Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

since they can only move one tile due to the quicksand, the AI often decides not to move at all.
the AI seems to lose track of the target it can reach, so it goes into defense and stays in place.

That's great! Finally, I found the answer to a puzzle that had puzzled me once. I had a battle where, during the siege of the Citadel, the hydras remaining inside also didn't attack, even though until that day I was sure that the AI was programmed to always attack/move towards our troops. Similarly (if I'm not mistaken), the AI always casts at least something as long as it has mana.
Another useful observation: attacking with our clone against an enemy stack under Berserk does not remove the Berserk (just like a ranged attack), because Berserk only ends when the stack itself attacks the nearest unit, and if the enemy stack kills the clone by retaliating, there is no one left for it to attack (all our stacks must be out of reach at this point!). This is a good tactic for finishing off the last large monster stack in some situations (for example, protecting against blindness on the enemy hero), as it prevents the enemy from casting anything.

Scars of the old wars

If anyone completes the map with other races — let us know. It will be especially interesting to find out who, when, and how can beat Nameless.
After this map, I simply must try to complete another masterpiece by Michael: "Seven Dark Souls." As the author writes, this map is harder, and it is currently only available in Polish (but he promised to translate it soon).

I'll put in my two cents regarding this map....
The map is very easy and, I must say, terribly tedious...
I looked at the start for all factions; overall, you can start with any race, as they are all roughly equal. However, in my opinion, Stronghold, Tower, and Rampart have a significant advantage, as they allow you to develop much faster and reach the necessary artifacts, Pandoras, dragon caches, and towns. But regardless of the race, leaving the respawn will be faster than the AI...
About the map: it's a cruel, necessary mockery of the players. If you don't study the map in the editor, the walkthrough can take a very long time simply because of running around in the underground labyrinth.
Therefore, of course, the map was opened in the editor and the route was peeked at; otherwise, the completion would have dragged on for more than 12 months (purely due to the stupidity and tediousness of labyrinthine paths)....
I started with Rampart, the starting hero was Gelu with Slow and Meteor Shower, and next to the starting castle, there were two streams for double mana, so from then on it was very simple and fast — I cleared everything via Mass Slow and sniper shots.
I used 4 heroes (Gelu, Kyrre, Tazar, and Alamar).
After leaving the respawn, I rushed to the center for the Azure caches (only 1 is needed for speed), then took the utopias after the archdevils, the most essential Sphere of Vulnerability, a TP scroll, and other artifacts. After that, I struggled a bit but eventually took a Pandora that gave TP (via Alamar, I successfully retrained other heroes with it). With those, it's easy to squeeze the computer.
So, after capturing all 4 home castles and clearing the respawn, I encountered the orange player and held him with two cities, pushed the blue one from the center back to his respawn, and then Gelu went underground. The other three heroes held the cities and the center of the map, although I must say the AI here doesn't pose any problems at all; it's harder to reach it than to defeat it...
I went into the underground following the route strictly marked in the editor, straight to the portal by the tents. Breaking through the guards was effortless with a full set of spells, heaps of mana, and the Sphere of Vulnerability. After that, through the green portal, I visited the respawn of each AI and took all their cities, dealing with the heroes (who were just puppets with crowds of monsters).
After defeating all the AI, the Necromancers, Nameless, and Grail arrived, and I captured all neutral castles.
Taking the main army (snipers, unicorns, gold dragons, a few Azure, pegasi, and that's all — I used nothing else), I again followed the route checked in the editor to the portal (otherwise you could wander indefinitely).
Another hero (Alamar) with Azure and Crystal dragons (a few of each) went for the Grail, while Kyrre and Tazar started chasing the Necromancers, or rather, running through the labyrinths.
In the end, Nameless (only black dragons, Power of the Dragon Father, Book of Fire, and Sphere of Flame in artifacts) was defeated in the 5th month. To be fair, he never used Armageddon, although he was given the Book of Fire and Sphere of Fire. I think if he had used Armageddon, the losses would have been greater and more critical for the further game. As it was, I beat him very easily, very simply, not without losses, but losses weren't important there and weren't critical, since by the 5th month Gelu's stats were already higher than his and the army didn't lag much in quantity considering the Legion Statue. Castles built from the start + external dwellings and the Grail allowed resources to accumulate quickly and be spent easily.

