Walkthroughs
- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Defeat Pete Girly.
Carries Over:
- Tawni and Cyrca (max level 28)
- The Giant Slayer Sword, Crocodile Boots (x2)
Walkthrough:
Note: The artifact that appears next to Cyrca is random. So feel free to restart the scenario until you get an artifact you like.
This is another one of those annoying maps where the computer players have all sorts of ways into your lands, but your avenues into their lands are much more limited. So make sure your towns all have caravans so you can shuttle away troops if you're in danger of losing a town, and don't build up towns to have castle walls so you can more easily take them back if you lose them.
When you start out, you should keep your three armies as they are. Then send Cyrca east along the road so she can capture a neutral Chaos town on her second turn, and send Tawni north so she can capture a different neutral Chaos town (the one shown by the Window of the Magi next to where you start) by the end of the first week. Cyrca should rush to her town, but let Tawni kill and flag on the way to hers. In particular, let her flag the gold mine and the dark wood along the way. Meanwhile, have the efreeti army pickup what it can.
Once you capture the town to the east, hire a hero from the tavern. The area around the town is largely unguarded, and the new hero can flag the sawmill and the ore pit while your other heroes do more important things. Later, the new hero should visit some of the experience buildings in the area so it can help to defend your lands once Tawni and Cyrca move on to attack the computer players.
South of your town you'll find an underground tunnel, and that's where Cyrca should head next (perhaps visiting the maze and the crystal mine along the way). There she'll find a statuary garden, a tree of knowledge, and a shipyard. The underground river next to the shipyard leads to two places: Purple's lands to the west and a quest area to the north. You're not ready for Purple yet, so once you put Cyrca on a boat, send her north. You'll find a quest gate that only Cyrca can pass, and beyond that you'll find two more statuary gardens, a library, and the green keymaster tent -- and you'll only have to defeat some medusae and hydras in order to visit them. You can then either use the purple dragon portal or the ship to get back to your lands.
Meanwhile, Tawni will encounter a neutral garrison before she can get to her town, and the garrison will have four hydras and a dragon. Don't use Tawni to charge the gate since the hydras might be able to use the wall bonus to kill her. Use the nightmares (from the dark wood) for that instead, and then use spells or archery to hit the enemy troops once they close in to attack.The town will be barely defended in comparison to the garrison, so it should be easy to capture.
Once Tawni has captured her town and Cyrca has visited the green keymaster tent, you should think about joining them together into a single army, and giving them lots of troops to command. By the end of the second week, you'll probably start seeing enemy heroes in your lands, and so you need to give Tawni and Cyrca a large enough army to deal with whatever they run into Otherwise, just explore your part of the map. You'll find a couple more underground areas that lead to statuary gardens and troll caves, plus a sulfur vein (west of your northern town), plus assorted other buildings. Once you've cleared everything out, head back to the underground shipyard and sail west to Purple's lands.
When you reach the surface again, you'll find yourself on the western edge of the map. Due east is one of Purple's towns, and you should capture it right away. Then explore around the town for a while, and eventually push east. You'll find another Purple town in that direction, guarded by a green keymaster gate, but ignore it for now and go as far east as possible. You should find a dragon cave and perhaps a couple skill shrines. Once you visit those, head back to the Purple town.
Since Purple doesn't have access to the green command word, and since it probably won't have used its shipyard, chances are you'll have to face all the troops the town created during the entire scenario. But don't worry -- the hero will only be level 16, so it won't compare with your level 25 (or so) heroes, and the hero's army, even if it looks impressive, shouldn't compare with yours (because of tactics bonuses, if nothing else). So just wade in and let loose with terror and implosion and lightning bolt, and then mop up whatever's left.
Now you can finally create a boat, so do that and then sail back to your first town so you can re-supply your army. Go ahead and strip your towns at this point, because you probably won't be coming back. You should also recruit from all the troop buildings you've accumulated during the scenario, so you can create as big an army as possible.
If your heroes need some more experience, go ahead and sail to Blue's island to the northwest and pester Blue for a while. (Just be sure a Blue troop doesn't run off with your boat.) Otherwise, all you need to do is find the two stacks of Teal-flagged mermaids in the ocean and kill them. That will allow you to pass the quest gate at (132,87), which in turn will allow you to get to Pete Girly. But it won't be quite that easy. First you'll have to go through three pirate ships. The ships won't have heroes, but they will have lots of dragons, hydras, and evil eyes. If you have tactics skills, the battles should be pretty easy, but, regardless, use your high level Chaos spells and wait a day between battles if you need to. Then sail north and east to meet Pete.
Regardless of how you treated Pete when he was under your control, he'll be level 29 now, but (as far as I can tell) he'll only have skills in the class you chose for him. So if you made him, say, a Ranger, he'll be much easier to defeat than if he's a Fireguard. But either way, the battle shouldn't be too difficult. Pete will have hydras with him rather than dragons, and so you can send your dragons into the fray and then let loose with the spells of your choice (like chain lightning) and simply grind up Pete's army while the dragons distract them. Once Pete's army is defeated, the scenario will end.
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- by Steven W. Carter
Objective:
- Build the Eye of Chaos at Rumport.
- Kill the Red-flagged mermaids.
Carries Over:
- Tawni and Cyrca (max level 23)
- Pete Girly (as an enemy in the next scenario)
- The Giant Slayer Sword, Crocodile Boots (x2)
Walkthrough:
Note: As of version 1.2, this scenario is either badly designed or slightly broken, take your pick. The story triggers assume that you're going to sail south and make landfall there, but there are holes in the reefs allowing you to land anywhere you want, including right next to Rumport. Since there is a quest gate blocking land access to Rumport, and since you can avoid that gate, you can keep Rumport perfectly safe for the entire scenario. Moreover, sailing through the reefs allows you to rush Blue and defeat it pretty easily. So I'm going to write the walkthrough as if the reefs actually block passage, but feel free to sail directly to Rumport and have a much easier time.
You'll start out with three armies and three ships, which is pretty suggestive. So put each army into a ship, but have one of them visit the Window of the Magi first. You'll be shown Rumport and the place where the scenario thinks you're going to make landfall. Then have Tawni sail east to kill the sea monsters before heading south to make a landing, and have Pete and the other army explore the sea and the surrounding islands. You'll find a few stacks of Red-flagged mermaids in the area. Pete should be able to kill them on his own.
Note: There's a scouting altar on an island to the southwest. You might want to have Tawni visit the altar before heading to the main island. If you land her ship just north of the healing potion, she can visit the altar and return to the ship in one turn.
