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| Thread: Heroes 5 Campaigns: Dungeon Walkthrough |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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razor5
Famous Hero
Freezing...
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posted April 23, 2009 08:39 PM |
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Did you installed all the patches in order 1.1> 1.2> 1.3 etc.?
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Sid_the_Sleuth
Tavern Dweller
Ex ossibus ultor...
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posted April 23, 2009 11:41 PM |
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Only from 1.4 up. 1.4 did not require any previous patch.
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Sid_the_Sleuth
Tavern Dweller
Ex ossibus ultor...
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posted April 27, 2009 11:21 AM |
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Hi, again. Problem solved. Apparently, after applying the patches, one has to restart the campaign. At least that's how it works in this one. Thanx for help.
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ZeroXcuses
Known Hero
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posted May 23, 2009 08:14 PM |
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OMG! I'm playing The Expansion on Heroic difficulty (or whatever the hardest is), and I can't beat the AI's general because it has expert level dark magic and puppet master. Any advice?
That hero apparently has expert level light magic because she uses resurrect (or at least, the tome of light magic). She has 200+ spellpoints to my paltry 40 (and my hero has reached max level for that mission!).
It seems as though the computer has screwed me royally.
That enemy hero has swift mind, too. That map is literally impossible!
WTF!
I tried the ol' Rope-a-Dope strat by running cleaning out my castle before running, letting that powerful hero take my empty castle, and he caught one of my neutral heroes and this time, she had FIFTY TWO EXTRA BLACK DRAGONS FROM OUT OF NOWHERE!!!
What the **** is this garbage? This map was not like this the first time I played it.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted May 23, 2009 08:27 PM |
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Man that sucks  Can't you buy any artifacts from the dungeon towns? Btw opponent cannot have swift mind, that's a tote thing. Unless you play original campaigns from there?
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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ZeroXcuses
Known Hero
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posted May 24, 2009 04:08 AM |
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Quote:
Man that sucks Can't you buy any artifacts from the dungeon towns? Btw opponent cannot have swift mind, that's a tote thing. Unless you play original campaigns from there?
Yeah, I'm playing the the original campaigns with tote settings, so I'm facing the raiders that do damage just by walking past and acid hydras. Ugh.
I put in a cheat code to skip to the next map, and I was crushed by the first blue hero I ran into. Looks like I'll be stuck on this camp for awhile.
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woo100
Tavern Dweller
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posted June 01, 2009 10:13 AM |
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Godric Glitch
I have a problem with my game. Everytime I run into Godric and the battle starts I place the warriors and when the fight starts the game crashes. I have to do the ctrl, alt, del just to close the game and start it up again. It was fine in the The Cultist campagin mission 1 because you don't have to fight him, that is where it happen the first time, but in the Necromancer campaign mission 5 I can't even beat the mission, becasue it crashes everytime I get the angel wings and fly over to fight him. It is really annoying, cause the rest of the game plays perfect. I even used the codes so I could continue onto the next mission, and it has been playing fine. I have the Heroes of Might and Magic V Gold Edition, which I bought in the UK, I have windows vista, and it says verison 1.50 in the bottom corner. Also I tried to upload the latest patch, but it says Heroes of Might and Magic V is not installed. Patch cannot be applied, Which is crap cause it have been playing it. Anybody have any ideas to fix this I would really appreciate it.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted June 01, 2009 12:50 PM |
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You are trying to download the wrong version then.
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Razorflame
Tavern Dweller
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posted June 26, 2009 04:58 PM |
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currently playing original homm5 patch1.6
and i have serius problems taking down the cultist t.t
i have realag level 18
with the following skills
basic irresitible magic [emporered spells
expert def[protection/vitality]
adv logistics [scouting and teleport assualt]
exp destruc [master of fire]
adv sorery [arcane training]
basic luck [soldiers luck]
shadya
exp dark [with all masters]
exp destruction [with master of ice]
exp def[with evasion]
my army consist of 50 minotaurs 25 assasin 1 shadow with and 1 matriarch(realag)
and shaya having 30 blood maiden en 30 minotaurs
when i try to capture the first town
which consist of an stack 80 assasin and 59 blood furies and 7 scout and 59 minotaurs guards
i immediatly space up to the second town
and having to confront the same army size only with 4 grim raiders extra this time
while having my army reduced to 1/3
not a single moment after i captured the second town 2 20+ heroes come after me (blue with shadow witches and a resonable army)
and followed behind by a mighty demon army
do i have the wrong skills?
or is this some imba bug?
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Stichen
Tavern Dweller
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posted October 01, 2009 04:20 PM |
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Scenario 4 bug
Hi. So I was satisfied from succesfully completing the third scenario, where I had been able to win some really difficult battles. I ran into the fourth and got kicked in the ass by the imps in the beginning. Using wait-and-recover-mana tactic, I was able to overcome them eventually. Then, as I liberated the blood fury surrounded by a bunch of peasants, a red hero appeared from the portal. On the second try, I defeated him. BUT, the trouble is now and donīt tell me nobody experienced it - as I get through the portal the Red came in, a video of Raelag seeing Red (though he is already dead) appears and then the game freezes. Itīs not even a normal hardware freeze: the cursor rests in the shape of the hourglass, but I can move it and click - with sound - on any swatch (hero portrait, options menu, end of day) but nothing happens, the heroes wonīt switch, the options wonīt appear, the day wonīt end. The screen cannot be neither turned around nor can I zoom in or out.
I have the original game with the 1.6 patch
I have tried this: loading and rushing to battle him before he passes through the portal; same thing - the battle canīt be reached this way, I have tried battling him sooner or later and now I replayed the scenario only to get the same result. I havenīt seen this problem here.
You are most welcome to help.
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Sar-Sazzar
Hired Hero
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posted November 29, 2009 03:17 PM |
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i see you puzzled so this is the whole walkthrough
Map 1 - The Clanlord
Size - Very Big
Level Cap - 12
Carry Over: Raelag
The Dungeon Campaign feature the Warlock, a typical Magic hero that utilize its destructive power to extreme. The story begins with The Clanlord, where you control Raelag, an obscure new Warlock who hopes to claim the throne of Clan Shadowbrand (which lost their Chief recently). In order to do that, you must defeat the seven other candidate warlocks after exactly one month of build-up.
You and every other warlock are sealed off and given a month to prepare. Once a month has passed, you will all be teleported into the underground, and fight each other to the death. The winner, of course, will be the last man standing. Now, onto the walkthrough.
As usual, you can choose one of the three starting bonuses, including:
6 Extra Assassins
The Marketplace built
10 Ore
Go with the Assassins, the other bonuses are not worth the extra boost the Assassins will grant you in the beginning. Raelag starts out with Basic Defense and Vitality, not my first choice when building a Warlock but his specialty - Intimidate, compensates it more then enough. Intimidate works the opposite way as Agrael's specialty, by lowering the enemy units initiative (instead of raising your own) as your level goes up. It ensures that Raelag will have a lot of turns to cast his spells.
The other four skill slots are open for your choice. On lower difficulties you will be fine anyways. However, you MUST have either Destructive or Summoning magic on high difficulties, as in mission 3 and 4 you'll start with very little army, to combat very large forces right from the start. Later on, mission 5 is mostly based on huge forces, so a Might-build would do a better job there. Even so, Mission 3, probably one of the most difficult missions among all, is where everyone's headache comes from.
