2nd Necro mission - HEROIC

[Romanov77]

Im getting frustrated with this mission.

I tried everything.
The walkthrogh on CH really doesnt work on Heroic.

I stayed with the haven town and tried to build it up, but Ive no chances aganist the powerful academy hero that arrives very soon, around week 3, when my army is still too small, not to mention that their hero has tons of mana and a vast array of deadly spells.

So I tried to rush to Lorekeep, and with great efforts I finally made it, only to shortly after owned by the patrol boat heroes who decided to take my necropolis too...

I made join all the undead I found, but they were not enough aganist the overwhelming academy forces...

[DaemianLucifer]

Played just on hard,but I do remember how hard those initial fights are.But they still can be won with some minor casualties.Try restarting the scenario,maybe youll get more lucky seed Try fighting them on a boat or in town in order to maximize your skel archers effectivness.Having summoning here can also be helpful.Other then that,I cannot give you any other (usefull) advice.

[wimfrits]

If I recall correctly there was 1 ‘crucial’ point in the map. After Markal first explored the island, then embarked on a ship near the starting town and headed for the first island, there were 2 (‘patrolling’ as I just read in the walkthrough) orange heroes that provided relatively exciting battles. After that, the ‘big’ orange hero started sailing towards my only town. At that point I was torn between either sailing back with Markal to intercept that hero or let Godric deal with him.

Sending Markal would slow down exploration while letting Godric deal with him was more difficult. I think I let Godric at it eventually, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, I thought that Markal’s ocean voyage triggered the big orange hero.

[DaemianLucifer]

No.I think that killing colossi trigers him.He came to me with three heroes in a row even though I didnt even wet my toes.

[wimfrits]

No.I think that killing colossi trigers him.He came to me with three heroes in a row even though I didnt even wet my toes.

Could be.
I killed the colossi just before setting sail, so the 2 are the same for me.

[Romanov77]

I avoided doing all this and he SHOWED up, by the time I had just built the knight building, and he arrived with an army with 1 titan, lots pf Djins, Rkashas (sp?) and around 60 mages, more than enough to blow up my poor army.

The walkthrough is also misleanding, because it says that there are many undead to join on the starting island, while instead there's just a meager Wight stack, guarded by DJINS!!!(pain in the back to defeat, since they are many)

[Gyler]

If i recall correctly, first i went and cleared the entire east side with markal, joined army with godric. I suffered little losses on the djins and once i got the wights cleared the rest of the southern island. By then i had over 10 wights, quite a few skeletons, liches, the works. Once the orange hero came it wasnt much of a problem seeing as i conserved my troops and guess i built the haven town up a bit, mostly archers and range. Got 2 lorekeep but didnt get all the stacks because i wanted them to grow (10% a week i heard) and my army was strong enough to destroy everything withought them. Killed all orange heroes so its doable, not really sure what else 2 say.

[maltz]

This is what I did (1.2 heroic C3M2):

1) Go east, kill the nearby tier 1-2 units with Markal, and take the wights.
2) Go back, kill all remaining neutrals with Markal, take the Saw Mill.
3) Go west, flag the ore mill, take the windmill and the +2 arena.
4) The 1st Orange should have arrived at this point. Charge it with everything with Markal. Should be able to win with about 50% army left.
5) Put Markal on boat, sail straight to the NE town, while trying to intercept any Orange hero. Markal will lose some more army. But he will be fine because of the archers joining in. Slaughter the remaining orange heroes with Markal and the scenario is owned.

[sylvanllewelyn]

This was a hard mission on Heroic, but the hard part's really at the end.

First, the Djinns were damaging, but weak, just split into stacks of 1, take advantage of their large size. Use the delaying tactic to just blast them and then use raise dead if they do hit any "real" stack. You should then be able to take out the whole island with the wights, except for the mage in the far left, where you need some haven reinforcements (but then, I prefer frenzy to puppet master anyway). Make sure you take out the inquisitors to get curse of the netherworld before attacking the tougher creeps.

The first battle against the orange ships you need to use Markal, the rest you could use Godric. Godric seems weak, but once he has about 5 cavaliers, his superior might should be evident, when their Djinns struggle to kill your marksmen.

You could really finish this mission quickly, but I found it hard because I chose to level both heroes to the limit first,l and that meant leaving Hikm alone too long. Nur's special ability means she regenerates like 8 mana a turn, and having 12 titans, 27 Rakshasa, 60 mages, 400 gremlins, 47 Djinns... I barely made it through with frenzy and mark of the necromancer, because one frenzied attack against your unfortunate target gives you like 15-20 mana. Expect a long grind though, because you're fighting an enemy that has infinite mana and resurrects every turn.

[Gyler]

This was a hard mission on Heroic, but the hard part's really at the end.

First, the Djinns were damaging, but weak, just split into stacks of 1, take advantage of their large size. Use the delaying tactic to just blast them and then use raise dead if they do hit any "real" stack. You should then be able to take out the whole island with the wights, except for the mage in the far left, where you need some haven reinforcements (but then, I prefer frenzy to puppet master anyway). Make sure you take out the inquisitors to get curse of the netherworld before attacking the tougher creeps.

The first battle against the orange ships you need to use Markal, the rest you could use Godric. Godric seems weak, but once he has about 5 cavaliers, his superior might should be evident, when their Djinns struggle to kill your marksmen.

