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Arabia_vn
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 28, 2006 03:01 AM |
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Rai , about your 132 days Sylvan campaign , can you tell me how many days it took you each mission ? I just finished mission 4 , but on mission 3 i made a big mistake . I was short of 2 elder druids so instead of finishing it on Day 1 week 3 , i finished on Day 1 week 4 , lol , a big payment for a bit laziness  . If u did better than me that mission , then i guess i have to replay . Mission 2 i finished on day 2 week 2 month 2 , but i think i can do 1 week faster , even 2 if im luck enough . Damn , because i dont have much time , so i often restart till having an ok luck , but i need a super luck  . Mission 4 is the only one i did linear . Ah , now only 1 mission left , but im still not sure if i can do better than your 132 days .
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted December 28, 2006 03:42 AM |
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You have the answer on your private messaging.
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blink
Adventuring Hero
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posted December 28, 2006 12:30 PM |
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Ack! Please don't post how many days you've beaten certain missions in. As for me, I'm coming along, just very slowly. I'm about half way through Dungeon Mission 3. Hopefully I won't have to restart again.
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Arabia_vn
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 28, 2006 11:44 AM |
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Quote:
Ack! Please don't post how many days you've beaten certain missions in. As for me, I'm coming along, just very slowly. I'm about half way through Dungeon Mission 3. Hopefully I won't have to restart again.
Sorry , sorry . Im just new on this topic so i dont know the certain rules here  .
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted December 30, 2006 11:54 AM |
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No Blink, that is my previous run he reffers to. As for me, I finished Sylvan and playing Academy.
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 05, 2007 02:28 PM |
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I am almost done with Academy. I was a bit impatient in the last four campaigns to finish them as soon as possible, so that may be one of the reasons for my speed. I still think that my times are decent in most of the cases, and in some cases pretty good, so I am now waiting for you. I'll try to finaly get my hands on the expansion in the following week or so, which I haven't even seen so far.
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blink
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 05, 2007 07:18 PM |
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I am on the fifth Dungeon mission so I should be posting my Dungeon walkthrough pretty soon.
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Istari
Known Hero
Truth Teller, ToH
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posted January 08, 2007 04:45 PM |
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Do individual maps record high scores. I've only played a few but I don't know if I'm not winning fast enough to get a high score or if it just doesn't give scores for individual maps (my campaigns made high scores).
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Arabia_vn
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 09, 2007 11:48 AM |
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Do u guys have HOF expansion ? After doing this we can play HOF campaign as well . I've just finnished Wulfstan's defiance in 60 days . Now its time to go back on my Sylvan campaign . Still havent beaten Rainal's score yet , lol .
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rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 09, 2007 01:34 PM |
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Istari I don't understand what do you mean 
Arabia we could, but it's a long way to get there
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Istari
Known Hero
Truth Teller, ToH
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posted January 09, 2007 02:22 PM |
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You get a score for completing a campaign. Do you get a score for completing individual maps (not campaign)? For example if I just play Sub. Treasures by myself, does the game give me a score when its completed?
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Opinions are immunity to being told you're wrong.
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rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 09, 2007 03:01 PM |
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Ah, it does, in Hall of Fame there is a single scenario section.
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PhoenixReborn
Promising
Legendary Hero
Unicorn
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posted January 09, 2007 03:15 PM |
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Quote:
You get a score for completing a campaign. Do you get a score for completing individual maps (not campaign)? For example if I just play Sub. Treasures by myself, does the game give me a score when its completed?
Quote:
Ah, it does, in Hall of Fame there is a single scenario section.
As far as I know the hall of fame is only for scenario's, not mp maps...so sub treasures wouldn't have a hall of fame score.
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Bask in the light of my glorious shining unicorn.
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Istari
Known Hero
Truth Teller, ToH
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posted January 09, 2007 03:28 PM |
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Thank you
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Opinions are immunity to being told you're wrong.
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blink
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 10, 2007 10:26 PM |
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I've FINALLY finished the Dungeon campaign. 59 Days, which I think is pretty damn good. I'll post the walkthrough very soon, I just need to put it together so it's readable. I redid things so many times that it's a big mess right now.
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 10, 2007 11:09 PM |
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Finaly! But you've beaten my time, I kind of expected you will , here is my run...
