Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

I read about how to remove the sphere from him and even tested this theory myself. It worked. But Jelu with the sphere and Jelu without the sphere are, as they say in one city, two very different things. Removing the sphere immediately opens up a space for creativity for a skilled player. This is what Marlo Stanfield demonstrated in his video.

Generating blindness is probably possible, but unicorns don't blind every time anyway, and here you would have to do it every round. Considering that in the early stages our small army will deal relatively little damage, there will be too many rounds. In my opinion, implementing such a strategy, if not using some tricks, will be difficult.
A more realistic way to defeat him with the red sphere in the early stages is to use "Bribe" ten times. But this will require too much money.

In general, it's not clear why the author added this red sphere? In its original form, it was quite playable with a nice speedrun.

Apparently, he decided that this character was not challenging enough to beat. If we leave the speedrun aside, then this is, in general, a quite reasonable complication. It's a kind of skill check for the player. An experienced pro will find a way to defeat him even in the early stages. Less experienced players will also try to remove the sphere from him, but then they will give up on it and start looking for a way to defeat him with brute force. Well, and most, I think, not finding any acceptable solution, will simply let him die after 7 days after losing his last city and will not receive any reward. So, I rather support the author in this action.

I read about how to remove the artifact from him and even tested this theory myself. It worked. But Jhelu with the artifact and Jhelu without it are, as they say in one city, two very different things. Removing the artifact immediately opens up a space for creativity for a skilled player. This is what Marlo Stanfield demonstrated in his video.

Generating blindness is probably possible, but unicorns don't blind every time anyway, and here you would have to do it every round. Considering that in the early stages our small army will deal relatively little damage, there will be too many rounds. In my opinion, implementing such a strategy, if not using some tricks, will be difficult.
A more realistic way to defeat him with the red artifact in the early stages is, perhaps, to use "Bribe" ten times. But this will require too much money.

Apparently, he decided that this character was not challenging enough to defeat. If we leave speedruns aside, then this is, in general, a quite reasonable way to make the game more difficult. It's a kind of skill check for the player. An experienced pro will find a way to defeat him even in the early stages. Less experienced players will also try to remove the artifact from him, but then they will give up on it and start looking for a way to defeat him with brute force. Well, and most, I think, not finding any acceptable solution, will simply let him die after 7 days of losing his last city. So, in this action, I rather support the author.

To be honest, I still don't understand how removing artifacts from companions works. Is there already a theory about this?

To be honest, I still don't understand how removing artifacts from computers works. Is there already a theory about this?

I gave the book of water to my death knight and sent him to the last green castle (I also had to time it so that Jelu wouldn't intercept him on the way). From the castle, his unit came out and killed mine. Then he went towards Jelu, and they exchanged – he took the book of water and part of the army from his unit, and gave him the red orb in return. I don't understand how this works either.

Actually, it's not clear why the author added this red sphere.

It's quite clear: the author was annoyed that someone speedran his map and decided to make it impossible.

It's quite clear: the author was upset that someone speedran his map and decided to make it impossible.

There should be a line between what's possible and what's impossible. You could have placed 9999 Azure Dragons. But why? If it becomes more advantageous for the player to rush a hero without castles, so that he disappears from the map after 7 days, instead of building up an army and attacking, that's a big disadvantage for the author.

In Lord of Rings, has anyone tried killing Thorgrim without using hit-and-run tactics, instead of luring him into the water? I'm interested in whether anyone has succeeded in doing this.

Of course, he doesn't have any story-related artifacts, and it's much easier to lure him into the water, but the author still gave him 240 creatures, not 9999, which suggests that he probably intended for him to be defeated in some way.

Update: In principle, there's a way to lure him into Inferno (118, 59, 0), where he'll learn the Explosion skill. Attack him in the castle with a stack of harpies and, through summoning elementals, deplete his mana and Titan shots. After that, the computer shouldn't crash out of the castle after the non-ranged units are resurrected, so the harpies can be used to kill all his stacks. How realistic this option is, I don't know yet; it needs to be tested.

In Lord Rings, has anyone tried killing Thorgrim without hit-and-run tactics, instead of luring him into the water? I'm interested in whether anyone has succeeded in doing this or not.