Once you get Tawni to the main island, have her visit the mercenary camp, the tactics altar, and the gold mine before arriving at the quest gate. Then send her through the gate and to the city. You'll find some cyclopes blocking the way, but Tawni should be able to kill them and capture Rumport all on her own. Meanwhile, once the sea is clear of debris, send the pirate army south to follow behind Tawni and pick things up. Pete will probably take a while to clear the islands, but that's ok. (It's not like you want to build him up any more anyway.)
Then explore the area around Rumport, both inside and outside the gate. To the north you'll find a Window of the Magi, and it'll show you the prison where Cyrca is being held. But what the Window doesn't show is that the way is blocked by a red keymaster gate, and so you can't get there until you visit the red keymaster tent, which is located in Green's part of the island to the south.
Even though you need to invade Green's territory, it's probably best not to do that right away. Instead, have Tawni explore to the east where you'll find a sulfur mine and an imp pit, and then, as soon as you have your first dragon, build a shipyard and have Tawni sail west to Blue's island. If you can knock out Blue early, the scenario will be much easier. Also, once Pete is done exploring the islands to the north, send him to the main island and have him explore on his own. He should be able to defeat most of the neutral stacks on the map, and so he'll be able to nab you some resource buildings and troop buildings while you're busy elsewhere.
Note: There are four underground areas on the map. Three are small treasure areas, and the fourth connects the main island to Blue's island. The treasures are pretty good, so explore any underground tunnels you find.
Once Tawni lands on Blue's island, put a low-level troop back into the boat and let it explore the western ocean. (The ocean is so big you might want to create another boat at Rumport so a second low-level troop can help out.) Then attack Blue's starting town (located on the northern end of the island). Chances are that Blue's armies will be spread out all over the place, and the town will be lightly guarded. But even if it isn't, Tawni should be powerful enough to turn the tide in your favor.
Once Blue's town is yours, explore the rest of the island. You'll find another town, two quest gates (one of which you can't pass yet), and a variety of ways to get back to the main island. The dock and the yellow two-way portal will both take you to the northern part of the island (near a neutral town), the green dragon portal will take you to the eastern edge of the island, and the underground tunnel will eventually lead you to the southern part of the island. Since the red keymaster tent is on the southern part of the island, use the underground tunnel.
While underground, Tawni will eventually come to an intersection. The northern passage will lead to the tunnel entrance next to Rumport, while the eastern passage will lead to Green's lands. So take the northern passage first so you can re-supply your army (and hopefully add several dragons), and then go down the eastern passage. Meanwhile, send Pete into the western ocean so he can hunt down the Red-flagged mermaids there (including the stack past the whirlpool). There are four stacks of mermaids beyond the blue keymaster gate south of Rumport, so just check the thieves guild menu option every time Pete makes a kill, and when you see Red only has four armies left, you'll know that Pete has done all he can.
When Tawni arrives in Green's lands, send her north. You should find the red keymaster tent being guarded by a few dragons, and you should also find a Green garrison. So defeat the dragons, visit the tent, and then defeat the garrison. Now you can finally free Cyrca from prison, so head towards the red ôcrossö in the middle of the island, and then take the eastern branch.
You'll have to defeat some more dragons to get to the prison, but once you free Cyrca you'll find that she's a level 15 Fireguard. You'll also find a dragon cave nearby. Won't you won't find is a hint about what you're supposed to do next -- or even why you rescued Cyrca. But that's ok. Cyrca needs some experience, so go ahead and clear out the northern half of the island. There will be two towns there, and Green will own at least one of them, so between those and the neutral stacks of creatures, you should have a few good battles to help Cyrca along.
Once the northern part of the island is clear, re-supply your army and use the dock to jump back to Blue's island. Go through both quest gates (unless you did one before) so you can visit the blue keymaster tent and pick up the Giant Slayer Sword. The thunderbirds and behemoths guarding them shouldn't pose much of a problem at this point. Then jump back to the main island.
At this point you can kill some time if you want, and attack Green until Cyrca reaches level 23. But when you're ready to move on, put your main army on a boat and have it visit the blue keymaster gate south of Rumport. Past the gate you'll find two stacks of Red-flagged mermaids plus an island with a red two-way portal on it. So kill the mermaids and then land on the island so you can take the portal.
Through the portal you'll find yourself on another island, and this one will have a golden oracle and a shipyard. Visit the oracle to learn the location of the grail (nearby), and then dig it up. But before heading back to Rumport, buy a ship at the shipyard and kill the two stacks of Red-flagged mermaids nearby. Then when you return to Rumport and build the Eye of Chaos, you'll learn that you have a new objective -- to kill the Red-flagged mermaids -- which you've already done. So the scenario should end.
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- by Steven W. Carter
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 Plaid Dragon
I. Starting Out.
This campaign starts the player in the very unorthodox position of not having a town. You're on a tiny island with a sulfur mine amidst a few other items. You have two heroes, both from the stealthy side of the chaos spectrum. This means no magic right off the bat. Why the campaign designer elected to put a free level one chaos spell on the starting island is beyond me given that neither of your heroes can learn it. Visual effect?
The life span of the average Pirate would seem to be 3-4 game turns... at least initially. You'll be forced to fight several small battles on the island prior to embarking seaward. The mine, the useless spell shrine and the Seaman's Hat artifact all have their own stack of Pirates guarding them. You'll want to spend your own pirates since they're slower than the bandits you start with and are pretty much worthless once you get to dry land.
It will be advantageous to invest a few levels into your hero's combat skills (rather than Seamanship and Stealth) in order to make them more potent in battle. Consider hiring a mage as soon as you acquire your first town so you have access to magic. Keep in mind though that Pete and Tawni are the only ones you'll get to carry forward to the next mission so make them as tough as possible.
Important Note : Don't lose either of your starting heroes since to do so is an automatic loss of the scenario. In battle, put those pirates out front while your two heroes are lower level. Later when they get tougher and have access to Immortality potions you can be a bit more lax.
II. Goal Number One - Get to Mancebos ASAP
There is a ship moored on the island as your method of transportation elsewhere. Don't forget to visit the Window of the Magi prior to leaving. It will show you the first town you are to capture just by sailing north. This is NOT your first goal, however. Yes... it IS a necessary objective and you HAVE to go there first but I stress that your primary objective is the town circled in the figure to the right.
To your direct northwest there will be a Pirate Cove. Absolutely, positively DO NOT try and take it. The reason why is that it's guarded by a small number of mermaids. This doesn't seem like that big of a threat but their hypnotize ability is a great way to get your heroes killed and/or reduce your stacks below critical mass for the upcoming assault on Ishkandar, your first town.
