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| Thread: Campaign Help |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 11, 2004 05:45 AM |
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Campaign Help
Hi, I need some help with these two campaigns. I've beaten them before, but that was a long time ago (2002).
1. Gem Campaign #2: Locating the Undertaker Amulet.
I cannot reach the north-east side of the map; all the portals I've found seem to lead back to the middle. Also, the map is now SWARMED with tough enemy heroes. Captured NW corner and Dragon Utopia, got both passwords and unlocked both red and blue barriers (I think). All this but to no avail.
2. Crag Hack #1: Capturing the Skull Helmet.
I make it to week 3 or 4 when a tough enemy breaks passed the dragons. I ward him off but he comes back a week later with a tougher army and a second hero. I'm outnumbered, so I bypassed him north, took a town and defeated the underground trolls, tried attacking the objective castle, but was vastly outnumbered. Prior to that week, I had recruited everything from all seven of my castle's dwellings, so as to what I should've done, I'm stuck.
I can't help but wonder how I beat these two so long ago. Any help will be gratefully received. Thanks.
-guitarguy
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 12, 2004 09:21 AM |
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Situation Update
Okay, I beat the second Gem mission in that campaign. I tried the next one and did poorly. Many tough monster stacks around and little gold resources. Bad guy comes knocking 2nd month with killer army. Dead; any suggestions for this one? It is the one where you've got to rescue the underground hero with the Vampire's Cowl.
Further, any help on the first Hack and Slash mission would be great.
-guitarguy
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted November 12, 2004 11:31 AM |
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The most important hint i can give you is SPEED!
You have to clear your area and conquer opponents towns much faster. The longer u wait, the stronger he will get. Donīt be afraid of some fights with Crag on first mission. You will win most of the fights easily if u keep some "fodder" in your army (like single goblin stacks for example) which can take the first retaliation of the monsters, then u can hit with your stronger stacks without losses.
And another hint...donīt try to clear ALL your area...it is NOT important to hit EVERY marletto tower or EVERY garden of knowledge. Important is to rush as early as u can.
On what difficulty do u play the scenarios?
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 12, 2004 12:15 PM |
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Would help if I could, but I hardly seem to remember anything about the ones from original heroes 3, think I played them in 2000. The campaigns I remember the best are the 3 I did in 4 (barb, order & chaos). Where do you choose difficulty in 3 btw? Thought it was fixed. Trying out the ones from heroes complete atm (new to it) and especially the Armageddon's blade campaign is way too easy. That second map where you had Gelu must have been the easiest ever. I'm not done with it yet, on the 4th one. I figure it will become fun if Catherine has to fight Xeron later on since he's way better than her with how the skills fell.
I did some notes back then, and I seldom throw them away since it's fun to look at old writings for some flashbacks, but the only thing I found was how long it took for each campaign. The only one I can really remember is Long Live the Queen, because it's the only one I replayed to get a good score (29 days, /hug DD and TP).
What's the name of that campaign? Is it Liberation, Long Live the King or Song for the Father? I don't have them unlocked atm so wondering which one I need to do to get there. Hopefully not Liberation! No idea what it was about, but it took a horrid 225 days 
So if you are still stuck in a few days I can hopefully come with some advice. I think you'll get through though before I get there, beat him up good!
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted November 12, 2004 12:28 PM |
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I started the campaign right now to remember what to do (btw...these are campaigns of Shadow of death).
After u have conquered your first town, get your ore and wood mine very fast. Then u can see some wolfes at the bottom near the road...they joined.
After that, kill the ogres guarding the crystal mine, so u will be able to built behemots week 2.
Now try to get to the right side, there u can find 2 wolf dwellings, 1 goblin dwelling, and (very important!!) a tavern. Buy as much heroes as u can afford. They will help u to collect all the stuff u need. There are also the gloves near and a hillfort, which helps a lot. Fight the 2 dwarven treasuries for money and crystal.
When i met the first enemy (red, Vey, he came through those few goldendragons..) i had 3 ancients, 13 thunderbrids, 40 orc chiefs, 50 wolfraiders and the units from the dwelling.
