The Mage → The Liberation

[Psychobabble]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't encounter that on either of my plays but it's good to know.

[hoanghaicv]

Thanks for the heads up

[sezerp]

In my game (normal difficulty) the army guarding Al Safir was somewhat lesser, but still formidable (22 titans, 44 Rajas, 100 magi, 86 genies, about 300 gargoyles and about 200 golems). And my army was also weaker than Psychobabble's. Still, it was possible to win, The trick was to hypnotize/berserk genies and rajas, kill everything with enemy's own stacks and then summon large stack of elementals. The loses I took where extremely heavy so I'm not sure it is worth the bother. (I didn't finish the map yet - damn those duty travels :-))
Edited on Wed, Jun 28 2006, 08:15 by sezerp

[Sikon]

I didn't build a level 5 mage guild in the first mission, so the siege of Al-Safir proved difficult without Summon Phoenix and mind control spells. Eventually, I combined the most powerful Academy and Necropolis stacks with Zehir and kept casting Raise Dead on the undead, especially bone dragons, which decimated lesser stacks while summoned elementals were destroying the enemy Rakshasi and Titans.



And Newpost isn't that useless, you can build a level 5 mage guild there, while the Necropolises are limited by level 2 or, for Lorekeep, 3.

[maltz]

When I took Lorekeep it was called "Undefined". Is that true in other people's game? Is this the wizard's way to humiliate the necromancers? "Oh! Your crap town is UNDEFINED in our dictionary. We don't recognize your existence."

[asandir]

this is all good to know, as i head into this map - cheers PB

[Malthus]

I'm a newbie when it comes to the Might and Magic series, so I'm playing this through the first time on "easy". Tips on first map, getting Summon Phoenix etc. were invaluable, but I still found that heroes were taking my starting castle on this map no matter how hard I tried to keep it. I found that the most effective strategy was to take out the Necro castle to the NW with Zehir within the first week. Visitors to my island then became much less frequent, so I was able to concentrate on building up the Academy and taking the next necro town
Edited on Thu, Aug 03 2006, 14:21 by Malthus

[magerette]

Playing on hard difficulty post 1.2 the early days were really hectic. Far from having no further attackers after the first assault, there was a constant stream of teal heroes. Day 5, Week 1 they started and they kept coming, two and three at a time, until I took BOTH necro towns. It was like stomping roaches--one would die and four would come to the funeral Anyway, the map was a lot of fun once the early feeding frenzy was stemmed, and I finally managed to beat the garrison in Al-Safir with the use of Phantom Forces,which I picked up at the Shrine guarded by the Succubi that supposedly wasn't worth it. Don't think I could have won without it. Great walkthru, though, and I know I couldn't have made it without the help. Thanks!

[sylvanllewelyn]

Rather than wandering around, you could beeline towards Al Safir immediately. By the time you get there, it will only have a week's worth of creatures plus some undead, stuff that your phenoix plus raise dead (even the patch 1.3 one) could handle.

[maltz]

Got some updates here. Patch 1.3 made it impossible to build mage guild past level 2 in the starting Academy town. You could build to lv 5 in a Necro town previously, but you can only build to lv 2 in a Wizard town. Yeah that makes sense. Good job, Nival.

[Slammy1]

Well, I went through once without walkthroughs and going the power gamer route this time through using them. The previous walkthroughs were spot on, with some minor variances, This one's way off, I guess patch 1.3 really changed things. 2 large armies come at you day 5 of week 1. The other walkthroughs have been great, thanks Maltz/Psychobabble.
Edited on Wed, Nov 22 2006, 04:41 by Slammy1

[Naki]

The only thing that helped me take Al Safir was a Frenzy spell scroll (my Zehir did not have Dark magic skill)...



I'm not sure if the game always gives the Frenzy spell though, maybe if I replay this scenario it will be another spell. Frenzy was needed to beat the Rakshasi, who were maybe about 80-90... Basically the Rakshasi killed all the town troops (including lots of Titans) and then I finished them off with my units + spells.



