Inferno - mission 3

[Romanov77]

Hi, Im back after a pc upgrade, and now Im eager to play the game, finally at highest detail!!!!

What should I do? (I play only on HEROIC)

Take the sylvan town and build it up or rush the enemy abusing mirror image and gating? Thanks!

[DaemianLucifer]

Or you could exploit the fact that druids dont summon until you capture the south town and rush the northern two towns first,then take the southern one,then gilraen and druids.

[Gaidal Cain]

Depends on you've installed the patch or not. If not, DL is probably offering sound advice. If you have, take the southern town beginning of week 2, press for the western one to take day 1 week 3, and then take care of druids and build up Agrael. Gilraen will just sit there in the third sylvan town.

[metalic]

In this mission, speed is the key.

You need the following to win

1. Abandon the Infernal Town, used elven armies
2. Retreive the Frenzy scroll that guarded by a pack of emerald dragons.
3. Have Phantom Force spell
4. Used Logistics, rush gilren's main castle
5. Defense against Gilren's comeback attack
6. Frenzy Dragons and War dancers, because war dancers are placed next to master hunter and druid.
7. Take out other two towns with EZ>

[Warlock]

I'm curious what people recommend for troop makeup on this. I originally played it on Normal using DL's method (which is no longer valid since I patched). Now I'm going back on Heroic and it's quite a PITA. I captured the lower town but then one of the heroes came at me and whooped me pretty good. I think I need to wait until week 2 first and then not waste money on the Inferno town at all (other than maybe an initial mage guild and money/resource makers).

But should I be attacking the second town with Sylvan or Inferno troops? Or both?

[Lady Farquad]

IMHO You will get many different answers from same number of players... I think of it as a matter of taste and perhaps style...

I HATE mixing troops, not only inside the army, but having a demon lord with sylvan troops makes me sick!

Most players on heroic are expert players, and usually their kind prefer to rush things a lot and give little notice to the scenery...

[Warlock]

I can't seem to find a good way to do this one. If I sit around my base too long (and by too long, I mean waste like two turns there) then they come after me with huge armies and wipe me out. If I rush them, then I lose too many guys along the way and they come after me with huge armies and wipe me out -_- The problem is there aren't really any "easy" stacks along the way to the second Sylvan town. The Magi aren't too bad, though it helps to only get one stack of them. But then the Earth Elementals pound me. Grr..

[Killroyan]

Speed is the key apparantly but can anyone explain me how you can pass the 7 phoenix stack with a marginal army? Not conquering the southern town so the druids don't do their magic is a good advice because I already loose enough creatures on the sprites and master hunters that keep appearing on my way to my castle. It is annoying as hell. I have played that map a lot of times now and still haven't figured out how to beat it. So if the loophole really works (leaving the sylvan town alone) then I will finally have chance.

My last game I actually got a decent army but then comes Gilean in with 4 emerald dragons, 40 unicorns and 86 master hunters and the rest. It is simply too much. I also have bad luck with my hero. I really wanted destructive magic but never got it offered. What skills do you guys concentrate on? I have attack, logistics, gating and got in my last game warmachines from the witch hut.

[wimfrits]

Speed is the key apparantly but can anyone explain me how you can pass the 7 phoenix stack with a marginal army?

Pass the earth elementals a bit to the east instead.

Not conquering the southern town so the druids don't do their magic is a good advice because I already loose enough creatures on the sprites and master hunters that keep appearing on my way to my castle.

I found that when choosing the pit fiend bonus, deploying pit fiends alone (and a first aid tent), I could win against 75% of the sprite stacks without losses.

Master hunters are more annoying. Once Agrael uses a Sylvan army, this became less of a problem for me, since his ranged units get the first shot and then the master hunters will target Agrael's sprites, which are expendable anyway.

My last game I actually got a decent army but then comes Gilean in with 4 emerald dragons, 40 unicorns and 86 master hunters and the rest. It is simply too much.

