ЛИГА ГЕРОЕВ
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
Campaign Walkthroughs
by
Steven W. Carter
(scarter831@earthlink.net)
Last Updated
May 20, 2002
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* Introduction *
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This is a work in progress (obviously). I hope to update the guide with a
scenario or two every day until I’m done.
The walkthroughs for the Life and Might campaigns use version 1.0 of the game
(the retail release), and I’m planning to use version 1.2 for the other
campaigns. (The patch doesn’t affect the first two campaigns much.) I’m
also using the intermediate difficulty setting. People who can play through
at the higher difficulty settings probably don’t need a guide.
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* Gameplay Tips *
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* ------ *
* Skills *
* ------ *
All heroes need the combat primary skill. If nothing else, it makes them
much more difficult to kill.
All heroes can use the nobility skills. More troops, more gold, and more
resources are all good things, but diplomacy might be the best secondary
skill of the bunch since the creatures you buy only cost half as much as they
would otherwise (and you’ll often be facing your own creatures in the
campaigns).
Other non-magic skills should be parceled out so they don’t overlap. If two
heroes have tactics skills, for example, only the highest rating of the skill
is used to determine the bonuses, so it’s a waste for two heroes in the same
army to have the skill. So when you group heroes together, try to get one to
learn tactics and the other to learn scouting.
* --------------- *
* Sieging Castles *
* --------------- *
Magic is the key to sieging castles. You can use it to disable the enemy
ranged troops or push them off their turrets. You can use it to attack the
ranged troops since they can’t retaliate against magic. You can use it to
summon or create temporary troops, and then use those troops as fodder to
charge the gates. Finally, you can use a spell like poison to kill off the
melee troops inside the castle, since poison doesn’t require line-of-sight.
If a hero dies while successfully sieging a castle, then not only will the
hero automatically be resurrected, the hero will be resurrected before
experience is awarded, so there is no penalty in dying.
* ----------- *
* Cheat Codes *
* ----------- *
I’m going to list two cheat codes, because they’re useful even if you don’t
want to cheat.
NwcPrometheus: This code allows you to see the entire map. It’s useful if
you’re about to finish a scenario and you’re curious about what else was out
there. If you use the code a second time the map will go back to normal.
NwcValhalla: This code allows you to win the scenario. There are some
scenarios where you have to kill a particular hero, but that hero is allowed
to roam around the map. Sometimes the hero gets itself killed attacking
neutral creatures, and then there’s no way for you to complete the scenario,
other than starting over. A good alternative is to use a cheat code.
To use a cheat code, press TAB, enter the code, and then press ENTER.
But be warned that using a cheat code can cause your score for the scenario
to drop to 0.
* ------------- *
* Miscellaneous *
* ------------- *
Trading posts give a 50% bonus over using the marketplace, so it’s a good
idea to keep a low level unit camped next to a trading post so you can use it
any time you want.
The closer the enemy is to you, the more damage ranged attacks do. So if
you’re relying on ranged attacks, you should almost always wait on your first
turn.
If you own a lot of troop buildings, always use your caravans to make a
purchase just before the start of a new month. The creatures created each
month tend to appear next to troop buildings and block your caravan routes.
To disband a hero, go to its information page and press the “d” key. (This
is useful if you want to be sure about which hero carries over in a
campaign.)
Any army can visit a keymaster tent to learn the command word. About half
the quests can be completed without heroes visiting the quest huts.
If you’re focusing on ranged combat, then the best formation is the square
formation. Then three front troops completely protect four ranged troops.
But don’t use this formation if facing cyclopes or black dragons.
The creature of the month causes relatively small stacks of neutral creatures
to appear on the map. You can use those stacks to get experience for low-
level heroes.
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* Life Campaign (The True Blade) *
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* ------------ *
* Introduction *
* ------------ *
You’ll gain a lot of heroes in this campaign, and while you should build them
all up, you should pay special attention to Lysander. He’ll have to fight a
battle all by himself in the last scenario, so he needs to be as powerful as
possible. Also, if at all possible, you should train Lysander to be a Lord
Commander rather than a General since the bonus is better.
As for the Life units, it’s best to select pikemen, monks, and angels.
Ballistae are nice ranged units, but they’re slow as mud, and you don’t
really need them if you have crossbowmen and monks.
* ------------------------------------ *
* Scenario 1: The Drawing of the Blade *
* ------------------------------------ *
Objective:
1. Defeat Normic and Caileen.
Carries Over:
1. Lysander, Proetho, and the best two other heroes (max level 18)
Walkthrough:
You start out with three towns and three heroes. Each town has units
garrisoned in it, plus units available to be trained, so have each hero visit
the closest town and collect as many troops as possible. That should make
them tough enough to handle the neutral creatures nearby.
Then have your heroes explore the areas near the towns, collecting resources
as they go. There is plenty of gold available on the map, so you should
always pick experience when you find treasure chests. After about a week,
have your three heroes join together into one army (the portals make this
easy), and put a single squire into a second army so your hero army doesn’t
have to waste time picking up stuff.
The heroes, along with numerous crossbowmen, squires, pikemen, and monks,
should be able to finish off most everything in the triangle formed by your
three towns. (The griffins to the southwest might still cause problems.)
While they’re doing that, continue to build up your towns, and make sure each
one has a caravan. Then every so often train troops at each town and send
them to the most eastern one, because that’s the one closest to the road
leading away from your part of the map.
Note that there are a couple quests in the area:
1. At location (81,43) you’ll find Adamus’ Retreat. If you return the Ankh
of Life to Adamus, he’ll help you out (in the form of Proetho, a level 11
priest). This is a necessary quest, and since Proetho carries over to the
other scenarios, it’s best to do it as quickly as possible. The ankh is
being held by the venom spawn at (53,74).
2. At location (38,56) you’ll find a quest hut in the water. If you kill the
green flagged mermaids and harpies to the east, you’ll receive a seaman’s
hat. The quest isn’t necessary or especially useful, but you’ll still need
to take to the water so you can visit the blue keymaster’s tent at (49,31).
Also, if you’re in need of money, you can find an oracle at (32,50), which
will lead you to a treasure of 6000 gold. Plus, if you go to the patch of
land at the eastern edge of the water, you’ll find three peasant huts there.
Peasants pay taxes, so they’re a good investment. Just caravan them to a
town and leave them there.
Once you’re ready to push south, put your four heroes together and let
crossbowmen, monks, and either angels or champions take up the other three
slots. When you pass the monastery (which you should flag so you can get
more monks) head east into a little cul-de-sac area with a gold mine and a
couple archery ranges. If Proetho is a higher level than your other heroes,
then you can leave him in the triangle of your towns so he can visit all the
skill huts he missed before while the rest of your army explores the cul-de-
sac. Then you can join them all together before you head west.
To the west you’ll finally encounter the lands owned by the Red and Teal
players. But first you can do another quest. At (86,79) you’ll find the
home of a “stressed-out woman” and she’ll offer to trade you five healing
potions for 10 peasants. Since you should have a couple Life magic
spellcasters with you, the healing potions aren’t really necessary, and you
can skip the quest.
Also, before meeting up with Teal and Red, you’ll finally have to battle some
griffins. But with a large army you should be able to deal with them, and
it’s even easier if you have angels, since they can resurrect any troops who
get killed. Otherwise, just let the griffins come to you, and try to whittle
down their numbers before engaging them with your melee troops and heroes.
To the west of the griffins is a Teal town. It will have loads of ranged
attackers, but you can use your angels or champions to approach the castle
and attract their fire while the rest of your troops clear off the turrets.
It’ll probably be messy, but you can use Song of Peace to great advantage
here if you have it. Regardless, taking losses is ok since Teal and Red only
have four towns between them, so every one you take turns the tide in your
favor.
Note: If you’re using angels, don’t have them resurrect your heroes. Your
heroes will be resurrected automatically as long as you win. Instead, have
the angels resurrect themselves, if necessary.
West of the town is another one, and this is where you’ll probably find
Caileen. So destroy her army and capture the town, and then explore the
surrounding area. At (129,93) you’ll find a quest gate, which will only let
you pass if you have Proetho with you. Beyond the gate you’ll find another
gold mine plus the purple keymaster tent.
Back near the first Teal town is the blue keymaster gate. Beyond the gate is
another gold mine -- and also a few black dragons. You need to kill the
dragons for the quest hut at (106,115), so go ahead and do the job. Then
capture the mine and visit the quest hut so you can acquire a dwarven hammer
(which is needed for another quest).
East of the gate is Red’s lands, so if you’ve been taking serious losses
during your battles, this is a good time to re-supply your troops. Between
your five towns, you should be able to create quite an army now. Then head
east to meet Red.
From here on you just need to treat Red like you treated Teal. The only
difference is that Normic is a coward, and he’s hiding behind Clodman’s Wall.
So go to Clodman’s house at (85,105) and give him back his hammer. He’ll
then knock down the wall for you.
Normic is a level 24 General, and he’ll have lots of troops with him, so feel
free to wait a while before attacking him. With seven towns behind you
you’ll have all the troops you need (and then some), and once Normic is dead
the scenario will end.
* ---------------------- *
* Scenario 2: The Trials *
* ---------------------- *
Objective:
1. Contact the Oracle of Dawn.
Carries Over:
1. Lysander, Proetho, and the best two other heroes (max level 25)
Walkthrough:
If you approach the quest gate, you’ll find that you need to give up 10,000
gold in order to pass. You start with 5,000 gold, and there are enough
treasure chests nearby to give you the rest. But a better plan is to take
the portal in the corner and explore the area it leads to. You’ll have to
defeat some stacks of gargoyles and trolls (which shouldn’t be too bad if
your heroes all learned combat), but your reward is a gold mine plus several
piles of gold. With that gold in hand, you can use the treasure chests next
to the quest gate for experience instead.
The second quest gate is to the west at location (29,26). It requires that
you have the Sword of the Gods. The sword is located in the southeastern
corner of the map, but it’s guarded by some efreeti and friends. This should
be a tough battle, but luckily you can recruit some crusaders and monks in
the area, and there is a tree of knowledge nearby so you can gain a level
first. If the battle still gives you problems, then you can just wait for
more crusaders and monks to show up, and eventually you should be able to
overpower the creatures. Otherwise, just make use of spells like song of
peace and mass heal and bludgeon your way through the fight.
The third quest gate is located underground at (35,44). Along the way you
should pick up Saint Ranan’s Staff (guarded by some nature creatures),
because that’s what the gate wants.
Following the path underground, you’ll come to the last quest gate at
(65,36). It will only allow the “two who are one” to pass, which means you
need to find Lysander. Nearby is a purple dragon portal. When you go
through you’ll discover the tunnel to the north has changed, and that there’s
now a new area for you to explore. At the back is a portal leading to a
pandora’s box. Open the box to receive Lysander back (and get an angel in
your army). Then take the blue dragon portal back to the quest gate and go
through.
Now you just need to go back up to the surface and follow the trail to the
oracle’s house. Once you get there, the scenario will end.
* ---------------------------------- *
* Scenario 3: The First Step of Many *
* ---------------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Contact the Worton’s mother, Desette.
Carries Over:
1. Lysander, Proetho, and the best two other heroes (max level 30)
Walkthrough:
You’ll have to do a lot of fighting on this map, as the four computer
opponents (Red, Teal, Blue and Orange) have two towns apiece. You don’t have
to take all the towns, but you might as well for the extra experience and the
added troops.
So group together your units into two armies. You’ll receive three more high
level heroes before the end of the campaign, so I’d recommend putting the two
random heroes together into one army (since you don’t really need to develop
them any further) and putting Lysander, Proetho, and the five starting troops
together into a second army. Then let Lysander’s army do all the work while
the other army picks up stuff.
To start out, there’s only one way to go, so kill all the creatures you find
and loot all the resources and objects on the ground, and push forward.
Along the way you’ll find a prison with a level 25 hero inside (I believe
it’s always a General). You can either add the hero to Lysander’s army (in
place of, say, the pikemen) or you can add him to the army with the other two
random heroes. Since you need to make Lysander as powerful as possible, I’d
suggest the latter course.
Eventually you’ll come to a Red town. It shouldn’t pose much of a problem,
and neither should the second Red town to the northwest. When they’re both
yours, Red will be eliminated, and you’ll have a nice base of operations.
Plus, the second town is protected by the first, so you don’t have to defend
it against attacks. But eventually you might want to think about upgrading
the first town to have a castle.
Now you have a choice about where to go. You can either go south (towards
Blue) or east (towards Orange). They’re both relatively easy to conquer, but
attacking Orange first makes your lands easier to defend, so that’s probably
the better choice. Meanwhile, keep building up your towns, and alternate
between having champions and angels. (You probably won’t be able to afford
all angels.) Then, when you’re ready to move on to your next conquest,
upgrade your army to have Lysander, Proetho, champions, crossbowmen, monks,
champions, and angels.
Once you’ve taken Orange’s and Blue’s towns, you again have a choice. You
can either attack Teal (to the southwest) or you can finish off the mission.
There are a few skill and attribute buildings in Teal’s territory, plus the
experience for killing Teal’s troops, so that’s the better choice if you want
to build up your heroes.
Otherwise, head southeast, but don’t attack the garrison. Instead, take the
bridge south of the one leading to the garrison. It’ll be guarded by high
level Might creatures, and they’ll put up a good fight, but it’ll be your
last battle of the scenario, so it doesn’t matter if your troops get beat up
or not. Then just visit the tree of knowledge and take the dragon portal to
Desette to finish the scenario.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 4: Seeking the Steel *
* ----------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Mastero to rescue the swordbearer, Sir Kentaine.
Carries Over:
1. Lysander, Proetho, Desette, and the best two other heroes (max level
33)
Walkthrough:
The scenario takes place on a small map, and there isn’t an underground
section, but you still need to move quickly. The army you have now (with
five heroes) isn’t going to get much stronger, but the castle you need to
take at the end will keep growing. So try to keep moving forward without
wasting any time.
