Posts from Shades of Darkness – “The Call of Malassa” [Campaign 10, Mission 2]

Starting hero:
Railag (Dungeon)
Map description:
Railag holds the ashes of Tuidhana. The Council of the Faceless must meet in full to perform a ritual with these ashes, which will reveal where to find the Tear of Ash. Railag has no choice – to unite the Faceless, he must answer Malassa's call. This answer is an adventure in itself, as the clan that first manages to awaken the black dragons will have the right to command them.
Walkthrough:
So, I will tell you how to complete this mission. I believe this mission is the most difficult in this campaign. And if you try to complete it alone, without any hints, it will take you at least an hour. I don't know exactly how much time I spent, but I do know that I reloaded the map six times. So, the mission begins with a cutscene in which a majestic, beautiful black dragon awakens. It is angry at the elves for splitting up. Now they must choose a ruler who will be blessed by the Black Dragon and who will unite all the clans. The mission consists of two parts. Now I will tell you about the first part. After watching the cutscene, you will appear next to your city. You will see three more points. These are your brothers, Silsai and Menan. The task of the first part is to receive the blessing of the Black Dragon. To do this, you need to outrun Railag's brothers. I'll tell you right away, the whole mission is a race against time. There is no time to sit and build up an army in the city, because literally in 2 weeks you must reach the dragon, if you don't, you will lose. Here is my advice. As soon as you appear near the city, run northeast. There you will see a stable, run past it, and run north. You will meet Sorchan, and there will be a dialogue. It is not recommended to clear Railag's map, otherwise you will not have time to do anything. And here's another thing. Your hero has a decent army, plus you will gather more along the way. And what to do with the city? In the city, on the very first day, build a Tavern and hire a hero with an army, and use this hero to clear part of the map and build creature buildings. Let's get back to Railag. After running through a small tunnel to the end, you will see a portal, boldly step into it. You will be met by a Faceless jerk who does not want to help us. To convince him otherwise, you need to complete his test. The test is easy, you need to collect 3 spheres of darkness. On the last sphere, the Faceless will ask a question about choosing Railag, who he will support, Silsai or Menan. Moreover, if you go the path of Blood, you choose Silsai, and if you go the path of Tears, you choose Menan. I went the path of Tears. And people, honestly, I don't know if choosing Silsai will lead to a different ending of the mission or not. I'll explain why a little later. We stopped at the test of the Faceless jerk. After completing it, we can go further. And further, we see a gate, behind which is a Fort, and above it is our goal, the Black Dragon. As you approach the gate, a Herald will fly up to you, he will give you his task, in order to open the gate. The goal of this task is to learn to be invisible, to learn agility. You must fight the Heralds, but keep in mind that you will not fight with your hero and his army, but with Two Assassins. You need to pass through the gates unnoticed and kill the Heralds. As soon as you do this, the gates will open. You capture the Fort and run to the Black Dragon. Chat with him. To get his approval, you need to defeat the dragon. And now the most interesting thing. And now I will explain to you about the possibility of a different ending. As you know, Silsai is in favor of being in alliance with demons, and Menan is for peace and for forgiving the Elves. Since I went the path of Tears, i.e., I supported Menan, Silsai turned against us, summoned demons, and destroyed Menan's home. However, if you choose Silsai, I honestly don't know if everything will be different or not. I will tell you about my path. After you defeat the Black Dragon, Sorchan and Menan will join you. You need to drive out the demons and defeat Silsai. These demons are crawling out of every hole, I barely managed to deal with them. There is only one demon city, but Silsai's city is both underground and above ground. We will not touch the one above. We will deal with the underground one. The demon city will be in the center of the map, in the south, it won't take too long to get there, but there are a lot of troops there. Therefore, your task is to gather some cannon fodder. I will not describe the further steps. I will say one thing. Keep Menan always in the castle and do not let anyone near the castle. Menan is tied to the task, the reward of which will be a pendant from the Assassin set. I accidentally killed him, and I didn't collect the set. As soon as you clear the dungeon of the influx of demons and Silsai, you can safely go up. The city is located in the middle of the map. It is best to go up from the side of Silsai's first city, or from the side of the former demon city. After reaching the second city, attack it and watch the cutscene. The mission is completed.

I played through it in a similar way, but I saved Menana. The map is really challenging.

What difficulty level are you playing on? I decided to start with the normal difficulty. I'm playing as a Barbarian. The level is interesting because for the first time, you need to do something quickly. This is a real nod to Starcraft II, as all the levels in that game's campaign are designed for speedrunning. The only downside is that it's difficult to clear everything in this level, as the map is large, and you can't run around killing everyone while also protecting your castles. I had a somewhat funny ending, where the computer only had one hero left, without a castle, but with a Fortress. His army was so small that he didn't attack anyone. HE RAN AROUND AFTER RAILAIG AND COLLECTED RESOURCES. For example, I kill 150 creeps, and there's wood and gold left. He runs up and takes it. And he doesn't attack. With this kind of "Petrosyan" (a Russian comedian known for cheesy jokes) nearby, I cleared the entire map – I just kept him close by, giving him handouts in the form of free resources.

