Walkthroughs
- by Harukaba
Defeat all of Sandro's enemies to win the scenario. However, if Sandro is defeated in combat, the scenario is lost. Sandro is limited to level 5 but will carry his experience, skills and spells on to the next scenario. Starting Bonus: Lightning Bolt Scroll or 8 Walking Dead or +2 Attack Skill
Maps
Click on a map to see a larger version.
Green - Friendly Town
Red - Enemy Town
Grey - Neutral Town
Yellow - Underground Passage
A# - Allied Towns
O# - Opponent Towns (a,b,c,d,e,f,g indicate which enemy)
N# - Neutral Towns
M# - Mirror Entrances (a) and exits (b). two-way unless stated
E# - Exit (a) entrance and (b) exit
S# - Seer (a) and the location of the item (b)
G# - Guard Tents (a) and the location of the Guard Tower (b)
J - Jail
X - Ambush
Starting Out
Although you might be tempted to take the +2 Attack Skill as your bonus, taking the Lightning Bolt scroll will make the first three weeks much easier. Not only will you be able to attack wandering stacks immediately but you will be able to defeat the enemies closest to your starting town much sooner and before they become a dangerous threat.
You also have to equip all of the artifacts that Sandro has and agree to combine them. You get Armor of the Damned (casts Mass Slow, Mass Curse, Mass Weakness, and Mass Misfortune on the enemy when you get initiative which lasts until the end of combat) and Cloak of the Undead King (gives a +30% Boost to the Hero's Necromancy ability as well as raising Walking Dead at basic Necromancy level, Wights at advanced Necromancy level and Liches at expert Necromancy level). These effects are in addition to the bonuses each of the artifacts give individually. Therefore, you should increase your Necromancy skill whenever possible.
First Leg
Both O1a (blue) and O1b (tan) will be nosing around in the first week so building the Cover of Darkness will keep them away for a bit longer. You should focus on creature generator buildings instead of gold producing buildings for the first week or two so you can defeat both of these enemies quickly. Fortunately, there are quite a few treasure chests, gold piles, and gold mines lying around close to A1 so you will not be lacking money. I suggest attacking O1a (blue) first since their hero, Jeddite, is dangerous with his high mana points, Magic Resistance, and a Destroy Undead spell and seems to be much more aggressive in building their town than the O1b (tan) hero. I suggest defeating both O1a and O1b as soon as possible and I was able to do it by the end of the third week. At this time, you should be raising Liches with your expert Necromancy and it will make the rest of the map much easier.
Be sure to hire heroes in both O1a, O1b, and A1 along with hiring troops there because the enemy might land and attempt to take them over. They are mostly scout heroes so building Castles and continuing to hire troops will keep them mostly safe. By this time you will have enough gold and resources that doing this shouldn't be a problem.
Second Leg
I took Sandro with his Liches and left everything else to my secondary hero and traveled north to defeat both O1c (green) and O1d (orange) along with any enemy hero along the way. Since it takes so long to travel anywhere, it's possible that a enemy hero from O1d (orange) will travel to your area while you are making your way to O1c (green). This is why you want to maintain some troops in each of the towns you conquer because if the enemy hero is a scout or doesn't have a lot of troops, Sandro doesn't need to backtrack. Once you defeat O1c (green), hire a hero and as many troops as you can and make your way to O1d (orange) and do the same there. Any remaining enemy heroes should attempt to take over any town they can but they should be easily defeated.
Third Leg
The only remaining enemy is O1e (purple) and they are cursed with having only one exit from their town and with your huge army of Liches you will be able to defeat them easily. Yet you don't want to do that. There are quite a few Places of Learning and many seer quests with rewards you absolutely don't want to miss. So what I do is park Sandro at the gate west of S1a and then bring up a good secondary hero with all of the troops from your Necromancer town and then take Sandro on a multi-month tour of the map. You might have to ferry additional troops to replace any that are lost in battle but you shouldn't have many problems with holding off O1e (purple) from being anything more than a nuisance.
S1a wants a Titan's Gladius which is found on the island to the east and will give you +13 Attack. S2a wants a Clover of Fortune which is found in the marsh area in the southwest area and will give you +3 Knowledge for it. S3a wants a Sentinel's Shield which is found underground and will give you +13 Defense. S4a wants a Eye of the Dragon and will give you +2 Knowledge. S5a wants 12 Griffins which you can only fulfill by having a wandering stack join as there are no Castle towns on the map. It seems that having a Month of the Griffin is programmed into the map as I got one every time I played this map. I actually was able to hire a hero with Basic Diplomacy to get Griffins, gave them to Sandro, and went to S5a. I was told that I'd be rewarded but didn't notice any change or improvement in my skills so I think this quest is useless.
One final thing you may want to do is go underground at E2a and defeat the Titans there to visit G2a, go back up and visit G2b which is east of E2a and then G3a which is a bit north of that. Then go to the southwest corner at G3b to get the Clover of Fortune and G4a. This lets you have access to a Necromancer town underground which is defended by a large force but is fully built-up and has the holy grail which has some very nice bonuses. This is completely optional and not necessary to win but it's fun to do.
Finishing Up
Be sure you've visited all of the Places of Learning, the Witch's Towers if they have good skills, the mage guild in every town for spells, and completed all of the quests (except for S5a with it wanting the 12 Griffins) and travel to O1e. There use Sandro and his giant army of Liches to easily defeat the enemy. You should have no problem in winning, even if the enemy has two-dozen Archdevils.
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- by Steven W. Carter
The Price of Peace: The Price of Peace
Objective:
- Defeat Gavin Magnus.
