Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

For those who are having trouble at the beginning:
Download the guide from rghost

I was already dreaming of a complete guide! :) But still, thank you very much! My attempt to complete the map was unsuccessful; :( I need to start over...
By the way, I compiled the author's instructions into one document for your convenience (highlighting the key points): see the attachment.

Marmont, basically, if you're not in a hurry, I'll upload a version of the guide for further gameplay in a few weeks... I'm just a bit busy right now.

I will upload a version of the guide for further gameplay in a few weeks.

Excellent! "We'll be waiting!" :)

solmir2003, you don't need to storm this garrison head-on. Spend a turn and a half, send three fast heroes (let's say, Olvin, Haas, and Morgaine) each with seven snakes, and eliminate about half of the dragon troops. And after that, you can take the garrison without worrying about significant losses.

Added 2 hours and 28 minutes later
Couldn't resist and did it earlier:
Now the second book of the walkthrough for the wonderful map is written.
http://rghost.ru/7WLMhBh4L

WSW, thanks for the guides!

To help you out, here are my Walkthrough notes. By month 3 (when the lords' assembly happens), following this plan I take all of Ice Blade and can assemble the Angel Alliance, but I don't do it because the Armor of the Damned is still needed.

Week 1 - run around the city, gather an army. There is a gold hoard behind the fort. We take the city at 115, build a Stronghold. Level up Logistics first to get more done right at the start.
The hero is constantly on a speed boost (at the mines). We take 25 peasants.
Everything is described great in the guide, including the moves.

Week 2, the hero spends the night with the snipers near the Tree of Knowledge. We buy as many heroes as possible, but leave enough for construction. We swap peasants for archers in a chain, break through the snipers using expert haste (magic land), then the dragons, and head to the "canned goods."
The "cockroach" (scout) runs underground to the dwarf hoard, collecting resources.
We take the "canned goods," break through the guards with expert slow, free Invriss, upgrade to Archangels, or even use angels with blindness to take the second city.
The hero runs to the upper tunnel to the dwarves for the mine and experience, reaches the gold mine, and runs back to crash into the dwarf treasury. Invriss takes the troops; the "cockroaches" clear the area.
Importantly, don't take the sand mines immediately - too many moves are wasted. The "cockroaches" will take them later.
This part is similar to your guide, but this is where the differences begin.

We split up into the first city and go to the library, and then to the Bastion-in-the-Mountain. "Cockroaches" deliver troops from Invriss.
From the dwarf castle, head to the surface and to the gold dragons. A couple of "cockroaches" on speed boosts are already waiting there.
From the dragons, through the oasis and the hordes of golems to Josephine's laboratory. There is a mine, a shield, and a mage.
"Cockroaches" on nomads collect resources.

Here is a cardinal difference. It seemed to me that going by land is faster than through the metro + the gold mine, plus a ton of experience from golems without losses.

Morgraine, using only Archangels, runs to the fairy dragons and breaks through them.
"Cockroaches" deliver troops, we break through Ivor — simply via blindness. And on the same day, a "cockroach" takes the city, opening the gates from the side of Silverthrop castle.
After that, there are no other options; we run up to free Aelwin. It's not even necessary to visit the university (there will be time later). A "cockroach" delivers the admiral's hat.

We go to free Haas. We run with Archangels; Haas pulls the rest of the army. Don't take the monks near the observation tower yet — they are far away and too many moves are wasted.
Moves must be spent economically to reach the dungeon, free Aelwin, and she takes the Archangel reward from Vael in that same turn. And she waits on the Barbarian coast.

Next turn, Aelwin captures Sordwind castle, Morgraine crashes into the cyclops dwelling, is ransomed, and hits Fordragon (our army is larger, no problems at all).
Blindness on the Archangels on the first turn. Haas crashes into the castle and goes to Virill. We take Virill, Morgraine goes to the red tent, Haas and Aelwin on speed boosts position themselves at the Barbarian castles.
Assaulting the Barbarians: Aelwin takes Agarhan in 1 turn, Haas takes the central Gormagog in 1 turn, Morgraine TPs to Gormagog and takes the last Barbarian castle. It might take 2 days.

I think this is very similar.

Then you can go to the Castle-under-the-Mountain; with our army, it is easily taken. Level up Aelwin so she runs faster against neutrals and visit the university in the underground with all main heroes.
Here is a difference: the artifacts on the enemy hero and the experience are important to me. So I take this castle only now. No loss of momentum.

