Master of the Elements (H4)

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Wheeler Dealer
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Master of the Elements (H4)

Unread postby Wheeler Dealer » 14 Apr 2022, 19:20

This is a HoMM 3 Campaign converted for HoMM 4. Many thanks to whoever did this work.

Campaign Master of the Elementals

The Trouble with Magic

Playing on Expert. Apparently Tarnum the Barbarian, hero of Warriors of the Wastelands, has been reincarnated as a Wizard (UGH). He has the skills of a Wizard but the attitude of a Barbarian.

Since H4 allows creatures to move about without heroes, a standard tactic is to send out several level one creatures on day one to scout and gather. That has some drawbacks here, there are quite a few encounters triggered by the first army to step on a spot, some good, some ambushes, so either don't do that or save a lot. For example, the two nearest stacks of halflings will join if approached by a hero but one failed to join when approached by a creature. The right hand stack was sensitive to where I stopped, when I stopped in the wrong spot they still wanted to fight my hero.

You start with a powerful army, 5 Evil Sorceresses, some halflings and gargoyles. The gargoyles messed up my moral so bad that I didn't use them in my army. I hired a knight on day one and my early army had no problems with my 5 ESs split into 4 stacks. I hired order Lords for the gold in weeks 2,3 and 5. In week 4 I hired a priest. My goal was to develop my knight for tactics and two magic users, one primarily Order and the other primarily Life.

I either got lucky or it was the intent of the designer, Tarnum started with Precision for the halflings and a few weeks in, he acquired Town Portal. The witch's hut had Order Magic for two of my heroes. Most of the secondary skills at the University were useful.

My first serious battle was with my enemy's main army, he had some ESs of his own along with some pretty heavy Nature stacks. By now I had Magi and Genies in moderate numbers in my army. Thanks to my knight's tactics, I got the jump, inflicted some serious causalities and Town Portaled away before he could hit back. (His ESs used Mass Cancelation on their turn.)

The next time we met I had decided to cast Implosion on his ESs even though I would lose a couple of mine to the Magic Mirror. I had forgotten that MM doesn't work if the whole stack dies, so that was good. A very effective tactic when you have lots of Genies and some ESs is to replicate the ESs, they can instantly get to those back row stacks that you can't see.

I wanted to grab his castle while he was out, hopefully I would have three days to use his Sacred Fountain and learn any Life spells in his Magic Guild. Didn't work out but I got the spells anyway, Regeneration was noticeable and critical to the first battle in the next scenario. Maybe he didn't have a Sacred Fountain or maybe that works differently.

Tarnum finished as a L8 Mage with Expert Order Magic, basic Life and combat. My knight became a L8 Illusionist with Expert Tactics and basic combat, scouting, life and order and my priest reached L7 (591 XP shy) with Expert Life, Advanced Order, and basic combat and nobility.

I won at M2W2D6, somewhat delayed by using Town Portal to jump home and pick up spells before the finish.

Walking on Clouds

There were some pretty dicey battles at first, particularly since Tarnum can't be resurrected after the battle. I merged my three heroes on turn one and was immediately attacked by 30 Air Elementals. One stack made straight for Tarnum so top priority was keeping him alive, Regeneration, Nature Ward and Spiritual Armor with Bind Wounds as required. The other two stacks were distracted and eventually eliminated by illusions of Air Elementals.

That was the battle plan until I could produce Genies so that they could cast Slow on all the Air Elementals which gave my heroes time to create a large stack of Air Elementals to engage the real AEs. Once my AEs numbers reached about 50% of my enemy's (with protective spells) I could just hold down "D" until the battle was over.

The next change came when Tarnum learned Mass Slow so the Genies could be dedicated to creating AEs. Now the Genies could all be in one stack which came in pretty handy for my Order Lords. My 3 heroes hit L12 really early and I hated to see all that experience going to waste so I used a tactic (strategy?) I'll call the Ride Along. Some of my Order Lords who had already hit the 3 handy Learning Stones would come to the battles and just watch. One Order Lord reached L12 this way!

There were a couple of stacks of neutral Genies that gave me some problems but Illusions of Genies could be used as shields while spells such as Song of Peace, Blind and Berserk occupied some of the stacks.

I never used any creatures but Genies in my army, had 83 at the end. Finished at M3W1D4 having hit every stat bonus on the map.

Don't Drink the Water

Well, we've arrived at the Plane of Water. First, none of the artifacts I was promised actually transferred. The basic tactic to use in this scenario is "Blockers".

Most of the significant battles are against large numbers of Water Elementals. I started with very little magic resistance and my heroes usually could be taken down by a single blast. Early on I tried taking in a single hero and casting Create Illusions on the WE on the first turn. If my formation was square my WEs appeared directly in front of my hero and that gave me time to manage the battle. I was concerned about putting 2 heroes in the attacking army since that caused the enemy to split into two stacks but that wasn't a problem. Soon I found I could put all three of my heroes in a line and protect them.

