Walkthroughs for custom maps. Auto-translated

Has anyone completed the original English version 100%? And if so, where can I find it?

I don't have this version anymore. Maybe Dandy still has it.

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that Marlo, using the strategy he used in his Walkthrough, could also complete the original, more difficult English version. If I understand correctly, the only difference there is that the orange and purple factions develop a little faster than in the current English version. So, considering that he deals with Lucifer quite quickly in his Walkthrough, perhaps that would be enough to contain the orange faction and even in a slightly more difficult version. Although, I might be wrong.

As for the purple faction, practice has shown that their much faster development does not make the Walkthrough more difficult, but rather simplifies it. As paradoxical as it may sound.

For example, in the Polish version, by the time I reached the purple stronghold (6.4.3), they would have captured only 3 castles. In the English version, he captured all the castles by 3.2.1. It would seem that in that time, he would gather a huge army, and it would be much more difficult to fight him. But in reality, even my Tazar, with an army much smaller than it should have been at that point, simply crushed the purple faction. They didn't even have time to squeak before their entire stronghold, down to the last antimagic garrison, was under my control. That is, in essence, no matter how quickly they develop, they are no match for Tazar.

But at the same time, the faster development of the purple faction turns out to be beneficial for us, because if they had only 3 castles by that time, we would have to capture and completely rebuild the rest ourselves. And that would require extra resources and a significant reduction in army size. But instead, we arrive at their stronghold when everything is already ready.

If you come to them with an army accumulated in a quality Walkthrough (i.e., 1.5-2 times larger than mine), dealing with the purple faction will not be difficult, no matter how quickly they start to develop.

The fact that Lucifer was defeated so unceremoniously in my playthrough is due to exploits and a bit of luck. Without using bugs, I wouldn't have been able to defeat 500 Pit Lords on the road. Also, I caught Lucifer on version 2.2.3 just a day before he was planning to move inside the left garrison. Judging by what you wrote, the orange faction might start exploiting resources much earlier. And if it's behind the garrison, a raid on it in the second month becomes much more problematic.

Regarding the purple faction, I also thought it would be better if it developed faster, but I didn't want to write about it to avoid causing further distress. :)

It turns out that the purple faction, in any case, plays the role of a background character. Just like the final boss, who is defeated in an autobattle.

Not least of all, after playing this map, I started to enjoy "underpowered" map types, where the player is significantly limited in some way.

I've always preferred such maps. Especially the limitation on artifacts. I simply hate maps with their huge number of artifacts, which force the player to sort through them, trade them, or sell them, etc.
And having tens of thousands of units in each slot in your army somehow diminishes the sense of danger. And tactically, IMHO, battles with such an army are less diverse.

Perhaps. I just thought that 2.2.3 is a very early stage, and perhaps even in the most difficult version, Lucifer hasn't become so powerful that he's impossible to defeat. Although, if he develops even a couple of weeks faster, there's probably nothing left to gain there. On the other hand, practice has shown that you can survive on this map even if Orange captures 4 castles and controls the resources for quite a while. For example, in 1.4.3, Lucifer broke through the neutrals in front of the left resource zone, and in 1.4.4, he passed through the gate and started capturing everything there. In 2.2.6, he breaks through the neutrals in front of the second garrison and runs into the right resource zone. In 2.3.3, he controls all the mines. I only defeated Lucifer in 4.2.4, but it didn't become a catastrophe for me. Orange then sat there, not making any moves, until the middle of the 6th month, despite having 4 castles. Perhaps, if you put more pressure at the very beginning, even the most difficult version can be overcome. Although, again, this is just a guess, as I don't have information about what was in that version. Yes, you asked about how First Aid performed. For a general idea, I recorded a few battles at the starting stage, where I only survived thanks to the tent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZqRtU9auA The battles are, however, completely uninteresting and monotonous – almost all the time, you just defend with the Cow and heal it with the tent while the ballista does all the work. :) In general, First Aid was only needed in these starting battles against single archers or melee units. Later on, it's practically useless, and Leadership would be much better. For example, I passed the first Necropolis garrison with a morale of "-1". With positive morale, I think I could have passed it with even fewer losses.

Here, another important point is the starting bonus. I preferred the bonus of +10 cows for rapid initial development over the bonus of +8 attack, because of which I barely scratched Lucifer in my battle. And he was almost without an army and only with a magic arrow. I don't really know what would have happened if I had developed according to the standard scheme and arrived at his castle on the 3rd month. An unsuccessful past experience with the Polish version and the knowledge that orange develops faster here screamed about the need to destroy him as soon as possible, no matter what :)

Added 4 minutes ago
First Aid looks good. You just need to quickly level it up if you are going to use it.