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 10, 2007 11:11 PM |
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DUNGEON HEROIC SCORE RUSH
DAYS: 63
SCORE: 173802
I actualy thought alot to try to go for Summoning. I wanted it somewhat because of those Garrisons on mission 5 where Phoenix excells, because imo Phoenix IS more powerful (or useful) than Destruction and even more importantly because it's a much less demanding build (Elementals chains can be totaly ignored and you can - less painfuly then as is the case with Destruction - leave Luck out) and, most importantly, it would allow me to take Dark Magic (so would Destruction too, but I would likely cry clicking on «Dark» instead of «Luck» ). I was planning to go for Pupper Master on mission 2 (Mages Vault) and then use the spell against the Familiars on mission 5 (Intimidate! - I simply love this special), and that would allow me to beat the 400 Fire Elementals Garrison, which, without mana, is imo unbeatable.
But, Raelag has one obvious «problem»: War Machines is a must. It is ridicilous to even try the Cultists without it (the programmers almoust «tell» you that you need it by giving Raelag all War Machines on the start of mission 3). Summoning or Destruction is a must, if you want to be able to kill anything. That leaves only one skill slot.
If you take Destruction you will p*ss blood on the Cultists if you don't take Warlock's Luck. And if you take Luck your time on mission 5 will suffer. And even so, you will be relatively low on SP because there is no room for Enlightment, and constantly low on mana because you can't get Sorcery or Intelligence, and constantly relying on luck for damage: SP 12 Expert Fireball (you can forget about Meteor at first because of the cost; Fireball or Ice Circle are usualy enough) does 260 damage, while the heroes on Cultists appear with cca 50 Minotaurs . Among else . And they are cca level 20 with Destruction Magic, one even has Warlock's Luck . Even with luck activation you can kill 16 Minotaurs (empowered lucky cast kills 25, but rememeber mana cost). Hilarious. Ofcourse, you kill much more - probably four stacks at the same time, so you actualy do 4x the damage. Your initiative is 10 however, while the Phoenix's is 15, so that can probably compensate bigger damage with Destruction.
If you take Summoning you don't need Luck (that much ), but the Phoenix, although incredible as it is if you invest in it is a slow killer… With SP 12 and hero level 15, which is realistic, Phoenix has a damage of 120-180, and Attack of 40, and can kill cca 14 or so Minotaurs (true, another 14 on retaliation). And it's super SUPER costly. To cast i.e. Mass Decay and him takes 12 + 35 = 47 mana which is HUGE, but even with Destruction you will need to cast Ice Circle at least three times, if one is empowered than it turns out pretty the same. Conclusion: Knowledge is the crucial stat – which is bad because it's very hard to get (I delibaretely left this line - because at this time I didn't know that the bonus to knowledge from buildings is transferable. I didn't even notice this first time I played. Added with my previous oversights from past and likely future campaigns I guess my biggest flaw is lack of keen eye).
Also, compared to my first very slow run this was ten times harder. I thought that Sylvan campaign was complicated then - it is nothing compared to Inferno's and Dungeon's mission 3. It seems that every campaign has it's pinnacle, sometimes ridicilous mission: Haven 3 (I think it's very hard although not in the same league as the others), Inferno 3, Dungeon 3 (a pattern, don't you think?  )… And on almoust every campaign starting mission is a killer, you usualy need to get exact skills/stats/spells and the chance for all to trigger is almoust unrealistic. On the other hand, every campaign is a piece of cake after mission 3 - which makes sense because your hero is well built by then.
So, deduction and some tough choices… My final decision was Summoning (after some restarting; I think at this time that Destructive could work too (later I changed my mind), although perhaps you could not use Empowered spells all the time which are more than not to costly. Secrets of Destruction is perhaps better but it really depends on your natural knowledge. If you can avoid attack and defense entirely and get 5 or more knowledge on mission 1 then I would take Empowered spells by all means), War Machines and Dark Magic.
MISSION 1
MONTH 2
WEEK 1
DAY 3
Mission is easy, but getting the right skills/stats/spells is very hard. There are actualy three factors that multiply here: chance to get a proper skill selection (VERY low - I never got it), to get at least 4 to knowledge and to get both Phoenix and Summon Elementals at least (although you can live with Phoenix alone). I managed to finish on Day 31 (or 30 as the game counts but I like to keep track in «real» times). A funny note here: I was actualy able to beat the throng of Black's (I got a terrain fomation where the Furies were unreachable) but you still can't reach the Ring (2 movement tiles short).
Final Stats:
4/2/7/5 (+2 attack from the Arena. 5 points in attack/defense and only 7 in SP isn't that good, but 5 in knowledge is BRILLIANT - I've never got more than 5 without Enlightment and I restarted close to 100 times - or a bit more. Personaly, the best possible distribution is imo 3/0/9/6 but getting this is practicaly impossible.)