You’ll face some high level sets of nature creatures on the map, and,
depending upon how you’ve developed your heroes, they might either be easy or
difficult to kill. If you’ve developed combat skills, then they should be
easy, and you can pick a variety of ways to kill them. Otherwise, if, say,
water elementals kill your heroes in one blast, you need to rely heavily on
spells like song of peace, (mass) nature ward, and martyr (once you have
pikemen to absorb the damage).
A little to the west you’ll find three guardhouses (pikemen) and a knight’s
chapter (champions). You should flag all the buildings, but you might want
to leave the pikemen behind. The pikemen can pick up all the stuff on the
ground, and your army will move faster without them. But let the pikemen
trail along behind, just in case you need them in the battles ahead.
Then continue west, killing whatever you want along the way. (You’ll mostly
rely on trees of knowledge to level up from here on out, so killing isn’t as
important.) Eventually you’ll come to a blue keymaster gate -- but find that
the blue keymaster tent is on the other side. Get used to it. This is just
the first example of many in the campaigns where the computer players will
get one-way gates in their favor. So you can’t kill the Blue player behind
the gate. All you have to do is reach the swordbearer before Blue does.
(And if you leave the efreeti in front of the gate, Blue might not ever
venture out of its area.)
So ignore Blue and continue following the path west, north, and then finally
east. Along the way you should be sure to stop at the second knight’s
chapter, and also the blacksmith, but only stop for resources if you need
them and the pikemen aren’t collecting them fast enough.
At the end of the path you’ll find the gate to Orange’s area, and it’ll be
guarded by two sets of chaos creatures. These shouldn’t be too hard, but
concentrate on the medusae first since they can kill your heroes in one shot.
Past the gate, you might want to visit the sacred fountain or the learning
stone, but the oracle will only lead to a scarab of summoning (which doubles
summoning output), so skip that. Then attack Orange. If you’ve been quick,
then Orange won’t have as many troops as you found at the gate, and so it
should go down easily. Plus, Mastero (a level 30 pyromancer) will probably
stay outside the castle, and so you won’t have to deal with a siege attack.
Once Mastero dies, the scenario will end.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 5: The Rightful Heir *
* ----------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Worton.
Walkthrough:
You start out with six level 20+ heroes, and nothing on the map will be able
to stop an army like that. Since this is the only campaign where you get so
many high level heroes, you might want to keep them together, just for the
novelty. But it’s probably best to put the named heroes into one army and
the two random heroes into another army. Then the named heroes can do most
the work while the random heroes pick up and flag stuff.
Once you decide how to group your heroes together, head east. You should
find two quest gates and a tree of knowledge. The first quest gate is
optional. If you send a hero with three vials of acid to it, you’ll be able
to pass and visit a couple skill buildings. The second gate leads to one of
the three neutral towns on the map. It’ll let you pass if you have Desette
and Kentaine in your army. Then, once you take a few steps past the gate,
the neutral town will convert to your side. (The other two neutral towns
will convert to your side on their own, several days into the scenario.) The
tree of knowledge requires gems, so hit that as soon as you can afford the
price.
Once you clear out the area near your first town (being sure to visit it, so
you can set a governor and get Desette more spells), send your main army back
to the starting point while your secondary army uses the portal. The portal
connects the three towns that will eventually be yours, and your secondary
army should be powerful enough to clear the areas around the towns and flag
the nearby resource buildings.
Your main army should then head south into a fenced-in area. There you’ll
find an optional quest hut (defeat the Blue-flagged peasants to the west for
eight healing potions), lots of troop buildings (peasants, ballistae, monks),
and a blacksmith. Be sure to visit the blacksmith to get your heroes some
equipment.
Then head south again, and finish clearing out the areas surrounding your
three towns. You’ll end up controlling several resource buildings, and you
should even find another tree of knowledge. Meanwhile, continue to build up
your towns, and go with angels at each one. You should be able to afford
them in this scenario, although it might take a while to build all the
altars.
From here on out you’ll have to do battle with the three computer players,
but notice that all attacks on your domain have to go through your southern
town. So build that town up and keep troops there, just in case the computer
decides to attack. (It probably won’t.)
You can do as much conquest as you want. Teal is located to the southwest,
and it is convenient because your southern town blocks access to that area as
well. So if you take it, your southern town will still be in a position
protect all of your other towns. And to get to Teal, you only have to kill a
large stack of hydras. Since hydras are big, slow-moving melee units, they
shouldn’t present a problem.
Orange is located to the east. The path there is guarded by a large stack of
thunderbirds, and thunderbirds can be a problem. But you have to get by the
thunderbirds since the path they’re blocking also leads to Red (Warton’s
color). The best way to deal with them is to cast mass slow and then pick
them off before they can get to you. But if you don’t have mass slow, try to
let your heroes take the brunt of the damage, and keep your angels mostly out
of the way.
After you defeat (or simply pass by) Orange’s first town, you should notice
the entrance to Red’s lands. Red is blocked by a quest gate that only allows
an army with Lysander to pass, so Red can’t go anywhere or attack any of your
towns. So feel free to defeat Orange’s second town if you want, just to be
thorough. Then head for Red.
When you capture Red’s town, you’ll find out that Worton has escaped. You’ll
find him to the east, past another quest gate. But the gate will only let
Lysander pass, so make sure he has all the good equipment, plus assorted
potions, and send him through. You’ll find Worton plus some bandits on the
other side. If you’ve been developing Lysander’s combat skills, this should
be an easy battle. You might even be able to kill Worton before he gets to
you. Otherwise, just use potions of immortality and healing if you need
them, and grind the battle out. Once Worton dies, the scenario (and
campaign) will end.
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* Might Campaign (Glory of Days Past) *
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* ------------ *
* Introduction *
* ------------ *
Unlike the Life campaign, you’ll only get to carry over two heroes here, and
you won’t get to start building up the second hero until the second scenario.
So treat Waerjak well, and try to get him as many skills and levels as
possible. Also, try to avoid becoming a Ranger, and instead try to become a
General. Since you’ll mostly only use one or two heroes, it’s better that
the class bonus affects all friendly troops rather than just Waerjak.
The best Might units are nomads, cyclopes, and thunderbirds. Nomads are good
for protecting ranged troops, cyclopes are one of the best ranged troops in
the game, and thunderbirds are good utility troops, useful for both offense
and defense.
* --------------------- *
* Scenario 1: A New Way *
* --------------------- *
Objectives:
1. Be the only player to own towns.
2. Hold the towns for three days (or eliminate Blue).
Carries Over:
1. Waerjak (max level 12)
Walkthrough:
If you’ve just finished another campaign, don’t forget that heroes at level 1
aren’t very powerful. So don’t lunge for the neutral creatures east of where
Waerjak starts. They’ll kill him easily. Instead, visit the two longhouses
nearby, and collect a bunch of berserkers. Berserkers are one of the better
level 1 units in the game, except that you can’t control them, and they’ll
automatically charge at the enemy and get themselves killed. But with their
help, you should be able to defeat the two stacks of neutral creatures and
collect the supplies they guard. (Remember that heroes heal completely every
day, so you can let Waerjak take a lot of abuse in each fight, as long as he
doesn’t get killed.)
Then head south. Go past the neutral Might town and attack the stack of
centaurs guarding the two centaur stables. The extra centaurs will come in
handy in the fights to come. Then check out the quest gate blocking the
town. You’ll find that the people of the town won’t join your cause until
you return the cart of ore Screaming Pete stole from them. So head northeast
towards the shipyard. Along the way you should flag the ore pit and the
sawmill, and you should defeat the nomads guarding the nomad tent. You’ll
probably lose your berserkers during the fight, but you’ll be better off with
nomads instead of berserkers. Then defeat the pirates guarding the shipyard
and head for the island to the northeast. Meanwhile, you might want to leave
a berserker or two in their own army so they can hang around your troop
buildings and purchase berserkers and nomads for you to use upon your return
to the mainland.
On the island you’ll find Screaming Pete with a bunch of bandits and pirates.
Try to save your nomads as much as possible, but bring them in if Waerjak
gets into trouble. Once Pete and his crew are dead, you can grab the cart of
ore and also visit the green keymaster tent before returning to the mainland
and acquiring your first town. Skip the debris in the water unless you can
pick it up without losing a turn. You can always put a berserker in a ship
later to pick it up.
Once you have command of your town, spend a week or so to finish off all the
neutral creatures and grab all the resource buildings on your side of the
green keymaster gate (except for the griffin nest, which is probably best to
skip). If you can do all this by the end of the third week, then you’re in
good shape.
Note: While your lands are guarded by a green keymaster gate, there is a
second green keymaster tent on the underground portion of the map. So your
lands aren’t safe from the enemy player (Blue). However, don’t build up your
town to have a castle. You’ll eventually have three towns, and you won’t be
able to defend them all from the armies the Blue player will throw at you.
So it’s better to leave them as defenseless as possible (including ferrying
out whatever troops you can) so it’s easier to take them back later.
Once you’re ready, pass through the green keymaster gate. Then circle around
the rest of the surface part of the map, using a clockwise direction. Skip
most large stacks of neutral ranged troops, but definitely attack the
cyclopes to the north, even if it costs you all your nomads and berserkers.
Then you can capture the cyclops mound and recruit cyclopes for your army.
Continuing around, kill the Orange-flagged medusae behind the quest gate (the
gate only requires that you have Waerjak in your army), visit the orange
keymaster tent next to the medusae, and then head towards the neutral town to
the south. It’s blocked by a quest gate, but its quest is that you kill the
medusae, which you’ve already done. When you remove the gate, the town will
join your cause.
During this time you might run into a Blue hero. There is a yellow two-way
portal at (33,39) that leads to Blue’s lands, and Blue will use it to quickly
access the surface. But the portal is blocked by a teal keymaster gate, and
so if you chase the hero it will probably just run past the gate and hide.
However, go ahead and give chase anyway (try to position yourself between the
portal and the hero). If you can defeat Blue’s primary hero without taking
too much damage yourself, the rest of the scenario will be much easier, and
you’ll have made up for the two weeks when Blue had a town and you didn’t.
Note: Prior to the 1.2 patch, the teal keymaster gate blocking the portal was
actually an orange keymaster gate. So if you haven’t installed the patch,
then you can now access Blue’s lands and win the scenario much more quickly
than otherwise.
Once the surface of the map is essentially yours, head for the southwestern
corner. You’ll find an orange keymaster gate blocking a red two-way portal.
Open the gate, go through the portal, and notice that you’re now underground.
You’ll find that there is a third neutral Might town down here, located not
far to the east.
When you get to the neutral town, you’ll find that it, just like the others,
is blocked by a quest gate. But this time you’ll have to kill some behemoths
to get through. The behemoths are located to the northeast, past a quest
gate. behemoths are level 4 creatures, but there will only be four of them,
and if you have hundreds of berserkers and centaurs at this point, you should
be able to kill them pretty easily.
Next to the behemoths you’ll find the purple keymaster tent, and once you get
the command word there you’ll finally be able to access Blue’s lands. So
don’t worry about completing the quest to gain the last neutral town. With
the quest gate still blocking it, you won’t be able to use it, but Blue won’t
be able to capture it, either, and at this point all you have to do in the
scenario is track down Blue’s towns and heroes, and capture them and kill
them respectively.
So head west from where the behemoths were and then go through the purple
keymaster gate. Blue’s starting town is behind the gate, and you’ll also
find the teal keymaster tent there, which will allow you to use the yellow
two-way portal to the surface. Once Blue’s town is yours, you can recruit
another hero if you want, but otherwise just try to finish Blue off. Once
you hold all the towns for three days (or eliminate Blue), you’ll win the
scenario.
* --------------------------- *
* Scenario 2: A Necessary War *
* --------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat your enemies (Green and Blue).
Carries Over:
1. Waerjak and the best other hero (max level 20)
Walkthrough:
Sort of oddly, the Green player will start out with a hero right next to your
town -- and also within range of Waerjak. So head on over and attack. The
enemy hero will only be level 4, and it will only have some berserkers with
it, so Waerjak should be able to handle the confrontation easily. If the
hero tries to surrender, let it since you can use the money and it won’t help
Green much.
Then do the regular thing: have Waerjak explore around the town, killing
neutral creatures and flagging buildings, while you simultaneously build up
the town. Even at level 12 Waerjak should be able to kill most groups of
neutral creatures on his own, and bringing reinforcements along will probably
only get those reinforcements killed. So let Waerjak work on his own.
In particular, you should flag the gold mine at (61,22). It’s guarded by
some vampires, but if Waerjak is grandmaster at combat and archery he should
be able to handle them. Otherwise, bring in some other troops to help him
for the battle. It’s also a good idea to quickly visit the war university at
(83,38). You might be able to pick up nobility or diplomacy there. With
nobility and a breeding pen, you’ll be in good shape to face your enemies,
even if you don’t capture any of the neutral towns.
Then head east towards the neutral town in the middle of the map. Along the
way you’ll find a tavern where you can finally buy a hero to go with Waerjak.
The neutral town is guarded by a quest gate, but you can ignore it for now.
Instead, head north into the snowy area. You’ll find some Purple-flagged
evil eyes there, which you should kill, and a blue keymaster tent, which you
should visit. The other buildings there you can either visit or not,
recognizing that it will take Waerjak forever to walk along the snow.
Then head south and west to the neutral town along the western edge of the
map. That town has a quest gate blocking it as well, but the quest is to
kill the evil eyes, so you can now claim it as your own. Between the few
troops at that town and all the troops that have been piling up at your
starting town, you can now mount quite an attack force. So group everybody
together into one army and head south into Blue’s lands.
Blue’s starting town (to the southwest) is guarded by an orange keymaster
gate, so instead of heading there head east instead. You’ll pass a neutral
nature town along the way, but eventually you should find an underground
tunnel guarded by a quest gate. Enter the tunnel, fight your way to the end
of the passage, find and enter the orange keymaster tent, and then head back
up. If Blue hasn’t made a move on your towns, then go ahead and explore the
area around the tunnel, and claim the neutral Might town to the east.