On an island farther north, between your starting point and the neutral town is a Bandit habitat you'll need for additional reinforcements. The Seaman's Hat will help you stop and go much faster from that island but that should be the only landfall you make on your way north. There is a decent quantity of flotsam scattered about but don't let that distract you. The enemy has towns and is building an army while your out playing with your boat. Head due north and make landfall. The faster you get your town and get building, the better off you'll be.
Once Ishkandar is taken you'll need to tech/build up ever so slightly. The first time I attempted this scenario I waited until I had Black Dragons before going on the offensive and it was a mistake. The enemy was building at the three Stronghold towns to the direct east which ultimately became overwhelming. You need to go at the nearest enemy town, Mancebos to the east as soon as you have built your Efreet habitat. Hire the two effreets that come with the building and anything else available and GO immediately. If you're quick enough, you should catch the enemy at a very low strength. You'll take some casualties in the battle but the enemies power base will be greatly weakened once this is done.
III. Goal Number
Two - The Rest of the Northern Continent
You'll want to start cleaning up the territories surrounding your initial two towns when you get the chance. A secondary hero with a small to medium army should be able to accomplish this nicely. A gold mine in the north west corner and a mercury mine in the central northern sector are two very important objectives.
Your primary hero group should be sweeping right across the map in effort
to take the towns of Hortus and Zija. When I got to Hortus it was still
under neutral control. I had to delay taking Zija though because of a nice
big stack of Cyclops's just passed the bridge you see circled. If you see
something similar don't delay too long since the enemy has access to the sea and
will have taken Zija by the time you get there.
When I finally got through to hit Green at Zija, I had to call in heavy
reinforcements as he had about 40 odd Thunderbirds amidst other big
stacks. I brought in 75 T-birds of my own and smashed him in one of the
most colossal battles I've ever fought. This pretty much broke the enemy's
back which helped me jump into the sea.
Note the sea chain you see in the map
to the right. This is something that you can get away with never
opening. If you do so it will allow the enemy sea access to your primary
town which is not strategically sound at all.
Most of the time you spend building up your three Stronghold towns will have your main hero group stopping sea incursions in the central and eastern coast areas. There will be plenty of empty enemy boats for you to nab which makes the chain an advantage for you rather than a hindrance to your progress.
Your three Stronghold towns will be your primary army suppliers throughout the game. I teched up to Thunderbirds in my first two Strongholds long before I build the Black Dragon structure.
IV Goal Number Three -
The South Seas and the Orange Tent
Once your shoreline is secure you can send a big army
to wrestle the sea away from the enemy. You'll want to keep a roving
defense force near the central or eastern coastline for the frequent landfalls
the blue or green players will make.
The orange tent (circled) is located on a southeastern isle amidst some other small goodies. This should be hit once you've secured the bulk of the sea towns outside blue's mainland. This will allow you to gain access to your objective city of Yanathrae.
Be wary of the one way gate outside of Wataga. If you don't capture Frigiston first you'll likely see enemy heroes pop out and swipe Wataga right back from you.
Once you control the seas Green should be near elimination and Blue will become anemic.
V. Goal Number Four -
Victory
The circle on the southeastern coast of Blue's continent is your entry point. There is no other way to get on this land mass so go there and have your orange keys handy. You should be able to sweep west to Split Elm and then north to Yanathrae fairly easily. The size of your final battle will vary depending on how many of blue's armies you caught in the field prior to assaulting his capital. Once you take Yanathrae, the scenario is over and you're ready to advance to the next one.
I played this campaign on the very center difficulty setting. The AI bug came into play with the Green player never touching the like colored tent near Frigiston. When I arrived there it still had it's initial stack of defending Ogres in front of it. If the computer had taken this objective it would have given him instant access to either Ishkandar or Ziga via a lavender gate and the scenario becomes much harder.
Given all the Stronghold towns a player will have access to, it's a good idea to bolster production in those towns by hiring a few heroes with Nobility. Level them up to Advanced or Expert in the skill by attacking some of the random creatures that sprout up. This added production is necessary if you are to deal with some of the big enemy armies that will be crawling around.
With so many Thunderbirds growing you'll have a huge demand for mercury. Make sure and take (and hold) the three mercury mines circled on the map. You'll have moderately easy access to all of them but may lose them from time to time against raiding computer players.
Even following the instructions in this guide the first Chaos Campaign mission is hard. I reiterate how important taking Mancebos as quickly as possible is. You know very well that every town you take from the enemy is that many more units for you and that many less for him,
so be vigilant with your attacking, especially early on. Mancebos is your springboard to the rest of the scenario. Stumble there and you might as well start over.
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- by H3Trio Staff
Click on map for larger image
The final scenario of Bohb's campaign begins in the
southwest corner with an Asylum containing a grail dwelling. Nice
start. That could mean baaaaaad things down the road. Anytime NWC
decides to give you something nice to start with, that means they're going to
make you pay for it later. This map had many difficult battles and is
nicely laid out. By far the most challenging of the campaign. So
let's get on with the walkthrough.
From your
starting position, head east. To your south looks to be a school of chaos
(that's definitely going to be one of your destinations, as are all the
"schools") but it's unreachable from here, so bypass it and continue
eastward. You'll soon come to a Black Dragon dwelling. Grab this
baby as soon as humanly possible. You're going to want it to start
generating Blackies as quickly as you can. After flagging the dragon
dwelling, continue heading east. Just north of the gem mine is a small
cul-de-sac with a red teleporter in it. Mine was guarded by a band of Bone
Dragons. I decided early on that I was going to play this campaign very
aggressively...so I went for it and
attacked. A few Summon Mantis spells
and I was through the Bone Dragons. Inside I found
a tome of chaos. Nice. After picking up the goodies, head through the teleporter
to the school of death magic. This one is pretty much the same as
all the others throughout the campaign. 2 altars of
death magic, a university, a conservatory, a library, a tree of knowledge and
a few other minor powerups. Clear this out and head back
through the teleporter. After flagging some of the local mines, sweep
northward to the area above the teleporter and you'll find your second Asylum. This
one is going to be your main
staging point for your assault upon your enemy Lord Cardonis. After taking this
castle you'll notice a large stack of Bone Dragons and Vampires guarding a pass
in the north/south mountain range. LEAVE THESE ALONE! This is the only access from
your land to Cardonis' land. First things first. Clear out your
side of the map and grab all the castles.