I had a similar ending.
There's only one left, running around the map, but he's afraid to go to the castles.
Well, I'll just repeat what I said, I'm too lazy to write it again)))
I spent 1.5 months playing on the difficult level, but I think that if you use dynamic features and weapons to the maximum, and know the map, without getting distracted by clearing everything, you can complete it in a month.
By the way, I never understood what it meant that you had to capture dragons within a certain time - I was just going at my own pace, collecting resources, and I saw this Silsay coming, near the gate with the lookouts. So I thought, I'll give him a good beating - but I was unlucky, Railag was circling those spots where the dragon was, and he just killed him.
And it sent us all back to the start, and Silsay disappeared too. Then I took him out with my beetle, which was hanging around at the top, also by chance. Railag was looking for the faceless at that time.
By the way, on this map you can play as the faceless, even though you can't build them.
Oh yes, I was playing as a blood mage. I was running around with a Sar-Agreta staff, level 1.

Who received the "Last Stand" achievement? I reloaded the game several times, but I still couldn't get it. I'm doing this: I stand near the dragon, without approaching it, and wait for the enemy hero to enter through the gate into the last hall (where there are 2 paths to the dragon in a circle), and then I talk to the dragon. But the achievement is not registered.

Maybe someone can help: after completing the first mission, I was able to buy my first dynasty companion – a little dragon. But I can't use it in the campaign. I tried it in a scenario, and it works fine. Can't pets be used in the campaign?

Remmor, you can't get it in Raileigh's campaign, but you'll get a panther pet in Wayne's campaign.

Sanctuary, thanks for the info. I was also starting to overthink it at the beginning.

Could you please advise: should Sorchan, like Menana, not be allowed to engage in combat? Or can he resurrect? Because Menana is defending the town, but what should I do with Sorchan? Can I let him roam around empty to scout?

I would send a squad of assassins (5-10 or fewer) to attack neutral creatures, and that was enough.

Who has received the "Last Stand" achievement? I've reloaded the game several times, but I still haven't gotten it. I'm doing this: I stand near the dragon, without approaching it, and wait for the enemy hero to enter through the gate into the last hall (where there are 2 paths to the dragon in a circle), and then I talk to the dragon. But the achievement is not awarded :(

Apparently, he needs to approach closer, within a one-day travel distance - then it will work.
If you choose "+3 movement steps" (I don't remember the exact name) and "portal masters" in the dynasty's special features at the beginning of the game, then there is enough time to:
1. capture the resource sources around the Castle, including the sawmill on the glacier,
2. complete the first two trials,
3. take the fort below the dragons,
4. jump into the Castle (through a portal),
5. gather an army,
6. return to the fort,
7. reach the dragons.

And after that, finish the mission in the same way as the last one for Anton. Catch the arriving guests and gradually capture the Castles. It's tedious and takes a long time, but it's useful for gaining experience.

Hi everyone! I played the "Heroes 6" Campaigns a while ago, then I played "Heroes 7"... so I've already forgotten some of the specifics of "Heroes 6", which is not surprising. )))
Regarding completing this mission, I see that it took me a long time, and I wasn't the only one. I managed to take a Castle from Silsay and even repel him in his own Menanam Citadel - it was a good decision to first thin out Silsay's troops instead of rushing to the demons.

Regarding the bugs: I didn't notice a reward from the second Faceless Muakao, and reloading didn't reveal anything either. Menanam approached him, while Railag was busy defending his Castle from the "red cockroaches" invited by Silsay ((( (demons). After repelling the Dungeon from Silsay and having enough mana and the ability to jump to Railag's primary Castle, I somehow couldn't move Menanam and his army to the primary Castle - I had to leave the Castle and recapture it again.

After completing the fast-paced first part of this mission, I received 3 dragons in Railag's army. But I can't build their dwelling in Railag's Castle yet, as I don't have enough resources, and capturing the red dragon fort and converting it didn't help either, as it didn't add dragons to the army. But it did increase resource production!

For reference, I'll add that the main core of Menanam's army consists of the joined manticores and a squad of upgraded assassins, borrowed from Railag.
The assassin recruitment, naturally, took place in Railag, 4 out of 6 items, and Menanam helped when he went to the ruins of his city and fought the red group.
I'm developing along the path of tears. Sorchan runs around the map with an empty army, providing reinforcements.

I suspect that to defeat the invited forces, I will have to combine the troops of Railag and Menanam + recapture all the Castles from Silsay's outcasts.