Posts from The most challenging maps for you.

Easier or more convenient? And if easier, then in what way specifically?

With HD+, you can really see how the AI units fight each other. Without it, during a long game, the heroes simply replace each other without any losses. The fewer losses they sustain in battle, the more you get.

I couldn't find such a map in my files.

"Everyone fights"
maybe there's a slightly different translation, but the meaning is exactly that. This map is official and can be found in "The Restoration of Erathia."
All 8 factions are present, arranged in a circle, with humans in the center. Each faction has two cities, and I believe humans have either 4 or 5. It's an XL map, with each enemy facing each other. The two "Dungeon" cities are located in the underground level. Each faction and its cities are located on its native land. I recommend finding and playing it, especially at levels above 130%.

"Everyone fights"
there might be a slightly different translation, but the meaning is exactly that; this map is official and can be found in "The Restoration of Erathia."
All 8 factions are present, arranged in a circle, with humans in the center. Each faction has two cities, and I believe humans have either 4 or 5. It's an XL map, with each faction being an enemy to every other. The two "Dungeon" cities are located in the underground level. Each faction with its cities is located on its native land. I recommend finding and playing it, especially at levels above 130%.

In my translation, it's "Open to all."
I played through it as a Knight for Haven and as a Barbarian.

Finally, I have finished the walkthrough of a great map worthy of being discussed in this thread, and completed the report on it. It turned out to be quite long, but the map is truly very good! However, those who wish can complete it without even looking at my story. In any case, if anyone completes it—let me know: how you did it, how long it took, etc.

The Battle of the Zodiac

After 3 easy (but still good) maps, I decided to try something more challenging. I chose a new map "The Battle of the Zodiac" (author: Fullof Garbage), which, by the way, won the "Golden Brush" prize at the September Mapmaking Contests on HeroesPortal! The map is in English, but there is almost no text, so you shouldn't have any problems understanding it (the main things are the tasks from the passage guards and seers, which will be shown in the log in Russian).
The map is XL size with a dungeon and "impossible" difficulty.
The plot is that the gods and heroes of ancient Greek myths have started fighting among themselves, and you need to take part:

Hilda Polaris has suddenly become evil! She stopped every prayer to Odin and his Knights prepare for the attack on the Guardians of Athena. Hades and other evil entities are at the same time trying to cause chaos on Earth. Which side will you choose?

You can play as any side except Purple (Necromancer): by the author's design, they are the main enemies; from the start, they have at least one powerful hero and a bunch of towns. Each playable side has its own bonus.
The map is designed for a long and difficult walkthrough (which can be guessed from the fact that the last assigned event occurs 11 months after the start of the game). Town Portal, Fly, Dimension Door, Angel Wings, Tome of Air, and Wizard's Hat are forbidden. This already eliminates the possibility of a quick victory. Furthermore, the forces of the Necromancers are very great, and for a long time it will be impossible to deal with them when clashing with their main forces. Fortunately for you, the Necromancers start in an isolated zone in the dungeon and penetrate the surface only after 6 months through yellow one-way monoliths. Therefore, at first, you don't need to fear them; but you will have to meet your neighbors quite soon (since the guards between zones are weak), and spend a long time fighting them off while playing defensively, and only after several months will it be possible to go on the offensive (while one hero with sufficient strength must still protect the homeland from raids!).
Jumping ahead, I'll tell you another piece of bad news: as I saw during the walkthrough, Purple has one Necropolis on the surface surrounded by rocks on all sides, so victory can only be achieved by bringing the Haven of angels to the town of Elision.

