ToTE Battlecry Freedom-share your experience with me please

[Kildars]

Yesterday I (finally) successfully beat this map, which was my second try. The red haven AI always has huge army and it still took 4 tries for me to win the fight against its main troops. But after I finished the map, on the score ranking screen I saw it was possible to finish this map within 200 game days which seems so very little to me. In this map you seem to have to build up everything from the beginning with only your starting troops which might seem large but not quite so compared to that of AI's. And since orcs doesn't use magic I don't see lots of ways to "manipulate" the battlefield. If someone played this map and finished it easily, please share your experience with me. How do you deal with seemingly larger armies with orcs?
And by the way now it seems that the prisoned orc hero doesn't have Absolute Rage anymore. Is this a new feature added in the new version?

[danhvo]

I haven't played this map, but 200 days sound like a lot. I assume that must be because this map has multiple scenarios, and 200 days is the total time? Still, I don't think any campaign took me that many days, let alone a map.

I will try the map and tell you how many days it takes me.

[Kildars]

Thanks. Didn't think anyone was gonna reply to my post. Yes I know I took a lot of days, and I would REALLY like to know what I did wrong to have taken so much, or is it just the enemy army is too big?...Please do be reminded that because I don't play it a lot, I'm by no means a good player

[danhvo]

I finished this map. It took me 63 days, on Hard difficulty. I was far outnumbered in the final battle, of course, but the AI was forced to attack me in my castle, or rather, its castle (I snuck behind and captured the castle while the main force was away), and that made all the difference.

My force: 587 Goblin Trappers, 318 Centaur Nomads, 177 Maulers, 27 Earth Daughters, 55 Executioners, and 4 Blood-eyed Cyclops.

AI: 756 Brutes, 357 Crossbowmen, 272 Vindicators, 211 Battle Griffins, 85 Zealots, 70 Champions, and 40 Seraphs.

Yep, the AI's army was huge, but on the first round, my Centaur Nomads immediately took out the Catapult. The Earth Daughters, split into 2 stacks, the Nomads, the Ballista, and the castle towers did the rest. Kunyak was lucky to find the good warcries in town (Fear My Roar and Horde's Anger). He kept the Seraphs from casting Divine Vengeance with Fear My Roar while the Nomads did the damage. I didn't even need my Executioners and Maulers.

The AI simply had a very bad hero build. The town I captured had all the good spells (Frenzy, Confusion, Puppet Master), but the only spells the AI hero cast were Cleansing and Sorrow. He clearly didn't have Dark Magic. Lucky me.

[Kildars]

Hmmmm......I always wonder, how do you get the AI's castle? I mean, how do you lure its main army away from it?
You obviously didn't crash into its main army from the front...and I think that's what I gotta learn to be better at this game...and you didn't use the hero from the prison, which I think might be important too because, although he is a lot higher level than Kunyak(?), we can't customize his build. And yes, you are so damn lucky to get those 2 warcries
Anyway thanks for your post and try if someone could tell me what you do to lure the AI away from its castle maybe I would be able to clear this map a lot faster.

[danhvo]

Luring the AI away from the castle is easy, if you have the right ability (Snatch). Remember, you start the game with the Sextant, so your water movement is better than his (unless he has Navigation). Just come close enough to him so that he can almost reach you in 1 day, but not quite. And he will try, if his force is clearly superior to yours, as in my case. Then just go around him and land on his island. Since you have Snatch, you can move away from the shore immediately, and will be out of his reach.

Since this is a watery map, you definitely have to try to get Snatch.