Posts from Rock of Grimheim

Completed this scenario on Hero. I'll start by saying that the comment will be very long, as many interesting things happened during the Walkthrough and I have a lot of impressions regarding the scenario.

Walkthrough

From the start, I decided to gain experience for Korenak as quickly as possible, even accepting losses (the breakthroughs are difficult). Later, Giovanni appears in a completely different place and is immediately given level 10; the main thing is for him to take fire warriors, with whom he can defeat all neutrals. Korenak's skills: Summoning (from the start), Lore, Chaos, Defense, Sorcery. At the beginning of the game, I used Summoning more, but later started playing with flame lords, who can be restored with Chaos. Enemies arrived by the second month. Kafka, a warlock, attacked Korenak in the castle; I won the battle without losses using one unit of flame lords. Things were harder for Giovanni: necromancer Morgrait arrived; he doesn't attack the castle, and I couldn't defeat him in the field. Through loading saves, I scouted the map and decided to bypass him and swap cities. But in the end, he didn't even try to take the city and just chased Lucretia :) Giovanni accumulated an army and defeated Morgrait in the field using only spirits (6 units of 2s and the main stack)—an interesting and long battle, losses were 22 spirits. During this time, Korenak easily captured the second Forge city, killed Kafka in the field (she was already weak), and took the Dungeon city.

Korenak emerged to the surface. Almost immediately, Kolger and Lorik began arriving at Giovanni's with large armies; they didn't attack the castle, getting distracted by Lucretia, using a portal into the city, but returning again. Giovanni was very unlucky with spells: Blindness and Unholy in Asad-Hafasat; in the first city, guilds above level 3 are forbidden, no phoenix, no phantom :( With Subjugation or at least a phoenix, there would have been an option to try and kill them. On the surface, Korenak took Haglaf, a strange dwarf city where you can hire undead as well as dwarves. But Valentine was attacking there, whom you cannot kill according to the quest. So I returned to the dungeon and decided to kill additional bosses. Against the guardian of the Chaos Blade, I couldn't come up with a tactic for a very long time; I tried playing differently many times, eventually taking forge priests (Channel for one turn to immediately destroy the ballista), idols, and flame lords. A difficult battle, losses were 100 priests and 40 idols. I defeated Gelsar with flame lords and 12 ghosts (losses: 9 ghosts). A very unusual battle, hard to describe; it's better to watch the replay. During this time, a bug occurred that significantly affected the rest of the Walkthrough. At the beginning of the fourth month, Lorik rushed toward Giovanni with a huge army (315 lava dragons, 209 jarls, 178 earls...) and Kolger, weaker but also with a large army. Kolger stood at the dungeon exit, Lorik at the entrance and... then they just stood still! Thus, Giovanni was blocked inside his own dungeon. Furthermore, Lorik's and Kolger's armies continued to increase over time.

Korenak fought neutrals on the surface; with a full army, Valentine was already afraid of him. Then I developed a plan to free Giovanni: Korenak removed Chaos at the mentor, took Darkness, learned Subjugation and Berserk, teleported into the dungeon to Giovanni (together with an additional hero with a Dungeon army for conversion), trained him, and turned Forge T4s into vampires. I was already ready to fight Kolger and Lorik in the field, but when I headed their way, Kolger used a portal into the city, and Lorik attacked on his own. In Asad-Hafasat, I left Giovanni with only ghosts, vampires, and liches; Lorik attacked the castle. He already had 355 dragons, 238 earls, 234 jarls. He has a Tome of Light, so I didn't deal damage with troops, fearing retaliation. Also, he removed Subjugation, so the earls had to be disabled using hives. In the end, I spent a long time killing dragons under Anti-Magic. Won without losses.