Otherwise, head straight west to Blue’s starting town, capture it, and then
head back to your territory. As long as Blue doesn’t capture your starting
town, you should be ok. So use caravans to pump troops into that town, and
sacrifice your other town if you need to.
Once Blue has been eliminated, all the lands past the blue keymaster gate are
pretty much safe, and the only way Green can get to your lands is to pass
within striking distance of the neutral town in the center of the map that
you passed before. So head to that town now, after re-supplying your troops
from your starting town.
If you didn’t check the quest gate the first time you saw the neutral town,
visiting it now will inform you that you need to kill some cerberi to the
east. The shortest path to the underground tunnel leading to the cerberi
goes through a garrison. If Orange still somehow controls the garrison, then
you’ll have to go around through the snowy area that you visited before.
Otherwise you can pass right through the garrison and find the tunnel just to
the north. Regardless, kill the cerberi and claim the town.
The neutral town is a nature town, but it’s still useful. You can create a
caravan there and then funnel all of your troops to that town. Meanwhile,
send Waerjak into Green’s lands, and have him scout around and capture
Green’s resources. Green will probably send its heroes to its towns (Green
might only have one town, but more likely it will have two). But one town
will probably be heavily guarded while the other is only lightly guarded. So
attack and capture the lightly guarded town, and then send Waerjak to the
other one.
You don’t necessarily have to attack at this point. If you keep Waerjak
right next to the entrance to the town, Green’s heroes will stay inside, and
you can then use another hero to flag all of Green’s buildings (if you
skipped any while scouting). Then you can simply wait if you need to. With
at least four towns feeding you troops, versus only one for Green, you can
eventually take down Green’s town, and once that happens, the scenario should
end.
Note: I’ve heard that sometimes the scenario doesn’t end, even after Green
and Blue have been defeated. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with
the Orange garrison or not, but I’ve heard if you exit the scenario and then
load your saved game, everything will come out right. So try that first if
you’re having problems.
* --------------------------- *
* Scenario 3: A King’s Choice *
* --------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Hundric.
Carries Over:
1. Waerjak and the best other hero (max level 25)
Walkthrough:
There are two enemy players in this scenario, Green and Blue. Green is
Hundric’s color, and Blue is Vogel’s color. You’re not allowed to attack
Blue’s starting town, but Blue doesn’t seem to do much in the scenario
anyway. So you have to focus on Green, but the good news here is that
Hundric is locked away behind a quest gate rather stationed inside a town,
and so he isn’t very difficult to defeat. So all you really have to do in
the scenario is track down all the command words you need so you can pass
keymaster gates and get to Hundric.
To start out, immediately put your heroes together, and leave the other
troops in their own army. Have your hero army defeat the cyclopes to gain
the artifacts, and then have them flag the troop buildings as they make their
way west.
To the west is a neutral Might town, and your two heroes shouldn’t have much
of a problem conquering it. Once it’s yours, explore the area and start
killing neutrals and capturing resources. The only mine you should create is
the mercury one, since you’ll need that for purchasing thunderbirds later.
Also, be sure to visit the orange keymaster tent at (79,11), and notice the
blue keymaster gate to the south. The gate leads to a Green town plus the
area where Hundric is. You can put a single troop in the sanctuary next to
the gate so you can spy on it better.
Once you’ve cleared the area around your town, head through the volcanic area
in the center of the map, and make your way to the northeastern corner.
You’ll find Green’s second town there, and you should be able to capture it
easily, even if you only have Waerjak and your other hero in the army. Once
the town is yours, kill neutrals and capture resources again, until the area
around the town is yours. The only stack of neutral creatures you should
leave is the stack guarding the one-way portal exit northwest of the town.
Killing that stack will only make it easier for your enemies to access your
town.
Also be sure to visit the teal keymaster tent at (7,93). It’ll grant you
access to an underground tunnel at (48,72). Underground you can find the
green keymaster tent, which gives you access to Green’s lands. Also of note
is the quest gate at (35,98). As long as you have Waerjak in your army,
it’ll let you pass into Blue’s lands, but the only thing of interest there is
a tree of knowledge.
Once you’ve visited the green keymaster tent, go to the green keymaster gate
at (65,104). Unless Green has been really aggressive, what you’ll find
beyond the gate is a pair of neutral Might towns. You should be able to take
the towns easily. So do that and clear out the neutral creatures nearby, and
then head west. You’ll find a gold mine guarded by some behemoths. Kill the
behemoths, because then not only will you be able to capture the gold mine,
you’ll be able to access Green’s lands.
Once you’re in Green’s lands, remember that you don’t have to take the towns.
So if Green has a castle and a bunch of cyclopes in a town, avoid it like the
plague. Otherwise, take the towns if you feel like it, and head towards the
southwestern corner. That’s where you’ll find Hundric, behind an orange
keymaster gate. Hundric’s army won’t very powerful, and with the army you
should have accumulated by this point, killing him should be easy. Once he’s
dead, the scenario will end.
* --------------------- *
* Scenario 4: One Tribe *
* --------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Vogel.
Walkthrough:
This scenario is much like the last one. Vogel is locked behind a keymaster
gate, and so once again you don’t have to capture towns; you just need to
collect enough keymaster command words so you can get to him.
Fortunately, you start with two towns, and one of those towns (the southern
one), comes with a grail building. The grail building adds 3000 gold per
day, and it doubles the rate at which the town produces troops. So you
should concentrate on building up that town first and then get to the other
town later. And since gold likely won’t be a problem, use your heroes to
right away claim the nearby sawmills and ore mines so you quickly buy the
structures you need. (You’ll have a lot of gold, but it’s still best not to
waste it buying resources.)
Waerjak should be able to destroy all of the neutral stacks around the towns
all by himself, so keep your two heroes separate and have Waerjak take on the
difficult stacks while your other hero takes on the easier stacks. Speed
isn’t overly important in the scenario, but it never hurts.
As you explore the area around your towns, you should find five things of
interest:
1. A red keymaster tent at (63,15).
2. A blue keymaster tent at (52,30).
3. A quest gate at (59,39). It requires 5000 gold and 12 wood (it says 12
ore, but it’s really wood).
4. A quest gate at (81,66). It requires 40 trolls.
5. A quest gate at (107,58). It requires 6000 gold.
The southeastern quest gate leads to Blue’s lands, so you should do that one
last. Of the other two, the southern gate interferes with your building
plans the least, so that’s the one you should start with. (Plus, when you go
through the gate, you’ll get some cyclopes, which is always good.)
Beyond the southern quest gate you’ll find an enclosed area containing, among
other things, a neutral chaos town and an orange keymaster tent. The
keymaster tent will be guarded by a Blue hero, but the hero won’t be very
powerful, and it won’t have powerful troops. Also, go ahead and capture the
chaos town if you want, but it’s probably not worthwhile to build it up
completely. However, you can add a fort and a caravan to the town so you can
supply your starting town with orcs. Between this town and all the orc
towers around, you can keep your starting town pretty well defended, even if
you continually siphon off your best troops for your main army.
Next, go past the northern quest gate. The area it guards is a lot like the
area the other gate guarded, except that the Blue hero there (guarding a
green keymaster tent) is a little stronger. So before entering the area,
stock up with some cyclopes and thunderbirds so the battle will go easier.
Also, if you have the diplomacy skill, having more troops with you will make
it more likely for creatures to volunteer to join you, and you’ll be able to
pick up lots of neutral creatures in the area.
Once the northern area is clear, head back to your starting town, grab as
many troops as possible, and head through the southeastern quest gate. (You
just need a stack of 40 orcs to pass the gate. Lysander doesn’t need to be
with them.) You’ll find a Might town past the gate, and it’s possible Blue
will have taken it over by this time. However, at this point it doesn’t
matter. You should have a very strong army (with around 75 cyclopes and 50
thunderbirds), plus all the keymaster command words, and that’s all you need
to defeat Vogel. So from here on out, everything you attack (other than
Vogel) is optional, and it doesn’t matter if Blue sneaks into your territory
and grabs your towns.
So pass the three keymaster gates and then continue southeast to the
underground tunnel. There you’ll find another keymaster gate, followed by a
couple Blue garrisons. Past them you’ll find another Blue town, and then
northeast of that is the quest gate leading to Vogel. The gate will only
allow Waerjak plus non-hero troops to pass, so leave your other hero behind
and go through. Vogel is only level 29, and he won’t have that many troops
with him, so the battle should be straightforward. Once you win the battle,
you’ll also win the scenario (and the campaign).
*****************************************************************************
* Order Campaign (The Price of Peace) *
*****************************************************************************
* ------------ *
* Introduction *
* ------------ *
The Order campaign is almost two campaigns in one. One side of the campaign
features Emilia and Tharj, and the other side features Solymr, and eventually
the two sides intersect. Since Emilia and Solymr are the only two notable
heroes involved in the final scenario, those are the two you should build up
the most. Also, try to plan ahead so they don’t overlap their skills. The
campaign sort of encourages you to make Emilia a Monk and Solymr a Battle
Mage, and that combination works well enough.
The best Order units are mages, genies, and titans. Those are all ranged
units, but the mages and genies each get useful secondary spells (poison,
song of peace, illusion) that make them better than their counterparts.
However, with no real buffer troops, you’ll have to keep your heroes in the
line of fire to protect your ranged troops, and so you’ll need to build up
your heroes’ combat skills, even if you plan to make them spellcasters.
Neat trick #1: Order’s non-spellcasting heroes come with nobility and
estates. That means they pay for themselves in 15 days, and everything after
that is profit. Plus, the nobility means they can increase troop production,
so you should have at least one of these heroes in each of your towns.
Neat trick #2: If you have Order and Life magic (for example, with Emilia)
you can combine martyr with hypnotize to good effect. First you can
hypnotize an enemy, and then you can make it the recipient of the martyr
spell, and the martyr spell will last even after hypnotize wears off. You
can also do things like cast poison and forgetfulness on hypnotized troops.
Neat trick #3: It’s not really a trick, but don’t forget to use town gate.
It’ll take you to your nearest town, and it can seriously reduce your walking
times.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 1: At the Crossroads *
* ----------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Be the only player to own towns.
Carries Over:
1. Emilia (max level 15)
Walkthrough:
You start out with just Emilia, but very quickly some dwarves and halflings
will join you. So head south and claim the treasure chest and resources, and
then buy some peasants. With that small army you can defeat the berserkers
to the west, grab even more resources, and then capture the nearby town. Try
to prevent your peasants from being killed in the battles since they generate
gold for you. It’s ok if Emilia gets killed while taking the town since the
town will immediately resurrect her. So use her and the dwarves as fodder.
Leave the peasants in the town and head on over to the magic university. But
watch out: it’s being guarded by some bandits. So kill the bandits (letting
Emilia take the brunt of the damage), and then learn as many skills as
possible. You should be able to afford it with the gold you started with.
The university seems to have Life and Order skills most of the time, so
you’ll probably become a Monk. If you don’t want to become a Monk, it’s ok;
you can still switch to a different class later.
Now you need to explore around your town and collect resources, but there’s a
problem. The stacks of neutral creatures are pretty powerful, and Emilia
herself won’t be powerful until she gets some levels and gains access to
higher level spells. So dance around, fighting what you can and avoiding
what you can’t. It’s probably a good idea to head west first so you can flag
the halfling and golem troop buildings, and also grab the gem mine. Then you
can head back to town, recruit a larger army, and go kill things. (Battles
will become easier once you get genies.)
Once you clear the immediate area around your town (including the crystal
mine to the north), head west back to the gem mine. Nearby should be a stack
of Teal medusae. Kill them and then head north to the quest hut. You’ll get
eight nagas as a reward. East of the quest hut is a magi tower that you
should capture.
From here you have a choice. You can either go north and attack Orange, or
you can head west and attack Red. Since there is a stack of venom spawn
between you and Orange, and since they’ll hold Orange back for a while, it’s
probably best to attack Red. Plus, there’s a neutral Order town near Red’s
starting town, making Red an even more attractive target.
So head west, skipping the gold mine and the treasure trove guarded by the
thunderbirds for now. At (120,92) you’ll find a quest hut. If you can find
Lenny’s ring, he’ll give you eight potions of toughness. Personally, I’d
rather have the ring, but go ahead and complete the quest if you want to.
The ring is located just to the north, on a stack of -- what else? --
leprechauns.
West of the quest hut you’ll find Red’s town. Possibly Red will have a
castle and centaurs and cyclopes, but don’t despair. Song of peace (from the
genies) and poison (from the magi), plus some not very good enemy AI, can get
you through the battle. If Red has cyclopes and centaurs, go with two stacks
of genies so they can both cast song of peace; otherwise just leave the
genies in one stack. Then you can neutralize Red’s ranged troops while
simultaneously poisoning them and casting mage fist or ice bolt on them
(whichever Emilia has). Red’s troops might just stand around and die, but if
they exit the castle, pick them off with your ranged troops.
Once Red has been eliminated, head to the southwestern corner of the map.
You’ll find a neutral Order town there. However, blocking the path is a
large stack of genies. If you can’t defeat the genies without losing lots of
troops, then hang around Red’s former town for a couple days, exploring and
flagging resource buildings. Meanwhile, caravan in some more troops from
your starting town, and then try again.
Once you capture the Order town, head north. You’ll find a long ridge of
mountains blocking off the top part of the map, but just before the mountains
you’ll find a (possibly) neutral Might town. Take the town and then visit
the teal keymaster tent nearby at (44,60). Then head east.
Along the eastern edge of the map you’ll find Orange’s starting town. It’ll
probably be well defended, so you might want to clear the path to your
starting town, and then bring in some extra troops, before attacking.
Regardless, use song of peace and poison to your advantage and capture the
town. That should take care of Orange.
Near the town at (17,91) you’ll find a purple keymaster tent. That tent and
the teal tent are the only two tents you need to advance on Green’s territory
(beyond the mountains to the north). So if you haven’t re-supplied your army
yet, do that now and then head west.
The teal keymaster gate leading to Green’s lands is located at (79,32). Past
the gate you’ll find a Green town that might or might not be well defended.
