Darklord's classical masterpiece Empire 2... my favourite Heroes 3 map. What better way to pay an homage to it than by utterly destroying the pitiful AI as fast as possible!
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# DISCLAIMER #
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Ok, this isn't your typical playthrough of TEW2. Many, many, many starts were generated before starting with these requirements in mind:
1- Random artifact is necklace of swiftness
2- Shield is available in the first town
3- Blind is available in one of the first 2 towns
4- Clone is available in Xyron's town (the first place you can get it)
5- Maximus must get the following skills: Logistics, Pathfinding, Navigation, Intelligence and Water (avoiding Huts completely)
6- Dessa/Kyrre need Earth/Intelligence... the rest is bonus as you can use the Huts
You can say this is a cooked start and I won't disagree. The odds for generating this kind of start are ridiculously low - but it is not impossible.
There are 3 fights in the first two weeks where morale bonus is beneficial but other than that, no rng manipulation because I hate it and it doesn't help.
Read no further if the above makes you think this is a waste of your time.
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# RULES #
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1- No infinite movement from Admiral's Hat.
2- No Cloak of the Undead King
3- No nwczion bug
4- No dismissing/hiring heroes to reset their movement points/mana
5- No 'Invite Hero' from tavern. While I use HDmod for the nice features it has, I will not use this to invite heroes. Good old load x1000.
[If you're curious, my win date using these bugs is 146 (27 days) with a perfect 500 score - this won't be getting anywhere near that territory.]
Obviously the poor AI combat coding is abused to get through the game as fast as possible.
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This is my previous run's result. The starting save this time is considerably better and my strategies refined. How fast can it get done this time?
I plan on making this mainly a screenshot walkthrough but there will be a few videos, like this one.
111
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Post-factum edit
I've created a playlist of the videos in this thread.
So I'm heading out of town for about a week and won't have access to my saves until I come back home. Here's the next stretch until next time...
111
Pathfinding and Logistics right away make for a great start, especially Pathfinding given all the terrain penalties. Paying to upgrade the Cavalier gives you extra movement overall.
First fight is Quick Combat (QC), nothing interesting.
112
I was still figuring out video quality around this point (no sound in 111 meh), so the next few days are choppy.
The Unicorns fight is pretty simple, I over-complicated it for no reason. Just keep casting Lightning Bolt and be done with it.
I grab everything along the way except for the Artifact for which I have no use. In my previous attempt I actually fought one of the Marksmen to visit the Fountain of Youth twice. Here it isn't needed because of the great skills.
113
The fights v. The guard and Trolls are pretty easy as well, just don't lose troops.
I would have preferred Advanced Pathfinding for the level up but it was not to be, yet.
There is time to grab everything because I'm going to grab the Cavaliers dwelling. Also note that I don't visit the Stables for the free upgrade because I'd have to revisit it again after buying the ones from the dwelling.
114
Taking the dwelling without losses isn't difficult, nothing to say. Stop at the stables where Cavaliers are upgraded for free. This is important - do NOT kill the Pegasi. If you do, Longbow will calculate that you can reach him the next turn and hide in Longbow. (Longbow the hero hides in Longbow the town, couldn't pass on this last sentence )
115
Here is the first place where the Necklace of Swiftness is important. Mullich+1 speed lets Champions reach across the battlefield. Another thing to note, the splitting of the Pikes (one stack of 11) made the AI calculate that he could do more HP damage by killing that stack than by casting on Champions (110 hp v 100 hp) even though it does 120 dmg - so basically "no losses". Morale not needed, the leftover troops are too weak after initial assault.
Bad skills at level-up and bad random artifact.
Go back to Longbow to rest (swap out slow troops) until the next day.
116
The first interesting fight! The terrain is Magic Plains so all spells are cast at Expert level...making this fight rather easy with the terrain. All morale/blinds not needed. The only spells you need here are Shield+Cure, I spent extra because the next fight will be after a stay in Longbow.
The pikes are picked up just because movement allowed it...
117
Grab the shooter dwellings, need to beef up on the army a bit before the next fights. At 2:05 in the video I grab experience instead of gold... there's a place a bit later where this extra experience makes all the difference. The week finishes standing on the Monks dwelling where another round of hiring will occur on 121.
121
Hire shooters on your way to Longbow, swap out slow troops and spend the night to refresh mana. Moving out now does not add movement points overall. Well this is relative, if I had Advanced Logistics it would as I would have more remaining movement points.