Giovanni emerged to the surface with spirits and vampires; Kolger attacked there with 238 earls, but I defeated him without problem, losses were 2 spirits. Then Giovanni killed Lorik in Haglaf without losses. I was worried that Giovanni had fallen behind Korenak in stats and might lose in the finale because of it. Therefore, I placed Korenak near the brown garrison so Valentine would be afraid to come out, while Giovanni simply ran around the map visiting experience shrines. All that remained was to capture Elheim from Kolger. And here a sudden problem: for some reason, all of Kolger's stats grew to 35-45; he hits with stopping and freezing, and vampires can't recover in time. If I deploy a full army, he throws meteorites. I went there with Korenak; Kolger ran into the dungeon, and I killed him twice (in the field and in the castle) with flame lords without losses. While Korenak was dealing with Kolger, great news arrived: Asbald from the tavern, who was manipulating the astrologer, manipulated it so that there would be a week of union!!! And this is fair, I believe, as compensation for the bad luck in the guild. Cities are captured, we await the arrival of the Imperials...

Giovanni is in Elheim; he has Darkness, Summoning, Attack, Defense, Sorcery and an undead army. Korenak is in Haglaf; he has Darkness, Light, Defense, Sorcery, Lore and a Forge army, but with shadow mistresses instead of T4. I won the first three waves, one could say without serious problems, though in Giovanni-Iris (wave 3) I spent a long time raising troops at the end.

The fourth wave began; I looked at Godric attacking Elheim, his build, his absorption amulet, his 158 celestial warriors... and realized that if Giovanni wins, it will be only with huge losses. I played back to a save immediately after the third wave; Korenak and Giovanni managed to swap cities before the fourth wave began. In Giovanni-Jessica, the celestial warriors stood still for a long time, but then flew in and killed 260 banshees in one hit. I killed them with vampire phantoms; lucky that there were three Blindness spells in a row. Everyone needs to be raised, but Jessica has 320 mana and magic is almost free due to the Ring of Sar-Issa and Sorcery skills. Everyone stood still and waited for her to spend her mana; the battle lasted three hours in real time. In Korenak-Godric, I placed gates so that celestial warriors and griffins could not fly over the walls. Then I shot everyone down with gates and phantoms (cannot use real troops due to retaliation). All that remained was to resurrect flamethrowers; I created phantoms so Godric would hit them with a direct attack instead of the real unit.

The fifth wave began. Korenak faces Victor Loss (Winner Loser :) ). It says he's a knight, but in reality, it's Sinitar with a center perk. Again, I blocked flyers with gates; celestial warriors were killed by horses under Berserk. He has enough mana to kill six units, but he cannot defeat flame lords. Then I resurrected everyone. The Giovanni-Orrin battle was quickly lost on the first attempt; on the second try, I won like this: subjugated griffins, they stunned the celestial warriors, then I hit them with vampires (both phantoms and real units), got lucky with Blindness and misses against the phantom. In the end, I raised everyone again. All attacks repelled and all 10 battles won without losses! Scenario completed in 299 days.

Difficulty
The scenario is very difficult. Hard battles throughout the entire game, from the starting breakthroughs to the final fights. In the final battles, enemies have a lot of mana, which means you have to wait a long time every time if you want to win without losses. I won the battle against Orrin more on luck. But for me, the most hardcore fight was for the Chaos Blade, and in my opinion, the most interesting tactic was devised against Gelsar. There were difficulties at the strategic level as well; for example, Valentine, who we were told not to touch, but he attacked on his own.

Situation with Lorik and Kolger
I've uploaded the save file, save_26.sav. Please investigate what happened there (it's enough to launch it and immediately end the turn). Firstly, where did Lorik get 315 lava dragons on the first week of the fourth month? Secondly, what caused Lorik and Kolger to just stand still while continuing to increase their army?