Regardless, take it while trying to keep your casualties low. Then head
east. Green’s second (and last) town is against the eastern edge of the map,
but along the way you’ll have to battle some heavy-duty neutral creatures,
including large stacks of vampires and devils. The devils in particular
might be nasty since they can teleport right to you ranged troops. There
doesn’t seem to be a good way to fight the devils (if they don’t go after
your magi, they’ll probably kill Emilia in one hit) so just take your losses
and move on.
When you get to Green’s town, you don’t have to attack it. Just keep Emilia
next to the entrance to prevent Green’s heroes from going anywhere, and then
use another hero to capture all of Green’s resource buildings. You’ll then
have two Order towns to Green’s single town, plus you’ll have more resources
coming in, and so eventually you’ll be able to take Green’s town, regardless
of how well it’s defended.
When you’re ready to attack, remember that Emilia doesn’t have to survive the
battle since the town will resurrect her if you win. Otherwise, this siege
is much like the other sieges you’ve done, except with a lot more troops
involved. So use song of peace and poison, and try to kill Green’s ranged
troops without allowing them to fire back. Once you win the battle, you’ll
also win the scenario.
* ---------------------------- *
* Scenario 2: An Enemy’s Trust *
* ---------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Solymr.
Carries Over:
1. Emilia and Tharj (max level 20)
Walkthrough:
Tharj is garrisoned inside your starting town, so move him out and group him
with Emilia, and add in whatever other troops you have. Then explore the
area (working north to south) while you build up your town. Kill and flag
everything you find, but leave the monks next to the sanctuary alone.
They’re actually helping to protect your lands from Orange, so it’s best to
leave them be.
There is only one path leading to your town (to the southeast), so clear
everything on your side of the path (except for the treasure area, which is
guarded by numerous phoenixes and nightmares, and is therefore not worth
doing) and then move on. You’ll find a few things of interest once you reach
the middle of the map:
1. A neutral Order town coupled with a crystal mine and a gold mine. Once
you take the town, you’ll be able to pass the quest gates blocking the
mines.
2. A quest hut at (96,81). Once you capture Orange’s two towns (to the
southwest) you’ll receive Armor of Order.
3. Another quest hut at (59,71). If you give up 40 dwarves, you’ll receive a
wand of haste.
4. Two quest gates (to the south) leading to Orange’s lands. Both require
ten medusae to let you pass. You can get the medusae by going through the
two-way portal at (97,100) (near an Order magic shrine) and then visiting
the quest hut at (36,67). The hut will sell you the medusae for 4000
gold.
5. A purple keymaster tent at (54,73), in case you really want to loot the
treasure area near your starting town.
Once you’re ready to take on Orange, use the medusae to open one of the
gates. You’ll find that Orange’s lands are divided into two parts, each with
a town, and that they’re connected by a two-way portal. So take a town, use
the portal, and then take the other town. Don’t worry about capturing
resource or troop buildings, since your army will move very slowly on swamp
terrain. You can hire a Chaos hero if you really want them. Once Orange is
eliminated, go grab the Armor of Order, and then head for Blue.
The path to Blue’s lands is northeast from your second town. But as soon as
you see the beach, you’ll discover that two of Blue’s town are hiding behind
a blue keymaster gate. The blue keymaster tent is located directly to the
north, along the northern edge of the map. The tent is also right next to an
Order town, which you can take or not as you wish.
Note: Solymr can be anywhere in Blue’s lands -- even outside the blue
keymaster gate -- so be careful when you attack heroes or towns, assuming you
want to string the scenario along enough so your heroes hit their maximum
levels.
So wander around Blue’s lands, capturing towns and resources. You might even
be able to find some ability gems or skill shrines, depending upon how well
Blue’s been exploring. Once you’re ready to move on to the next scenario,
track down Solymr and defeat him. He won’t be a very high level, so it
shouldn’t be a difficult fight.
* ----------------------- *
* Scenario 3: The Servant *
* ----------------------- *
Objectives:
1. Find the Black Dragon Graveyard.
2. Defeat Teal.
Carries Over:
1. Solymr (max level 15)
Walkthrough:
A few notes before starting:
1. There are six Oracles on the map, and you need to visit all six to
complete the scenario.
2. You’ll be fighting a lot of dragons in the scenario, and magi are
worthless against them. So if you normally use magi, you might want to
switch to gold golems here. Genies are still ok, but your most useful
unit will be titans, so be sure to build cloud castles in your towns as
quickly as possible.
3. There is plenty of experience available on the map, so feel free to create
a second hero for your main army. A combat hero is best because of the
dragons.
When you start out, the bad news is that you’re back to being level 3. The
good news is that you have three genies waiting for you in your starting
town. So you can put the genies into your army, separating them into three
stacks, and then let them cast song of peace on your enemies while Solymr and
your halflings and dwarves dish out the damage. Eventually you should build
up your town so you can create a real army, but until then the song of peace
trio should get you through most battles.
So explore the area around your town, killing neutral creatures and capturing
resources. The only entrance to your lands is southwest of your starting
town (guarded by some genies), so explore to the north and east before
doubling back to your starting town and taking on the genies.
Of interest near your town you’ll find a quest hut at (74,114). If you give
the inhabitant a War Sling, you’ll get Golden Platemail in return. The sling
is to the east next to an Oracle, but you’ll have to decide whether you want
to give it up or not. The sling is pretty useful, especially if you don’t
have basic archery, and the platemail adds one spell point to all spells
cast.
You’ll also find a neutral Order town to the northeast, which you should take
as soon as your army allows it. Once you’ve done that and cleared
everything but the black dragons from the areas around your towns, head west.
You’ll quickly encounter Blue’s starting town, which should be easy to take.
Don’t worry about upgrading it or recruiting from it (since it’s a Death
town), but use it for the added gold, and as a rallying point for your
troops.
Then continue west, where you’ll encounter Green. Green will have one or two
Chaos towns under its control, but it should still be easy to defeat. Once
you reach the northern Chaos town, you might want to circle back to your own
towns to learn more spells, and also build and use universities. That’s the
best way for Solymr to learn nobility skills. Also be sure to visit the
Oracle at (109,49).
Then continue advancing on the computer enemies (Red and Orange still remain,
not to mention Teal). To the west of your most northern town is a dead end
with a few resource buildings in it. Go ahead and capture the buildings
while simultaneously pumping troops into your town. Then, when you head back
east, re-supply your army.
Orange’s town is directly north of your northern town. You don’t have to
take it if it’s well defended, but you at least have to explore the area
since there is an Oracle north of it. Then head east towards Red’s lands.
You should find the fourth Oracle along the way.
Once you get to Red’s lands, you don’t necessarily have to take Red’s town,
either, but you do have to defeat its main hero, Bloth. If you can catch him
out in the open, that makes things easier; otherwise assault the castle.
Either way, once Bloth is gone, you can pass through the quest gate behind
his town. There is also a portal there, which leads (eventually) to Teal, so
you might want to re-supply your army before going through.
Note: If you have to take Red’s castle, and if Red has dragons, then realize
that Red will most likely leave its dragons inside the castle until you
either breach the gate or poison other troops (and they open the gate while
leaving). So once you defeat Red’s ranged troops, you can have your genies
cast illusion on your titans several times, and build up a huge stack of
titans to deal with the dragons. Then you can use your heroes to draw the
dragons out, since they’ll just be resurrected if they die.
Once you go through the portal behind Red’s town (having visited the Oracle
next to it first), you’ll find the last Oracle next to an underground tunnel.
But the Oracle will be guarded by several dragons, and they might be enough
to kill your heroes in one shot. So you might want to leave your heroes
behind for the battle, and instead use just titans, genies, and golems. Then
try to draw the dragons to the golems while your genies cast illusion and
your titans do all the killing. Once you visit the last Oracle, you’ll find
the treasure location (nearby) and receive Dragon Scale Armor for your
efforts.
Once you go underground, you’ll find lots of two-way portals. But you should
only take the yellow one (to the southeast) since that’s the one that leads
to Teal. (The others lead to minor treasure rooms, where you can mostly get
healing potions.) Eventually you’ll come to the dragon graveyard and find
that it’s guarded by a quest gate. The gate requires that you have Dragon
Scale Armor, so just go on through.
You’ll find a large group of Teal-flagged dragons beyond the gate. This is
the group of dragons you have to kill to finish the scenario, so don’t worry
about sparing the lives of your troops, other than Solymr. So if Solymr has
a potion of immortality, he should use it right away in the battle, and
otherwise he should try to stay out of things as much as possible. Let your
other troops (especially the titans) do most of the work, and with repeated
shots from the titans and casts of illusion from the genies, you should be
able to get by.
* ------------------------------- *
* Scenario 4: The Rainbow Crystal *
* ------------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Old King Dreggar.
Carries Over:
1. Solymr (max level 20)
Walkthrough:
Once again you start out with three genies, so join them with Solymr and
split them into three stacks so they can maximize their use of song of peace.
Then head south, collecting halflings along the way. You’ll find a neutral
Order town in the southeastern corner of the map, but it’ll be lightly
defended and easy to take.
Then head west. You’ll find a quest hut at (46,47). The seer who lives
there will give you access to the red keymaster tent in exchange for a Cap of
Knowledge. The cap is located in the northeastern corner of the map, but
it’s protected by a purple keymaster gate, so you can’t get to it yet.
Continuing west, you’ll find another neutral Order town in the southwestern
corner of the map. It’s almost completely undeveloped, so it should pose no
problem to take. But note: the two towns you have now are the only two towns
on the surface part of the map. Red’s two towns are both underground.
Keep going clockwise around the edge of the map. The stuff in the middle is
probably too difficult for your army now, but the stuff on the edges you
should be able to do. On the way, visit the purple keymaster tent just north
of your second town, and then grab the Cap of Knowledge when you pass by.
Also notice the quest hut at (39,17). For 6500 gold and 20 mercury, the
“sapper brothers” will open the way to the underground part of the map. But
because the price is so expensive, don’t do the quest until you finish the
surface part of the map.
Once you get back to your starting town, re-supply your troops and learn
spells if you can. If you’re overflowing with money, it probably wouldn’t
hurt to build a university and try to pick up a couple extra skills. Then
complete the Cap of Knowledge quest and try to kill the neutral stacks of
creatures you couldn’t kill before. Some of the neutral stacks aren’t
important, but it’s a good idea to fight your way to the golem and genie
troop buildings.
Once you go underground, you’ll find you only have one way to go for a while.
So kill the neutrals you run into, and eventually you’ll come to an
intersection. If you go west, you can capture one of Red’s towns and also
defeat a hero guarding a treasure trove. But the west side is optional.
King Dreggar is stuck behind a red keymaster gate on the eastern side, so
unless you need extra experience, or unless the lure of more artifacts is too
much to resist, head east.
Chances are Red won’t have done much while you were exploring the surface, so
not only might their towns not have castles, Dreggar might not have much of
an army. Regardless, Dreggar’s army shouldn’t compare to yours, and you
should be able to beat him easily. (The hero guarding the treasure trove to
the west will probably put up a better fight.) Once you defeat Dreggar, the
scenario will end.
* ------------------------------- *
* Scenario 5: An Unusual Betrayal *
* ------------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Sir Landrew.
Carries Over:
1. Emilia and Tharj (max level 30)
2. Reed (to scenario 8)
Walkthrough:
If either of your heroes has nobility, then be sure to visit your starting
town before proceeding. Also, if you have charm or diplomacy, then you
should add all the troops from your starting town to your main army, even if
you don’t need them. Neutral troops only join you when they think they’re
outnumbered, and they don’t give heroes enough credit, so a pair of heroes
alone won’t be able to recruit much.
Then start wandering around, killing neutral creatures and collecting
resources. Close to your town you’ll find something you never want to see
near one of your towns: the exit from a dragon portal. Worse, the entrance
to the portal is near Teal’s underground town, which you won’t be able to
reach for a while, and so you’ll have to deal with a Teal hero every few days
for almost the entire scenario. So make sure you hire a hero to guard your
starting town, and also try to keep a reasonable number of troops there.
Note: On day 8 you’ll hear about a prisoner who was taken to a southern
island. The prisoner’s name is Reed, and you’ll have to free him later. The
two Windows of the Magi near your starting town show the places you’ll have
to go to rescue him.
When you come to a point where you have to decide which direction to explore,
go west. That’s where the closest neutral Order town is located. After you
capture the town, you should once again head west, towards Green. If you
have diplomacy or charm, then your starting army might be powerful enough to
take on Green as it is. Otherwise, re-supply your army from your two towns,
and then head for Green.
Green’s lands lie beyond a garrison located at (108,31). Green only has one
town, but in the area you’ll also find a tree of knowledge, a veteran’s
guild, and a few resource buildings. So it’s useful to conquer Green just
for the buildings near its town, but it’s also useful because with Green
gone, you shouldn’t have a serious threat on any of your towns, since they’re
all reasonably far from the remaining players.
When returning from Green, visit the purple portal at (76,47) (near your
second town). It’s actually a three-way portal, and one of the exits leads
to the northwestern corner of the map. That part of the map is a treasure
trove, and you can capture a gold mine there, plus visit the purple keymaster
tent. The purple keymaster gate blocks access to a cloud castle (where
titans can be recruited) so it’s definitely worthwhile to defeat the griffins
guarding the way to the tent so you can pick up the command word.
Then you have a choice about what to do: you can either attack Red, Teal, or
Blue. I think the best option is Blue. You can’t finish Blue off yet (it’s
Landrew’s color), but you can force Blue to stay in its part of the map. To
do that, head south from your second (middle) town, and capture the Life town
you find (it starts out neutral, but somebody might have captured it by now).
Blue has to pass by the town if it wants to go anywhere, so if you build up
the town and feed it troops from your western two towns (leaving your
starting town to play watchdog over Teal), then you can go off to conquer Red
without having to worry about Blue until the end of the scenario. Plus, by
taking the town now, it’ll be easy to re-supply your army once you can get to
Landrew.