Final Skills:
Expert Logistics, Expert Summoning Magic, Advanced War Machines (Ballista, First Aid), Dark Ritual (this is totaly wasted. It presses you very hard to get pretty much perfect stuff on mission 2, but I went along with it because the spells given were simply excelent – I got both the Phoenix and Summon Elementals, and because of already mentioned 5 to knowledge).
Important Spells:
Phoenix, Summon Elementals, Earthquake, Raise Dead, Fist of Wrath (Phantom Forces is of no use anyway).
MISSION 2
WEEK 3
DAY 2
This is damn complicated, and it affects much of your play on the next mission (which is practicaly the big finale of the campaign since the last two are easy). The fastest imaginable way I could figure out is to buy two secondaries and send them each to the two northern towns. That way Raelag would only need to take the SE town, and you would still need one more secondary for the Tear of Asha. Imaginable as it is, I found this to be impossible. You simply do not have the money nor the troops to achieve this. Raelag can PERHAPS make it on his own (with Ballista, Aid, and Elementals and Phoenix), but buying two heroes by itself just for conquering is hardly possible (+ one for Tear), buying them troops is - impossible.
So, I guess there are three «choices» here:
1) Raelag takes the NE than the SE town, while one secondary takes out the W town. Raelag cannot do this faster than Day 11, and the secondary without Logistics, if bought on Day 1, can do it a day faster. So, you have some couchine, to buy a Tear of Asha secondary Day 1, and the other to fight the town Day 2.
I really doubt that this is possible. You need to spend 5500 on secondaries, which leaves 8500 gold for troops on Day 2 (because you need to send one for the Tear ASAP). This is imo unimanagable, those troops are - well, pathetic, and Realag needs troops as well. Also, the W is guarded pretty strongly, and is hard to beat. Now, a HIGHLY important thing before I go on. Based on what I have seen, there are three fixed locations where the Tear of Asha can appear and NIETHER is even close to the starting town. So, by using this runthrough you would need an extraordinary chain (but 4 heroes is maximum you can hire! And Realag is one of them so you can hire maximum three, or two if Shadya appears before you hire all three secondaries. Also, the one hero that conquers the W town cannot participate in the chain because he doesn't have enough time to get back) to get the Grail where you want it. So, I neglected this path, if someone can do it, well - at least I will have the satisfaction of telling him of it . If Blink did it, you are king man.
2) Raelag takes all three towns, and the time is used to level up Shadya (and Raelag) so Cultists is easier. If I calculated correctly, mission should last to Day 2 Week 3, so 17 days (without the Boots). There is a pretty good couchine but not enough to go for +1 Knowledge or +1 SP.
This is a far more probable option. Idealy, you would want a useful Witch Hut, and Boots in the NE town; with the Boots Raelag takes the last town Day 7 Week 2. However, this time is very very hard to make, look at 3).
3) Raelag takes NE and SE town, while Shadya takes the W town. Again, according to my calculations, this should take 14 days IF Shadya gets the Boots and Raelag has some time to spare. This is possible but again, time to get the Tear is rather short (although maybe possible with clever planning). A hero with no Logistics bought Day 1 needs like 10 Days to finaly dig up the Tear. Four days to bring it home is nothing, it takes three chained heroes just to pass your underground! (if they are all native that is!).
Also, some things should fit in too: Decay (possible even as late in the 1st town on Cultists – in the end I didn't use this as much as I thought that it will be useful), Confusion (same as Decay, maybe I can live without this), good skill/stat development (for Shadya too if possible), useful Witch Hut, and Puppet Master has to appear in Mages Vault (so I needed to expert Dark by that time). I tested this, and Frenzy DOES NOT work on the Familiars (think Mission 5), they still take your mana.
In the end I decided for the line of lesser resistance , so option 2), and Raelag taking every town. Even with this strategy I had to do crazy stuff, giving the Tear to the last hero in my chain, dismissing previous heroes from the chain (so I have three total), buying one hero, taking the Tear with him, returning him as close as possible to the castle, dismissing the last chained hero, buying another hero in the castle, getting Asha with him… I hope you get the picture I still think it's possible to do it a day, maybe even two faster, but I am beginning to feel a bit tired from all the restarting
I had a good Hut (second Hut was too far away, as where the +1 K, SP objects on the surface), but no Boots, so Shadya was a bit slow - yet I was pretty happy how she developed, considering all the requisits which had to be made in this mission. The last siege was pretty difficult (castle was built), I managed only because of War Machines.
Raelag level 16
Skills:
Expert War Machines, Master of Conjuration, Expert Dark Magic. I think this is as perfect a is it gets.
