Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

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maltz
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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby maltz » 07 Mar 2007, 02:48

Strange, I didn't come accross the town portal spell. Maybe it was offered in this very mission (I didn't bother building the mage guilds)? Or were you using the 2.0 version? In the original HoMM5, people used to town portal in C1M5 and C4M5, and in patch 1.1 or so they took out town portals in campaigns for good. (duh)
Edited on Tue, Mar 06 2007, 18:50 by maltz

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby Markal91 » 08 Mar 2007, 12:18

Nice walkthrough!

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Hammers of Fate ￾¨ Ylaya's Quest ￾¨ The Decoupling

Unread postby Grey Pilgrim » 17 Apr 2007, 16:37

Just wanted to say "Thanks" for the walkthroughs, Maltz! I played all of the HoF campaigns on Hard, and had a very enjoyable time using your walkthroughs. Well written, and very helpful in some of the "tough" spots. Thanks again for all the time you spent doing them.

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Hammers of Fate ￾¨ Ylaya's Quest ￾¨ The Decoupling

Unread postby Trelew » 25 Sep 2007, 12:42

Thanks for the walkthroughs. Just wondering something why have a level cap on the last adventure...doesn't make sense
Sanity is relative, for others it's a distant cousin.

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Hammers of Fate ￾¨ Ylaya's Quest ￾¨ The Decoupling

Unread postby kucing » 07 Oct 2007, 02:06

Good walkthrough!



A point to add: it is possible to destroy orange and the two garrisons in the first week and arrive at Horncrest on the last day. However, to do this you must not grab anything or visit any building. That means you go straight from G1 -> town B -> town F -> town E -> G2. Yes, it means you may take some losses in order to conserve mana but knocking out orange that early makes everything significantly simpler.

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Hammers of Fate ￾¨ Ylaya's Quest ￾¨ The Decoupling

Unread postby Guarderman » 28 Oct 2007, 12:32

Arghhh, this is frustating. in the final battle my 100 paladins attacked 720sheildguards that has rune of eathleness, and he had good luck and so he misses. That happend 4 times of 4:(

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Hammers of Fate ￾¨ Ylaya's Quest ￾¨ The Decoupling

Unread postby yeppados » 15 Nov 2007, 20:12

This mission is very unchalleging compared to the previous ones even on hard. The red player was killed quickly and provided a full buid city.

The only funny thing is the huge numbers of neutral units like the 10.000 enforcers but lost no troops agaist them :-( . I managed on hard to win the last battle only with the small Ylaya troops from her city (dragons are immune to enemy armageddon) even with almost all enemy troops using charge to attack my creatures in the very first round. Also Ylaya got the 3 inferno town (she had no resurrection) with some losses but without need to rest.

the only real challenge here is to visit all stat

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby Grail Quest » 05 Aug 2009, 06:15

Playing on Heroic and using the ToE mod.

Have a Destruction/Dark Ylaya build. Should have gone for the Ultimate instead of Ignite as most battles involving Warlocks are short, but oh well.



I had Ylaya clear the way for Isabel to come within sight of Horncrest, then double back to clear Orange Inferno. The reason is, they are NOT dormant enough. They hired a hero from the SW town to go after Isabel (Gilraen; ruined their Morale having the blade dancers in their army, too). And even after I took all three towns, their main hero, who had 240 Succubi (!) beelined for Ylaya or Isabel, whoever was closest to reach, and choosing the weaker one if both were in the same number of days away. There was a city (with no troops available for hire yet) and the AI just ran past it!



So, as there was no time limit specified for lifting the Horncrest siege, I let it wait while Orange was cleared. Isabel could clear a few mines, depending on their troop composition, but that was it. Orange chased her topside and I had to Town Portal back.



Red was similarly semi-dormant, emerging only if you get close to the garrison.



By week 4, Orange was dominated and sending out troops. Isabel had a good number of Inferno fast-movers and succubi. Her build is actually optimized for fast-movers like Inferno: Aura of Swiftness + Tactics = Cerberi can strike early when combat starts. Use Divine Guidance, and you will probably be able to deploy them twice before the enemy gets to counter, possibly three times. It's awesome. Too bad it's rubbish with Haven troops.



I rushed Ylaya east to take the Red Haven town (71 Blood Furies versus 10000 Brutes = flawless victory!), hung around for 1 day to get the Stable bonus, and is rushing back west to free Horncrest (although I might try to take Tor Hrall first just to see what happens).