122
Upgrade everything except pikes at the Hill Fort after visiting Stables (Longbow does unfortunately not have one yet). Try as I could, there was no way I could figure to grab the Dragonbone Greaves and have enough movement for the coming days. The resources that were picked up will be important for building Angels in Longbow before the end of the week.
123
We're heading towards the Slow shrine. It's a good idea to check if you can't do an extra movement when travelling on roads.
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Next time we'll work our way to Slow spell and then go free Christian
On this 11th day, we get that much closer to the Slow shrine. I have close to the minimum number of troops required for the coming fights with no losses and the current primary/secondary skills. Archery would be excellent... but Maximus starts with Leadership so we must do without.
The two fights vs. Dendroids don't require morale/luck on our side... but they require that the enemy does not get a morale bonus and catch our troops in the open. Some reloads may be required to do so. Kiting the enemy lets your shooters deal damage without fear of being hit. Weakened stacks will tend to stop following the kite and go for the cluster; this is useful to do some extra damage with Champions and Crusaders.
Intelligence! In a perfect world having early Water Magic would help a lot for the next few fights but this was the best skill tree that I generated with the requirements in post #1.
The second fight is easier because it's almost only Dendroid Guards with 3 movement instead of 'roid Guards with 4. After the first few turns, the fight is pretty safe because you can leave the kite 8 tiles away from the enemy so that even morale bonus will get you hit.
I grab the wood pile in the way before proceeding, skipping it doesn't get you 1 tile further due to wasted movement: the last diagonal step costs 141 movement and you get there with 208 (208-141 = 67 -> rounded to 0) compared to grabbing the wood and having 126 movement for the last step (diagonal movement allowed on non-penalty terrain as long as you have 100+ movement available).
The shrine guard is pretty weak and the fight simple: let the Wyverns get closer and shoot them. I will only show the result.
125
Before the turn starts, useful buildings and troops are finally arriving in Longbow... unfortunately there's no time to go there now.
I grab slow and now have the necessary tools to go free Christian and then continue towards world domination, mwhahaha!
Grab the rally flag (not for the movement, it adds 400 movement but you travel an extra 4 tiles (left, left, right, up) in order to get back to the Learning Stone - no movement gained. The actual gain is for the temporary luck bonus for the next fight which is difficult and requires some extra luck and several reloads
Speaking of experience... 513 exp missing to level. Back on 117 I picked 500 experience instead of 1000 gold just for this. The whole thing is worth 170 movement points, just enough for the next few days. The extra defense is handy as well
In case anyone is wondering, I am not recording as I play (although I took some screenshots here and there) but rather going back and making these videos for the viewers' convenience i.e. my progress in game is ahead compared to these posts. As a result, I won't always be able to replicate my exact results but I try to show the underlying idea at least. The first instances occur now.
126
First big fight coming up, in terms of morale/luck needs. This video fight was the result of about 10 attempts, whereas it took north of 50 to get a result I was happy with (I used Bless and had more morale/luck). This is a safer setup to get through and shouldn't require too many attempts to get.
The difference between the extra attempts? 1 Griffin. Useful for kiting but probably not even necessary.
Good fortune had it that this Conservatory held 3 Angels. 4 would have meant at least 1 dead Champion... but they will soon be fodder anyway so the extra Angel would be handy. 1 Angel would certainly be problematic for the fight afterwards. Morale isn't very important here, so long as I don't get caught by the enemy.
Go this way towards Christian, the campfires provide useful resources, more of a priority compared to gold from chests.
The second fight requiring some good fortune. The problem is not avoiding losses (as you'll see, I use the terrain to my advantage), it's not being blinded and having enough luck/morale to avoid spending too much spell points. The strategy is to have only 2 troops exposed to enemy attacks and to do this, I must cross the battlefield to hide on the enemy's side! Griffin kites a bit before eventually he dies to Morale. Having the Griffin isn't mandatory to get through but it helps a bit [read: fewer reloads] if he lives long enough.
After this video I am left with 12 spell points whereas after enough reloads I had 24 left i.e. 2 Cures. The extra 12 means I can have 0 losses while taking Unknown and don't need tons of reloads for good fortune. It was either there or here ... pick your battle.