Stats:
5/2/10/10. ***THIS IS THE STRANGEST THING I HAVE SEEN SO FAR. IT SEEMS THAT MY STATS ARE THE SAME AS THEY WERE LAST MISSION WHEN I HAD BONUSES TO KNOWLEDGE FROM BUILDINGS – SEEMS THAT THESE BONUSES SOMEHOW TRANSFER. I WON'T COMPLAINT ***
Spells:
Nothing important except Puppet Master
Shadya level 14
Skills:
Expert Dark (from Hut), Expert Destruction, Expert Enlightment.
Stats:
6/3/14/8. I think these are great stats. All I need is Empowered Spells.
Spells:
Chain Lightning, Circle of Winter. No Meteor is a pain, but I couldn't help it. The loss isn't that big: Ice Circle does 96+12*SP and Meteor does 20+20*SP. With SP 14 Ice Circle equals 264 and Meteor 300. Chain Lightning does 375 to first target.
MISSION 3
WEEK 2
DAY 4
The infamous Cultists… No matter what you do this mission is exremely difficult… I did the following: Raelag fought Furies, attacked the hero in front of the town. Shadya came close to him and took some of his troops. Next turn SHADYA took town (level up: Empowered Spells, she was very close to gain a level ) again no Meteor Shower but: +50% Fire damage artefact (time for retribution ). Shadya took cca half of Raelag's army, went north, Raelag went west. Raelag took the town SW – I don't know if this can be done with a secondary – I don't think it's possible, the opponent has too many troops. Raelag went north and took towns one by one. Every single battle was very hard – but the Phoenix proved to be incredible. A few times I had to cast Elementals first and get Water type to draw fire from the opponent but usualy the Phoenix was up to the task. I don't think that this can be done Destruction route, how do you kill >100 Assassins(1600 HP!), 12 Hydras, 50 Minotaurs etc etc at once?? Even Puppet Master was used there and then. War Machines proved to be a neccessity, without First Aid I would be toast here. Utopia was to much for me, and I didn't need it anyway. Shadya got Logistics from a Witch Hut and had two difficult fights, taking the starting E town, and the town NE (luckily, in that fight the opponent was behind the walls and stood his ground, so my Fireball wrecked havoc. It was still quite difficult). Inferno heroes came but never attacked any of my towns, it seems that they were chasing Raelag.
Raelag level 22
7/2/14/15. Well, this is a proof that the bonuses do somehow transfer. So it is imperative to build Hall of Knowledge in every town.
Expert Defense (Protection), Scouting, Pathfinding, Master of Curses.
Pretty much every realisticaly learnable spell is in Raelag's possession.
Shadya level 18
7/5/17/14. More powerful than my main. Sic.
Expert Logistics (Pathfinding). It will be fun to manouver with those Boots on mission 5 between Raelag and Shadya .
MISSION 4
WEEK 1
DAY 5
This actualy wasn't that easy. Mana is a big issue, beating all those Familiars in the beginning isn't easy. Still, compared to the first three missions, piece of cake. Shadya had to beat >300 Squires with a few Blood Furies . Raelag was able to pick up the Witch Hut on the surface (Master of Mind) AND managed to fight Grawl in time (this required careful manouvering because Shadya had to clear the path for him). Last fight was damn hard, Raelag had 60 mana and it was barely enough. Raelag also got +1 SP, +1 K, Teleport Assault and Master of Eartblood.
MISSION 5
WEEK 1
DAY 5
I don't think this can be done a day faster… One pair of boots is insufficient. Anyway, I am now convinced that it is impossible to beat this without Puppet Master (without using Dark Ritual or waiting for mana fills). Two Garrisons, with 3000 Familiars and the other with 400 Fire Elementals are INSANE. It actualy took me a good amount of attempts to beat them even this way. It is extremely fun, a very good balance between hard and enjoyable.
Anyway, it was a great and enjoyable campaign. This time I am convinced that my time is not perfect – but I don't think perfect can be reached here. My time can certainly be beaten, and if someone (excluding Blink who certainly can) succeeds in doing so I would love to hear his tale.
Final Raelag's stats:
Level 28
8/3/15/18
Basic Irresistable Magic (Dark Ritual), Expert Defense (Vitality, Protection, Evasion), Expert War Machines (Ballista, First Aid, Catapult), Expert Logistics (Pathfinding, Scouting, Teleport Assault), Expert Summoning Magic (Master of Conjuration/Earthblood/Life), Expert Dark Magic (Master of Curses/Mind, Dark Renewal).