Music
I really liked the music in the tavern of the new faction; who is the composer? It perfectly captures that mood: entering the tavern, remembering the battles already won in this scenario, but at the same time looking at Lorik's army and reflecting on how to play further. Saved it to my phone; I'll listen to it and remember "The Rock of Grimheim" :)

Replays
There are a lot of them this time, so I did this: 5 replays from the main part of the scenario were uploaded as separate files, and the final series of battles in one archive final-replays.zip

General Impressions
The scenario is very interesting and very... underrated. Almost a year has passed, and there aren't many comments with walkthroughs. Could it be because of that unsuccessful stream? For me, this map also became an important lesson that one should not always trust the opinion of experienced players; it's much better to complete the scenario yourself. New faction, many interesting and difficult battles, excellent plot development, cutscenes, and additional quests. As a lover of ordinary demons, I enjoyed playing as Forge, which also has gate opening but better magical abilities than Inferno. I don't know how the game would have turned out if what happened hadn't occurred... But the fact that Lorik organized a blockade of Giovanni's holdings and Korenak must help break it looked like a curious twist in the main plot :) And it was interesting to play. To sum up, I think this is one of the best maps I've played. And this is the case where I must say...
Huge thanks for an excellent scenario!

Thank you for playing through it!) I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I don't remember exactly where the music came from... but I think the selection didn't go beyond Might & Magic X, VI, and VII.

You can defeat Valentine, but he will resurrect. It's not recommended only because he is a very dangerous opponent. Center Perk, Light, unique tier 6 warriors, etc.

There is a timer in the mission, after which the red player's troops (Kolger and Lorik) become significantly stronger. There seems to be a notification about this, as well as several hints.

You could say that after the streaming incident, my mapmaking activity for the fifth game came to a halt.

You could say that after the streaming incident, my mapmaking activity for the fifth game stalled.

And that's really a shame, because your scenarios are always interesting to play. I reread my old comments in this thread. Now, after playing through them, they just seem funny. The map has two Fortress towns and one Dungeon town. Corenek is like Nimue for Inferno; opening the gate can double the army, and while defending in the castle, you have time to do it; you get the Amulet of Mastery for completing a quest. Playing as Corenek with Dungeon troops (as it was in the stream), you are essentially fighting with an army that is at least four times weaker than intended; there's nothing more to say... There are no balance issues, no randomness problems, or anything else.

Thank you for the kind words. Maybe I’ll release a patch for the map later.

I agree with the comments about the excellent scenarios; they are indeed challenging for a casual player like me. Even after reading the comments above, I checked out the streams they were talking about, and it was amusing to hear people complain about how bad the balance is in such a terrible game. I hope the author releases more scenarios, because each one is truly unique and interesting in its own way.

The map is simply amazing, and I want to thank the author for putting so much effort into it. I hope the story will continue.

Thank you!

I completed the map a few days ago – I liked it.

I'm quite a casual Heroes player; I play in a unique way – I like to explore every nook and cranny, complete every quest. And by that time, the red player was already annoyed... when I reached him, I had completely cleared the underground for both Giovanni and the Chaos Dwarf. Levels around 20+, stats are good, I have plenty of troops... However, these advantages were offset by the amount of enemy troops. I tried for a long time to kite them, but alas, they can open a portal to the city... Perhaps, it would have been worth starting over from the moment the conditional timer ran out, but I was too lazy – I wanted to see what the story would end with and what gameplay solutions the author would show me. Therefore, an incredibly underhanded decision was made to cheat and wipe out all the troops :) so I can't say anything about the difficulty – except that everything was not difficult in the underground (BUT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN! ORSON IS THE STRONGEST NECROMANCER HERO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!1)

