Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

You have a small army (I had significantly more at a comparable stage in my final attempt), but it seems like you can still manage. However, the fact that Orange is gaining ground is a real problem. Essentially, at this stage, we need control over the Inferno mines; otherwise, we won't have enough money to buy troops before heading to Purple. We need a strong unit hidden in ambush to deter Orange. If Inferno only has 2 cities, this strategy completely counters him; with 4 cities, I don't even know what he'll do next. He'll probably rebuild his cities, gather an army, and sooner or later, destroy our unit :smile27:

And how did First Aid perform, by the way? I think the leader skill is much better, but in the very early stages, First Aid is theoretically not bad.

I took the First Aid skill to be able to defeat some neutral creatures and build something, even with just one cow, a ballista, and a tent at the very beginning. Otherwise, I would have had to catch all sorts of "maximum level" Dragons in the tavern, like in your report, for the first few weeks. For example, with one cow, I could defeat Cyclops one by one or Orcs with axes, even if it took many attempts. In principle, even a ring with +1 to Creature Damage could theoretically be defended with one cow. But the tent has a large range, and it doesn't always heal properly. So, I bought Alkin in the tavern and, with 6 lizards in addition to the cow, I captured the ring almost immediately. Without First Aid, all of this would have been impossible. Although, of course, leadership would have been much more useful later on. * It's strange, the green Ajit turned out to be quite weak. Even the computer easily defeats him in an auto-battle. However, he runs away, the rascal, and if you try to defeat him so that he doesn't run away, the losses are much greater. * Surprisingly, after many replays with various combinations of actions, I managed to defeat the green one, and my weakling near the pit mines is still alive. Perhaps I should go back to the orange faction and stay there for a while longer, until the brown one appears. * In general, I'm returning to the orange faction in approximately the same state as in the picture. The army is, of course, not very good (almost twice as small as yours :D), but it's enough for now to control the mines and resources. So, I guess I'll suffer on this map for a little longer

I've been reading the latest posts, and I'd like to ask: how is such an imbalance in combat and magic stats for a hero even possible?

Map specifics. There are no bonuses for magical stats, only for combat stats. Quest rewards also boost attack and defense. Plus, the hero himself – Tazar – primarily levels up in defense. And there's really no point in having magical stats here. The few that exist allow you to cast Bless once or twice per battle, and that's all you need.

I've read through the latest posts and would like to ask: how is such an imbalance in combat and magic stats possible for a hero?

Magic schools are disabled on the map. It is impossible to obtain Mass Slow or Mass Cure. Magic is not very effective, this is a specific feature of the map.

How did the First Aid skill perform, by the way? It seems to me that Leadership is much better, but in the very early stages, First Aid is theoretically not bad.

In general, First Aid can set a very good pace, winning all battles in the early stages without losses, but after 2 months, it's practically useless; any other skill will be better. If I ever return to this map, I'll think about this issue. In my opinion, the potential is such that you can destroy everyone quite quickly, but you have to play very well and with a good tempo. And that takes several months of real time. Simply completing it is not a problem.

I remember your idea, and I hope it can be implemented someday :smile20:

With 4 cities, I don't even know what he's going to do next. He'll probably build up his cities, gather an army, and sooner or later, he'll crush our weakling :smile27:

It seems like I've reached a dead end. 4 Castles for the orange player by the time their starting area is captured is too much. By the beginning of the 6th month, Lucifer has amassed 40 Archdevils, a hundred Ifrits, and hundreds of other units. He drove away my weakling and started recapturing everything. I can't catch him. As soon as my Tazar appears on the horizon, he immediately hides in a Castle. :smile32:
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It's also impossible to keep Tazar at the orange player's starting area – as soon as he leaves, the green and brown players immediately start attacking, and not one at a time, but several at once and from different directions. They immediately scatter in different directions and start capturing everything, and, worst of all, they head towards the former blue and red Castles.
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If I return the weakling to the starting area, with an attack of 17, defense of 15, and a decent army from the Stronghold (27 Behemoths, 180 Cyclops, etc.), he can, in principle, drive away any invader with a medium-sized army. But, firstly, there are too many of them for one weakling to chase them all. And secondly, one of the invaders is Mefala, level 55, and even with an army smaller than my weakling's, she is clearly too strong for him. The weakling deals pathetic damage and loses almost his entire army in a battle with her. Only Tazar can defeat her without losses, but if I return him to the starting area, the orange player immediately recaptures the mines and resources and captures the two remaining cities. It's a vicious cycle.
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I also tried to catch Lucifer in a resource zone to deprive him of his army again so that my weakling could control the orange starting area. Even though Lucifer now has 57 Devils, 120+ Ifrits, 500+ Magogs, Tazar can defeat him with minimal losses. But while I'm catching Lucifer in the resource zone, the green and brown players are having a field day in my starting area, and the orange player is already approaching the two remaining cities. I don't have enough psychics to deal with them. In general, the beginning was played too slowly, and I don't want to go back and replay it.
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I also noticed that in the Polish version, the orange and purple players develop much slower, and in my opinion, even with my slow pace, the chances of winning would be higher there. In the English version, it's extremely desirable to contain the orange player early in the 2nd month. Otherwise, they capture everything, and it becomes much more difficult to play. And the purple player also develops at an incredibly fast rate in the English version.
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It seems that the English version can only be beaten with some very intricate strategy, like the one Marlo used in his Walkthrough. If you play it simply, arriving at the orange player's territory at the end of the 3rd month and without generating creatures for months/weeks, the chances of winning the English version are extremely slim.

And what if you transfer most of your army to the Inferno zone, while Tazor remains at the main base with a small force?

Added 1 hour 59 minutes ago
I was also thinking about this: since you can last until the 6th month, you should be able to gather an army large enough to ignore all this petty squabbling and cause some trouble for the purple faction. For example, you could defeat all of his heroes and capture 4 Necropolises. I visited him around the 6th month, and I had 2000 extra flies, which essentially finished off the purple faction, but even without them, I could have subdued him without much effort. Necro heroes are quite annoying, as they all throw explosives, but in terms of combat power, they are nothing compared to Tazor. Therefore, with 4 Necropolises in half a year, you should theoretically have enough strength to break through the garrison in front of the Necro City and defeat the final boss. It's not difficult to support the purple faction in front of the garrison, while Tazor could, for example, set up camp in the orange zone.

I was thinking that the resistance skill could be very useful on this map. But the question is, when should it be upgraded? Ideally, it should be upgraded around the time of the battle with the blue faction, in order to save some of the troops, which are already few in number.

Before the first encounter with the blue faction, you should have at least a basic resistance to magic; otherwise, the computer will overwhelm you with goblins and gnolls, and then your main army will suffer.

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By the way, I noticed that in the Polish version, the Orange and Purple factions develop much slower, and IMO, even with my leisurely pace, I would have had a chance to win. In the English version, however, it's highly desirable to contain the Orange faction early in the second month. Otherwise, they take over everything, and the game becomes much more difficult. And the Purple faction in the English version develops at an incredibly fast rate.
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It seems that the English version can only be completed in a very complex way, like the one Marlo used in his playthrough. If you play it simply, arriving at the Orange faction at the end of the third month and without generating creatures for months/weeks, the chances of completing the English version are extremely low.

The Polish version is the old, original version of the map, which was available on the Polish map collection for a long time. I decided to try completing this map on someone's recommendation and managed to complete it to either 130% or 150%, but definitely not 200%. I wrote to the author, asking him to upload the map to Mapspheroes and other sites. He seemed to have translated it, but at the same time, he *somehow* significantly strengthened the Orange faction, and it became a "slightly" different, more complex map!
At the same time, DANDY started completing this English version of the map to 200% (and he completed several, unfortunately, there are no proofs left on YouTube, it would be something to watch!), and he noticed that the author had strengthened the Orange faction and something else. (How much more could it be complicated!). So, you can try playing the Polish original!
The trick is that some people on the forum, when talking about the most difficult maps, presented Lemis Inferior as impossible, but it can be completed, even in the English version to 200%. Dandy's secret was fighting with almost no losses and a huge pace. He even sent saves to the author, if I'm not mistaken, and he was shocked at how quickly it was completed with minimal losses. This is the "secret" to completing with Tazar - minimal losses in each battle, and, as a result, concentration of the army, more significant forces on a specific date.
During my playthrough, I played without resistance, which I regretted many times. Somewhere in this thread, there was my review with recommendations on how to develop the hero, a subjective view, so to speak.
As for whether I want to try again, I "certainly won't repeat this" :)

It's slightly different; Dandy completed the walkthrough of the original Polish version at 200%. He was just testing the English version, and after his comments, the author weakened the Orange faction compared to the initial English version, where the Orange faction was excessively overpowered.