His SP is nothing but who cares? He will make mince meat out of Isabel in the last campaign anyway
Final Shadya's stats:
Level 20
8/5/19/14
Expert Irresistable Magic (Empowered Spells), Advanced Defense (Evasion), Expert Enlightment (Scholar), Expert Logistics (Pathfinding), Expert Destruction Magic, Expert Dark Magic (Master of Curses/Pain).
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blink
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 11, 2007 03:43 AM |
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Dungeon Campaign in 59 Days!
Score: 182, 086
Wow, we handled this campaign in completely different manners. Our skill selection was not even close to the same, though we both agreed on the necessity of the phoenix. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to get war machines instead of destructive magic. Also, I found that Shadya has no use for pathfinding because she never goes on non-native terrain. Now get ready for a serious walkthough, cause this is a long one. As usual, let me know if you have any questions.
Mission 1: Finished Week 5, Day 3
Finished Stats: Level 12: 9, 1, 5, 3; Advanced Irresistible Magic, Basic Defense (Vitality), Expert Luck, Expert Logistics, Expert Summoning, and Basic Destructive Magic
As Rainalcar said, this mission was annoying solely for the reason of having to get the “perfect” skill selection (which we oddly enough considered to be completely different). I finished this mission on the same day as you but after trying to just attack the dragons outright once, I gave up on that idea, assuming it was ridiculous (but I guess it wasn’t). Instead, I attacked two of the tournament heroes, and then positioned myself just to the northeast of the hero that starts on your left when you come through the teleporter. At the end of my turn, I dismissed enough of my troops that I could lure the enemy into attacking me (but not so many that I couldn’t handle the fight). When I ended my turn, the remaining heroes killed each other and then attacked me. By the start of my next turn, I was able to just run straight to the ring, with very few movement points left.
Mission 2: Finished Week 2, Day 6; Chose “2000 Gold” Starting Bonus
Finished Stats:
Shadya only gained one level and chose expert destructive magic; she got basic logistics from the hut
Raelag: Level 16: 10, 1, 9, 9; added expert destructive magic, master of conjuration, soldier’s luck, and pathfinding
First of all, there are a number of coincidences that must be in your favor at the start of this mission that made this level probably the most annoying one yet. The boots of the swift journey need to be in your artifact merchants (for 25,000 gold), you need to be able to recruit a dungeon hero so it’s not affected by terrain penalties, and the Tear of Asha needs to be located in it’s southern location (there are 3 possible places the Tear can be located). This is made even more of a pain in the ass by the fact that when the first 2 conditions are met, it still takes a little work to get to an obelisk and make sure the 3rd condition is met. Anyway, on to the mission.
Day 1: Raelag enters the castle to learn some spells (wasp swarm and circle of winter being the only important ones I got; wasp swarm is going to be the key to beating the 3000 familiars in mission 5), recruits all the troops except the minotaurs and 1 assassin, and then goes east along the road. Then I recruited Yrwana, upgraded her blood maidens, and followed after Raelag. Then I recruited Narxes and had him chase after both of them.
Day 2: Raelag continues running toward the surface, stopping only to activate the quest hut. Yrwana and Narxes keep chasing after him. Then I recruited Grok (he’s the hero with the 5% bonus to movement and comes with logistics and pathfinding), recruited 1 minotaur for him (not minotaur guard; there’s no point in wasting the money), and then had him take out the 16 archers immediately to the east and grab the chest for 1000 gold. He then chases after all the other heroes.
Day 3: Raelag makes it to the surface and starts going toward the southern garrison. The other heroes all chase after him (for some odd reason the computer wouldn’t let me recruit any more heroes at this point; I guess there’s a limit of recruiting 3 extra heroes in this mission; I’ve noticed that some of the missions where you get another hero as part of the storyline seem to restrict your number of hero recruitments for some reason).
Days 4-6: Raelag goes through the garrison (no casualties), LEAVING ALL HIS TROOPS IN THE GARRISON EXCEPT 3 CHAOS HYDRAS AND 4 ASSASSINS, and continues east, stopping at the witch’s hut to learn pathfinding, then stopping at the well to refill his magic just north of the stables, hitting the stables and then going after the northernmost castle. The other heroes chase after him (with Yrwana picking up all the garrison troops), going toward the stables, and getting logistics at the hut. Grok also made a stop to get the stack of 2 crystals sitting near the garrison though this was irrelevant. On Day 6, Raelag took the castle, which was guarded by Lethos. I fought him with 3 Chaos Hydras and lost no troops thanks to summoning 18 water elementals.
