Sylvan Campaign Mission 5 - The Vampire Lord 5-5, 5:5 Guide

[Arkali]

Original Post:
I am having fits with this mission. I'm on normal difficulty and have done okay pretty much all the way through. I've explored most all of the underground, half of the above ground maps. I've got my two towns, plus the first Necropolis. I have the Phoenixes in my army - and Nicolai is continuously stomping the shiz-net out of me.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe I just didn't quite move quickly enough onto the offensive - I want to say it's about month 2.5?

Thanks guys :-)

Walkthrough

********SPOILERS/WALK-THROUGH (normal difficulty)**********

Firstly - as they say in the military, move like you have a purpose. I've found in most of the missions where I've had problems a large part of it has been because of me strolling along and taking my time. In that vein, Summon Critters is a godsend. Also, buy up extra heroes to ferry troops to and fro. Another trick, and this is one I should have used more, you don't need to have your main hero capture enemy mines. The opponent has already killed the neutrals, you just need to send someone over to claim them - and a little level 1 new hire is perfect for the job.

Okay, I tried re-loading a few times and nothing doing, Nicolai was too tough for me, so I restarted the mission. FYI - Findan was fine the way he was. Sure, it would have been easier had I not tried to go for the ultimate and therefore had a better mix of skills, but it was still doable. To catch up, he had attack, defense, luck, war machines and logistics +racial (avenger). Firstly, he visited the elf town closest to the initial garrison TWICE, that was it. First time was on the way out the garrison, second time was after trouncing that first set of dragons to the left of the seer's hut. Also, I'd recommend having your biggest creature building city be the city that is on the left side of the starting island (more on that later).

So - have your troops ferried to your guy, flag all mines on your starting island, and plan to be through the garrison sometime during week 2. After going through the first portal, run to the seer's hut, then clear the spectral dragon nest. You'll also probably get jumped by a necromancer somewhere around here. After clearing the nest, you can town portal back to your garrison city and save a bit of movement. While in town, set your favored enemies. I had three slots and chose skelly archers, wights, and spectral dragons. Archliches are also a good choice. Skelly archers should be Public Enemy #1, though - non-negotiable. Okay, back through the portal. This time hang a right, and grab that Necropolis. You don't really even have to defend it, I just grabbed it so I wouldn't have necromancer's spawning in my back yard.

Now, push to the portal at the north of this island, and gate underground. This should be roughly the start of week 3. Buy up all your critters in the town that's your army machine. If you followed my advice, it's the second one that's in your city queue, and it is now your closest city. Don't forget to ferry troops from one city to the next. Summon critters, and move. Head south, find the unicorn bow which is in an alcove guarded by Cerberus (cerberi?). If your hero build is at all similar to mine, this is CRUCIAL. Even if you made your Findan completely opposite, this bow will still make your life a LOT easier. If you aren't moving quickly enough, the enemy may already have it (this is what happened to me my first time around). As if those skelly archers need a boost rolling eyes

At this point, I cleared out the four garrisons holding the dwarven artifacts, hit a couple of random treasure piles that didn't require me to go out of my way(if you grab the two garrisons in the northwestern quadrant first, there's a portal in the westernmost corridor right near where you found the bow. This will zap you to the southeastern corner and save a few days travel time as it puts you near the last two garrisons guarding the artifacts), and then I town portaled again. I was in the southern part of the map at this point, so destination necropolis. Make sure you're ferrying your troops again - this time to the elf city closest the portal. I turned in the dwarf artifacts, got the phoenixes (dropped sprites), stepped just through the portal, summoned critters, and then back underground. Again, as soon as you portal underground, summon any troops you may have. As a note, you can keep the artifacts and just kill the spectral dragons that are revealed by the eye of the magi, or not even go after the artifacts. To get Nicolai to stay dead (and thus end the mission) you only need to turn in the dwarven artifacts for Phoenixes OR kill the dragons - not both. I chose the dwarven artifact route because it seemed quicker to me. As much of this mission seems time-critical, I'd recommend deciding whether you want to get the phoenixes or kick dragons in the bootie and stick with that plan - doing both accomplishes nothing but wasting time.

The portal to above ground is in the northeast quadrant of the map, so I made a bee-line there, taking the necropolis on the center island while en route. Right before portaling above ground, do a summon creatures if you need to. Portal. Now, keep an eye out for Nicolai. At this point I had roughly 250 master hunters, 20 dragons, 5 phoenixes, 50 unicorns, 35 treants. I also got jumped by Vladimir about two turns after arriving. The unicorn bow in conjunction with Avenger and Findan's special opening volley definitely puts a cramp in their style, though.

Keep an eye out for Nicolai - you *should* be having to chase him down at this point. If he's chasing you, that's probably not a good sign and may indicate that you've taken too long to start hunting him, thus allowing him to muster scary numbers of troops. At any rate, the portal to the northwestern island is in the southwestern quadrant. I stepped through that, and then saw Nicolai. He zipped by me sporting 30 skeletons (oh, teh fear!), and made a mad dash for that critter house that's revealed by the eye of the magi. This, I think, is where he gets a fair number of troops. After he visited that, he had a little over a week's growth, maybe two weeks worth, but he was also cornered. I pounced on him, kicked the hell out of him, and that was it - it was all over except for the cutscene ;-).