Patch 1.3 toned down Meteor Shower, and made high-level spells much more mana-costing, so even the Magic route would become far more difficult now. The only good news is that Warlock's Luck now affects Empowered Spell -- but there probably won't be enough mana to cast them daily. (e.g. 38 for Empowered Meteor Showers, the weakened version!) Sorcery would be very useful as it gives double mana regeneration rate, and discounted mana cost (both Arcane Training and Erratic Mana).
Although the map size is huge, you'll only see 1/8 of it. Your opponents are working hard on their 1/8th of the map, and so should you! (Actually the other heroes stay idle all the time, but that doesn't mean they will be weak.)
Your 1/8th has one mine of every kind, a stat bonus arena, and a few artifacts. The neutral creatures guarding the buildings vary from game to game. The only thing fixed is theor tier level, and the first group of Imps guading the Ore Pit just north of your town. If you are lucky, you will get a lot of slow-walkers (e.g. zombies, golems, footmen, spectre) that you can easily defeat with blood maiden / fury and a little patience. These fast ladies can act twice while the enemy only acts once, so you can run them back and forth, to let Raelag slowly finish off the enemy. If you are unlucky, you can get almost exclusively ranged units guarding virtually every dead end. If the latter happens to you on heroic, restarting the mission would be a wise decision on Day 1!
A flawless (just slow) victory by 5 tired Maidens!
The Tavern is disabled for your town, so you'll have to trek back and forth with Raelag to get new troops. Start by building the School of the Unseen Hand (Scout building), followed by the Level 1 Mage guild, and then proceed to make the Blood Arena and consecutively its upgrade. Now you can face off most of the melee units guarding the mines. The Boots of Swift Journey located just south of your town is guarded by level 2 creatures. If you get archers there, then leave it till you get Deep Hydra. (You know what to do, right? Just deploy the hydra and keep them waiting.)
There are two creatures buildings: a Scout building on the very east, and a Maiden building on the very southwest. The blood maiden can be upgraded to blood fury, which is the most useful tier-2 creatures of the game, esepcailly during non-ranged, non-magic neutral encounters. Their building is guarded by tier-3 creatures. The scout building is not guarded. Try to flag them early, and visit them every week.
You will be short on resources, so you have to decide on what creatures buildings to have. Other than the very useful Blood Fury, the Dark Raider and the Deep Hydra can make a large difference. Minotaurs are a little too slow and vulnerable to make a difference. The Shadow Witches are a little expensive (building and hiring), but they are very powerful nontheless. It would be wise to build up the mage guilds as long as Raelag can learn from it. Meteor shower used to be the all-time favorite (level 4 spell, requires Advanced Destructive Magic). If you cannot afford the castle walls, then don't bother. You will have enough creatures to pass the mission.
There is a set of two-way portals (blue arrows in the minimap above) that might save you some travel time. A mana well is conveniently located close to one of its exits.
Clear out all enemies, even if it's just for the sake of experience, but be wary of creatures such as Magi, Druids, Sucubbi and Hunters. If you pick Attack followed by Tactics, your furies can reach them in their first turn. (However, on high difficulties they will surely survive and revenge on your furies.)
Once one month has passed, you will be warned, and the next day, teleported to an isolated location where the only option is to go into a one-way entrance teleport. You lose control of your town now, so if you've picked Elemental Vision, it stops functioning for now. Walk into it and you will be teleported with all the other warlocks in an underground arena. Here, I suggest you head immediately to the northern part, let them kill each other and then finish off any of the survivors, as if you fight too many they will kill your Blood Furies with spells and you will lose a lot of your damage output. If you feel like "The Man" then just rush in and kill them all! Most heroes are actually very weak. If you have conserved your troops well, you'll have no problem to finish them all.
Once you are done with them, the Dragon guarding the exit will disappear, and the Ring of the Shadowbrand will be yours for the taking!
Map 2 - The Expansion
Size - Very Big
Level cap: 18
Carry Over: Raelag & Shadya
This mission is not difficult, but the next one (the Cultists) is one of the maps that most frequently results in cries for help, especially after patch 1.2. Therefore, your primary goal here is to build a powerful Raelag to pull through what's coming ahead.
From now to mission 4, Raelag will always start with a small army, but he is going to face rather powerful AI heroes and neutrals quite early. A might-oriented Raelag is not going to turn the tide, unless you lower the tide (via difficulty level) yourself.
An effective warlock must have either Destructive or Summoning magic. You don't have to get both as their function overlaps, and you can only cast one spell per turn. Reaching Expert level and spells in either "the Red" (destructive) or "the Green" (summoning) in this mission is your top priority. Another skill that might boost your hero later is "the Yellow" - Light magic. Resurrection helps tremendously in the next mission if you start with it, and it will also make the Warlock campaign finale an one-sided massacre. (You can learn lv 5 Light and Dark magics on this map only via the Dragon Utopia and the Mage Vault.) Besides, all magic heroes should seriously consider "the Blue", Sorcery, for the quick and cheap spells of mass destruction.
Prior to patch 1.3, Warlock's Luck does NOT affect Empowered spells, so the entire Luck skill was not very useful for a magic hero. However, patch 1.3 changed everything -- now it is fully possible to have Warlock's Luck triggered on top of Empowered spell. Warlock's damage output never went up this high before, and neither did their mana cost -- Patch 1.3 boosts high-level destructive magic's mana cost to almost 200%, and they slashed Meteor Shower to be exactly the same power as Fireball, just bigger in area!!
Starting bonus: The minotaurs gives you more confidence to rush out early.
The picture on the right is a sample Raelag build on patch 1.3. Enlightenment would be very helpful to increase Raelag's mana count for the insane mana cost now. However, Light (Resurrection) helped me so much in the later missions.
Before you do anything, if your Raelag does not know Meteor Shower yet, you should make it happen now. If your level 4 magic guild offers Chain Lightning, you can easily restart the mission and try again. If you opt for the Summoning route, then you really need Summon Elementals.
Your starting area is on the NW of the underground portion, with a nicely-built town. There are three more dungeon towns out there, all underground and controlled by the orange player. The closet town is to your east. You can reach there only through the paved road on the ground level.
You can either make a counter-clockwise circle to flag various mines first, or directly rush out with the stairway in the middle (green A). Flagging mines does not make a big difference as your town is well-built already, but it might give your Raelag a few more levels, to obtain some useful feats so it is worth the delay.
A nice battle trick for a powerful warlock like Raelag is to deploy only Deep Hydras. Keep them waiting to give them more turns to regenerate lost HP. These creatures soak up a huge amount of damage, which should give you enough time to wipe out the neutrals. While fighting slower enemies, you can deploy only the blood furies, and let them run back and forth on the battlefield, so Raelag can pick the creatures out slowly to conserve mana.
In the middle of your HQ is a Seer's Hut (1). Visiting this hut triggers the mission of brining the Tear of Asha back to your starting town, and building the corresponding structure. Throughout the map you will find a total of six obelisks, each revealing a small portion of the map. This quest is the last step of this mission, and your priority now is to take care of the orange player.
Just NE of the hut is a Tan tent. Throughout the patches (as of patch 1.3) this tent does NOT match the only gate (Red) offered on this map, so you will never be able to pass the gate even if you have obtained the key from this tent. Fortunately, there is nothing important beyond the gate; just you get an idea of how insightful Nival is.
