The Mage → Zehir`s Hope

[AndyWong]

How do you do the consol code win thingie? Will the problem be solved if I use 1.3? I didn't install it so far because I heard it nerfed a lot of the haven creatures.

[maltz]

You can simply go to the forum and search for "cheat" for the 1.3 console details.



Just for your information, I've just updated all HoMM5 walkthroughs to patch 1.3. Sorry to the original authors if I've modified your writings (welcome to change it back). I tried my best not to delete anything that's already there (unless it is incorrect, such as typos), and just added patch-related information, plus some alternative strategies. So many walkthroughs are much longer than before. Hopefully it is not a bad read...

[raptorsnz]

Can you use earthquake on the magic wall?

[winterfate]

Welcome to the forums, raptorsnz!

Nope...at least not in patch 1.2 (which was the version I finished the game with).

[NickMP]

Many thanks for all the walkthroughs, guys - I'd have given up at a couple of points without them. Unlike UselessZombie I enjoyed the plot, though not the ham voices (Zehir is especially annoying). There's always been a balance in HOMM between those of us who want more or less serious characters and those who want amusing caricatures - for my taste Zehir is definitely a giggle too far. But what's really good about the series is the range of different skills and spells that it brings to the fore, showing off the whole system.

[Wulfstan8182]

i like maltz's walkthroughs better though...
Edited on Fri, Dec 21 2007, 21:11 by Wulfstan8182

[cjlee]

The final battle demonstrates how badly planned the entire campaign is.



Biara and Sovereign look pretty scary. They have high stats and can hit you with tough spells and that Chain Fireball thing. But their armies are incredibly sucky. e.g. stacks of 5 bone dragons and 50 imps on Normal. Even better, they gate in with low initiative, so you can make many moves before their troops do.



Having said that, I am disgusted with the gamemakers.



This map is way too easy, compared with earlier maps. Especially Zehir's Mission 4, The Alliance. I found The Alliance so hard - took me 5 months to gather enough troops and visit enough stats to fight Isabel's hundreds of Paladins.



The Sovereign and Biara look scary and the background atmosphere with sound effects is nice, but ultimately are far less difficult than Isabel.



In The Alliance I fought against Isabel 6 times (month 1 once, month 3 with 3 dif heroes, month 5 with 2 different heroes neither of which was Zehir.) before I could defeat her. In comparison, on Zehir's Hope I won all my battles so easily that I restarted and fought with only three stacks each, and still won. Zehir even had the easiest time, thanks to his Banish.



I think this is ridiculous. The last map is supposed to be the climax, but is totally anticlimatic. The fourth map takes way too long with your 5 heroes, 19 stat upgrades, tons of castles, XL map and fanatically training Isabel.

[tionitis]

you can (if your heroes have it) use instant travel to get past the garrisons if they are giving you trouble

[tionitis]

biara and the deamon sovereign sound and look very hard but are very easy

[nitro_oxide]

I think Zehir's battle was the easy one I lost the least amount of troops during it.

[absoluterouge]

Err...sorry to post this question here. I am new to this site. I am done with the campaigns..yay!!

And now playing the custom game. To be exact, the diplomat (searching for pendant of mastery), however i wonder if custom games have walkthrough for them? Because they do have fixed missions. If so, where can i find them here? Anyone can help?

Thanks so much.

[Coyote]

"one last round of bad voice acting"

The german translation isn't that bad. In fact I really enjoyed it.



As for the 'anticlimatic map' and the general course of the academy campaign:

I liked it. It was a story about the heroes and not about the factions. And I really enjoyed that.



Lookning at the remaining troops after the last fight this wasn't a particularly hard map. But it did feel like one. And that's the whole point... ;-)

[ShadowLiberal]

A few things.



1) I have no idea how good Banish was at the time this guide was written, but in the newer patches it's been so nerfed it's useless. Raelag and Zehir could only deal 330 damage each stack with Banish, which is pitiful considering they could have done almost twice that damage with Word Of Light, though Banish is free, but Raelag and Zehir had plenty of mana.



2) Round #1 against Biara, I HIGHLY recommend just fielding your tier 7 creatures for all heroes, except Raelag, field the Hydra's. I was able to keep casualities down to just war machines thanks to my magic. I found lower tier creatures usually just got themselves killed right away without doing any good if I fielded them before the final battle, which left me unable to win.



3) If you're playing the all campaigns in TOTE mod this mission got a lot easier with Vampirism. Use the above field tier 7 creatures only and use vampirism on them. Make sure to kill the undead stacks first, since you can't leech life from them.



4) If you lose a bunch of troops to Biara, reload, you won't be able to kill the demon sovereign with only half your starting army.



5) When going up against the demon sovereign with the shield to destroy just field tier 7 creatures (even for Raelag) and cast Earth Quake if you can. Right before the shield is destroyed cast resurrect on your tier 7 creatures. You shouldn't lose more then say 7 if you play your cards right.



6) In the final battles against the demon sovereign field all creatures, and give it everything you've got.

[cjlee]

playing on 1.6 Heroic, I find this far harder than playing in earlier versions. Is it my imagination, or did Biara get a lot better? I have too many casualties.