And now the trick — we send Aelwin and Haas with only Archangels to Josephine. Meanwhile, Morgraine runs around the boosters for a whole week. Why Haas is needed — to collect the monks, otherwise they will slow Aelwin down significantly.
After doing this, you can also capture the demon pit and TP Haas home, positioning him for the assault on the swamp castle, which only Haas can enter.

Swamp:
Aelwin reaches the red border guard and spends the night. Haas is on the ship within reach of the city. Morgraine waits on speed boost and double mana.
Aelwin takes the castle. Morgraine TPs into the castle with the rest of the army, hits Olvin, and visits the tent. Haas takes the castle. We ransom Olvin, go to the swamp island, take the hydras, and free Haas's mother. All this in 1 day.

Then you can take your time — with the hydras, we go to the border guard who requires 5 hydras, build chains, and deal with the swamp heroes.
Meanwhile, Müllich sails for the thieves' hoard via Steelharbor. We clear the swamp in a couple of days (except for 2 castles that require 15 hydras).

An important difference here is that you don't need to hoard wyverns — gnolls are enough to pass from the other side without waiting for growth.

Next is a trick — the sorceress cannot be freed until we take the arch-mage from the island, otherwise Lomkomor will run out and join her. We lose a few days on this, but we group the army and visit the morale boosters.

Free the sorceress (sponsoring the orcs with 82k). Rusty dragons under slow and blindness are mediocre guards. And kill the hero Greed if she emerges — she has the crystal cloak, needed to collect the Horn of Plenty. Retreat from Jorgos if he appears.

Next is the anti-magic garrison with 1400 dragons. We are catastrophically short on fodder, so for two clovers we collect the well and the mage's ring and swap them for 200 wizards. Now it's more cheerful. With them, the snipers, Archangels, and griffons with morale, we hit the garrison.

The snake option is cool — you can take 200 wizards then.

The siege from Lomkomor in the castle is simple; stats are similar, the army is similar, and we have the first turn. It's strange that the guide recommends running away from him.

That's it for now; attached are the saves before 2 battles. Maybe it'll be useful. I'm exhausted just writing this. And I did it without pictures...

Thank you! As I've mentioned several times in my version, I provide an average pace for completing the game. I stopped focusing on strict turn management towards the end of the second week. I liked your approach to the game near Silvertop!
But I have one question - where did you get 1320 snipers when you captured the Diamond Castle? Did I miss something?

Added 3 minutes later
I admit, I didn't think to start with Gnolls instead of Wyverns (I was probably confused by the sand and didn't even realize it would be faster).

Added 3 minutes later
P.S. I sincerely hope that we are not competing in speed-run playthroughs, but rather sharing our experiences with each other.

Hi! We're definitely not competing; my experience with the game is close to zero, which is evident from the number of posts I've made. This map is particularly meaningful to me on a personal level – I caught chickenpox, and adults experience it quite severely. Plus, I was in complete isolation. And then this map came along and saved me from going crazy! :)\

Regarding the snipers, I just accumulated them from the beginning of the game. I have 2-3 intermediate saves for each turn; I can share them. I'm playing this map for the second time. From the early stages, we have 2 castles, then we get troops, and then Legionnaires are stationed in each castle from the first few days. Also, I might have captured Elves from Ivor and Olvin before they had a chance to buy them back. And I also have troops from the Steel Harbor islands, as far as I remember.

However, I didn't have enough wizards to take out a stack of units with a single shot, and I didn't think to use any tricks. I also completed the quest for 200 wizards on the swamp, which meant I was without the necklace and the sniper's bow for a while.

Another hint: if you don't have enough wizards or devils to open the gates, they might be in the refugee camps; I check them occasionally.

Added 3 minutes later
So far (I've reached Pearlwing), the most difficult battle is against Nila. I managed to win without any losses, but I didn't figure out the tactic right away.

Oh my God! Life will never be the same... All my life in Heroes, I didn't know that not only elves, but also archers can be upgraded to snipers... Then my guide is indeed incorrect in terms of escaping from Lomokor. But honestly, I don't want to replay such a large part right now.

Okay, so it seems that not only monks, but also wizards can be upgraded. I don't see any problems with the guide; you're even completing everything quickly with fewer units. What would happen if you upgraded all your archers? :)

Now I have a persistent idea to create a new guide, taking into account my mistakes and a more rigorous turn management.
For those who visit the forum, here is the latest version of the first guide (up to Yogores).
solmir2003, I would really like to hear your opinion on the analysis presented in chapter 3 and your suggested approach to clearing the bull garrison.
http://rghost.ru/85gDVxdRs

I'm upset. My archmage successfully completed two events that should have killed him and emerged unscathed on the surface. His attack beforehand, additional obstacles, and, of course, reloading didn't help (((. I'll either have to abandon everything or edit the save file because I had big plans for both the wizards and the money....