Meanwhile, the three inferno towns are producing so many troops it would easily dwarf anything the two Haven towns had to offer as they've had weeks to build and the SE Inferno town starts nearly completely built up. Not enough gold to buy everything anyway.



Will see how the rest of the game plays on the ToE mod.

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby Grail Quest » 06 Aug 2009, 03:52

Re-played the mission, and here's an alternate run:

(1) Beeline Ylaya for Inferno town B (north). Keep rushing her to take all the Inferno towns. With no logistics, you can get them by week 2 day 1. The southeast town has a capital, so don't build one yourself.

(2) When you take the first Inferno town, hire a hero to buy at least a Ballista for Isabel, plus whatever troops are available. Chances are, the barracks will be empty, so transfer some troops from Ylaya. If you have Expert Dark, you can probably transfer some good ones like the Witches, leaving Ylaya lots of cannon fodder.

(3) Rush Isabel to the surface. She has a ballista and ballista skills (did you develop Fire Arrow and/or Triple Ballista?) so one strategy is to have fast units flee walkers whilethe ballista devastates them.

(4) Approach Horncrest but do not clear it. You can probably get there by week 1 day 7 with just a bit of time to spare. Do not lift the siege yet.

(5) Continue to rush Ylaya and head northeast. Clear the garrison for Isabel, then go east for LostDale. You probably don't have time to pick up the Cursed Ring guarded by way too many air elementals (although one Luck Empowered Meteor will flatted them into manageable numbers) if you are to reach LostDale by week 3 day 1, before Red can buy troops.

(4) Isabel goes for the blue tent then Town Portals back underground and takes the dungeon town. Buy only cash and resource buildings.You can spend cash on artifacts, but you might be tight on cash depending on your Ylaya build (I had Dark and Destruction).

(5) You are not on a time limit right now. Muck around while building your Inferno towns for cash and upgrade the troop dwellings in the northmost one if you want to buy more HP per unit.

(6) Move Ylaya to take the first garrison and exploring east in Dwarven lands for the Library of Enlightenment bonuses. There are NO Mana wells, so when you are ready for Tor Hrall, Summon Creature them in, and the next day use Dark Ritual to recover your mana. Also have Isabel Summon Creature to lighten the load.

My final army (again, I'm playing this in ToE; and not being excessively efficient with coordinating the Summon Creatures, I admit) was 467 Familiars (fully intending to keep Tolghar mana-dry, but I think he was scripted otherwise), 65 Grunt (leftover from earlier purchase), 62 Firehound (too fragile for a siege, didn't focus on getting these), 171 Succubus Seducer (should have gone for the Chain Shot), 90 Nightmares, 96 Pit Spawn, 25 Arch Demon.



Here's why Ylaya is best for taking Tor Hrall:

- Dwarven units have strong fire resistance/immunity, possibly from Rune use; Warlocks can blast through that and get Elemental Chain bonuses too

- With a lot of Imps, you can neutralize King Tolghar for his first round. Afterward, I don't know where he gets it, but his mana is always topped up and he can cast firewalls or implosions. Wimpy compared to yours but his Cleansing can be annoying).

- There is no mana well nearby. Only one in Dwarven lands, far to the west along a winding path. Forget it. Obviously Warlocks will have an advantage here.

- It's a siege and you'll have a hard time jamming your units past the strengthened walls, especially if Tolghar plugs the gate with one of his fat units. Warlocks win not with troops primarily, but with superior firepower.

- Expert Luck + Horseshoe = 50% double damage.

- Elemental Chains by large stacks can equal thousands in extra damage.



This mission turned out surprisingly fun! Unlike the other two, it really highlighted Warlocks, from start to finish.

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby Grail Quest » 06 Aug 2009, 04:08

Forgot to say: Tor Hrall was taken on Month 2, Week 2, Day 5. Duncan was still toughing out the siege.

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Unread postby Dstr » 23 Mar 2010, 12:00

playing on heroic as always, I have taken Tor Hrall on month 1, week 3, day 5, after only 18 days :) I have taken one inferno town just like maltz. i knew i wouldnt have time for the other ones.

i used Freyda for the final battle... with all the troops from Isabel and Duncan. i didn't bother to fight the 10 000 enforcers... or the other 2 inferno towns... i was expecting another objective after taking Tor Hrall... lol :) it's been a very tough fight after all. King Tolghar had a lot of mana to spare cleanse my frenzy or confusing spells ...

nice game, and good job maltz for the walkthrough ;)

i'm looking forward to playing the Tribes of East

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Unread postby RedTyke » 21 May 2010, 20:43

just tried this map twice arrived as instructed by day 7 and orange has taken my city ???????????????????????????????

