Posts from The “Island for One” scenario. Auto-translated

Please tell me how to defeat the orange player. As soon as I capture the last yellow castle, powerful orange mages appear in all four corners, and then things go downhill. I almost simultaneously capture all my castles. I can only defeat one mage by staying in the upper left castle (Academy). And my army remains – 300 archers and 150 zombies. I can't gather any more troops anywhere, and I can't defeat any more mages with this army. That's for sure. Is there any secret? Maybe I started too quickly? Difficulty level: Veteran.

Well, we don't know how you started. But, in theory, on a map of this size, you can level up your main hero to incredible power. And considering you're a Necromancer, constantly replenishing your army and also having Raise Dead (a spell of only the second level, but it permanently revives your guys), you should have several thousand skeleton archers by the time Orange appears...
If there aren't enough of them, you can basically use a simple and long-term trick: place your hero in front of the opponent's last castle (Yellow, most likely, as he's the most resilient on this map), so that he blocks the exit, and constantly attack the secondary hero that will appear at the castle's "gates." In other words, you're draining his resources (he, like a machine, buys a new hero every day to replace the one you're killing :D). And while you're doing that, your main hero explores the map, collecting all the experience (there are plenty of islands with artifacts and monsters, and in the upper part of the map, there's a whole bunch of Titans guarding the cartographer). And you build up your army... well, and if you've already defeated everyone, just accumulate your army in the castles and money, send secondary heroes around the map, slightly leveling them up with "visits" to various locations, so that by the time Orange arrives, you have a good army in all your castles - if he doesn't stand up to you, he'll at least give the enemy a good shake.
But as it is... the map is simple, and I don't even know what could be difficult here... :confused:

Okay, thanks for the tip about locking up the yellow creatures in the Castle. I had around 600 archers and 18 dragons when the orange creatures appeared, and the rest were only 100-200 each. That's clearly not enough. I'll start over, and maybe try the Warrior difficulty. Veteran seems a bit too challenging for me right now.

Generally speaking, when the Orange faction appeared, I had about 600 archers and 18 dragons, and the rest were around 100-200 each.

Why are the numbers so high? :eek: The map is full of "meat"... thousands are gathering there! And the Orange faction's army is comparable to our forces.
Although, no one could defeat Ravenna one-on-one...:smile06:

So, I didn't really explore the map much.
Let's just go straight for capturing castles.

That was a mistake! The strength of Necropolis lies in its "skeletal" neutral creatures! Now it's clear why you had a weak army.
And Orange, as I understand it, always appears with the same forces. That is, if you defeat everyone in the first month (hehe), he will still arrive with a giant army! So there's no point in rushing: develop Ravenna... and you will develop the world!:smile54:

With the new necromancy, it’s unfortunately almost impossible to gather these thousands of skeletons – unless you use a creature converter…

It's still unclear which version of Heroes of Might and Magic V the author of the topic is playing. I'm actually afraid to install patches. The description is discouraging. :smile30:

Yes, it's worth installing patches, as they positively affect the game's balance. Plus, they add variety to the gameplay (instead of simply gathering skeletons, you have to decide which units to resurrect and whether it's worth doing so, which changes attack priorities). Judging by the phrase "600 archers and 18 dragons, the rest 100-200 each," it seems that patch 1.5 is installed, or the archers are in a very bad state, and it's unclear where they've gone.

Judging by the phrase "600 archers and 18 dragons, the rest 100-200 each," the patch is either 1.5 or the archers are having a really bad time, it's unclear where they went.

Well, she said she didn't scout the map at all, but went straight for the castles... So, they probably ended up there:smile32:.

Well, she said she didn't scout the map at all and immediately went for the castles... So, that's probably where they disappeared to:smile32:

But where did the other 100-200 come from then? Although, it's just guesswork...

P.S. Install the patches and go play in a tournament!

