completely isolated.
7.2.3 – the brown one was killed.
8.1.1 – the purple one was killed.
8.1.4 – the pink one was killed.
8.2.1 – the main boss of the map, the orange Thorgrim, was killed with full immunity, 1000 phoenixes, 500 fairies, and dungeon guards. The battle turned out to be easy, as Tazar was fully prepared for this meeting. If necessary, Tazar and twenty such Thorgrims could kill him. It would have been possible to release this boss earlier than 8 months so that he could cause problems.
8.3.4 – the blue one was finally finished; of the enemies, only one inaccessible orange one remains, the exit from the one-way passage for which is blocked by a lock with a good army.
10.1.1 – the grail is dug up, and in fact, on this day, victory in the scenario is achieved.

In conclusion, I can say that “Alexandretta” resembles the peak of Grigor Minchev's creative thought. If it is possible to somehow complicate the author's map-building concept, then only by improving the combat component, because in Minchev's maps, battles usually come down to two extremes: either you don't keep up with the pace of the map and, accordingly, you are not able to conduct these battles, or the pace is fine, and the battles are won without much difficulty. But in terms of the complexity of the passage, the sophistication of quest systems, and the difficulties in controlling the map against enemies crawling from all sides, few can compare with Minchev in the world of heroic map-making. At the same time, “Alexandretta,” in my opinion, is a little more difficult than “A Long Way,” but it still won't move that map from my personal top, being somewhere nearby.

Map Name: Alexandretta
Author: Grigor Minchev
Downloads: from the maps4heroes map catalog

Have you played Minchev's maps where heroes start with negative experience?
I once started one where Mulich had negative experience until he left the starting area, and the land was also blocked, plus all the other factors: a weak army, no spells, no money, etc. I can't imagine how to complete such maps.

I understand you're talking about the Audaciousness map. I'll take a look at it sometime and see what the issue is.

As I understand it, we're talking about the map Audaciousness. I'll take a look at what's going on there sometime.

Yes, it's about that map, I forgot its name, thanks.
I looked it over in the editor and just "ran through" it with cheats.
And it caught my interest. It looks like it will be the next one in my walkthrough.

Briefly about this map:
Wisdom and Earth skills are banned. So heroes who have "Wisdom" as a starting skill need to be looked at closely; they can learn Armageddon + Fire and use hit-and-run tactics if necessary.
Earth can still be obtained once from a Pandora's box at the starting respawn, but you need to open the quest obelisk before 117 to get the artifact from the guardian. The box will give Logistics + Earth + Wisdom. Though you'll have to break through a formidable guard of giants to get to it. I.e., one way or another, one hero will be able to fight.
So the main hero needs: Wisdom + Logistics + Earth from the Pandora's box. Plus obtain/buy Fire + Intelligence (I didn't notice a mana doubler).
Pathfinding can be skipped; for the 3 remaining skills, you could consider Attack (for devils - the main striking force), or Magic Resistance, or Tactics/Defense. Tactics + Air looks good on Mullich, allowing you to strike the enemy hero first.

Heroes will be available in the tavern; you can buy "unusual" characters like Mephala, Deesa, Gunnar, the hero with the Prayer spell, etc., if the AI doesn't buy them first. But since Wisdom can't be obtained, Andra with Elleshar, Mullich, or Deesa look good for the main hero role (if you can buy them at the starting respawn and deliver them to Earth magic, of course).

Development at your own respawn won't be very fast; there are no resources or gold at all, you'll have to count every penny. The main stack will be wyverns from the hives.

At the same time, the AI is free, can travel to foreign castles, strengthen itself, and relearn magic.
Further on, after entering the AI's respawn, you'll need to use fast roads to capture all castles in 1-2 days, having first stationed whatever leveled heroes you can for splitting (or buying new ones in the captured castle). Necromancy castles have the "Resurrection" spell by default (a key spell), and in Inferno you can try to get Berserk. You need to reach them before the stronger AI heroes can attack us or damage the Inferno.

In general, Fire magic can apparently be fully learned in castles. With Inferno and Efreeti, you can use hit-and-run tactics against especially dangerous heroes.
Overall, the map looks doable, though you'll have to work hard, especially at the starting respawn.

Archangels and Clone can theoretically be placed in one castle, but it won't make a difference. Also, in a Utopia, you can get the Water spell book (others are banned), as well as the Ring of the Magi for + rounds of magic.

These are my thoughts on the map, which I'm attaching.

There was even a report about this map.

In general, a well-played start indicates a path to the Earth magic book that is completely different from the editor.

Is it not possible to get there through the pink monolith entrance?

You can reach it through the monolith, or by swimming from the dungeon at 134.92.1. But the question isn't about how to get there, but rather where to find the items that unlock access to the Key Zone.