Negative: Heroes don't carry over and only occasionally an artifact.
Positive: The scenarios are interesting and challenging.
It took me 35 real days to complete. I'm retired and play 1 to 4 hours a day. Figure a 100 hour challenge if you are about as good as I am.
Uprising
Week 1, I took the Crest of Valor. Bought a City Hall and hired an Order Lord on day 1. The two learning stones will allow him to reach L3 and pay for himself in 2 weeks. Both my heroes are L3.
There is an orange town within 2 days ride to the west. I stole a nearby centaur stable and a Gold Mine and hit another Learning Stone. Orange didn't seem interested in coming out to fight so I sent my Order Lord to hit the Learning Stone and Arena before trying to put together an army to try to liberate my ore pit. He jumped my Order Lord with his army and sent a single centaur after Nef. Not only that but he left his town undefended!
Week 2, The wood shortage may be worse than I thought! The Emperor sent 10 the first week but only 5 this week. I'm producing harpies now. On 1,2,4 I finally put together an army that took the ore pit.
On 1,2,7 I attacked the orange town with Nef, 8 harpies, 49 centaurs and 97 berserkers. Costly victory. Lost all berserkers, 6 harpies and 28 centaurs! Ouch!!!
Week 3, Yikes!!! Red just showed up with an impressive army. I tried several tactics. Thought I might have to either start over on a lower difficulty or use a cheat to get by the first scenario. After I launched a couple of guerilla attacks Red settled into my home town. I took my army and marched NW hoping to take Red's home town. When I spotted it, I either had to give up another turn for him to reinforce or drop all but my harpies so I could reach it a turn sooner. Invaded with Nef, 4 harpies and an Order Lord. Barely won, glad I had taken that PoI!
Opened Teal Border Gate. There is a haven I would like to take while I can use the seminary.
Week 4, Can't beat the haven yet. I'm hiring heroes, cleaning up the neutral armies and building my two towns.
Week 5, Nef reached L6, not maxed! I have two rotating Order Lords riding with my main army, so far, two have reached L5. On 2,1,4 I've taken everything except the last Red and Blue towns. My best creatures in my army are griffins and WEs.
Week 6, Red took his main army out of my home town to attack my secondary stronghold. I bought up all my troops and slipped my knight in. We held and he didn't retreat!?! Now I have to decide, take back my home town and out produce green to the end or hold off on red so I can take the haven and use the Seminary and Magic Guild. If I knew what was going forward...
Week 7, Took the haven, got a lot of skills from the Seminary for my barbarian, General and druid. Not decided which I would take forward if there is only one.
Island of Chaos
There is a Water Wheel and a Training ground in the NW that can't be reached.
Well, this is disappointing. No hero came forward, I got a L1 archer. Took the 2000g, hired a druid. I start way behind in all categories.
Week 1, By circling around to the north I can attack the gold mine from a location that allows me to retreat. Took out 10 of 50 centaurs on the 1st try. Took the gold mine on day 6. There are 13 white tigers nearby. If I take in 5 sprites and both heroes, I can take out one before I retreat.
Week 2, Took out the last 6 white tigers with 3 heroes. Headed for the 52 gargoyles north of my town, not ready. My 3 heroes only managed to kill 1.
Week 3, After several H&R attacks on the gargoyles with heroes only, I finally beat the last 21 with 4 heroes, 22 elves 1 water elemental and 6 unicorns. (Flawless) That got me a sawmill and an alchemist lab.
Week 4, First encounter with Red, this may require some finesse. According to the TG I am down by 3:1 in towns and armies! Took a lightly defended stronghold in the NW. Huge battle with Red near N stronghold. Greatly outnumbered but managed a win with light casualties. Another difficult battle with Red but now he is down to a much smaller army than mine.
Week 5, took Red's last two towns and eliminated Red. Orange has a nearby stronghold with a huge army. Slipped through the blue portal and found 2 undefended asylums belonging to Orange. Took one before Orange could defend it. The next turn Orange had hired a Black Dragon and three nightmares to defend. I had an archer and a sorcerer along with a Hydra, a nightmare and 2 medusas. I almost didn't even try it, but I won without casualties. The key was to get my Hydra and nightmare onto turrets.
Week 6, Orange took back his two Asylums, my main army was roaming, clearing some of the original neutral stacks and covering all the plus ups. I took Phoenixes instead of Faire Dragons since my enemy's best creature is the Black Dragon. (What is the best creature against Black Dragons?)
