Necro Campaign - anyone completed it on Heroic?

[Romanov77]

Yes, again.

In these days I struggled with Necro mission 2 on Heroic and I can pretty much tell that it is IMPOSSIBLE.

If some of you completed it on heroic, then it was because the map was clearly easier on 1.1....

Its a nightmare...the orange army is bigger than mine and even if I mange to gather a competitiv army it gets BLOWN APART by the Orange hero and his blasted fireballs (he can even regenerate mana lol!!)

On the main island there's only a small stack of of Whighs, nothing else.

The haven town is at lowest level

The resources are few and well guarded

Orange attacks too early.


I even managed to slip through the navy patrols earlier and capture the Necropolis, but after that, Orange arrives with his uber-hero and annhilates me.


So...what should I do?? (not reducing difficulty, I hate that)

[Ketzal]

Did you try the walkthrough? It has a lot of good pointers for this map.

[Romanov77]

Did you try the walkthrough? It has a lot of good pointers for this map.

Replace "Good" with "outdated".

It mentions neutral undead stacks that doesnt exist in patch 1.2.

[DaemianLucifer]

People complain that the maps are too hard,so they make them easier.Then they complain it is too easy,so they make them harder again.Well I find that its wrong for them to tweak maps.They were perfectly fine when the game came out,and all that was needed was an easier difficulty,not map tweaking.

[Romanov77]

People complain that the maps are too hard,so they make them easier.Then they complain it is too easy,so they make them harder again.Well I find that its wrong for them to tweak maps.They were perfectly fine when the game came out,and all that was needed was an easier difficulty,not map tweaking.

Agreed.

But the problem persist as I doubt that there a single chance that even the best Homm player could beat it.

Unless of course Im missing something

(Just let me add that I completed the dreaded SoD campaigns with less problems)

[Ketzal]

What skills do you have?

[stijn]

i didn't have any problems on map 2. i went for summoning magic, logistics, enlightenment and sorcery. i first went to the right part, collecting the wights if i remember it right. playing with 1.2 on herioc. just don't go near the shores too early, since that seems to make orange come to the island.

speaking of the walkthroughs, where can we find the link to the overview?

[Warlock]

I didn't find the map that hard at all. At least once you take care of the hero that comes after you after about a month.

One key thing to remember - Necro doesn't use moral. Which means you can stick Haven troops with Markal (they occassionally get the "bad moral" turn skip but not that often). So give him as many Archers and Priests as you can (you can get Priests from the Military Post). I had something around 120 archers by the time the AI attacked.

One thing to watch out for - the AI will cast Mind Puppet on Haven troops (which I couldn't dispel at all). An easy way to avoid this is by also giving Markal a huge stack of Peasants. The AI is stupid and doesn't care that peasants are worthless, so he'll cast Mind Puppet on them first and they won't do squat to your army. Archers on the other hand, can be quite bad to have the AI use against you. If you have Phantom Forces that can help keep the AI busy too.

I had to attack the guy on a normal field because he was too chicken to come to my Haven town. I think he was more interested in Godric who had crappy troops on him at the time. But after a couple tries I beat him without too many problems. And after that the map is easy. I think Jhora has a lot of guys (patrols the seas), but I think she is pretty easy to avoid until you have more stuff to fight her with. Just try to take Lorekeep as soon as you kill that first hero and you should have no problems.

[Romanov77]

I didn't find the map that hard at all. At least once you take care of the hero that comes after you after about a month.

One key thing to remember - Necro doesn't use moral. Which means you can stick Haven troops with Markal (they occassionally get the "bad moral" turn skip but not that often). So give him as many Archers and Priests as you can (you can get Priests from the Military Post). I had something around 120 archers by the time the AI attacked.

One thing to watch out for - the AI will cast Mind Puppet on Haven troops (which I couldn't dispel at all). An easy way to avoid this is by also giving Markal a huge stack of Peasants. The AI is stupid and doesn't care that peasants are worthless, so he'll cast Mind Puppet on them first and they won't do squat to your army. Archers on the other hand, can be quite bad to have the AI use against you. If you have Phantom Forces that can help keep the AI busy too.

I had to attack the guy on a normal field because he was too chicken to come to my Haven town. I think he was more interested in Godric who had crappy troops on him at the time. But after a couple tries I beat him without too many problems. And after that the map is easy. I think Jhora has a lot of guys (patrols the seas), but I think she is pretty easy to avoid until you have more stuff to fight her with. Just try to take Lorekeep as soon as you kill that first hero and you should have no problems.

I swear that even avoiding the coast, he came extremely soon and with a huge army....anyway this puppet master trick looks intersting...this way he wont launch that damn fireballs...

What skills do you recomend??

[Warlock]

I didn't find the map that hard at all. At least once you take care of the hero that comes after you after about a month.

