the refugees

[lendres]

what do you have to do to end this map? I own everything I can, have protected the borders, and kept Findan alive... any help would be appreciated...

[Kalah]

CH Walkthrough here.

[lendres]

well, apparently my problem is that Biara has not shown up... any way to trigger that?

[Dread Wolf]

My problem has been quite different .. I can't seem to survive long enough for her to show up ... by I managed to get some heroes posted between some of the garrisons, and when they attacked one, I was able to get to it to replace the troops ... then while going back to get more troops, they attacked two and I lose. And this is on Easy .... (upgrade 1.2).

[maltz]

well, apparently my problem is that Biara has not shown up... any way to trigger that?

This no-Biara bug has annoyed so many players, and there is no easy solution. Your mission is bugged. People have been reporting that when they don't load a game at all since Day 1, their game functions normally here.

I can't seem to survive long enough for her to show up ...

Haven't tried myself on 1.2. I guess you just have to throw everything you have to the 1st lost garrison to take it back. Don't split your army. Hiring other heroes to throw away army is wasting your limited troops.

[Dread Wolf]

well, apparently my problem is that Biara has not shown up... any way to trigger that?

This no-Biara bug has annoyed so many players, and there is no easy solution. Your mission is bugged. People have been reporting that when they don't load a game at all since Day 1, their game functions normally here.

I can't seem to survive long enough for her to show up ...

Haven't tried myself on 1.2. I guess you just have to throw everything you have to the 1st lost garrison to take it back. Don't split your army. Hiring other heroes to throw away army is wasting your limited troops.

I just played it at the normal level, as another thread suggested ... I survived long enough to lose to Biara .. can't have enough troops to win that one either it would seem.

Personally, I am getting rather disgusted with the game. No map editor, limited hero choices, limited maps, the list goes on and on. Heroes IV was much better than this one, and if I could return the damn game and find my copy of Heroes IV, I'd play it instead.

I'm actually experiencing the same disappointment I had with this one that I did with Might and Magix IX ....

[maltz]

Did you defend in your town to fight Biara? That would make things much easier. Also, try to conserve troops as much as you can. Biara should come after 2-3 waves of teal heroes. The teal heroes might hit different garrisons (and lose to them for the first time), so you only need to fight 1, mostly 2 (if you are lucky, none) of the teal heroes.

Try to explore the map and see if there are creatures that joins you. They sometimes make a huge difference. If you are desparate, don't install patch 1.2 and use the swap-garrison trick applicable in the original & 1.1 patch.

[Dread Wolf]

Did you defend in your town to fight Biara? That would make things much easier. Also, try to conserve troops as much as you can. Biara should come after 2-3 waves of teal heroes. The teal heroes might hit different garrisons (and lose to them for the first time), so you only need to fight 1, mostly 2 (if you are lucky, none) of the teal heroes.

Try to explore the map and see if there are creatures that joins you. They sometimes make a huge difference. If you are desparate, don't install patch 1.2 and use the swap-garrison trick applicable in the original & 1.1 patch.

Thanx for the tips ...

I actually ran back to my castle as soon as she appeared and saved the game with me at the castle when she got close. I defended inside the castle and lost, attacked outside the castle and lost, played the combat myself and lost, let the computer play the combat and lost .... (having given myself favored enemy of her most numerous troops ..., since I wasn't able to get to her most powerful that were on my side of the garrisons ... )

As for creatures joining me ... that only happened twice ..... the rest fought instantly or ran ...

I was attacked twice by teal ... and since my experience with the easy level was, if I didn't leave a strong force in the garrisons when I take it back, they attacked two at once .....

I was able however to destroy one of teal's heroes ... (no choice, since they stopped on my side of the garrison) ...

[lendres]

This no-Biara bug has annoyed so many players, and there is no easy solution. Your mission is bugged. People have been reporting that when they don't load a game at all since Day 1, their game functions normally here.

well, I have restarted this mission numerous times, with v 1.1 & 1.2...gone back watched the nicolai cut scene and played right through each time and still no Biara....arghhh...

[Dread Wolf]

An (almost) blow by blow of The Refuges (v.1.2) / Normal Level

Garrisons from left to right referred to as Garrisons 1 - 5

End of Day 4 / Week 1 / Month 1

Garrison 3 attacked by Lucricia, leading an army of:
1 Spectral Dragon
2 Wraiths
1 Arch Lich
10 Vampire Lords
11 Spectres
18 Plague Zombies
24 Skeleton Archers

Was able to defeat them

Garrison lost:
1 Ancient Treant
3 Silver Unicorns
3 Elder Druids
3 Master Hunters
28 War Dancers
33 Sprites


On my way to that Garrison to drop off some replacements .... (pausing only for those resourses immediately on the sides of the road)

Took the wrong path to the middle garrison ...

End of Day 3 / Week 2 / Month 1
Garrison 2 attacked by Raven, leading an army of:

1 Spectral Dragon
2 Wraiths
2 Arch Liches
27 Spectres
9 Vampire Lords
29 Plague Zombies
40 Skeleton Archers


I won, losing

2 Ancient Treants
4 Silver Unicorns
8 Elder Druids
14 Master Archers
25 War Dancers

Fortunately, I am real close to that one, so I can drop off my re-inforcements, and hire someone to buy the troops I have at my Castle and have that person start moving them to Garrison 3 ...