(Though it would have been entirely possible to defeat him even earlier using speed artifacts and snipers behind a Force Field: attack with dragons and we have the first speed, place a Force Field in front of the snipers; snipers have 9 speed + 2 cloak + 1 necklace + 1 ring, totaling 13; under Haste, the speed would be greater than black dragons, and then add Prayer and Anti-Magic so they wouldn't be wiped out by strike spells, followed by a calm execution of the black dragons. But I didn't do that and lost about 200-300 gold dragons, a bit over 1k pegasi, 700 unicorns, and some snipers (I don't recall exactly). Then from the middle of the 5th month until 6.3.2, there was a game of catch-up, guessing, and bumping into the Necromancer to take all the cities and kill all the heroes.)
Result with the installed Grail, captured cities (all), and defeated AI: 6.3.2.
Overall, I didn't like the map; there were no interesting battles (except Nameless, but he is locked away and poses no threat; it's not even mandatory to take him down).
The entire difficulty of the map is its murderous labyrinthine logistics. We have several colored one-way teleports, and there are simply countless entrances and exits. The entire underground consists of dissected corridors with one-ways, meaning you can only enter via a one-way, but these one-ways are identical (there are several types and they all repeat in incredible quantities, except for one that leads to Nameless).
As a result, the Necromancer AI himself couldn't even reach all the areas and didn't take all the cities in 6 months. Because of such confusion, the AI cannot do anything. Instead of Necromancers with hundreds of thousands of Liches and millions of skeletons (now that would be something, if for example by the 3rd month the Necros carved paths to everyone via the green two-way portal and started terrorizing everything on the surface: 8 heroes with TP, magic, stats, AoTD and other artifacts, someone even with Shackles and an army with thousands of bones and liches — in the spirit of Chinese maps, Fall of Atlantis, Astral Venis, etc.), we get a few stray and lost AI heroes, which is exactly what kills the difficulty and interest in completing such a map....
Though it should be noted that everything on the map is drawn quite well and logically (but the labyrinth in the underground is just killing).
Result: 156 days and 494 points

Hello everyone!
I often visit this site and read reviews of custom maps, which helps me to better understand the mechanics of Heroes and learn about interesting maps. I haven't created anything myself, as I've been spending all my free time creating my own map.
I finished its first version at the end of last year, but I knew that despite numerous tests, it might contain many flaws. And recently, thanks to the guys who played through my map and wrote to me about all the errors they found, I finished the second version, porting it from WoG to Era.
I would really like to know the opinion of experienced players about the map. I am especially interested in the moments that they did NOT like, as this is the only way to make the map better.
Forgive me for my immodesty, but I spent almost six years creating the map (including the time spent learning ERM), and I simply must bring it "to perfection".

The map "War on Holst v2.0": https://heroesportal.net/maps/view/4290

The Lone Knight

Author: Hans C.

Link: http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=The+Lone+Knight&type=&size=&difficulty=&sort=3

A very good and challenging RPG-style map.

some feedback on this wonderful map (a full review will follow after I complete the Walkthrough):

The Lone Knight
( https://heroesportal.net/maps/view/1341 )

I took on this wonderful map and decided to start with Conflux, without using a map editor, without looking at other Walkthroughs, etc.
The main heroes were:
Ciel (arrived at the tavern from the start): Wisdom, 4 Elements, Magic, Intelligence, Logistics
Adela (starting hero): Logistics, Armor, Archery, Wisdom, 4 Elements
Supported by Xeron (Devil specialist; after defeating him, he was actively used to clear out minor forces) and Boragus (arrived at the tavern and was hired after his defeat; he fought a very important battle thanks to Tactics and Ballistics) and Lord Elementalist (Logistics + Pathfinding + Navigation + Teleport + Literacy is ideal)