There is a lot of tempting prizes to be won if you head westward out of your new castle. Don't be fooled by this. The way to go is north. You'll find 2 gold mines, a Nightmare dwelling, and your third Asylum in short order (all situated along the dividing mountain range). Once you've captured all of these locations, now you should recover any lost spell points (you should be doing this at every opportunity) and head west from your third castle. A day or two's march from your castle will find you at another Nightmare dwelling. Take it. You'll also find 2 more altars of chaos and a decent artifact. (mine was a demonary). Slightly to the west from the Nightmare dwelling is your last Asylum. Take it and recover your spell points. From here, sweep around your new castle to the north and head through the blue teleporter (I highly suggest that you kill the stack of monsters just outside the teleporter entrance. Once you finish with the battles on the other side of the teleporter, you'll exit right next to that guarding stack and by that time you'll most likely be much weaker than when you entered it. So kill them now.). The teleporter exits in the school of chaos that we saw at the beginning of the map to the south of your starting town. Fight your way past the guarding Hydra stack and grab the goodies. (this one's not a true "school" but it's still got 2 altars of chaos and some nice artifacts. Definitely worth the effort)
After you've captured all 4 of your Asylums and visited all the "schools" your next step is fairly obvious. Clear out all the wandering stacks and grab all the nice artifacts, power-ups, dwellings, treasure chests and resources. In my game this task took me until the middle of month 2. (as you can see I wasn't going for a speed record *grin*) Once I'd reached this point, it was time to start shuttling troops to my staging castle near the pass between the mountain ranges. Let me recap as to where I am at the current time of the game. I'd developed a secondary hero early on in the scenario for the purposes of getting a tactics hero. So I'd chosen a Death Knight and I'd been using this death knight to pick up all the loose resources and to take ALL the treasure chest experience that were scattered all over my side of the map. I'd have Bohb fight the battles, take the power-ups and Altar, but leave the rest to the second hero. By the time I'd cleared out my side of the map, my secondary hero had reached level 12 and had decent levels of Tactics and Combat. My castles had all dwellings (levels 1-3) built and my first castle had a dragon dwelling too. After gathering all my troops and my 2 heroes I had a very substantial army ready to sweep across the mountain pass. (mainly composed of Dragons, Nightmares, Medusae, Orcs, and cannon fodder....err...I mean bandits)
That guarding stack of Bone Dragons and Vampires looked VERY formidable, BEFORE I'd recruited my troops. Now they were just a nuisance. After swatting the beasties away like bothersome flies, I continue sweeping eastward. In a days march eastward I'm face-to-face with my first enemy Necropolis. It's defended rather decently but it's heavily outmatched by my forces. So taking it proved to be no difficult thing. After taking the Necropolis, my larger scouting range detected an enemy hero marching southward out of my view. How dare them let me see them. The nerve! I'd better go teach them a lesson. :O)
Heading south to chase down that hero revealed a couple of minor power-ups and in short order another Necropolis. THIS is where he was heading. The protection of some walls. *rolls eyes* Yeah, like THAT'S going to help him. =) Well, upon reaching the walls I check out the defenses and to my surprise...there's Lord Cardonis. Darn. I was hoping to explore this side a bit more with my juggernaut of an army. Well, no point in delaying it. I attack. Boy, this was a FUN battle. Cardonis is loaded. Tons of arti's, tons of troops and he's a level 31 Dark Lord. This battle cost me all of my Dragons, all my Nightmares, all my orcs, my Death Knight and 2 immortality potions. But in the end, those Implosions were a bit too much for his army. Victory is mine...err...well Bohb's anyway. :O)
Here are the final totals for the campaign and how
Bohb ended up. This campaign can surely be beaten in a shorter amount of
time because I spent a lot of time exploring and sent out very few scouts. Plus, it's sure to put out a much better score on higher difficulty
levels. But the general route to victory will still be the same. Now
on to "Another Bard's Tale".
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- by H3Trio Staff
Click on map for larger image
You begin this map in the far
southwestern corner with a basic Haven town and a few level 1 troops, and of
course, Bohb. Sorry, Violet didn't follow you over this time. But
that's okay, by this time...Bohb's more than enough. In this scenario, you
get to see just how powerful a high-level Archmage really is. In this map
I won in less than a month and I didn't recruit a single creature. It was
just Bohb, Bohb and more Bohb. I also didn't explore the entire map (as
you can plainly see from the above map) but I explored enough to reach level
21. But enough of this banter...let's get to the walkthrough.
Now, as I started this map,
I didn't know that I would go without building troops. So I began development of my first town as I normally would. Money first,
troops second. But of course with Bohb, you've got to throw in a bit
of Mage Guild building. My first steps of exploration
were to capture mines. So I immediately headed north to capture the wood
mine and east for the ore mine. But in heading north
I found several other locations that needed attention. Just north of
the wood mine are 2 altars of Life Magic, a conservatory of Life magic,
a coliseum of Magic and several artifacts. I had to fight through some angels to get most of these treasures,
but after summoning a few waspworts, griffons and water elementals, the angels were toast. The same can be said of the Fairy Dragons in the coliseum. Antimagic on
Bohb, then summon to your hearts content. Those were some great
rewards for only 3 days worth of playing. :O)
You'll also notice that just to the south west of your starting town is a high-level troop guarding a one-way teleporter exit. In my game these troops were Goblin Knights that would've thrashed me, but I figured those same Goblin Knights would also protect me from any enemy heroes on the other side of that teleporter. (I never did go through that teleporter so I never found the other end. But after playing the entire campaign I went back to explore a bit. It turns out that there is an island in the northwest corner that contains 6 haven dwellings including an Angel dwelling. In order to reach this island you'll have to enter the yellow teleporter on the small lava island slightly northwest of your soon-to-be second Haven town. But this excursion is NOT necessary. Fun, but not necessary) So for now, ignore those troops and the teleporter. Your destination is eastward.
Working your way to the east you'll soon come to your second Haven town. Crush it's inhabitants and claim your prize. More income. :O) Along the way to the far east, you'll want to capture every mine and hit every powerup. You'll also want to take every creature bank (Keep, Ivory Tower, Sacred Temple). Continue eastward and you'll find a gold mine and eventually your third Haven town. Capture it and other than the small area north of your third castle you'll have completely conquered the southern peninsula. Once you get your third castle, start building up your mage guilds (especially in the third town) and re-charge those precious spell points.