Walkthrough:
The map is divided into two parts. Teal (Reed) and Blue (Magnus) are on the left side while Green, Red, and you are on the right. Teal is your ally, and it’ll try its best to hold Blue in check, but it’ll be defeated as soon as Reed is defeated, and that’ll probably happen within the first couple months, unless the two players just spend the entire scenario trading resource buildings, which is possible.
Meanwhile, you won’t be able to get to Blue or Teal until you acquire the Mind Shield, which will be a while. But this will give you the opportunity to watch a computer player at work, and so if you ever suspected that the opponent AI is weak, now is your chance to verify that theory firsthand.
Note: If you’re using the retail release of the game, Blue won’t capture any of Teal’s towns or resource buildings after Teal is defeated, making the last part of the scenario easier. But if you’re using the patched version, then you’ll have to deal with a stronger Blue at the end.
To start off, if any of your heroes has nobility, have that hero visit your starting town. Then you can either put all your heroes together into one army, or you can try splitting them up so they cover more ground. If you built up Kodge in the last scenario, then he can probably work well enough by himself and kill some of the neutral stacks while Emilia and Solymr take on the heavy duty fighting.
Your part of the map is pretty standard with resource buildings and troop buildings -- except that the troop buildings are for Life units rather than Order units. If you want to keep Kodge separate from Emilia and Solymr then this works out well enough since he’s a Life hero anyway. Otherwise, feel free to ignore the Life troop buildings, and only recruit from them if an enemy hero approaches.
Once you’ve cleared everything from the ferry (to the north) to Green’s garrison (to the south), put as many Order troops as possible into your main army and head for Green. With three high level heroes plus two towns backing you, you should be able to easily defeat Green, who only has one town. Once Green is eliminated, clear out everything beyond the garrison and then head for Red (by using the ferry).
Red’s island, like the main map, is divided into two parts. The western side has a single Red town plus some things useful to your heroes (artifacts, ability gems, trees of knowledge), while the eastern side has two Red towns plus the Mind Shield. Since obtaining the Mind Shield opens up the path between your lands and Blue’s lands, you should do the eastern half last.
There shouldn’t be any problem conquering everything in Red’s domain. Chances are, your three heroes can do it by themselves, and with lots of titans, genies, and magi, it should be overkill. The only difficult fight is likely to be the titans holding the Mind Shield. They’re located next to the purple dragon portal at (7,114), just past Red’s two eastern towns. But with liberal use of hypnotize, martyr, and forgetfulness, even a stack of 60+ titans poses no problem. Once you defeat the titans and gain the Mind Shield, take the dragon portal, re-supply your troops, and then head for Blue. The path should be open now.
All you have to do in Blue’s lands is kill Magnus, so don’t worry about capturing towns or resource buildings, unless you just want to increase your visibility in the area. Note also that you shouldn’t capture Blue’s southern town. For some reason if you capture it and Blue captures it back, you’ll lose the scenario. So just hunt for Magnus, and kill him when you find him. He’ll only be around level 25, and he probably won’t have a strong army with him. None of your heroes needs to wear the Mind Shield. Once Magnus is down, the scenario (and campaign) will end.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Find the Sword of the Gods.
- Defeat Mazellian.
Carries Over:
- Emilia, Solymr, and Kodge (max level 36)
Walkthrough (Introduction):
This is basically two scenarios in one. Emilia, Tharj, and some low level heroes need to explore the surface part of the map (and find the sword) while Solymr explores the underground part of the map (and defeats the hero). But the two groups will never meet up with each other, so, instead of trying to cover both groups at once, I’m going to write a walkthrough for each.
Walkthrough (Emilia):
Note that Kodge carries over, but not Tharj. This puts you in a quandary: should you try to level up Kodge and ignore Tharj, or group Emilia and Tharj together anyway since they’re your best heroes, or ignore Kodge since you’ll get Emilia and Solymr in the next scenario anyway? I think the best answer is the first one. Emilia won’t gain many levels regardless, so you might as well make Kodge as powerful as possible heading into the last scenario. So put Emilia and Kodge in your main army while Tharj and the other heroes form your utility army.
The map starts out pretty linear. There’s only one way to go, so go that way while killing all the neutral creatures you run into. If you find a stack that’s too difficult for Emilia and Kodge to defeat, then bring in Tharj to help out. Eventually you’ll pass a blue keymaster gate leading to Blue’s lands, but you won’t be able to do anything about it. The blue keymaster tent is on the other side, so only Blue can use the gate. Eventually Blue will exit the area and start capturing your resource buildings, but by then it shouldn’t matter.
Past Blue’s lands, you’ll come to a fork in the road near an ivory tower. The southern trail leads to a dead end area without much in it, so you can go ahead and skip it. The main trail is the northern trail, and it’ll stay linear for a while until you reach a ferry. The ferry allows you to cross the river to get to the area that eventually leads to the sword, but it’s better to skip the ferry. Eventually you’ll find a portal that will lead you to the same area.
So keep heading south. You’ll pass Green’s area (which, just like Blue, you won’t be able to do anything about), and you’ll find lots of skill altars, plus lots of large stacks of neutrals. Eventually, after turning east, you’ll come to a neutral army guarding a portal. Compared to some of the neutral stacks you’ve just seen, the neutral army shouldn’t be very difficult. Just be sure to take down the heroes first. Then go through the portal.
This new area is similar to the area where you just were, with lots of skill altars and large stacks of neutral creatures around. The difference here is that Teal, Blue, and Green all have access to the area, so they might have killed some of the neutrals and used some of the altars. (But more likely, they’ve just gotten themselves killed.)