The (A) stairway takes you to ground level. You will see a two-way portal nearby, which leads you to an obelisk (yellow O1) in the east. You don't have to visit it now as you will need to visit several more to point you to the Tear.
You have a choice of route here. It is faster to go east, and turn south. The mana well at the intersection is very useful, as you can summon creatures from down below. Defeat the garrison (2) to the south (no unit loss for a Hydra-only army), and keep going on the paved road. You will pass a witch hut on the side, and eventually hit an intersection with a stable (3).
Sooner or later you will encounter orange heroes. If you have a Destructively oriented Raelag, your units are just there to soak up a few hits. At (3), turn north and rush towards the stairway (B). You will soon see the first orange dungeon town. It is yours now!
Once you take the first orange town, a few things happen. First, you will be joined by a female Dungeon hero, Shadya, in your starting town at the beginning of the following turn. You might suspect she is actually someone with Agrael... anyways, Shadya's real identity will be revealed in the last (Wizard) campaign. If you haven't flagged the mines surrounding your starting town, Shadya can do that for you now. Shadya suffers from low spellpower and a rather-useless special ability, so she needs an army more than Raelag. You can send Shadya out to exchange armies with Raelag whenever convenient.
Shadya is going to stay with you all the way to the last Warlock mission and show up briefly in the last campaign, so it is beneficial to train her to help Raelag. Even though Shadya says she is good at assassination and some other dirty works, she always comes with Destructive, Dark and Defense. Sorcery is a no-brainer, and the last slot is up to you. If you are playing on patch 1.3, you can go for Warlock's Luck.
A second change is that the orange AI is alerted by the loss of their first town, and will now attempt to send out "messengers". The messengers are essentially their current and future heroes, who will try to make a run to the north edge of the map, through the intersection (3) and the garrison (2). Sometimes, they take the west route at the intersection. Each escape of these "messengers" means the permenant disappearance of themselves, but they will bring in a moderately-powerful yellow army at (4).
A third change is that somehow the next AI town (the middle-west one) will be fully built in a very short time, probably instantly. On patch 1.3 heroic, I noticed that the AI is becoming very good at building towns - so all of them are fully built when I paid a visit (and I didn't take longer than in the previous patches).
So you face a dilemma here. Do you take care of the messengers, or take the next town first? Don't forget that you have Shadya to share the work. You can dump all good armies to her, so she can take care of the messengers for you. Your Raelag should be able to take towns with very little loss now.
With time, you will eventually take all three orange towns, and defeat the yellow heroes, if any. You can then take your time to tour the map and pick up various stat bonuses. Stairway (E) takes you to a Dragon Utopia (5) underground. By defeating the guardians you can learn some level 5 spells if you are eligible (having Expert level on the magic skill). For example, my Raelag in the above picture learned Resurrection and Word of Light from the Dragon Utopia, and Shadya in the picture learned Puppet Master and Curse of Netherwind from the Mage Vault. These buildings also refresh themselves every few months, so as long as you reached Expert proficiency, you can eventually learn all the lv 5 spells.
I have marked the locations of all six obelisks (O1-O6) on the map. One of them requires you to travel underground (stairway F), and the other requires you to defeat a SW garrison (6). You can rescue an interesting Necro hero from the prison nearby. After revealing enough maps, you should be able to make a good guess of where the Tear is by planning long hero trails, and check whether the planned trail is on your puzzle map. If the trail shows up on the puzzle map, then you have narrowed your search area. Dig up the treasure and take it home, and you win this mission!
Map 3 - The Cultists
Size - Very Big
Level Cap - 26
Carry Over: Raelag & Shadya
This is a rather straight forward mission in the Warlock Campaign. Basically, you need to completely clear the map of the enemy SoulScar clan. Unlike the previous mission, this one puts you in a much more subdued position. You start out without a castle, and the enemy has seven (yep, seven). Obviously, it all boils down on how well you built Raelag in the last two missions. If you have leveled him nicely and have high Spell power with Expert Destructive Magic (and learned the high-level spells), Empowered Spells, and even Warlock's Luck (highly recommended for patch 1.3), then you will have a good time wiping out the enemy with Raelag's special ability.
Well, maybe not. On heroic, this mission is widely regarded as one of the toughest among all, simply because the AI heroes are bumped up a lot after patch 1.2. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to survive. If you are playing on patch 1.3, your mana runs out twice faster, but you might get a Warlock's Luck on your first Empowered Meteor Shower, saving your day. Resurrection s extremely helpful. Although it has been toned down in patch 1.3, you can still save up to 2/3 of your casaulties if you cast it at the right time (which is near the end of the battle).
Let's start from the beginning. As always, three bonuses are available - 14 Assassins, 4 Dark Raiders and one Shadow Witch. I strongly suggest you pick the Witch as even though you start out with 1 Matriarch, the Witch will be useful as a secondary spell caster and as such be an easy choice amongst the three bonuses.
Shadya starts out with Raelag as well, and thankfully she has reinforcements. The Shadow Matriarch I mentioned above is just in front of you, so pick her up. Don't be too hasty with the Blood Furies, as they are hostile. Clear the Blood Furies now, such a waste. On post-1.2 heroic, especially 1.3 (where you use up mana very quickly) you probably want to fight them with Shadya, to save Raelag's mana for the real fight on the end of the day.
Transfer almost all units from Shadya to Raelag. You probably won't need her power for the first week at least (simply because you don't have enough troops). Your total army with Raelag should now consist of: ~80 Minotaurs, 30 Blood Maidens, 1 Shadow Witch, 1 Shadow Matriarch and 24 Assassins. Not much, but most of the damage output will be done by Raelag, if you intend to win this scenario.
Above you is a Hut of the Magi, which will reveal a small portion of the Surface. The war you are fighting will only take place in the underground, so why reveal a part of the surface? As you may have noticed, the Soulscar clan is aligned with the Demons, and they will continually send heroes (with increasing strength) to fight you. There will be a total of three waves, spawning as soon as you own 2, 4, and 6 towns. The demon Heroes will have to take the path which is revealed by the eye of the Magi, so this will serve as a warning system to you. The Demons will invade strictly from Point D marked on the minimap.
The enemy Warlock has 7 heroes who are relatively strong. Depending on difficulty, they will start with a moderate army with lv 18-19, or with a big army (which enables them to crush you on quick combat) with lv 22-23. Sooner or later they will come after you. On heroic, rest assured at least 6 of them will show up during the first two weeks, and the first one attack you on the end of Day 1, and the second on attack you on the end of Day 2!
Start by taking Castle #1. The enemy hero stationed here will come after you sometimes. Hopefully you'll fry everything else with Meteor Showers or Chain Lightnings before your units are killed off. Note that the units you deploy on the battlefield decides the random seed how the battle will go, so if you definitely cannot win a certain battle, try to hide some stacks, and maybe luck will come to your side. You should be able to take Castle #1 by the end of Day 2.
Now that you have one castle; it's essential that you secure the other one who lies just north-east in close proximity. Undoubtedly the enemy will have another high level hero waiting for you there as well. (or come to you directly when you hit End Turn this time) Hopefully you have enough mana left. You can quickly upgrade the wall and pray to Asha, if that boosts your confidence. If you are playing on a lower difficulty, then you actually have about a week of free time now. You can use Raelag to flag all mines to the south, and then take Castle #2 before the end of Day 1, Week 2 (so you can hire the fresh units from it).