Added 8 minutes later
By the way, after completing the walkthrough, I read the novel by Polish writer Janusz Zajdel, after which the map is named (in the Russian translation, "The Limit"). It's a mediocre dystopia, but not without some interesting moments. The action takes place in a fictional city, where society is divided into seven social classes, numbered from zero to six, and distributed according to the intelligence quotient of the citizens. "Zeros" are considered the elite and the dominant class. The class determines what position a resident can hold and, accordingly, what work they can perform. Class status is determined by passing a special test. I think that Sprocket's idea as the map's author was that his map is this test for "zero" status.

Not quite. Dandy finished the Walkthrough of the original Polish version at 200%. He was just testing the English version, and after his comments, the author weakened the Orange faction compared to the initial English version, where the Orange faction was excessively overpowered.

Added 8 minutes later
By the way, after finishing the Walkthrough, I read a novel by the Polish writer Janusz Zajdel, after which the map is named (in the Russian translation, "The Limit"). It's a mediocre dystopia, but not without some interesting moments. The action takes place in a fictional city, where society is divided into seven social classes, numbered from zero to six, and distributed according to the intelligence quotient of the citizens. "Zeros" are considered the elite and the dominant class. The class determines what position a resident can hold and, accordingly, what work they can perform. Class verification is carried out by taking a special test. I think that Sprocket's idea as the map's author was that his map is this test for "zero" status.

Apparently, the author was afraid that someone might actually complete his map at 200%.
Thanks for the off-topic, it's interesting!

What if I transfer most of the army to the "Loshka" in the Inferno zone, while Tazor remains on the main stronghold with a small force?

Yes, I've already rolled back to the middle of the 5th month and transferred the entire barbarian army to "Loshka" so he can hold the orange stronghold. I'll see how Lucifer reacts to this. Will he attack him as he did last time, or will he do it later, or maybe even earlier? I can't give him the main Tazor army yet, because Manticores appears at the end of the 5th month, and Tazor won't be able to defend himself properly against him with a weak army. If necessary, I'll try to exchange armies between Tazor and "Loshka" after the Manticores, using some chain of events. I've attached a save file below, right after I transferred the army to "Loshka". If you're interested, you can have a laugh at my tiny armies. *:D

Ideally, it would be good to have another, more or less developed hero with an army at the starting stronghold, in addition to Tazor. Because when several enemies emerge from different sides at once, Tazor alone can't keep up with them all, and they can spread out. While Tazor is dealing with one, someone else pops out of the gate or portal and runs in another direction, usually towards the former green or red castles. But there's not much left to develop other heroes.

In general, if the issue with enemies emerging from different sides gets to me completely, what can you do? I'll start opening the entire map with cheats at the beginning of each day and see what the green and brown factions are planning. Because I no longer have the moral strength to control them.

As for the campaign against the purple faction in the 6th month, I think that in my case, it would be akin to suicide. I already have an army with a significant shortage of troops, which has been accumulating since the beginning, and even if I can break through the first garrison, I'll lose almost my entire army in the process. Against the purple faction, which in the English version develops at a crazy pace, Tazor will have no chance.*

Here, for example, compare the speed of capturing cities by the purple faction in the Polish version (taken from Dandy's walkthrough saves), and in the English version, which I'm currently trying to play (pictures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).*
In the Polish version, he captures the third castle on 3.4.4, on 6.4.6 he still has only 3 castles, he captures the fourth on 6.4.7, and the last one only on 7.2.2.*
In the English version, the third castle is captured on 1.3.6, and by 3.2.1, the purple faction has already captured all the castles! That's quite a difference.*

Or here, the capture of resources by the orange faction (pictures 6, 7, 8). In the Polish version, on 3.1.5, he has only just opened the passage to the first resource zone. In the English version, this happens on 1.4.4, on 2.3.3 all the resources are already captured, and by the end of the 3rd month, 4 castles are captured, and the first two are already fully built. So, in the English version, it is extremely desirable to cut off the orange faction's resources as early as possible.*

But overall, the map is difficult, but it's not as difficult as those Chinese maps or "one-day maps" with puzzle-like battles. The difficulty here lies in the fact that you have to maintain the highest possible pace and fight battles with minimal losses. Therefore, for players with a lot of speedrunning experience, completing it on any difficulty should not cause any particular problems.