Beginning: everything went quite normally for Adela and Ciel thanks to the group of Fairies and magic, and later the birds; they cleared everything at the starting spawn. There's no point in describing it in detail; the Hat was obtained quite easily and quickly, I reached the sea, captured the nearest town with the green portal, then captured all the island towns and freed the Elementalist.
In the end, I had 4 fully built towns and two powerful mages.
After taking to the water, I went after the enemies: first Inferno, then Necropolis, and then the underground... I killed the guardians on the water, obtained their artifacts, and visited Utopia around the same time...
Literally just before I arrived on the water, only the Necromancer emerged; the others didn't manage to get out in time.
Here I lost significant momentum and time (I should have attacked the Necropolis and Inferno in parallel, but I ended up doing it sequentially).
I didn't trade the Mana Talisman at my spawn for Clone (turned out to be the right move, as the Conflux Elementalist is a Water specialist and I relearned the Clone spell from him).
However, I managed to trade the Mana Talisman at the Dungeon spawn for Armageddon, which made the subsequent game much easier up to a certain point.
Elementalists: I freed the remaining 3 myself, as the AI didn't reach them (they didn't make it in time, but I later had to spend gold to dig up the AI's starting heroes).

Ignissa on the water: I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches with her; I freed her using the Cult (unlocked the guardian quest, left, the Cult arrived and sailed) and then Ignissa went to towns and battles via TP.

In the end, the result was: Ciel, a most powerful mage, and with spheres for Earth and Fire magic; she mostly ran purely with Phoenixes (only taking main armies for 1-3 battles).
Adela, with the rest of the Conflux army, dealt with the auxiliary enemies.

The best part: the invasion of the AI (Blue, Green, and Red) began.
I was pleased that the map isn't entirely static, as enemies with quite formidable armies arrive at our spawns, so the combo of one hero at sea and a second on land ready to repel an attack worked perfectly; the harmless ones were repelled by the Elementalists, Boragus (after his defeat), and Xeron.
There are simply no difficult battles thanks to full magic and tons of mana, but there were a few tricky battles where I had to act unconventionally, though again, mostly Ciel with Phoenixes.
The exception was the battle with Kilgor: I fought him with Boragus, taking Magogs and a group of Vampires; in the end, losses amounted to 100 shooters.
(Otherwise, especially without Tactics, it would have been very difficult and required serious maneuvering).
Among such unpleasant battles, the fight with Tazar stands out, who proved impossible to defeat in the open field without a Pyrrhic victory and losing an unbelievable number of troops due to the nature of Elementals.
A brilliant plan was devised, which also took a significant amount of time: I had to lure Tazar so that he would attack Ciel and her Phoenixes during a castle siege; in the end, after Armageddon, all ground troops were trapped behind the walls and the enemy was defeated without losses.

I simply ignored the author's intent to accumulate Wizards and Snipers; I don't collect or use them (perhaps the game will punish me for this).
Dragons (Azure and others) are also not bought or accumulated.
I'm progressing without tricks, wiping out almost everything with Phoenixes.
Another exception was Zubin, but he was also beaten very easily with small losses, as I pitted the only resurrectable and combat-capable Conflux unit against him — the Phoenixes.
Anti-magic garrisons are beaten by Adela using AoTD and the full army of Elementals.

Thus, on 6-1-1, I arrived at Torgrim's castle; this is where I felt the difficulty and interest: how to break his army with only 301 Phoenixes and 3k mana with all spells, or if I need to bring more from Otjor and more "meat" for a successful breakthrough...
For a mage hero, a Resistance specialist is the most undesirable and unpleasant opponent, as practically no spells go through (Blindness works once every three tries, all mass spells hit 1-2 stacks or no one at all).

In conclusion: an interesting map, original battles, decent logistics, art, appropriate events and hide-and-seek, moderate text with useful information, but the map is semi-static, as enemies have the ability to invade, yet most of them are locked away and closed off, waiting for our arrival. I assume that either after Torgrim it will be significantly easier (no magic resistance), or, judging by the description, there will be a Vulnerability sphere, or it will be unbearable hardship, but we'll see. The map is definitely worth it and will be completed....