Slightly north of your third Haven you'll find the school of Chaos. This small cul-de-sac is guarded by a small stack of Black Dragons (when is ANY stack of Black Dragons...small? *grin* ) Summon, summon and summon and you'll soon be past these nasty beasties. Once the way is clear, mop up the goodies. In here you'll find 2 altars of chaos magic, a magic University, a Library, a conservatory of chaos magic, a few minor powerups, a tree of knowledge and the all-important shipyard. This shipyard is the whole reason you've fought your way to the eastern shoreline. Before you board your new ship, make sure you've purchased NUMEROUS potions. Immortality potions are of most importance, but I highly suggest taking on as many of the others available as you can afford. (You'll of course have to build the Order of Paladins to get these) I also made sure to build caravan's in each town to shuttle troops around to protect my towns and to reach the mainland (but I never had to use any of them...How was I to know?). After re-charging my spell points, I took to the sea.
After entering the water I decided to head northwest. (I had to go somewhere, and that way seemed as good as any) In a short while I find that there are numerous tiny islands just off my shoreline each with a single mine and guarding monster stack. I took a few of these, but after looking at my resource stockpiles and the absence of enemies thus far, I skipped a few of these mines and continued scouting out the shoreline of the main center island. I eventually floated past a small island with the yellow teleporter, but it was guarded rather heavily and I decided to skip it for now (as it turned out, I never went back to it. But it heads to the northwest corner island with all the Haven dwellings) At this time I see that my way west is blocked by a reef but there is still plenty of water west of that reef. So, I decide to make landfall (on MY side of the water) and ride around to the western side of the reef and re-summon my boat and re-board. Heading northwest I soon find that my way is blocked yet again. So I finally say the heck with it and land on the mainland right next to a coliseum of might. Unfortunately for me, right after landing, my scouting radius detects a wandering hero with a ton of troops. He's a level 11 hero so he's not that powerful, but those troops look rather deadly. Now I'm really wishing I'd brought some troops along because this could get ugly. I'd run, but unfortunately that would leave him access to my boat and my mainland. And it didn't matter anyway, because the decision wasn't up to me anyway. As soon as I ended my turn...he darted right for me and attacked. I lost. Badly. But during that battle I saw some glimpses of what I could've done to have a better outcome...so I reloaded. (I don't do this very often, really only when I make a glaring mistake, and only during campaigns. But I digress...) During my second go-round I knocked that army down to about 10 hydras. But I still lost. Now that was just frustrating. Refusing to be denied a simple foothold on this mainland, I reload one final time. This time I did it right. In fact, I thrashed them. I never even had to use an immortality potion. Nice.
Now that I'm on the mainland I decide to visit this nearby coliseum of Might. After that last battle, these Black Dragons are a piece of cake. After the level up, I head north and hit the library and snag a few mines (mainly for the scouting radius they provide. I don't want my ship taken). After seeing some nice artifacts on the drive-by (or is that float-by?) of the shoreline, I head to the southeast around some cool-looking lava flows and a small mountain range. After killing the large guarding Nightmare stack and looted the region, I spy another enemy army coming towards me from the northeast. This army is hero-less, but it's still hydra's, efreet's and many, many more. So, hero or no hero, I'm not taking this new threat lightly. But I'm also out of Immortality potions. That's not a good thing. But I foresaw this problem. I'd earlier purchased a second ship and had one of my Lords (I purchased lords for each of my 3 towns earlier and upgraded them all to level 2 for advanced nobility) picking up the loose items floating in the water. I had this lord float near the shoreline north of my 2nd castle and had another Lord bring him tons of potions. These I shuttled to the southern shoreline near Bohb and delivered the goods. Now with Bohb decently re-armed, I hit the nearby Tower to scout out the terrain a bit and head eastward towards that enemy army I saw last turn. I also now see my first enemy castle (Asylum, of course). This turns out to be a VERY easy victory, with Bohb doing his usual anti-magic/summoning combination. The castle conquests also go very smoothly after learning that trick from the last scenario. (summoning a large stack of waspworts and teleporting them onto an archer turret INSIDE the castle)
After replenishing my spell points at my newly
acquired Asylum (and building a mana-vortex) I continue my exploration
eastward. I hit a few powerups, several treasure chests, minor battles and
a Veterans Guild (which did NOTHING...I forgot that it increased your combat
skills...which I have none of *giggles* ) and I soon find a second Asylum
town. But low-and-behold, this one has...*drumroll please* Raylon. A level 25 fire diviner with a smattering of troops. In case
you've forgotten, Raylon is the holder of the ring of flares (the objective in
this map). Raylon did a TON of damage with his spells, but the first thing
I did in combat was cast anti-magic on Bohb. Then his summonee's did the
rest of the work. I had to use one immortality potion, but other than
that, it was a walk in the park. Bohb ended this map as a level 26
Archmage (that was the exp. limit). He had Master life, master order,
master nature, expert chaos and advanced death. Also G.M Sorcery. Sorcery and Chaos magic really come to the forefront in the following and final
scenario.
| Comments (1) |
- by H3Trio Staff
Click on map for larger image
This scenario begins with you in
sole possession of the snow-bound island in the northeast corner of the
map. Just like the previous scenario, you'll want to have Bohb and Violet
travel separately and alone. (at least for a while) Head Bohb south
immediately for your second Academy town. While Violet is swiping
dwellings and mines away from the undermanned wandering monster stacks. By
the end of week one you should have all mines, dwellings and creature banks (ie:
keep)
In regards to building up your
two towns, you should obviously focus first on getting your city hall's in both
towns. Next priority is to get a boat. I, unfortunately, hadn't
gotten Seamanship yet, so I was fairly hampered with my sea-movement. But
thankfully, there's a lighthouse due south of my second Academy. I set out
with both Bohb and Violet in my newly built ship and first took the lighthouse,
then sailed north along the eastern coast of my island. You'll eventually
find your way to the School of Life Magic. In order to land on this
magical island I had to fight my way past a difficult stack of Angels. My
first attempt to defeat these angels was fairly pitiful. They got a moral boost and I
had forgotten to change my formation to boxed, so the angels crossed the battlefield in
one move and killed Violet. NOT exactly the way I was wanting to
begin this battle. After seeing that Bohb had NO CHANCE of beating
these angels alone, I was forced to re-load. The second go-round I
had my heroes a little bit farther away, so I was able to summon
some troops (griffins) to harass the angels and allow Violet to get in
secondary attacks instead of being forced to make the initial attacks
and thereby taking the full brunt of the retaliation. So
anyway, after about 6 rounds of combat I was able to pluck the wings
of these angels and gain access to the much needed Life altars and tree
of knowledge. While I'm clearing out this island and
then subsequently clearing out the eastern sea, I focused my town building on
getting my dwellings up to genies. (I decided to go for
Golems and Genies...and I'm leaning towards Dragon Golems. I haven't played
them in a while *grin*) After I've cleared out the eastern sea, I have
a choice to make. I can either
land on the southern mainland and start doing battle with the local Strongholds
OR I can head back home to gather troops and learn more spells (I've
built the mage guilds / libraries / University). Well, seeing as how I've gotten
this far fairly quickly, I decide that I can spare a
bit of time to re-stock. So I head home.