Was enough to kill him....
Hope that helped for the start...
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 12, 2004 01:51 PM |
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Update + Details
Thank you for the replies. I might as well explain my situation a bit further. Note that I play the SoD campaign missions at the default difficulty they have auto-set and never change them.
Before I start, I amazingly beat Gem mission #3 on my second try and am now on the next.
As for Crag Hack mission #1, I have indeed taken some of the early steps you have mentioned. I cleared a path east to the tavern after taking the town, even building the behemoth dwelling on week 1. The tough creatures don't faze me much (in this map) because I chose orcs for my start bonus. Got the gloves and went back, took a goldmine, got stuff upgraded at fort, etc. Week 5 or something, trouble knocks with an army clearly coming from two Stronghold castles combined...100 hobgobs, 80 wolfraiders, horde of orcs...even 12 cyclops and some behemoths. I sent C.H. back to my castle to restock and the enemy hero went over to the fort and upgraded everything (argh). I move up and try to take him out, he retreats north into the shroud of his domain, I follow slightly and stop. Another enemy hero with a smaller army has landed by boat in the west; his goblin and ogre stacks made it urgent for me to go back and defend my castle. Previously, I gave all my second heroes' armies to C.H. Anyway, the enemy bypassed my castle and just captured the adventure map dwellings above me, no big deal. The real deal came when the first enemy hero arrived again from the north; with more troops this time! I fought him finally, but his cyclops troops flattened a lot of my wolfraiders at the beginning and his ogre-mages gave my seven behemoths a tough fight. The guy retreated before I could finish; so what, I thought. But then again, I had only 70 orc chieftains and some other units who survived and one more week's worth of castle recruits before another big army came. This guy had more thunderbirds than I had, so my orcs were toast; I brought along my first two cyclops but that didn't do crap. The losing battle took place around (I forgot) sometime in the mid-second month. That was Tuesday's game.
I ought to try it again tomorrow. I'll take your advice into consideration. Clearly, SoD missions require me to be solidly prepared; so I will. Thanks.
-guitarguy
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted November 12, 2004 04:52 PM |
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I didnīt know what difficulty is set on that scenario with Crag, but i have set it to 200%. So the army and situation i described in my further post happened with that setting.
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 13, 2004 05:12 AM |
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I have played that map now and I can agree that the computer was annoying. Played at 200% (seems you can change difficulty here, but not in AB) and on week 3 day 6 Shiva came through the several green dragon stack with 19 orc chiefs, 12 ogre magi, 6 rocs, 4 wyverns, 49 wolf raiders and 10 thunderbirds. Think I was lucky that she came so early because she must have lost something from the dragons. I didn't have my army assembled though and only half of it was upgraded so it took me a week (week 4, day 6) to get it all upgraded and face her since Crag Hack was at the gold mine in the west and she had cut me off from the scouts. By that time I had 81 orc chiefs, 6 wyvern monarcs, 8 scorpicores, 99 wolf raiders, 16 thunderbirds, 39 ogre magi and 5 ancient behemoths and she had only gotten 96 goblins since she came in so it wasn't even a fight.
Shortly after that two heroes with medium forces, Aislinn and Jabarkas, came in and got one of my scouts, and I got month of the plague which was probably a very good thing since I had enough forces to take the wandering heroes out. Took close to a month to clean the rest out since I only had enough forces for one army plus a small garrison at home for when Vey tried to take it over. Tried to attack the final castle the first week in month 3, but got my ass kicked. Spent two weeks gathering armies and visititing all the bonus places before I returned with an army a bit larger than his.
So how to beat this map then? The hints from angelito were very good, since I didn't know the layout of the map they helped alot and don't think I would have attacked those wolf raiders before taking the city unless it was stated there that they would join. They did indeed join and I didn't even have to fight for the city. Then I don't know if it was luck or if it was set that way, I had no diplomacy but 1 orc stack, 1 ogre stack and the scorpicore stack wanted to join my army so after that it was mostly cleanup.