At 1,1,6 I cleared the SW Corner where I started. Gold was a problem so I hired Order Lords until I had 9. I found 6 Learning Stones and 6 Trees of Knowledge. Your heroes can start using the trees once they reach L14. Once your 3 heroes reach L20 you should have them joined by a 4th hero. He will progress quite quickly and easily reach L20. I viewed my choices as a thief or a death knight. I chose the thief. That caused serious morale problems and forced me to abandoned my chosen formation of square with 3 heroes across the front and three stacks of Genies to cast replicate and slow. I settled on 4 heroes and 1 large stack of Genies so there were only two heroes that required cover (square 2,2,1).

My 2 Archmages cast Power Drain early and my Thief had Magic Leech (they don't compound but they do accumulate) so the enemy WEs ran out of power quickly. Casting Dispel or Exorcism to cancel their spells caused them to waste their turns replacing those spells and burning their mana.

I could have finished much earlier but spent 6 weeks clearing the map in search of the Orb of Driving Rain, failure. I won at 4,4,5.

Hard Place

No artifacts again. Lots of gold lying around, I had 11,600 at the end of turn one. On day five I got a message re Nagas joining my army but none appeared. At 3,1,3 I got a message that Reamus and his army was joining me but nothing happened.

Lots of battles with scores of earth elementals. I just replicated them and let them fight it out with my illusions. I put together my 2 Archmages and my Field Marshall and sent my Ninja out on her own (master stealth). They all reached L22, wish I had some of those ToK from the last scenario! There was one Learning Stone and 4 Battle Acadamys in the captured towns. The only town in the scenario that could produce creatures was the original academy town. Lots of creature generators on the map.

A couple of interesting battles were for the Dragon Caves. Seven Black Dragons each. I took in 2 Archmages and a Feild Marshall. One of the Archmages was Martyred protecting the two other heroes. Then the goal was to cast as many healing spells as needed on the martyred hero while slipping in protective spells on the other two when possible. Soon I was at a point where Regeneration and an occasional Heavenly Shield protected the martyr and the other two heroes could just score small hits on the dragons every turn.

I won at 3,1,5.

The Secret in the Flames

As you might expect, dozens of battles with Fire Elementals. I divided my heroes like last time. Gold wasn't much of an issue since I didn't really need any creatures though I did hire some genies at some point.

There were a couple of easy ways to take down the Fire Elementals. You could bring in the 2 Archmages and the Field Marshall in an "I" formation and just replicate Fire Elementals every turn. The easier method used the same "I" formation but I cast Martyr on the back hero to protect the front hero and then cast protective and offensive spells on the front hero. That was quicker for the small and medium sized stacks.

There were 2 Learning Stones and 13 Fire Portals and no permanent power ups. You should probably use all your chests for experience, though that won't help much. About all you could do was gather experience from stealth and battles and buy some skills at the university in the academy town.

Unfortunately you didn't even have to fight for the Fire Portals. At 1,3,4 I was holding 2 of the three town and 12 of the 13 Fire Portals. There were 3 skills to buy for my heroes at the university (Spirituality for 2 and Charm for one), a half dozen battles, a couple of chests and a Pandora's Box left. There was a small unexplored area in the NE above ground. Unless that held something really exciting I wasn't getting any more levels for my 4, L23 heroes.

Then as one of my Order Lords hit a Learning Stone, the program declared me the winner and moved on to the next scenario! I reloaded and avoided sending that hero to that stone for a while and that solved the problem, though I did go back much later when I thought the scenario should be over. Didn't work then. There had been a message along the way to the effect that I needed to control all the fire portals. I controlled all towns and eliminated my enemy but wasn't declared winner until I controlled all the Fire Portals. I won at 2,1,7.

The Magic that Binds

Very disappointing. I'm either incompetent or the map is broken. There is a Blue Border Guard but no Blue Keymaster Tent. First, the win conditions are wrong. At 2,2,6 I had eliminated the other 4 players and owned all the towns. Well, in the last scenario I had to control all the Fire Portals So I made sure I controlled all the Earth Portals. In desperation I revealed the map (tab nwcPrometheus) but still couldn't find a Blue Keymaster. There were 9 signs that offered rewards for gold, mostly offered Chaos spells, so I visited them all to no avail. About half of them were positioned so that I couldn't get to the indicated spot on the map to buy the reward. Finally I had to just claim victory using nwcValhalla.

The Level limit was 33. I got my heroes to L27 or L26 even saving the 2 ToKs until the end. Most of the neutral stacks were pushovers for any one of my 4 heroes even with no creatures. There can only be 1 Ranger's Guild in your 5 towns so stock up or wait for some painfully slow deliveries later.

The Garisons separating the territories were difficult. Not so much the Air Elementals and sprites but the 645 Water Elementals, the 750+ Fire Elements and the 800 Earth Elementals. By using Illusions, as shields at first, later to fight, using Martyr to protect the stack of illusions and Teleport to buy time, I was able to get through these battles without creatures in my army. There were 14 Black Dragons guarding the first border gate and I had to use Phoenixes (7) and Mantises (4) to get past this battle.