Like was mentioned already, the scroll of frenzy (near water crossing to Gilraen's castle) is key.
Personally, I faced Gilraen out in the open, threw every Inferno unit against him that I owned and won with 2 succubi left if I recall correctly.
I think I started with frenzying the master hunters, forwarding single familiar stacks to 1. keep the emerald dragons on Gilraen's half of the field and 2. lure the war dancers into range of my big stacks of cerberi and familiars. After that, frenzy the emerald dragons.

After the battle I switched to Sylvan units that had been accumulating in the SW castle for a while and the rest of the map was pie.

[Killroyan]

Sound advice of the pit lords against the sprites. Really need to try that. Nice one Wim. And earth elements to the east? Hmm, must have a closer look at the map again. This map really turned down my interest to be honest. After reloading 5 times and trying out different courses I finally found dumbfounded on how to finish this (and of course refusing to go lower then heroic difficulty :p stubborn me).

[Warlock]

Well I managed to take the upper left castle first (Mass Slow ftw!). Luckly I saved right after that, because about a month later Gilraen came and owned me. I had the Frenzy scroll too, but the problem is he takes out 80% of my army before Agreal even gets a turn to use it.

So I'm going to have to reload, but at least I have a good point to reload to. Maybe I should take the bottom town sooner so Gilraen holes up in the last one (unless they fixed that).

[Warlock]

Man, I came so close last night. I took the upper right town so the only one left was the upper left (I used to have it but it got taken). But Gilraen was chasing me the entire time. I let him come to me, and *almost* killed him. The problem is he has freaking 1k Wardancers and I cannot kill them. I spent something like 30 mins just having his wardancers chase my lone stack of treants through the moat trying to kill them. I think I got them down to 800 something before they caught up with me and killed me

I think I might just cheat and give myself some extra emerald dragons or something. I am so sick of this map

[Lady Farquad]

I prefer to play normal-hard without cheating, than going on heroic and getting stucked.

[Killroyan]

Darn, I still have problems with this map. I gave it another try (still on heroic). I did not conquer the first town and tried to expand to the other castles. Got past the eastern guardians (still 57 hunters, ouch) but could not find the frenzy scroll. Later I found out that Gilraen already had that scroll, bummer. I defeated the druids and thought I had turned of the druid power that way. Gilraen left his castle and I conquered it only to find out that the druid power was still in place. Grmblll. Not funny since I couldn't turn it of anymore. Guess I was too quick with that one. After that I kept on raiding castles and at 1 point had all 3 castles but Gilraen was running around with 1k bladedancers, 21 dragons, etc... Again not very funny. With all the creeps spawning Gilraen was levelling like mad and propably got a lot of joiners also. I can't imagine how he otherwise could have gotten 360 hunters, 780 sprites and over 1k war dancers. I was walking around with 70 upgraded succubi, 70 hunters, 50 druids, 250 imps (to drain gilraen dry), 300 horned demons (teleport and blow up), 20 Ancient ents and 11 dragons. When I got cornered by Gilraen I got beaten so bad it wasn't funny anymore. I guess it all depends on that damn frenzy scroll which he used now on me.

Pointers for the next try are propably:
1. Even sooner expansion towards the darn scroll but prey for better guards then the 57 master hunters (almost no army left after that).
2. Do not kill the druids too soon.
3. Use town portal more for better logistics

Any other tips?

[sylvanllewelyn]

I played the map the "proper" way, on heroic,l by taking the first town quickly, triggering the script, then blitz the towns and the druids. At month 3 week 1, I was fighting a siege battle and Gilraen obviously was attacking. He had about 4 times as much forces as I did, because he apparantly had diplomacy and picked up all the wandering stacks, which were also UPGRADED, (15 emerald dragons, 60 druids, 700!!! war dancers...plus all the rest of it). I crushed his catapult with teleported treants (teleport assult), kamikaze his ammo cart and shooters, then did nothing but phantom image with my ridiculous 18 knowledge until I had too many shooters. I then used all my ammo to kill the war dancers, and then charged his other units. War dancers have the annoying area attack that destroys your phantom images.