Of course, he doesn't have any story-important artifacts, and it's much easier to lure him into the water, but the author still gave him 240 creatures, not 9999, which means he probably intended for him to be defeated somehow.

upd. In principle, there is an option to lure him into Inferno (118, 59, 0), where he will learn the Explosion spell. Attack him in the Castle with a stack of harpies and, through summoning elementals, deplete his mana and Titan shots. After that, the computer, with the Explosion spell, should not fly out of the Castle after resurrecting non-ranged units, so harpies can kill all his stacks. How realistic this option is, I don't know yet, I need to test it.

following the link previously provided in the forum to an ultra-speedrun walkthrough of this map, the player encountered Thorgrim in a special location where, at the beginning of the map, you can learn the Slow spell by hiding your army in two inaccessible squares.
here is the link https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzU1MDQxO ... ist.5!30~5~A&f=51647976&o=1

and a screenshot of how he killed Thorgrim with harpies.
The battle is quite interesting!

p.s. I personally didn't fight Thorgrim. He is the only hero on the map that I lured into the water until the end of the game.

Indeed, the bird stash was disguised as a rock. I thought it was another clever mechanic, that if you don't have stashes, the portal will default to giving you birds.

If we don't have stashes, then creatures from the summoning portal can be obtained by capturing an enemy dungeon starting from the second week, and if that faction also has a captured stash. This applies not specifically to this map, but in general. If anyone has played the map Revelation, then you need to use this mechanic. It's a good map, but it's best to study the initial battles because artifacts and upgrades play a significant role.

marcel33 updated his map "Lord of Destruction" to version 1.14. You can find the list of changes in the map's discussion thread; it's quite long, so those who are just about to start playing should download the new version. The author writes that even on the highest difficulty level, the updated map can be completed in less than 10 months, and provides a screenshot of a victory on 9-2-6 as proof. Good thing I haven't started playing it yet, but I want to try it.

In Lord of Rings, has anyone tried killing Thorgrim without using hit-and-run tactics instead of luring him into water? I'm interested in whether anyone has succeeded in doing so.

Of course, he doesn't have any story-important artifacts, and it's much easier to lure him into water, but the author gave him 240 creatures, not 9999, which suggests that he probably intended for him to be defeated in some way.

Update: There's a way to lure him into Inferno (118, 59, 0), where he'll learn the Explosion spell. Attack him in the castle with a stack of harpies and use summoning elementals to drain his mana and Titan shots. After that, the computer shouldn't leave the castle after the resurrection of non-ranged units, so you can use harpies to kill all his stacks. I don't know how realistic this is yet; I need to test it.

If you don't rush to visit the purple tent (I'll edit this, as I'm misleading you. Of course, I'm talking about not releasing the hero with Titans, Archmages, and Pegasus units too early. I released him after I was already standing in front of the hero who was guarding the force field with my main hero. The brown tent had already been visited, and some heroes had been killed (although I killed the turquoise one after getting the force field, as it's possible to find a combination of spells and attacks that will prevent him from casting teleportation; I killed him in the castle, but it's difficult)). The battle with Thorgrim is one of the easiest and fastest. I killed him in the 4th month, maybe a week or two later. The fight is simple and straightforward; it can be done on any map where you can hide the mages. After capturing Rampart, he runs upwards to join his Titans with his friend (even if he joins them, I think you can still win, but it will be more difficult). You need stacks of 2-cell creatures, preferably at least 2 stacks of 5 Phoenixes, so there's no randomness. Equip everything for speed. Hide the mage in a corner, protect the Phoenixes. Use other units, maybe even more Phoenixes, to get close to the Titan. The computer will always cast Stone Skin. In the first turn, cast Frenzy, and the mage will kill more than half of the Titans. When the Titan attacks the units next to him (again, if you have Phoenixes and at least one with regeneration, there won't be any problems), in the next turn, teleport the mage to a safe zone (it all depends on the map; you might even have to send a Phoenix there immediately, as the zones are 1-3 cells away). Thanks to the mage's speed, he will kill the Titans again and then win the duel; morale isn't even needed. I also had a situation where, if I hit the Archdevils once, the computer would resurrect them instead of the Titans.
Malekith is also easily killed without randomness. I passed it on the second try (I just needed to equip the Armageddon Blade and a necklace so that he wouldn't attack with lightning). As before, put the mage in a corner, protect him with Phoenixes or it doesn't even matter who. The main thing is to get a Phoenix close to the Magog, and the mage should have stronger units so that the Sagittarii, Ifrits, and Rust Monsters are targeted. With Frenzy, damage the Liches, and in the beginning of the second turn, teleport the mage to the defensive side, and that's it; the Magogs are no match for the mage. We kill everyone, leave a couple of dogs, and raise all the troops.
Sorry for the quality; I overdid it with the compression. But the limit on kilobytes here is very small

Sorry for the quality, I overdid it with the compression. But the limit on kilobytes here is very small.

Why don't you save screenshots in jpg format? You can also crop them, leaving only the battlefield. I haven't had any problems with the screenshot size limit. Moreover, when saving in jpg format, you can set the quality, which also determines the file size (not in Paint, but in other editors). And you somehow converted the image twice: first to gif (which reduced the number of colors), and then to png.