Christian clears the neighborhood and grabs the much needed Ammo Cart. The Dragon Necklace is grabbed towards the end to save on 41 movement (orthogonal rather than diagonal). The fights are QC and not worth showing.
Maximus&Christian visit the Rally Flag for extra movement and both heroes meet up for army swap before taking Unknown.
Take the 2nd town without losses. Morale/Luck could be useful here if you don't have as much spell points as I said already.
Notice the part at 1:44 right before entering Unknown? There is just enough movement to get inside the town. This means full movement points for 127 and more importantly, spell points are refreshed. The preparation for this movement scheme began all the way back on 117 with the experience from the chest and was then made possible with the 1-day earlier Expert Logistics. Ref: posts #2 & #4
Of course when I was working on this part of the map, I was short 1 step when I got here.... so I had to reload from 117 and do everything over again when I found a solution. It was aggravating, to say the least.
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Next time we'll grab the Light Blue tent and get ready to sail the waters.
Uau! Thank you very much. I found it curious that you have quite the same set of skills I would chose years ago (before reading some threads probably more directed to multiplayer games) but preferably for a magic hero.
When figths are really unmatched the hability to perform certain magic tricks overcomes the advantage of natural fighting skills.
I love that you play with music enabled, rare nowadays. One question: doesn't HD mod have some option displaying how many creatures you will kill with attack? I was sure it had one, yet I don't see you using it.
Salamandre said:I love that you play with music enabled, rare nowadays.
cutting off the music cuts off the ambience, too(which, i think, detracts from the immersion. i've never played without the "music"). i plan on making my own ambience for the terrains; so any background noise you hear while travelling on whatever terrain will be only natural sounds.
bloodsucker said:Uau! Thank you very much. I found it curious that you have quite the same set of skills I would chose years ago (before reading some threads probably more directed to multiplayer games) but preferably for a magic hero.
When figths are really unmatched the hability to perform certain magic tricks overcomes the advantage of natural fighting skills.
Definitely! Right now the spells are limited so the fights rely on kiting, the MP skills Offense/Armorer would certainly be more useful. But as soon as we get access to a wider variety of spells, the ineptitude of the AI in combat can be abused so that, as you say, one can overcome incredible odds in terms of army (on paper, at least).
The computer gives you plenty of time to cast all the best spells so we may as well make these spells more potent! Not so with humans...
Salamandre said:I love that you play with music enabled, rare nowadays. One question: doesn't HD mod have some option displaying how many creatures you will kill with attack? I was sure it had one, yet I don't see you using it.
I really love the game music so it's always on
I think the #kills option comes with HotA only. I'd be interested if there's a way to use it in SoD.
That and the HotA map editor has an option to disable month of the creatures. I'm curious how that works and if it's importable to SoD by editing the version. Would certainly be handy for mapmaking.
RoseKavalier said:That and the HotA map editor has an option to disable month of the creatures.
In ERM there are simple options to customize wich creature for each month and if there will any kind of event at any specific week, month.
!!UN:M#/$; Set new "Month of the" properties.
M0 - Original behaviour
M1 - Disable weeks of monster*2 and all/2
M2/$ - Set up a week of $ monster (monster*2) (see Format C)
M3 - Set up a week of plague (all/2)
Comments:
* 2nd parameter ($) only applies to M2.
Note: it will noy disable weeks/months generated by Deities of Fire- imps/familiars will get extra growth and be spawned all over the map regardless
Yeah, unfortunately TEW II is one of the SoD maps not compatible with Hota, it will ruin your town portal spell.
RoseKavalier said:I think the #kills option comes with HotA only. I'd be interested if there's a way to use it in SoD.
That and the HotA map editor has an option to disable month of the creatures. I'm curious how that works and if it's importable to SoD by editing the version. Would certainly be handy for mapmaking.
No for SoD, but anyway, the day when you will accept progress and will install Era, you will see that the Era's SoD mod comes with all interface goodies but keeps SoD gameplay 100% intact.
RoseKavalier said:
Darklord's classical masterpiece Empire 2... my favourite Heroes 3 map. What better way to pay an homage to it than by utterly destroying the pitiful AI as fast as possible!
Yea WoG/ERA...I couldn't get it to work on W8.1 despite trying pretty much everything I could find on the internet for solutions.
So I installed a virtual machine with XP and what do you know, works on first try. I'm slowly getting into it, after so many years of playing Vanilla Homm3 it seems immense and imposing when starting a new game - so many options.