So explore the area. The western side eventually leads to Teal’s lands, so it’s optional, and you should do it first. The southern side eventually leads to a quest gate that will only allow Emilia to pass. Past the gate you’ll find a garrison of Life troops, and then beyond that, underground, you’ll find a disappointingly small stack of bone dragons guarding the Sword of the Gods. If you’ve been able to defeat the previous neutral stacks of creatures with just Emilia and Kodge, then you shouldn’t have any problem with the dragons.
Once the bone dragons are dead and the sword is in your possession, you can go through a yellow two-way portal that leads to the teal, blue, and green keymaster tents. So if Solymr is still tracking down Mazellian under the surface, you can mess around attacking the other computer players if you want.
Walkthrough (Solymr):
Solymr once again starts with some genies, so put Solymr and the genies together into one army, and put the dwarves in the other. Then Solymr’s army can kill things while the dwarves pick up stuff.
You should notice a quest gate just to the south of where Solymr starts out. It won’t open until you bring eight earth elementals to it, but conveniently there is an earth elemental portal just to the west. So immediately flag the portal, and then explore the eastern tunnel (and generally hang out) until the portal produces enough elementals. Then pass through the gate.
At about this time you’ll receive an underground Order town, but it will arrive unannounced, so watch for it. Then you can build it up while Solymr makes his way through the tunnels. With your starting town providing money, plus nobility on a few of your heroes, you should have all sorts of money, so concentrate on adding troop buildings before money buildings.
You’ll pass a few troop building as you make your way to the town. Have Solymr flag them, but don’t recruit more troops into his army. They’ll just slow him down. Instead, add the troops to your utility army, which will be slow anyway because of the dwarves and earth elementals.
When Solymr reaches the town, have him follow the tunnel to the east (but don’t take the dragon portal). The tunnel becomes a dead end, but you’ll still find a mage tower and a genie altar, and by the time you get back to your town, it should be built up enough that you can create a sizable army when heading south.
To the south the tunnel branches. The eastern branch is guarded by some bone dragons, and it leads to the towns you need to defeat to end Solymr’s part of the scenario. Since the underground part of the map has fewer places to visit than the surface, it’s best for Solymr to take the (mostly) optional tunnel branch to the south. (But go ahead and kill the dragons first if you want.)
In the next area you’ll find some resource buildings, plus the red keymaster tent, plus a tree of knowledge. Since you’ll be passing by this area on your way back, check Solymr’s experience. If he’s a long way from gaining his next level, use the tree now. Otherwise, wait for the return trip.
Continuing down the tunnel, you’ll find one of Red’s Death towns. Since it’s split off from Red’s other two towns, it should be lightly defended and easy to take. Then, if you continue along the tunnel, you’ll find yet another Death town. It might be neutral or controlled by Red. Regardless, capture it, clean out any neutrals nearby that you want to kill, and then head back towards your Order town. But don’t go to the town; instead take the eastern branch of the tunnel that you skipped before, and use the dragon portal next to your town to quickly re-supply your army.
Progressing through the tunnel, you’ll first notice a quest gate. It’ll only let you pass if you capture the Red town to the north. So do just that. Red’s towns are divided by gates as well as by distance, and so they’ve all probably remained separated, making them easier to conquer. But once you get to Mazellian in the town past the quest gate, he’ll have a stocked army with him. But he’ll probably standing on a turret when you face him (if he’s inside the town at all), and if you can kill him right away, his army should be straightforward to defeat. If not, just keep Solymr near the town and keep ferrying troops to him, and eventually you should have enough.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Find Emilia.
Carries Over:
- Solymr (max level 30)
Walkthrough:
Grab the three artifacts where you start out, but remove the chainmail unless you’ve made Solymr into a combat hero. Then head west. Solymr is all by himself, but that’s ok. The neutral stacks near his starting position are pretty easy, and you should be able to defeat them even if you haven’t developed Solymr’s combat skills. Plus, the nearby genie altar is unguarded, so you can just visit it and recruit genies.
There’s only one path to follow, so follow it to the neutral Order town. Once you’ve captured the town, go north, and when you come to the Order shrine guarded by devils, turn east. Heading east will eventually lead you to an undeveloped neutral Order town, plus another genie altar, but along the way you’ll have to battle waspworts and cyclopes, and you might be better off if Solymr fights those battles alone.
Once you capture the town, explore the area. You’ll find some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there is a gold mine nearby. The bad news is that the mine is guarded by a large stack of Nature units. But then there’s more good news: while you can’t defeat the Nature stack now, neither can the computer players, and so the stack essentially protects your new town.
So head on back towards your first town, and then explore to the west. You’ll find a quest hut at (108,91), and when you visit it “Emilia’s helper” will ask you to defeat Green’s starting town, Cauldron Hill. So continue west and do just that. The town is a Life town, so it won’t be much use except for the income, but once you capture it, send an army (it doesn’t need to contain Solymr) back to the quest hut to gain access to a Window of the Magi. The window will show you where you need to go to finish the scenario.
Then explore the southern (non-snowy) half of the map. You should be able to kill everything except for about three or four stacks of neutral creatures. However, leave alone the stack of efreeti guarding the green two-way portal. They’re helping you by preventing computer players from using the portal.
Once you’re ready to head north, visit one of your towns to re-supply your troops (and maybe learn spells or visit a university). Then proceed through the western entrance to the northern half of the map. (That is, the path guarded by a medium-sized stack of Life units.) You’ll first see some behemoths, and even though they’re guarding a dragon exit, go ahead and kill them so you can access the nearby gold mine.