At the start, I decided to choose Tower (turquoise). On impossible difficulty, this also guarantees a slow and painful beginning, as resources will be lacking for a long time (few are lying on the ground, while monsters, conversely, are plenty). An additional difficulty for me is that I play without "scouting": I do not study the map in advance in the editor (or Prospector), knowing only its general layout (the ratio of land to sea, filling density) and which artifacts and spells are forbidden.
The starting zone for Turquoise is the north of the surface world. Given the lack of resources at the start, the author gave us a head start: 1) We have 2 towns immediately—one in the west, another in the east. 2) We have 4 heroes immediately, one warrior and one assistant for each town. One warrior (Hilda) starts with 4 Wizards and specialization in them; the other warrior (Hagen) has several strong combat spells in his book and expert fire magic. 3) The heroes have several useful artifacts. By the way, artifacts do not lie on the ground here, so they will have to be collected gradually.
Hagen became the main hero. He was lucky with skills: he learned all schools of magic (and Hilda did too); only the last slot had to be filled by choosing between Diplomacy and own-sight; Diplomacy is useless here for a hero who has reached level 10 (monsters are hostile), so I chose own-sight (but for a long time it was of no use; only in the 9th month did I manage to learn Armageddon).
Of course, it's necessary to quickly clear a path from west to east and unite forces; for this, one must visit the blue tent and pass through a couple of blue gates in the north. There we will see several valuable objects, but they are currently guarded by passage guards.
The specifics of the map require several secondary heroes: first they visit mills and external dwellings, then they pass troops along a chain.
As I already said, quite soon a hero from the Orange neighbor invaded my lands (they own a lava island in the center of our snows and a section of lava in the dungeon from the start). I chased him for about 3 weeks until I beat him: I lacked speed (the warrior-hero had no logistics, Boots, or Gloves). Then the same story repeated with other enemies; they constantly attacked from the west, east, or south. They took turns capturing both of my Towers. Actually, they did me a favor in doing so: they upgraded the Cloud Temple, built a Library in Asgard, and so on.
However, after about 5 months, my situation gradually improved; I reclaimed Boots and Gloves from the enemies and was no longer crawling but running; the army grew, and the hero leveled up. By the 6th month, I was no longer afraid of "ordinary" enemies—rather, they were afraid of me, although they didn't stop bothering me. Brown and Pink dropped out of the game. Among the strong enemies (except Necromancers, of course), only Green and Blue remained. And just as I headed south toward the center of the surface world, the Necromancers popped out of the monoliths!
Only two powerful Necromancers land on the surface (Hypnos and Thanatos), but they are maxed out and have huge armies. For a long time, we will need to stay far away from them.
Another circumstance is in our favor: apparently, the Necromancers cannot send another hero with reinforcements to the surface, so Hypnos and Thanatos's army can only increase through necromancy or by hiring "foreign" troops (which one of them did, recruiting... archangels, champions, and griffins).
The unpredictability of the Necromancers' movement direction makes it extremely difficult to act according to a plan.
The monolith south of the lava island among the snows is critically important: it is connected to 2 other places, an underground section in the east and the southwest of the surface world. To quiet the neighbors, you must control it. Right there nearby, behind the blue border guard, lie artifacts and a Resurrection scroll.
What we need for victory: try to complete all tasks from seers and passage guards; the rewards of the former are always quite generous, while the latter allow you to get somewhere or obtain something.
Obviously, finding and visiting the keymasters' tents is also necessary. The black tent is located near the monolith in the center of the northern lands. Others must be searched for.
Having captured 3 Inferno towns, I also captured external dwellings; as a result, after a few weeks, a decent army was formed for the second warrior-hero. In general, when resources become plentiful, it's useful to take not all, but the most valuable creatures from "foreign" towns once there are enough (phoenixes, archangels...). And Hilda will also upgrade monks to Wizards, so they can be taken too.
Other difficulties: it seems that the plague month occurred as many as 4 times (!) on this map, but each time I managed, using recent saves and various experiments, to achieve a "normal" month; however, this also took quite a bit of time and nerves.
Here I again encountered enemy heroes flying, although they have no legal means to do so: seeing Green's first flight, I checked with Prospector: Fly and Angel Wings are not given anywhere! True, the enemy's flight in that case was not dangerous for me, nor did it give him much benefit: he only captured a mine. And soon I defeated this hero. But the flights of the main villain Purple (Hypnos) are much worse; it's good that I observed this from a safe distance. I saw such flights on this map repeatedly. Once, one of the maxed-out Necromancers cheated blatantly by flying over a passage guard and entering a one-way monolith (though it brought him no particular benefit: he immediately came back up, as the entrance to a yellow monolith stands behind the exit of the blue one in the dungeon). Let's just hope he doesn't fly into the secret central zone like that!
In several places there are prisons with strong heroes. As later map viewing showed, enemies freed Dohko and Albior from the prisons.
Once, seeing a strong hero in the tavern who had once served the enemies, I hired him immediately (I had to fire my "porter"). I arranged a meeting between him and my literate hero, hoping to learn useful spells from him. But nothing happened during the exchange; I looked at the newcomer's skills and marveled at the AI's stupidity: he didn't have Wisdom! Nor earth magic.
Hilda, after beating an enemy hero, took a Wizard's Well from him, then bought Angel Feather Arrows from artifact traders in the town of Arrow and assembled a Sniper Bow.
