HoMM IV - A Wind of Thorns

[Areat]

Very neat campaign. I just finished map 4, and it sure was a challenge. I'm on the easiest difficulty, and I still had to play hide and seek with the main armies of my opponents.

I absolutely love the way this campaign truly has a story with characters, events, many side quest and a good deal of jokes. It's extremely fun. And it seem the end of map 4 lead to a split, with the rest of the campaign being entirely different depending on your choice. So double the fun. (good thing I saved beforehand, though)

The side quests and hidden events are very fun. Not a lot of texts in them, but it's always funny, and give some sort of character development. I often found myself saving before getting the rewards because I soon discovered they often give a choice, and I wanted to read all of them just for a little chuckle.

At first I didn't find the mug the dwarves were asking for in map 3, which is a shame, because I loved these dwarves and their carrots. I eventually found it, where the ground is, well, pink indeed. As the dwarves had said. It being invisible until you step on one specific tile that is out of the way made it easy to miss, but I got it.

I did solve the wand quest in map 4, though! The wands are pretty easy to stumble upon just because of how peculiar the tiny bit of special ground look like, and once you find one you feel like checking the others you find throught the map. The way to use them was quite random, though. I had nearly finished the map when I passed through the spot that trigger it. Seem like you can miss it entirely. If someone read my message in several years, wondering how to solve it after trying everything : try roaming the non-snow woods just north of an igloo.

Anyways, Thanks wimfrits for the awesome campaign! I'm diving back in.

[wimfrits]

Hi Areat. Great to hear you're enjoying the campaign
Big praise to you for completing the wand quest.. that is definitely the most hidden secret. Hope you liked the reward.

Good luck with the rest!

[Areat]

Forgot to post a follow up!

Well, it was a very neat campaign altogether. Somehow, I feel like the fourth map was the hardest, even though there's several more after. Probably because the ennemies are very strong, while your heroes are still a bit weak. I can't imagine winning without life magic and health regeneration. One big mistake I did the first try was to capture a few town from the life player, but losing it to the nature one, who then had a lot of multiple level four creatures with high levels heroes. Still winnable as you can win without defeating all your ennemies, but definitely less satisfying.

I liked both paths. Somehow the "ally" one felt way longer, and more interesting. More original decision, a tension as it's clear it's a shaky alliance long term so you wonder whether it may broke at any moment, and of course the return home. When playing both "ally" and "adversary" paths, the next maps felt easier in terms of battle, yet quite tricky in terms of strategy.

In the ally one, you have to go all over a big map, all while the ennemies have two paths to your town, which make you lose if you lose it. AND all your third and four level creatures are automatically sent to some door, which is weaker to defend without the town's tower buff. AND one of the path the enemies take go around that door. AND the ennemies are strong enough that it require you to attack with both sisters heroes. Made it tricky, having to go on conquest all while constantly going back in a hurry to defend. Order magic with its portal spell was practically a requirement. Once secure enough, it was more fun, though. As was the conquest map, and the return home.

In the adversary one, there is a very strong feeling of being under siege. Crazy strong armies with high level heroes constantly came out of the portal, I just couldn't go very far with my heroes before I had to rush them back with the order portal spell (again a requirement. I don't see any way to win this campaign if your heroes don't pick life and order magic, as well as becoming strong in combat). Won by the thinniest bit many battle, often thanks to the tower buff, health regen and mind control/breaking distance attack magic. It was the longest time before I could really explore the underground, and it was weird finally getting the gargantuans past the moments they were needed the most at the castle. But it sure felt satisfying surviving this strong feeling of being under siege. And then invading back. Somehow, the following maps left me less of a strong impression, but it was fun nonetheless. Again, I preferred the Ally path.

Way less hidden secret in both paths once past the fourth map,, as you mentioned. Still many fun ones. I love the way they were written, never very long (could have been more develloped for some) but often made me chuckles, and lots of events being callbacks to previous quest decisions. With it and of course the Ally/Adversary split, it really felt like an open campaign in which your decisions impact the story and game. Very neat. Having multiple choice between items, that you can exchange in following maps is both a bit frustrating, as it mean you can't do all quests, but quite interesting nonetheless. Made for some replayability. Was a bit annoyed that many quests in end maps were tied to higher difficulties, but I imagine there was a need to reward high skill players.

So, a very fun campaign. Definitely one of my favorites. Thanks for the hours of neat gameplay!

[wimfrits]

My pleasure!
Thanks for the detailed follow up, nice to read your experiences.

Indeed, order magic and especially town gate is very useful. Life and combat are pretty much mandatory in any campaign.

The Frog is my personal favorite map in the campaign. As a player you shouldn't notice but it was quite the challenge to get the honey pot concept to work with H4's AI

As for quests for higher difficulties only, indeed those are in to reward the boldest players. And to balance out that they need some extra firepower. Now that you finished the campaign, I imagine you can manage on champion as well

[Areat]

^^ I will think about it.

Do you know of any H4 campaign or scenario with a similar vibe and top notch quality as yours ? Maybe some that was an inspiration? I also finished The Saga of Depierrelles, and now I'm looking for another challenge.

[wimfrits]

I was involved in testing the following campaigns, which I believe to be interesting, fun, balanced and of good quality.
Please note that if you indeed want another challenge, you probably should play these (and others) on Champion. AWoT tends to hone the skills of players

Dragon's Fate
Lamentia's Story
The Hundred Years War
The Science of Darkness

I can only recommend those I played ofc. There are other great works out there

[Areat]

Thanks !