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Unread postby cjlee » 20 Jun 2010, 17:12

This map can be won in two weeks, possibly in 10 days on Hard. I took 3 weeks mainly because I was dumb and made a detour to get the other red city, plus wasted time taking out Orange.



In my 3-week attempt, I sent Isabel and most of the troops (including Dungeon troops) against Orange. These guys have lots of imps, so Ylaya would be sucked dry. Sent Ylaya to the surface instead, reaching Horncrest and wiping out every single enemy stack by day 7.



Wasted one week looking for my enemy by going east to take out red. Also wasted Wulfstan's time sending him down to finish off the last inferno castle. What I should have done was made a beeline NE for Tolghar. After all, we know this map without cheating, having already played this map 4 times in Freyda and Wulfstan's campaigns!



Tolghar was destroyed easily by either Freyda or Ylaya in my 3-week attempt (I fought this battle twice to see how it worked.) Ylaya lost 1/2 her army; Freyda lost almost nothing thanks to resurrection. (I didn't get light magic for Ylaya)



Based on my experience, I would suggest that if you want to rush under two weeks (i.e. without extra Haven troop reinforcements), use Ylaya. Combine armies to get plenty of hit points in your army, because they need to stay alive until Ylaya's spells finish off Tolghar's army.



Playing with Ylaya in a mixed army, I didn't have leadership and my troops had poor morale, but it didn't matter because they weren't actually fighting anyway! Virtually all their casualties came from ranged troops plus Tolghar's implosions.



Tolghar's gang are dwarves, so they cast runes of elemental immunity and resurrection. To make sure that Ylaya can win against Tolghar, remember to use her Special Ability!



Ylaya is a Dark Ritual specialist! At level 28 she gets 56 mana above her usual mana. That meant 150+56 = 206 mana in my case. I finished off Tolghar with about 78 mana left, but had to switch spells because some spells didn't work thanks to the runes. if you attack in week 2 the extra mana might make the difference between winning and losing.



I thought I was pretty slow, but finished on Hard in 209 days as a Black dragon. Based on estimates of my many screwups, I think better players can do this in 180 days or less.



DSTR:

I think the way to really play Freyda is to use her Mass Haste specialization to the max. I didn't have dark magic, but I always caste Mass Haste, then Benediction (or slow), then use Divine Guidance nonstop on the griffins or champions. This way, the enemy never has time to even get in a turn while you are hammering his stacks.

The autocombat is truly lousy. I got a phone call just as the battle began, so I let autocombat run. Freyda cast many light magic spells - all except Mass Haste!!!!! Tolghar frenzied my stacks repeatedly and easily crushed my forces.
Edited on Sun, Jun 20 2010, 13:33 by cjlee

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby cjlee » 23 Jun 2010, 17:23

I just replayed this map and found it can be done in 10 days or less:



Note: Ylaya, Freyda and Wulfstan were leveled by me as part of the game, so I gave all 3 logistics. Duncan and Isabel have their stats set by Nival, and don't have logistics. In any case you want the final battles fought by your 3 heroes.



Days 1-4 Rush Ylaya down south to the staircase, climb to the surface. Quite straightforward because the road's obvious.

Let Isabel pick up the resources.

You will need (some) resources for wulfstan to use in combat.



Day4 Ylaya arrived outside Horncrest. She actually lifted the siege, although did not have enough movement to kill any enemy stacks.



Day 5 Ylaya destroyed all enemy stacks and all 5 heroes are now available.

Ylaya down to half movement. Sent her to the castle (to obtain stables benefit). Sent all heroes into Horncrest to get the stables bonus.

Isabel, thanks to having her stats set by the pathetic Nival, was barely on the surface.



Day 6 Grabbed all nearby mines with Freyda. (mainly for Wulfstan to have resources). Used Wulfstan to take the only important artifact for my 10-day assault: the +2 spellpower breastplate guarded by Djinns slightly to the east of the first garrison. Took out first garrison guarded by Dwarves. I used Wulfstan so that Ylaya could save her troops and mana.



Day 7 Wulfstan was standing outside the second dwarven garrison. He could take it, but I discovered my Ylaya was almost at level 27. So I waited for Ylaya to catch up.