Well, Dandy was also sure that + to attack is better than cows. But I'm definitely for cows. The sooner we break everyone's faces, the more peaceful life will be.

Here, it's the same situation as with the 10 cows and the tent – a double-edged sword. The cows help you defeat the neutral creatures at the beginning, which would be impossible to defeat otherwise with +8 attack, and therefore you can build your castle faster. But +8 attack will be more useful later on, although the start might be a bit slower. The same goes for the tent. In the early game, it helps you win some battles with a single cow and capture something, but later on, it's as useful as a male goat for milk. Your Captain.

Here, it's a double-edged sword, whether you choose 10 cows or a tent. The cows help you overcome those neutral creatures at the start, which are impossible to defeat with +8 attack if you take them, and thus you can build your castle faster. But +8 attack will be more useful later, although the start might be a bit slower. The same goes for the tent. In the early game, it helps you win some battles with a single cow and capture something, but later it's as useful as a goat giving milk. Your Cap.*:D

+attack gives you a disadvantage of at least a week, or even two. It seems like a drop in the ocean on such a long distance, but it's not, it's a lot.

Is the current English version of Limes inferior on map4heroes more difficult or easier than the Polish version of the map? I glanced at it in the prospector, and I didn't see any major differences, except that the English version seems to have more starting bonuses.

English is more difficult due to the reduced number of pitlords and creatures of evil facing the orange garrisons (250 in Polish, 100 in English).

Added 2 minutes later
In the original English version, the author also reduced the stacks of 500 pitlords/creatures of evil to 250, but I'm not 100% sure about this. Although, as far as I remember, it was like that.

2) as you suggested: I spent almost 6 months building up troops from 4 Necropolises and, after honestly breaking through the gates with minimal losses, I tried to end this "sadomasochistic" endeavor with a blitzkrieg.

I still couldn't resist, spent a few hours and honestly broke through the last Necropolis garrison. I didn't wait until the 12th month, but broke through it in the middle of the 8th month in 2 attempts, almost losing my entire initial army in the process. In the first attempt, I eliminated the liches, most of the dragons, and almost an entire stack of vampires. Finishing off the rest was easy.

Once again, I regretted the lack of leadership, because the first time I had to fight the garrison with -1 morale, and the second time with -2. That was quite unpleasant.

After that, I just skipped to the 12th month again to gather a sufficient force that would allow me to easily win the final battle.

P.S. Lucifer, with 6 castles by the 12th month, turned into some kind of monster. 320 archdevils, almost 700 ifrits, 2K+ pits and cerberuses, 2.7K magogs. You can't take resources from such a force.:D

UPD I replayed it for another month (decided to try to get the boots without using a bug, and also see if I could capture the swamp with fewer losses). The funniest thing is that getting the boots turned out to be even more profitable than last time – I eliminated 196 harpies with losses of only 3 gnolls and a tent.:cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBVjnfO34t4
*

I knew you would outplay me. The question was only when it would happen*:D

Such a Lucifer is certainly intimidating, but he could have been subdued with wampires if necessary. In my playthrough, I even thought about having some fun when assembling an army for the final boss and going around to kill all the enemies I could reach with vampires*:smile24:

How critical are secondary skills on Limes inferior? I tried playing the first few weeks on a Polish map using ballista (obtained from Gervulf) and artillery, and I took the +8 attack bonus. The development turned out to be very fast; the Capitol is built on day 141 (which seems to be Dandy's development criterion), and on week 3, only basilisks haven't been built, and they don't seem very important to me. But artillery is obviously completely useless for further gameplay. Moreover, they also added intelligence, which, as I understand it, is also not needed on this map. Now I'm wondering if it's even possible to complete the map with this set of skills or if I need to restart? And further skills that appear are not the most useful. In the end, it will be: defense, artillery, intelligence, logistics, resistance, attack, archery, tactics.

With such character development, pathfinding becomes problematic, meaning you'll have to make detours with a movement point penalty to reach Barbarian cities and lose some movement points elsewhere as well. And also, the leader skill. As the playthrough of "Scars of Reality" showed, it's perfectly possible to play without it. Intelligence is useless, yes. But overall, it doesn't seem like you need to restart.