Note: If you want to take on Teal, the portal leading (eventually) to its
area is located at (90,75). The portal is protected by dragons, and you’ll
also have to fight a neutral hero before getting to Teal. There isn’t
anything interesting in Teal’s part of the world, so it’s probably not worth
the hassle to conquer it (unless you want to squeeze every point of
experience possible out of the scenario).
So on to Red. The garrison guarding Red’s area is located at (99,138), but
before you go through, explore to the west a little and find the cloud castle
guarded by the purple keymaster gate. Provided you visited the purple
keymaster tent before, capture the castle, grab a couple titans, and then
head for Red.
When you pass Red’s garrison, notice the dragon exit. Teal can use that exit
as well as the one near your starting town, and it makes blockading Teal just
a little more difficult. So move your Teal watchdog army south so it’s
roughly between the two dragon exits, and then give chase whenever Teal
appears. (If Teal manages to evade your watchdog army, it’s ok. At this
point you just need to feed troops into the town near Blue’s garrison, and
losing some resource buildings or even a town or two doesn’t matter much.)
Meanwhile, have your main army march south and capture Red’s town. If that
doesn’t eliminate Red, then Red probably has an army wandering around in the
ocean, or it might have captured the neutral Life town along the eastern edge
of the map. Either way, you don’t have to worry. The Life town is easy to
get to but difficult to get away from (a dragon portal leads to it, but a big
stack of phoenixes blocks the exit), and you’ll probably meet Red in the
ocean if that’s where it is.
You now need to rescue Reed, but instead of visiting the shipyard near Red’s
town, head east. By going that direction, you can grab about half a dozen
ability gems, and then capture a neutral ship. After that, sail to the quest
hut at (142,154). As long as Emilia is in your army, the reefs blocking
access to Reed’s island will be removed.
Note: When you get on board a ship, leave one stack of creatures behind. You
have to bring Reed back to the mainland when you rescue him, and you don’t
want to leave a stack of creatures behind on the island.
Another note: Reed carries over to scenario 8, but only as an ally. So if
you can get him a few levels here, you’ll make the last scenario a little bit
easier to finish.
After rescuing Reed, sail to the Life town near Blue’s garrison, and re-
supply your troops there. Then defeat Blue’s garrison and head west. You’ll
find a quest gate, and it’ll only let you pass if you have Reed in your army.
He should be there anyway, so pass on through.
Blue’s town is to the south, and you’ll usually find Sir Landrew standing in
front of it. Since Blue only has one town, and you have at least four Order
towns, the battle shouldn’t be very difficult. Once you defeat Landrew, the
scenario will end.
* ------------------------- *
* Scenario 6: Slave to Fear *
* ------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Find Emilia.
Carries Over:
1. Solymr (max level 30)
Walkthrough:
Grab the three artifacts where you start out, but remove the chainmail unless
you’ve made Solymr into a combat hero. Then head west. Solymr is all by
himself, but that’s ok. The neutral stacks near his starting position are
pretty easy, and you should be able to defeat them even if you haven’t
developed Solymr’s combat skills. Plus, the nearby genie altar is unguarded,
so you can just visit it and recruit genies.
There’s only one path to follow, so follow it to the neutral Order town.
Once you’ve captured the town, go north, and when you come to the Order
shrine guarded by devils, turn east. Heading east will eventually lead you
to an undeveloped neutral Order town, plus another genie altar, but along the
way you’ll have to battle waspworts and cyclopes, and you might be better off
if Solymr fights those battles alone.
Once you capture the town, explore the area. You’ll find some good news and
some bad news. The good news is that there is a gold mine nearby. The bad
news is that the mine is guarded by a large stack of Nature units. But then
there’s more good news: while you can’t defeat the Nature stack now, neither
can the computer players, and so the stack essentially protects your new
town.
So head on back towards your first town, and then explore to the west.
You’ll find a quest hut at (108,91), and when you visit it “Emilia’s helper”
will ask you to defeat Green’s starting town, Cauldron Hill. So continue
west and do just that. The town is a Life town, so it won’t be much use
except for the income, but once you capture it, send an army (it doesn’t need
to contain Solymr) back to the quest hut to gain access to a Window of the
Magi. The window will show you where you need to go to finish the scenario.
Then explore the southern (non-snowy) half of the map. You should be able to
kill everything except for about three or four stacks of neutral creatures.
However, leave alone the stack of efreeti guarding the green two-way portal.
They’re helping you by preventing computer players from using the portal.
Once you’re ready to head north, visit one of your towns to re-supply your
troops (and maybe learn spells or visit a university). Then proceed through
the western entrance to the northern half of the map. (That is, the path
guarded by a medium-sized stack of Life units.) You’ll first see some
behemoths, and even though they’re guarding a dragon exit, go ahead and kill
them so you can access the nearby gold mine.
Continuing north, you’ll come to an intersection. Head west and flag the
genie altar, and then take the southern branch in the road to an Order town.
Capture the town -- which might still be neutral, but, regardless, won’t be
overly developed -- and then continue west, turning north when you reach the
western edge of the map. You’ll find Orange’s starting town, Brookside.
Brookside might be well defended, but with dozens of genies and magi, not to
mention a few titans, you should be able to capture it pretty easily. But if
you have trouble, build a caravan in you latest town and ship in some more
troops from your other Order towns. It’s also safe to clean out your
resources at this point, selling everything but gems (which you need for
titans), provided your first two Order towns are already built up with cloud
castles. Those two towns will be able to supply you with all the troops you
need, so you don’t need to upgrade any of the towns you capture from now on.
You can spend all your gold on troops.
Next to Brookside you’ll find a quest gate, but it’ll only let you through
after you’ve captured Brookside. So go through and visit the “rendezvous
point.” You’ll meet Tharj, who will agree to let you meet Emilia, provided
you give him 50 genies. Even if you had 50 genies, such a deal would
probably decimate your army, so don’t agree to it. You can use Brookside’s
caravan to ferry in 50 genies, and meanwhile you can head east to pester
Blue, or you can head back south to deal with some of the neutral creatures
you couldn’t kill before.
Once you have 50 genies at Brookside, you can send them in an army alone to
complete the quest. That will remove the trees blocking the way to the
cottage you saw before (at the northern edge of the map). So once you’re
ready to end the mission, go visit the cottage. You won’t have to defeat a
large army or anything to get there, so feel free to use up your army to gain
as much experience as possible before moving on.
* ------------------------------- *
* Scenario 7: To Slay an Immortal *
* ------------------------------- *
Objectives:
1. Find the Sword of the Gods.
2. Defeat Mazellian.
Carries Over:
1. Emilia, Solymr, and Kodge (max level 36)
Walkthrough (Introduction):
This is basically two scenarios in one. Emilia, Tharj, and some low level
heroes need to explore the surface part of the map (and find the sword) while
Solymr explores the underground part of the map (and defeats the hero). But
the two groups will never meet up with each other, so, instead of trying to
cover both groups at once, I’m going to write a walkthrough for each.
Walkthrough (Emilia):
Note that Kodge carries over, but not Tharj. This puts you in a quandary:
should you try to level up Kodge and ignore Tharj, or group Emilia and Tharj
together anyway since they’re your best heroes, or ignore Kodge since you’ll
get Emilia and Solymr in the next scenario anyway? I think the best answer
is the first one. Emilia won’t gain many levels regardless, so you might as
well make Kodge as powerful as possible heading into the last scenario. So
put Emilia and Kodge in your main army while Tharj and the other heroes form
your utility army.
The map starts out pretty linear. There’s only one way to go, so go that way
while killing all the neutral creatures you run into. If you find a stack
that’s too difficult for Emilia and Kodge to defeat, then bring in Tharj to
help out. Eventually you’ll pass a blue keymaster gate leading to Blue’s
lands, but you won’t be able to do anything about it. The blue keymaster
tent is on the other side, so only Blue can use the gate. Eventually Blue
will exit the area and start capturing your resource buildings, but by then
it shouldn’t matter.
Past Blue’s lands, you’ll come to a fork in the road near an ivory tower.
The southern trail leads to a dead end area without much in it, so you can go
ahead and skip it. The main trail is the northern trail, and it’ll stay
linear for a while until you reach a ferry. The ferry allows you to cross
the river to get to the area that eventually leads to the sword, but it’s
better to skip the ferry. Eventually you’ll find a portal that will lead you
to the same area.
So keep heading south. You’ll pass Green’s area (which, just like Blue, you
won’t be able to do anything about), and you’ll find lots of skill altars,
plus lots of large stacks of neutrals. Eventually, after turning east,
you’ll come to a neutral army guarding a portal. Compared to some of the
neutral stacks you’ve just seen, the neutral army shouldn’t be very
difficult. Just be sure to take down the heroes first. Then go through the
portal.
This new area is similar to the area where you just were, with lots of skill
altars and large stacks of neutral creatures around. The difference here is
that Teal, Blue, and Green all have access to the area, so they might have
killed some of the neutrals and used some of the altars. (But more likely,
they’ve just gotten themselves killed.)
So explore the area. The western side eventually leads to Teal’s lands, so
it’s optional, and you should do it first. The southern side eventually
leads to a quest gate that will only allow Emilia to pass. Past the gate
you’ll find a garrison of Life troops, and then beyond that, underground,
you’ll find a disappointingly small stack of bone dragons guarding the Sword
of the Gods. If you’ve been able to defeat the previous neutral stacks of
creatures with just Emilia and Kodge, then you shouldn’t have any problem
with the dragons.
Once the bone dragons are dead and the sword is in your possession, you can
go through a yellow two-way portal that leads to the teal, blue, and green
keymaster tents. So if Solymr is still tracking down Mazellian under the
surface, you can mess around attacking the other computer players if you
want.
Walkthrough (Solymr):
Solymr once again starts with some genies, so put Solymr and the genies
together into one army, and put the dwarves in the other. Then Solymr’s army
can kill things while the dwarves pick up stuff.
You should notice a quest gate just to the south of where Solymr starts out.
It won’t open until you bring eight earth elementals to it, but conveniently
there is an earth elemental portal just to the west. So immediately flag the
portal, and then explore the eastern tunnel (and generally hang out) until
the portal produces enough elementals. Then pass through the gate.
At about this time you’ll receive an underground Order town, but it will
arrive unannounced, so watch for it. Then you can build it up while Solymr
makes his way through the tunnels. With your starting town providing money,
plus nobility on a few of your heroes, you should have all sorts of money, so
concentrate on adding troop buildings before money buildings.
You’ll pass a few troop building as you make your way to the town. Have
Solymr flag them, but don’t recruit more troops into his army. They’ll just
slow him down. Instead, add the troops to your utility army, which will be
slow anyway because of the dwarves and earth elementals.
When Solymr reaches the town, have him follow the tunnel to the east (but
don’t take the dragon portal). The tunnel becomes a dead end, but you’ll
still find a mage tower and a genie altar, and by the time you get back to
your town, it should be built up enough that you can create a sizable army
when heading south.
To the south the tunnel branches. The eastern branch is guarded by some bone
dragons, and it leads to the towns you need to defeat to end Solymr’s part of
the scenario. Since the underground part of the map has fewer places to
visit than the surface, it’s best for Solymr to take the (mostly) optional
tunnel branch to the south. (But go ahead and kill the dragons first if you
want.)
In the next area you’ll find some resource buildings, plus the red keymaster
tent, plus a tree of knowledge. Since you’ll be passing by this area on your
way back, check Solymr’s experience. If he’s a long way from gaining his
next level, use the tree now. Otherwise, wait for the return trip.
Continuing down the tunnel, you’ll find one of Red’s Death towns. Since it’s
split off from Red’s other two towns, it should be lightly defended and easy
to take. Then, if you continue along the tunnel, you’ll find yet another
Death town. It might be neutral or controlled by Red. Regardless, capture
it, clean out any neutrals nearby that you want to kill, and then head back
towards your Order town. But don’t go to the town; instead take the eastern
branch of the tunnel that you skipped before, and use the dragon portal next
to your town to quickly re-supply your army.
Progressing through the tunnel, you’ll first notice a quest gate. It’ll only
let you pass if you capture the Red town to the north. So do just that.
Red’s towns are divided by gates as well as by distance, and so they’ve all
probably remained separated, making them easier to conquer. But once you get
to Mazellian in the town past the quest gate, he’ll have a stocked army with
him. But he’ll probably standing on a turret when you face him (if he’s
inside the town at all), and if you can kill him right away, his army should
be straightforward to defeat. If not, just keep Solymr near the town and
keep ferrying troops to him, and eventually you should have enough.
* ------------------------------ *
* Scenario 8: The Price of Peace *
* ------------------------------ *
Objective:
1. Defeat Gavin Magnus.
Walkthrough:
The map is divided into two parts. Teal (Reed) and Blue (Magnus) are on the
left side while Green, Red, and you are on the right. Teal is your ally, and
it’ll try its best to hold Blue in check, but it’ll be defeated as soon as
Reed is defeated, and that’ll probably happen within the first couple months,
unless the two players just spend the entire scenario trading resource
buildings, which is possible.
Meanwhile, you won’t be able to get to Blue or Teal until you acquire the
Mind Shield, which will be a while. But this will give you the opportunity
to watch a computer player at work, and so if you ever suspected that the
opponent AI is weak, now is your chance to verify that theory firsthand.
Note: If you’re using the retail release of the game, Blue won’t capture any
of Teal’s towns or resource buildings after Teal is defeated, making the last
part of the scenario easier. But if you’re using the patched version, then
you’ll have to deal with a stronger Blue at the end.
To start off, if any of your heroes has nobility, have that hero visit your
starting town. Then you can either put all your heroes together into one
army, or you can try splitting them up so they cover more ground. If you
built up Kodge in the last scenario, then he can probably work well enough by
himself and kill some of the neutral stacks while Emilia and Solymr take on
the heavy duty fighting.
Your part of the map is pretty standard with resource buildings and troop
buildings -- except that the troop buildings are for Life units rather than
Order units. If you want to keep Kodge separate from Emilia and Solymr then
this works out well enough since he’s a Life hero anyway. Otherwise, feel
free to ignore the Life troop buildings, and only recruit from them if an
enemy hero approaches.