***************

EDIT: Put Walkthrough on first page/post and also changed the thread title to make for better searchability.

[GatorG]

One tip - make skeleton archers your favored enemy.

[Orfinn]

Yeah getting your avenger ability maxed out, helps ALOT since you can have 4/7 necropolis units as favored enemies. I would add vampires, skeleton archers, liches and wraiths (or spectral dragons) as your chosen ones.

Also luck is a must, you can do serious damage in combo with the avenger ability

[Arkali]

Oh, also - I may have screwed Findan up. I didn't take *any* magic abilities. I was going for the Ultimate skill (which I think is logistically impossible) and also took War Machines. But he's level 30, and I took skeleton archers, archliches and wights for favored enemies. ARRRGH!!!

[Nebs]

Haven't tried, and not sure of prerequisites, but do you have Imbue Ballista skill? Heard it can do quite a bit of havoc. But now, again not sure, does destructive magic have a big play in that setup.

[Pitsu]

One possibility to soften the opponents.

I am not sure if it is so in every game, but the first stack of spectral dragons should guard sandro's cloak artifact. If you have that thing, buy a hero and level him in dark magic (and knowledge for spellpoints). Load some durable armies to the hero and use the cloack and frenzy spells on your undead enemies. Flee or surrender before you lose the hero and artifacts.

[Arkali]

I've got level 3 Avenger (though an amulet or some such that bumps it to ultimate), level luck, soldiers luck, elven luck (I think that's it - not the ultimate skills, but a 3rd tier benny), War Machines (ballista and first aid), attack, defense, logistics, etc. I want to say I have 12 or 14 dragons, 308 hunters, 250 sprites, 5 phoenixes, 100 someodd druids, 40 treants. Something like that - all upgraded.

Oh - Nikolai is getting some crazy good luck his own bad self.

[Arkali]

Does anyone know if that bow is on the map? The one that negates distance penalties? That would make life a hella lot easier ;-)

[Nebs]

Yes it is. When you portal yourself in underground, just go south...bow is behind some cerberus.

[Arkali]

Thanks, Nebs. I'll look again. Hopefully the enemy hasn't scapped it up already, though I called myself looking for it. *sigh*

[Gaidal Cain]

Does anyone know if that bow is on the map? The one that negates distance penalties?

I found it in the underground. But to me it seems you're having a bad build of a hero. Light magic would help you a lot. War Machines is only going to be really useful if you can use Imbue Ballista- but you're up against the undead, so dark magic is out and Findan's spell power probably isn't enough for destructive magic to be really effective.

The best idea if you don't want to restart seems to be to try and avoid Nicolai and summon more creatures from your sylvan towns.

[Pitsu]

but you're up against the undead, so dark magic is out

I won easily only thanks to dark magic. In fact the enemy heroes usually fled after his skeleton überstacks were frenzied. The foughts were just like first one or two turns...ˇHowever, to affect undeads with mind spells one needs that cloak...

[Bethel]

Also, if you can get him to attack you in a town, take out his catapult and then start working on anything that can shoot/fly.

I have Resurrection - couldn' t have won without it, I think.

[Arkali]

Good thought, Bethel. Actually, I think I might could lure him back to Necropolis #1....

[Nebs]

Heh, I had dark magic, and only spell I've used was mass slow, and would say it was worth it.

[Arkali]

I think I'm gonna cry...

[MAD_OLA]

When I fought him, he had a 7k army of skeleton archers. They were the only big threat really.

I used puppet master on his skeleton archers, and everytime Nicolai made Phantom Forces of his skeleton archers, I used puppet master on them too so I basically had 4 stacks of 7k skeleton archers in my army and since they were summoned by Nicolai, he didn't attack them so I was free to shoot down his entire army with them (including the original stack of archers).
Also I don't think he has Cleansing spell cus he never used it.

[Gaidal Cain]

However, to affect undeads with mind spells one needs that cloak...

Well, I never saw it when I played, so I was either to slow to get it or it doesn't appear everytime.

Heh, I had dark magic, and only spell I've used was mass slow, and would say it was worth it.

Mass haste is probably better given that Sylvan creatures generally have quite good initiative while it's only average for Necropolis' units.

[Bandobras Took]

The Sylvan Campaign is the only one I had to start completely over; I was expecting more Demon threats based on the first and second map and by the time I got to the fifth map I had a fairly worthless hero.

I fully recommend Expert Light Magic with all of the second-tier skills for Mass Buffs/Cleansing. Cleansing's really nice for getting rid of Banshee Howl. Resurrection speaks for itself. Also, I believe that with Expert Light Magic, Teleport can go past castle walls, but I'm not sure.

[Mirage]

well if you have explored most of the underground then you should have the two necropolis castles down there as well. I had light magic with my hero which was the only difference and I loved using mass haste and mass rightous might, it may have made a big difference but I'm not sure.