Marmot, I'm only using a browser right now. When I was saving the image, I realized that I don't have anything except Paint on my PC, and in the first online editor I tried, the image was compressed. I'll start working on Xiedu on Monday. I'll try to complete it on my own, without any hints.

Map: Xiedu(Blasphemy)

Author: Season

General Impression
A map that almost everyone who has played author maps has probably heard of, the terror and dread of HoMM players—Xiedu :). No other map has taken up so much real time yet, even considering that from the beginning of the 2nd month I stopped tracking pace and played far from ideal timings. The most interesting thing is that this isn't required of us, unlike in LOTR or Jedi Strike Backs, where delay threatened us with major problems; here, no one is breathing down our necks. You can complete the map in 79 days or over 20+ months, and how long you take largely determines how difficult it seems. The map is magnificent, a true masterpiece for connoisseurs of good maps; I have never seen such a number of interesting, complex battles and ideas on any other map. It can rightfully be considered Season's best map, although personally I liked LOTR more, but objectively Xiedu is better. I recommend playing it while avoiding spoilers as much as possible; unfortunately, I couldn't avoid them entirely since before starting the walkthrough I had seen Richard Chen's video on battles from Xiedu, and during the playthrough flashbacks inevitably surfaced, which of course made my progress a bit easier, but even then, I certainly wouldn't call it a walk in the park.

Walkthrough Tips
As with many difficult Chinese maps, terrain selection for battles is important in Xiedu—no, not just important, it is extremely important, as many battles are won solely through clever terrain selection. Resurrection and other vital spells are obtained very late, so it is crucial to conduct battles without losing main stacks, or with minimal losses. A very important spell in the game is Hypnosis; more than once or twice it will help you win where victory seems impossible. Speedrunning, as I wrote above, is not mandatory, but still, in some moments delay is extremely dangerous. For example, when we visit the brown tent, we free a very strong hero who learns DD and loses all mana; if you take too long to reach him, he regenerates mana and jumps out of his refuge, whereas it's easiest to kill him where he stands before he regains mana. Also, at the beginning of the 7th month, a swamp-dweller with a large army appears near the purple tent, and if you simply skipped days by that point, problems are inevitable. There is a tavern on the map, and this is a case where hit&run is not just acceptable—it's absolutely necessary in some situations, which fully aligns with the author's intent. Make plenty of saves; it definitely won't be own excess.

