Quiz: Round #1

[Kalah]

<b><a href="/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22728">Maciek</a></b> has put together a really big quiz for all you <i>Heroes IV</i> fans out there. Post your answers and discuss possible solutions! <img src="/images/smiles/smile9.gif">



Here's round one:



100 Medusas got lost in a dark forest with just 3100 gold and no heroes or towns. They find a tavern and an unguarded object (in the white area below). There are 50 Nightmares and 150 Minotaurs on the way to the only nearby town. What could the object be and how could it help the poor Medusas defeat the enemy and capture that town?



<center><img src="/images/misc/maciek1_lost_medusas.png"></center>

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1327186547

[ThunderTitan]

I'd say an artefact with chaos ward, but without a hero that wouldn't work...

Of course you do mention money... so i'm guessing you hire a hero from the Tavern, and you find a Shield of Order?

[Spin]

even with a shield of order you'd still lose. Definitely thinking an artifact would do it, but even the best artifacts would struggle. Otherwise a Pandora's box would do it, but what's in the box is the question.



I'd assume you'd hire a hero with the gold, i mean, why not?

[Duzeom_]

Ok I managed to kill the monsters. The object is Bow of Elf King. It makes all of your shooters to shoot twice. You buy a hero (I bought a general from death to slighly power up medusas). You take the Bow of Elf King and make 5 stacks of medusas: In front you set a hero and two stacks of one medusa in each. The rest of medusas (98) you devide into 3 stacks and set them behind. Nightmers won't cast their spell because they don't want to waste a turn to cast on one medusa and they don't see the other ones.

[ThunderTitan]

Right, a new hero in H4 wouldn't be able to use slow... and the Minotaurs have that annoying block...

While shooting twice with the Medusas doubles the instant kill chance...

[crislevin]

a fly spell item ? scroll, artifact?

[Kalah]

I like Duzeom_'s solution, but keep guessing.
You may find it easier if I tell you that the game used was Equilibris, not H4 standard.

[CloudRiderX]

I read over the Equilibris changes, and I can't really think of anything that would seem to work better than the Bow of the Elf King strategy. The only ideas I have besides that are (1) using Charm supplemented with a n artifact to convert some of the neutral army or (2) using a Druid with the relic that doubles the effectiveness of summoning spells to attrition the neutral army.

[Pol]

And is Equilibris in?

[Spin]

Any way to get the Hypnotize spell (i don't think it comes in wand form)? That would be the only spell that would win it for you, otherwise multiple beserks, but that's going too far for a new hero.

[Dalai]

Interesting quiz!

I even created a map to try my ideas. You can download it here, open in map editor, add your object on magic plains, save it and launch. Use Champion difficulty (not Heroic ). All starting conditions are met.

My solution follows in white if you don't want spoilers. You'd better use a forum theme with white background Select with mouse to read.

You hire a hero. Any hero, though I prefer Druid - he can summon cannon fodder to cover your medusas in fights to follow. Wisard is not bad, if your'e lucky enough and get precision, but morale will suffer a hit. You need a hero not because he strengthens the army, but because army without a hero can not buy creatures.

Yes, this is the next step. I placed a Water Portal to buy Water Elemental. But first you need to fight 12 water Elementals. I choose tight formation, 5 single Medusas, 95 Medusas in the center and hero in 3-rd row. You can find more efficient setup, but this one worked - I lost 4 medusas without summons from Druid and only 1 Medusa with 2 stacks of summoned Leprechauns.

After you beat guards, you hire 1 WE. Again, tight formation, 3 stacks, WE in the center of the 1-st row. Medusas - 2-nd, Hero - 3-rd. You can split single medusas just in case, but if you play good it won't be necessary. 1-st round - fatigue on Minotaurs, second - on Nightmares, all the rest you build defensive quicksand. You don't have too much mana, use it wisely. Medusas shoot (I prefer to start with Nightmares), Hero does something. You may even show him to Nightmare so they cast Terror and not move that round. You should be able to win this fight, even without losses after several attempts.

This fight is a bit different Equilibris, as enemy will be in 2 stacks only. It's not that important, but a bit easier to control.

[Dalai]

I'd like to add that there are many options that might work, but victory is not guaranteed. For example, you can place an ivory tower and hope for scroll of Berserk or Hypnotize. Or you can simply place the scroll itself Though I'm not sure that your hero would have enough mana for Berserk, even at half cost scrolls provide. You can place some treasure structure in hope to defeat the guards and get a Walder Crossbow of Sloth and Wand of Animating Dead. Last option, if you get THAT lucky, would make final fight a breeze

[Kalah]

Good one, Dalai, the suggested solution from the QuizMaker is indeed that the object hidden beneath the ice is the Wand of Animating Dead.

"Start in a boxed formation, with hero in the middle and Medusas in the back. The Nightmares will not want to waste a turn terrorizing the hero. I used a Sorceror (got Haste spell).
Turn 1: Medusas shoot Nightmares, killing some. Hero raises a Nightmare to terrorize Minotaurs. Enemy Nightmares approach.
Turn 2: Raised Nightmare blocks enemy Nightmares using any obstacles present (there are always some obstacles around). Enemy Nightmares kill raised Nightmare. Hero either hastes himself or raises another Nightmare to terrorize Nightmares. Medusas keep shooting the Nightmares. Minotaurs miss their turn.
Next turns: Medusas keep shooting Nightmares until they all die and then attack Minotaurs. Hero raises more Nightmares to terrorize and block. If obstacles are at least remotely useful, you could theoretically kill an infinite number of Nightmares and Minotaurs. Funny thing is that (in Equi) you couldn't do that with Nightmares alone, because there will always be at least 3 stacks."