I'm still slightly more favourable towards the crispiness of HDmod but so long as I can find the same options I'll be fine.
By any chance, is there a mod that highlights enemy troops possible movement like in HDmod? I've gotten too used to this feature. EDIT: nevermind, I see you can still launch with HDmod and get that feature. I lose some management buttons sadly but this is certainly an interesting setup.
With regards to TEW3/4... that's more than homage, it's true dedication! My hat off to you, even though I haven't tried them yet
Strange for win 8, should work, maybe you can specify the problem in era thread so we can help?
And regarding options: don't look into wog fancy options, those are obsolete by now. Browse interface mods HERE so you can see what is interesting, then just download the Safe-SoD mod from Wakeofgods.org, combine it with interface mods and then play any SoD or vanilla maps. No creature spawn, no plague, no bugs, same mechanics. And era has all buttons HD mod has and much more. Yet I have to update the interface mods main link, there are probably 10 more out since I made that thread.
Once you are comfortable with interface buttons (you can keep HD, it has several similar options) then you can try TEW3 as its mechanics are much closer to vanilla than tew4 which extends them.
In no case waste your time looking into wog options, most of them were scripted back in 200* to show potential and fun. But they don't add anything interesting to gameplay, for the most (my opinion, don't shoot at me, wog fans!).
Moreover, you can play vanilla, sod and era from same folder, they have each a different executable. There is no conflict.
But for now, waiting videos and what's next from my preferred map too, Empire II.
____________ Era II mods and utilities
Thank you Valery. Since I finally got ERA working, I don't want to go through the hassle again just so that I can skip VM. There's a good chance I'll migrate just to avoid Month Creatures/Plagues.
I've not managed to get everything to work that I'd like to (mainly the army management in town does not work, like splitting and buying directly when clicking on portrait [bottom left]. Thankfully shift/ctrl splitting works in Adventure map [bottom right]) but never seeing those bloody messages again is worth it. So many times I had to replay an entire week to get rid of growths
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Sorry for the videos, the bottom is cut off as I accidentally changed the resolution to 1280x800 instead of the 1280x720 I was using before.
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127
Maximus so far before the night.
More buildings are coming in... even though they will serve as fodder hehe.
Christian and Maximus meet up to swap troops.
More kiting! I have a lot of spell points now and will get more in the 3rd week so there's not really any need to be conservative with it for now.
Meanwhile Christian picks up gold from all chests. Unfortunately there's an event at 131 where we lose 20k or so, but instead of having 0 gold, there'll be a few leftovers.
The next fight is pretty difficult. At this point Cavaliers could be considered fodder - however with enough good fortune it's possible to do it with no losses! The more Champions I can save, the better as gold is about to become very limited. This is the last morale/luck intensive manipulation fight I do. Obviously there will be other times when reloads are necessary but nothing too crazy.
Such is not the case for this one as the Medusa Queens are significantly stronger. Anyhow, this one-shot attempt was actually luckier than when I ran through here the first time around. (see screenshot)
After Navigation, Water comes and Maximus is as good as he can be in terms of skills for this map. Not to worry though, there are better heroes to be available in King's Castle!
131
Funny thing, when I loaded my save "127end", I noticed that I didn't kill the Medusas in the first bank It doesn't change anything much, I still had gotten the necessary experience but was a bit shorter on gold and sulfur (of which there is plenty to be had). It's definitely too late now so I'll live with the mistake. Also scout report is a bit late now, we have freed Christian and Unknown already
Christian has rather poor skills and little spell points (no Intelligence) so I can't use him for very much other than transport - which is a big part of the rush. Nonetheless, he will take a few smaller fights such as this one.
The whole idea is to trade enough resources to build the Portal in Unknown before the end of the 3rd week. Obviously I explored ahead so that I roughly knew how many resources to trade for. I actually bought 1 Mercury too many because I optimized movement later on... no biggie. I couldn't tell you why I'm buying the 1 piece of wood right now other than that's what my notes for 131 say lol.
132
Maximus visits Longbow for the Stables and the Mage Guild level 2. Blind is the only necessary spell here, Forcefield is useless at the moment. Without Blind, further progress would be really difficult.
Meanwhile Christian kills some Dwarves for their gold. This is kiting again so a few screenshots will suffice.