After replenishing my spell points and getting some new spells (I also managed to get Seamanship for Violet at a University...yippee!) I re-board my ship and sail south. After building all my dwellings and such, I'm fairly strapped for gold at the moment. So I decide to forgo purchasing troops for now. I'm going to try to gain a foot-hold on the mainland without assistance and then caravan them over. I hope.
During my sea-exploration I've spotted 2 Strongholds on the mainland. One is just slightly southwest of my island and the other is all the way at the southern edge of the map. I decide to head for the southern one first and work my way northward. After landing a wandering hero with several T-birds is roaming around to welcome me. Unfortunately for him, I'm a rather rude house-guest. After spanking this hero rather pathetically I snatch his nearly undefended Stronghold. After taking this 3rd town and my scouting radius increases I spot another hero heading northwest along a small peninsula. As it turns out, this peninsula heads to a teleporter to, what I soon find out to be, a lava-coated island to the west. So I give chase. Once you go through the teleporter you spy a Black Dragon dwelling. Uh-oh. Maybe I should've brought some troops. This could get ugly. But I figure...heck, if I HAVE to, I could always re-load. So I go for it. Heading northwest, I quickly come to yet another Stronghold town. After seeing the mediocre forces guarding this town, I've come to the conclusion that first Stronghold I saw on the mainland was probably the Red heroes main castle. (as a side note, once I spotted the Black Dragon dwelling I immediately built the caravan in my first Stronghold town and began shuttling genies and 2 Dragon Golems to the mainland) After capturing my second Stronghold town I grab a few of the local mines and head back through the teleporter. But I got there 1 day late. The main Red hero has come strolling south and he's packing cyclops and T-birds. My reinforcements are still 2 days away and the red hero is closer to my castle than I am. I'm going to lose this castle durnit! On a sudden inspiration I decide to try out the spell Mire for the first time. This spell has a SHOCKING result. That red hero was only about 10 steps away from my castle but after the mire spell, he's only able to travel about 3 steps and he's done. Wow. I knew what that spell did, I just didn't know how EFFECTIVE it could be. Amazingly, I beat this hero to my castle AND I get my reinforcements in time to turn the tide most effectively because now he runs back north. Hehehe. Considering the forces the Red hero had with him, I decide it's probably best to stay put for a few days and gather some more troops before heading north. In the meantime, I clear out the local mines and some harpy dwellings.
It is now the middle of week 5 and I have full spell points, several immortality potions, 4 Dragon Golems and about 20 genies. That aught to do it. Along the way northward I capture a few more mines and dwellings before I assault the next Stronghold. Using my Dragon Golems as shields in a loose formation we handily defeat the castle defenders. The nastiest surprise that I used in that battle was summoning waspworts twice (giving me about 20 or so) and then teleporting them onto one of the archer towers inside the castle. Those waspworts made quick work of the cyclops (who had stepped down off of a tower), and my water elementals and genies did in the T-birds rather quickly as they were trying to kill my Dragon Golems (they did manage to kill 2 of them). After taking this town, I headed west just south of an east/west mountain range. I soon came to a lightly defended Haven town. After taking this town, a purple hero came south and, even with me casting mire on him, managed to take my recently acquired Stronghold. The bad news was that this also released the level 20 general from prison. This guy was tough. GM Combat, archery and magic resistance along with a ton of tactics. My two recently recruited lords didn't stand a chance (I had been recruiting new lords for each new town I'd acquired) and were forced to retreat to my southern stronghold. Refusing to let the purple hero and the level 20 general get away, I repeatedly cast Mire on them (it took 3 castings to finally get it to work on the general due to his resistance) and I quickly overtook them and sent them packing.
Let's recap. I'm currently in possession of 2 fully built Academies, 1 fully built stronghold, and 2 more nearly fully built strongholds and one Haven that's up to City hall and a caravan. Bohb and Violet are both level 20 and fully pumped up. My army consists of 5 Dragon Golems and 32 genies.
After re-taking my northern stronghold I head north
through the pass just west of this stronghold. Heading west from here I
find another poorly defended Haven that I quickly capture and build a
caravan. (I sense that I'm nearing the end of the map so I start shuttling
Gold Golems and Dragon Golems to this Haven and just for fun some Cyclops and
T-birds) Heading northeast from this Haven I finally reach the northern
edge of the mainland and find a heavily defended Haven. Shuttling some
extra troops northward from my new Haven I attack. I lost all of my Dragon
Golems and about half of my genies, all of my T-birds and all of my
cyclops. I also lost Violet but a immortality potion revived her. It
was an expensive victory but I won. I've now got Bohb, Violet and a
handful of Genies. But I decide to push my luck. I head west from
this town towards the final Haven town. Along the way I encounter a hero
with a smattering of troops blocking my path. I attack and pummel
him. As a reward, I get the Angelfeather Cloak. That's all she wrote
folks. Game over.
| Comments (2) |
- by H3Trio Staff
Click on map for larger image
You start this scenario in the bottom left corner with
Violet, Bohb and a basic Preserve castle. Bohb should be sufficiently
leveled up to start clearing things out by himself and his summoning
spells. Meanwhile, Violet should be used by herself as well, working on
clearing out the local mines. Violet will sometimes have a tough time
clearing out some of the heavily guarded mines, but you can always whittle down
the forces then retreat and try again with reduced defenders. But for now,
lets focus on Bohb.
Send Bohb northward until you
reach the end of the small water inlet just to your north. Once you reach
the waters end, turn the corner westward and take your first neutral town. Another preserve. Don't worry about defending this town (or your first one
for that matter) because we're going to eliminate the nearby opposition before
they can gain a foothold in the area. Once you recover your spell points
from the battle to take the neutral preserve, head east. You will shortly
find yet another neutral town. This time it's a Stronghold. Follow
the standard formula for victory with Bohb. Summon, summon, summon. Once you clear out this town, recover your spell points yet again (mana potions
are very useful for this especially since you can't recover spell points in the
mage-guild-less Stronghold towns). Again, ignore town defense for this
newly acquired town. Instead, head north along the far right edge of the
grass-lands. In a few days travel, you'll find yourself face-to-face with
the sole Red town. Another Stronghold. If you've pushed yourself by
focusing on simply taking towns, you'll be at the Red town well before they've
gathered a sufficient army to oppose the
solo Bohb. If, by chance, they've acquired more troops than Bohb can handle
by himself, simply have Violet join Bohb in the assault against Red. Truthfully, you
shouldn't have much difficulty in defeating the Red stronghold. If you do, I'd highly
suggest re-starting and trying again with a more aggressive tactic. But
either way, you should eventually eliminate the Red AI.