Day 7: Shadya appears. She enters the castle and I used the marketplace to trade almost all my resources (had 1 of each precious recourse and 1 ore left when I was done) for gold. After that, I had just enough to buy the boots (leaving me with 13 gold!). Shadya runs toward the surface. After Yrwana reached the stables, she turns south and has to fight Yrbeth. This is kind of an annoying fight because you don’t want to lose too many troops but whatever hero you recruit is going to be level 1 at this point so you have to suffer some losses (I lost 24 blood furies and 2 grim raiders). She then continues south, going toward the Tear of Asha, and the other heroes (other than Raelag obviously) chase after her. Raelag ends this turn just next to the stables, having used all his movement points and having just refilled his magic at the well.
Days 8-13: Raelag hits the stables, then goes east, but not the most direct route to the eastern castle because he’s going to have movement to spare at the end of the mission. Instead, he heads off toward the knowledge +1 stat booster, takes out the master hunters guarding it, gets the booster, and continues northeast, then south along the road, to kill the ghosts guarding the spell power +1 stat booster and gets that boost too. He then continues toward the eastern underground, stopping only to kill the obsidian gargoyles guarding a chest right near the underground. He grabs the chest (1000 experience) and heads toward the underground). Meanwhile, Yrwana digs for the Tear on Day 8, Narxes, who’s just a couple steps behind, grabs it from her, and gives his troops over to Yrwana. He then turns around and runs back to Grok, giving Grok the Tear. Grok then turns around and runs back toward the starting castle. Meanwhile, Narxes and Yrwana head underground for the southwestern castle. Shadya will attack the djinns just southeast of the garrison and get the two treasure chests there (only 500 exp each unfortunately), then continue along the path, taking out Eruina who got in her way, learning logistics at the hut, hitting the stables, and chasing after Narxes and Yrwana. Yrwana will take out the weak enemy hero underground and then position herself so that she can get to the castle and take it out in a one-day’s march. Narxes will position himself so that he can run to Yrwana in one day. Shadya will run toward Narxes and at some point she needs to cast Summon Troops and summon everything from the Northern town. She’ll still have enough movement points to hand everything off to Narxes on Day 13. Narxes will run the troops to Yrwana, and Yrwana will defeat the third castle. Meanwhile, Grok will make it to the castle and build the Tear of Asha on Day 13 too. Raelag captures the eastern town on Day 12 and uses Day 13 to just run around getting a bit more experience. Holy crap, that was ridiculous.
Mission 3: Finished Week 2, Day 3; Chose “1 Shadow Witch” Starting Bonus
Finished Stats:
Shadya: Level 16: 9, 3, 12, 12; added Advanced Enlightenment, Advanced Logistics, Master of Ice, and Advanced Defense
Raelag: Level 22: 11, 1, 14, 14; added Master of Ice and Master of Storms, Exorcism, Magic Resistance and Warlock’s Luck, and Elemental Vision
This mission is a lot more fun than the previous one because, while it’s actually harder, it comes down a lot more to skill than just to waiting for the right conditions on reloads.
Day 1: Raelag immediately goes north, taking out the blood furies (lost 3 assassins). Shadya picks up the matriarch and then goes to Raelag where she gives him all her troops except the 30 blood maidens and she takes all the minotaurs except for 4 of them. Raelag then turns west and takes out the enemy hero guarding the castle (learned warlock’s luck, yay!). Shadya takes the campfire and runs toward the northern castle.
Day 2: Raelag, who ended the last turn 2 steps away from the castle, takes it on this turn but does not enter it. Recruited Yrwanna and had her give her blood maidens to Raelag. She’s going to spend the next couple of turns just gathering resources. Raelag runs south, takes out the hell chargers guarding the southwest teleporter, and goes through it, taking one more step before he’s out of movement points. Shadya takes the northern castle (which is always empty), stopping only to pick up a stack of ore on the way. Built a citadel in the northern castle because Shadya’s going to have a rough fight defending it from the enemy hero on the enemy’s turn (successfully defended loosing 16 minotaurs).
Day 3: Built a hall of intrigue in both castles. Recruited Anwen from the northern castle, gave 5 of his pixies to Shadya, and had him run west to get a chest and picked gold. Shadya takes out the 300 imps (of which 100 were unfortunately familiars) and hit the witch’s hut to get advanced defense. She then sits in the northern castle, waiting for the inferno hero to attack at the end of Day 4. Raelag takes out the stack of vampires on the other side of the teleporter and then runs southwest, ending his turn one movement tile from the tattered flag.