From now on, every castle assault will look similar. You just need to feature some high-hp units to soak up the damage, while quickly use Meteor Shower and Chain Lightning to paint the floor with their blood. Once you have these 2 castles, you have a bit of breathing space, as the small peninsula is under your control.
Well, hold your breath on heroic. Your nightmare just started! There are still a handful of powerful heroes rushing straight to you, and they are not less powerful than the ones you've just beaten. The first wave of demon army will knock on your door on the third day as well! It is very likely that you cannot hold out both towns, even if you didn't really lose any significant army yet (learned Resurrection from mission 2?). You might need empty up Castle #2 and focus on defending Castle #1, which is much better built and profitable (as you should have put a capital in it). The demon army will take Castle #2 (and build it up a bit, until you take it back later rather easily).
On heroic, don't even think of going out with Raelag before you take out 6 mighty heroes (there are 7, but one usually gives up the entire army to another and go back to recruit.) Don't even think of flagging mines that are deep east. These powerful heroes are coming to you in a stream, and they will use up your mana (especially on patch 1.3).
The toughest hero is usually Lethos. His army is bigger than the others, and he likes to pay a visit to the Dragon Utopia on the way here. He'll usually get Implosion there, plus a handful of great artifacts to make him even harder to beat. If you are lucky, though, you can get the Emerald Slipper from him (50%+ on your Meteor Shower and Implision, can't beat this deal). Generally speaking, unless you can't make it back in time or you have no mana, always fight with Raelag. You will lose much less units with Raelag (because of his Intimidate special). <[>Your hard days will be finally over when you take care of the initial wave of assault. There won't be anymore in the short term.
If you are not playing on post-1.2 heroic, then take over whatever mines and resources lie around. Though you are separated by water, there are two portals (marked by red lines) which lead to your way, on the far corners of the peninsula. I strongly suggest you use Raelag for the conquest out there, but not give him all the troops. Raelag will gain troops from the castles he takes over, whereas you need a lot of defense for Shayda.
If you rush out with Raelag rather early (i.e. not on post-1.2 heroic), then whichever portal you take with Raelag, you can expect mighty heroes to come out of the other route. Another problem is the demons assaulting your towns. They will always teleport in the bottom-right corner, so your first two towns will be in danger. More reason to keep a good amount of forces for defense.
What is done and how it's done from here is almost just like in a normal scenario. You have to take over every castle. I marked the way I took on the minimap numerically, but depending on the AI decisions that may or may not be the best way. There are two "outer" castles on the edges of the map, two "inner" ones, and one stronghold in the northwestern corner. The stronghold is protected by a garrison, which should again, be no match for Raelag's magical arsenal even on heroic (where you will see a few dozens of Death Knights). Alternatively, if you are confident enough, just to a grand counter-clockwise tour of 6-3-7-4-5. On 1.3, your mana will run out after the garrison, so you probably have to take Castle #4 before #7.
Before you finish the mission, there are quite a few stat bonuses scattered around. There are five islands on the ground level; each can be accessed by a two-way portal in the underground level. Each island contains one stat bonus. One of them has a Witch Hut and another contains a Sylanna's Ancient (level up tree). There is also another confined underground area accessible from another two-way portal; there is a witch hut inside.
By the way, the Inferno heroes tend to ignore town 1 and 2 when Raelag is not around. So once you've secured one side of the portals, you can also send Shadya out to the other direction to capture towns. You should be able to squeeze the blue to only 1-2 towns left in the first month.
Once you have taken control all castles, victory will be yours!
Map 4 - The March
Size - Big
Level Cap - 28
Carry Over: Raelag & Shadya
Warlocks get their ultimate satisfaction from destroying the opponent's entire army with only destructive spells. This mission serves precisely this purpose. Forget about your puny army; you don't need them, and you are not given anything significant later in the map. On the other hand, if for some reason you didn't develop either Destruction or Summoning magic, you will probably be eaten alive here on heroic!
There will be no town in this mission, and you only have one enemy to defeat. For the rest of the mission, you can explore around and defeat zounds after zounds of neutrals, but you have to get out before the two-month time limit. A little trick to conserve your troops against ranged / caster neutrals is to separate them into little stacks of 1. This way, each time the neutrals shoot, you only lose ONE unit.
Starting Bonus: Doesn't matter. The 8 minotaurs are slightly more durable, but the 14 assassins give you six more "hit points".
From your starting point, follow the tunnel north, and rescue a few endangered dungeon species along the way. There is a red keymaster tent at (1). When you pay a visit to it, a cut scene tells you that the key has already been stolen by an Inferno hero, Grawl, who got here just before you. (This Grawl does not use "Grawl's face", though.) Therefore, you can't pass the red gate at (2) unless you defeat Grawl and take the key from him.
Turn south, and at the end of the tunnel you will bump into a portal (Ia). There are a total of 15 portals in this dungeon, and this very portal is your only exit to The Maze that lies ahead! Let me explain a little how these 15 portals work:
The portals are organized into groups of threes (triplets). Portal Ia may carry you to Ib or Ic. Ib carries you to either Ia or Ic. And Ic brings you to - guess what - Ia or Ib! At the beginning, when Raelag enters Ia, he always comes out at Ib. After that the transfer pattern is possibly random, but if you try a few more times in and out, eventually you will visit all three portals in the set.
There are five groups of three linked portals. I've marked them all with different coloured Roman numbers I, II, III, IV and V.
You can only travel WITHIN a certain Roman number. Entering a portal of the IV triplet can never bring you to a portal of the V triplet. Therefore, after you defeat the Inferno hero, you can exit this dungeon only by entering either Ib or Ic.
Back to Raelag. When Raelag enters Ia, he comes out at Ib, with a stable located conveniently nearby. A cut scene plays and Grawl has escaped in front your eyes. He is now waiting on the ground level, marked by a red X. The fastest way to get him is to use the stairways 3 or 4. Stairway 3 is to your north, and you will come out on the corresponding stairway (3) on the ground level. You will be very close to Grawl.
Alternatively, you can take stairway 4, which is on your south. The good thing about stairway 4 is that you can visit an artifact merchant just beside the ground level exit 4. One great artifact for Raelag is the Emerald Slippers (5000G), which offers +50% damage to earth spells -- both Meteor Shower and Implosion!
The best way to fight Grawl - as I am sure you know by now - is to pound his troops non-stop with your most powerful spells. This fight is not difficult at all if you follow "the Warlock's way" - meteor shower for multiple stacks, implosion for individual stacks.
After defeating Grawl, you may travel inside this maze freely. Since now you know how the portals work, you can actually plan out an effective route to sweep the underground clean in one go. You can split troops between Raelag and Shadya, and have each explore half of the map. There is a trading post, a Hill Fort and a Witch Hut at 5. The only stat bonus on this map is located at 6.
When you are ready, use either portal Ib or Ic to return to Ia. You might need to try more than once (just turn around and enter the portal again) to get back to Ia. Then, go north to 2 to unlock the red gate, and use the stairway behind it. As long as you have one character reaching this stairway, you win the mission!