Now for some screenshots:
The first — the battle with Tazar in the open field, replayed from a save, until the second battle where he was defending the castle and was defeated without losses, after which I continued the game.

Right now, on 6-1-1, I'm struggling to breach Torgrim's bastion...

Question: Is it possible to defeat the 6-1-1 enemy on the 301 Phoenix map in one go, or is it necessary to bring reinforcements? Even after eliminating the archers, wizards are resurrected, and after their slow spell is cast, it's game over... But there is potential to win without using hit-and-run tactics...

here's a downside to elementals: they can't be resurrected...
if you take all the elf troops, Thorgrim falls easily; the main thing is to position the phoenixes against the wizards so they can't be resurrected...
but the losses are huge...
just phoenixes alone aren't enough to break through...

now we need to figure out what troops to buy and bring in that would be optimal, so that it wouldn't be a pity to lose them or they could be revived at the end of the battle...

After Xiedu, a bad habit of burning the opponent’s mana appeared. :D

After Xiedu, I developed a bad habit of burning the opponent's mana. :D

Heh, thanks for the idea about using single units (I forget about them, which sometimes is a simple and effective way), indeed, the AI became a bit dumber and entered a cycle of recovering snipers and casting lightning, draining mana, and it's also easier to deal with retaliators and overlapping archers)))
6-1-1 red is nerfed, after that, it will only be about map overview
by the way, I divided them into single units, used a clone, and ended up with more mana, 2235

apparently, it will be possible to complete it not according to the author's idea without snipers and wizards with ranged attacks...

So, a review of the map The Lone Knight:

