Posts from Ranger – “Emerald” [5th campaign, 2nd mission]

AlexSpl - Don't worry about the average castle; the attacks will initially come from the left. I took reinforcements from the first week, consisting of archers (masters), druids, and ents, and on days 2-3, I moved them (excellent logistics). When I landed on the island, there were about 4-5 demons, and only one had a reasonably strong army (he jumped into the castle). Additionally, you can use a supporting hero at sea to distract reinforcements while you return to learn spells and gather troops (without leadership and luck at the beginning, there were losses). So, I had to replay the previous mission.

I read the beginning of the walkthrough on Hugo's Corner. It completely matched my thoughts. I'll try it tonight. So, I think capturing the middle castle in the second week is a mistake (there are no enemy Heroes there, only a waste of precious time, because you also need to return to your home castle, get in the boat, and sail to the upper Inferno, and by that time, Alastor will be level 13 and already have a decent army). It's better to capture the mine, get in the boat, and sail to 112. The Heroes of the upper Inferno are killed without much difficulty. Besides, you get a dragon and an increase in demons. Then, we place our flags over unguarded mines with auxiliary Heroes, and we put Faydaen in the boat and sail back to break through the pit lords with the elven castle and capture the middle castle. I haven't figured out what to do next.

Added 7 minutes later
And Chaos for the Elves is not the best option, but they didn't give me Light :) Although, when the armies are small, it helps a lot.

IMHO, any method of completing the game and any hero build is good, as long as it allows you to complete the campaign with that hero. I was afraid to attack the island teeming with demons without a solid army. So, I started with something easier – mines and an abandoned castle. I upgraded Faelan's attack, education, chaos, luck, and leadership. I cheated a little at the start – I restarted the mission until Ossir appeared in the tavern, so I would have more archers.

That's why I started with something easier – mines and an abandoned castle.

It wasn't entirely abandoned. When I arrived, a devil, 4 pit lords, 6 steeds, 10 succubi, and other minor creatures were already garrisoned there, and a stronghold had been built. I had 15 elves, 10 dryads, and 4 druids. After the battle, only 1 elf, 1 dryad, and 3 druids remained. I should have dropped the extra elves and dryads onto a nearby gem mine, but I didn't think about it at the time. Okay, we took the middle one, and what now? Do we build up an army to an insane degree? No, if you're going to play, you rush!

I leveled up Faelan in Attack, Luck, Sorcery, Logistics, and Chaos (Logistics and Luck always pay off, as always. If a hero doesn't get Logistics, I always restart, because speed is everything!).

I only used Agrail in the campaigns to level up his logistics. The others don't really need to rush. I preferred to have a hero who was more like a heavy tank.

When Faydaen returned from his expedition to the middle city, his hometown was already more or less rebuilt, and a sufficient army had been gathered to easily capture the eastern city.

There were also some minor losses during the assault on the central city and when dealing with the neutral forces blocking the way. I wasn't very lucky at that point. It was a week of strong neutral creatures, which a level 1 hero couldn't defeat without losses. They blocked the path, and I decided that Faydaen could handle it without reinforcements.

To conquer the middle castle, you need to defeat the dungeon lords, and you won't be able to do it without losses (unless you have a ballista with chaos bolts). Once you take the middle castle, you need to quickly retreat and defend against the demons (there are some nuances to this). So, it's better to take the upper (right) castle first; there are plenty of mines there.

I also think it's better to start with the eastern castle. When I was playing through this mission, I wasn't sure if it was possible. That's why I went where it was easier. And I defeated the cave lords with almost no losses. The biggest losses were when I cleared the gold mine.

You should definitely start with the Eastern Castle because:
1) The Eastern Castle is captured earlier than the Central Castle (on day six if you hurry);
2) There are many unguarded mines near the castle (including a gold mine!);
3) There is an opportunity to eliminate all demon activity in the northeast.

I put the plan into action. This time, I slept soundly :) Here's a brief description:
111. I build the Enchanted Forest, buy 10 Dryads. I buy two Heroes: Gilraen and Anwen. Faidaen takes the mine and the resources near it. Gilraen takes the army from Faidaen and captures the lumber mill and the wood nearby. Anwen, with 19 Dryads, rushes north to capture the mercury mine and the crystal mine on days 112 and 113. We build a ship. Faidaen takes the campfire and boards the ship.

112, 113. Gilraen returns the army to Faidaen. Faidaen sets sail and, without being distracted by the treasures of the sea, sails to the Eastern Inferno. Gilraen gathers resources. Anwen takes two mines and aims to break through the demons guarding the resources. (In general, three stacks of demons are easily (but slowly and tediously) defeated by 1 Fairy. Even four stacks are sometimes defeated, but here the role of morale increases for the demons).

114. Faidaen is on the shore!

Thus, it was possible to capture the mines, except for the gold and gem mines, and also to sail to the Eastern Castle in the shortest possible time. Two birds with one stone. This is much better than arriving at the Eastern demons on the fourth week and seeing Alastor with 4 Archdevils, 10 Pit Lords, etc.!