Map 5 - Raelag's Offer
Size - Big
Level Cap - 40
Carry Over: Raelag & Shadya
While the programmers have probably convinced you that Raelag could take over the world all by himself in the previous maps, they will prove you wrong here by boosting the neutral numbers so much that your jaw will drop. There is only so much damage an Empowered Meteor Shower or Implosion can inflict, even with combined with Warlock's Luck (patch 1.3, giving you 4000+). You need a powerful army to secure victory, and you are given one!
Our glorious Warlock campaign finale is actually a grand escape. Your objective is to reach the opposite SW corner of the map, with BOTH Raelag and Shadya. Your enemy - the blue Inferno AI owns three towns, and steadily builds up its forces. These Inferno heroes will come to you when they have the upper hand; otherwise they hide in their towns when you get close. You have the option of destroying them all, or simply ignoring them.
You might think a town or two will give you some fresh troop supply, but unfortunately that is not the case here. Whenever you conquer an Inferno town, the tower "crumbles" and it is gone permenantly. Therefore, try not to lose any creature during battles against neutrals, and feel free to skip the difficult ones. The good news is there are several high-level Dungeon and Inferno creature dwellings on the map. At certain places, neutral creatures will join you for free as well.
Your way out isn't at all straight forward. The paved road is guarded by a total of nine garrisons. Some of them are particularly formidable. Here is the composition of these garrisons on heroic, Week 1 Day 1:
AD = Arch Devil; PL = Pit Lord; SC = Succubus; SM = Succubus Mistress; CB = Cerberus; HH = Hell Hound; HD = Horned Demon; HO = Horned Overseer; FM = Familiar; IM = Imp; FE = Fire Elemental
Garrison A: 500 FM, 98 CB, 3 AD
Garrison B: 340 HO, 300 CB, 55 SM, 25 PL, 15 AD
Garrison C: 400 CB, 8 AD
Garrison D: 1000 HH, 85 SB, 50 PL, 30 AD
Garrison E: 400 CB, 8 AD
Garrison F: 3000 FM(!), 600 HH, 180 SC, 35 AD
Garrison G: 800 CB, 350 SC, 50 PL, 30 AD, 400 FE(!)
Garrison H: 300 HD, 300 HH, 55 SC
Garrison I: 600 IM, 200 HH, 35 SC, 3 AD
Fortunately, You are not expected to tackle all of them. There are slightly longer routes to take to bypass the most difficult garrisons. There are two inter-connected underground passages, as well as a mud-road detour as well. There are other enemies you have to face underground, but they are mostly optional.
Note: People used to be able to skip the garrisons with the "Instant Travel" spell, which was conveniently offered in the Inferno towns as soon as you conquer one. However, since patch 1.1 this spell is no longer offered.
Starting Bonus: This mission has more might than magic, so the golden horseshoe (luck +2) is your friend. On patch 1.3 you also benefit from the increased chance of Warlock's Luck.
Your heroes start out in the NE corner. There is a Hut of Magi (1) on the roadside, telling you where to go -- but you don't need to. A little further down the road lies the Boots of Swift Journey (2), which is very useful in this mission. Since the movement points are determined at the beginning of the day, you can put on the boots before ending a turn, and swap it for the golden horseshoe before a battle.
Next, you have to break through Garrison A, the easiest garrison among all. After that your have a few choices of where to go:
(Option A) Stay on the the paved road, break through Garrison B, and challenge the NW Inferno town. You can eliminate one of the three towns right away, but you will lose some troops.
(Option B) Take the Blue Keymaster Tent (blue K) in the east, and pass through the Blue Gate (blue G) in the north. Enter the underground passage nearby (3).
(Option C) Take the Red Keymaster Tent (red K) in the north, and pass through the Red Gate (red G) in the east. Enter the underground passage nearby (4).
If you have the Resurrection spell, I would recommend option A, because you can to take down both garrison B and the NW town without losing any unit. (Hint for a perfect resurrecting castle assault: deploy assassins only, and resurrect them near the end!) Then, you can challenge garrison C, E, the SE town, garrison H, the SW town, and finally garrison I.
If you can't resurrect, then the underground passages might be more friendly to you. Option B and C are roughly the same. Let's discuss option B as an example.
Option B: After taking care of some 1000 Familiars/Imps, visit the mana well, and give Shadya a not-very-useful but durable unit (such as hydras). Now she is ready to visit the Blue Keymaster Tent (blue K). The creatures on the way are quite weak and she should be able to kill them all with her Destructive spells alone. In the meantime, send Raelag and all other units to the the Blue Gate (blue G), and unlock it once Shadya visits the tent. (Someone must have a strong arm to throw the key!) Just below the Blue Keymaster tent is a small group of minotaur guards waiting to join Shadya.
The underground passage here (3) carries an Inferno theme, and so do all the creature buildings you can see. You really don't need them as there are better things ahead. If you follow the road west and south, you will eventually face a stationary blue hero. Take care of him, and the stairway behind this hero takes you back to ground level at (4), with a Hill Fort (for upgrading units) just north of it, and quite a few blood furies willing to join you for free! From here, you can aim directly for the exit (8), after passing through the final garrison I.
The Inferno hero based on this SW town (Grawl/Deleb) might have a large army if you come here rather late. I have also seen reports about an unreasonably powerful Grawl even by Week 3. During my four runs on this mission (heroic, patch 1.1 - 1.3), Grawl and Deleb were always managable, though. (By the way, this Grawl here IS Grawl himself, unlike the previous mission.)
Alternatively, you can go through the only pair of underground portal (P). You will be transported to the other underground passage (5), which carries a Dungeon theme. The nice thing about this Dungeon passage is that you will be able to recruit some shadow/deep dragons along the way. Moreover, there are some nice dungeon creatures waiting to join you not very far ahead. There are two stat bonuses along the way, too.
There is another stationary blue hero waiting at the end of this Dungeon passage. The stairway behind this one takes you to (6), just south of the SE blue town. Again, there is a Hill Fort to the north for you to upgrade the dragons. Also, if you follow the mud road east, you will be greeted by lots of friendly bikini babies (shadow witches) and hydras at (7). These free witches give a huge boost to your ranged power, so don't let them wait for too long! (Er... actually they grow at ~10% per week, too.) You can also hire some other dungeon units here at (7).
If you have decided not to bother with the blue army, you don't have to go back to the paved road north from here. Follow the mud road west, and there is a small garrison H. Keep going west, and you will hit garrison I, and the exit (8) after it.
When both Raelag and Shadya pass the final garrison I, a scripted event takes place and you have to defeat an Inferno hero, Veyer, who is not hard at all if you have conserved your troops along the way. This is the final battle of this exciting warlock campaign. Congratulations!
Final Note:
The ultimate challenge of the warlock campaign is to defeat all garrisons here, even the craziest ones! One skill that helps a ton here is Light Magic and the Resurrection spell. You could have learned it from a Dragon Utopia or a Mage Vault back in mission 2 or 3. Note that you cannot resurrect magic-immune black dragons, so it is up to you whether to let them out and take the heat.
The problem for the starting 15 black dragon is that they are not powerful enough to wipe out a super stack (such as 3k familiars) in a blow, and they will suffer from the counter attack. However, since you can now eliminate the blue towns in a blitzkrieg, you can flag their gold mines (3 in total), and keep hiring more dragons. The garrison size will NOT grow in time, but you will. I'd like to make Shadya running a "dragon recruit express line" in the SE corner. Without logistics, she should be able to recruit 3 dragons per week, while Raelag is "cleaning the map" elsewhere.