Week 7, found an island in the NE corner that has a Tree of Knowledge, Arena, two artifacts and a bunch of resources. I'm still playing as though some of these heroes will come forward at some point.
Week 8, Trading towns back and forth with Orange.
Week 9, Crystal is a problem. Almost built out. Playing with my food. The TG tells me I'm almost equal with armies and dominating income!
Week 10, Building up my army, sent my heroes to the ToK, not long now.
Week 11, Hit the main Orange army in a castle. Really tough to deal with 300 Orcs and 47 medusas on turrets. Then there were the 700 bandits, 10 Hydras and 35 Nightmares! I had 5 Black Dragons, 6 Angels, 17 WEs, and 4 heroes. Lots of Wasp Swarm and Confusion, took enough hits to exhaust the orcs ammo. Got into town and took turrets for my Angels and Black Dragons. Ultimately lost 2 Black Dragons.
Won on 3,3,4
Arrow's Flight
I guess I have to give up on heroes coming forward. I did bring forward the Gryphonheart Armor, but I'm forced to start this scenario with a L1 Order Lord! Kinda fun actually, building a useful army of creatures from the beginning!
Week 1, Took the nearby neutral town on 1,1,5
Week 2, took the gold mine. Cleared my home area. Producing Genies!
Week 3, The Elves weren't much trouble but the 22 cyclopes guarding the Teal Keymaster were quite challenging. After a couple of failed attempts, I dropped my dwarves and halflings and went with 4 stacks of 2 genies (3,3,1,1 for the genies would have worked better), 17 mages and 2 heroes. Difficult, but a flawless victory.
Week 4, Took both Red Towns and eliminated Red at 1,4,3. Took the first Green town on 1,4,7 but the TG still shows me with a smaller army than Green.
Week 5, Took the last Green town, held on for three turns for the win, there were lots of other things to do but since no heroes carry forward, what's the point?
The Abyss
You start with a L4 Archer and a fair army. Good thing since your town can't produce any creatures. You have only 14 days to win the scenario. You can restart to get a different selection of spells in the Magic Guild.
Week 1, Day 1, built a tavern and hired a druid, bought stuff, put together all but the elves and wolves (I wanted the fastest possible army), split the Evil Sorceresses and took out the Ogre Magi recovering the Dragon Scale Armor. The ES are clearly your most powerful units, but they mess up your morale!
On day 3 I had a battle with 302 centaurs, very difficult to get through with no casualties. There were 22 Griffins next and, surprisingly, they were much easier.
Week 2, finished on 2,1,2! Took The Path of Magic. Never lost a creature or doubled back for spells. My heroes were a L8 Battle Mage and a L5 Druid.
The Giant's Pass
I liked the balance of this scenario. I was able to buy about 6 skills each for my 2 main heroes from the seminaries in my 2 havens. Never got back to the ToK. Never had a L4 creature.
Week 1, You start with a L1 knight and a tavern you can use for a priest or an Order Lord. You have 3 artifacts. Day 2, took the gold mine. Took another haven on 1,1,6.
Week 2, Took a Preserve in the NW from Red.
Week 3, Took one of Red's towns, the last will be problem because of the cyclopes on the turret. I have to buy all my rare resources except for mercury, slow going!
Week 4, Red took his army and headed for my, preserve. I had an Order Lord camped in a nearby mine and he jumped in and stole the last Red town. No hope of holding it, of course. Back and forth, denying Red of gold and buying creatures so I wouldn't have to fight them.
Week 5, Red took my preserve and held it a few days. Wasn't bad, he apparently started with lots of resources and built a creature portal and a citadel quickly. I took that time to gather my army and clear the last neutral stack of ghosts to gain the Lion's Shield. He took his main army back to his home stronghold and I took back the preserve.
The final battle was for his home town. I had a L7 General, a L6 Archmage, 6 water elementals, 18 monks, 43 pikemen, 222 crossbowmen and 103 squires. the main problem was 9 cyclopes on a turret. I lost nearly half of my troops and went through 3 PoI. Won on 2,1,6.
Aurora Borealis
Bummer, My artifacts didn't come forward. I took the Crusaders since I already had 6. That should make a formidable army by itself.
Rare resources are extremely scarce, I was forced to use Crusaders and Champions rather than Monks and Angels.
Week 1, I built a tavern and hired a priest on day one, then took the gold mine. Bummer again, the old elf told me elven troops would join me, guess that doesn't include satyrs.
