Posts from New era.

Mr. Nixan is a good PvP player, but PvE... these two types of gameplay have very significant differences and require a fundamentally different approach to the game. Although, of course, they have some points of intersection. You can't play a difficult scenario relying solely on PvP strategies.

What difficulty level did you play on? I'm mildly confused by your story about clearing the map with Zehir. On Hero difficulty, all the starting areas are impossible to clear with Zehir, period. You can only take one stack at a time, like the 100 Gremlins guarding the Gremlin building or the 50 Dancing Blades guarding the gold. All other stacks are much stronger than these, and they're also upgraded. It's simply impossible to clear with Zehir. The same goes for Gothai, as his army won't be enough to clear even the basic weak neutrals in the center of the map before the inner garrisons. And the guards at the Orcish buildings are even stronger than those in the center. In my game, they were guarded by 30-40 Gnomish Priests, 100-120 Ghosts, 5-6 Cyclops, and others. So, I cleared the entire center before the inner garrisons, but I didn't have time to reach the mines. I also cleared all the enemies around Zehir's territory, except for those near the Orcish buildings and inside the territory. I cleared half of the forest to the right of the center and half of the area to the right above the forest, up to the unit upgrade building. This took me a month and a week, and by that time, the Demon hero reached the central castle and easily killed me. None of the reinforcements arrived; I didn't even understand what I needed to do for them to arrive. The game says that you need to capture the outer garrisons, but how do you capture them in the first month? It's impossible. As a result, they died without even appearing on the map.
Overall, I've come up with a few ideas on how to improve the starting strategy, but even if I gather all the troops of one hero and clear Zehir's territory (I'm not even considering the Orcs, as you need 6-7 units in the army to clear them), I still don't see a clear advantage over the first Demon. I'll probably try on Veteran difficulty, with the Anlak hero. I suspect that the campaign might be conflicting with the EVE mod, which enhances the AI and units on the map. I don't remember all the buffs of this mod, as I downloaded it a long time ago. I remember looking for ways to make the AI move faster and the neutrals stronger. Maybe that's why the neutrals are so tough in this campaign. Although, I downloaded other campaigns recently and successfully completed them, and I didn't notice anything like this; I would even say that they were very easy.
And yes, by the way, Zehir's ability isn't working for me. Elementals don't appear after a unit dies. So, something is wrong.
I've completed all previous maps and campaigns, including Master difficulty, with this mod, so I still think the problem isn't with it. There are no other campaigns in the folders, only 3 multiplayer maps, two of which are from Master difficulty and one from Ganrytor, where there are no mods or special scripts.

What difficulty level did you play on? I'm just mildly confused by your story about clearing the map with Zehir. On Hero difficulty, all the starting packs are impossible to clear with Zehir, period. You can only take one stack at a time, like the 100 Goblins guarding the Goblin building, or the 50 Dancing Blades guarding the gold. All the other stacks are much stronger than these, and they're also upgraded. It's simply impossible to clear them with Zehir. And the same goes for Gothai, because his army won't be enough to clear even the basic weak neutrals in the center of the map before the inner garrisons. And the guards at the Orcish buildings are even stronger than those in the center. I had Gnomish Priests (30-40) guarding them, along with 100-120 Specters, 5-6 Cyclops, and others. So, I cleared everything with a female hero using archers, and as a result, I didn't accumulate enough of an army by the time the first hero arrived to counter it. I still don't fully understand what I need to do to accumulate enough troops. The neutral stacks are very tough; the previous Master campaign was much easier than this mission. Gothai is generally the easiest to play (Orcs aren't a problem, and he always crushes everyone), but you need to capture his buildings first. In general, I cleared the entire center before the inner garrisons, but I didn't have time to reach the mines. I also killed everyone around the perimeter of Zehir's territory, except for those above, where the Orcish buildings are, and inside the perimeter. I cleared half of the forest to the right of the center, and half to the right above the forest, up to the building that upgrades unit classes. This took me a month and a week, and by that time, the central Demon castle appeared, and he easily killed me. None of the reinforcements arrived; I didn't even understand what I needed to do for them to arrive. It says that you need to capture the outer garrisons, but how do you capture them in the first month? There's no way. As a result, they died without even appearing on the map.
Overall, I came up with a few ideas on how to improve the start, but even if I gather all the troops of one hero and clear Zehir's territory (I'm not even thinking about Orcs, you need 6-7 units in the army to clear them), I still don't see a clear advantage over the first Demon. I'll probably try on Veteran difficulty, with an Unaligned hero. I suspect that the campaign might be conflicting with Eve, which enhances the AI and units on the map. I don't remember all the buffs of this mod anymore; I downloaded it a long time ago. I remember looking for ways to make the bots move faster and the neutrals stronger. Maybe that's why the neutrals are so tough in this campaign. Although I downloaded other ones recently and successfully completed them; I didn't notice anything like that, I would even say that everything was very easy.
And by the way, Zehir's ability doesn't work for me. Elementals don't appear after a unit dies. So something is wrong.
I've completed all the previous maps and Master campaigns, and others, with this mod, so I still think the problem isn't with it. There are no other campaigns in the folders, there are only 3 multiplayer maps, two of which are Master campaigns and one is Ganrithor, where there are no mods or special scripts.