Continuing north, you’ll come to an intersection. Head west and flag the genie altar, and then take the southern branch in the road to an Order town. Capture the town -- which might still be neutral, but, regardless, won’t be overly developed -- and then continue west, turning north when you reach the western edge of the map. You’ll find Orange’s starting town, Brookside.
Brookside might be well defended, but with dozens of genies and magi, not to mention a few titans, you should be able to capture it pretty easily. But if you have trouble, build a caravan in you latest town and ship in some more troops from your other Order towns. It’s also safe to clean out your resources at this point, selling everything but gems (which you need for titans), provided your first two Order towns are already built up with cloud castles. Those two towns will be able to supply you with all the troops you need, so you don’t need to upgrade any of the towns you capture from now on. You can spend all your gold on troops.
Next to Brookside you’ll find a quest gate, but it’ll only let you through after you’ve captured Brookside. So go through and visit the “rendezvous point.” You’ll meet Tharj, who will agree to let you meet Emilia, provided you give him 50 genies. Even if you had 50 genies, such a deal would probably decimate your army, so don’t agree to it. You can use Brookside’s caravan to ferry in 50 genies, and meanwhile you can head east to pester Blue, or you can head back south to deal with some of the neutral creatures you couldn’t kill before.
Once you have 50 genies at Brookside, you can send them in an army alone to complete the quest. That will remove the trees blocking the way to the cottage you saw before (at the northern edge of the map). So once you’re ready to end the mission, go visit the cottage. You won’t have to defeat a large army or anything to get there, so feel free to use up your army to gain as much experience as possible before moving on.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Defeat Sir Landrew.
Carries Over:
- Emilia and Tharj (max level 30)
- Reed (to scenario 8)
Walkthrough:
If either of your heroes has nobility, then be sure to visit your starting town before proceeding. Also, if you have charm or diplomacy, then you should add all the troops from your starting town to your main army, even if you don’t need them. Neutral troops only join you when they think they’re outnumbered, and they don’t give heroes enough credit, so a pair of heroes alone won’t be able to recruit much.
Then start wandering around, killing neutral creatures and collecting resources. Close to your town you’ll find something you never want to see near one of your towns: the exit from a dragon portal. Worse, the entrance to the portal is near Teal’s underground town, which you won’t be able to reach for a while, and so you’ll have to deal with a Teal hero every few days for almost the entire scenario. So make sure you hire a hero to guard your starting town, and also try to keep a reasonable number of troops there.
Note: On day 8 you’ll hear about a prisoner who was taken to a southern island. The prisoner’s name is Reed, and you’ll have to free him later. The two Windows of the Magi near your starting town show the places you’ll have to go to rescue him.
When you come to a point where you have to decide which direction to explore, go west. That’s where the closest neutral Order town is located. After you capture the town, you should once again head west, towards Green. If you have diplomacy or charm, then your starting army might be powerful enough to take on Green as it is. Otherwise, re-supply your army from your two towns, and then head for Green.
Green’s lands lie beyond a garrison located at (108,31). Green only has one town, but in the area you’ll also find a tree of knowledge, a veteran’s guild, and a few resource buildings. So it’s useful to conquer Green just for the buildings near its town, but it’s also useful because with Green gone, you shouldn’t have a serious threat on any of your towns, since they’re all reasonably far from the remaining players.
When returning from Green, visit the purple portal at (76,47) (near your second town). It’s actually a three-way portal, and one of the exits leads to the northwestern corner of the map. That part of the map is a treasure trove, and you can capture a gold mine there, plus visit the purple keymaster tent. The purple keymaster gate blocks access to a cloud castle (where titans can be recruited) so it’s definitely worthwhile to defeat the griffins guarding the way to the tent so you can pick up the command word.
Then you have a choice about what to do: you can either attack Red, Teal, or Blue. I think the best option is Blue. You can’t finish Blue off yet (it’s Landrew’s color), but you can force Blue to stay in its part of the map. To do that, head south from your second (middle) town, and capture the Life town you find (it starts out neutral, but somebody might have captured it by now). Blue has to pass by the town if it wants to go anywhere, so if you build up the town and feed it troops from your western two towns (leaving your starting town to play watchdog over Teal), then you can go off to conquer Red without having to worry about Blue until the end of the scenario. Plus, by taking the town now, it’ll be easy to re-supply your army once you can get to Landrew.
Note: If you want to take on Teal, the portal leading (eventually) to its area is located at (90,75). The portal is protected by dragons, and you’ll also have to fight a neutral hero before getting to Teal. There isn’t anything interesting in Teal’s part of the world, so it’s probably not worth the hassle to conquer it (unless you want to squeeze every point of experience possible out of the scenario).
So on to Red. The garrison guarding Red’s area is located at (99,138), but before you go through, explore to the west a little and find the cloud castle guarded by the purple keymaster gate. Provided you visited the purple keymaster tent before, capture the castle, grab a couple titans, and then head for Red.
When you pass Red’s garrison, notice the dragon exit. Teal can use that exit as well as the one near your starting town, and it makes blockading Teal just a little more difficult. So move your Teal watchdog army south so it’s roughly between the two dragon exits, and then give chase whenever Teal appears. (If Teal manages to evade your watchdog army, it’s ok. At this point you just need to feed troops into the town near Blue’s garrison, and losing some resource buildings or even a town or two doesn’t matter much.)
