D12(ArchOnt)
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Higher Vampire
Fifth Mission
Backstory: During Faedan's absence, the elves managed to lift the siege of Syris Talla and liberate most of the elven kingdom. But victory is still far off—the higher vampire Nicholas threatens Irollan from the southwest, and Faedan must defeat this powerful enemy.
Main Objectives:
- Destroy the higher vampire Nicholas
Faedan's main goal is to fulfill Tiera's will and save the world from the danger posed by Isabelle. But Nicholas stands in Faedan's way, threatening Irollan.
Faedan must return Nicholas to the realm of the dead. - Faedan must survive
While achieving the set goals, Faedan must survive to continue the work he has started.
Additional Objectives:
- Show the artifacts to the prophet
Now that all four dwarven artifacts have been found, it is time to visit the prophet again and add phoenixes to your army. They will help defeat Nicholas. - Find the ancient dwarven artifacts
The territory controlled by the undead is shrouded in a veil of Eternal Night, which allows Nicholas to be reborn again and again. According to the seer, having phoenixes in the army can solve this problem. And he is ready to give them to Faedan if he completes his task—finding the ancient artifacts: King of Dwarves' greaves, King of Dwarves' helmet, King of Dwarves' shield, King of Dwarves' cuirass. The prophet believes that only a hero who has collected all these artifacts can possess creatures such as phoenixes.
Walkthrough: The goal of the mission is to finish off the unrestrained Mr. Nicholas (or just Kolya), who, without a proper license from the Ministry of Health and other agencies, has taken to committing vandalism in cemeteries, moreover by prior conspiracy with a group of persons of an unhealthy green color, which in itself is the height of sacrilege. You start on a peninsula in the northeast corner of the map, having at your disposal as many as 2(two) cities, granted out of generosity by your kind uncle-level designer (Kolya, by the way, has 6 cities). Many mines are scattered around the cities, which are quite easy to capture; this should be done immediately without wasting time on recruiting troops (this is very easy to do since the hero is quite strong, well... should be...). No one will attack you (and it would be good if they did!:( ). It is best to develop the cities as follows: initially build only troop dwellings and develop the fortress to achieve maximum army growth; give priority to shooters and druids—they are the core of your army (although you've probably realized this yourself by the time you reached this mission). Build upgraded structures only in the eastern city (transfer troops from the other city using a chain of heroes; this needs to be set up as soon as possible), because they can be summoned from there using magic (if you have developed the Life Magic skill, then this and many other problems are neutralized, but I didn't give my hero such an insignificant skill, in my opinion, so let's assume you don't have this possibility either:cool: ). The eastern city also has an archer hut—do not neglect the valuable opportunity to hire them!
Having gathered a sufficient army (at least a hundred archers and some other small fry), head to the very corner of the map—there is a portal to the southeastern peninsula. On this peninsula, there is one Necromancer city with the stunning name Apel-Sin (I wonder if in the English version it's called Or(e)-Anger?:rolleyes: ) and two heroes—Caspar and Rowenna (writing as it was for me, clear?). Rowenna gave me the first surprise in the form of (skull) 2.5K skeleton archers. Why a surprise? Because only in this mission does the enemy get a truly colossal army. After beating the evil lady with minimum losses among your own shooters (resurrect, resurrect and resurrect again, even at the expense of other troops—I hope light magic as a skill is present for your feeble Faedan?!), go eat Apel-Sin. Caspar sits there and doesn't want to share (we shared an orange: many of us, but he's alone... well-well, and for Vol... err-err Kolyan, of course—the peel heh-heh...), but that's not a problem... There is also an important landmark on the peninsula—the seer's hut, you could say the highlight of the program. It turns out that to subdue the rowdy Kolya, it's not enough to wag a finger at him and slightly poke his ribs with a sword. This sly vampire made a deal with the local Chubais and turned off the lights everywhere, so... err... well okay... The seer, an old rogue, offers to give you a huge army of phoenixes in exchange for a full set of King of Dwarves' armor, which supposedly will put all the same Chubaises in their place... uh-huh... You'll have to agree. The set consists of 4(four) items inlaid with the most exquisite... don't swear, I was paid for advertising!.. :D All this good stuff is underground in special bank cells under reliable guard. The portal to the dungeon is located to the north; that's where we go, there's nowhere else (don't forget to replenish your army from time to time, preferably before capturing the citrus city—clear why? After capture, a secondary hero can bring troops; don't waste your own time dashing back and forth: time is money!). Also, in the very corner sit 600 undead guarding the Ring of Life. At this stage, beating them is pointless—losses will be too great, I would say fatal. But later definitely visit for the ring, and you will have two of them, and therefore +4 hp for soldiers.
Forward, into the mountain king's caves! Underground, a whole network of tunnels and two Necromancer cities await you. Essentially, the dungeon is divided into two sectors connected in the middle by an isthmus where one of the cities is built. Dwarven armor lies in vaults, 2 pieces per sector. Beating the guards won't be much trouble (avoid losses and generally try to ALWAYS resurrect troops, even if only a couple of soldiers died!). You start in the northwest corner. Go down and clear the entire bottom sector and to the northeast, capturing the city on the way (I didn't have any decent guard there). Do not enter the portals. The portal on the west leads to the southeast corner of the map and vice versa; the northwest portal will send you straight into Nicholas's claws, but there is nothing to do there yet. Moving into the second sector of tunnels, I encountered the cutie Orson, who modestly clicked past my hero and climbed into the newly captured city. I had to storm it. Orson has a fairly decent army (3.5K skeleton archers plus others). Try to avoid losses among your shooters! Then clear the eastern sector and collect the remaining parts of the armor set. There is another city in the southwest corner—most likely without guards. Besides all this, there are squads of Shadow Dragons in the dungeon and elsewhere; killing them leads to another outpouring of words from the poet-Faedan (strange, it seems like a quest but it was never documented for me...:confused: ).