Now that you have 2 preserves, 2 strongholds and no nearby AI enemies. It's time to build up your forces. For every castle you've taken, you should've immediately started generating gold with the City Halls as quickly as possible. Now it's time to start focusing on dwellings. Primarily I focused on the Preserves because there are numerous external preserve dwellings in the area to supplement your troops. It's also a very good idea to build up the mage guilds and libraries in both Preserves to further increase Bohb's spell selections.
One of the biggest bonuses to playing the left half of this map so aggressively is easily explained by simply sending either Bohb or Violet to the north. You'll shortly come across a Pyre (Phoenix dwelling) tucked away in the middle of a mountain range. Slightly west of this is a quest hut. The quest requires you to eliminate the Red AI team. Well, we've just done that so you'll be able to reap the rewards right now. And what a bonus it is. The reward is free Phoenix dwellings in BOTH your preserve towns AND access to the Pyre hidden in the mountain range. At this point, you'll truthfully not be strong enough to take this external dwelling, but the acquisition of the two free dwellings in town is just too good to pass up. Now that your two main towns are pumping out Phoenix's, you can take some time to clear out the left half of this map and gain some experience for Bohb and Violet.
While clearing out the left half of the map, make sure to send Bohb over to visit the school of Order just south/east of your first Stronghold town. Gaining some Order Magic skills is a great idea considering the fact that your last AI opponent (and all the remaining towns on the map) are Academy's.
Once you feel sufficiently pumped up (troop-wise) it's time to take the fight to Teal. The easiest access to Teal's snow-bound territory is by fighting your way past a level 4 wandering stack due east of your second Stronghold town. In my game it was a stack of Titans, but this may be a random level 4 placement. But whatever the troops are, your two excellent heroes and a formidible stack of Phoenix's should do the trick. Once you're through, keep heading east (and south a little bit). You'll shortly come to your first Academy town. By the time I reached this castle it was only week 4 and there was basically no resistance here. But if you've dawdled in clearing out the left side, it may be better defended. But not so defended that your army can't handle it. Once you take this town, settle down a bit to re-coup Bohb's spell points and to mainly send out several single troop scouts to open up some of the snow areas. Just to the north of this new town you'll see several power-up locations that both heroes will want to visit as well as a gold mine and a few other goodies. And past all of those (about 2-3 days travel) you'll find your second Academy. This one's in the upper right hand corner of the map. This one was much better defended, but the defenders still dropped like flies and there wasn't even a hero to help defend them. *sigh* Apparently the AI heroes are out exploring while I scooping up their towns. Durnit! Anyway, after I'd taken this second Academy (and built up the mage guild / libraries / Universities .... in BOTH towns) I decided to head south from this second town. (I'd also shuttled some fresh Phoenix's via the caravan). At this point it's the middle of week 6 and I've yet to see a Teal hero. As I'm heading south, low and behold, I see the main Teal hero standing outside a small farming hamlet. He's just standing there. Well, who am I to pass up an easy target. I make a bee-line to this hero and mop the floor with him. And what do you know...he's got the Archmage's Hat equipped (well...he DID have it equipped). Scenario Done. Unfortunately it was rather anti-climactic, but that will tend to happen sometimes if you play as aggressively as I did this one. Oh well, they can't all be great maps. (but this one had the potential to be. Maybe I'll play it again...only slower. NAH! )
At the end of this one Bohb had reached level 18 and
had Master Nature, Expert Order, Advanced Chaos, Death and Life magic. He
also had Master Sorcery, herbalism, Expert meditation, and several other
advanced & basic secondary magic skills. Violet on the other hand was
also maxed out at level 18 and was nicely equipped with G.M. Combat, master
archery, expert melee, advanced resistance. She also had a nice helping of
tactics. Adv. Tactics, Expert offense and defense, and advanced
leadership. I tried to develop the nobility skill but all I could get was
basic nobility and advanced estates.
| Comments (2) |
- by H3Trio Staff
Click on map for larger image
You start this scenario in the Stronghold just to the right of the center/top of the map printed above. Your objective is to capture the Wayfaring Boots from the hero in the preserve just to the southwest across the small body of water. In order to do this you'll need to sweep southward, then westward. Head north along the western peninsula, and finally east over the bridge to the enemy fortress.
In my game, let me first say that I did much more exploring than was necessary. A more direct route is most definitely possible. But anyway, let's get on with the walkthru.
Your starting heroes are Bohb (a level 5 Archmage with basic level of all 5 magic schools and basic enchantment) and Violet (a level 5 General with basic Tactics, offense, leadership, melee, archery, magic resistance and advanced combat) and you also start with a small helping of level 1 troops. First things first, send out numerous scouts (single creature stacks) and conquer your immediate surroundings. Focusing on capturing your wood & ore mines. One significant item of note is the Apprentice's Handbook just outside your castle walls. This is a NECESSITY for Bohb. This will be his main access to spells for quite some time. But with all 5 schools of magic, you'll have plenty of variety to choose from. Also, make sure you visit the blacksmith just to the east of your town. Stock up on some potions, but mainly get leather and some melee weaponry. After clearing out your immediate surroundings you've probably lost most of your starting troops (or at least most of the berserkers). But you've also probably gone up a level or 2. I'd highly suggest taking experience from all treasure chests for quite some time. The gold just isn't a necessity in this map. You'll need troops, but not for a while. Once you've gotten a decent grip on your surroundings, head Bohb to the southeast. A small enclosed area is being guarded by 2 stacks of "few" phoenix's. With a few troops, some precisely placed spells and you should be able to beat one of these stacks, granting you access to the school of nature. Here you can pump up Bohb's Nature magic skills quite a bit. Avoid summoning if you can. Summoned creatures will only slow down Bohb's progress. Although it's usually a very useful skill, here it just isn't very handy. Make sure you stop by and purchase some spells at the conservatory of nature (one of the new adventure map locals). Considering you're limited to level 12 in this scenario, you'll most likely only get your Nature magic skill to Expert level at the most. So don't bother purchasing level 4 or 5 spells. You won't be able to use them....yet!