Day 4: Raelag hits the tattered flag and runs southwest to take the southwest castle (which is always undefended at this point), stopping only to get one chest for its experience because it let him level up. He’s completely out of movement points. Built a level 1 mage guild in this town so he can refill his magic while he sits there. This also makes the fight against the enemy hero during the enemy’s turn much easier because I was able to freely use up all my magic in the fight, knowing it would be fully restored at the start of the next turn. At the end of the turn, I had to fight against two enemy attacks (the warlock who attacks my southwestern castle (lost 2 assassins) and the inferno hero who attacks the northern castle (lost 22 minotaurs and 5 pixies)). Anwen meanwhile hits the windmill and then turns south because at the end of the next turn, he’s going to have to defend the western castle that Raelag first captured (Vashyan is running toward it with 24 scouts).
Day 5: Built a hall of intrigue in the southwestern castle and a capitol in the northern castle. Raelag runs northeast, ending his turn one tile from the tattered flag (at this point he’s down to 18 assassins, 9 blood maidens, 1 shadow witch and 1 shadow matriarch). Shadya runs northeast toward the northern teleporter (she’s down to 38 minotaurs and 30 blood furies (I upgraded them before leaving the castle).
Day 6: Anwen and Yrwanna spend the rest of the campaign just picking up treasure so I won’t mention them again. Shadya kills the vampires guarding the teleporter and runs through, then kills the lowly knight hero that’s waiting on the other side with ease, and continues east. She’ll get to the northeastern most castle on Day 9. Raelag runs northeast. He’s going after the westernmost castle, which he’ll reach on Day 7. When I hit “end turn,” Lethos attacks, and this is a snow. I had to try ending my turn with Raelag on several different tiles before I finally got a fight where 9/10 of my army wasn’t immediately killed by his poison special. Even then, it was extremely difficult and required a lot of luck. His army was:
5 blood maidens
60 blood furies
127 assassins
5 hydras
6 shadow witches
74 minotaur guards
I lost my shadow matriarch and shadow witch, my 9 blood maidens, and 12 assassins, leaving me with 6 assassins.
Day 7: Raelag captures the westernmost castle, stopping only to pick up one chest (1000 exp). He ends in the castle with no movement points.
Day 8: Recruited Kythra in the western castle. Upgraded the hydra dwelling and Raelag recruited the chaos hydras, shadow witches, and dark raiders who were available. Kythra took Raelag’s war machines. Raelag took out the dragon utopia, which had 8 green , 4 emerald, 6 shadow, and 4 black dragons (no losses (and there were no obstacles helping me; that’s right I managed a flawless battle without any weird terrain)). The artifacts were mostly useless but I learned arcane armor and implosion (which I thought might be useful at some point, but it turns out they’re pretty useless too). Kythra runs to Raelag who takes his war machines back. He then runs north until he’s out of movement points. Kythra runs toward the castle in the center of the map; she’ll reach it on day 10. Shadya uses summon forces to summon all the troops from the first town that she captured and then attacks the enemy hero who’s waiting just north of her. She doesn’t get very far north because of this but it’s all right because she has just enough movement to capture the northeastern enemy castle on the next turn and she needs those summoned troops to be able to do it. Recruited Elaine from the westernmost town.
Day 9: Recruited Lethos from the westernmost town and gave him all of Elaine’s peasants. Built an artifact merchant there, and bought the ring of +20% initiative for Elaine and the breastplate of +2 spellpower for Lethos. Elaine ran to give the ring to Raelag. Raelag then runs north, takes out the garrison (leaving him with only 4 chaos hydras, 5 assassins, 1 shadow witch, and 45 mana). He then continues toward the northwestern castle, running out of movement with about 4 tiles to go. Lethos runs for the castle in the center of the map. He’ll get there, with Kythra, on Day 10. Unfortunately he has very little mana. Shadya takes out the northeastern town and then spends the rest of the mission just gaining experience.
Day 10: Raelag takes the northwestern town, and then runs around gathering experience. Kythra attacks the central town first, weakening it, then Lethos takes the central town, ending this abomination and allowing me to move on to two much simpler missions. The second inferno hero was a few steps away from one of my towns but he’s not going to get a turn to attack me so I don’t have to defend against it.
Mission 4: Finished Week 1, Day 5; Chose “14 Assassins” Starting Bonus
Finished Stats:
Shadya: Level 18: 11, 3, 15, 13; added Expert Enlightenment and Expert Logistics
Raelag: Level 24: 11, 2, 15, 14; added Expert Defense
Nothing too exciting here. Raelag just chases after the inferno enemy hero while Shadya hangs around the gate to the upper world so that as soon as Raelag kills the inferno hero, she can beat the squires and run through the gate to the end of the mission. She got in a few unnecessary fights just to give her some more experience points. The fight with the inferno hero was a little difficult but nothing too annoying.