Once you’ve cleared everything from the ferry (to the north) to Green’s
garrison (to the south), put as many Order troops as possible into your main
army and head for Green. With three high level heroes plus two towns backing
you, you should be able to easily defeat Green, who only has one town. Once
Green is eliminated, clear out everything beyond the garrison and then head
for Red (by using the ferry).
Red’s island, like the main map, is divided into two parts. The western side
has a single Red town plus some things useful to your heroes (artifacts,
ability gems, trees of knowledge), while the eastern side has two Red towns
plus the Mind Shield. Since obtaining the Mind Shield opens up the path
between your lands and Blue’s lands, you should do the eastern half last.
There shouldn’t be any problem conquering everything in Red’s domain.
Chances are, your three heroes can do it by themselves, and with lots of
titans, genies, and magi, it should be overkill. The only difficult fight is
likely to be the titans holding the Mind Shield. They’re located next to the
purple dragon portal at (7,114), just past Red’s two eastern towns. But with
liberal use of hypnotize, martyr, and forgetfulness, even a stack of 60+
titans poses no problem. Once you defeat the titans and gain the Mind
Shield, take the dragon portal, re-supply your troops, and then head for
Blue. The path should be open now.
All you have to do in Blue’s lands is kill Magnus, so don’t worry about
capturing towns or resource buildings, unless you just want to increase your
visibility in the area. Note also that you shouldn’t capture Blue’s southern
town. For some reason if you capture it and Blue captures it back, you’ll
lose the scenario. So just hunt for Magnus, and kill him when you find him.
He’ll only be around level 25, and he probably won’t have a strong army with
him. None of your heroes needs to wear the Mind Shield. Once Magnus is
down, the scenario (and campaign) will end.
*****************************************************************************
* Nature Campaign (Elwin and Shaera) *
*****************************************************************************
* ------------ *
* Introduction *
* ------------ *
Elwin is the only hero that carries over in the campaign, so make sure he is
powerful, and make sure he learns as many spells as possible. Also, since
he’ll get the summoning skill, it’s best that you travel with a full army so
you can control which creatures he summons. Similarly, it’s better for Elwin
to be a Warden or Summoner than a Beastmaster, although you’ll still want to
pick up some combat skills.
The best Nature units are elves, griffins, and faerie dragons. Elves are the
only Nature ranged troop outside the creature portal, and so by default
they’re better than white tigers. Griffins are a good utility troop since
they can fly, and the faerie dragon bonuses are better than the phoenix
bonuses. Phoenixes are better for summoning.
As for the creature portal, I like to use a combination of water elementals
and fire elementals since they compliment each other, and since the only
other Nature ranged unit is the level 2 elf. (Waspworts are too slow to use
in an army, but they’re fine for castle defenses.)
* ---------------------- *
* Scenario 1: The Lovers *
* ---------------------- *
Objective:
1. Find Shaera’s father, Gramin.
Carries Over:
1. Elwin (max level 15)
Walkthrough:
Elwin starts out with the summon wolf spell, and that plus his weak combat
skills should get you through the initial two battles. Then continue
following the path, flagging troop buildings and only attacking what’s in
your way. The idea is to get to the first neutral town as quickly as
possible and with as many troops as possible.
Once you take the town, feel free to go back and collect some of the things
you missed before. In particular you should fight the earth elementals to
get the wand of fire bolt. That’ll help you way more than any other artifact
on the map, and with elves in your army the earth elementals should be easy
to defeat. You might also want to pick up the mage robe, but the medicine
cart is guarded by 50+ bandits, and it probably isn’t worthwhile to pick up
anyway.
Note: As you gain levels, don’t focus completely on your Nature skills. The
second scenario will give you all sorts of ways to gain Nature skills, and so
you should leave several advancement opportunities open.
Then explore east of your town a little and flag the windmill, treetop lodge,
and gold mine. There is also a neutral Chaos town in the area, but you might
want to avoid it until you can build up your army a little. Past the Chaos
town to the east is a dead end that contains some creatures to kill and
artifacts to pick up. Once you do what you want to do there and take the
Chaos town, head north past Orange’s domain. (It’s protected by a keymaster
gate, and you can’t access it yet.)
If you go north at the intersection, you’ll find one of Blue’s towns. It
might be difficult to take, depending on what spells you know and what you
have in your army. But try to summon creatures to protect your troops from
ranged attacks, and use your elves and wand of fire bolt to kill the enemy
ranged attackers. Then, when the enemy melee attackers sit behind the walls
doing nothing, summon in a large force of wolves (or better, if you have it)
and let them charge the gate. Once the gate is down, you should be able to
pick off the enemies with your wand and elves while the summoned creatures
distract them.
Once the Blue town is yours, you’ll find a few useful buildings nearby,
including another gold mine. Also, if you go back to the intersection and
head east, you’ll find an underground passage at (79,76) and a quest hut at
(77,94). The passage is required for progressing through the scenario, so
take on the Chaos group guarding it when you have a big enough army. (If
you’re having troubles with the battle, and if you have more money than you
know what to do with, you can use an army of Might or Chaos troops to soften
up the Chaos guardians before attacking them with your main army.) The quest
hut will give you an arrow of stunning for a ring of strength (carried by a
nearby neutral hero with some evil eyes), so complete the trade if you think
it’s useful.
When you go underground, you’ll find yourself in the middle of a long tunnel.
If you used the Window of the Magi near your first town, then you’ll see that
the southwestern end is where you want to go. There you’ll find the orange
keymaster tent, allowing you to enter Orange’s lands, and also a two-way
portal to the northeastern end of the tunnel, allowing you to scoop up some
treasures without having to face the monks guarding them.
When you get back above ground, head for Orange’s area. You’ll find the blue
keymaster gate near the entrance, but it leads to a treasure area guarded by
cyclopes, and the cyclopes will probably damage your army too much to make
the treasure (mainly a summoning amulet) worthwhile.
You’ll also, of course, find one of Orange’s towns in the area. But there
are a few reasons not to attack it: you don’t need to attack it, you’ll
probably reach level 15 without attacking it, it’ll probably have numerous
ranged troops guarding it, and it’s a Chaos town. Also, once you pass the
Orange town to the north, you’ll find a Nature town, and it’ll probably be
lightly guarded. So take that town instead, and then hang around it for a
couple days while you ferry in troops and build up the town to have a level 2
druid’s hall. You can also take the opportunity to flag the nearby resource
buildings.
Then head east. Shortly you’ll find Blue’s second town. You might want to
try attacking this town, depending upon how well it’s defended. Blue’s main
hero will probably inside, and that hero will probably have artifacts and
tactics, meaning that even without cyclopes the inhabitants might cause you
problems. So save first and then try attacking it. If you can take the town
without losing too many troops, then do so just for the experience.
Otherwise, continue heading east. You should encounter Orange’s other town,
but again it will probably be too difficult to attack. So instead head south
to the coast where you’ll likely find a stack of behemoths. This will be
your last battle, so feel free to sacrifice all your troops if necessary to
win. But between the behemoths and the treasure chests they’re guarding, you
should end up pretty close to level 15, if not actually making level 15.
Then head north through the quest gate and meet up with Gramin and complete
the scenario.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 2: Mark of the Tiger *
* ----------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Solve the tragedy of the white tigers.
Carries Over:
1. Elwin (max level 22)
Walkthrough:
This is one of those maps that is very convenient for the computer players,
but very inconvenient for you. If you cross the bridge to the southwest
you’ll find not one but two dragon portal exits nearby, giving the computer
players easy access to your town and resource buildings. Luckily, the map is
only medium-sized, so you’ll never be too far away from home, and you’ll be
able to use the dragon portals yourself to get home quickly.
So visit your starting town if Elwin has nobility, and then cross the bridge
to the southwest. You’ll find that you have to help the white tigers with
their “greatest tragedy” and that you shouldn’t attack any of the Teal-
flagged white tigers on the map. (They won’t attack you, either.) So clear
out the little island area except for the water elementals, and then cross
the next bridge to the northeast. You’ll find some Orange-flagged trolls
there eating some white tigers.
After killing the trolls, you’ll decide that the trolls are the great tragedy
you need to help the tigers with, and, if you progress a little farther to
the northeast, you’ll find a Window of the Magi that will show you the
location of all the trolls on the map.
Now you have a choice: there are two-way portals to the east and west, and
you have to pick one to proceed farther into the map. However, the best one
to take is the western one since it leads to the Nature towns owned by the
computer players. (The eastern portal leads to Chaos towns as well as Nature
towns.) Also, by going west, you’ll be able to neutralize the enemy towns
closest to the dragon portal entrances.
So head towards the western portal, stopping to visit the quest hut and some
trolls along the way. The quest hut will offer you a Nature skill for 15
wood, but if you can’t afford it yet, don’t worry about it. You’ll be
passing this way often enough during the scenario, and you can complete the
quest later. (Or you might want to just wait for enough wood. That quest
hut has given me as many as three Nature skills in the past, instead of the
promised one.)
Once you pass through the western two-way portal, you’ll find one of the
dragon portal entrances that leads to your starting town. If your army is
looking sad at this point, then go back to town to re-supply your army and
learn some new spells. Then head back to the same place.
Continuing west, you’ll find another quest hut willing to trade a Nature
skill for 15 wood, another group of trolls, plus assorted useful buildings.
Eventually, you’ll also run into one of Green’s Nature towns. So take the
town and then explore the area while you build it up. Then head south.
Note: When you take enemy towns in the campaign, don’t be too concerned about
defending them. Just funnel their troops to your starting town, and make
sure you hold your starting town.
To the south you’ll find one of Blue’s Might towns. Take it or not, but
explore the area and kill the trolls south of the town. Then head east to
the “connector area” of the islands on the map. (You’ll recognize it by the
eight bridges.) Depending on how much experience you have at this point, you
can go to any of the three areas connected here that you haven’t visited yet.
Each has a town plus assorted other useful buildings, and you can conquer the
areas as much as you want. But none of them lead to the last set of trolls
(to the southeast). To get there, you’ll have to head back to your town and
then take the eastern portal that you skipped before.
So once you’ve done what you want in the middle of the map, and once you’ve
killed the last set of trolls (you should hear that Orange has been
eliminated), head to the quest gate at (130,94) (along the southern edge of
the map). You’ll have to go back to your starting town first, but
conveniently you’ll find a dragon portal entrance with the last set of
trolls. You’ll still have to walk all the way back to the quest gate, but
along the way you can trouble Green and Blue if they happen to get in the way
(or even if they don’t).
Past the quest gate you’ll find the “Troll Lord” plus 80 trolls, but they
shouldn’t be any match for your army. In fact, the Troll Lord might attempt
to flee, so kill him before he gets the chance. Once he’s dead, visit the
nearby tiger den to learn that the trolls were only an annoyance, and that
the real tragedy is the recent stillborn deaths of the tiger cubs.
This revelation will open the way to an underground passage plus a red
keymaster tent (to the west), so visit the tent and then head underground.
You’ll find Red’s lands, and all you have to do to finish the scenario is
defeat Red’s main hero, Worllarc. But there are some optional stacks of
undead creatures around if you want to pick up some artifacts or experience,
which you might want to do since Worllarc’s army won’t be very powerful. In
fact, Worllarc himself will only be level 17, and he won’t have any level 4
creatures with him, so the battle should be pretty easy. Once you defeat
Worllarc, the scenario will end.
* --------------------- *
* Scenario 3: True Love *
* --------------------- *
Objective:
1. Construct a Mirror of True Love.
Carries Over:
1. Elwin (max level 28)
Walkthrough:
Ignore the piles of wood for now and head straight north. As you exit the
glade, eight white tigers will join you. They won’t be much help or
hindrance, so put them into a separate army and let them pick up stuff (like,
say, that wood). Keep moving north on the second day, and you should notice
a neutral Nature town. Capture the town (it won’t have any ranged troops, so
summon in your favorite troop until you have enough to take the town) and
then explore the area.
You’ll find that you’re boxed in -- at least until Elwin visits the quest hut
at (114,60) and gets his first quest of many in this scenario. It seems that
if you bring potions of mirth, quickness, resistance, and endurance back to
the hut, the alchemist there will give you the cloud-silver you need to
construct the mirror. So, after you flag the two resource buildings in the
area, follow the path east.
Note: Elwin has to be in the army that visits the quest hut. If he isn’t
you’ll still get the quest, but the trees blocking the road won’t disappear.
Elwin also has to be in the army that returns the potions.
Here’s where you’ll find the potions:
1. Mirth. It’s right next to the tree of knowledge at the edge of the path.
2. Endurance. It’s at the end of the south branch of the path, guarded by
some cyclopes.
3. Quickness. It’s along the northern branch of the path, next to the
bridge.
4. Resistance. It’s northwest of the path, guarded by some waspworts.
Once you have the four potions, send Elwin back to the quest hut to complete
the quest (and also re-supply his troops), and send the white tigers over to
the blue keymaster tent. Once Elwin completes the quest, the rocky area in
front of the tent will disappear, and so the tigers will be able to visit it,
allowing Elwin to pass through the keymaster gate beyond the bridge.
Almost immediately upon passing the keymaster gate, you should notice one of
Green’s Nature towns. Run over and capture the town, and then explore the
area. You’ll find the second quest hut behind the town to the west. The
jeweler inside will fashion the cloud-silver you have into a mirror frame
provided you give him 40 gems. Conveniently, there is a gem mine right next
to the hut, but it will still take a while to accumulate what the jeweler
needs.
So head out east and do some more exploring. Elwin himself needs to go to
the quest hut once you have 40 gems, but there isn’t any hurry to do this, so
you don’t need to keep Elwin close to town. In fact, it’s probably better
for Elwin to ramble as far as way as possible so he can pick up resources and
neutral towns before Green and Red get to them.
But, eventually, once you have 40 gems, go ahead and complete the quest. The
third quest hut is at (59,98), near a town. The merchant inside will give
you some pure sand in exchange for 10,000 gold. But be careful. This isn’t
one of those quests where they ask you if you want to complete it. If you
visit the quest hut while carrying 10,000 gold, you’ll automatically complete
the quest. So only visit it when you’re ready.