I feel I cheated slightly though, I reloaded a tad much early on to minimize my losses so I would have a strong stack left. But without that I wonder if the stacks would have thought me strong enough to join and without that it would have been quite hard. I had to at the dwarven treasuries though, one of them was a full one and if I didn't beat it I wouldn't have cyclopses in the second week. The first time I survived with 11 orc chiefs due to slightly bad placing and a high morale at the wrong time on a full dwarf stack. Couldn't have that so replayed it two times and got through with most of the important armies left.
So don't be afraid to reload, after all it saves more time than having to redo the scenario two weeks later because the computer comes at you with a better army. I don't know how people see on reloading fights, but if it really goes downhill I see nothing wrong with it. Will try to not do it very often on the next scenario and see how it goes so it feels more natural.
Edit: I bought 3 heroes at the tavern, didn't feel like that area could support more heroes. Bought more later, but only to transport troops.
Edit 2: Load less? Yeah riiiight! I was losing several times, can't recommend this second map on impossible. I had to replay two weeks to let Edric take my castle so I could catch him without him escaping. He was way too dangerous to have around. The first time I engaged him he escaped and I had rather severe losses and two weeks later he caught me with a gigantic army so I had to load and do something different. For two weeks we just walked around and took each others mines and then after buying the armies accumulated in that time I let him take the castle and I could take it back without too much losses, although the level 1's and 2's were pretty much wiped out. I had one calm week and then Sorcha came, was no other way out than to abandon my city and flee. For a long while I was taking a city here and a city there and just avoiding Sorcha. Uland and Caitlin had large armies also, but they didn't dare attack me. I didn't want to attack them either since if I did I would hardly have any army left.
For the second scenario there's no idea in trying to wipe out red, it's too hard. Maybe the armies aren't so humungous on the standard setting, but it will be easier there too to avoid fighting with red unless you have to. Escape if you have no other choice, and locate the guy with the sword instead. It was rather fun, but also an aggravating mission. If you get stuck on something specific I should be able to help.
Edric may have had town portal, see no other way to how he could get around so fast. Does anyone know if spells on computer guys are set or random?
Edit 3: Crag campaign done, so time to go out to real life again. It wasn't an easy one, although I think the second mission is probably the hardest. 4th has some nasty heroes on it, but for me Septienna was the only one that was a nightmare. She had such a big army so she ignored her own troops and cast armageddon each round for 1260 and I couldn't keep up. She definitely had town portal and she restocked each week, plus either water walk or fly. Without expert earth and town portal myself to escape from her it wouldn't have worked. Finally got her when I attacked her in the town with cursed ground in, fight was worth 38492 xp
I've babbled on too much really, this is your thread, not mine. Just saying that if you get stuck again I think I can help now. Keep different saves, probably 3, and save on same one one week at a time so if a choice a few turns back has ruined everything you don't have to restart the whole map.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 14, 2004 03:41 AM |
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Gem's Quest for the Boots
Okay, this one is just troubling me a lot. I've run this one two times, reloading multiple saved games nearly every 10 minutes. Allow me to challenge everyone in babble length to explain what happened:
I started in the north with Clancy and Gem; a blue tent and a heavily-guarded dragon cliffs are nearby. There is a Necropolis south of my castle, beyond a garrison with a bunch of bone dragons in it. To the west is an area containing two neutral Ramparts, a green tent, and a Town Portal spell guarded by ghost dragons. A border guard obsructs the southern areas, containing Necropolis towns and three scattered portals that provide the only access to the Boots in the SW corner. The objective itself is guarded by a two border guards and a quest gate.
A straightforward strike for the Boots is hard because of the starting conditions and the advantages the AI receive in creature production. My first try at this map was at default: Expert. That didn't work, so I tried Normal. That made the opening easier, but yielded the same results. There is a seer's hut near the start that offers the Sandals artifact if I give 25 ghost dragons. I think the artifact is needed to get the Boots, making this transaction a necessary move.