I have patch 1.5 installed.
I replayed the map on Warrior difficulty. This time, I focused on developing the green faction in the Magic Castle and used Ravenna to level up, gathering skeletons.
There are a lot of creatures in all the castles. It's a pity that even after capturing all the castles and mines, I only had 15,000 gold, which was clearly not enough to buy all the creatures in all the cities.
Fortunately, there were periodic weeks with bonuses for archers or swordsmen, and in the end, I gathered 3,500 archers. In my castles, I had 50-60 of the strongest creatures, 700-800 of the weakest, and the rest were accordingly. And I haven't bought all of them yet.
I sold resources, and even so, while I'm buying everything in one castle, the others are overflowing again. So, I roughly calculated how much I need to win and didn't wait until I had enough money for everything.
That's how it was. After this map and after the "Runaway" map, I really fell in love with the Necromancers. Now I will only play as them.

Added 3 minutes ago
What's good about patch 1.5 is the accumulation of creatures in neutral buildings. Just like in the fourth game. Before, in the fifth game, you could only buy them once a week, but now you can not visit the Bone Pits near the castle for a month, and then go and collect 80 skeletons at once. That's good. What's bad is that you can't summon troops from the castle or use Astral Gates if you have less than 75% of your turn remaining. And summoning troops costs not only mana but also turns.

Here is what I suggest. The Grail is always buried on the central island, where there's a book in the top right and a red crystal mine with earth elementals at the bottom.
So, here's the plan. Generate the map and save immediately. Buy a boat right away and rush to the island to find the Grail. It's not hard; a few moves and it's yours. Remember the spot where it's buried, and that's it. Reload from your first-turn save, rush back there, dig it up on the first try, and head straight back to town. You'll literally have the gold and monster growth by the end of the first week. After that, all the other scrubs will regularly land on your island, delivering experience to you. You'll have so much cash that you can periodically send a lackey for artifacts in the cart. Then just enjoy the game; no one can beat you now!

To successfully complete the game, it is enough to level up one hero to level 30, have 60 dragons, 400 vampires, 150 liches, and 150 undead. Such power will defeat all four orange players, all their thousands of mages, rakshasas, and hundreds of giants!

Added after 14 hours and 22 minutes
Although, if you are playing as a hero, there is simply no escape from the enemy! He keeps coming and coming, the bastard! And most importantly, he can see the entire map! As soon as you go out to sea, he immediately flies in, attacks, and even whirlpools don't affect him! Therefore, you need to sail to the revealed Grail with a secondary hero. He will also pick up a chest with experience there and gain some skill in a hut. Then, after dividing your troops, you need to attack the green or earth elementals, flee the battlefield, and reappear in your castle! Done, the Grail is yours, and you are ready to fight a strong opponent. The main thing is to exhaust him; it will be difficult at first, but you need to accumulate strength. Fortunately, on a difficult level, he doesn't run away, so his major heroes will gradually be eliminated, while yours will become stronger!

I finished this map the day before yesterday. I still don't understand why it's necessary to accumulate such huge armies. By the time the orange faction attacked (and I had to spend about two weeks building up my army, locking the last green hero in a castle), I had around 500 archers, a hundred vampires, and 45 messengers (the rest were in proportion). I didn't build any bone dragons, and I didn't convert the army from other castles into undead either. The first two enemies – the lower left and upper left – were defeated with almost no losses. I lost a large part of my army against the lower right, as the triple-applied blinding effect on the titans also affected other units. There could have been problems with the fourth. However, I replenished my army with a week's worth of undead growth and defeated him. In this battle, I only fought in the castle against one of them; I finished off the rest on ships. In summary, Ravenna was level 24 at the time of the orange attack (I focused on Chaos, Darkness, Summoning, and Logistics – with Navigation being essential, and Education). The two main artifacts were the books of Darkness and Summoning magic (used as needed). The number of days to complete the game seems to be 90 and a bit (definitely less than 100). Oh, yes, version 2.1, "Veteran" difficulty.