Garrison 2, I drop off

49 Conscripts (the only creatures to offer to join so far)
(Game crashed at this point - reload last autosave)
Put the Conscripts in
32 Pixies
6 Hunters
4 Druids
3 Unicorns

(Kept my blade dancers and Master Hunters)

Headed back to my Castle

Hired hero and purchased all creatures at my Castle to take to the still weakened Garrison 3

Day 1 / Week 3 / Month 1
Extra Hero reaches Garrison 3 ...

Drops off:
28 Pixies
18 Blade Dancers
11 Hunters

Headed to give rest of creatures to Findan

End of Day 5 / Week 4 / Month 1

Garrison 2 attacked by Deirdre with an army of:

1 Spectral Dragon
2 Wraiths
4 Arch Liches
3 Priests
41 Footmen
83 Conscripts

Amazingly, I won, losing only:
1 Ancient Treant
3 Silver Unicorns
4 Elder Druids
13 Master Hunters
13 War Dancers

My extra hero had just purchased all the creatures at my Castle and was on his way to give them to Findan, so .. off to Garrison 2 to bolster a bit, then the swap

Day 1 / Week 1 / Month 2
I finally level cap ..
I have no spells skills, because none were ever an option to take
I do have Advanced in Defense, Attack, and War Machines ... hopefully, this will be enough .....
My abilities with those:
Tactics (started with)
Vitality
First Aid
Balista
And I have Advanced Avenger
Storm of Arrows (started with)
Deadly Shot
Rain of Arrows


Day 2 / Week 1 / Month 2
Made it to Garrison 2, it looks good, so I drop off my Druids and Sprites, and head to meet Findan

Artifacts thus far:
Dragon Scale Shield
Necklace of the Lion
Unicorn Bow

End Day 5 / Week 2 / Month 2

Biara is now on her way ...
I'll have just a bit of time to add another weeks of creatures to Findan's Army

Setting Favorite Creatures to
Nightmares
Cerebus

Saving the game under a different name, just in case ....

End Day 1 / Week 3 / Month 2

Biara attacks me in my Castle ...

Miracle of miracles, I actually won ...

What did I do different this time around?
Nothing except my skill choices that were made available ...

**big heavy sigh of relief**
{{thinking I'll take a break for a bit before continuing the game}}

EDIT: Edited to correct a couple typos I notice ...
(As for words completely mis-spelled, well, I'm not good at spelling )

[magritte2]

I'm struggling with the no Biara problem, too. Part way through the third month, I've lost and recaptured two garrisons. Version 1.2, normal difficulty.

[maltz]

Just replayed this mission on patch 1.2, heroic.

I think the difficulty has been tuned up quite a bit -- to the point that my mind flashed a thought that "I may lose to Biara" when she casted resurrection...

First up, Biara sieged my town on Day 6, Week 1, Month 2, which is faster than she used to. Biara has been raised from lv 8 to lv 12, bringing ~4 weeks worth of inferno troops. The raise in power seems to be reasonable as she is the mission boss. Biara's stats were comparable to Findan's, and she can cast some not-so-powerful resurrection (e.g. 2 archdevils at a time).

People say you can't get troops from the garrisons anymore on patch 1.2, so I didn't bother trying.

The teal heroes no longer lose to the garrisons. They have no way to lose now! The best we can do is to replay the battle and try to kill as much as we can. In my run there were 2 of them, arriving on week 2 and week 3. The teal heroes can cast a wide range of nasty spells such as Frency and Meteor shower.

When I fought off Biara, I only had about 70 master hunters left, some druid elders, 2 ancient treants and 1 silver unicorn. The inferno units kept gating beside my hunters, which was very annoying. However, I am reluctant crowd them together or Biara will cast some nasty group effect spells.

I still managed to visit all of the stat bonuses, with a very, very tight schedule, beating Biara on her way to my town with a 1-day margin.

Patch 1.2 tuned this mission in a good way! It is actually very fun now.

There is no Biara-no-show bug on me, although I reload extensively since Day 0. But from the previous posters I guess th problem is still there? I wonder how?...

[Jaja11]

I'm struggling with the no Biara problem, too. Part way through the third month, I've lost and recaptured two garrisons. Version 1.2, normal difficulty.

Hi there...

I had a major problem with the no Biara show too, initially. Then some of them here suggested that I restart in Normal level and that worked. Biara showed up in month 2 and immediately went for my castle / stronghold. But met her halfway and took care of her. As for the garrison, I was attacked once on the 1st gate (counting from south to north) before Biara came. Had another hero despatched to recapture it while Findan 'entertained' Biara.

The trick I learned in this game is to be super fast; try to finish the set up of all the creatures' dwellings by the 1st week, and collect those which you can obtained elsewhere every week without fail. There are 2 hunters' cabins, 2 battle dancers and a pixie tree nearby (okay, some are actually quite far away). Also, there's one Sylvan whatchamacallit on the east part of the map (you can get unicorns there).

In most of the battle, I try to eliminate the ranged attackers first, and it usually earned me a win. Oh, and btw, try to increase Findan's level whenever you could, and as fast as you can