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It's a lively mission – initially, the time limit is tied to reaching Duncan's castle; specifically, you just need to exit the dungeon within sight of the castle, and then the time limit restricts capturing Thor Hall, which marks the end of the mission.
Frida proved to be my most effective hero – a level 29 hero with three mastered magic schools: Light, Chaos, and Summoning. She easily took over Duncan's army and set out to reclaim the mines. I recruited Ilia and Wolfsten to assist her; they had a decent army and good combat skills. Wolfsten cleared the first garrison without any losses, but the second garrison… :eek: …forced me to retreat Wolfsten. I decided to build up my human army and then attack this garrison with Frida.
Legions of militia approaching the red castle were almost effortlessly defeated by Frida alone – she created "phantom" paladins and unleashed them on the militia. They eliminate 600-800 units at a time; the key is not to let the militia get close to your army, otherwise it will be much more difficult. I also used "Resurrection" and "Dominate." After capturing the second human castle, the game became easier – income increased, and there were more troops. I only used the "Preparation" spell a couple of times.
In the dark elf castle, I didn't build much – I think I only built the "Elemental Tower" and warehouses to get more resources. I bought three dragons in a separate tower, although they didn't make much of a difference. Ilia managed all the creatures, and I sent her to help Wolfsten in the war against the reds and to capture their three castles. By the way, their underground resources were not guarded, and the castles were practically undeveloped, with weak defenses, making them easy to capture :smile10:. The most important thing is to start by capturing the garrison near the exit to the surface; there are no "Biarsuccubi" there, which eliminate several units from three squads – only cave demons (among the strong ones), but they are much easier to deal with. Wolfsten captured this garrison, using "Dominate" and rune protection against elements. I didn't even bother with the second red garrison – why risk unnecessary losses?!
By the way, Wolfsten also performed well in the battle against nine Phoenixes near the Library of Knowledge and Magic – he only lost one red-bearded giant.
Frida captured the second brown garrison. All this time, Isabel and Duncan were providing support, delivering reinforcements, and exploring obelisks and libraries, although they didn't really need to, as they weren't eager to fight :smile18: – they were too weak.
After capturing the gate, I watched the cutscene and hoped that there would be a battle with Biara, as she was promised in the mission description :smile32:, but Biara didn't bother to show up and decided to flee with Alaric, who, apparently, had a "good" role prepared for him... in the next expansion.
The gnome king turned out not to be so weak, but rather quite the opposite :eek:. Frida was only saved by "Battle Fury" and "Dominate," which I first cast on 64 Jarls attacking 18 lava dragons that never left the castle gates, and then I cast this set of combat spells on the "old gnome mages," there were, I think, 120-95 of them – and that's how I won :smile13: :smile19: :smile49: