Posts from New era.

I tried removing everything I had previously downloaded - it didn't help, I'll reinstall if I can't pass it this way. This time, I focused on one Freida, killed the green one in the Stronghold without losses, only lost some elves, but that's fine, I use them as targets for enemy archers, it's a working tactic.
I also defeated the orange one with Freida in the Stronghold, there were 55 paladins, 9 remained) and 100 crossbowmen remained. I didn't have time to gather enough angels. I lost everything else, I didn't even buy the Griffin building. Ideally, I could have defeated him with Arantir with minimal losses, but I couldn't return in time, I used him to take territory in front of the outer garrisons, I cleared the entire center, but overall, I have a save from a little earlier, if I can't defeat the purple one, I'll go back. I can't defeat the purple one yet) he moves too often, considering that I have Expert Enchantment, and he moves 3-4 times, and I move twice (I mean the hero). Well, and they are, of course, greatly buffed with luck, this time I'm not lucky with artifacts. Last time I had the Necromancer's Cloak and their Staff, and a ring with -2 to luck, but now I only have one that gives HP and magic resistance on the map)). I built catapults, by the way. It shows average difficulty on all heroes, but I can't seem to defeat him with Arantir, and I don't think I can with Freida either, unless I manage to defeat the Balista in the first turn, but that's not a sure thing. By the way, it seems they forgot how to dodge. They dodge 20% in combat with him) even a vampire doesn't help them survive. I'm using Banish, of course) I guess I'll go back to the old save, because by that time there will be 100 paladins, which I think might help me defeat him, because right now there are 45. Without losses and with the next increase, there will be exactly 100.
and who comes after the purple one?)

Added 11 minutes ago
Well, in general, I think I'm already close to the end. I defeated the purple, brown, and red ones. I stopped there for now. I defeated everyone with Arantir, the first two with 120-40 undead + miscellaneous units of different neutrals, such as trappers, gargoyles, orcs, etc., I just used them as meat. I killed everyone with a phoenix and a dragon. I killed the red one with obsidian golems and a few other units. I cast Confusion, then I killed all the elementals with Berserk, and I killed the phoenix with a phoenix and a dragon) and Freida with the main army probably won't be needed, the dragon of Arantir and the phoenix under the vampire turned out to be a powerful combo, and the dragon has it built-in, and it's not mentioned in the description. In general, you can defeat everyone without an army. I didn't use the dragon before and accidentally summoned him, because in the previous campaign, the dragon was weak and I rarely used him, but here he turned out to be a powerful unit. The funniest thing is that Freida wouldn't kill any of them with her army, maybe she could defeat the brown one, and that's it. 160 paladins, 500 crossbowmen, 25 angels, 100 elves, well, the rest don't matter. Freida is level 29, Arantir is level 31. I think I'll defeat the rest with Arantir)) and what is the purpose of the Dungeon in this campaign? I thought there was a Town Portal that allows you to go upstairs, but it turns out there isn't, I cleared the entire Dungeon except for 4 stacks, level 26, the army is already large, I'm standing afk)) or will he fight in the finale?)

The second red player arrived, and the game reached a stalemate. Apparently, the map doesn't work as the author intended; the second red player is impassable. The units have 16-20 initiative, the spirit is buffed every turn, and he teleports half of his army to his side and instantly destroys it. There is absolutely no chance for Freya, even 200 horsemen fall from two hits with 21 defense and a defense skill. There are no artifacts for initiative on the map, nor is there a Staff of the Undead, and there is no morale either. I don't know, it's impossible to pass. Arantir has a chance, but he also can't handle such morale and luck buffs. And Zehir doesn't work for me. On turn 4, I think Arantir would have a chance when I spread all the debuffs and summon a dragon with a phoenix, but he doesn't make it. Even for the sake of the experiment, I decided to cheat and give him an undead army, and it only gave him one extra turn. Maybe I'll return to the map on a reinstalled game someday; overall, I liked it, but it's broken for me. I'm attaching the last save before the attack.

Yes, Udun is the most difficult demon of all.

I haven't played your Campaigns, but I've watched replays of battles against Udun. I'm curious why you decided to implement this mechanic (changing troop placement) in this particular way. The idea itself is unusual, but as I understand it, it ultimately boils down to finding a favorable arrangement through reloading. Would the balance change significantly if you did this: in a battle with Udun, the tactic cancellation is active (like with Nibros) + some rearrangements are performed on the two lines where the player has positioned their troops? This would move away from standard formations but without introducing such a strong element of randomness (which there already is too much of in this game). It's like Fischer Random Chess in Heroes . But these are just my thoughts. And I also want to say that you have many interesting ideas (I've read comments on the Walkthrough and watched replays), sometimes I even feel like trying to play myself.

I envisioned Udun as a loyal follower of Urgash, inheriting his specialization. Therefore, in this campaign, Udun and Urgash have similar specializations in terms of implementation. As for the specifics, I believe it's very difficult to come up with a better specialization for a Chaos Dragon (complete chaos among the enemy ranks).
However, this doesn't make it impossible to overcome. I posted a recording of a battle where almost all my troops were outside the wall and were wiped out, but I still managed to hold out and resurrect them all. I also posted a recording of a battle with Urgash.

Gerter wrote that it is technically possible to implement this differently - by moving creatures instead of recreating them. But this immediately presents several technical problems for me (I don't know how to check if a tile is unoccupied in the combat script, there is no way to use the random function in the combat script, etc.) and the question of whether these changes are worthwhile.

The second red player arrived, and the game reached a stalemate. Apparently, the map doesn't work as the author intended; the second red player is impassable. The units have 16-20 initiative, the morale is buffed every turn, and half of the army is teleported to him, and he instantly destroys it. There is absolutely no chance for Freya, even 200 knights fall from two hits with 21 defense and a defense skill. There are no initiative artifacts on the map, nor is there a Staff of the Undead, and there is no morale either. I don't know, it's impossible to pass. Arantir has a chance, but he also can't handle such a morale and luck-buffed army. And Zehir doesn't work for me. On turn 4, I think Arantir would have a chance when I distribute all the debuffs and summon a dragon with a phoenix, but he doesn't make it. Even for the sake of the experiment, I decided to cheat and give him an undead army, and it only gave him one extra turn. Maybe I'll return to the map on a reinstalled game someday; overall, I liked it, but it's broken for me. I'm attaching the last save before the attack.

I forgot to remove Retribution from the upgrade list; with -3 morale, it's a useless perk.

Added 2 minutes ago
So, it's quite possible to defeat Udun without hit-run tactics, without top-tier artifacts, and with a not-so-large army (by this point, you can easily gather around 60-100 more Paladins).

Thank you for your response; you are clearly much more experienced than I am. I'll try replaying, as I have saves from a week before that point, with intervals of 2 days, so I think I'll have time to rebuild. I wanted to reach the mentor level, but I somehow couldn't manage it consistently; I thought that overall, this level of development would be enough, even though I didn't have much luck with skill drops. And I tried to clear out the stacks with artifacts. I understood immediately about the teleport, depending on the position of the troops in the hero's slots; I used it, but it didn't really help me. I don't remember if I had Resurrection or not; I focused on Arantir in battles with demons. The Tome of Darkness is difficult to obtain; I think you saw who guards it. In general, it's possible, but I just didn't have time to get Arantir there; I think he could have taken it without much trouble. But regarding the number of Paladins, it's debatable. I trained them as much as possible during the first month, when I had enough money, and after that, I consistently trained them without missing a day. Perhaps I didn't have enough Dweller stacks to increase the number of Monarchs, but I don't think I saw any more Dweller stacks with Monarchs there, only one. And I wouldn't want to give up Logistics, as I don't know how many more enemies there will be, and it's useful to be able to move quickly, at least to have time to farm more stacks or Dwellers. Thank you for the advice. And how many more enemies will there be after this demon?)) And what is the purpose of having a hero in the Dungeon?

I can give you the save file right before the battle. Of course, I recruited Kane and Zehir during the Walkthrough. Frida's specialization doesn't work very well, and when you need to resurrect large losses, it just gets in the way. The Tome of Darkness isn't really needed, as the Castle has all the necessary spells. Unless, of course, you want to cast it before the next demon to make Subordination available as an option. But the next one is killed by paladins with Vampirism; the main thing is to cast it in time.

You practically need to re-spec before each demon, as they all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they don't forgive mistakes.
The same goes for logistics; while it's generally needed on the map, it's definitely not needed in battle. Besides this demon, there will be another one on the surface and the final one in the Dungeon, so you definitely shouldn't neglect developing Rai'lag. You need to approach his development very carefully.

Thank you, I understand. I watched a recording of your battle and I have to say, you are incredibly lucky. I've been trying different combinations for two hours now, but to no avail. I copied your build, tried it 15 times, but it didn't work. I decided to invest in leadership instead of education after gaining mana, but that didn't help either. There are only two possible scenarios. In one, I am constantly affected by the "Subjugate" spell, which I can't remove, and then I die. In the second scenario, things are a bit easier, and I've been spamming it for the last hour, but it still doesn't work. In the first turn, I can't cast "Berserk" on anyone, nor can I give "Vampirism" to the horses; the spell is canceled, and "Slow" and "Dispel" are triggered. In the second turn, I can cast "Berserk" or give "Vampirism" to the horses. I've tried both many times, but the outcome is always the same. The opponent's luck always triggers, and they get 2-3 turns under the effect of "Morale," and then they simply overwhelm me. I have 7 luck, but even that isn't enough to withstand such a barrage of attacks. Overall, I managed to defeat everyone except the Demonesses, Lords, and Demons once. At that point, they only attack with the Demonesses, while the other two stand in defense and don't attack me. So, I'm incredibly unlucky.

In my battle, the seductress cast control on the paladins, and I blocked their path from the gate and "sent" them against the archers. Normal control is removed by vampirism. Here, you can try arranging the units in different ways; the random element will work differently. Another question: how many times have you cleared Utopia and the Water Temple? There's a pretty good chance that Sar-Issa's staff will drop there, which will solve all the problems with enemy magic resistance. Still, it's not a replacement for a good weapon artifact. Or maybe the staff is somewhere on the map, and I didn't notice it.

Yes, a staff would be useful; I don't remember if it was on the map this time, but it definitely was in the first playthrough. I cleared the Temple once, just like I only visited the sea once. I completed Utopia on auto-battle and was amazed by the troops there: phoenixes, black dragons, emerald dragons, and others, all in groups of 70! But the artifacts I got weren't worth losing almost all my troops. I was sailing with Frida, and Arantir was running around capturing garrisons.
Regarding vampirism, I meant controlling the hero, not seducing a demoness. It applies a 5-turn control, and the vampire couldn't cast it on him (it can't even be selected as a target). And seduction lasts for fewer turns; I'll hit my own militia of 2 units once, it's not a big deal. And I couldn't block the passage there because some kind of wall falls every turn, and they still come through. Especially the cerberuses under berserk, they really annoyed me. Yes, I'll probably go check where the staff is; if I can't find it, I'll go to Utopia, but I'll do it turn by turn, because if I don't cheat, I might not have enough time from the last save, but I'll try.

Added 19 hours 52 minutes ago

Well, I managed it! I went to Utopia, got the missing dwarf gear, and accepted the battle. This time, the troops were arranged more favorably, and I passed without losses (only a few horses and 6 militia units), it took me about 5 attempts.
I immediately want to ask, is this how it's supposed to work, or is it a bug, that the buffs from the dwarf armor disappear as soon as the demon rearranges the troops? I mean Stone Skin and Dodge.

Kan turned out to be the easiest boss, overall, I could have used only horses, but I decided to use everyone. Only the horses survived. On the day Kan appeared, a message appeared saying that elementals had appeared near the Temple and were guarding something valuable. I didn't find any elementals after that message, but I went to that Temple, and there I found a Tome of Darkness and the staff of Sar-Sarai or whatever it's called. So I put it on and equipped the dwarf set. That's it, I'm getting ready for Sigrif. I'm still thinking about whether to invest in Darkness or not, because there are no Darkness spells at all. There's nothing from Darkness in the Elf castle, I only got Berserk in the Temple of Mages. The library only has Blind, the rest are Chaos and Resurrection spells. I already have all the Chaos spells. I'm level 28, I just need to farm one more stack, then I'll be level 29. There are 400 black dragons there, so I guess it's clear why I didn't kill them. They guard the arena and gold.
I don't really want to give up Education and Defense, nor do I want to give up Sorcery and Chaos for obvious reasons. Well, and Luck boosts Chaos, and I already have 44 Sorcery. I only have 375 mana, though, so I have a feeling that if I don't defeat the demons quickly, there won't be anything left of Chaos. Oh, and the vampire dropped in Utopia on the second try, so I'll have to get rid of Education and buff the dragons with the vampire.

Congratulations!
Many people complained about the Canada map, so I tweaked it several times. Yes, Udo removes buffs.
Against Sigrif, Chaos is useless; Darkness is definitely preferable. I would replace Education and Luck with Attack and Leadership.

I completed the Sigrif scenario on the same day and finished the final one today. In the end, I didn't give up on Chaos; instead, I abandoned the education path and focused on Darkness. Overall, I used Subjugation and Vampirism a few times. Otherwise, I defeated him with Chaos. I got the Boots of the Earth, so Meteor Shower dealt 2-2.5k damage, and with luck, it dealt 5k. He had protection against everything except Earth; his general protection reduced Earth magic damage. I passed it on the first try, but I lost Minotaurs and Witches (I was unlucky, and a Berserk was cast on the Witches, and then they cast it on the Minotaur, and they killed each other, haha). I also lost Beasts, but it was just by chance. Overall, I thought it would be difficult, but it turned out to be quite easy.
To make it more challenging for him, he needs to increase the army growth slightly. I had more Dragons than he had Devils. He had more of all the other units, but he had fewer Lords than I had Witches. That's why I quickly captured the town with Witches and Dragons.

Regarding the final: I initially tried playing as Askh, and I easily defeated the Necromancer, but Urgash is invincible for Askh. I also made a mistake and only later realized that I could assemble an army of 6-7 units. Unfortunately, there were no racial Dragons there, which also affected the battle. I critically lacked resources for the Mentor; Darkness didn't drop until the very end, so I started with a not-so-great build. But I think Urgash can't be defeated by Askh, at least not with the native Elven troops.
I tried playing as Urgash and easily killed both of them without any losses. Chaos is just too overpowered. And the Imps drain all the mana in two turns (and I killed everyone in three turns). Urgash is officially overpowered. Maybe I'll try playing as Askh again sometime; I won't play as the Necromancer, I don't like Undead. And he's objectively the weakest there, although you managed to complete it, I saw your screenshot, but I don't feel like trying it.
Thank you for the trilogy! You have the best maps! Although "Elemental Equilibrium" is also a great map; if it had a difficulty level like yours, I think it could compete as a single-player scenario.