Meanwhile, have your main army march south and capture Red’s town. If that doesn’t eliminate Red, then Red probably has an army wandering around in the ocean, or it might have captured the neutral Life town along the eastern edge of the map. Either way, you don’t have to worry. The Life town is easy to get to but difficult to get away from (a dragon portal leads to it, but a big stack of phoenixes blocks the exit), and you’ll probably meet Red in the ocean if that’s where it is.
You now need to rescue Reed, but instead of visiting the shipyard near Red’s town, head east. By going that direction, you can grab about half a dozen ability gems, and then capture a neutral ship. After that, sail to the quest hut at (142,154). As long as Emilia is in your army, the reefs blocking access to Reed’s island will be removed.
Note: When you get on board a ship, leave one stack of creatures behind. You have to bring Reed back to the mainland when you rescue him, and you don’t want to leave a stack of creatures behind on the island.
Another note: Reed carries over to scenario 8, but only as an ally. So if you can get him a few levels here, you’ll make the last scenario a little bit easier to finish.
After rescuing Reed, sail to the Life town near Blue’s garrison, and re-supply your troops there. Then defeat Blue’s garrison and head west. You’ll find a quest gate, and it’ll only let you pass if you have Reed in your army. He should be there anyway, so pass on through.
Blue’s town is to the south, and you’ll usually find Sir Landrew standing in front of it. Since Blue only has one town, and you have at least four Order towns, the battle shouldn’t be very difficult. Once you defeat Landrew, the scenario will end.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Defeat Old King Dreggar.
Carries Over:
- Solymr (max level 20)
Walkthrough:
Once again you start out with three genies, so join them with Solymr and split them into three stacks so they can maximize their use of song of peace. Then head south, collecting halflings along the way. You’ll find a neutral Order town in the southeastern corner of the map, but it’ll be lightly defended and easy to take.
Then head west. You’ll find a quest hut at (46,47). The seer who lives there will give you access to the red keymaster tent in exchange for a Cap of Knowledge. The cap is located in the northeastern corner of the map, but it’s protected by a purple keymaster gate, so you can’t get to it yet.
Continuing west, you’ll find another neutral Order town in the southwestern corner of the map. It’s almost completely undeveloped, so it should pose no problem to take. But note: the two towns you have now are the only two towns on the surface part of the map. Red’s two towns are both underground.
Keep going clockwise around the edge of the map. The stuff in the middle is probably too difficult for your army now, but the stuff on the edges you should be able to do. On the way, visit the purple keymaster tent just north of your second town, and then grab the Cap of Knowledge when you pass by. Also notice the quest hut at (39,17). For 6500 gold and 20 mercury, the “sapper brothers” will open the way to the underground part of the map. But because the price is so expensive, don’t do the quest until you finish the surface part of the map.
Once you get back to your starting town, re-supply your troops and learn spells if you can. If you’re overflowing with money, it probably wouldn’t hurt to build a university and try to pick up a couple extra skills. Then complete the Cap of Knowledge quest and try to kill the neutral stacks of creatures you couldn’t kill before. Some of the neutral stacks aren’t important, but it’s a good idea to fight your way to the golem and genie troop buildings.
Once you go underground, you’ll find you only have one way to go for a while. So kill the neutrals you run into, and eventually you’ll come to an intersection. If you go west, you can capture one of Red’s towns and also defeat a hero guarding a treasure trove. But the west side is optional. King Dreggar is stuck behind a red keymaster gate on the eastern side, so unless you need extra experience, or unless the lure of more artifacts is too much to resist, head east.
Chances are Red won’t have done much while you were exploring the surface, so not only might their towns not have castles, Dreggar might not have much of an army. Regardless, Dreggar’s army shouldn’t compare to yours, and you should be able to beat him easily. (The hero guarding the treasure trove to the west will probably put up a better fight.) Once you defeat Dreggar, the scenario will end.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Find the Black Dragon Graveyard.
- Defeat Teal.
Carries Over:
- Solymr (max level 15)
Walkthrough:
A few notes before starting:
- There are six Oracles on the map, and you need to visit all six to complete the scenario.
- You’ll be fighting a lot of dragons in the scenario, and magi are worthless against them. So if you normally use magi, you might want to switch to gold golems here. Genies are still ok, but your most useful unit will be titans, so be sure to build cloud castles in your towns as quickly as possible.
- There is plenty of experience available on the map, so feel free to create a second hero for your main army. A combat hero is best because of the dragons.
When you start out, the bad news is that you’re back to being level 3. The good news is that you have three genies waiting for you in your starting town. So you can put the genies into your army, separating them into three stacks, and then let them cast song of peace on your enemies while Solymr and your halflings and dwarves dish out the damage. Eventually you should build up your town so you can create a real army, but until then the song of peace trio should get you through most battles.
So explore the area around your town, killing neutral creatures and capturing resources. The only entrance to your lands is southwest of your starting town (guarded by some genies), so explore to the north and east before doubling back to your starting town and taking on the genies.
Of interest near your town you’ll find a quest hut at (74,114). If you give the inhabitant a War Sling, you’ll get Golden Platemail in return. The sling is to the east next to an Oracle, but you’ll have to decide whether you want to give it up or not. The sling is pretty useful, especially if you don’t have basic archery, and the platemail adds one spell point to all spells cast.
You’ll also find a neutral Order town to the northeast, which you should take as soon as your army allows it. Once you’ve done that and cleared everything but the black dragons from the areas around your towns, head west. You’ll quickly encounter Blue’s starting town, which should be easy to take. Don’t worry about upgrading it or recruiting from it (since it’s a Death town), but use it for the added gold, and as a rallying point for your troops.