Having dealt with business underground, return to the seer. This scoundrel gives us a huge army of phoenixes, numbering 5 individuals (free up space for a squad). After this, unfortunately, he managed to disappear, taking the armor set with him. However, naive Faedan actually glowed with happiness... Damn it, played like a fool... Well nothing, it's a small world! :cool:
Well now, the moment has come to meet Uncle Kolya face to face! Gather all accumulated elven troops—there should be many by now—and forward, through the northeast underground portal to the rendezvous...
But first I will describe how events unfolded for me. Giving the miserable phoenixes to a hero who happened to be at hand, admiring the greatness of my army, I ran to visit Nicholas, expecting to tear him apart like Tuzik tears a hot water bottle. Coming out of the portal, I beheld a certain Vlad, whose face clearly asked for a brick (why does he have dyed hair?!). Justly reasoning that he would pose no problem to my power, casually spreading my fingers in the right way, I strolled up to him... So: 4.5K skeleton archers, 90 dragons, 240 archliches, 800 ghosts, 1K zombies, 300 higher vampires, 190 death knights, a level 27-29 hero with plenty of artifacts, army luck rating equals 5... It was an epochal battle... Skeletons and ghosts played the first violin. A successful volley from skeletons (and it was successful in 8 out of 10 cases) wiped out my troops at hurricane speed, and ghosts o-o-o... that's a separate story! When these creatures, ignoring the attack of 40 emerald dragons, SUCCESSFULLY respond, little remains of the dragons... And if this happens constantly... I wonder how many players ended up in the hospital with a nervous breakdown?! The developers have no pity for us at all... What is the probability of ghost dematerialization?! 50\50?! This is madness!!! Essentially, ghosts together with skeletons caused me more harm (ghosts mostly mental) than all other troops combined! Now it's clear why Necromancer troops of level 6-7 are so miserable; dragons are just some kind of weak... And what a story they have! The necromancers would be better off reviving dead Rakshasa sultans, there would be more use in that... :)
After this battle, I had about 600 archers, 200 druids, 120 ents and 10 dragons left, and even then, if I hadn't resurrected, there wouldn't have been any! It is worth noting the fact that the battle took place in an open field... A castle, probably, I wouldn't have been able to take... Assuming that these were probably the main forces, I plodded north and easily took a nearly unguarded castle. Seeing some commotion in the southwest region, I directed my steps there and finally caught Kolya in the castle. Ha! The only thing he had in common with Vlad's army was 4.5K skeletons; other troops were much fewer. But! This is a castle storm! First, your army luck decreases (as often!), second, walls... And Nicholas is very lucky and he has skeleton-s-s-s...
During the battle, I tried to block the archers with dragons and attacked the bony ones with my own shooters. Dragons, of course, were quickly beaten down, but I resurrected them, 5 at a time, which was just enough for one successful hit from skeletons and their lowliest henchmen like vampire lords, spectral dragons, death knights, etc. By the way, Kolya is no fool either; besides the general weakening of my troops, he perfectly silenced MY archers with a swarm of wasps, constantly slowing them down... But! Nicholas fell, drenched in fake blood and spewing curses... And then he rose again near Apel-Sin... Guess why? Correct! There were no phoenixes in my army! HA-HA-HA!!!
What to do? My troops are shattered, there are almost no fresh forces, Nicholas has a huge army and he is going to storm the city where, as luck would have it, a hero with phoenixes and a miserable bunch of soldiers sits... In short! I smartly saved before the final showdown and now I thirst for revenge! For about a week and a half, I transported those damn phoenixes from the city to Faedan, traded them for 800 dryads (ha-ha!) and... Kolya came out to meet me himself. Anticipating loud fame and an easy victory, I... oh no! I have no words to describe what I saw!!! 10K(ten... TEN!) skeleton archers, 1.5K zombies, 1K GHOSTS, 400 vampires naturally higher ones, 380 archliches, 300 heralds, 170 dragons... :eek: You know, the archers were enough for me... What are skeleton archers? It's not just a lack of fur and 3-4 kg of fresh meat but also the ability to easily wipe out any squad with one shot (160 developed unicorns with +4 hp, hero protection of 28 units and "stone skin" spell, for example). Don't forget about Nicholas, who is not only draped in powerful artifacts like a Christmas tree with toys, but is almost equivalent to a level 31 hero and possesses enormous luck. My death would have been quick, but painful. Draw your own conclusions...
I can only recommend keeping the hero with phoenixes nearby. It's quite possible to break the army of dead ones in parts, since Vlad mostly patrols near the portal and leads the main forces with him. The main thing is to catch him without sticking your head out prematurely, otherwise Nicholas might grab all the troops for himself... Phoenixes need to be revived at the end of the battle (I don't know if Kolya will calm down with dead phoenixes?). The problem with reviving is as follows: if someone dies on top of a squad, the squad can no longer be resurrected... And last thing, there is an opportunity to find the Tear of Ashan, but some obelisks are located in Nicholas's territory, so see for yourself...
Thank you for your attention!:D