Note: I played on Normal.

[jmarling]

Good News! Apparently Al-Safir has been greatly toned down. In patch 1.6 I attacked Al-Safir toward the end of week 4. The stacks defending were quite modest: 10 Titans, 20 Wights, 30 Lichs, 90 Steel Golems, 20 Rakshasa Rajas and 39 Djinn Sultans. My Phoenix had no trouble eliminating them(I have no dark magic skill). I just had 2 weeks worth of Necro troups, who mostly just watched the Phoenix[because of the high Phoenix initiativeand damage, the Phoenix attacks are like having 2 to 3 extra implosions per round]
Edited on Tue, Dec 11 2007, 09:16 by jmarling

[akaihane]

On heroic 1.5 , the first necro hero is impossible to defend against without zehir in town and with summon pheonix. He has about 100 skeleton archers , 90 zombies , 60 ghosts , 40 vampire lords , 3 wights. And he is level 11. The walkthrough suggest hiring a new hero to defend? Even with all troops including those that zehir start with , a new hero don't have a chance to defend against that. Plus its almost impossible to buy all the available troops at the start of week 2. Rushing the necro in week 1 might be the solution to this instead of sending zehir off south to flag mines.

I think Nival is very bad when it comes to making the difficulty of the map. Before the introduction of memory mentor and the spell shop , the difficulty of the campagin is mostly determined by the luck of your first map. Why did they even take out mage guild level 5 on map 2 but give you mage guild level 5 on map 1? Yes , Nival is been lame and wants you to restart map 1 thousand times until you get your summon pheonix and/or frenzy/pm. The same can be said to the previous campagins. This is never a problem in heroic tote as there's always the memory mentor and towns almost always allow you to build to mage guild level 5.

I want a challenge but its no longer a challenge when a map totally depends on your luck of getting the right skills and spells on map 1-2 of the campagin.
Edited on Wed, Feb 20 2008, 02:42 by akaihane

[VAMPSVSZOUNDS]

I decided to capture Lorekeep first(I'm playing on 1.0 hard so I can learn Instant Travel) and I learned PM from Newpost.(I have 3 out of 4 schools at expert.)As I conquered Lorekeep an enemy hero,Vittorio,came out with about 2 castle weeks of necro growth.Suddenly,when he lands near Yafiah he has 20+ base growth weeks of Academy production!!! Then I hide at Ulamburiash and suddenly I was attacked by 74 Titans+35 base growth of other Academy soldiers!!!!P master+mass confusion+sandro cloak turned the tide.Well,not really,as the enemy fled when I pm-ed the 500 Steel golems and 74 Titans,all mass-confused.Now I am alone on map,except I have to capture Alsafir. How did Vitorio get so many soldiers?

Answer:probably he summoned them,but 700 M gremlins cannot be just summoned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grail Quest]

Just some notes:

In later patches (I was playing Normal on 1.5) the AI no longer tries to target summonned creatures, but the sacrifice units for elemental replacements strategy is still sound.

The AI doesn't build up its cities much, not even LoreKeep or Newpost. If you can take Al Safir first, you'll be able to recruit a VAST number of gremlins because it looks like the AI is not scripted to buy any.

Against the cavalier stack - I survived with no losses, no light magic, no dark magic -- Field a huge stack of gremlins covered by golems. use firewall and phoenix to kill the cavaliers. Toward the end, use Wasp Swarm to delay the cavaliers so that you can repair your full golem stack with your gremlins without letting the cavaliers hit them again.

If you don't field the golems for the cavaliers to hit, they go for your war machines (which, however, you can replace quickly at NewPost).