Scattered around the local forest are numerous nature spell shrines. Even though your Apprentice's Handbook grants you these level 1 spells, make sure you visit them, because in the following scenarios you WON'T have the handbook. Once you've managed to clear out most of the forested area, you'll want to eliminate the Red nuisance to the south. The Red barbarians are fairly easy to find. Just head southwest along the coastline from the School of Nature. Eventually you'll come to a stables, hit it and continue eastward to the lone barbarian town. There are some decent forces guarding this castle, but your summoning spells via Bohb should do the trick. White tigers, elves and elementals are the spells of choice for this map. A few others come in handy, but once you get summon Water elementals...this map is pretty much over. By now, your scouts should have located numerous handy locations to visit to pump up your stats and skills. Hit as many of these as you can in the southwest corner of the main island (just west of your new Stronghold). War University, school of war and several creature banks are prime locations to get your heroes ready for the final confrontation here and for the following maps.
Up until now, I haven't really mentioned the
development of Violet. She should mainly be developed as a tactics hero
with a generous helping of combat thrown in. If you manage to get a chance
to get Nobility or Scouting take them. Both will be helpful later
on.
Due west from the War University is a bridge leading to the western island. This island contains two towns. One stronghold on the southern edge, and a preserve on the northern end. Both start out as neutral towns, but odds are that by the time you reach them, they'll be owned by either red or green. Either way, they should pose no problem for your heroes now, but seeing as how the stronghold is closer, head for that one first. Using Violet to soak up ranged attacks by placing her directly in front of Bohb during combat, you'll allow Bohb to summon numerous creatures to take Violet's protective place. Now send Violet forward to take the battle to the enemy (well, not by herself. send the summonee's too *grin*). Just to the west of this new stronghold town is a cyclops dwelling. Although this is nice to acquire, it's not necessary and the battle to get it (the pass is guarded by numerous cyclopes') is usually fairly costly. Once you've gotten your third stronghold, you should start generating some troops and building caravans (if you haven't already done so). Start shipping your troops (external dwellings too) to this new stronghold. Have Bohb and Violet take any local mines and keep a CLOSE eye on that bridge heading to the eastern mainland. You don't want any heroes getting behind your front lines. Once you refortified your forces a bit (I personally used Bohb, Violet, centaurs, nomads, cyclops and summoned troops) you'll start to head north on the western isle. Along the way, you'll see a second bridge leading eastward. Ignore that for now. Keep heading north to the first Preserve castle. This battle was fairly tough in my game, but I also dawdled quite a bit by over exploring, so this might not be the case for you. Anyway, once you take this new town, build up it's mage guild giving Bohb as many spells as possible (don't forget the libraries...he knows ALL magic schools). If you took a fairly serious hit in taking this town. Settle down for a bit and re-shuttle some fresh troops via the caravans. If not, then head for that second bridge and green's territory.
The small island sanctuary of green is fairly straight forward. Have your heroes with some decent forces start to strategically take all the dwellings and mines in order to cut off green's supply lines. (especially the dwellings). Of note is the unicorn dwelling on the western edge of green's island. Avoid the witches hut on this island as it will only teach you a primary magic skill. And seeing as how Bohb already has all of the 5 schools, Violet will be the one to get it. And Violet doesn't WANT it. Avoid magic with Violet. Once you've decided that you've fooled around enough, head over the final bridge and assault the final town. Green's preserve. Inside is the hero with the Wayfaring boots. Pull them off his dead feet and victory is yours.
At the end of this map, Bohb was a level 12 archmage with Expert nature magic, advanced chaos, death and life magic, advanced conjuration & herbalism, and basic meditation, occultism, enchantment, healing, and order magic. He had 102 spell points, 210 hit points and 19 att/def stats. Spells included summon fire/water/air elementals and numerous level 1 & 2 spells from all schools. As for Violet, she was a level 12 general with Expert combat, advanced tactics, basic scouting and nobility. Expert offense, advanced archery, defense and pathfinding, and basic leadership, melee and magic resistance. 210 hit points, 24 melee att. / 21 ranged att. / 39 melee & ranged defense.
| Comments (3) |
- by Harukaba
Yog must deliver the Heavenly Helm of Enlightenment and Sword of Judgment to Beleg and Orruk to win the campaign. However, if Yog is defeated in combat or loses any artifact, the scenario is lost. Yog is limited to level 25 but will carry his experience, skills and spells on to his next campaign.
Starting Bonus: Everflowing Crystal Cloak or 2 Cyclops or 4 Rocs.
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
Your main opponents are Astral and Aine, two wizards with primary statistics in the low teens and with many spells that they will happily use against you. You should definitely take the initiative as soon as possible so take the four Rocs as your bonus.
I have verified for myself that Yog 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
Hire a secondary hero and give Yog all of the troops and have him follow the teal path to buy a Ballista which will do a great deal of damage, especially if you have the Artillery skill. Continue south to hire some Orcs from the Orc tower and then battle the Diamond Golems that are blocking you from Bracada. Now head either north or south on the purple path and try to catch Aine and Astral outside of the town because it will be easier to defeat them. Since they have strong magic, it's better to battle them before they get too many troops. Fortunately, they don't have Tactics so it should be easy to defeat them with their lower primary statistics and your Ballista. I took over O2a, hired some more troops and headed north on the purple path to defeat the remaining enemy heroes and took over O1a.
Second Leg
Gather enough troops to take over N1 by defeating the 36 Nagas guarding it outside and the troops inside. N1 is more built-up than the other Tower towns but can't build a Cloud Temple for you to hire Giants/Titans. I suggest building up two Tower towns so you can get a good force to defeat the 35 Ancient Behemoths that are guarding a Guard Tent. While waiting, head down through E1a to the small underground.
Head south on the pink path, battle eight Giants and then eight Titans, and then visit G2a past the tower that will only let Yog through. Then head to the towns that you are building up, give Yog the troops, and then head to G1a and defeat the 35 Ancient Behemoths guarding it. You could go underground to get the 10,000 gold that G1b is guarding but it's not really necessary. In addition, S1a asks that you defeat the Champions at S1b for a reward of twenty crystals but that's not necessary either.
Finishing Up
Now your final task is to deliver the artifacts by going to the southeast corner and go to G1b, G2b beyond it, and finally to S2b. The seer there will give you the Badge of Courage. Then go south of that, go through S2a that demands the Badge of Courage, and the final seer to give the last artifact and the end of the map and campaign.
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