Day 8 Ylaya level 27, but damned computer offered her awful skills. Expert attack, Archery or Resourcefulness! Took Archery grouchily. Ylaya and Wulfstan just outside Tolghar's castle; Freyda was catching up at the second dwarven garrison.



Day 9 My first try with Ylaya, using only her troops. Her mana 119 because I didn't use Dark Ritual. Tolghar trashed her. I don't know why, but he kept casting armageddon, then hero-attacked the black dragons. Armageddon was costing him 10 mana per try; Ylaya ran out of mana. (In my earlier attempts he never cast armageddon).



Reloaded and used dark ritual, which took away all my movement.



Day 10 Freyda caught up and gave her troops to Ylaya. Ylaya went to battle with 6 black dragons, 6 archangels, 32 paladins, etc. (all the troops from the Haven heroes).



Again that SOB Tolghar cast armageddon nonstop. His annoying troops kept casting runes of elemental immunity and resurrection. Mine kept dying from his Ignite (from Armageddon). This was really an example of how exasperating it is to fight a rich dwarf. I went to battle with 204 mana and finished with only 18 mana, 3 black dragons and 26 inquisitors.



done in 10 days! yay!

Best of all, they gave me some kind of bonus score for finishing so quickly. In my earlier attempt I finished in 219 or 221 days and got a score of around 24000/ Black Dragon. By slicing 10 days off my earlier campaign time, my score shot up to 36848 points/ Black dragon.



Depending on your Ylaya build, I think this map might be winnable in 8 days on Hard. Wimfrits, you're needed!




Edited on Wed, Jun 23 2010, 13:31 by cjlee

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Unread postby RedTyke » 09 Jul 2010, 15:40

I have played on heroic and found it quite easy but on easy its quite impossible because you loose your town and all other heros by day 5 any one else found this bug - how did you get passed it

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby ShadowLiberal » 24 Nov 2011, 20:01

After I retook Horncrest I split my heroes up.



Ylaya captured all the demon towns.



Wulfstan captured the other Haven Town.



Freyda stormed towards the Dwarf town, but I had to wait for a couple of weeks to assault their town, since their army was too strong. Eventually though Freyda was able to overtake the Dwarfs and win the mission in no time.



This was a much simpler mission than I thought it would be.
Edited on Thu, Nov 24 2011, 15:02 by ShadowLiberal

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Unread postby ILoveMagic » 22 May 2012, 08:10

Just created this account to participate in this conversation too!



In my 3 mission attempts (Hard Mode), I lifted horncrest before taking any other towns.



1st attempt, Duncan and Isabel served as pickers and troop reinforcements while Wulfstan takes over mines and creatures' treasures in the surface while Ylaya and Freyda are taking over the Inferno castles. Also built altar of heaven and upgraded creature buildings of horncrest. Never bothered the east red Castle and attacked Tor Ghal around Month 2 (Mid-month) using Freyda. Lost the game because of resurrection runes, armageddon and other runes.



2nd attempt, Duncan, Isabel, and Wulfstan all on the surface while Wulf is taking over mines and treasures. Freyda and Ylaya still conquered underground but this time, conquered the dungeon town although only used it for income. Still didn't bother with the east red Castle. Around the same time, which is week 2 of 2nd month, attack Tor Ghal with Ylaya this time having a Demon Army. Swarm of Familiars, Overseers, Throng HellHounds and Succubi Mistress, Horde Nightmare Pit Lord, and Lots Arch Devil. The fight seems to be in favor of King Tor Ghal because I didnt expect he would get another 60 mana after familiars taking them. He kept casting armageddon and runes to resurrect and while the battle is still on-going, attacked Magma Dragons with my Arch Devils to my surprise the Magma Dragons had "Preparation" which made my Arch Devils crumble then the game suddenly crashed before my Arch Devil delivers attack! I'm pretty sure I lost that battle if it continued though.