Then continue west, where you’ll encounter Green. Green will have one or two Chaos towns under its control, but it should still be easy to defeat. Once you reach the northern Chaos town, you might want to circle back to your own towns to learn more spells, and also build and use universities. That’s the best way for Solymr to learn nobility skills. Also be sure to visit the Oracle at (109,49).
Then continue advancing on the computer enemies (Red and Orange still remain, not to mention Teal). To the west of your most northern town is a dead end with a few resource buildings in it. Go ahead and capture the buildings while simultaneously pumping troops into your town. Then, when you head back east, re-supply your army.
Orange’s town is directly north of your northern town. You don’t have to take it if it’s well defended, but you at least have to explore the area since there is an Oracle north of it. Then head east towards Red’s lands. You should find the fourth Oracle along the way.
Once you get to Red’s lands, you don’t necessarily have to take Red’s town, either, but you do have to defeat its main hero, Bloth. If you can catch him out in the open, that makes things easier; otherwise assault the castle. Either way, once Bloth is gone, you can pass through the quest gate behind his town. There is also a portal there, which leads (eventually) to Teal, so you might want to re-supply your army before going through.
Note: If you have to take Red’s castle, and if Red has dragons, then realize that Red will most likely leave its dragons inside the castle until you either breach the gate or poison other troops (and they open the gate while leaving). So once you defeat Red’s ranged troops, you can have your genies cast illusion on your titans several times, and build up a huge stack of titans to deal with the dragons. Then you can use your heroes to draw the dragons out, since they’ll just be resurrected if they die.
Once you go through the portal behind Red’s town (having visited the Oracle next to it first), you’ll find the last Oracle next to an underground tunnel. But the Oracle will be guarded by several dragons, and they might be enough to kill your heroes in one shot. So you might want to leave your heroes behind for the battle, and instead use just titans, genies, and golems. Then try to draw the dragons to the golems while your genies cast illusion and your titans do all the killing. Once you visit the last Oracle, you’ll find the treasure location (nearby) and receive Dragon Scale Armor for your efforts.
Once you go underground, you’ll find lots of two-way portals. But you should only take the yellow one (to the southeast) since that’s the one that leads to Teal. (The others lead to minor treasure rooms, where you can mostly get healing potions.) Eventually you’ll come to the dragon graveyard and find that it’s guarded by a quest gate. The gate requires that you have Dragon Scale Armor, so just go on through.
You’ll find a large group of Teal-flagged dragons beyond the gate. This is the group of dragons you have to kill to finish the scenario, so don’t worry about sparing the lives of your troops, other than Solymr. So if Solymr has a potion of immortality, he should use it right away in the battle, and otherwise he should try to stay out of things as much as possible. Let your other troops (especially the titans) do most of the work, and with repeated shots from the titans and casts of illusion from the genies, you should be able to get by.
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- by Steven W. Carter
A Pirate's Daughter: Bloody Cove
Objective:
- Defeat Captain Swift.
Carries Over:
- Tawni and Pete Girly (max level 18)
- The Steadfast Shield, Crocodile Boots (x2)
Walkthrough:
Note: Once again you'll play on a large map and have way more experience available than you can possibly use. So you might want to create a sorcerer hero for your main army, and leave Pete to lead a secondary army.
Right off the bat you'll have to make a decision: east or west. Both directions lead to about the same thing -- a town and a gold mine -- but the western direction also leads to a beastmaster's hut, a school of magic, and an experience shrine, so if you're planning on creating a sorcerer, that's the direction to take.
Regardless, grab the sulfur mine near where you start out, and then grab one of the two towns, plus the nearby sawmill and ore pit. Then rinse and repeat with the second town. Tawni should be able to do these battles on her own (or with a sorcerer), but if she has trouble then bring in Pete to help her out. Once the two towns are yours, take some time and thoroughly clean out the areas surrounding them. With troops from the two towns, Tawni should be able to capture the gold mines now (if she wasn't able to before).
Now you need to finish conquering your island, which extends all the way to the southern edge of the map. Purple will have two towns, and Green will have another town, but you don't need to capture them right away. If the towns are heavily guarded, then avoid them and just flag all the resource buildings and troop buildings around them. Eventually you should out-produce Purple and Green, in resources and troops. Then, by the time you finish exploring the island, you should be able to take the towns (if you can't take them right away).
Besides Purple and Green, you'll also find some other things on the island:
-- A green keymaster tent at (131,145). It'll allow you to use the yellow two-way portal on the island.-- A green dragon portal at (123,176). It'll take you to the island that forms Bloody Cove. You'll find a dragon cave, a sulfur mine, a neutral Chaos town, and more on the island, but you probably won't need any of it.-- A blue two-way portal at (36,120). The portal is blocked by an orange keymaster gate, so only Blue can use it for now. So just be wary that a Blue hero might pop out of the gate at any time, and try to keep the town nearby stocked with troops so you can give chase when the hero arrives.-- A quest gate at (121,208). It'll only let you pass after you've defeated Purple, Green, and Blue.
So once you've defeated Purple and Green (or at least Purple; Green might have a ship out in the ocean somewhere), re-supply your army and head to the shipyard along the southwestern coast of the island. Blue's island is located in the northwestern corner of the map, so sail north and then west to get to it.
Blue will have two towns, but since you should have at least five towns at this point, you should have the bigger army, not to mention the better heroes. So capture the towns and any resource buildings that interest you (like the sulfur mine on the sandbar between the two towns), and also visit the orange keymaster tent next to Blue's western town. Now you can use the blue two-way portal between your island and Blue's, but there isn't any reason to. You still have to sail all the way to the southwestern corner of the map so you can visit the purple keymaster tent.