You could really finish this mission quickly, but I found it hard because I chose to level both heroes to the limit first,l and that meant leaving Hikm alone too long. Nur's special ability means she regenerates like 8 mana a turn, and having 12 titans, 27 Rakshasa, 60 mages, 400 gremlins, 47 Djinns... I barely made it through with frenzy and mark of the necromancer, because one frenzied attack against your unfortunate target gives you like 15-20 mana. Expect a long grind though, because you're fighting an enemy that has infinite mana and resurrects every turn.

Heh, i think i spent alot more time than you because the titans were up to 27 in mine, 100 djins and pretty sure som 80 rakashas, grmlins at 666 and cant really recall anything else, but i did wait to get the stacks when i attacked so markal made short work with all the skellys i had (think had 2k or so by this point)

[Sir_Toejam]

that's what I recall too... i also took my heroes to the limit, and markal had close to 3K skellies for the final battle.

it was cake.

I also chose to explore with markal, primarily to collect skellie archers.

It paid off quite nicely.

have markal take out the two weaker enemies early on, and let the bigger one go to Godric back at the city. You should survive that battle (barely), but at that point, the map is pretty much yours to play with.

I can't recall for sure if I had summon creature at that point; i think i did. if so; build fast and use summon creature (if you have it); mix troops with godric if you find yourself a bit on the short side when the bigger enemy stack is about to attack.

the moral hit isn't anything to worry about in a town.

as a general rule of thumb, I usually allow for one full weeks growth in the starting area before i take my main hero on the prowl. Take markal out on the water as close to the first day of the second week as you can, collecting as many troops as you can afford before boarding, and have godric run even more troops to him on the boat the next day, before moving out into the water. Markal should have enough of an army to take out the lesser hero stacks, especially if he manages to collect a few more skellies on the way, and godric should have another few days to collect troops before the bigger hero comes calling.

[Romanov77]

What skills do you think are NECESSARY to win this blasted map?

[DaemianLucifer]

The walkthrough is also misleanding, because it says that there are many undead to join on the starting island, while instead there's just a meager Wight stack, guarded by DJINS!!!(pain in the back to defeat, since they are many)

Those werent that tough to get.And I think there were vamps there too.And one stack of skel archers.

[Romanov77]

The walkthrough is also misleanding, because it says that there are many undead to join on the starting island, while instead there's just a meager Wight stack, guarded by DJINS!!!(pain in the back to defeat, since they are many)

Those werent that tough to get.And I think there were vamps there too.And one stack of skel archers.

Are we talking about Heroic?

Djins may not be that tough by themselves, but fighting them with so few troops (the starting ones) is very tough.

My little Wigh I got as starting bonus was smoked in 1 single attack by one of the stacks.

I cant even remember how I managed to get through them...

Plus...where are Vampires and skelly archers on the starting islands? I found none.

[DaemianLucifer]

I think the vamps are in the west,near the windmill.But maybe they got removed in the patch.And you shouldve taken liches instead of a wight.Also,clear the rest of the neutrals to boost skel archers before attacking the djinni.

[wimfrits]

There was a stack of wraiths in my game in the far NE corner of the starting island. Reached them at the end of a week and waited a day to get 13 instead of 12 joining me.

In retrospect, that stack did help a lot in the first 3 fights with enemy heroes (after that, the stack was no more). Didn't you get any undead neutrals in your game?

[Romanov77]

There was a stack of wraiths in my game in the far NE corner of the starting island. Reached them at the end of a week and waited a day to get 13 instead of 12 joining me.

In retrospect, that stack did help a lot in the first 3 fights with enemy heroes (after that, the stack was no more). Didn't you get any undead neutrals in your game?

No, there's only 1 single stack of Wighs (unupgraded wraiths), no other undead stacks.

Damien, I find the wigh much more effective than 2 meager liches...

[DaemianLucifer]

No, there's only 1 single stack of Wighs (unupgraded wraiths), no other undead stacks.

Really?It must be the patch changed this.

Damien, I find the wigh much more effective than 2 meager liches...

Liches are better because you dont need to move them to attack,so they can stay and block your skelies forever.Whn fighting djinni just block your skelies and raise the blockers.With a bit of luck(meaning,therell be no stack moving over the corpse and attacking your skelies),you can win this one quite easy.

[JurK]

i finished this with rushbuilding the haven town first. make sure ure hero has mass endurance, high benediction and mass haste helps too. put 1 stack of crossbowman on place 1, 1 stack of squire's next to them and 1 stack of inquisitors next to them. (shield allies). next. let ure peasants distract the enemy and make sure u have enough griffons and a high luck boost. (defense + evasion is usefull too.) le griffons do air strike on enemy mages to take them down very quickly. do this twice, after this ure griffons will most likely perish ~.

the fight took me ~30 minutes, but i won. after that u can start marching & conquering the southern part of the map with ure necro. the rest is peanuts..

[wimfrits]

No, there's only 1 single stack of Wighs (unupgraded wraiths), no other undead stacks.

Perhaps I had wights instead of wraiths too in my game, don't remember such details.
And indeed, it was the only stack of neutral undead on the southern island for me as well.

But why pick the 1 wight? 13 or 14 wights does not make that much of a difference, right? And the strength of 2 liches does not justify the slot they occupy. Better to deploy fodder stacks instead.
So I think the sack bonus is the best way to go. Helps you build up the haven town much faster.