By the way, there's a trick. The northeastern castle doesn't have a shipyard; initially, there's only one ship, and a small army arrives on it once, which Fedya easily defeats. If the ship is preserved, I would put a supporting hero with a minimal army on it and send it to explore the seas and scout the map. By the time the supporting hero arrives, I would have cleared the island and taken control of all the mines on it. Then, Fedya would go down into the dungeon and move towards the central castle in the northwest.
In general, as long as the supporting hero doesn't leave the ship, and Fedya calmly occupies the demon castles, the enemy heroes stay quietly on their shore and don't move...

If you immediately capture the western castle and encounter a strong hero sailing towards you, the only problem will be preventing the enemy from building a ship.

Version 1.6 Difficulty: "Warrior" Here's how it went: At the start of the mission, Fedya is level 12 (Light, Luck, Attack, Summoning). Light and Summoning are mastered, but nothing beyond the 3rd circle is known. Logistics was acquired early in this campaign. Week 1 Ossir gives Fedya some elves. Fedya clears the island (without losses), Ossir picks up (besides experience) and captures. By the end of the first week, everything in the Castle is upgraded to Druids. Fedya is already on a ship, Ossir is bringing him archers, a horseman, and druids. We sail north-east (a course slightly to the right of our Castle) - a landing. It's the 4th-5th day of the 2nd week. There are 2 weaklings, one level 0, the other (Alastor, I think) level 5-6. After that, the events unfolded like this: I captured the Castle (minimal losses, with buildings up to Devils inside) and trapped the enemy on the peninsula below (I initially tried to attack - the first one falls without problems, Alastor dies, inflicting critical losses on me). They don't attack, because they're scared. Okay. Never mind - it's a war. We wait until the end of the second week (during this time, don't forget to buy in Karabas's Castle and seize the surrounding mines). Since miners are digging for gold there, the problem with gold disappears from this point on. Yes! In our home Castle, of course, don't forget to build wooden soldiers of Urfin and upgrade them/elves/light rogues and druids. Also, upgrade the units in Inferno as much as possible. I got stewardesses, imps, and (I might be wrong) horse archers and/or cave dwellers. Karabas gives the Inferno squad to Fedya, and Fedya, with an auto-battle, interrupts the gathering of 2 red commissars. I didn't care about the losses, because it's not my main guard. Next, we switch back with Karabas, get on the ship, and go back home. At home, we take the army (except for the saber dancers and night fairies:smile52:), beat up the guards at the entrance, and go to the mines. Fedya rolls through (because everyone is crowding and dying) to the north-west Castle and, shouting "Hello!", goes to ask the locals for some fire. That's almost all. Debileb noticed when I already had three Castles. Her catamaran appeared on the horizon when Fedya was walking around the recently captured settlement. I made a save, because it was unclear where this friend would go. She went to Karabas (like revenge and all that). As soon as she approached Karabas's Castle (by the way, it's level 1), he bought everyone and heroically (to match the name of the game) attacked himself (auto-battle). The two armies almost destroyed themselves, and Karabas was left with only a stack of pikemen. It seems that Gnob also arrived later, but he was defeated (auto-battle, no problems). Fedya > to his city (don't forget to choose your sworn enemies) > to the ship > to the last Castle (the lower left corner or south-west for aesthetes) > auto-battle (loss) / turn on manual control - victory. We open the pillars, collect the green lizards. Finally - a white verse, Fedya is still far from Yesenin. The end. P.S. Wooden soldiers of Urfin are our everything! :smile49: P.P.S. I bet the next post in the thread will be from the Very-Very One? :D

Okay. I'm writing my walkthrough for those who got stuck on their island. I built up the Elves, then went to the Dungeon, where there were Reds with a strong army:mad:. I had to go back, get on a ship, and sail to the upper right Castle. We capture it, and then the Capitol;) is already there, so we finish building it up. Then we sail back to our base and to the Dungeon, capture the middle Castle, and rush to the lower left. At this time, the Red has taken my Elven Castle, but we're not thinking about it yet. We capture the lower one, and then the Red reclaims its middle Castle. The main thing is to buy up everything so that it has no troops left. I bought strong units in each captured Castle because, during the run, I only had Unicorns and Ents left, and of course, no resurrections (I'm not going to replay because of such a small thing):D.
So, we return, capturing the last Demon Castle, and then, in one turn, we go to the Elven Castle and take it back. That's basically it. We build Green Dragons in the Elven Castle and partially gather them. The end:)

And I – it’s in the middle, it’s the hardest to get to… :D. For the demons. There’s no path to it from the right, and from the left, you’ll have to clear out dragons and a ton of level 6 monsters… If he tries, it’s his own fault… He’ll clear the path at the same time. I took it and moved it to the Dungeon, then back to the Elven one. There, reinforcements are ready… To the ship and to the right Castle… And from there, either go around by ship or through the monsters on the nearby road:smile43:.

I initially wanted to capture the middle castle as well, but since I spent a bit too much time on my own island, I didn't have the strength to capture it. Luckily, I had a save before entering the dungeon. I don't like replaying the entire game, so I had to capture the upper castle instead:smile14:

Please help! After completing a mission and the final result icon appears, the game suddenly returns to the main menu, and all missions in the campaign are closed! What should I do?