I'm afraid ShadowLiberal's strategy doesn't work if you don't use the TOTE mod. You see, his strategy for fielding tier 7s is also dependent on the ability to cast Vampiricism. That's terribly important because you will take a lot of damage. and lose a lot of tier 7s if they are the only stack on the battlefield.

[katia0203]

I just wanted to thank Shadowliberal and others for suggesting the strategy of just deploying my level 7 (and sometimes 6) units out on the field up until the final battle. It worked like a charm (unlike the first run-through) and I was able to win!



Oh, and just so you know, there ARE girls (like me) who play...we just don't generally broadcast it to those we know



EDIT: Well...maybe not. I posted this thinking that Zehir was going to win that last battle...unfortunately he really doesn't have the greatest starting army and for me he has the least manna. So yeah...I won everything else but that last battle...stupid Zehir.
Edited on Sat, Jun 30 2012, 14:29 by katia0203

[ShadowLiberal]

katia, try summoning in a Phoenix & elementals ASAP if you didn't. Phoenix especially are much more powerful then they might first appear, and if you get lucky and get fire elements you'll have a tough hitting archer with just about unlimited ammo.

Also try walling in a 1x1 unit with a phoenix shield, and using arcane armor and deflect missiles on your protected unit.

Also, if you're running low on non-summoned units (as in just 1 or 2 stacks/hits away from losing them all) use resurrect on a dead stack somewhere out of the way. I had to do this a few times in Markal's battle against Godric while Phoenix and Fire Elements killed everything.

It may also pay to create phantom images for a wall or a diversion or an attacker (the computer usually goes for them first, but if you make sure the target can't retaliate you can keep them alive longer if you want to use them as a hitter).

[katia0203]

I was thinking that, since Godric had very little trouble at all with either of his battles, maybe giving Zehir a small chunk of Archangels might be useful. The titans just aren't strong enough and don't seem to get to go often. My Zehir only has 85 manna -_- and the other heroes have around 150. I have no idea what happened there, but it's what he has. Summon phoenix and elementals would be a good bet, but it eats up a ton of my manna, leaving a small amount to resurrect or deflect missiles. I'll see what I can do

[SteelPanther]

Zehir may be weak, but once you get phoenix and puppet master into action that evens the odds a lot! I agree with the comment to just use top tier troops for the initial battles, saves the supporting troops for the final one.

[Wheeler Dealer]

1.6 Hard



Zehir had the easiest time. Banish took out all the summoned troops every time for no mana.



After I got a look at the size of my army I went back and chose the Artifact instead of the 6 Titans. Since I expected Zehir to win using dark magic to turn the enemy on himself, maybe with a Phoenix to help if the going got tough I really didn't think he needed more troops or the artifact so I gave it to Godric.



I think all four heroes got to the end with over 40 of their level 7 troops. I got to the last battle with Raelag and toward the end he had 44 Black Dragons and still hadn't lost an entire stack of anything. I started to cast Empowered Armageddon but backed off for fear that this might not be the final battle!



I'm tempted to retry the whole thing on Heroic but some of the battles are such a beating. Seems like sometimes you just have to restart a battle with different troops held in reserve to get a different random seed. And I routinely have to see how the enemy is set up and then reload and set my starting position accordingly. So many reloads!



I'm not sure what the comments re playing under ToE mean. I guess I'll just try loading the ToE disk and then try to start the original campaign. I gather I'll get the extra spells and additional creature upgrade choices.



It was fun again!

[Sunlover]

1.6, Hard



(frowns) I'm...more than a little baffled that people in years past have *****ed about Zehir's army being weak in the final battle. Did none of you do any army swapping between heroes to bolster otherwise weak players? Zehir, by far, thanks to his Banish ability (woe to you if you didn't pick or receive this option earlier with Summoning Magic!), suffered BY FAR the least losses.



SO much so, that I transferred them to Raelag, who everyone seems to think walks on water. Raelag fights the most massive enemy armies laden with tier 7 creatures ever. And I was unfortunate enough not to get Dark Magic. Result? No Puppet Master takeover of an Arch Devil stack for me, no resurrecting of Black Dragons because...they're Black Dragons...Titans get eliminated (that I donated over from Zehir), and the last stack I have standing is half of Findan's Ancient Treants. By the time I realize I'm outnumbered, I drop Empowered Armageddon and nuke everything except 2 A.T's and 10 Arch Devils. Needless to say, they started a bonfire (see what I did there...with wood...fi...never mind) This was, by the way, the battle vs the Sovereign; not the pre-battle with taking down the Wall.



This makes about the 6th-7th attempt I've tried on this in the last 2 days; without success. Raelag, without Dark Magic, just doesn't have enough oomph to get it done. (Ironically, Findan and Godric both had Dark Magic and life was relatively easy for both of them.) Going to load up Raelag with 2/3-3/4 of everyone's Tier 7's and see if he can hold them off long enough to take out the Arch Devil stacks. And yes, I do know morale becomes a factor when mixing up many types of armies -- which isn't helping when friendly army stack turns get skipped, but...kinda out of options. :p
Edited on Tue, Aug 12 2014, 21:01 by Sunlover