The Ranger - The Vampire Lord

Tennmuerti · Unread postby **Tennmuerti** » 03 Oct 2006, 14:06

Is it just me or has 1.3 made this mission a bit insane on heroic?

I came out wearly 2nd week and there was Raven waiting near the portal with 1.2k skellies and some other rubble. So I've read ppls coments here and decided to mess around on her turf and wait for a week to get nuff troops to make a stand, captured her town while she was away and flaged some mines...

Now my I'm about to attack her with my new army, and just before doing so i check Ravens troops again, now she has 2.9k skellies o.O, that was 1 week later after coming out of the portal. (she has also goten 25 nightmares somewhere :/)

I have resurection on Finni, but im sorry 2.9k skellies at the start of week 3 is still 2.9k. I dont see how its possible to beat that without Sandro's cloack and dark magic, unless you keep running all the time.

I checked back, and sure enough her skellies grow in number, one day it went from 1.6k to 2.9k.

I dont think slow and steady gonna cut it here.

Have fun with that one

Edited on Tue, Oct 03 2006, 08:06 by Tennmuerti

maltz · Unread postby **maltz** » 03 Oct 2006, 21:43

Does the number of skeleton archers grow all by themselves? Or they grow because Raven defeated some large nuetral stacks? If that is so then you might need to rush to kill these neutrals that's on Raven's way. (Like stopping a forest fire by burning the outskirt trees).

Tennmuerti · Unread postby **Tennmuerti** » 04 Oct 2006, 11:40

The number grows by itself thats what boggled me, the situation was as follows: Raven goes to get some phat loot on the side i sneek out the portal since i can't defeat her yet, run past and get the Castle; Raven starts heading back for the castle to get me, however she seems to do it in small steps, (not fighting anyone at this point so no way for her nubres to increase). I checked back on my saves and rolled the entire thing by me day by day watching her come to take back the castle. On a certain day she has 1.6k archers, i focus the camera on her during computers turn, after ravens mooves, she has 2.9k archers, no fighting no nothing, just like that a jump from 1.6 to 2.9 in one day.

Maybe my mission is bugged i dunno, on lower setting it s a piece of cake, but nothing i can do against 1.6k archers so early in the game, and after that huge boost i got no chance even with reinfocements.

Yes she does get a couple hundred skellis at most from diff stacks defeated, thats not the proble, however that one huge jump in numbers is a seperate thing.

maltz · Unread postby **maltz** » 04 Oct 2006, 22:38

Very interesting. You mentioned that Raven traveled in small steps; that sounds like a human player using Summon Creature for the turn. Can it be that the AI is smart enough to ship 1300 skeletons in a town where Raven has the access to summon? And plus the AI might be able to cheat on heroic, using no mana to summon creature... dunno

fhaaland · Unread postby **fhaaland** » 06 Oct 2006, 22:39

I have a problem! I beat Nicolai to almost death and he fled. But now everyonoe is dead (an dhave been for quite a while (the tile color does not have a "turn"). But still no Nicolai. How am I supposed to be able to finish this mission then? I have all the resources on the map (Iæve not dug up the tear yet and have 2 dwellings of dragoons left, but those were sidequests...) I have the latest patch too. anyone encountered this problem?

maltz · Unread postby **maltz** » 06 Oct 2006, 23:10

> I beat Nicolai to almost death and he fled

I never heard Nicolai would flee, but perhaps that will give you a problem. Hopefully you have a save file somewhere before he flees, and try not to let him flee this time.

Edited on Fri, Oct 06 2006, 17:10 by maltz

Crosis · Unread postby **Crosis** » 07 Oct 2006, 01:54

maltz: I think the AI does use Summon Creature. In a game I played through, Nicolai was holed up in one of the towns with a sizable army (25 shadow dragons, 2500 skeleton archers, and everything in between), and then all of a sudden he had nothing (but not suddenly enough for me to be able to get there) and another hero near me had his army grow from 12 shadow dragons to 37 and 1.4k skeleton archers to 3.9k. And this was on easy, so I'm sure the AI is capable of doing it on harder levels.

maltz · Unread postby **maltz** » 14 Oct 2006, 06:37

Thanks for the inputs. I've updated the walkthrough to patch 1.3 heroic.