The fourth (and final) quest hut is at (37,111) (along the coast). The
dragon there will turn your sand into a mirror provided you free its mate.
The mate is being held in the Red town in the northeastern corner of the map
(past a quest gate). Once you capture the town, you’ll receive a black
dragon troop, and you should add it to your army. Then, when you visit the
quest hut again, you’ll win the scenario. So take your time before
completing the quest, and try to get Elwin as much experience as possible
(but chances are you still won’t get him very close to level 28).
* ----------------------- *
* Scenario 4: Reflections *
* ----------------------- *
Objectives:
1. Find Mirilass.
2. Capture Harke Manor.
Carries Over:
1. Elwin (max level 32)
Walkthrough:
After flagging the nearby ore pit, sawmill, and tree lodge, head south across
the bridge. You’ll quickly run into an Orange Nature town, and, once you
capture it (easy enough with summoned creatures), you’ll make your corner of
the map much more secure. (The only way in will be by your starting town.)
So once the orange town is yours, take your time and explore the area, and
also build up your two towns.
Note: There is a quest hut in the area at (65,104). If you kill the nearby
medusae (they’re next to a backpack, but they’re not flagged), you’ll receive
a dwarven shield.
Once you clean out your part of the map (including the treasure areas past
the two portals), head north. You’ll soon find Splitoak, where Mirilass’
brother lives. If you’ve learned a couple level 5 spells from your first two
towns, then taking Splitoak shouldn’t be too difficult, and when you do
you’ll learn that Mirilass is hiding near the blue keymaster tent in the
southwestern corner of the map.
The only way for you to go now is west, so head in that direction. You’ll
find a neutral Nature town that should be easy to capture, plus another
portal leading to a treasure area. Eventually, you’ll come to the blue
keymaster gate guarding Blue’s town (Harke Manor). Blue doesn’t have access
to the command word, so it’s stuck inside waiting for you.
You still don’t have any choice about where to go, so head south into
Orange’s domain. Orange starts out with three towns under its control, so it
might put up a fight, and it might not. So play the area by ear, and capture
what you can without losing too many troops. Everything in Orange’s part of
the map is optional; you just need to travel through it to reach the blue
keymaster tent.
When you pass through the quest gate leading to the blue keymaster tent,
you’ll be attacked by a large army of Nature troops (including two faerie
dragons). Summon in some phoenixes or faerie dragons of your own, and let
them distract the enemy while you pick them off with your elves and
elementals. Once the army is defeated, visit the blue keymaster tent and
then take the dragon portal to the northern part of the map.
Harke Manor will have a reasonable number of troops defending it, and it’ll
have a castle, but the enemy hero will only be level 22, and you’ll have
seven towns supporting you (if you’ve defeated everybody else). So if you
can’t take the town on your first attempt, just wait a week and ferry in more
troops and try again. Once you capture the town, the scenario will end.
* -------------------- *
* Scenario 5: Together *
* -------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Lord Harke.
Walkthrough:
Elwin starts right outside your starting town, but he hasn’t officially
visited it yet. So if Elwin has nobility, bring up the town’s information
screen so Elwin gets set as governor. Then move him straight west towards
Gramin. Once he gets close enough, Gramin will be able to move (he’s stuck
otherwise).
Gramin starts out level 25, but he can’t do much on his own because most of
his skills are tactics skills. So you can try leaving the two heroes in
their own armies so they cover more ground, but it’s probably best to put
them in an army together.
Note: Elwin starts out with the Bow of the Elf King, which gives ranged units
an extra shot. That, obviously, makes ranged units much more powerful, and
so you might want to skip water elementals this scenario and rely exclusively
on fire elementals.
So start exploring. Right next to your town you’ll find a quest hut plus a
three-way portal leading to a crystal mine and a small treasure area. The
inhabitant of the quest hut will give you a “pot-o-gold” if you return his
Four Leaf Clover to him. (The pot-o-gold is about 8000 gold, not an
artifact.) His “arch enemy” is the stack of leprechauns at the end of the
Ungthor’s Path choice in the portal. Try to do the quest right away since it
will make building up your town easier.
Also notice the red dragon portal exit near your town. There are no less
than four such exits in your area of the map. Plus, there are two red dragon
portal entrances in Red’s lands (which you can’t get to), and Red’s lands
aren’t very large, so you’ll be seeing Red’s heroes using the portals all
throughout the scenario. If Elwin is so powerful that you don’t need Gramin
to help him, then just stash Gramin in your starting town, and use him to
hunt Red heroes. After the first one (or two), which will be around level
27, all the Red heroes will be level 1, and they should be easy to defeat.
(So, for that first Red army, use Elwin in the battle, and have him summon
phoenixes every turn. Then have the phoenixes attack the enemy heroes while
the enemy troops all attack the phoenixes. Once the heroes are dead, it’ll
just be a case of mopping up.)
Otherwise, try to explore your area of the map as quickly as possible. South
of your starting town you’ll find two neutral Nature towns that should be
easy to capture. South of that lies Teal’s (Harke’s) lands, but there is a
group of behemoths and cyclopes blocking the way, so you’re safe enough from
Teal for a while. North of your starting town you’ll find another neutral
Nature town, plus a multi-way portal leading to a few treasure areas. (The
treasure areas contain a lot of skill shrines if you need them.) So explore
as much of the northern area as you want, or until Blue starts knocking on
your door, and then head south.
Once you’re ready to confront Harke, purchase as many troops as possible and
put them and both your heroes into a single army. Harke’s army will be
tougher than the end-scenario armies you’ve seen before, mostly because he
seems to accumulate all the troops from all of Teal’s towns. Harke is also
level 39, plus a tactics specialist, so his army will be even more difficult
than normal.
So when you face him, start summoning and try to kill him first so you can
get rid of his tactics bonuses. This is the last major battle you’ll face in
the campaign (everything else Elwin can handle all by himself), so don’t
worry about losses. Just make sure Elwin survives and you defeat Harke’s
army (Gramin doesn’t need to survive). If you have trouble, capture the
first two Teal towns you come across (one might still be neutral), and then
just blockade Harke until you can defeat him.
Once Harke is defeated, go through the quest gate at (197,107) (northeast of
Teal’s southwestern town). You’ll find the red keymaster tent there, which
you can skip, plus a teal dragon portal, which you should take. The portal
will take you to a blue keymaster tent and a purple dragon portal. Visit the
tent and then take the purple portal, and then walk all the way back to the
coast near your starting town.
You’ll find the blue keymaster gate there, plus a blue boat waiting behind
it. (You remember the introductory story about blue sails and red sails,
right?) So board the blue boat and sail to the island where Shaera is
waiting. Then just walk up to Shaera to win the scenario (and the campaign).
*****************************************************************************
* Death Campaign (Half-Dead) *
*****************************************************************************
* ------------ *
* Introduction *
* ------------ *
Gauldoth is the only hero that’ll carry over in the campaign. He starts out
with Death magic and Nature magic (pushing him towards being a Demonologist),
and that only leaves you three primary skills to learn. Combat should be one
of the skills, obviously, and of the other two I’d suggest tactics (since
you’ll have to rely mostly on melee units) and Life magic (since the Dark
Priest class is so cool). But if you can’t get Life magic, go for nobility
instead.
For Gauldoth’s class, you should avoid being a Demonologist. The only way
the class is useful is if you become a grandmaster in both Nature and Death
magic, but that means you have to become a grandmaster at Nature summoning
and regularly end up with troops you don’t want. The most interesting class
for Gauldoth is Dark Priest, but since that’s difficult if not impossible to
come by, Assassin works well enough.
The best Death units are ghosts, vampires, and bone dragons. I pick ghosts
since you’ll produce them anyway with necromancy, and it’s better to have one
large stack rather than two medium-sized stacks. Plus, ghosts have lots of
movement, so they won’t slow you down. Vampires are good just because
they’re different than any unit you’ve used in the other campaigns, and
they’re an especially nice change of pace if you’ve been relying in ranged
attacks in the past (since the other choice is the venom spawn, a ranged
troop). The main usefulness to devils is that they can teleport right to
enemy ranged troops, but since you’ll mostly be facing Death troops in the
campaign, bone dragons (with better hit points and damage) are better.
Note #1: Poison is your friend. The computer will often leave its melee
units hiding behind town walls, and poison will either kill them without you
having to risk any of your own troops, or it will cause the enemy troop to
rush out of the castle and get itself killed.
Note #2: Try to avoid using the slow, low-movement Death troops (like mummies
and ghouls) in your main army. They’ll just hold you back.
Note #3: If you wait every other turn with vampires, then they’ll get two
attacks in a row. You can use that to allow the vampires to attack and then
retreat without taking a hit.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 1: Eater of Children *
* ----------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Capture Vitross.
Carries Over:
1. Gauldoth (max level 12)
Walkthrough:
There’s an Orange town right to the north of where you start out, but it’s a
Might town, so don’t rush to capture it. (If you do, you’ll probably lose
most of your troops.) Instead, recruit from the cemetery and barrow mound,
but then separate Gauldoth into one army, and put the other troops into
another army. Now you can have Gauldoth grab the treasure chest to the
southwest (it might give him a level) and flag the nearby sawmill and ore pit
while the other army picks up stuff. Then put everybody back into one army
and send them underground (past the berserkers).
What you’ll find underground, right next to the entrance, is a vampire
mansion guarded by three vampires. If you put Gauldoth in the back row and
your other troops in the front row, and then try to keep Gauldoth as far away
from the battle as possible, you should be able to defeat the vampires.
It’ll be ugly, but the three vampires it’ll allow you to recruit from the
mansion (conveniently already flagged for you) are way more powerful than
your other troops combined.
Now you can head back to the surface and capture the Might town, using only
the three vampires. You shouldn’t take any losses since the vampires will be
able to leech back way more than they lose. You can build up the captured
Might town completely, but it’s probably best not to. Just make sure the
town has a wresting pit, arena of honor, caravan, and cyclops cave. With
vampires and cyclopes in your main army, you should be able to defeat most
everything on the map.
Then start exploring. In the rest of the underground area, you’ll find some
artifacts and resources, plus Death magic shrines that will teach you all the
level one spells. West of your town you’ll find some resource buildings
(which you don’t really need) and artifacts. Be sure to pick up the Crest of
Valor if you haven’t yet, since it will help the morale of your cyclopes.
Also, ignore the dock near your town for now. A quest gate on the other side
will prevent the other players from using it, and so you can explore the land
south of the river in peace.
At the western edge of the map you’ll find Orange’s other town. It shouldn’t
be very developed, and you should be able to take it easily. North of the
town you’ll find a two-way portal guarded by some cyclopes. The other side
of the portal is blocked by a quest gate that will only let Blue pass, so
leave the cyclopes where they are (since they’re helping to protect your
lands) and go use the dock on the other side of the map.
You’ll almost immediately find a Green Nature town. You have to capture the
town in order to finish the scenario, but between cyclopes, vampires, and
poison, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take. However, if the siege does
cause you problems, recruit all the skeletons and zombies you can, and add
them to your army for the fight.
After you take Green’s town, hunt down any wandering armies Green might have
left, and then go north of the town to the underground tunnel. Beyond the
tunnel you’ll find a quest gate that’ll only let you pass if you’ve
eliminated Green, and past that you’ll find a couple of desecrated graves and
couple of level two Death magic shrines. You’ll also find bands of bone
dragons in the area, so only visit what is convenient, plus the blue
keymaster tent on the right side.
Note: If Blue starts exploring your part of the map while you’re still in
Green’s area, don’t worry. Just funnel away all the troops you can (or that
you care about) before Blue takes a town.
Once you’re back above ground, start ferrying troops to Green’s former town,
and then re-supply your army as you pass by it. You’ll quickly find the blue
keymaster gate to the west, and then slightly west of that you’ll find
Vitross. There isn’t anything interesting in Blue’s area of the map, so if
you’ve already reached level 12, just head straight for the town and take it.
Once Vitross is yours, the scenario will end.
* --------------------------- *
* Scenario 2: The Fiery Realm *
* --------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Rescue Kalibarr.
Carries Over:
1. Gauldoth (max level 18)
Walkthrough:
Put the vampire with Gauldoth, leave the zombies and skeletons in their own
army, and then head east, flagging whatever you want along the way. When you
get to the volcanic terrain, head east some more until you find a neutral
Death town. The town shouldn’t be very well defended, and what defenses it
has should be melee troops. So use poison and summoned imps to capture the
town, or just bang your way through with Gauldoth if you’ve developed him
that way.
Once the town is yours, circle around it to the west. You’ll have to defeat
some skeletons and ghosts, but eventually you’ll come to a gold mine (north
of the town), which will make developing your town much easier. Then head
back southwest to a little dead-end area west of the pyramid. You’ll only
find an alchemist’s lab guarded by some vampires there, but by the time you
flag the lab and get back to your town, you should have been able to build it
up enough that you can re-supply your army and learn some level 2-5 spells.
Then head southwest again, but this time stay east of the pyramid (the
pyramid itself is probably too tough to deal with right now). Loop around
the mountains until you’re heading northeast, but notice the red two-way
portal being guarded by some bone dragons. That portal is one of only two
ways your enemies can get into your part of the map, so you should leave the
dragons to guard it while you keep exploring.
Continuing northeast you’ll find some useful things: another gold mine, a
vampire mansion, plus some resource buildings and artifacts. You’ll also
find one of the green keymaster gates leading to Green’s lands, but Green
doesn’t have access to the green keymaster tent, so it’s a gate only you can
use (eventually). Once you’ve cleaned out what you can, head back to the
two-way portal, re-supply your army, and then go through.
Note: For some reason Green is sometimes able to cheat and pass through the
green keymaster gate, but I’m not sure what allows it to happen.
You won’t have many options about where to go, so just follow the path until
you reach one of Blue’s towns. It should have a fully upgraded tower of
darkness, so be sure to visit the town once you capture it. Then follow the
road some more, and head mostly north once you hit the intersection. You’ll
find Blue’s other town there (or it might be neutral), and you should capture
it as well. Once Blue is eliminated, your lands will be perfectly safe,
because Green won’t be able to get to them.