After some time, only Purple and Green remained among the strong enemies. By defeating Dohko, you can finish off Green; this will make controlling the entire surface easier.
Having beaten Dohko (this great event occurred on the 9th month, 1st week, 7th day), I took his Helmet of Divine Enlightenment, Vial of Vitality, Sentry Shield, and a few other things. Taking the Vial, I assembled the Elixir of Life.
Finding the last keymasters' tents, I was able to enter the zone in the center of the surface world where 2 most valuable artifacts lay (Legion Statue and Sphere of Vulnerability), and where a green 2-way monolith is located leading to the dungeon, where legions of monsters stand and various valuable things are found, including the coveted Tome of Earth Magic! This zone can be accessed from 3 different sides by fulfilling 3 different conditions. The main thing: do it before the enemies! There are many exits of the green monolith in the dungeon, almost every one is on a tiny strip of land, so getting to the desired spot is not easy, only after many "jumps." Entering the dungeon through this monolith, one can believe that the author truly provided the player with a possibility of victory.
Now I was also able to free the great warrior Saori Kido from prison, and later I plan to free the hero from the prison in the north.
On the 10th month, 1st week, 3rd day, a significant event finally occurred: I took the Tome of Earth Magic (after beating 2332 titans and several thousand golems).
With Town Portal, the tactics and priorities changed: you need to collect growth from towns at the beginning of the week, give it to heroes with corresponding armies, quickly reclaim towns captured by enemies, and retreat, gathering your secondary heroes in a safe place (actually, they are no longer needed now: only the strongest commanders can be left). One warrior can be sent to explore the dungeons.
Another strong hero I rescued from prison is Odin himself!
What to do next? Probably, the author does not consider victory over the Necromancers mandatory: first, because they are very strong; second, they have one town that cannot be reached; third, the victory condition is the delivery of an artifact. So you need to find a path to Elision (most likely, it's an unowned town in the southeast of the dungeon). It turned out that getting there will be possible soon (tip: freeing at least one hero from prison is extremely important!). But as for the Haven of angels, things are tough for now: I already have 5 components, but I lack the Sword of Justice, and where it is—is not yet known.
As for the Skull Helmet—I found its location by chance in the editor (the helmet is with monsters) only when the entire surface world was already open.
In principle, it had long been possible to raid the underground lair of the Necromancers (while their leaders are running amok above): entrances to the blue one-way monolith are scattered across the entire surface, and guards everywhere demand a Ring of Vitality, which I already had. But as long as I didn't have Town Portal, I didn't go there. By the way, note: the Ring is given in events in different places on the map, and they can be bypassed and not activated.
On the 10th month, 2nd week, 4th day, the thieves guild showed that my army had become stronger than the Necromancers' army!
As for the Grail, it seems I was unlucky: in one place I saw half a dozen holes side by side—apparently, one of the enemies dug up the Grail; but that's not certain: I didn't see any corresponding special building in any of the towns, so either another hero defeated the one with the Grail, or the Grail is still in the ground.
The hated Thanatos was beaten by me on the 10th month, 3rd week, 1st day. After taking Elision, leveling up the hero and recruiting more troops, this turned out to be easy. Yes, he had 3364 ordinary skeletons and 5785 upgraded ones.
I sent Saori Kido with an insufficiently strong army to the underground lair of the Necromancers. Suddenly, the powerful Pandora, who had been sitting quietly at home until now, jumped out to meet her. I had to urgently move Hagen to the underground, and on the 10th month, 3rd week, 6th day, Pandora was defeated. And finally, the next day, Hypnos, the last strong Necromancer, fell by my hand. Now the surface world can be completely cleared of undead and their lair destroyed. Only taking the Sword of Justice remains.
By the way, if the Necromancers visit all the tents on the surface and free Hades from prison in the dungeon, you will have a very hard time! Fortunately, in my case this did not happen, and I freed Hades myself (already out of sporting interest).
I took the Sword of Justice on the 11th month, 1st week, 4th day. It lies not very far, but it is guarded by 14000 (fourteen thousand!) azure dragons, and reclaiming it is harder than taking a pacifier from a baby. I did this in 2 battles: in the first, I wore down the dragons with a berserker until only 1 stack remained (1561 dragons), then retreated; in the second battle, I acted in the "usual" way (blindness is just the thing!).
After that, of course, one can immediately enter Elision and accept congratulations (we get 284 days and 386 points). But the entire Zodiac still remains unopened, and the Grail might still be in the ground! Now all the strongest heroes head to the dungeon to search for paths to the Zodiac and the last obelisks.
Finding another 14 obelisks, I opened the entire puzzle-map and saw that the cunning AI did manage to dig up the Grail, and in only 2 attempts!
And the Zodiac, by the way, offers something else interesting: seer tasks for each sign and rewards, collecting which will free Zeus himself! Then we'll open the entrance to a zone where only Zeus is allowed and explore it.
In the 13th month, the plague month arrived again! But I already understood how to fight it, and after a restart everything became fine (even though I already have plenty of troops and stopped recruiting them, but this is a matter of principle). But here the random generator clearly behaved inadequately: 5 out of 13—that's much more frequent than the statistically set probability of 10%!
At the very end of the zone intended for Zeus, a battle with 4000 azure dragons awaited us! After that, opening Pandora's Box, Hagen received the most significant increase in strength: his primary skills (with the Haven of angels equipped) became 95/96/99/96! This happened on the 13th month, 1st week, 6th day. Now the map (and its combat potential) is fully revealed, and there's nothing more to do on it. Huge thanks to the author! :smile12: :smile20:

P.S. Of course, you can complete the map much faster. To do this, first, study it in the editor. Second, if you don't try to defeat the enemies but strive to get into the dungeon as quickly as possible, you need to choose which method of penetration will be the earliest and use it. After taking Elision, you only need to reclaim the Sword of Justice, ignoring (if possible) the enemies: this town, almost certainly, they won't capture, and others can be surrendered and reclaimed.

Undoubtedly, one of the most challenging is First Blood 2.4!!!
I completed it in the Wog version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnYbHELM0ug
The most difficult battle was against Sandro at the blue tent; Jelu lagged when I released him, and I reduced the number of archers to an acceptable level. Then, I upgraded the angels and fought Dimmer on auto-battle. Keep the purple hero with his upper and lower castles until the "dimension door" appears. Run around with Roland until he's ready. In general, the sooner you get the city portal, the closer and more certain your victory will be!

With the War of the Gate settings, it's not quite the same. And this map doesn't even include the city portal spell.

With Wrath of the Gods settings, it's completely different. And city portals aren't included on this map either.

Yes, there are no portals in the cities, but can the Eagle Eye skill learn it?
Without a portal, with such a large number of cities, considering the computer's advantages with exits to your territories... it's absurd.

yes, there is no portal in the cities, but can the Eagle Eye skill learn it?
without a portal, with such an abundance of cities, considering the advantages of computers with exits to your territories... it's absurd.

Absurd or not, but when a tournament was held on this map, the participants managed without it. How long do you think it took them to complete the map (in game days)?

Whether it's nonsense or not, but when the tournament was held on this map, the participants managed without it. How long do you think it took them to complete this map (in game days)?

Hmm, I don't have that information, but since you're asking, do you want to surprise me? Okay, it's either fast or long:smile39: but not less than 100 days.

Hmm, I don't have the information, but since you're asking, do you want to surprise me? Okay, it will either be quick or take a long time:smile39:, but no less than 100 days.

Well, the result was 24 days (1 month, 3 weeks, 4 days), and the start was, of course, on King.

the result was 24 days (1 month, 3 weeks, 4 days), starting as a King, of course.

oh, I have the feeling we're talking about different maps, I don't even want to argue.
Sandro and Jelu have armies by default that are impossible to assemble for them to win in that time, not to mention Dimir.
what nonsense...what utter rubbish...

What nonsense... what utter rubbish...

Haha))) You can see this nonsense and rubbish at these links.

http://webfile.ru/a52deea49a69b234931e395cf826f30f
http://www.fayloobmennik.net/3495677

Uploaded to several file-sharing services. It's in an archive. It contains a recording of the gameplay for this map.

I didn't play it.

many inconsistencies, but the main one is at 142 seconds, Xvid, 0.57. He has only one Archangel, then a 2nd Supreme Archangel, and at 105 seconds, it's clearly visible that he was playing with fire and is quite a cheater.
nonsense and rubbish!

doktorpetrov, I'm just sitting here bored, and then you show up. It must be fate. And could you please restore your long post from 15 minutes ago? They completely butchered it – it's no longer informative.
Actually, that's why I logged in. I secretly participated in the tournament on this map, and if you want, I can answer any questions that arise.

many inconsistencies, but the main one is 142 xvid 0.57. HE has one Archangel, a 2nd Supreme Archangel, and then at 105 seconds, it's clearly visible, he was playing with VoG and is a real cheater.
nonsense and rubbish!

This is not VoG, but The Shadow of Death. The only inconsistencies here are in this video, when the hero was walking on water. This was a bug during playback, when the video was being recorded, because in reality, he was sailing on a boat.

Regarding the statement that it's "nonsense and rubbish," just because something doesn't fit in your head (you can't believe it) doesn't mean it can't be true.

Added 3 minutes later

Could you please restore your long post from 15 minutes ago, because it's been completely butchered - it turned out to be uninformative.

Now I'm even more interested in what was in that post.