I am, to put it mildly, somewhat puzzled by your story about completing the map with Zephyr. On the "Hero" difficulty, all the starting packs are completely impossible to complete with Zephyr.

Hero.
The key to completing this mission is developing the economy with the fastest possible transition to training horses and angels, preferably by the third week. To do this, you definitely need to level up at least two heroes and clear the map in different directions. It is also worth making sorties and capturing dwellings as early as possible - this significantly weakens the enemy armies. Intercepting garrisons is quite possible, but not immediately; it is best to do this after killing the first demon and the appearance of Arantir, who can be permanently sent to the yellow player's territory and simply hidden in sanctuaries when enemies appear. It is also worth constantly buying peasants to get more gold, and after level 30 of the main hero, be sure to mentor Isabel so that horses train very cheaply. But, of course, success seriously depends on the starting layout - what stacks are guarding, what skills drop, how much of the army was preserved in the first battle. Therefore, I always role-play the leveling up in such maps. I didn't think there could be any problems here, as the single-player version, where the demon armies are 4-5 times larger, is quite (almost) comfortably completed. And I wouldn't play on Eve, the special ability of Zehir is definitely from there, and its development is very important + very unbalanced neutral forces can appear in place of random stacks.

I can only confirm what Gerter and MasteR wrote. Zehir, as a "hero," eliminates all neutrals at the start, with very few exceptions. By the first week, both gremlin dwellings and both upgraded forts should be cleared. Further movement depends on the player's wishes. I usually captured the gold mine by the end of the week; money is very needed for the knight's castle. The basis of such development is Zehir's special ability; the destroyed stack turns into an elemental, which is noticeably stronger than the killed gremlin. Zehir easily gets fire warriors, around level 4-5. Getting an education is also not a problem if you managed to trade for logistics; he clears the entire territory like a bulldozer, at the speed of a racing car.

I didn't play the campaign, only this map separately. For strategic gameplay, this map is one of the best. It requires knowledge of the economies of the castles, plans for their development. Good interaction of heroes, clearly defined tasks for each. And, despite the fact that the player has a large group, there are no useless characters there. The map is fast-paced; it is not suitable for those who like to pick their nose for a long time before doing anything.

Therefore, it is very important to level up Zehir as the second hero, as he is capable of independently conquering territories with his own army, while the main hero will have all the troops from the human castle and dwellings.
Before encountering the first enemy, it is quite possible to reach level 23-25 with the main hero if you quickly follow the path of magic/war and head to the yellow territory as soon as possible, as demonic dwellings are an easy and reliable source of experience, and you can simultaneously build up your economy and weaken the enemy.
It is advisable to fight the demons immediately upon arrival, otherwise their troops will grow rapidly. Against the first enemy, you can play with several stacks of mages/adepts; his darkness is easily countered by paladins/tanks.

You clearly have some mod/map that's replacing the original Zehir's file, which is why his skills basically don't exist. The best solution is to just leave only this campaign in a completely clean game.

You clearly have some mod/map that replaces the original Zehir's file, which is why his skills basically don't exist. The best solution is to simply leave only this campaign in the game on a completely clean install.

You clearly have some mod/map that replaces the original Zehir's file, which is why his spells can be said to not exist at all. The best solution is to simply leave only this campaign in the game on a completely clean installation.

I tried removing everything I had previously downloaded – it didn't help, I'll reinstall if I can't pass it this way. This time, I focused on Frida. I killed the green one in the Stronghold without losses, only losing some elves, but that's fine, I use them as targets for enemy archers, it's a working strategy.
I also defeated the orange one with Frida in the Stronghold; there were 55 paladins, and now there are 9 left, and 100 crossbowmen. I didn't have time to gather enough angels. I lost everything else; I didn't even buy the Griffin building. Ideally, I could have defeated him with Arantir with minimal losses, but I couldn't return in time. I used him to take territory in front of the outer garrisons, cleared the entire center, but overall, I have a save from a little earlier, so if I can't defeat the purple one, I'll go back. I can't defeat the purple one yet; he moves too often, especially considering that I have Expert Sorcery, and he moves 3-4 times, while I move twice (I mean the hero). And they are also buffed with luck, so this time I'm not having much luck with artifacts. Last time, I had the Necromancer's Cloak and Staff, and a ring that reduced luck by -2, but now I only have an HP and magic resistance artifact on the map. I built catapults, by the way. It shows average difficulty for all heroes, but I can't seem to defeat him with Arantir; I don't think I'll be able to defeat him with Frida either, unless I can defeat the Balista in the first turn, which is not certain. Did they forget how to dodge? The apparition dodges 20% in combat with him. Even a vampire doesn't help them survive. I'm using Banish, of course. I think I'll go back to the old save, as by that time there will be 100 paladins, which I think might help me defeat him, because right now there are 45. With the next increase, there will be 100, and without losses.
And who will come after the purple one?