[Peredhil]

Heroic 1.6. Aggressive approach is way better.You can take northern necropolis in day 4 and southern in day 8 on mainland,killing two powerful armies on the way(you got Phoenix on map 1,right?).just use Zehir specialty at it's best .When I assaulted Al Safir in W2D7 I found 4 Titans, 8 RRaja, 20 Wights, 30 Liches, 40VLords, 70 Specters.Recruit everything and hire as many heroes as you afford for that(even get necro troops).My army was 17 Djins, 12mages, 14 Steelgol, 38IronGol, 28 garg and 146 MGremlins.Barely made it with few golems left.But you get fresh troops,one full town and Grail in it.Waaaay better than taking Lorekeep.

Teal never left southern island.To play safe,just summon it's boat for your own purposes,then it's really stucked.

[Minizo]

OK, here's something I just found out: you CAN get a level 5 mage guild in your starting mage town post 1.3, all you have to do is let the teal player capture it (I left no defenses and captured Al Safir, effectively swapping academies) and when I got Sihaam back, it had a level 5 mage guild.



Fun times

[obanvar]

Patch 1.5, Normal. I agree with Peredhil. It IS the best option and it IS possible to conquer Al Safir at the end of the first week or during the first 2 days of the second week, with just what you get on the starting town. One Phoenix and one Elementals did the trick for me . Barely made it with a few golems and gargoyles, and some gremlins, but it is possible!. Separate your stack of Gremlins on 3 parts before the battle, it will increase your chances of getting them killed early and get some Elementals, which will add to your summoned Elementals. Then: -First: summon phoenix RIGHT AWAY as soon as possible at the start of battle. -Second: destroy those towers!!! with Earthquake if you have it (if you got Phoenix on the first stage, probably you have Earthquake)., they really do damage to your Djinns and gremlins, and keeping them alive all you can will skyrocket your chances of success on this battle. -Third: cast Righteous Might with your Archmages on your Phoenix, and Divine Strenght too with Zehir, it will give your Phoenix's power a little boost. -Fourth: first kill some Liches with your phoenix, they are devastating, and they have more initiative than the Titan, then kill the Titan, then finish some Vampires (they will come to your Phoenix), then finish off the Liches. -Fifth: by this time, there will be a few liches left, about half the vampires, the Ghost stack will be full, and the Wight and Zombie stacks too. Leave the Wights for the final, they will take time to get to your units. Focus your Phoenix atack on the vampires to finish them now, and your Elementals (all of them) on the Ghosts, to prevent them from reaching your remaining Gremlins, gargoyles and golems. It will be difficult, use Zehir to resurrect some of your remaining alive units, like Archmages and Djinns (Djinns will be surely dead by now, but if you are lucky...), it will gain you some time to use Phoenix. I only used one simple Phoenix during the whole battle . -Sixth: sooner or later, those damn ghosts will kill many of your units, which is bad, but you'll get plenty of Elementals, which turns the tide. Finish the Ghosts NOW for good, and then the Zombies (they are crap). There will be only the Wights left. -Seventh and final: probably this battle will provide you with plenty of Air Elementals (both the summoned ones and the ones you get when you get your units killed), which get no enemy retaliation. (If not, then oh God! you are in trouble... I'd re-start the battle). Use them to surround and block the Wights path, to force them to kill your elementals and allow your true units (gargoyles, gremlins and golems if you have any) to escape beyond the castle walls, while you kill the Wights with Zehir's attack (you won't have much mana by now), and the Phoenix.



Congrats! you get a FULLY developed Academy town, with Sky Ship on it , and plenty of reinforcements (the AI forgot to hire them ). Let's kick some Necro asses now
Edited on Sun, May 30 2010, 14:43 by obanvar

[darkmage]

1.6

Attacked Al-safi pretty early, defended by 10 Titans, 20 Wights, 30 Lichs, 90 Steel Golems, 20 Rakshasa Rajas and 39 Djinn Sultans.



I had 7 spectres.



Only spells I used were Earthquake x2, Summon Phoenix, and raise dead. Easy fight, thanks to the incorporeal ability of the spectres...