Grab everything around and Maximus can buy a good amount of troops from Longbow and we're now totally broke. Keep in mind these Angels will be upgraded to AAs at some point so there's a large price tag on that.
133
More army swapping and Christian visits the Stables for the movement (he still lacks a spell book having not visited any of the Castles) and for the free upgrades.
Auto-battle kills the Green Dragons and Maximus doubles mana up to 400 spell points.
Both heroes move along the path towards the shipyard, clearing as many things as possible along the way. Unfortunately there isn't enough movement available to grab the Angel dwelling right now when considering more pressing things in the big picture.
134
After trading some armies again (bought 2 Cavaliers from the dwelling), Maximus can clear the Dragons without losing any Angels. It's not a difficult battle, Shield+Stone Skin+Cure. Golds will target the weak Cavaliers and you can resurrect one of them for more fodder.
Maximus goes back to Christian to swap army, once again! He (M) now clears the Conservatory while Christian goes west to grab the Eq. gloves and the other Conservatory.
The luck with Conservatories is tremendous so far: all 150 griffs. Cast slow, do minimal kiting will the large amount of shooters kill everything.
There is just enough movement to take all resources and visit the School of Magic (Knowledge) before getting on the boat with the last step. A lot of planning went into this portion of the game... the goal being to reach the only tavern ASAP.
Finally Christian winds up over here.
135
Having Advanced Navigation+Favorable winds, Maximus has just about enough movement to make the trip in 1 turn while grabbing a minimal amount of side items.
Christian passes the King's command to go further west. Because he has a large amount of fodder at his disposition and a good number of angels, beating the dragons is relatively straight forward.
The Conservatory is ignored for now, instead there is just enough movement to grab the Mercury lab (the movement optimization I mentioned on 131) and finish with the gloves in hand.
136
There's now enough gold and resources for the second Portal. This pretty much concludes the town construction for the map other than a few mage guilds.
Maximus does more kiting. With the Ammo Cart, there is no need to worry about ammunition although you want to avoid getting hit.
The only time we'll get a look at the enemy's stance. Not too surprisingly, the most difficult AI is the weakest: Red. The earlier foes in a rush are usually the more challenging. Maximus goes back to the boat afterwards.
Meanwhile Christian visits the 3rd 3-Angels Conservatory (the remaining 2 Cons on the map hold 2 and 1 angels although the last one is taken by the red AI). 2 angels better than probability would suggest. Any losses are fine so long as at least 1 Champion survives. In my actual attempt I was sloppy and only 1 survived... when you actually try, results may be significantly better. Afterwards Christian heads back east towards the shipyard to meet with Maximus, one of many many more army transfers.
137
Maximus is almost maxed out, I chose Expert Navigation over Water to have enough movement to help reach Robin Hood's territory quickly.
Meet up # 1231535. Leave 1 Angel with Christian for fastest movement and give him the Crown so that he can trade for the Tome of Earth which is at the seer all the way over there, next to Unknown. The ballista needs to be traded to Christian because we're using Blind in the next fights.
Maximus sails back towards Robin Hood, grabbing as many items as movement allows.
141
Christian still has a way to go... but no worries, he's just fast enough to perform his carrying duties after visiting Stables once again.
Maximus grabs this fantastically well placed Stables which strangely adds movement points while you're in the boat. No complaints from me. Grab as much as possible and land.
This large section was done through mostly screenshots as it is just movement logistics with easy fights. I'll follow this scheme for the remainder of the rush; there are still interesting tactics to be shown at the expense of the poor AI. Otherwise too many videos becomes cumbersome and heavy in my opinion.
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Next time we'll rob Robin Hood and challenge the gods. Well, one of them.
master_learn
Legendary Hero
walking to the library
posted September 09, 2015 10:22 PM
@RoseKavalier,thank you for providing such detailed walkthrough for this map!My respect for your gameplay and the images/videos posted!Keep it coming! ____________
"I heard the latest HD version disables playing Heroes. Please reconsider."-Salamandre
Apparently I felt motivated so the next portion is videos. You might notice a few inconsistencies and there are 2 reasons for that:
1- my notes are incomplete and I don't fully remember what I was doing
2- I have 2 sets of saves until 211 (more on this later)
142
Sometimes in between turns Robin Hood would muster up his courage and attack. Nothing that a reload won't fix. This first fight is pretty easy even without Forgetfulness which is too much of a detour to grab for Maximus... that'll be left to Christian later.