The last couple of battles with the enemy's main heroes were very difficult. The heroes were L33 and completely immune to negative magic. Each army had a number of miscellaneous stacks that were in the way as well as a company of elementals. Used a lot of illusions, Martyr for protection with a lot of care to heal and protect the martyr. Teleport on the elementals to buy time. I definitely needed my best creatures for these battles.

I claimed victory at 2,3,7 having done everything I could without passage through the Blue Border Guard.

The Birds of Fire

Simple. Just needed to capture the opposing town. Got a level from the Tok and a skill from the Veteran's Guild for each of my heroes. One serious battle, an ambush by 22 Phoenixes. Blind to buy time and a lot of Illusions, etc. The final battle wasn't very hard. Won at 1,3,2.

Master of the Elements

Very Large, very busy, very long (it took me 6 days real time to finish, I'm retired and probably average 3 or 4 hours a day). My 4 main heroes reached L32 or L31. I started a new army near the end of month one to clear the new random monsters from caravan routes (a druid and an archer). They reached L13 and L12. I cleared the map except for the NW corner (i was getting bored). I found 27 Learning Stones and 3 ToKs. In the early game you don't need creatures, in fact you don't even need to combine your heroes. All the towns are preserves and only your starting town can build a Ranger's Guild.

It was only in the 3rd month when I had to defeat 38 Black Dragons to enter the NW territory That I built a serious army. Only the battles to enter a new territory or against the enemy main heroes required much of an army. There were stacks of elementals that required some care along the way.

Gold was a problem for a while but by 2,2,1 I had 6 towns, all built out, so the only need for gold then was creatures. I did run out of gold early in month 3 building a massive army to take out the 38 Black Dragons (3,1,7). I overreacted, 46 Phoenixes, 288 Earth elementals, 218 fire elementals and 4 heroes. Lost a few EEs and FEs. Used Martyr to protect multiple heroes. Tarnum was the martyr, wearing 2 Rings of Health, casting Heavenly Shield and Regeneration. My Field Marshall was carrying a Dragon Scale Shield to give all creatures fire resistance. My 2nd archmage cast Guardian Angel on my Phoenixes (protected up to 9) and she had Devine Intervention just in case.

I had 30 Evil Sorceresses and 17 Faerie Dragons but didn't think they would be much help against Black Dragons.

I went SE 1st, NE 2nd and SW 3rd. If I had gone SW first I could have reached the tavern at (172,90) much earlier, hired Order Lords and paraded them around to the Learning Stones bringing in much more gold much earlier. The micromanagement headache was dealing with the limit of 8 armies. Three of my heroes had necromancy and one had summoning. I like to use the creatures gained to explore, gather and occupy mines (for visibility, not protection).

During the mid game I had Tarnum leading a large army of Order creatures (most of those were gifted during week 3, plus 8 Evil Sorceresses). My Field Marshall and 2nd archmage were touring with as many Phoenixes as I could muster and my Ninja was alone or with a temporary sprite, for more speed.

Tarnum reached L32 with Master Order Magic and Master Life magic with 47 total skill steps. Adelaide was L32 with GM Life Magic and Master Order Magic with 49 total skill steps. Christain was L31 with GM Tactics, Expert Combat, Scouting and Life Magic and Advanced Order Magic with a total of 50 skill steps. Eric Fade was L31 with GM Scouting (GM Pathfinding and GM Stealth) and Master Death Magic and a total of 47 skill steps.

I finished on M3W2D5

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Re: Master of the Elements (H4)

Unread postby iLiVeInAbOx05 » 14 Apr 2022, 20:58

Wheeler Dealer wrote: 14 Apr 2022, 19:20 This is a HoMM 3 Campaign converted for HoMM 4. Many thanks to whoever did this work.

Campaign Master of the Elementals

Thanks for the detailed review! I will need to read the rest once I get home from work. Also, these campaigns were ported from H3 by the H4 Restoration of Axeoth team, which you can find right here.

A quick question: Did you play this via the H4 Ultimate mod?

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Re: Master of the Elements (H4)

Unread postby cjleeagain » 15 Apr 2022, 16:00

I'm pretty sure Wheeler Dealer didn't, since he used evil sorceresses not toxic sorceresses.
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Re: Master of the Elements (H4)

Unread postby iLiVeInAbOx05 » 15 Apr 2022, 19:55

cjleeagain wrote: 15 Apr 2022, 16:00 I'm pretty sure Wheeler Dealer didn't, since he used evil sorceresses not toxic sorceresses.

Yeah it seems like it, but it is an older version since the missing keymaster tent was definitely fixed. Also it seems like this version doesn't have the AI enhancing scripts, which is another reason I ask.

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Re: Master of the Elements (H4)

Unread postby Wheeler Dealer » 20 May 2022, 16:38

Sorry to be so long getting back, I haven't had an answer to one of these reviews in so long that I don't check very often. Should have been posting here instead of on Fandom.

No, I didn't use the Ultimate Mod. I'm a little nervous about my technical skills and don't modify my game files for fear of having to reload everything and start over from scratch. I'm 76 and my computer skills are very old. I did make my living as a computer programmer briefly in 1969.

My WoWar exe file is ver. 3.002.

Hope you enjoyed my review.


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