1. Plot, events, quests, artifacts, etc.:
- the map has a structure, following the storyline with the necessary information delivered in an optimal balance of plot reveal/hints/volume/frequency
- events on the map are well thought out, and the text contains hints (like with the clover of luck)
- with quests and artifacts, everything is much trickier and more complex; essentially, a whole system is built, dictating where and what must be brought, but this also creates a situation of alternatives and choice
I specifically completed all quests except the 9999 skeletons and the final one for the mage's well, since I wasn't playing as Necro and had no way to complete that quest. In principle, not all quest artifacts need to be turned in immediately, nor do all quests need to be completed (as soon as you get the Golden Bow, it's better to wait and not turn it in right away for 15 sp or for the component of the Sniper's Bow, but to use it in subsequent battles and then turn it in as needed
for example, after handing in all artifacts for all the quests I encountered, I was short a necklace + duration for the final quest for +200 Wizards
quests to obtain non-native creatures can also be skipped if you don't use them...
original author's ideas and their implementation:
1) obtaining the Pendant of Total Recall (PotR), the PotR is assembled just before the last three AI heroes and one neutral stack, but if you really try and cleverly slip through to the brown player, you can fight almost all battles with him using the PotR, but this requires a lot of effort, although even these few battles are enough to get an incredible number of Liches (even if you're not playing as Necro, one of the freed heroes is an expert in Necromancy, which will allow you to make several thousand Liches from even a single battle with Necro-horses)
on one hand, the author didn't allow such an artifact at the beginning or middle of the game, but also didn't limit players in their final battle capabilities, and even provided the possibility of keeping the PotR until the very end
2) guardians of passes to creature dwellings for artifacts: this is original, I've never seen anywhere else where a simple external Monastery requires a Titan's Thunder, and for a Portal of Glory, especially at the very end of the game, nothing less than the Power of the Dragon Father
3) the Power of the Dragon Father, if you don't give it up for the Angel Portal, which you can't really use effectively (the growth boost isn't that significant), then the point of the Dimension Door quest and the exchange of the Statue of Legion for the Power before the final battle is lost
the Dragon set is offered as protection from the Armageddon of the last two Dragon Guard heroes and the final villain. So, by turning in the PotR, we get the Armageddon's Blade, which is precisely what protects against this spell in battles with them; plus, the Power complicates the fight because losses are not resurrectable, and units cannot be enhanced in any way
4) not entirely clear from a gameplay logic perspective, but understandable from the storyline: a hero is completely locked away in a dungeon prison on cursed ground, i.e., you fly in at the very end via DD, free them, and that's it, forgetting about the hero with DD... it looks original, but from a gameplay standpoint, it's pointless and useless
5) there is no Sphere of Vulnerability anywhere, and it cannot be obtained. Here, a huge plus to the author for this!
most maps sin by giving the player the Sphere, after which a true paradise for mages begins with essentially no problems, only mana consumption and nothing more. But here, the absence of the Sphere genuinely creates difficulty
for example - how to counter Titans in the upper corner with the Sniper's Bow on the hero? Classic options like Forgetfulness, Blindness, Berserk, blocking, rushing with all stacks, etc., don't work. You just have to take the damage. This also applies to battles against dragons, and additionally, inconveniences are created for the player (Conflux and Dungeon with Black Dragons suffer)
6) the incredibly large number of Statue of Legion parts, when properly placed in the right towns, provides a significant growth bonus, which is certainly pleasing
7) the Grail is given quite simply and immediately. It would probably have been better to make obtaining the Grail more difficult, offering a chance to get it earlier along the progression path, but the author gives it very simply and doesn't dwell on it (again, Necros benefit because the Grail enhances Necromancy)
8) emphasis on shooting, using Snipers and Wizards in battles; this is more of a feature. In principle, it's possible to complete the game without them, and it becomes markedly easier with them,
I myself gave in and played the final battles with Wizards
9) hit-and-run against enemies is possible but completely optional, not excessive, but if your level doesn't allow it, you can weaken many enemies with hit-and-run
9.5) the battle for the town on cursed ground: it turned out original and interesting, not difficult, but it refreshes and stands out from the rest
10) the experience quest after defeating Red allows you to level a new hero from 0 if the old ones don't suit you. A bit late, but still a very good opportunity (I used it and got an ideal Kyrre hero, but I still didn't switch from Ciele)
2. Heroes, balance of sides, map possibilities:
- heroes: some are prohibited for recruitment by the player, but not all. Many enemy heroes can be hired easily; they often show up in the tavern after you fight them, and this is a significant downside
I managed to hire Prime Minister, Solmyr, Neela, Styg, Müllich, Boragus, and many others
In my opinion, all such heroes that are strong and designated for the AI should be disabled for recruitment by the player; otherwise, it introduces some changes that simplify the game
Looking in the map editor, only Roland, Aine, Lord Haart, Luna, and Labetha are prohibited; all others are allowed, but not all of them appeared in the tavern for some reason
- enemy hero skills: overall, everything is thought out and calculated for specific situations, except for one hero: Drakonia, this is the penultimate battle. Besides the fact that the hero is again available for hiring, she is given Artillery and Ballistics skills, even though she stands in place with dragons and is a completely fixed hero
Or does the author expect someone to play the final battle with Drakonia...?
- balance of development depending on choice: the map is clearly designed for playing as Necromancers, both by story, progression, and heroes. Everything comes down to this, but it's playable for the other three factions as well. However, I'll cover all four.
Each is given two starting heroes: one personal with specialties and two or one advanced primary skill(s) (Adela for Conflux), and the second hero is the same for all, with Logistics and Pathfinding. So,
1) Necros with Prince Jaska (skills: Necromancy and Leadership). A very successful combination on one hand, as it allows combining different races and Necro troops without any problems.
The most logical, perfectly fitting the map's plot and narrative, and also the easiest and slowest completion. With battles against thousands of creatures in a stack, the presence of booster structures should significantly and massively increase the Bone Stack.
Apparently, this is why the author shortchanged the Necros and gave them three towns instead of four, like the other races.
Because of the slow units and the need to drag around a horde of Skeletons, which even with +3 speed artifacts and a Skeleton specialist aren't particularly fast, and keeping the main hero boosted is not always possible.
The respawn is inconvenient, and they are slow in the early stages, as you have to reach Ghost Dragons first. Until you engage the enemies, you won't have the first turn in many battles. But later, the further you go, the easier it gets, and more and more Skeletons appear, making battles many times simpler. Since the main damage stack in the long run is Skeletons, the starting hero is preferable as the main, provided they don't get Eagle Eye or other such 'joys'.
2) Dungeon: starting hero Mutare gives +5 Attack/Defense to Dragons. Good on one hand, but on the other, if we don't use dragons later in the game, the hero's specialty loses its point. So, I would consider another hero as the main.
Dungeon is excellent throughout the game. There's Mana Doubling, so you won't feel a shortage or deficit from the start. There are shooters and good units, 4 towns, and a perfectly normal respawn, like Inferno and Conflux. However, there is a significant feature: Black Dragons...
How to preserve them in battles without suffering heavy losses remains a mystery (or use Red Dragons and upgrade to Black at the very end of the game).
3) Inferno: starting hero Xeron with increased speed for Devils looks great. In general, under buffs, with Anti-Magic and behind Force Field, many AI heroes will fall apart very simply and without much fuss. Overall, if considering a speed run, this is the most preferable option.
The map is great for Demon Farming, but it involves a lot of strict micromanagement, more for fans of exotic perversions, but I don't rule out that it can yield an effective result.
4) Conflux: Adela with Bless on Elementals, given their damage range, simply works wonders. Overall, the fastest and most painless start.
Gremlin Peasants from the start allow for terrible things; later, you always get the first turn in battles thanks to Phoenixes.
But only until serious encounters with the AI... In no serious battle were the non-resurrectable Elementals used, and I don't think anyone will use them, unless you can complete the battle without losses; then they will go without losses.
Later, after capturing AI towns, you can use their units, so there is more than enough variety for combinations and mixes.
- Despite its linearity and confinement, the map doesn't feel static, dead, or monotonous. It presents significant diversity with many options for the player.