The 400 fire elementals in garrison G will be a huge headache. Also, the 3000 familiars in garrison F stole all Raelag's mana, so nothing could be resurrected. By the way, I have heard that if you mind control the familiars (Puppet Master, etc.), they also steal mana for you!
Finally, Raelag is going to appear in the last (Academy) campaign, so it is not completely useless to give him a few more stat points and levels in this mission.
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Solipso
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 07, 2010 11:25 PM |
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Edited by Solipso at 23:41, 07 Jan 2010.
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Hi!
For an obscure reason, I really don't know how to build a sufficiently great army to beat everybody at the end?
Does anyone have tips on that?
Thanks!
1. As I did with the preceding three campaigns, I am playing the Dungeon campaign on Easy. It's not bad, and I had no trouble with mission 1.
2. Following recommendations from other posts on this thread, during the first mission (level cap 12), I filled all 6 primary skill slots with these: Irresistable Magic (default), Defense (default), Destructive Magic, Sorcery, Attack, Logistics.
3. To prepare for the final battle, minimize your losses. On Easy, I think I might not have lost any units at all before the final battle. Admittedly I did quite a bit of reloading. Also I avoided the tougher neutrals until near the end of the time limit, when I had tough recruits. Tough neutrals? Imperial griffins, mages, druids, succubi, gargoyles. Often I avoided losses by keeping units out of combat. For example, I whitewashed the imperial griffins by using nothing but hydra (be sure to MOVE if the griffins launch on a dive-bomb).
4. Another tip on building a big army: I did not upgrade the witch and minotaur structures. Then on the last day of the time limit (month 2, week 1, day 1), I cashed in all resources and had enough $ to buy every unit available (except for two minotaurs). The matriarchs don't have a lot more hit power than the witches, but they are more expensive (especially after buying the upgrade structure). And I don't think you'll need the minotaur guards.
5. I did NOT build the capital or the resource silo. For this quick scenario $10,000 is better spent on recuits, and I never needed the sulfur (you can't build the dragon spire). I built the mage guild only to level 3. Again, this was on Easy.
6. SPOILER: Regarding the final battle, it was a piece of cake, at least for me on Easy. I'll leave some blank space below if you don't want to read the spoiler.
On your first move during the final battle, move next to the shadow dragons (but don't attack them). Then end your turn. That should make the tournament much easier to win. 
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Solipso
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 10, 2010 05:30 AM |
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Edited by Solipso at 05:32, 10 Jan 2010.
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I am also curious how one can use hydras to clear the map in mission 1. In my experience, hydras are next to useless except in prolonged, hard battles, in which you inevitably take heavy casualties. They are extremely slow - both movement speed and initiative - and thier damage is too low for their tier. Their main advantage is toughness and decent growth rate. Add to that the fact that they rarely get to fight, and your hero eventually ends up with a pretty large stack of hydras, which serve as an insurance in case things go awry.
On the other hand, I find hydras to be among the easiest neutral opponents, right next to zombies. Blood furies will decimate them before they move even once.
Teleport Assault: Warlocks have this special secondary skill for Logistics, but first you need to learn Scouting (another secondary Logistics skill). I forget if I was able to get it in the first mission, but I certainly used it in the second mission.
Teleport Assault allows you to teleport any stack to any open space, AND it gives the teleported stack a big boost in initiative. This is ideal for the otherwise unremarkable hydra, especially once they have been upgraded to Deep Hydra. After using it, only once were my Deep Hydra unable to attack immediately after the teleportation. That was after the enemy hero had cast Slow on them.
With Teleport Assault, a good stack of Deep Hydra became my most effective weapon, possibly excepting Black Dragons, depending on the circumstances. Specifically, Teleport Assault does not work across walls during town sieges, not unless you happen to have Expert Light. (From what I've read of other posts in this thread, Light is a poor skill to have for the Dungeon campaign.) So, except during town sieges, my Raelag's hydra kicked some serious butt, at least during the second mission. (Easy difficulty level) 
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DieDevil
Adventuring Hero
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posted May 15, 2010 09:10 PM |
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And fifth one is here.
....
but the heroes you will encounter (in towns) are not so bad.
And Grawl? I don't think that you can say he is not that hard with following army:
44 Archdevils
66 Pit Lords
89 Nightmares
140 Succubus Mistresses
581 Cerberi
564 Horned Overseer
631 Imps
I went through the underground behind the Red Gate. When you follow the way there and go through the portal you will come back in the bottom right corner of the map. There I followed the way to the left but right after the goldmine there Grawl emerged and with my army which consists of:
15 Black Dragons
35 Shadow Matriarchs
40 Deep Hydras
65 Minotaur Guards
350 Assassins
I see no chance to defeat him. How should this be possible?
i'd say you dont have the patch, because enemy armies are way too overpowereed without 1.4-1.6
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Buji
Known Hero
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posted May 15, 2010 09:40 PM |
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i'd say you dont have the patch, because enemy armies are way too overpowereed without 1.4-1.6
as the post u quoted is from 2006, i'm definately sure he don't have the patch 
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Theouinn
Hired Hero
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posted July 19, 2010 09:59 PM |
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Edited by Theouinn at 22:05, 19 Jul 2010.
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I remember having a tough time beating the first mission on Hard, however as I'm now replaying on Heroic it was a piece of cake. I didn't even bother clearing the map, I took the ore mine and the sawmill, all loose resources and built everything but dragon spiral (only upgraded creatures were Blood Furys). I entered the arena on level 5 and came out victorious (this worked twice as I had to replay).
Mission two is a piece of cake as well, even on Heroic. Once you're in control of that crossroad at the stables you basically control the whole map since you have to go through there to get anywhere, and you'll have swift access to all enemy towns, add to that a well and stables. Since you start with basically a fully built up castle you'll be strong enough to beat all enemies (including Soulscar army) as long as you feed Raelag with troops from other towns, either by Summon Creatures or a secondary hero.
This is how I did it, step by step:
1. Make your way to the surface and capture the nearby crystal mine, fight any creatures around the area you like as soon as you make it back to the main town by the second weekend.
2. Build Shadow Witch building during the first week and you should be able to build Spiral dragons during the second week. (Hence crystal mine). At the beginning of week 3, recruit everything and ascend the stairs to the surface.
3. Make it through one of the gates and continue until you reach the crossroad area (and of course kill any enemy you meet on the way, they're not hard in this early stage).
4. Once you're there, head north and capture the first enemy town underground (shouldn't be any problem). As soon as you take it, return to the crossroad in order to avoid annoying enemy heroes getting through and have Raeleg fed with troops from that town by another hero (you should've captured the town like 2 days before weekend, allowing them to have built dragon spiral that very week, leaving them with only one dragon and you'll be able to recruit 2 from there shortly).
5. As soon as you get the troops, go south and capture their second underground town (should not be any problems either) By now, they ought to have sent a scout to alert the Soulscar but dont worry, you'll have enough troops for this easily earned exp so simply ignore the scout.
6. Once the second town is conquered, return to the crossroad and await the Soulscar army and defeat it. After this, simply lean back and feed Raelag with troops from all towns. You may have to deal with an enemy hero, but just defeat him, simple as that. Once you're ready, go east and locate their last town and conquer it.
