Markal and The Invasion Mission

[Wahooka]

Okay, this fight is UNWINNABLE.

When you're outnumbered this badly, and obviously I have the wrong SKILLS, its just not possible.

I tried to let him take a city and then surrounded him with more forces.

This is probably the way to get him, just have a siege, let him retake a city, isolate him in one town, and eventually outproduce him.

Probably will take another 5-6 hours of gameplay, but its better then fighting this battle over and over.

Those 24 Titans are a bitch

Later..

[darkprinceh5]

With Spellpower as low as 15 and no Expert Dark, you can only blind a unit for less than 3 rounds, which doesn't help much.

You might have better chance constantly ice bolting the Titans to slow them down.

Anyway, upload your saves and let people here play for you.

[Wahooka]

This is amazing what just happened.

I let Maahir retake some towns and create a few Heroes, and I used this time to go collect more armies...

So basically I now had Maahir cornered in one city, and Isabel and Markel have him surrounded.

Suddenly, out of the portal pops a whole new MASSIVE army with 10 Titans, 500 Gremlins, 200 Djinn, etc..

Where the hell that person came from i have no idea.

This is f-cked.

[Wahooka]

What directory is the SAVED GAME file and how do I upload it?

I have deduced what happened.

Basically, once Maahir takes a town back and creates a few Heroes, they are able to use the portals to travel all around the map and collect massive armies which have been storing up in the garrisons for the entire game.

Yeah, I need help with this one, this seems like the "unwinnable scenario", for all you Star Trek fans out there

Later...

[darkprinceh5]

The game is saved under C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\My Games\Heroes of Might and Magic V\Profiles\#####\Saves

Replace XXXX with your windows username and #### with your username in H5.

You can upload the save to a webdrive like Mediafire.com and share the link here.

[Wahooka]

Okay, thanks, before I give up on solving this, I have a few last questions:

1. If I just defeat Maahir, will the mission end? I need to recover the last artifact, maybe he is the only one who has it. Or do I have to defeat all his additional Heroes as well?

2. Isabel has a chance to kill one of his heroes, perhaps the last hero he has running around the map. Here are the stats, do you think this is winnable?

Enemy Hero = 10 titan, 40 Djinn Sultan, 62 Rakasha Raja, 19 Steel Golems, 55 Archmages, 44 Master Gremlins

Isabel = 18 Ghost, 50 Imperial Griffin, 150 Archer, 37 Priest, 15 Vampire, 4 Wraith, 41 Footman.

Isabel does have Phantom Forces, hahaha!

3. Also, a less important question, but Markal leveled up, and had a choice of Advanced Sorcery or Banshee Howl or Archery, which would you choose?

[Wahooka]

I just read something on the walkthrough page, it says the 3rd artifact is in the upper Northeast corner of the map, where the 3 garrisons are.

The other 2 were obtained by defeating the Wizards.

I thought Maahir had the 3rd artifact.

That makes no sense, because who has the 3rd artifact then?

[darkprinceh5]

It has been too long since I touched the campaigns. Cannot really recall that much details. The only thing I remember is that Markal killed everyone and mission accomplished...

I would pick Archery since you have 1000 archers. The boost would be significant.

[Wahooka]

Where do you think the best walkthrough is for this mission?

[Mirez]

Where do you think the best walkthrough is for this mission?

here

[Wahooka]

I've decided to start the mission from scratch.

Please tell me what are the main skills and things I should train? I welcome all opinions on this.

I guess we decided that destruction magic was a waste of time, right?

You seemed to be a big fan of LAST STAND, anything else I should focus on?

Also, when should I go for the artifact that is in the the North East part of the map? Apparently its guarded by 3 garrisons and is very tough.

Do it as soon as possible, or at the end after taking all the cities?

[Pitsu]

Markal is more a magic than a might character and with mark of the necromancer has nearly unlimited mana. So either dark or summoning or both and sorcery sound good. From non-magic skills logistics is always handy and defense would be good too.

Most importantly I hope you have not forgotten that all neutral undeads join Markal (but not any other hero). So you should attack every neutral undead as fast as Markal can walk to them and with some luck before the enemy defeats them. The map is full of your allies, but if you wait too long they will be defeated and you are alone.