Note: With the three computer players eliminated, you should start ferrying all of your troops to your most southern town (the one closest to the quest gate). Then it'll be easy to re-supply your army when you're ready to go through.
Once you have the purple command word, use the nearby purple dragon portal. It'll take you back to your island, just a little west of the quest gate. So re-supply your army, buy potions of immortality, and save your game (just in case your attack force isn't big enough to defeat Swift). Then go through the gate and sail north. You'll find an island with the blue keymaster tent, plus some dragons guarding it. Kill the dragons (your force should be powerful enough that they'll offer to flee), get the blue command word, and then continue sailing north.
Eventually you'll come to the blue keymaster gate, and beyond that the whirlpool you need to go through to get to Captain Swift. The whirlpool will be guarded by some sea monsters, but you should be able to circle around them and visit the whirlpool unmolested if you desire. But realize that you won't be too unmolested because the whirlpool will kill 10% of your troops.
Captain Swift will be level 18, and he'll have around 50 dragons with him, plus a mess of pirates, bandits, and evil eyes. As long as you have about as many dragons, you should win the battle because you should have lots of level two and level three units while Swift only has level one and level two units. This is also the last battle of the scenario, so just try to keep Pete and Tawni out of the way and let your troops do all the work. Once Swift's army is dead, you'll win the scenario.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Be the only player to own towns.
Carries Over:
- Emilia (max level 15)
Walkthrough:
You start out with just Emilia, but very quickly some dwarves and halflings will join you. So head south and claim the treasure chest and resources, and then buy some peasants. With that small army you can defeat the berserkers to the west, grab even more resources, and then capture the nearby town. Try to prevent your peasants from being killed in the battles since they generate gold for you. It’s ok if Emilia gets killed while taking the town since the town will immediately resurrect her. So use her and the dwarves as fodder.
Leave the peasants in the town and head on over to the magic university. But watch out: it’s being guarded by some bandits. So kill the bandits (letting Emilia take the brunt of the damage), and then learn as many skills as possible. You should be able to afford it with the gold you started with. The university seems to have Life and Order skills most of the time, so you’ll probably become a Monk. If you don’t want to become a Monk, it’s ok; you can still switch to a different class later.
Now you need to explore around your town and collect resources, but there’s a problem. The stacks of neutral creatures are pretty powerful, and Emilia herself won’t be powerful until she gets some levels and gains access to higher level spells. So dance around, fighting what you can and avoiding what you can’t. It’s probably a good idea to head west first so you can flag the halfling and golem troop buildings, and also grab the gem mine. Then you can head back to town, recruit a larger army, and go kill things. (Battles will become easier once you get genies.)
Once you clear the immediate area around your town (including the crystal mine to the north), head west back to the gem mine. Nearby should be a stack of Teal medusae. Kill them and then head north to the quest hut. You’ll get eight nagas as a reward. East of the quest hut is a magi tower that you should capture.
From here you have a choice. You can either go north and attack Orange, or you can head west and attack Red. Since there is a stack of venom spawn between you and Orange, and since they’ll hold Orange back for a while, it’s probably best to attack Red. Plus, there’s a neutral Order town near Red’s starting town, making Red an even more attractive target.
So head west, skipping the gold mine and the treasure trove guarded by the thunderbirds for now. At (120,92) you’ll find a quest hut. If you can find Lenny’s ring, he’ll give you eight potions of toughness. Personally, I’d rather have the ring, but go ahead and complete the quest if you want to. The ring is located just to the north, on a stack of -- what else? -- leprechauns.
West of the quest hut you’ll find Red’s town. Possibly Red will have a castle and centaurs and cyclopes, but don’t despair. Song of peace (from the genies) and poison (from the magi), plus some not very good enemy AI, can get you through the battle. If Red has cyclopes and centaurs, go with two stacks of genies so they can both cast song of peace; otherwise just leave the genies in one stack. Then you can neutralize Red’s ranged troops while simultaneously poisoning them and casting mage fist or ice bolt on them (whichever Emilia has). Red’s troops might just stand around and die, but if they exit the castle, pick them off with your ranged troops.
Once Red has been eliminated, head to the southwestern corner of the map. You’ll find a neutral Order town there. However, blocking the path is a large stack of genies. If you can’t defeat the genies without losing lots of troops, then hang around Red’s former town for a couple days, exploring and flagging resource buildings. Meanwhile, caravan in some more troops from your starting town, and then try again.
Once you capture the Order town, head north. You’ll find a long ridge of mountains blocking off the top part of the map, but just before the mountains you’ll find a (possibly) neutral Might town. Take the town and then visit the teal keymaster tent nearby at (44,60). Then head east.
Along the eastern edge of the map you’ll find Orange’s starting town. It’ll probably be well defended, so you might want to clear the path to your starting town, and then bring in some extra troops, before attacking. Regardless, use song of peace and poison to your advantage and capture the town. That should take care of Orange.
Near the town at (17,91) you’ll find a purple keymaster tent. That tent and the teal tent are the only two tents you need to advance on Green’s territory (beyond the mountains to the north). So if you haven’t re-supplied your army yet, do that now and then head west.
The teal keymaster gate leading to Green’s lands is located at (79,32). Past the gate you’ll find a Green town that might or might not be well defended. Regardless, take it while trying to keep your casualties low. Then head east. Green’s second (and last) town is against the eastern edge of the map, but along the way you’ll have to battle some heavy-duty neutral creatures, including large stacks of vampires and devils. The devils in particular might be nasty since they can teleport right to you ranged troops. There doesn’t seem to be a good way to fight the devils (if they don’t go after your magi, they’ll probably kill Emilia in one hit) so just take your losses and move on.