I tried this twice as I had to replay it (Noticed my skill pick wasn't good enough for mission 3 as I was going to try this without Sorcery) and I only encountered 3 enemy heroes in total (except for Soulscar army) on the map, the rest were hiding in their towns. So, just be quick and don't let them grow, make use of the fact you start with an almost finished town. Once they're gone you'll have all the time in the world to visit all skillers, getting magic guild level 5 in all towns and level up your new mate and of course - find the Tears of Asha.
Trying another approach now, with Sorcery, Destructive Magic, Luck and Leadership as my skill picks (besides from Irresistible magic and Defense of course). I can tell you so far that leadership + luck + Blood Furys is a kick-ass combination, add to that that I'll have a strong spell caster in Raelag with Empowered spells, Sorcery and Warlock's Luck. It's going to be really interesting to tackle the third mission, seeing as I've heard it's one of the hardest in the game on Heroic and also experienced it's toughness myself.
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Varsuvius
Tavern Dweller
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posted September 27, 2010 05:56 PM |
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Skills I suggest that you get for Raeleg:
Attack, battle frenzy, tactics, and archery. It really helps to play offensively with Raeleg since there are three Dungeon creatures that can cross the map in one turn and Raeleg's intimidate specialization really helps you by slowing down enemies so you can wipe them out before they can attack.
Luck, soldier's luck, warlock's luck, magic resistance. Again, a skill to help you play offensively and warlock's luck really helps to enhance your destructive spells. Unfortunately, soldier's luck is useless but it helps you get warlock's luck.
Destructive magic, you can't be a warlock without destructive magic and if you don't have it then people will laugh at you.
Sorcery, arcane training, mana regeneration, and erratic mana, since it helps enhance Raeleg's own destructive capabilities.
lol i just (!) started this campaign, i initially thought of these 5 skills (defense included) to be probably the best for Warlock, i just finished the 1st mission and got EXACTLY those skills!
Yeap, 4 years later than H5 publication and 7-8 than H3 playing (what a game!) i can tell i absolutely still got it! Thank you for confirming my choices!
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larra
Hired Hero
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posted January 27, 2011 12:44 PM |
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HELP !
1.6 Heroic is way harder than 1.0 ??
I stuck in the Cultist for 2 days already. I remember this is a hard map, so I tried to plan everything as perfectly as possible. (Well, not that perfect).
My Raelag has only 12 spell power, 9 knowledge, (strange, he is weaker than Shadya), Exp Destructive, Exp Light with Resurrection, only Basic Sorcery. I don't have Warlocks Luck as I planed for Enlightenment, but it never came. Neither does Arcane Training.
My Shadya is stronger, 15 sp, 12 knowledge, Exp Des, Exp Dark with Puppet Master, Exp Sorcery, basic Enlightenment. Still no Arcane Training or Intelligent.
Problem is Lethos, one with Mass Decay, I don't know if it's by chance he got 26 sp and 135 spell points (9 knowledge with Intelligent, I guest), or he is always like that. One Lightning bolt from him worths 550 dmg. It's ridiculous. Resurrection becomes obsolete facing a power like that.
I thought of replaying the whole campaign to gain Warlock's Luck. On second thought, it won't help, cause enemy heroes in ver 1.6 don't clump units stupidly in the corner like before. They spread them well, and Empowered Meteor Shower is not effective anymore.
To be honest, I can't even beat the second and third heroes straight forward, need to rely on trick like implosion the catapult and kill off the shooters. They would still win if they continue to attack my units with only their heroes, but they fleed instead, that's the AI thing. Lethos has over 100 assassins and doesn't flee, so I lost.
I begin to think this is impossible. Plz share your insight.
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Roflco
Tavern Dweller
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posted May 17, 2011 06:27 PM |
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Edited by Roflco at 22:38, 17 May 2011.
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Hey folks I just finished the dungeon campaign and I wanted to share some insight on the 3rd mission - The Cultists.
This mission happened to be the hardest in the campaign for me and I had to replay the campaign from 1st mission several times before I had the right skills for Raelag and Shadya, but in the end things worked out really smooth and I was able to take out all the heroes (some of them - several times) in the first several weeks and their towns as well. Unfortunately the demon heroes bugged staying on their spawn point so I was able to complete the objectives, but they didn't attacked my towns as intended to harden my time on this map, but I don't think they would be much of a challenge anyway.
So, to start from the beginning I was playing the map on version 1.6 on Heroic difficulty.
Here are some tips on previous missions concerning Raelag and Shadya that worked for me:
1.Skills and perks:
For Raelag I chose Destructive magic, Sorcery, Luck and Enlightenment in addition to his primary Iressistible Magic and Defense. All the perks I needed were Solider's luck->Warlock's Luck, Intelligence (since last several times I started this mission with 90 mana which was not enough even for one fight) and Empowered spells.
For Shadya I chose Sorcery and Enlightenment due to her only 2 additional slots. Luck would be OK but I noticed she gets more spell power than Raelag and she can do fine even without luck. Also luck doesn't apply to dark magic spells.Take Empowered spells for her as well.
2.Stat buildings and Witch huts:
On mission 1 there is an arena guarded by some random lvl 4 creature. Most of the time it might be Mage/Archmage/Druid or Succubuss/Succubuss mistresses, but sometimes it happens griffin/vampire which is beatable in last week just before you get teleported to the tournament area (if you took the boots of swift journey just down your castle,you can reach it in week 1 month 2 day 1 just after you recruited your army,but you might be able to do so without them as well - I'm not sure about that).The arena is not essential but helps mostly for mission 2 and at the later mission 3 stage when you can actually gather some troops.
On mission 2 there is 2 Planetariums (+2 spell power), 1 Crystal of Revelation (+1 knowledge), 1 Mercenary camp (+1 Attack) and 2 Marletto towers (+2 defense).
(I'm not sure if those are the exact numbers on the area but this much I could find).
You can check out Witch huts with secondary hero or save/load game to see what skill they provide. This proves useful to improve skills or get new one due to 18th level cap on mission 2(often one of them gave me enlightenment).
3.Get expert destructive magic on both heroes and upgrade mage guilds in all cities so you can have all destructive spells for mission 3 - you are going to need em!
4.Visit the Dragon utopia on mission 2 with Shayda she will get Puppet master which u can put in good use in next mission(provided you have expert dark magic on her).
On mission 3 - The Cultists you start on an area with both Raelag and Shayda.Your goal will be to capture 7 enemy towns with the provided forces and your heroes and defend them from the enemy dungeon and inferno heroes.I picked the shadow witch as bonus,but I dont think she made that much of a difference. The assassins might prove useful for you as well, but I couldn't find any use for the dark riders.
Both heroes have army which consists of 80 minotaurs, 25 assassins and 30 blood maidens. The shadow matriarch standing next to you will join you but the blood furies will not.
The thing you want to do is to transfer all troops to one of your heroes and leave 1 assassin in other and attack the blood furies. It worked good for both of them for me,but it was a little better for Raelag due to his ability to lower their initiative, but you might want to save his mana for the next day.
(Tip: You want to win this fight with minimal loses.Furies will most likely go for your blood maidens, so the thing i did was to split my minotaurs in 2x40 groups. In tactics mode, pick a corner and place your assassins both groups of minotaurs on the front line. Then place your blood maidens behind in the corner and place the shadow witch/witches in the middle back row, but leave area open so your blood maidens can exit and attack.The blood furies will want to get to your maidens,but the assassin+minotaur wall wont allow them to get max range so they will get close enough so you can attack them with minotaurs, so after they move cast suitable spell depending on their position and number of stacks to damage as much as you can(implosion for 1-2 stacks/fireball or meteor for 3-4 stacks) and finish them off with your maidens minotaurs and assassins).