The start was a financial struggle that was eased when I captured a gold mine in week 3 and then built up to a captital. I was able to take out the bone dragons at the garrison and then take the Necropolis castle. That was one less enemy to worry about, but it was month 2 and I needed to get the green tent in the west to open the door south. I pushed west and captured the two Ramparts; started building up in all my towns except the dragon structure. I got to the green tent, but I needed 25 ghost dragons to get the Sandals; (my Necropolis town would produce that many in 13 weeks...forget it) that meant pushing into the south. I got more troops and headed south, got shredded in the process. Reloaded and tried something crazy: spent the next two months or so building an army that eventually out-produces the Necromancers. Well, that didn't work. There were several enemy heroes that had troop numbers that outnumbered mine 3or4/1. I tried to keep my offensive hero, Gem, moving in the south while Clancy waited in the safety of the sanctuary. My plan was to avoid enemy contact completely, reach the boots and use Town Portal. During my attempts, I reached the SW corner once, but there was this one border guard that I couldn't get past; I tried looking for the tent around enemy territory, but I got found instead. So I never found it and realized that I just couldn't accomplish anything since the enemy was super strong. Next time, I'll abandon the months-on-end strategy.
Do you suggest I attack the south as soon as possible? It seems incredibly hard to because the enemy has a large advantage: plenty of castles, enough gold, all the structures, killer artifacts, two-digit primary skills, and the damned Implosion/Animate spells. Yet, I'll need multiple castles to satisfy the seer's quest and assure the enemy's defeat. More suggestions would be great.
-guitarguy
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 14, 2004 04:17 AM |
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Hmm, I haven't begun that one yet but will start the first mission now. The idea is probably the same though as for the other campaign that you only have to kill those that come too close and try to avoid the ones that are impossible. Like on the third and fourth missions you couldn't even kill the enemies if you wanted to, they had some cities locked up. On the third I was trying for it before I realised there's no tent to enter their regions (unless I missed it in the covers of darkness). If there's no space to run in it may be hard to avoid them, I will really have to see the map first. If expert air and dimension door is a possibility that would make it a lot easier, but I would guess probably not since the SoD campaigns seem better made than the ones from AB.
Some fights that are 3 to 1 can be won, but it really depends on what spells he has or if he's low on spellpoints. One fight I did I first lost because he kept ressurecting a large amount of vampire lords every round, when trying it again I cast different spells and so did he. We had a slow/haste/blind/dispel war and I was able to to slowly grind some of the troops down before finally going all attack on the vampire lords after waiting a round. I lost most of my troops except for half my griffin stack, but it was worth it since he was one of the key heros so after that I could roam more freely.
I'll check back here when I get to the third one, I do expect to avoid him a lot. The only thing I can think of now is to make a save at his border at the beginning of your turn and then run in a direction to scout out where the tent is. When he catches you reload and try a different direction and redo until it's found. If scouting try to have a stables visited and only troops with 11+ speed on you since you won't be fighting anyway, you just need to know where it is.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 14, 2004 08:07 AM |
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More on Gem #4
Good tips; I'll make sure I follow through when the time comes.
I restarted Gem mission 4 and played on Normal difficulty. I made sure that I broke into the southern Necromancer realm by the 3rd month and had Gem as my main commander. Her primary skills:
*Attack 6
*Defense 10
*Spell Power 14
*Knowledge 8
Gem's troops (rounded):
*Centaur Captains 350
*Battle Dwarves 210
*Grand Elves 100
*Silver Pegasi 70
*Dendroid Soldiers 50
*War Unicorns 30
*Ghost Dragons 6
I stroll on in and get attacked by a major hero:
*Attack 18
*Defense 14
*Spell Power 10
*Knowledge 15
*Skeleton Warriors 400
*Zombies 200
*Wraiths 170
*Vampire Lords 130
*Power Liches 60
*Dread Knights 20
*Bone Dragons 8
I can't believe I actually beat the guy. It must've been the Expert Slow and the other expert defensive stuff I cast. In the process, however, I had about 100 dwarves, 90 elves, and 10 dendroids left. I didn't get so much into the next turn when another enemy hero comes with an army identical to the first, only with more of the latter troops. I was forced into battle during the AI's turn and lost. Shoot, and I thought I'd be able to beat them if I attacked early enough. I've restarted this level three times since early yesterday morning, so I'm too tired of it to try again soon.
