Posts from Worshipper – “Conquest” [Campaign 2, Mission 3]

Argh, I thought the appearance of Druids was strictly tied to the 2nd week, and I captured one Castle right away... which led to a proliferation of fairies and archers, so there's plenty to do. Anyway, I'll keep that in mind if I replay it.

It’s harder to survive without capturing a Castle than with Elven weeks.

It's impossible to complete the game on Veteran (Gold Edition). If you don't capture a castle right away, after completing the Stone Elemental quest, my Agrael is severely weakened, with Gilraen hot on his heels (no chance of winning). There's an Elven castle ahead (moderate danger), and to capture all the mines, you have to lose a lot of troops, but where are you going to get more? It's brutal; I'll never believe it's possible to "easily" complete the game on "Veteran."

The scariest thing after quickly capturing the nearest Castle is not so much the appearance of neutral creatures themselves, but the fact that a significant portion of them joins the enemy. I don't know how "easy" it is to complete the game on "Veteran" difficulty – I haven't tried. I managed to complete it on Hero difficulty, but it was challenging. Of course, I captured the nearest Castle last.

I cheated a little at the start – I restarted the mission until Daleb appeared in the tavern, so I wouldn't have to spend resources on a ballista and a cart. I played on Hero difficulty in version 3.0. But in this version, Daleb was nerfed. So, I took her machines without any regrets.

I completed it all – on veteran difficulty, although I had to constantly dodge strong heroes. The main conclusion is: under no circumstances should you capture the first Elven castle (only at the end). Then, try to gradually capture all (or most) of the mines, and then wait for the moment when Gilraen has a weak army and attack him. Maybe I was just lucky, but without resources, the Elves were left with only one strong hero with a decent army, and it wasn't Gilraen...

I didn't wait at all. I captured the capital when Gilraen left it. I lost almost my entire army during the assault. There was nowhere to run. Gilraen and Talannar were roaming the territory with decent armies. Even with the remaining army, I was afraid to attack the weakest neutral creatures. I just sat in the city and waited for death, planning my next attempt.

While these fools were chasing Daleb, who was constantly capturing their mines, a new week began. Daleb, feeling she had fulfilled her duty, retreated to the demon castle, and these two attacked Agrael. The weekly growth from a fully developed druid castle is enough to overwhelm both heroes, while they are attacking from behind the city walls. That's when the problems ended.

Easy battles compared to the one I had a few days ago. My Helmar had 2 unupgraded dragons and 5 jarls. Dugal had 17 archangels and 30 paladins. The ratio was roughly the same for the other units. After about 30 minutes, Dugal fell in a heroic death during the assault on my city. Both heroes were level 20. Stupid Dugal brought 60 earth elementals instead of archers. But this is not relevant to the campaigns. Sorry for the off-topic.

I also experienced some glitches where Gilraen wouldn't appear on the map at all (neither in the castles nor anywhere else); I specifically checked, and then he would appear, but with a weaker army.

I don't know how long it will take me to complete this mission, but I spent three days getting to it – I started on Wednesday morning, and today (Friday evening) I started the mission, saved it immediately, and went to bed.

I killed the Druids first, then Gilraen. Just stay in the Castle.

People, help me. This is the first time I've played with 5 heroes. I've played the previous games. I just can't get through this mission. I've replayed it about 50 times. They just keep killing me. Please, write in more detail how and what you did:o

Do you think you can just rush through it? It won't work that way – at first, avoid strong heroes, capture resources, try to minimize losses, and don't capture the nearest castle right away (it's better to do it at the end).

If you have version 1.0, install patch 1.4, 1.5, or 1.6 – it will be much easier. However, after 1.5 or 1.6, to avoid glitches in campaigns 3 and 6, it is recommended to replay them. And for 1.6, you also need a small bug-fixing patch.

Thank you very much. I also wanted to ask: the console for entering codes doesn't work for me. I tried pasting the necessary characters into Notepad, but it gives an error saying that the path is incorrect.

Thanks to everyone for the advice; here's how I completed this mission (I'll try not to forget anything):
I chose Fire Demons as a bonus. I waited for two weeks until the start. I defeated Gilraen (GI). Using mages and elementals (only 64 demons left), I miraculously captured the northern (2) Castle. All creature dwellings were built there, and half were upgraded, but there were no Druids. I built Druids and bought 4 of them. I hired another hero and led Talaran (Tara), who was hanging around nearby with a decent army, away from the Castle. The next day, I bought an increase and ran towards the northeastern (3) Castle. GI appeared behind me, but I had a significant lead. I captured the fully built Castle 3, bought an increase, and continued to run away from GI. GI didn't try to recapture the Castle!
Surprisingly, I now had a hero in Castle 3 and captured the mines. I went back through the middle to Castle 2 and then up to Castle 3 again. If GI was far away, I captured the mines, gained experience, and visited the upgrade locations. On the third round, I reached level 20 and learned the Portal spell to the city. And just in time. Tara recaptured Castle 3, and GI blocked my path to Castle 2. I used the Portal to teleport to my home city. I took the demons and left the elves on the border. I made another half-round, but not through the cities, but simply across the map towards the Druids. I defeated them. I used the Portal to teleport to the city. I defeated Tara in Castle 1. I hired him in the tavern on the next turn. I gave him the elves. GI chased Agrael, and Agrael led GI to Castle 2. Meanwhile, my Tara captured Castle 3. GI entered Castle 2 and never left. At all. I calmly cleared the map and gathered an army (GI ran into my city with 60 dragons, 230 ents, etc.), and then it was just a matter of technique

I played on Hero difficulty. I completed the game using only the units from my starting town. The starting bonus was 2 Cave Demons.
My hero had the "Logistics" skill maxed out, as well as the "Tent" spell, a rapid-fire ballista, and fire arrows.
Gilraen retreated without a fight. I only managed to defeat 5 Elves with Succubi.
In battles against neutral creatures for mines, I only used Cave Demons and Succubi, sometimes using only Demons. I cast Regeneration on the Demons and used the Tent spell. Against the Monks at the second gold mine, I had to send in Imps as cannon fodder.
By the end of the week, I had cleared the entire southern part of the map, except for the Elven town – I didn't touch it so that the Druids wouldn't start causing trouble.
I was lucky with the Inferno outpost – it had Succubi and Devils! These troops became my main offensive force.
In general, everything was easy from that point on: the ballista and Devils, combined with Demonesses, defeated everyone without any losses. I only used all my troops at once against Gilraen.
The first northern town on the right fell, then the Druids :), then the second northern town...
The "Logistics" skill, as well as the presence of Succubi and Devils in the Inferno outpost, turned out to be decisive.