After you kill the furies there is a Hut of the magi which reveals the area from where the demons will come. You can reveal the spot and move towards the city to the west to face your first dungeon hero - Kythra.
There are several things I want to mention here that happened to me but might happen different scenario for you.
1.Every time i approached the castle with my both heroes she did not chose to attack me but instead stayed to defend the castle.When Shadya was away from that castle she always attacked me.
2.She had different spells every different time i was fighting her, so expect different fights every time you restart map.
3.I tried several different strategies including taking the outer cities before the inner ones (you can find out more about their position from the other posts on the topic or from some revealed map on the net), but they didn't worked because in my case Sinitar (which is stationed in the other inner city in the area) joined Kythra in the town and transfered all troops to him, so I had 2x strong hero on my tail in the next several days.
4.I noticed that enemy heroes often use raise dead spell on their blood furies and this, while annoying, can help your army to survive more.Just keep in mind that as long as you damage the ressurected forces they will continue to cast raise dead on them so if you can throw more area spells this will win you the battle.
So, my approach was to head to the city with both heroes, so she will hide in there and I will be able to finish her off and get more xp + possible artifacts she has bought.Also it happened that she hardly flees from battle and she will melt up many more of your forces with her army outside the city walls with her icebolt.Its highly recommended that you have expert sorcery on for this, because it will highly improve your spellcasting time and lower the casualties.
On day 2 week 1, I will assume that she is hiding in the city. Pick a hero and attack the castle. Here is what I did in 2 scenarios attacking it with eighter Raelag or Shadya. Mainly because the fight will mostly depend on your hero casting spells morale will not matter much, so i deployed only 1 stack of 80 minotaurs to take the damage and kept other units out of the battle, but if you deploy the maidens they will surely get their attention as well so they can provide you with few more turns but if you deploy them you will surely lose them all.The enemy hero got an army of: ~58 minotaur guards, ~56 Blood Furies,~ 80 assassins and 7 scouts.
Raelag: Assuming you have warlock's luck and empowered spells this can save you a lot of trouble on this fight.1st thing u want to do is to throw empowered implosion on the enemy assassins to thin their numbers,because besides the enemy hero they are the only unit that most likely will damage your minotaurs.You might get lucky and kill them all as well. After that deal with the blood furies,but if the minotaurs go for yours start thinning their number as well.With some luck and well placed meteors/fireballs/chain lightnings you can win the fight with minimal casualties especially if the enemy hero starts to cast raise dead.
Shadya: Assuming you don't have warlock's luck on Raelag then its better to assault the city with Shadya due to her higher spell power, because the damage of your spells is essential for this siege.In that case you can puppet master the minotaurs/furies and use them to get rid of the assassins and the other units while casting other empowered area/implosion spells.
With that much said you have your fist castle.But wait! If happened that Kythra was defending the city then be sure that Sinitar is coming to take it back. Even worse! Most likely he will attack it in the same day.And you have just wasted almost or all your mana on the assault.The thing you want to do is to enter the city with both heroes,leave the one without mana inside to regen and transfer the survivors to other hero.Upgrade the furies and the minotaurs, then head north with the full hero towards the other city. By the end of the day Sinitar will attack you. You want to deploy all available forces for this battle and force him to flee with killing as much as you can creatures with area spells.You can use the furies to do some additional damage but I highly recommend that you reduce his furies first.
I managed to survive those 2 fights with total casualties of 4 minotaurs and 1 blood fury,but it might cost you a bit more depending on situations.Also if Kythra attacks you in the first day even with 2 heroes coming for the town and Sinitar not showing up(but he will most likely will) you can still do a lot of damage with empowered spells and get rid of them both during the first several days.
With Kythra and Sinitar gone all you need to worry about is the other 3 or 4 heroes that are coming for you as well as the demon army(which bugged for me but might not for you). Here are some tips to help you out:
1.From now on check tavern often.The heroes you just defeated are possible new recruits to your forces. You can use them to scout the area and collect all the unguarded resources and treasure chests. Also the enemy wont be able to recruit them again, which can save you a lot of trouble.
2.If you are having trouble with the demons you might want to capture the 2nd town at the end of week 1 (day 7 or week 2 day 1), so you will have reinforcements.
3. Most heroes were coming from the western portal on the map from me but they might come from the eastern as well. You want to have bigger army defending the cities,so use one of the new recruited dungeon heroes to transfer the troops(you can use your main heroes as well) to the town being attacked.
4.Lethos is one of the most annoying enemy heroes. The more stacks you deploy when you defend against him, the more troops you'll lose. I managed to defeat him with only 1 stack of 60-70 minotaur guards deployed during his siege. Make sure to get rid of the assassins first.If you are able to recruit him after this will save you a lot of trouble in the future.
5.After initial attack waves of enemy heroes the portals should be clear,so use additional heroes from the tavern to scout for incoming heroes and collect treasure chests for more gold to recruit your troops.
6.Don't go on additional castle assaults before u have dealt with all the enemy heroes at least once.
7.You can capture the nearby mines with your main heroes while waiting waiting for the other heroes + demons to assault your castles. Just keep in mind to have enough mana for the fights.
After you have dealt with at least 2 more enemy heroes (maybe 3). Those should be Yrbeth, Eruina and some called Fingal I think (lizard breeder icon) you can continue to take the other castles. I did not have dark ritual at this mission so i had to rest in towns before marching on. Do no hire all units in the towns and let them accumulate and use them(hire them) if you need to defend this town against attackers. Use additional heroes for defense,transfer, exploring and gathering treasure chests(they really help ). If you hire those lvl 22 enemy heroes you wont have trouble winning some fights. With that much said its up to you how you finish the level. Once you have taken 4 towns it becomes significantly easier to take the other 3 cities. Maybe you will want to continue the conquest with Raelag and leave Shadya to defend the initial 2 cities from demons/enemy heroes coming from the other half of the map opposite of Raelag's path but in few weeks you will be totally outproducing the enemy in forces. After you take 6 towns you can leave one of the heroes in front the garrison before the last city and scout the map and get stat buildings etc. Its up to you though they are not really needed to finish this campaign (Might need the heroes later though I haven't finished last 2 campaigns yet).
One last note: Mind that last demon hero is quite strong so you might reconsider gathering larger army before capturing 6th town.In all cases after 4th you have more than the enemy and should be able to produce more troops than your enemy.
As my last word I will say that this mission is all about having high damage on your destructive spells. Enlightenment and Intelligence really helped me winning the fights at the start due to having almost double mana on my heroes. Warlock's luck did wonders with empowered spells.
This is my first post (and probably last - I'm not much of a forum troll -> prefer to read them ) on such forums. Thanks for reading and I hope it helps you folks with this level it was really hard for me to finish it. I want to thank you people for posting your point of view on this mission it helped me a lot to solve it.Sorry if my English isn't perfect as well as it's not my native language but I tried to write it understandable.
And to anyone stuck on this level -> Good luck solving it
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted May 17, 2011 06:45 PM |
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Quote:
Warlock's Luck, Intelligence
Don't disappear, we could always use a good poster
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