My Walkthrough:
I already described the walkthrough up to Month 6 Week 1 Day 1. No particular problems, I cleared everything with Phoenixes. Then continued with Phoenixes as a Mage. Everything up to the encounter with the Prime Minister I can call a walk in the park – interesting, not easy, somewhat monotonous in places, but a walk nonetheless. However, the battles with the Prime Minister and King Lardes made me reconsider troop options and switch to Snipers and Wizards. After failed attempts to crack the Premier's castle, I reconsidered my position and gave in, took Snipers and Wizards, but made a key mistake – I took Black Dragons into battle when I should have taken 1-2 Azure Dragons, so that after casting everything with Armor of the Damned, we would have a turn and our army wouldn't be shot to pieces in one round.
Because if there were Black Dragons in the battle with the King, I wouldn't have had to resort to cheating... the only case of using hit-and-run!
The King was defeated with the following tactic: 6 heroes with the strongest magic, including enemy Prime Minister, Solmyr, Styg, attacked the King with 1 Gold Dragon and spammed Armageddon or Implosion at the Wizards and Titans.
After that, they were recruited from the tavern and went back into battle (thankfully, there are plenty of towns; by stationing heroes in garrisons, the pool was very small (strangely, many heroes, even those not banned, simply didn't appear in the tavern).
I reached the King on Month 6 Week 4 Day 4 (later, with additional recruitment of troops, it becomes quite passable, but on 6-4-4 it felt a bit weak, plus some troops hadn't been recruited from towns yet)...
Unable to defeat him in a fair fight (Titans with Sniper's Bow, and cloneable at that), I came up with this option, and this rampage continued for a couple of weeks, allowing me to completely wipe out the Titans, Wizards, and Snipers (although reducing them by half would have been enough for comfort, but I couldn't stop the process)...
After that, there was no particular difficulty before the Mage with 3k mana.
I fought the final battle with Armageddon's Blade, eliminating the Alliance so they wouldn't use Armageddon, having previously defeated Drakonia using only Phoenixes.

Result: Victory on Month 7 Week 3 Day 2 or 184 days (I didn't make it before day 180, when the AI receives reinforcements), which earned 494 points.

About the Map, in Conclusion:
IMHO, the skills needed on the map are: Logistics, Tactics, Armorer, Archery, Earth Magic, Water Magic, Wisdom. The eighth skill can be chosen situationally based on taste (Fire Magic, Intelligence, Offense, Air Magic, Leadership, Ballistics [lots of siege battles, and controlling the ballista provides several advantages], etc.).