Last attempt:



Isabel and Duncan picking up resources, Wulfstan taking mines, Freyda and Ylaya conquering underground then around 3rd week of 1st month conquered Dungeon by Wulfstan, then attacked the east red Castle with Freyda (10,000 conscripts were surprisingly easy to handle because Freyda's Mass Haste is very good and she also has blind spell thanks to my previous choice of bonus!). I kept visiting all +stats places for Ylaya then decided to attack the surface using Ylaya and Freyda after transferring all Dwarf creatures to the both of them. Defeated the Wraiths, Magma Dragons, Lava Dragons, Wolves, Titans, etc and took all artifacts. Before the mission started I thought Ylaya would be best to take over Tor Ghal, but after getting all stat bonuses from locations and combining all the artifacts, I had a change of heart and made Freyda my hero to beat the King. Developed Black Dragon dwelling, Matriarch, Arch Devil, Pit Lord, Nightmare, Succubi Mistress, and Cerberi at first when I was thinking Ylaya was best then I chose to have Paladins and Inquisitors instead of Matriarch and Mistress instead. I have roughly 3 days left before the mission fails then I attacked the King. I'm so happy because it was very easy to defeat him even if he's using resurrection and armageddon because I had all the artifacts and my units were very strong. Throng Cerberi, Inquisitors, Nightmares, Horde Pit Lords, Paladins, Lots Arch Devils (45), and 15 Black Dragons. I stepped on the moat of his castle but he's still no match. I casted all the Mass Light spells and it was obvious. I felt very good after seeing his huge army go down with the way and I felt very bad when my 40 arch devils (reduced by moat to 40) attacked his range units >:). The Shield Guards just died from the Cerberi and Paladins and the Warlord and Magma Dragons were killed by Inquisitors, ArchDevils, Black Dragons and Cerberi. My Pit Lord and Nightmare didn't contribute much.



I think it's fun to finish this campaign quickly and to get a high score, but it just gives me pleasure to take opportunity of everything the map had to offer. I felt very glad! Now time to play Tribes of the East!

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Unread postby ILoveMagic » 22 May 2012, 08:34

Oh btw, I never used save in the first two attempts. I saved the game 4 times in the last attempt but I didn't need to load because I made a mistake or failed. I loaded because I went out to get food and had to shut down the comp while I was out.

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Unread postby CeeBee » 20 Oct 2012, 18:52

Finally got around to playing the campaign and made it to this final map. I don't have resurrection :( so I found that trying to take G1 and the first town caused me a lot of losses. I restarted and headed straight for the top and had the orange armies chase me all the way up top. They surely are not dormant in my game. I'm having to rethink what I'm going to do on this one.

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Hammers of Fate → Ylaya's Quest → The Decoupling

Unread postby Wheeler Dealer » 08 Dec 2013, 19:48

2.1 Hard



I played this years ago on 2.0 and just skipped the difficult garrisons until my armies were larger. Then you could get instant travel in one of the missions so as long as one hero got scholar they all got it. This time I had to fight the garrisons as intended.



Sent Ylaya east and Wulfstan and Freyda underground. Ylaya was built with Dark and Destructive magic. The 10,000 red conscripts went easily to Mass Slow followed by a puppet master and some frenzy spells. I lost 1 Grim Raider to impatience. Captured Lostdale and all three Inferno cities by day one of week 3. I had to rush Wulfstan into a battle a bit too tough for him and took meaningful casualties taking the last Inferno city.



As it played out, Wulfstan's Ignite and Fireball weren't fast enough to prevent some casualties, even with the 645 hp Resurrection spell he had picked up and as a mission starting choice during his campaign. He ended up using his Expert Summoning more than his Expert Destruction. He really never found suitable troops to add to his army, at least not without taking some of the Haven troops Freyda and Duncan were using. That didn't seem like a great choice.



Freyda was very good, Expert White and Dark. Her biggest problem was that she was so slow getting around the map.



I decided to fill in some weaknesses in Ylaya's army with inferno troops. She didn't have Resurrection and had took casualties against Enemy heroes or towns. I wanted either cerberus, pit lords or arch devils. I chose cerebus and later wished I had chosen pit lords or devils. The cerebus was great for an open field where Ylaya didn't need any help but worthless in the final siege of Tor Hrall.



After taking Lostdale and the inferno cities I took my time exploring, hitting the stat boost and collecting artifacts. The dungeon city solved Ylaya's attrition problems.



I played the final battle twice, once with Freyda and all the haven troops I could accumulate. In my first time to play, years ago, Freyda didn't have dark magic and I just remember she cast mass something every turn. This time she used mostly dark magic, puppet master and frenzy in particular. I also tried the battle with Ylaya. It was pretty much the same. Losses in both cases, but then it was the last battle.



There were 16 black dragons and 19 archangels in my armies at the end. Tolghar had 30 Lava Dragons and 70 Warlords. I finished on day 3 week 1 month 3, about a week to spare.


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