Added 17 hours 56 minutes ago

Now I have a persistent idea to create a new guide, taking into account my mistakes and strict turn management.

Maybe it makes sense to continue? The most difficult part is still ahead, and secondly, no one has written about it (there are already guides for the beginning, but everyone is silent about the ending).

solmir2003, I would very much like to hear your opinion on the analysis presented in chapter 3.

Is that the one with the Dungeon and the Elves? Everything is great. If you play it again, you can try going along the top; it seemed faster to me. The very first time, I also went along the bottom, but I didn't feed the Ifrit hero; I felt sorry for his artifacts and experience.

and your version of clearing the garrison with the bulls.

If you attach your save file, I'll try to give you a suggestion. Although, you can pass it even easier. Because I played it the simple, easier way: 1) I immediately freed the sorceress after the green tent (on the same day or the next), and I captured the entire swamp with sorcerers and snipers. 2) I didn't change the first Titan's Roar for anything for the +13 attack. I only started changing the second, third, etc. With such an army and stats, the garrison didn't pose a threat.

1) I immediately freed the Sorceress after the green tent (on the same day or the next), and I captured the entire swamp with Wizards and Snipers.

This is unclear. The green tent is located in the Sunset Forest. Is that correct? You can only enter the Sunset Forest after killing Jorge and opening the passage guard above Crisold (coordinates 42-87). And killing Jorge is already the final stage of the war for Ghashariat. Can you tell me what I missed?

Added after 2 hours 36 minutes
And, sorry, not "chapter 3," but "book 3, chapter 3."

WSW, I made a mistake about the tent color. It's not green, but blue – the one after Olvin. Olvin was destroyed, snipers were added, with the snipers, we liberated Erathia, created wizards, replenished the treasury, and moved on!

Here are a couple more saves if needed – an anti-magic garrison of 500 black dragons without any losses, and a battle with Peplokryl in an open field, also without any losses.

Regarding the analysis. Maybe someone else can chime in. After all, as I said, I'm not very good at Heroes and I play it purely for fun. I can only say how I did it, but I don't know how to do it more optimally. Here, there are experts who say that it can be completed in 15 days (I don't understand how, even with any bugs and cheats, but I didn't want to ask to avoid overthinking) http://heroesportal.net/tavern/?id=402827

What I did was gather 10 mages because I wanted the Angel Alliance before reaching the Pearl of the Ocean and I needed resources. In Har-Horond, I went to the green tent on the day of the visit - a hero was waiting at the border guard, we visited the tent, the hero captured the castle, and the second hero teleported there and cleared everything else.

Regarding capturing castles - all the castles are swamp castles except for two, then Diamond and immediately kill the wizard (are you sure you don't have enough troops? Try not in an open field, but in a siege), then we take Drakorosh, there is also a siege (we have +12 attack from the Grail, easy-peasy). The only thing is that I attacked Yorgos with a secondary hero and destroyed his ballista so that the battle would be without losses. Then we finish off the swamp castles, and the secondary heroes clear the territory of the Barbarians from dragons (but do not capture the castles), and open the red border guard. And then Morgraine quickly takes 2 castles by water with Griffin's Roost (there is a hidden border guard behind the volcano).

I'm trying to play with a Berserker without any debuffs on the heroes, maybe it's possible to complete the game faster with a Berserker, but I play for fun, I'm not in a hurry. And even so, I destroy the Pearl of the Ocean on day 337, which I think is quite good.

Added 1 minute ago
Regarding the analysis - maybe someone can suggest something here - http://heroesportal.net/tavern/?id=402827? I repeat, I'm not very good at the game, I just play for fun. And there I saw that they completed it in 15 days (I don't even want to imagine how)

Added 34 minutes ago
I initially wrote one message, it didn't save, I wrote a second one, and in the end, I found the first one :)

Based on the analysis – maybe someone here can help – http://heroesportal.net/tavern/?id=402827? ... And there, I saw that someone completed it in 15 days (I don't even want to imagine how).

Well, it says there:

Sir Symphony Messes 09/29/2015 19:21: You can do something crazy like I did – complete it in 15 days. Although, it involved breaking almost all the rules of the offline game.

I understand that in this phrase, the discussion wasn't about "Paragon" at all, and moreover, it was written even before version 2.0 of the map was released. As for the violation, it might be artificially increasing the number of turns to almost infinity using a bug with the Admiral's Hat (no, I won't tell you how, I don't use it myself, but this trick is known and prohibited in tournaments).