I would not get the frenzy spell. Gilraen seems to have sorcery and light magic. Although he also has crappy skills like last stand.

[Warlock]

Darn, I still have problems with this map. I gave it another try (still on heroic). I did not conquer the first town and tried to expand to the other castles. Got past the eastern guardians (still 57 hunters, ouch) but could not find the frenzy scroll. Later I found out that Gilraen already had that scroll, bummer. I defeated the druids and thought I had turned of the druid power that way. Gilraen left his castle and I conquered it only to find out that the druid power was still in place. Grmblll. Not funny since I couldn't turn it of anymore. Guess I was too quick with that one. After that I kept on raiding castles and at 1 point had all 3 castles but Gilraen was running around with 1k bladedancers, 21 dragons, etc... Again not very funny. With all the creeps spawning Gilraen was levelling like mad and propably got a lot of joiners also. I can't imagine how he otherwise could have gotten 360 hunters, 780 sprites and over 1k war dancers. I was walking around with 70 upgraded succubi, 70 hunters, 50 druids, 250 imps (to drain gilraen dry), 300 horned demons (teleport and blow up), 20 Ancient ents and 11 dragons. When I got cornered by Gilraen I got beaten so bad it wasn't funny anymore. I guess it all depends on that damn frenzy scroll which he used now on me.

Pointers for the next try are propably:
1. Even sooner expansion towards the darn scroll but prey for better guards then the 57 master hunters (almost no army left after that).
2. Do not kill the druids too soon.
3. Use town portal more for better logistics

Any other tips?

Yeah, when I played for some reason he killed (or more likely recruited) the Emerald Dragons but ignored the scroll -_-

I did eventually end up cheating though because it was rediculous. He was just chasing me all over the map and he would get an insane number of creatures every week. I could have beaten him if not for the fact he had freaking 1k Wardancers. I couldn't make a dent in them!

[wimfrits]

If you forward single stacks of familiars at the start of combat, you can lure the war dancers into range of your melee units.

Personally, I faced about 10xx war dancers with 2xx familiars and 8x cerberi. By the time the war dancers had their second turn, there were about 40 of them left.

It seems Gilraen simply gains units over time. My advice (contrary to the walkthrough) is to confront him asap and throw every inferno unit at him that you have. Because when comparing Inferno armies with Gilraen armies, time works in his favor and not in yours. You need to have the scroll of frenzy to pull that off and you will need to switch to Sylvan units afterwards.

[Killroyan]

Finally made it with all the help from you guys. Gilraen left the frenzy scroll alone. I stormed the upper left castle and then took the right castle with inferno forces and then made the switch. Kept Gilraen walking around while I was building up a good force. Then when I was almost equal in force he just hid in the upper left castle and never got out again. Few weeks of creature savings and I was able to attack him. Now that was a good fight. Luck and morale were the deciding factors. I had to replay the fight a couple of times since I went directly to map 5 after the win so I had to reload and later even patch the game (still didn't do that) to get to map 4.

What made clear is that luck and morale are almost the most deciding factors in a great fight. 1 fight I won with more then 40% of my troops left, the other fight where he got lucky he was still alive with 40% of his troops standing. Best battle so far and now I really have the homm feeling again. Thx guys.

[asandir]

another reason why people almost always choose luck and mostly choose morale when offered as skills, they can really change the outcome of a battle

[Killroyan]

Yeah indeed, a difference of 40% to both sides just because of the luck/morale is a bit too good if you ask me. Inferno really needs those skills. I am already hating the fact that I didn't pick luck but went heavy caster style. Morale and luck (especially soldiers luck) with the high init non retalliation fighters in that army makes it very fearsome.