The fight vs. Robin Hood is Blind abuse. The placement of troops matters greatly and spell casting order:
- casting blind on Grand Elves because they are too close to the sharpshooters
- the top griffin being just below the sharpshooters means they are not able to move down to attack the other stacks and so they remain in place and kill it.
- the 3 bottom griffins prevent the Wyverns from freeing the Elves. Having 1 stack with an extra Griffin lets you govern the movement of the enemy
- the tent is essential as an offering. The Wyverns change their movement if it's not there and on the next turn they can kill the Ammo Cart
After that just make sure you blind before your turn ends. It's a pity that the Marksmen didn't get to attack most of the time but there was no way to bring an extra slow troop without manipulating Morale and Luck on the Angel, not something I cared to do. After the fight, there is just enough movement to make it inside the town and replenish spell points.
143
Christian exchanges the Crown for the Tome of Earth and can now meet up with Maximus via TP, even though he still lacks his own spellbook at that point. A few angels and some artifacts are swapped and the 2 heroes set their next meeting for a few days later.
Maximus goes to Unknown via TP, buys out troops and visits the green tent, opening up more of the map. Then TP to Longbow to grab the remaining troops and then goes on his way towards the hall of the gods.
144
Christian flags the Gem pond, seeing as it's the most important resource on the map and there isn't that much time to gather them. A small bend to the right gives Forgetfulness.
145
Christian trades for Waterwalk. It may seem strange at first but it keeps him active while Maximus has more important tasks. Speaking of him, he has a small kiting test, nothing new.
This is the first long fight of many. This was the first recorded attempt, there is pretty much no risk of failure possible - even when you play as sloppy as I did lol (there are 2 very big mistakes). Anyhow, Forcefield+shooters+ammo cart = win. To conserve spell points (I need at least 12 to TP out of here) I kite towards the end.
Thanks to the power of autosaves, I am able to not waste 300 MP by reloading&equipping the gloves.
146
TP back to Longbow and head out towards the shipyard. There isn't time to double spell points and in any case, it's not necessary.
In the east, Christian picks up the Boots of Speed and then goes on to grab the gem-ring, thanks to Waterwalk.
147
Maximus embarks on the ship with the Admiral's Hat and does a brief pit stop to restore spell points, store away the slow troops and park himself in front of the Oasis. The fight v. Dragons was sloppy, there is no need to lose Griffons here if you split correctly and position accordingly. Anyhow, you get the picture.
Meanwhile Christian kills the Titans... some Morale/Luck is welcome but this was way over the top and not necessary. More spell points can be spent to compensate. Afterwards, Christian uses Waterwalk to get closer to the next meeting with Maximus when suddenly...
Centaurs everywhere!
I kid you not, the game can no longer be finished. At this point I put the project on the back-burner as I was very angry at this turn of events.
A few days later I went back to it and loaded earlier saves to try and find out what caused it. Long story made short, I had to replay from 134 and tweak something in order to remove the Centaur spawns which appeared at the same spot no matter what I did otherwise.
211
So... I get this instead:
Yes yes, it doesn't happen in ERA-SoD. Regardless, I found a fix
Christian waterwalks over to Maximus, grabs the slow troops from the mine and gives them back to Maximus.
While I am certainly not going to generate infinite movement with the Admiral's Hat bug, there is no reason not to take advantage of movement bonuses like Oasis. That being said, I play fair and don't remove the gloves which I was wearing already. Adding the boots before boarding would penalize my movement as I did not have them at the start of the turn. What I do consider as an exploit is embarking/disembarking with the only goal to generate extra movement with unequip/equip of gloves&boots.
I thought there was enough MP to grab a few extras along the way but it isn't so due to the conversion into land movement at the end and so just make your way to Princetown to steal the AI's troops which he didn't get to buy... But that's for another post.
I haven't checked but I'm pretty confident I traded more resources than what I did in the video to upgrade the angels to AAs.
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Next time, it'll be the "rescue" of the tavern heroes in King's Castle.
Terrible the centaurs birth day. Especially when you keep reloading so much to get optimal battles. I never saw so many morale/luck in a video, on only one side
Nice walkthrough, waiting for more. You don't feel like restarting it in era/sod, to avoid further disagreements, or want to generate a new set of SoD saves? If you already finished the map and the set is ready, then you don't need to redo in sod to show progress. + you don't need to reload until you get all conditions, they can be scripted for same result.