Second question:
I heard you had to start on the Gem campaign and then do everything else in order. That's right, is it? And what would come next, Gelu or Crag Hack? I think Yog comes last.
-guitarguy
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 14, 2004 10:41 AM |
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Oops, forgot about that. It's no use working on another campaign until you beat one. After you beat one you get to save and when you want to start on another campaign you load from that and you will be at the page where you choose campaign and you will see a checkmark on the one you have done. Pick any of the other three and after going through all four at least one more campaign will open, not sure on the order of the last ones. The order of the first ones doesn't matter as long as you do them one after the other.
Could maybe do them side by side and then have someone mail you their save after the fourth campaign, should work. Someone should have one, but hard to know if they will read this.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 16, 2004 07:29 AM |
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Still Stuck on Game
The last scenario of the Gem campaign is still giving me trouble. It seems I cannot attack early enough to overwhelm/outnumber the southern Necropolis towns without sustaining severe losses. Just as so, I seem to be unable to obtain the Dimension Door spell. Reducing the difficulty hasn't helped much in the long run, either. Thus, it seems to be impossible for me to recover the Dead Man's Boots...for now.
If anyone can find out anything about how to overcome this toughie, I'll be waiting patiently.
-guitarguy
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 18, 2004 09:18 AM |
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Finished the campaign about two hours ago, played on Impossible. I hardly ever play Rampart, just don't like them (2 sloooow units, 4th level unit annoyingly weak to fight with), so the following information may not be the best but it worked here.
Short version: The Red tent is one screen down from where you go into the west rampart area, and one screen left from where you see the tree of knowledge. The Dark Blue tent is one screen right and a bit down of the university, southwest of the east castle.
Long version:
Gem's stats.
Attack : 6
Defense: 9
Spell Power: 10
Knowledge: 11
Gem's skills.
Wisdom, First Aid, Earth Magic, Intelligence, Air Magic, Sorcery, Archery, Luck.
She works, but certainly not what I had in mind when I started the campaign. Clancy has good skills, but since he won't carry over and he's still at level 17 I decide not to work on him anything more.
I chose to start with the money, wood and crystal would be good to have too but felt money would be the biggest problem. First I saved day 1, cast view air/earth and walked around my starting area to see how it looked like. Discover diamond golems at the gold mine and restarted. Made a new save day 1, went back and saw several dread knights instead. Loaded and started to play.
Day 1. Gave first aid tent and elves to Clancy, Clancy took the ore pit and Gem took the sawmill with her small single centaur stack. Chain Lightning + 1 frost ring. Built Town Hall.
Day 2. Took a chest, walked a bit, built Marketplace.
Day 3. Took goldmine with Gem, since I attacked with 18 centaurs the dread knights were in 7 stacks and 1 destroy undead took care of them all. Took another chest with clancy and the waterwheel, built Resource Silo since I saw on the view earth that my area had no crystal mine.
Day 4. Took sulfur mine from the mighty moos, mass slow, anti magic, death ripple x 3. Built homestead.
Day 5. Citadel. Mercury mine.
Day 6. Crypt, one destroy undead. Dendroid Arches.
Day 7. Castle.
Day 8. Be out of wood, do nothing except revisit water wheel.
Day 9. Mage guild, get spell points back.
Day 10. Traded 5 mercury and 10 sulfur for 3 wood, built Blacksmith.
Day 11. City Hall.
Day 12. Capitol. Well it was on Impossible and it's a very poor map.
Day 13. Enchanted Spring.
Day 14. Unicorn Glade. Day 10-13 somewhere imp cache and dwarven treasury. Area cleared except for the pack of ghost dragons guarding the dragon cliffs.