Although it's an RPG map for a single hero, it's necessary to have two or three well-leveled heroes who visit stat boosters and are somewhat diversified, i.e., having a hero with expert skill in something different from the main, like Fire Magic/Ballistics, etc., to allow for combining and optimal battle completion.

I dislike a bit that the signposts directly indicate what is quest-related and what isn't. In my opinion, the sign should be more woven into the story, and what's important or not should be subtly delivered through events, not directly: 'This is a quest, that is not...'

The visual design is top-notch; everything is very logical, organically made, fits the author's idea, doesn't catch the eye, doesn't stand out with ridiculous contrast, but instead looks quite beautiful...

In the end, I understand what inspired Rincewind when he made his great Paragon))

Overall rating, I think I would confidently give this map an 8.5 out of 10. It's very well-made, thought out, with soul, but there are a few shortcomings regarding the availability of heroes, the variability of quests, and also the enemy being locked away. We destroy the AI quite quickly, which could have come out to the player on its own. If this had been prolonged, there would have been more interest in the walkthrough, as it would have added some strategic element, however modest.

Separately, regarding the bug/glitch with Ignissa: to avoid it, you need to sail over, open the prison, then switch to Ignissa and perform the exchange with Ignissa. Then she will re-learn everything and enter the game normally.

Tips for mapmakers for more or less interesting battles:
- Remove the Sphere of Vulnerability
- Add enemies with the Power of the Dragon Father
- Battles against Titans with Sniper's Bow (with different troops, of course) without the Sphere of Vulnerability are genuinely interesting
- Don't completely lock away the AI; separate it with a tent or a guard from some area through which it can reach the player, and then make it so it can periodically break through to the player, so the player not only has to defeat the visitors (also not without an army) but also think about how to prevent them from reaching the tent and thus hurry to eliminate the AI before that, stopping the raids. Not the current situation where the AI sits behind one-way portals, quest guards, and gates of all colors, just waiting for the end.
- Use events to give the AI towns troops and, crucially, gold, giving slightly more than needed for the recruitment cost of those troops in a separate town.
- Carefully consider which heroes to ban; otherwise, it either makes life too easy or kills the author's original design for the map (this applies to story-driven, RPG, and similar maps, not open strategy scenarios).
- Think about paths, routes, and hints for players to maintain interest on the map (the editor kills a lot of the exploration and map discovery aspect, but it should be possible and interesting to run heroes around the map without it).

P.S. I'm posting screenshots
the ideal hero on this map, in my opinion
screenshots of the final battle and the map result

After Xiedu, there was a bad habit of burning the opponent's mana. :D

And it's all because they don't equip heroes with the "Titan's Roar" skill; that would make things more interesting. You'd have to think more about victory and the battle.

Hey everyone, I'm the author of War of the 7 Realms and I just uploaded my new map. It is called Leon's Redemption and it is the sequel. I've been working on this map for almost an year. I know you like difficult maps so I think you will enjoy this one :)

Here is the link: https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1932&game=3

Hey everyone, I'm the author of War of the 7 Realms and I just uploaded my new map. It is called Leon's Redemption and it is the sequel. I've been working on this map for almost an year. I know you like difficult maps so I think you will enjoy this one :)

Here is the link: https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1932&game=3

Guess I will test it next week. thank you for link!
I've played your War of the 7 Realms and enjoyed it.

Can you recommend a map by Grigori Minchev? But I'm an amateur, and I don't like very difficult maps. I'm looking for something simpler, but still good.

In my opinion, it’s easier – not like Minchev’s maps. I once started playing a couple of his maps long ago, but didn't finish any of them. Have you played any of the maps from this “stereotypical” collection (this “stereotypical” collection) (they are all quite old)? Some aren’t particularly difficult, but they are interesting.

Minchev also has some very simple maps; I completed them about 15 years ago. Marlow wrote a review of Minchev's maps somewhere; you can search for it, or he might write one himself.