Haha indeed, the fight with the Titans was hilarious. I checked again and I originally used 2/2/1/1 split and cast more spells (slow and offensive spells) to handle them normally.
About the centaurs: I don't know what triggered their appearance in the first place, but I found out that if I replayed from 134 they were gone - I'm assuming the rng seed in one of the fights went differently. I've almost finished the actual game and there was, annoyingly, a month of the gremlin later on but they didn't prevent progress so I let them be. The game will be won before the next creature spawn for sure
Fighting vs. Castle is easy so long as you can use Blind. I move the marksmen so that the AI don't break the Ammo Cart with his inferno.
The end of the video is inaccurate, the remaining movement is instead used to visit the Fountain and gather some more troops. Regular archers are bought as gold is tight at the moment and then upgraded at the hill fort to save 75% of the difference, 4425 gold in this case.
212
Christian goes back to the starting area, with a pit stop for the angel dwelling (the reason he's carrying 3 angels).
Cast waterwalk (Tome of Water) and follow the path while upgrading troops and buying +1 Attack skill.
This fight is relatively fast, but it isn't too easy:
- air shield means I have 1 useful stack for a while
- Arthur has resurrection
- the stats difference is difficult to surmount at this stage of the game (but it will get easier afterwards) because of relatively low spell points and still relatively small troop counts
Anyhow, Morale/luck not necessary as spell points are just enough to cover the needs. I can't protect both my shooters from the Griffins because Arthur casts Meteor Shower - that means that the second blind must be on the Griffs instead of the shooters that hurt quite a bit. Therefore I kill off a good portion of the Marksmen and then block the Zealots before blinding them.
At the end of the video I build the tavern to check who's available. I'm not going to use the Invite Hero feature (see next video) to hire, but it was useful to check which heroes will be useful before randomly hiring them.
The pattern using HDmod: L ENTER S ENTER LClick ENTER LClick ENTER LClick ESC ESC
As you can see, you can re-hire heroes that were just defeated (Arthur). In theory, you can use this to have infinite movement/spell points on a single hero so long as you have gold. Of course, with only 1 tavern it isn't exactly useful.
Initially I was going to show that Ayden (the Inferno Intelligence hero) has a good speciality but that he had a horrible skill tree and so was not useful... but then Dessa appeared right after so I stopped there. Getting the heroes you want can take anywhere from 30 seconds to too much time. Invite Hero feature could arguably be said to save time I guess, given that with enough time you get the same results.
God of Water was hired for his spells.... but he was pleasantly well skilled, having the big three: Logistics, Pathfinding and Earth Magic.
I was also pleasantly surprised to not need to farm a hero for Scholar to teach/learn Forgetfulness, Summon Boat, Waterwalk. Sadly, this hero otherwise sucks. Actually, the AI heroes rolled very poorly in general and there are only a few of them that will be of some use.
After a lot of reloads, the end of the turn looks like this:
From here on out, there will be 7~8 heroes on the move every day. It becomes one big logistics puzzle and I've had single days with more than 20 partial saves to get things right. All this to say that videos will now focus on fights and moving logistics will be done by screenshots.
A really big part of the rush is now to get "dummy" heroes (such as Christian) with Earth magic in the right location, so that the main heroes can TP in, exchange the Tome of Earth with the dummy hero who then brings it to someone else. This allows progress on several fronts at the same time
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Misc.
The skilltrees of the main crew. It's a lot more work than it seems (I had my notes in front of me) to get the skills you need. I'd say these are quite compliant, even though none of them could develop naturally meaning some time wasted.
The development focus will be like this:
Kyrre > Dessa > Andra > Isra/Marion
...the reasons will be left for later.
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Next time, we'll kill off the Red AI and start the long road towards Mongolia.
Do you rather focus on Water over Air cause any particular reason for this map or do you feel it is overall superior (I believe the traveling Air spells were disabled)?
This thread is pages long: 1 
posted August 31, 2015 02:49 AM
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and will install Era, you will see that the Era's SoD mod comes with all interface goodies but keeps SoD gameplay 100% intact. 
It doesn't change anything much, I still had gotten the necessary experience but was a bit shorter on gold and sulfur (of which there is plenty to be had). It's definitely too late now so I'll live with the mistake. Also scout report is a bit late now, we have freed Christian and Unknown already 
Centaurs everywhere!