Week 3 and 4, chicken out and wait for more troops before going south. Baiting pink by having 7 weak stacks in the castle and he loses his 4 best heroes while trying to take it. Upgrade dwellings.
Month 2 week 1. Finally build gold dragons, save money so treasury at least will have some effect.
Month 2 week 2. Have 3 green dragons, 18 war unicorns and 83 grand elves. I use all units, but wrote down only the above ones. Attack pink player, become shocked how weak he is, thinking I should have gone south sooner.
Month 2 week 3 and 4. Clear out west Rampart area, start to build stuff.
Month 3 week 1. Have 16 gold dragons, 39 unicorns, 251 elves. Make a save at the south green border, open it and go in. Kill a few scout heroes and 1 medium strong hero, not much losses. Meet Tamika with 23 25 25 25 stats and more than double my army, looks like a full spell book. Get destroyed, reload. Take 2, avoid Tamika, take a castle, lose my first necromancer castle to Tamika. Notice that this doesn't work, scout the map to discover where tents are, notice that the Orange Septienna dares to attack me too, reload and don't open the border gate this time.
Month 3 week 1 and 2: Finish building other rampart cities, except for upgrading the dragon cliffs. Built resource silos very early.
Month 3 week 3 day 2: New try at the south green border gate after town portaling around and restocking. Have 37 gold dragons, 75 unicorns, 360 elves. This time it goes better. Red, the color with Tamika, had 2 castles. I go left and take that one out. She follows, but doesn't dare to attack me in the castle. She starts to take back mines that I have flagged with scouts that I bought out from the castle. Have orange take her other castle, rejoice. Annoy Tamika for a while, hop back and defend other necromancer castle from orange from time to time and restock at home the following week. Took the castle to the east in week 4 when no one was around the western castle, killed oranges main hero that had shackles of war, lost most centaurs, half my dwarves and a few of the others.
Month 4 week 1: Tamika abandons red because of not having any castle, cheer and start to wipe out orange who is much weaker. Killed orange late in the week and be out of enemies.
Month 4 week 2: Have enough bone dragons to make the exchange for the sandals, have Clancy hop around and deliver them, finish it on day 2 (Gave him the town portal scroll, no Wisdom. Gem had gotten it from a town. No dimension door on the map). Some troops were guarding the necromancy boots, but nothing major. 35 power liches, 30 vampire lords, 30 dread knights, 25 ghost dragons, 30 dread knights, 30 vampire lords, 35 power liches. Finish with a score of 1980 and black dragon rating, once again miss the archangel rating which you kinda should get that after only playing on impossible. Realise some mission took too long, although mission 3 couldn't have been done much faster.
In the above there's a bunch of reloads when I calculated wrong how far the computer could walk and such, but the first opening of the south green border gate is the only time I had to reload longer than 2 days. To me mission 2 and 3 sucked more, although not having to fight Tamika sure helped.
You were doing fine really, guessing it was the Red tent you never found. Hate those shrouds of darkness. I hope it works the next time, but I don't think going south too soon will work. If you can't beat Septienna it's too dangerous to be in that area. My original plan was to hold the necromancer castle I had and try to steal a castle here or there at day 7 or 1 and buy those ghost dragons and hop back with them to my first necromancer castle and redo it until I had enough dragons, but did better than expected once I had taken another castle.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 18, 2004 12:25 PM |
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Alrighty
Thank you very much for the extensive layout of the mission. It really helps. I just have several questions about your strategy:
1. You said something about Orange taking the enemy castles. Can they do that? I was thinking that Orange and Red were allied against me; or perhaps it was luck that they did that for you?
2. When you broke into the southern Necropolis land, where were all the enemy heroes located? Further, how many of them were there? Whenever I played that part of the map, there are usually three weak heroes and two super-strong heroes within 2-turns distance to each other. I can capture the town immediately south of the border guard, but there's usually two baddies with a 110% chance of beating me and all my months' worth of creatures.
3. So would you recommend that I simply avoid the tough enemy armies altogether and just stealthily strike at the castles? Also, just about how much more of a creature advantage did the enemy have over you?
