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Good day.
Big respect to the author for the map; it is truly made with soul, it is complex, but it becomes manageable over time, and it is also incredibly addictive.
Next, I will express myself in more detail (sorry for the wall of text and for possible repetitions of bugs, but I would like to share my impressions after two months of playing).
As a Warrior, I completed the game as Humans, playing for about 120 game days, which was quite relaxing – pleasant for complete beginners, I think. As a Hero, I was only able to manage with the Necromancer and the Dark Elf (I will talk about him later), but, in my opinion, the game becomes too long, and after about the 5th month, the excitement disappears. I couldn't handle the other races; sometimes I lacked experience, sometimes I didn't want to invest in "correct" leveling, and others simply don't work.
As a result, I spent most of my time playing on Veteran: I won as Orcs, Light and Dark Elves, and now I'm trying a Wizard with summons, which seems to be more or less successful.
About the pros
What, in my opinion, is done almost brilliantly is the design of routes/logistics on the map. You have to constantly analyze where you can get to, what is most relevant to you at the moment, what resources and artifacts you want the most, etc., and so on. It is impossible to keep up with everything at once under conditions of intense pressure, and mistakes in decisions continue to have consequences for several weeks. To this point, perhaps, one should also attribute the location of enemy castles and the portal system – the ideas are clear, the implementation is excellent.
The generation of enemy heroes with artifacts and growing armies is also great, although it is a little sad that the inherent stupidity of the AI is so great that even such an advantage does not always help it. But – each game feels noticeably different from the previous one, even if you simply restart for one race.
Artifacts are distributed quite well on the map; I encountered a clear imbalance only a couple of times, and even then it was not decisive for the victory.
Oh yes, and most of the abilities of the starting heroes are very interesting and great; they help against enemy hordes, but they don't turn the game into a dull, one-sided grind.
About the cons
The main thing I didn't like about the balance is the Warlock's ability, which works from the beginning to the very end of the game, and at any difficulty level (well, it's a little harder for the Hero, okay). For me, playing as this race became a challenge to "win with only level 1 units," which, unfortunately, is quite simple. Of course, you can make it more difficult for yourself by not leveling him up into Chaos with Sorcery, but... why? I don't know the history of changes and fixes; maybe the current version is justified, but it seemed too easy to me.
The second criticism is more directed at the map editor(?): a week of illness at the beginning = loss and restart. When there is not enough meat for the first enemy attacks, and the leveling is focused on the late stage of the game, there are practically no chances, even on Veteran.
And I would also suggest moving the Witch Coven somewhere closer (while preserving the number of enemies), because it can only be reached when it is not very relevant anymore. If you survive to that stage, you already have a decent amount of gold, you have grown, you have level 25+, and it is sometimes easier to take the first enemy city, enduring a little and accumulating resources. And, accordingly, build the Capitol once in it. Although the Witch Coven is well-located in terms of design, it is difficult to argue with that.
About the bugs
The most unpleasant bug I encountered was during the week of Ether (the price of spells doubled): the Warlock's proxy cave creatures did not disappear from the battlefield, they did not cast fire walls, the battle did not start, and I had to load and rely only on autobattle. In essence, this can ruin the beginning of the game just as much as the week of illness. I suspect that the same will happen with most other races.
A clear, but also not very pleasant, bug exists for the Wizard: if there is nowhere to place a phantom (the unit is blocked during placement), the battle freezes with the above-described symptoms. It is fixed by loading and rearranging the units, but still.
It also remains unclear why some heroes do not have their abilities work when an enemy attacks the castle. For example, the Necromancer's vampirism works, but the Wizard's phantom does not. Is this expected behavior for balance, or is it still a bug?
In addition to this, there were a couple of crashes and ultra-long turns from one of the opponents, but these are issues that seem to be related to the game engine, and not to the author. Otherwise, the map works perfectly; I haven't played anything better for Heroes 5.
Once again, I apologize for such lengthy reasoning; I tried to write to the point, but I didn't always succeed. If the forum rules require hiding something under a spoiler, please let me know, and I will edit it.