Cutscenes – absolute cinema. Knowing how the cutscene editor works in our wonderful game, I express my respect for the effort!
Story – interesting. The presentation is simple, but not trivial. The final battle is well-directed from a gameplay perspective. Work needs to be done on the dialogues. Considering that there are many characters, they all speak more or less the same. That doesn't happen. But these are already details, nuances – it's not rational to write a character for each hero to whom 3 lines of text are allocated – I understand this.
Gameplay – I liked that everything is clear and structured. On the left is the territory of the Necromancers and the gnome responsible for entertainment. On the right – the Chaos Dwarf and another gnome. The underground is ours, the surface is theirs. The south is Imperial, the north is dwarven. In the first half of the game, we attack, in the second, we defend. Awesome.
Visually – a nice picture. It is not overloaded with all sorts of frills that you don't know where to look... here everything is clear and the visuals are not complex. Maybe it just lacks details? I thought – after all, there is truly nothing for the eye to catch on. Well, maybe the author didn't pursue this goal...
Regarding the new Faction – I like new things. Especially when they are of high quality. And the new faction is well made (at least visually)! Of the units, I can only highlight tier 4 and tier 5. I didn't really figure them out – just a bunch of troops...
In total: a very high-quality work. Cutscenes and story – super awesome. Gameplay – a new faction, different units, different playstyles – awesome. Side quests and the map filled with interesting things – super awesome.
I recommend playing it.
I will definitely replay it myself 100%, but later, already more quickly and honestly (I explored all the side quests and nooks and crannies on the first playthrough)).

To the author – all the best, good luck, and motivation. And also, try not to take to heart the words that were said in a negative emotional state – they are empty and destructive.

May the light of Mikella the All-Good shine upon you :з

Thank you for the walkthrough! The problem with the dialogues is that some of them are extremely long and consist of 85% text... I shortened them as much as I could, so the quality of the lines may have suffered in some places. But by the standards of maps for Heroes 5, everything is fine. Usually, things are much worse.

I specifically registered on the site to thank the author for the mods. They are all simply amazing. I really hope there will be a continuation.
Now, regarding bugs and suggestions. First, I played through the game as a "Warrior," and at the end, when the main heroes left the map, the additional heroes remained, and the game froze. When I played as a "Hero," it turned out that there was a continuation, and I finished the mission.
As a "Hero," I decided to develop Krenak according to the demon scheme to get the "Call of Urgash" perk, but it didn't work out 😂. That's a pity. Maybe it's possible to add this perk? As a result, I had to quickly retrain him.
Once again, a huge thank you!!!!

I decided to develop Khornac following a demon build on my “hero” to get Urgash’s Call and failed?. That's very disappointing. Maybe this perk could be added?
In the end, I had to quickly retrain him.
Thank you so much again!!!

Urgash’s Call is available; however, specifically in this case, it doesn’t require Cursed Land but Pyrokinesis. It’s just not obvious unless you delve into the map files or enter add_skill 98.
Attachment 76740

Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the information.

Well, alas, I didn't complete the map; after the 3rd wave, I fall apart. I'm not saying it's impossible or that the map author is somehow flawed—I'm a casual and I admit it.

VISUALS:

I liked the map very, very much. In general, I prefer beautiful imagery over plot, and I love the visuals; everything is arranged just right and perfectly conveys the mood of each Faction.

PLOT:

The plot has such a great hook for the future that it's actually heartening; if the author continues to make maps, I'll be more than happy. Also, considering this is already the 4th map in the trilogy, it's amazing how the story is maintained at such a high level. In short, full marks!

DIFFICULTY:

The map is difficult, even very much so, which isn't bad at all—it's good; it keeps you from getting bored. The author really put in the effort here hahaha

Afterword:
This map is one of the best and definitely makes it into my top favorites; even the fact that I didn't finish it doesn't upset me. I looked at this scenario quite skeptically because of one well-known streamer, and I regret thinking that way. Reading the forum, I realized that it's very hard for the author to make a sequel, and there's little motivation after such a clusterfuck (my apologies), as I've been through something similar myself. I really hope the author doesn't abandon the trilogy but continues and doesn't end it like Master did. For me, there have always been 3 pillars on this forum: Master, Redhaven, and you, Astral. I would truly love to see a continuation. Huge thanks for the map, I liked it very much!

Thank you for the support)