In the meantime, I will try the map again. Thanks!
-guitarguy
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 18, 2004 03:27 PM |
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1. Oops memory played a trick on me. They are indeed allied. After reloading some middle saves I remember sending a sacrificial scout out to the east and he walked into the empty red enemy castle. I couldn't stay at the east castle with Gem so had to lose it, was in the middle of the week. Lost the map from the shroud later so that's probably why I first forgot about it. A few turns later I cast view air and saw that red had no castles since orange took the empty castle from me.
2. I had no logistics, but had gotten Boots of Speed, so that helped mobility. I suggest taking out either the left or the right castle, leave the southern castle for last. Played a little from the save and saw that I should have gone right instead of left, could have taken out 4 heroes and having 1 flee, all from Red. Red had 5 heroes cluttered together in the screen below the border guard. 2 of them having only 1 walking dead (stats 4 0 7 3 and 6 3 7 6), 1 of them 15 mummies (6 5 7 5), 1 had 7 power liches, 332 zombies, 89 skeleton warriors, 22 wraiths, 4 dread knights, 2 ghost dragons. That was Red's next best hero, couldn't take him out before he fled (15 11 10 8). The other two red heroes were to the left near the teleporter, and Tamika walks into it and I don't see her for a while. The other one is another weak scout, gonna list Tamika below along with my army.
This is at month 3 week 3 day 2. It's mainly the dwarves and pegasi I couldn't buy out.
Me 12 10 12 15
606 centaur captains
161 battle dwarves
360 grand elves
100 silver pegasi
104 dendroid soldiers
75 war unicorns
37 gold dragons
Tamika 23 25 25 25
593 skeleton warriors
0 zombies
320 wraiths
141 vampire lords
131 power liches
65 dread knights
30 ghost dragons
Looking at just the numbers I have won much harder battles and her army wasn't so big as I remember, but her stats really help out. And if I cast a mass slow, she either cures it or mass hastes. She animates larger stacks than I can ressurect, her implosion is twice as big etc. No matter what I cast she can counter it or do better. I seem to have more hp so that's probably why she doesn't want to attack. In a month I should have been able to take her out but it never came to that.
All 6 of the Orange heroes are down south around his castle, 4 of them suck, Charna has 400+ skeletons and 200+ zombies but rest of her army is trash. The one with shackles of war, Septienna (12 15 10 13), has 86 power liches, 143 wraiths, 5 bone dragons, 134 vampire lords, 51 dread knights, 34 ghost dragons. Played a quick battle against her and lost 60 elves, 3 unicorns, all 100 silver pegasi, 5 dwarves, 86 centaurs and 2 gold dragons. The big differences between the heroes is that her magic was very very weak compared to Tamika's, and her stats weren't so monstrous.
3. Partly answered in 2 with the creature advantage, if you can't hold both left and right castle try to take one and hope Orange takes it back while you take the other castle and hold it until time is out for Red. It may not go the same way in your game, but in mine Red was the one that got the dragon utopia and the best artifacts. That Septienna had shackles was only good, no idea if she comes with it or not.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 19, 2004 02:18 PM |
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Victory!
I made it! Thanks for all the tips; they were very helpful. Impossible must've been tough; I just won on Hard.
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Month 5:
Gem has waited till lone central Necropolis produced 25 ghost dragons; aquired Sandals from seer.
Broke through border guard, Gem marches to take eastern Necropolis while Clancy stays safe at the sanctuary. Two decoy heroes were sent west to soak up enemy movement points.
Necropolis captured, Gem claims dark blue tent and takes portal to Boots area. Removed first two barriors and exits through western portal to find red tent.
Red tent found by Gem, who heads back through portal to Boots area. Enemy heroes bypass Clancy at sanctuary and capture my central Necropolis. West-central Rampart taken by enemy; starting Rampart captured as well.
Gem claims the boots and casts Town Portal to remaining north-west Rampart; heads east and battles tough hero defending the Rampart. Gem ultimately wins.