When you get to Green’s town, you don’t have to attack it. Just keep Emilia next to the entrance to prevent Green’s heroes from going anywhere, and then use another hero to capture all of Green’s resource buildings. You’ll then have two Order towns to Green’s single town, plus you’ll have more resources coming in, and so eventually you’ll be able to take Green’s town, regardless of how well it’s defended.
When you’re ready to attack, remember that Emilia doesn’t have to survive the battle since the town will resurrect her if you win. Otherwise, this siege is much like the other sieges you’ve done, except with a lot more troops involved. So use song of peace and poison, and try to kill Green’s ranged troops without allowing them to fire back. Once you win the battle, you’ll also win the scenario.
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- by Harukaba
Take the Dead Man's Boots to Gem's starting town to win the campaign. However, if Gem or Clancy are defeated in combat or you lose the boots, the scenario is lost. Your heroes are limited to level 25, but Gem will carry her experience, skills and spells on to the next campaign. Starting Bonus: 4000 Gold or 15 Wood or 7 Crystal.
Maps
Click on a map to see a larger version.
Green - Friendly Town
Red - Enemy Town
Grey - Neutral Town
Yellow - Underground Passage
A# - Allied Towns
O# - Opponent Towns (a,b,c,d,e,f,g indicates which enemy)
N# - Neutral Towns
M# - Mirror Entrances (a) and exits (b). two-way unless stated
E# - Exit (a) entrance and (b) exit
S# - Seer (a) and the location of the item (b)
G# - Guard Tents (a) and the location of the Guard Tower (b)
J - Jail
X - Ambush
Starting Out
I recommend that you pick the 4000 Gold as your bonus since it will be easier for you to hire troops and make an early push to the enemy. Since the goal is behind two Guard Towers and a Quest Tower, it will be far easier to eliminate the enemy rather than trying to get the Dead Man's Boots to win the map and campaign.
I have verified for myself that Gem or Clancy won't transfer over to the next campaign even though you are told that he will be. Therefore, it's not necessary to visit any places of learning or go out of your way to gain levels.
First Leg
As usual give Gem the starting troops and hire another Rampart hero to give Gem even more troops and go along the red path. Pick up loose resources and flag the Homestead and hire more Wood Elves. You might get some joins but use the Vision spell which you should probably have by now before attacking wandering stacks. The seer at S1b wants 25 Ghost Dragons which you can easily get after defeating the enemies and you need the Sandals of the Saint that she'll give you in order to get the Dead Man's Boots. While Gem is wandering around this area, have Clancy flag the Centaur Stables and pick up any loose resources. Build up at least a Citadel, a Homestead, Enchanted Springs, and a City Hall for the first week. The second week definitely build up the upgraded Homestead and a Castle at the very least and any of the other buildings that you can afford. Pink heroes will be poking around at about week 2 but they shouldn't be too difficult. At the beginning of week 2 or week 3, follow the blue path and invade into the O1a territory by attacking the garrison which has 12 Bone Dragons. If Clancy has Tactics then he should be the one to do this task to protect the Grand Elves. After breaking through the garrison, take over O1a which shouldn't even have a Citadel. Once you have eliminated the Pink enemy, you are safe from any further incursions since the only other path into your territory is blocked by a Guard Tower with the Guard Tent accessible only by you. Build a City Hall and a Cover of Darkness in it because the computer gets very confused and it'll buy you some extra time. Now you can continue to build A1 as well as flagging the two Rampart towns in the northwest area of the map.
Second Leg
Visit G1a by defeating the Cavaliers that are protecting it and then travel through G1b which is to the southwest of O1a along the blue path. Take over both neutral Rampart towns and hire the available troops. They won't produce any other troops but will be very good for gold, especially after building City Halls. Be sure to visit G4a so you can easily get back to A1 through G4b without having to backtrack. There's another Town Portal guarded by several Ghost Dragons so you should get it sooner rather than later in order to protect the towns you conquer. A good time is just before you want to travel south because you will have enough troops to defeat the Ghost Dragons then. I traveled south along the blue path at the start of the second month to defeat the remaining enemies. My tactic was to use View Air to determine where the enemy heroes were and if they were close to attack them and if not then pick either O2b or O1b to defeat first and head that way. Once taking over an enemy town, hire another hero and recruit the Necromancer troops so they can defeat scouts without you having to use Town Portal to defend them. Use View Air at the start of every turn and use Town Portal to quickly travel to one of your towns if you see the enemy traveling that way and if the troops you have there can't defeat them. Backtracking only when necessary will enable you to defeat the enemy faster. Once you have defeated the enemy, you can then build up Dragon Vaults in every Necromancer town if they don't have them and at least one upgraded Dragon Vault in order to get the 25 Ghost Dragons that the Seeker at S1b requires.
Finishing Up
Once again, Gem and Clancy won't travel to a future campaign so don't delay this map by leveling them or visiting Places of Learning if they're out of the way.
Once you have 25 Ghost Dragons go up to S1b (northeast of A1) to exchange them for the Sandals of the Saint, visit G3a (southwest of O1b), G2a (north of O2b), and then go to the southwestern corner through any of the three mirrors. Visit each of the Guard Towers, give the Sandals of the Saint in order to get the Dead Man's boots, and return to A1 with it to win this map and the campaign.
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