About My Walkthrough
111-143
The start isn't too complicated: we begin as Aiden (Intelligence spec and one of the mains), a Necromancer with an OP army who dies almost immediately to a level 6424 hero, and Luna, who is needed for one battle. As quickly as possible, we free Müllich (our second main, freed on 113). Then we capture nearby castles, mines, and horse external dwellings. The goal for the first month is to build up as many horses and shooters as possible to break through garrisons at 66-132-0, 99-105-0 with minimal losses, and to defeat the hero at point 39-134-0 (a tough battle that will make you rack your brain over tactics). We need troops not only to clear these objects but also to sacrifice them on the altar for Aiden's experience; the more experience we get, the better, as the result of the battle with hero Karajan depends on it. I played the first month almost in speedrun mode; Müllich reached the Necromancers by 143. After that, I stopped rushing and played less intensely—I can't even imagine how much effort is needed to finish this in 3-4 months).
143-24x
We flee from the starting respawn because we are unable to hold it, and there's no point anyway. Left with one fly on Müllich, we develop the necro-respawn by killing neutrals via Fire Wall; Aiden, with two flies, flees from Karajan, frees a hero from the dungeon at 62-94-0, and then kills Karajan (killed on 216), who loses most of his troops in an event. We flee to the elf respawn, killing another hero behind the Black Guard along the way. At the necro-respawn, we need to kill three heroes specializing in skeletons, zombies, and ghosts one by one; terrain decides again. The battles are not easy and require time to find the right tactics to minimize losses. After killing them, we collect a PKN (Power of Knowledge/Necromancy), which isn't very useful since there's nowhere to farm skeletons, but it's needed to pass the guard. The goal at the necro-respawn is to capture castles, build a stack of Black Knights, kill quest heroes, and free our 3rd main, Orrin (level 58); his spec will allow us to win many battles later. Furthermore, he is the only one who knows Resurrection until we capture the castle with Resurrection at 53-60-0. There were very difficult battles at the necro-respawn against Moander with a bunch of Liches and an Elementalist at point 143-125-0; the battle with him is won only through vamps and terrain features. Aiden makes his way through a one-way path to our support Rampart at 49-93-0, near which there is a tavern; losing this castle is highly undesirable. On the way to the Rampart, we collect elves (our main strike stack until the end of the game, whom we later turn into snipers). We capture castles 67-86-0 and 80-75-0 while fighting off several heroes, in which point 61-88-0 plays a key role; thanks to it and hit&run, we can kill forces that far outnumber us.
2x-4x
The war at the necro-respawn dragged on, and I was only able to leave there in the middle of the 4th month. Luring enemies to the necessary terrain points and selecting the right tactics completely exhausted me; this was probably the most difficult stage of the entire walkthrough. After getting GP (Grand Power/Global Presence) with Orrin and Müllich, the game stopped being tedious and further map capture accelerated significantly—essentially, this is one of the key events until we capture castle 55-43-0 with GP.
4x-7x
The stage of capturing the entire map and finishing it. Our two mains have GP, and our task is to capture the GP castle to teach it to all heroes, as well as capture castles to accumulate potential snipers, collect MOD parts, and obtain the Book of Water and FF (Fire Flower/Fly) with Müllich and Aiden. 446 killed Nicholas who had 120 Fairies and 240 Gold Dragons (we have no Anti-Magic); we win through terrain, a Phantom Dragon, and burning—one of many interesting battles on the map. Next, we kill SilverDragon with a bunch of dragons, also winning via terrain and traits; a sweaty battle. We learn Anti-Magic at the end of the 4th month (it's almost funny, where else would you see that on Chinese maps :D). Other interesting things: breaking through 5400 Rust Dragons with only about 1k elves and 300 Wizards without Force Field—only Aiden can do this; after all, an Intelligence spec is such an OP thing on these maps no matter how you look at it. Breaking Solomir and Mutare Drake, Ignat, Ice Goddess are classic sieges using Chinese tactics but with different troop selections and nuances. Aiden is indispensable in battles of mana attrition, but Orrin and Müllich also play significant roles. After breaking the first orange hero—either Fiery Tyrant or Earth Prophet—the jailer in an invisible zone in the Dungeon starts releasing OP heroes from prisons one by one, which is a new cycle of trouble :). Immediately after these heroes emerge, we hire Gelu at the tavern and assemble a sniper stack. The siege of Gundulla turned out to be difficult because she refused to group her Titans together, making the breakthrough problematic. Torgrim (level 59) with spell immunity and stats over 70+ while ours were 40—the strongest of all these heroes—was killed quite easily using a small trick (I gave him a castle without a fight where he left his Titans and Archangels, then lured him to terrain where snipers could be hidden and calmly shot down the dragons after draining his mana). A tough battle with hero Pope, whom I killed only with hit&run because two stacks of shooters one-shot my snipers; blocking was pointless—he has a sniper bow, and if you kill them, Archangels res them. In short, after struggling, I found no other option (not sure if he can even be killed otherwise with that many troops). Then we visit the red tent, collect Angel Alliance parts, use an expert Berserker to kill a quest hero with lots of Archangels, Angels, and Titans, and kill 3 armorers (interestingly, Tazar has no defense spec—a strange decision by Season :confused:). The battle with Mephala wasn't hard, but Tazar and especially Nila were difficult; I killed Nila using two hit&runs—I think it's impossible to defeat her otherwise even with 4k+ snipers. After killing Nila, we assemble the alliance and get a DD scroll, leaving the final part: take the Sphere of Vulnerability and dig up the Grail. The medal can be obtained in two ways—either by killing dragon legions (easier) or the jailer who became a monster after eating a box with stats, troops, and experience; I chose the first path as I was very tired by then. We place the Grail in the only available flux and use DD with flight to take the Courage Pendant; victory at 746. It's described quite haphazardly, but there are a vast number of events on the map, and this walkthrough is just a brief summary of my sufferings over nearly a month of regular play for 3-4 hours almost every day :D.
Result
9 out of 10. I recommend it to everyone who isn't afraid to tackle a hardcore, truly interesting, and cool map. Screenshots attached. Next map—"Picturesque Land". As I understand it, the style is closer to "Jedi Strike Backs", which means it will be interesting and difficult.

If anyone decides to play through Xiedu, I recommend downloading it from https://heroesportal.net/maps/view/4333. Specifically, here is the latest version with a translation: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CMISqu4F-jT32M0gSxdmpQCDAv77Rjlv. The text is quite readable, which is better than having incomprehensible Chinese characters. I reached the point where the first 3 Necromancers are killed, and you need to exit the Dungeon. There were no errors or anything else.
By the way, could you tell me about the mana talisman that is required at the Guardian of the passage under our first Elven Castle? There, Elves join, and there are a lot of Elven dwellings.

By the way, could you tell me where to find the mana talisman required for the Guardian of the Passage under our first Elven castle? There are also Elves joining and a lot of Elven dwellings there.

What's the problem? It should be in the Necropolis, on the left side of the dungeon, if I remember correctly.