[Maciek]

Hi guys! Nice answers! I'm still expecting 3-5 different answers though.

From what I see, I think Spin and Dalai have the best chance of guessing those.

@Dalai: You have enough gold to buy a whooping 3 Elementals. Also, the snowy area is 1 tile wider than the Water Portal, so your hero with Medusas can barely fit in there:) Oh, and of course it's Champion, not Heroic, I must've confused it with heroes 5, that's strange.

@Duzeom_: I find that Bow of Elf King a little hard to use. Either you were extremely lucky with high damage/obstacles, or I'm terrible at positioning of 1-Medusa stacks. Or a bit of both. Anyways, the best result that I got using your Bow was something like 2 Nightmares and 100 Minotaurs left.

@Spin: I like the solution with Pandora Box. So, what's in the Box?

@ThunderTitan: I guess the situation just wasn't hopeless enough to justify the use of a shield.

@crislevin: Fly+Haste would require a battlefield literary flooded with obstacles. I think it would be fun to see.

@CloudRiderX: Those summons are hardly enough for attrition, but good for distraction. Still, that Druid could summon more creatures in total in a single battle(if given enough time) with a Crown of Ogre Magi instead.

@Pol: All questions in this quiz will be for Equilibris. Sometimes it will matter, sometimes not.
Edited on Sun, Jan 22 2012, 19:29 by Maciek

[Dalai]

Yes, Wand of Animating Dead is incredibly powerful because unlike all illusions and phantoms animated creatures come back with full mana.

Hi guys! Nice answers! I'm still expecting 3-5 different answers though.

Another option could be placing Genies Dwelling and hiring 1 Genie to cast slow and song of piece. If that's not enough before you run out of mana - you can run in circles from the last stack and shoot it.

@Dalai: You have enough gold to buy a whooping 3 Elementals.

No, only 1. At least in Equilibris prices. I thought about the exact sum of 3100 and did not find a way to use it all. Same about Genies - only 1. If you buy 3 WEs/Genies - it gets VERY easy.

Also, the snowy area is 1 tile wider than the Water Portal, so your hero with Medusas can barely fit in there:)

I did not even check my solution against this limitation.

Oh, and of course it's Champion, not Heroic, I must've confused it with heroes 5, that's strange.

Keep them coming - it's fun!
If you have a map to play with - give it to us so we don't have to recreate it.

[Maciek]

Weird, I buy heroes in external taverns for 2000 gold and Water Elementals from Water Portals for 350 gold each and Genies from Altar of Wishes for 550 gold each. On the other hand, I need to fight 24 and not 12 WE to capture their dweeling. Is there something wrong with my game version?:)

The Genie dweeling was not one of the solutions I had in mind, but of course it works.

Anyways, a new week has started, so the number of answers to this question to be discovered increases by 1-2, so now it is 4-7. There is an interval, because for 2 of them I'm not totally sure weather they work and 2 others are very similar.

I guess we could use comments of this question for the answers to the next 2 or 3 questions(number 5 will certainly need more space), though it might create too much confusion. Let's maybe try with question number 2 and see how it goes. Here it is:



How can a level 1 hero defeat 1 Black Dragon using 1 artifact and what hero and artifact is it? This Artifact will be banned in the next question.(*puts Kalah's thunder back* question announced in the next news item) I modified your map and put it here. Put the Artifact on the Magic Plains and dismiss the Orc after you hire the hero.

For now, I won't give you the map I'm using. It contains answers to some of the questions and it's a total mess. There is a little decorated corner that you can see in the picture above and, other than that, there is a whole lot of armies, towns and Artifacts scattered all around the map.
Edited on Mon, Jan 23 2012, 18:28 by Maciek

[Duzeom_]

Of course Bow of Elf King is very rare artifact, but in the quiz there was no prohibition on that. Hmm I defeated the monsters with the first attempt with described formation. I don't suppose I was lucky. I tried few more times and the method worked.

[Kalah]

Hey, don't steal my thunder here - I can post the next round now. In fact, I think we can put up several of the questions, since they are related.

[Dalai]

Weird, I buy heroes in external taverns for 2000 gold and Water Elementals from Water Portals for 350 gold each and Genies from Altar of Wishes for 550 gold each. On the other hand, I need to fight 24 and not 12 WE to capture their dweeling. Is there something wrong with my game version?:)

My fault, I was using my development version with altered tables.
Now 3100 gold does make a lot more sense

[Maciek]

Now 3100 gold does make a lot more sense

Actually, I took the cost of hiring a hero and added the cost of a Vampire(1100, and I remembered that Vampires were quite expensive for creatures), just in case somebody wanted to try with creature generators. Still, the exact value was intended for confusion rather than anything else. I guess it's just luck that you can buy 2 Genies or 3 WE for that.