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It was super tough watching every single turn go by at that point. The enemy had four heroes with Swarms of Vampire Lords, Throngs of Dread Knights, and Throngs of Ghost Dragons. No joke; two heroes had Legions of Skeleton Warriors and Zombies. How that many heroes got that much still perplexes me.
On to the Gelu campaign; thanks again!
-guitarguy
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Campaigner
Hired Hero
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posted November 27, 2004 04:02 PM |
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Gem mission 3
I'm stuck at Gem mission 3 (Vampires Cowl) and need a walkthru. I'm playing at Expert.
Skills: <b>Expert</b>: Wisdom, Earth Magic, First Aid, Mysticism, Luck
<b>Advanced</b>: Water Magic
<b>Basic</b>: Leadership
I have a save in Month 2 where Tamika comes and obliterates Gem in the Capitol with the entire army. I have absolutely no chance.
I also don't know where the underground entrance is located. I'm guessing on the southeast though.
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Sun goes up, sun goes down, I always win. Logical things in a logical world.
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guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted November 28, 2004 11:06 AM |
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Answer & Question
Oh, when I played that one I knew for sure that I couldn't defeat that hero with Gem's army. I had to avoid the fighting altogether in order to survive and get the Cowl. This is probably one of those "pacifist" missions where it pays to keep away from battles that could (or will) wipe you out. Use a lot of saved games to help move Gem around in case you bump into trouble. I think the underground area is to the south-east. I'd be of more help if only I could remember that scenario good enough.
Now for a *me* update:
I've now beaten the Gelu missions and am on Crag Hack #2 encountering problems. The enemies are numerous and the starting castle is easily captured by the southern AI. A good strategy would help me in this.
-guitarguy
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Shenjairo
Known Hero
Simsalabim
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posted November 28, 2004 03:50 PM |
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In both of those missions you have to avoid the enemy, they are the missions where the enemy has the largest army advantage over you and they come rather early so there's not a lot you can do to defend yourself.
On the gem campaign you have to flee when the enemy comes, I left the monsters at the cursed ground so weaker heroes wouldn't come through there and when the enemy came with his main hero I fled through there. I tried locating the hero with Gem, but it didn't work since she walked too short. On the next try I gave the stack of silver pegasi to Clancy since he had logistics and left Gem in the sanctuary. After some maneuvering and sacrificing the hero you rescued so the enemy didn't reach Clancy I was able to take the artifact and flee back to where Gem was hiding in the sanctuary. The entrance is indeed in the southeast but not as far down as the corner, quite close to one of his castles. There are two entrances, one on each side of a garrison. Since the city you have to get to wasn't very guarded I gave Clancy enough troops to take it over (in the top cities I only built to elves and walked away with the troops I had when she came) and Gem took the rest to try to reach the library of enlightenment down at where the prisoner was so she wouldn't be a total wuss when the next mission started. After a few tries I got her there and walked to the city with Clancy in the same turn to win the mission. It was late in month 2, would have taken longer if I could have taken my time but the enemy forced me out.
The second Crag Hack mission was very tough, I wrote some earlier about it and did manage to get the first hero that came looking for a fight which was from the left. Build up what you can and flee, you have to get down to the left corner in some underground cave and you only need to have enough armies to kill him. Pretty sure I lost time on this mission by not going there sooner. You get to the island through a two way portal over a little river from the right. There's a scripted fight out in the open and then the fight down in the cave. Can't remember what I had, but it could have been done with less. I really hope you have been able to pick logistics. There's a hill fort down there close to the portal if you don't have your behemoths upgraded which I didn't. I had some knight troops with me, but can't remember how many it was. If the fight is too tough you have to stay a bit for a few more troops (you will need a castle anyway so you don't lose since you don't have your original castle, but try first to go straight there with what you have after renewing your time limit without a castle).
Didn't keep any old saves, not the best memory so may mix missions up. I think at least that's how crag hack 2 went, of what I remember of mission 3 it was the easiest one and all heroes were defeatable except you couldn't take over his castles due to border gate blocks at some of them.
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