It is pretty obvious to me that the AI is much better on 1.3. They pool huge armies together to create some uber army quite early. But I already know where the tear is from my last run. *grin*

Lucy Curtis · Unread postby **Lucy Curtis** » 16 Oct 2006, 20:58

Has the Tears of Asha been moved since patch 1.3? I followed the directions on the walkthrough to where the Tea should be (I didn't visit all obelisks given the information, just two) however after countless attempts at digging where it was supposed to be and getting nowwhere, I gave up.

maltz · Unread postby **maltz** » 16 Oct 2006, 21:48

Can you see your trail showing up in puzzle map? If not then you are probably having a different location. As I mentioned in the walkthrough, I got the tear twice, and both were beside the Sulfur Pit. I was playing on patch 1.1 and 1.3. I can't say whether it will be always there, though. Like in C1m5 and C4M2, I've seen actually TWO locations of the Tear in both cases.

Lucy Curtis · Unread postby **Lucy Curtis** » 16 Oct 2006, 23:08

NO I can't see the trail appear. However I have played other campaigns in Hom V and the trail has never appeared in those either. What does happen however is that when you are close a subtext comes up saying you should look south west etc. It definitely is the place shown on the walk through though as I took a print out of that before playing.

Sir_Toejam · Unread postby **Sir_Toejam** » 16 Oct 2006, 23:16

just as an additional voice, i too have seen the AI use summon creature on several maps I have played.

It beat me on one map doing just that, in fact.

thought i had my hometown well protected...

oops.

Silver Paladin · Unread postby **Silver Paladin** » 12 Nov 2006, 17:47

I am playing patch 1.3 normal... I chose enlightenment in the previous mission (C4M4), reaching advanced pretty early on. It let me hit level 29, barely, without using the Sylvanna's ancient. I then backtracked and visited the Ancient right before the end. This put me at a low level 30 entering this mission (C4M5). By only using Findan for battles, and fighting Nicolai a dozen times or so, I went from level 30 to level 32 during this mission, saving the Ancient's until last. With all three Ancients still available, I completed the mission at level 35. (The final Ancient gave me over 7 mil. XP for free... As for my stats 15,179,101 experience points total, next level req's 32,960,630, primary stats 34 A, 32 D, 20 S, 30 K, 0 M, 5 L, 450 mana, with nothing equipped.)

Queen Hera · Unread postby **Queen Hera** » 22 Nov 2006, 08:15

Great walkthrough & extremely helpful - thankyou. I left Nicolai till last which made it easier, but after reading the walkthrough I'm going to restore the game & increase Findans stats since he's in the next campaign. I didn't use Sandros cloak, does it really make a big difference when fighting the undead? Thanks again

nononesense · Unread postby **nononesense** » 20 Dec 2006, 18:58

Great walk-through, maltz. Thanks. The map included here does not show any magenta (such as seer tent) or numbers you cite such as the important Unicorn Bow (where exactly is this? what does the number "3" mean with the unicorn bow?). D1 or D2, the Dwarven artifacts, likewise do not show up on the map. Is it possible to win this scenario with Dark Magic but w/out Sandro's Cloak? I'm working with 1.3, if that makes any diff.

casdragon · Unread postby **casdragon** » 19 Feb 2007, 21:46

i find that if you have a lot of treants, teleporting them next to the legions of skeleton archers makes your life a lot easier.

arturchix · Unread postby **arturchix** » 19 May 2007, 20:25

I just replayed this campaign with version 1.5 - some things have been tweaked i.e. Nicolai's power in the last map. He no longer receives the enormous boosts and doesn't run like mad toward the player when on sight. Maybe I was playing just too agressive but I owned the necros in every possible way, dominating the map. I even liked that Nicolai was owerpowered before - at least I had some challenge.

Great campaign.

Peredhil · Unread postby **Peredhil** » 03 Oct 2007, 16:19

With all three Ancients still available, I completed the mission at level 35.

where are those 3 useful trees?the second on Nicolai's continent(mentioned in walkthrough) is unreachable (dunno why,just the lil' horse won't show,regarding the camera's angle) and the third I can't find it ... could anyone put some information about this?

(1.0 version)

sanctuary79 · Unread postby **sanctuary79** » 28 Oct 2007, 09:07

I,ve killed this Nicolai 1000 times, but I didn't finish the game.What's the point?

Anibus · Unread postby **Anibus** » 27 Nov 2007, 14:41

I belive that i have a big problem, Nicolai has 41436 spectral dragons.

I owns all castles and i have bilded tears of asha. Last time i tried to down load any patches the game crached(it was for an other misson(had to play all missons again)), im playing version 1.(europe version). Does any one know what i shall do? Maybe i download wrong patches, i dont know. PLEASAE HELP ME

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