Mission 5: Finished Week 1, Day 5; Chose “Boots of Pathfinding (or whatever they’re called)” Starting Bonus
FINAL STATS:
Shadya: Level 24: 15, 3, 19, 14; Expert Irresistible Spells (Elemental Vision and Empowered Spells), Expert Dark Magic (the 3 Masters of), Expert Destructive (Master of Ice), Expert Defense (Evasion), Expert Logistics (Scouting), Expert Enlightenment (Scholar)
Raelag: Level 27: 11, 2, 18, 14; Expert Irresistible Spells (Elemental Vision and Empowered Spells), Expert Defense (Vitality and Evasion), Expert Luck (Soldier’s Luck, Magic Resistance, and Warlock’s Luck), Expert Summoning (Master of Conjuration and Exorcism), Expert Destructive Magic (Master of Storms and Master of Ice), and Expert Logistics (Pathfinding)
Now this mission might be simple in that all you have to do is run straight to the end with your two heroes, stopping off to get the boots of the swift journey, but the fights are not at all simple.
Garrison with 3000 familiars: On my first try, I lost 10 black dragons, 23 shadow matriarchs, and 124 assassins; after realizing the remaining army is completely inadequate to complete the mission with, I tried again and did a little better: Lost 8 matriarchs, 18 assassins, 3 black dragons, and 12 chaos hydras (It’s all about using wasp swarm on the familiars for a few turns, combined with a slow from a group of shadow matriarchs, and Raelag’s inherent special of slowing the enemy. The slow spell and Raelag’s special reduce the familiar’s initiative to something like 6.5 and with wasp swarm, you can keep the familiars from attacking for a couple of turns. As soon as wasp swarm is about to be ineffective at holding off the next turn of the familiars, Raelag summoned a phoenix and just let the familiars take the 23 mana he had remaining after that.)
I attacked the giant garrison (the one with 400 fire elementals) with Shadya because Raelag had only 14 mana at this point (zero after the garrison attack with the 3000 familiars but gained back 14 on the next turn because he had 14 knowledge) and lost 18 shadow matriarchs, 157 assassins, 65 minotaur guards, 28 chaos hydras, and 4 black dragons. Her dark magic ruled the day, especially expert mass confusion. I cast all the mass dark spells except decay and suffering because I didn’t have them. I didn’t learn any level 4 or 5 dark magic spells in this campaign because I didn’t think it was possible to do so. Shadya’s special at increasing evasion is also helpful because of the 400 fire elementals, which are unbelievably annoying.
Raelag attacked the final garrison, losing 1 assassin, leaving him with 9 shadow matriarchs, 7 black dragons, and 152 assassins. Shadya still had the 10 dark raiders and 1 shadow dragon. I ran through the garrison, filled up my magic at the well, and had no trouble smashing Veyer.
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Rainalcar
Promising
Famous Hero
Heroji su zakon
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posted January 11, 2007 02:19 PM |
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I guess you made my assumptions false: I really didn't think it's possible to beat the Cultists w/o War Machines, nor to beat Mission 5 w/o Puppet Master. It is funny how we developed differently.
You're effort on mission 2 was really admirable, somewhat reminds me of mine on Inferno 3, very well done. Anyway, as I said in my run, "If Blink did it, you are king man".
About mission 3, as far as I remember SW was very well defended in my case, that is way I went there with Raelag anyway. Also, the town you attacked with Kythra and Lethos was so heavily defended that I didn't consider it possible: Raelag was barely up to the task of taking it, that is why you are a day faster.
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blink
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 11, 2007 05:54 PM |
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Did you get to the SW town on Day 4? Because every time I got there on day 4 (and with all my restarting it was actually a few times) the enemy hero was just to the south of the castle. If I got there on day 5, then the hero was actually defending the castle. In any case, I sent Raelag there too becasue as you said, the enemy force there is pretty strong.
And you're right about the central castle being heavily defended. It was the most heavily defended castle in the entire mission. But the two heroes I sent to attack the castle weren't just level 1 recruits, they were each level 19 because they were the computer's heroes that I had defeated the previous week. Even still, this was not an easy fight and I considered sending Raelag there a few times, but found that this didn't really make it any easier becuase he was basically just as strong as the heroes I recruited.
I'm on Sylvan Mission 1 right now and I've got luck on my side so far: all three witch's huts gave me skills I wanted. But, if experience has tought me anything, I'll probably get to the second or third mission and realize the skills I chose were stupid and end up restarting.
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