[Pitsu]

I additon to last post. As the walkthrough suggest it may be easier to do this map on higher difficulties because the joining stacks are stronger. 200 spectres by day 3 is good enough to deal with most neutrals and if Markal (and possibly a secondary hero) reach the closest academy town area (no need to capture the town, if you are not ready for elves) fast you can have ca 30 bone dragons + lower tiers by begin of the second week.

[Wahooka]

I additon to last post. As the walkthrough suggest it may be easier to do this map on higher difficulties because the joining stacks are stronger. 200 spectres by day 3 is good enough to deal with most neutrals and if Markal (and possibly a secondary hero) reach the closest academy town area (no need to capture the town, if you are not ready for elves) fast you can have ca 30 bone dragons + lower tiers by begin of the second week.

Lorekeep and the other town that Isabelle inhabits start undeveloped.

So there is no way to produce 30 dragons and 200 spectres that quickly.

Also, you should note that when you hire Heroes to join you, they are not able to recruit neutral stacks in the same way that Markal can. I've tried that, and the neutral stack will attack you.

So I know where these bone dragons are, but I've never seen 200 spectres. I assume Markal has to move very efficiently and correctly in order to recruit that large an army so quickly, correct?

Also, is it better to grab all the neutral stacks before even taking one town, or will that allow the enemy to develop too many armies?

[Wahooka]

ALSO:

If you could choose between ADVANCED SORCERY or ADVANCED SUMMONING for Markal, which would you choose? (and why?)

[Pitsu]

Adv. sorcery vs summoning: as usually it depends on situation, but sorcery sounds better for me. It helps to act more often in battle no matter what spellschools you have. Adv. summoning may be the better choice if you have very few useful spells and are relaying mainly on raise dead or you really want some high level summoning spell.

General strategy: in starting area attack all undeads with Markal. I also got some swordmen to join and converted them to spectres in necropolis. Once you can break through the shipyard guards without too much casualties, send Markal to sea and head north. A secondary hero should follow for easier army managment. There are many areas with lot of necropolis troops and your aim is to collect them as fast as possible. Do not waste Markal's movement points to collect resources or capture mines.

[Wahooka]

General strategy: in starting area attack all undeads with Markal. I also got some swordmen to join and converted them to spectres in necropolis. Once you can break through the shipyard guards without too much casualties, send Markal to sea and head north. A secondary hero should follow for easier army managment. There are many areas with lot of necropolis troops and your aim is to collect them as fast as possible. Do not waste Markal's movement points to collect resources or capture mines.

Good advice, but should Markal attack the garrisons first and get that artifact, or should he take the 3 cities first?

Can Isabel abandon her town and attack the army in the west part of the map? They will attack her eventually by boat anyway.

(I don't agree with the walkthrough which says Newport is useless, I actually built it and had like 100 priests and 200 archers and 100 footmen which kicked some butt the first time I played this)

[Pitsu]

Take the 3 towns first. As far as i know you will not be able to do anything past the garnisons before that. At least you will not get the third artifact before the first two.

Isabel may not die, but in my games she usually needs to retreat, because i am not always able to defend Newport. Isabel can be a lot of help if with armies and has no need to sit and do nothing.

[Wahooka]

Take the 3 towns first. As far as i know you will not be able to do anything past the garnisons before that. At least you will not get the third artifact before the first two.

Isabel may not die, but in my games she usually needs to retreat, because i am not always able to defend Newport. Isabel can be a lot of help if with armies and has no need to sit and do nothing.

Last time I played this mission, Isabel was able to defend Newport from a massive attack.

Other walkthroughs suggest she can be used just to destroy the Elf army.

Not sure...

[Wahooka]

UPDATE:

Its Week 3, Day 5:

I have finally landed on the enemy island with Markal and another hero.

I spent an extra week taking over some of the smaller islands to gain skeleton archers and dragons and ore mines.

I have left Isabel back at Newport while building up Newport for priests, footmen, archers, and griffins so far.

Is any of this a mistake? Can I still solve this or have I wasted too much time?

Potential problems:

1. as soon as I take a city, a big elf army will spawn. How to deal with that?

2. If I take 3 cities, his heroes can easily retake them since they will be very undefended. Better to take them sooner or wait as long as possible to give me maximum forces?

3. If Isabel stays put, she will get attacked. Should she attack first? If she abandons Newport, the island could get invaded!

I really want to solve this level, I've been stuck on it for 4 months REAL TIME