So take your time and explore the area around Blue’s two former towns. You
should find another vampire mansion, plus a quest gate leading to the green
keymaster tent. The quest dialogue asks that you bring back 8 bone dragons
to open the gate, but I’ve completed the quest with as few as four. Once you
have the command word, and once you’ve re-supplied your army, head east and
enter Green’s lands.
Green is optional, so explore the area and kill whatever is convenient. You
might want to take Green’s town just so you can visit a seminary and perhaps
learn a couple extra skills. Otherwise, head for the southern edge of the
map and visit the quest hut at (84,141). Once you reach level 18, the demon
living inside will give you the Angel’s Blade. Now you can go back to Blue’s
part of the map and go through the quest gate at (142,80). Since you’ll pass
by one of your towns along the way, ferry some troops to the town, and then
re-supply your army before continuing on.
Passing through the portal will take you to the underground part of the map.
There you’ll find several islands linked together by dragon portals. So just
take a portal, collect the artifact on the island if you want it, and then
jump to the next island. (On the first island, you can also access troop
buildings for devils and ice demons if you want them in your army. Just take
the three-way portal.) It’s a good idea to save on the first island, just in
case the battles ahead prove too difficult for the army you have.
Eventually you’ll come to a hero with lots of skeletons, venom spawn, and
bone dragons with him. This is the last battle of the scenario, so don’t
worry about losses. Just have your vampires attack the hero and the venom
spawn to regenerate hit points, and let your ghosts, bone dragons, and other
troops take on everything else. It’s probably best if Gauldoth doesn’t get
involved. Have him mostly summon and stay out of the way.
Once the enemy hero is dead, continue exploring the island until you find a
prison. (Don’t take the dragon exit. It’ll take you to the first island,
and then you’ll have to walk back.) Once you visit the prison, you’ll free
Kalibarr and win the scenario.
* ------------------------------- *
* Scenario 3: The Points of Power *
* ------------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Flag the five Points of Power.
Carries Over:
1. Gauldoth (max level 24)
Walkthrough:
Note: The Points of Power form a rough pentagram, so if you can’t find one,
it should be obvious where to look. The Points are also somewhat ordered.
You can only access three at the start, but when you flag those the fourth
will open up, and then once you flag the fourth, the fifth will open up. So
don’t worry if your way appears to be blocked.
You start out in the northeastern corner of the map. There are only two ways
into the area where your starting town is: through the path guarded by the
two garrisons to the southwest, and through the two-way portal north of your
town. So even though there is a gold mine and a Point of Power near the
portal, you might want to leave them be for a while so the creatures guarding
them can also guard the entrance to your lands.
With that in mind, explore your corner of the map. You’ll find the regular
things -- a sawmill, an ore pit, and assorted resource and troop buildings.
Then make your way to the garrisons protecting the southwestern entrance to
your lands. You have troops inside, but it’s probably best to send
everything but the vampire back to your starting town, and add the vampire to
your main army.
You now have a choice: east or west. I think east is best since it will lead
you right to a vampire mansion, a Death skill altar, and a neutral Death
town. So explore in that direction. You’ll also find a bridge blocked by
three columns. It leads to the fourth Point of Power, but the columns won’t
disappear until you flag the first three Points.
In the southeastern corner you’ll find one of Teal’s towns. From my
experience, Teal and Purple won’t put up much of a fight in this scenario,
and so the town will probably be easy to take. With (likely) lots of melee
units inside, you can poison the living ones and then create a huge stack of
imps (or whatever) to deal with the rest. Once the town is yours, cross the
bridge to the south and then head west along the southern edge of the map.
This will lead to a Point of Power (southwest of the Sacred Altar). The
Point will be guarded by some devils, but devils and ice demons are warm-
blooded troops, so your hero plus a (growing) stack of vampires should be
able to handle them. Once the Point is yours, get back on the path and
continue heading west, flagging the dragon graveyard along the way if you
want it.
From here just keep following the path, and conquer everything you see as you
travel to the northwestern corner of the map. Along the way you should
finish off Teal’s second town plus a Purple town. Once you flag the Point of
Power in the northwestern corner, head back to your town so you can flag the
Point there, but also try to finish off Teal and Purple along the way. That
way you won’t have to worry about them as you collect the last couple Points.
Note: You can eliminate Purple, but you can’t eliminate Teal yet because Teal
has a hero you have to defeat prior to reaching the fifth Point of Power.
The fourth Point of Power is past the bridge at approximately (53,113) (where
the columns were before). The Point will only be guarded by a group of bone
dragons, so it should be easy to flag. Then head west to the quest gate at
(106,73). It’ll let you pass now that you’ve flagged four Points.
Past the gate you’ll find a Teal hero. It will only be level 17, and it will
only have dozens of vampires, venom spawn, and bone dragons with it. If
you’ve managed to accumulate over 100 vampires by this point, then they can
probably do the battle by themselves. Otherwise, this is the last battle, so
just throw your troops at the enemy, and summon or raise if you need to.
Once the hero is dead, just flag the last Point to complete the scenario.
* -------------------------- *
* Scenario 4: Life and Death *
* -------------------------- *
Objective:
1. Defeat Malvich.
Carries Over:
1. Gauldoth (max level 30)
Walkthrough:
You don’t have any choice about where to go, so head west. The first neutral
town you find is going to force a tough battle on you, so try to accumulate
as many troops as possible before then. That is, when you pass the cemetery
and barrow mound, recruit skeletons and ghosts there, even if you wouldn’t
normally. Eventually you’ll come to a tree of knowledge guarded by some
devils. If you have the hand of death spell, then put Gauldoth in an army by
himself (so the devils are in one stack) and attack the devils. Two casts of
hand of death should finish the battle. Then, if you’re far away from your
next level, use the tree. Otherwise skip it for now, but remember to use it
later after you level.
South of the tree of knowledge is a neutral Death town. But unlike most
neutral towns you’ve encountered, this one won’t be a pushover. It’ll have
bone dragons and vampires and more, but luckily all of the units will be
melee units, and so they’ll stay behind the town walls until you provoke
them. So take the time to cast spells on them (like mass curse and mass
weakness), and then summon in some troops before heading for the gate or
casting poison. If you still have trouble, kill the ice demons south of the
town (for extra vampires) and then try again.
Once you’ve captured the town, you’ll find that your travel options are still
limited, so head west, killing and flagging everything on the grassy
(northern) part of the map. You’ll find a quest hut right next to your town,
but you won’t be able to complete the quest for a while (and the dragon’s
horde is to the south, not the east). You’ll also find a two-way portal
along the northern edge of the map, but it’s only useful if you have the red
command word. That is, it’ll be useful to Teal (the only enemy on the map)
way before it’ll be useful to you, so leave the devils there to guard it.
When you’re ready to push into enemy territory, re-supply your army (if
necessary) and then attack the Teal garrison to the west. The garrison will
have a few devils plus hundreds of mummies and zombies. So use your favorite
mass and summon spells, and then start raising vampires once enemy creatures
start dying.
Beyond the garrison you’ll find a Teal town, which should be easy to take,
plus assorted other buildings. Go ahead and create a sawmill from the wood
pile and an ore pit from the ore deposit. If you use a trading post, then
both resource buildings will produce 124 gold per day, and so they’ll pay for
themselves in about 20 days.
You’ll also find another Teal garrison to the south. This one will have 40
venom spawn and 5 devils. Luckily, all the creatures are warm-blooded, so
you should be able to handle them with your vampires plus poison and hand of
death.
Follow the road past the second garrison and you’ll shortly come to the area
where the dragon horde is (beyond a quest gate). You’ll have to kill six
dragons to get to the Armor of Death. The best strategy seems to be to have
Gauldoth and your vampires go in alone. Then have Gauldoth cast vampiric
touch on himself and just hack away. Gauldoth and the vampires should be
able to leech back whatever they lose to the dragons, and you shouldn’t take
any losses in the battle.
Once the dragons are dead, grab the armor and head back to the quest hut near
your first town. There isn’t any way to avoid backtracking to the quest hut,
but you can use the trip to re-supply your army and add in (hopefully) a
bunch of bone dragons. Then walk all the way back to where you were.
At this point, you just need to clear out the southern half of the map. Teal
will have at least two more towns there, and you’ll have to do battle with
another garrison, but otherwise everything is optional. So clear out what
you want, and then go through the underground tunnel at (28,85).
Underground you’ll pass red and teal keymaster gates (that you can’t do
anything about yet) and then you’ll come to a Teal town. Take the town so
you can use it to ferry in troops, and then explore the area around the town.
You’ll find the red keymaster tent at (78,47) (northwest of the town).
So head back to the red keymaster gate and go through. There will only be
one way to go, and you’ll eventually come to Teal’s last town (behind a quest
gate). Malvich will probably be waiting outside the town, but with all the
other towns on the map (plus necromancy) behind you, you should have him
severely outnumbered. And if you can cast hand of death to kill him right
away, even better. Regardless, this is the last battle of the scenario, so
don’t worry about conserving troops, and just let your troops beat Malvich’s
army senseless. Once you defeat Malvich, the scenario will end.
Note: If you have problems in the last battle, you don’t have to blockade
Malvich’s town. The quest gate will do that for you. So just keep ferrying
in troops to Gauldoth’s army, and eventually you should be able to take out
Malvich.
* ----------------------------- *
* Scenario 5: The Unholy Breath *
* ----------------------------- *
Objectives:
1. Defeat Kalibarr.
2. Capture Nekorrum.
3. Win before the fourth month.
Walkthrough:
Speed is relatively important in this scenario. You can’t attack any of
Purple’s towns or heroes until you jump through some hoops, but meanwhile
Purple can upgrade its towns and accumulate troops. So, at the start of the
mission, don’t waste any time going to buildings you don’t need to visit
(like the nearby cemetery), and, as soon as necromancy gives you some extra
troops, split them into a separate army so you can more quickly get through
the underground level.
So immediately head west, flagging the ore pit and attacking the stack of
cereberi. You should get some ghosts or vampires from the cereberi, so split
them off and let them pick up stuff while Gauldoth flags and attacks stuff.
Gauldoth should be around level 30 by now, so go ahead and let the secondary
army pick up treasure chests. The gold will help you more than experience
now.
Even though you want to hurry, you should still explore as much of the
underground part of the map as possible (some of it will be blocked off).
Computer players don’t explore very well, and you might hold some of the
resource buildings (like the gold mine) for most of the scenario. Plus, by
killing the neutral stacks, you’ll deprive Purple of some experience and also
gain some extra vampires and ghosts.
Note: Once you go through the portal leading to the surface, the portal will
disappear, and Kalibarr will be allowed to explore the underground part of
the map.
On the surface, even though the dragon portal you need to take is located to
the west, head north instead. In that direction you’ll be able to snag a
spawning pit, another gold mine, and more. But once that area is clear, head
for the dragon portal and go through. If you’ve taken less than three weeks
at this point, then you’re in good shape.
Note: The dragon portal is guarded by a quest gate that will only allow an
army with Gauldoth to go through. So make sure you join your secondary army
to Gauldoth’s army before going to the portal.
After you go through the portal, follow the path west. You’ll find a lightly
defended and barely developed neutral Death town. Once you take the town,
immediately hire an Order hero to increase the growth rates of your troops,
and then use the hero as your secondary army, since it will be able to do
more than imps (or whatever you were using before). Also, since you should
have lots of money at this point, concentrate on constructing troop buildings
rather than a city hall.
Then explore your half of the surface map. The three most important things
you’ll find are: a temple of the damned (northern side), a dragon portal
leading to the underground map (northeastern corner), and a quest hut
(eastern side). Since the dragon portal is a one-way exit, explore
everything first before going through, and in particular visit the quest hut
so you can use the dock and receive Suraze (a level 27 General) plus vampires
and a devil as reinforcements.
When you go back underground, immediately head south and capture the dragon
graveyard so you can add some more bone dragons to your army. Then head east
towards the areas you visited before. Along the way you can visit a quest
hut at (55,53), but it will only net you 30 zombies.
Note: When you get to the part of the underground map where you were before,
the trees blocking Nekorrum will disappear, and the hero there will be able
to start exploring the surface.
Chances are that you’ll run into Kalibarr on the western side of the
underground map. But regardless of whether you face him in the open or at a
town, you definitely want to kill him first (he has tactics sills). So use
hand of death or poison on him right away, and then use hand of death
liberally in the battle while your vampires, devils, and bone dragons punish
the enemy troops.
Once Kalibarr is dead, mop up the underground part of the map, and then head
back to the surface. (If Kalibarr wasn’t in the underground Purple town,
then it’s probably best to skip it.) The surface should be much easier than
the underground, so just head straight for Nekorrum and either take it or
blockade it until you can take it. Once Nekorrum is yours the scenario (and
campaign) will end.
*****************************************************************************
* Chaos Campaign (A Pirate’s Daughter) *
*****************************************************************************
The best Chaos units are medusae, nightmares, and black dragons. Medusae are
the best Chaos ranged troop, so you have to take them, and nightmares are
good at not only standing in front of ranged troops, but also in casting
terror and preventing enemy troops from doing anything. Black dragons are
the best troop in the game, provided you can afford them.
*****************************************************************************
* Revision History *
*****************************************************************************
April 27, 2002
--------------
Initial release.
May 02, 2002
------------
Completed the Life and Might campaigns. Started the Order campaign.
May 08, 2002
------------
Completed the Order campaign.
May 11, 2002
------------
Completed the Nature campaign.
May 19, 2002
------------
Updated Might scenario 1 to reflect changes made in the 1.2 patch. Started
the Death campaign.
May 20, 2002
------------
Completed the Death campaign.
*****************************************************************************
* Permissions and Updates *
*****************************************************************************
This guide may be posted on any web site as long as the text is not changed
and as long as I am informed of the posting. I will always submit new
versions to GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) first, so if you are looking for the
most up-to-date version of this guide, that is the place to look.
*****
Copyright © 2002 by Steven W. Carter
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