One key thing to remember - Necro doesn't use moral. Which means you can stick Haven troops with Markal (they occassionally get the "bad moral" turn skip but not that often). So give him as many Archers and Priests as you can (you can get Priests from the Military Post). I had something around 120 archers by the time the AI attacked.

One thing to watch out for - the AI will cast Mind Puppet on Haven troops (which I couldn't dispel at all). An easy way to avoid this is by also giving Markal a huge stack of Peasants. The AI is stupid and doesn't care that peasants are worthless, so he'll cast Mind Puppet on them first and they won't do squat to your army. Archers on the other hand, can be quite bad to have the AI use against you. If you have Phantom Forces that can help keep the AI busy too.

I had to attack the guy on a normal field because he was too chicken to come to my Haven town. I think he was more interested in Godric who had crappy troops on him at the time. But after a couple tries I beat him without too many problems. And after that the map is easy. I think Jhora has a lot of guys (patrols the seas), but I think she is pretty easy to avoid until you have more stuff to fight her with. Just try to take Lorekeep as soon as you kill that first hero and you should have no problems.

I swear that even avoiding the coast, he came extremely soon and with a huge army....anyway this puppet master trick looks intersting...this way he wont launch that damn fireballs...

What skills do you recomend??

Dark Magic (Mass Slow ftw!), Summoning Magic (use Raise Dead as much as possible), and Luck are all good. Also get Attack with Archery and Battle Frenzy.

I also suggest fighting as much as possible to build up your Skeleton Archer stocks

[Romanov77]

I got expert necromancery, expert defence, vitality, magic resistence and that ranged resistence thing...

No attack unfortunatly...however I noticed that my troops are significantly harder to kill and durable...coupled with necromancery and eternal servitude I mangaed to amass an enourmous army in the 1 scenario....I hope it will work in 2 too....

Also, this time I got my knowledge level to 3 (the other time I arrived to mission 2 with 1 knowledge...10 meager spell points!!)

Any other suggestions??

[stijn]

visit all stat boosting places on all maps, this is really important in all campaign missions. fi there's a knowledge booster on the first map making it impossible to get to the second map with a knowledge of 1

[Romanov77]

visit all stat boosting places on all maps, this is really important in all campaign missions. fi there's a knowledge booster on the first map making it impossible to get to the second map with a knowledge of 1

done.

Now I can cast raise dead 7 times in single battle...pretty good.

Also, I started the dreaded 2nd scenario, and im doing really fine this time. I have not been attacked yet, but Im clearing everything around the haven town with no problems...

My "All Defence" Necro build looks good...I'll tell if it will pass the test aganist Orange...

[DaemianLucifer]

Now I can cast raise dead 7 times in single battle...pretty good.

With mark of the necromancer,you can do it infinite times.Its the best skill necro has.

[Romanov77]

Now I can cast raise dead 7 times in single battle...pretty good.

With mark of the necromancer,you can do it infinite times.Its the best skill necro has.

What is "Mark of the Necromancer"?

I checked the skill wheel, but I couldnt find it....

[DaemianLucifer]

What is "Mark of the Necromancer"?

I checked the skill wheel, but I couldnt find it....

Heh,yes thats a funny one.You see,the skill is called spirit link,but in your spellbook it becomes mark of the necromancer.It practically enables you to have unlimited mana.You mark one creature,and whenever it gets damaged,you gain mana.A nice use is to cast it on your hord of skel archers and then rais them forever.

[stijn]

Now I can cast raise dead 7 times in single battle...pretty good.

With mark of the necromancer,you can do it infinite times.Its the best skill necro has.

i didn't take dark magic, and never had any problems with mana since i went for enlightenment (intelligence) and sorcery (mana regen)

[hellcharger]

It is NOT IMPOSSIBLE.

Actually, I did not find the mission 2 hard. The mission 5 is a much harder one because I trained Godric to learn all spells in dark and light.

The only trick is Sprit Link + Raise dead. Nothing can stop you then. Kill the Titans ASAP to get the artifcat.

Yes, again.

In these days I struggled with Necro mission 2 on Heroic and I can pretty much tell that it is IMPOSSIBLE.

If some of you completed it on heroic, then it was because the map was clearly easier on 1.1....

Its a nightmare...the orange army is bigger than mine and even if I mange to gather a competitiv army it gets BLOWN APART by the Orange hero and his blasted fireballs (he can even regenerate mana lol!!)

On the main island there's only a small stack of of Whighs, nothing else.

The haven town is at lowest level

The resources are few and well guarded

Orange attacks too early.


I even managed to slip through the navy patrols earlier and capture the Necropolis, but after that, Orange arrives with his uber-hero and annhilates me.


So...what should I do?? (not reducing difficulty, I hate that)