The goal of this scenario is to capture the town of Terraneus which lies underground. Your heroes are limited to 6th level and the 4 strongest will advance to the next scenario. You choices for starting bonus are: 14 Pikemen, 5 of each rare resource, or a First Aid Tent.

Click on a map to see a larger version.

Green - Friendly Town
Yellow - Underground Passage
Red - Enemy Town

A# - Allied Towns
O# - Opponent Towns
M# - Mirrors (two-way unless stated)
E# - Exits to the other level
J - Jails

If you like using magic, then taking the resources as your starting bonus will help build the higher level mage guilds. If you're more combat oriented, take the Pikemen. The First Aid Tent wasn't very helpful to me, and I don't recommend taking it. Your hero starts out in the southeast corner surrounded by Pikemen and Archers. Don't worry as they will all join you seeking greater glory.

Go to your castle (A1) and hire an extra hero to climb onto a boat and explore the water along Path #1 to collect the wood and gold. I recommend buying the upgraded archer tower and upgrading all of the Archers to Marksmen. Then take the starting hero (Christian) along Path #2. There are a few mines you should flag and places of learning that you should visit. At the end of Path #2 is a two-way portal (M1) that leads to a snowy area (Path #3) with unguarded artifacts. I would just send an extra hero to Path #3 via M1 and have him retrieve the artifacts. Since there are no wandering stacks along path #3, you can just take a couple fast creatures because you won't need to fight up there. Another idea is to send a Tower hero if one is available because they don't have any penalty when traveling on snow. If you want to just use Castle troops, you can dismiss the Tower hero later.

While Christian and the other heroes are exploring you should get the Citadel and then the Castle to increase troop production. Also build as many of the unupgraded creature dwellings as possible before the first week is up. You can always upgrade them later so quantity is more important than quality at this time.

At the start of the second week hire a hero, buy him some creatures, and send him along Path #4. There are a few mines in this area along with a school, a wandering teacher, and some artifacts that are guarded by creatures. This area isn't essential but it does provide some good resources and a gold mine. Artifacts don't carry over to the next scenario, so it might not be worth the trouble to get some of them. I would definitely flag the gold mine at the very least.

Also at the start of the second week, Christian should have gone to some places of learning along Path #4 and then moved on to Path #5 to take the first castle. There are two enemy castles in this area (O1 and O2), but they are easily overtaken, especially if the hero who explored Path #3 comes back with some artifacts for Christian. Hire troops in O1, give them to Christian, and continue on Path #5 to take over O2 and any enemy heroes along the way. Leave a hero in each of the towns to defend while building and upgrading so you will have access to more troops.

If you see a hero, right-click or press option over them to get an idea of their army size, or use the Vision spell if you have it. If there are a lot of troops, stay in the castle because they are likely to attack it. If you build a Citadel or Castle, you will probably win because of the protection the walls and towers provide. If the enemy hero has a small army, wait until they get close and attack with Christian instead. You don't want to leave any enemy heroes wandering around the area.

Castle O3 is the last enemy town on the surface. Give Christian as many troops as you can gather and send him along Path #6 to take it. If you played quickly, your hero and army should be more powerful than theirs. There is a hill fort northwest of O3 where you can upgrade any creatures that aren't upgraded yet. You are very close to winning now, and you control the entire surface. You may see a hero appear from either E1 or E2 with a sizeable force so be ready for that by continuing to build and hire troops in O1 and O2. Have Christian and another strong hero recruit creatures and try to stop anybody that comes to the surface.

If you want to "groom" the four heroes you can take to the next level, there are many places of learning along Path #7 including a colloseum and an acadamey. There is also a jail as indicated by the J on the map which contains a hero with a sizeable army who will join you out of gratitude. You can also continue building up your towns so you'll have a sizeable force when you head underground. I like building mage towers in each town to get access to as many different spells as possible. Make your own decision about how much time, if any, you want to spend making your heroes stronger. Doing this will make future maps easier but if you like a challenge you can always head underground right after conquering the surface.

There are two underground entrances; E2 along path #5 and E1 along Path #6. Pick two strong heroes, give them both as many creatures as you can. Send one through E1 on to Path #9 and the other into E2 and then along Path #8 so that they can fight any enemy heroes heading for the surface. There are a few mines in the paths leading of from the central area, but they are not be important anymore.

When you reach the center, put all of the troops onto one hero and attack the last enemy town. The ground is cursed so you can't use any magic spell above level 1. Fortunately, you should have such a large army that even a level 6 magic user should win easily. Level 1 spells such as Bless, Haste, Slow, or Shield at Expert level will be useful if you have them. There are no special tactics that you should use for this last fight. Just attack their ranged creatures with your flying and ranged troops and then attack the rest as they come over the castle walls while using your best level 1 spells. After you win, this scenario will be over.

The Final Battle

If you are playing just for time, you can rush the underground castle with your starting troops and pull off a victory in about a week. However, the later maps might be tough if your heroes aren't built up.

Last Update: February 10, 2002

Copyright © 2000 - 2001 Rocco J Carello