Week 2, took Orange's stronghold, tough battle, several casualties. Hired 2 Order Lords, not as appealing with no Learning Stones in sight.
Red came calling with a tough army. Tried putting together my best and meeting them on the open field. No dice. Retreated to my stronghold which had a castle. Took some experimenting to figure out how to prevent the 4 cyclopes from hitting troops on the ground (they didn't do much damage to the troops on the turrets). My 54 crossbowmen on a turret won the day with an assist from my 7 Crusaders.
Week 3, the neutral army guarding a neutral stronghold moved and I had an Order Lord close enough to swoop in and capture the unguarded town. What?! The neutral army recaptured the town! Red has sent another invading army!
Week 4, Red is playing Cat & Mouse with me. He has two smaller armies and moves toward and away depending on my army's movement.
Week 5, took the Red home town (last) in a tough battle. Red's remaining army marched on my stronghold in the NE. My second army (might troops and a knight and priest) entrenched there and won. I control everything except the neutral town on south of the border gates.
Week 6, Tried the neutral town guard and it was clear that if I won it would be at great cost. Sent my main army back to take out the Ogre Magi near Sturgis. My two heroes need to visit the seminary at Raste. Four useful skills for each.
Week 7, took out the 80 Orge Magi flawlessly. Two of my strongholds are building Thunderbirds
Week 8, both heroes bought L2 Nature & L1 Order magic.
Week 9, defeated the large neutral army. Easy with a few helpful spells. Lost one champion. Finally found the Portal to cross the river. Tracked down Red's last hero. There is necropolis (Green) here that looks challenging. Challenging was an understatement! I need a better plan or a better army.
Week 10, I have 4 strongholds and one haven, may be time to switch my main army.
Week 11, The necropolis is still too hard. I plan to try for two more levels from the sea monsters and the ToK while bringing the biggest army I can buy for the last battle. My haven army can't take the sea monsters w/o significant casualties.
Week 12, put together an army to take on the sea monsters. I had L9 and L10 heroes along with a L2 knight and L2 priest included in a barbarian army. Both knew wasp swarm. I put together the 4 heroes with cyclops, harpies and crossbowmen. I had a Crossbow of Sloth. One hero shot one stack of SM each turn, 2 cast wasp swarm and my archmage cast various blessing on my creatures each turn. Flawless victory. My L9 and L10 heroes each got 1 level and the L2 heroes got 2.
On 3,4,6 I took the necropolis. I had 2 heroes plus Champions, Thunderbirds, Cyclops, Crusaders and crossbowmen. Minimal casualties. The Cyclops with Precision were critical in taking out the shooters on turrets.
Betrayal's End
No artifact came forward. You start with a L6 general. I built a tavern and hired a priest on day 1.
Week 1, Disappointing, I encountered a stack of neutral elves and they offered to help and then attacked me. Flagged 7 mines, no battles.
Week 2, Massed my army to try to take a second gold mine. Got the second gold mine and the Alchemist's Guild. I'm building monks and built a very nice Seminary. Both my heroes got a level.
Week 3, the medusae are guarding 4 useful artifacts. Defeated 2 stacks of elves and got a 4 leaf clover, Hired a mage.
Week 4, took a neutral necropolis in the SW. Recovered Gryphonheart Armor and Helm of Command from Blue in far SW. Trivial battle. Building Angels.
Week 5, defeated the Efreeti and minotaur, contact with Green (most powerful by a lot).
Week 6, Killed 29 Sea Monsters. Used a general, a summoner, a battle mage, 2 stacks of water elementals, monks and crossbowmen. Lots of xp!!! Defeated 25 Cyclops and 60 harpies for traveling boots.
Week 7, took 2 Green Towns
Week 8, took penultimate Green town, Green still strongest per TG. Back and forth with Green. I control 6 towns to Green's 1, but the armies are rated about the same.
Week 9, On 3,1,2 conquered the last Green town. Lost 4 Crusaders. Beat 14 Black Dragons, losing 1 of 13 Angels defeating the Dragon City. Found Lord Kreager in far NE behind the Red BG.
Week 10, On 3,2,4 I defeated Lord Kreager but wasn't immediately given the victory. Had to hold my towns for 3 days! Not a problem since the only army left were a group of Green creatures w/o a hero.
My finishing army was 26 Angels, 73 Monks, 31 Crusaders, 426 crossbowmen, a L18 General and 2 L15 Archmages. Took no casualties in the final battle.
Corruption's Heart
You start with a L2 Order Lord and a few excellent artifacts. I took the 20 magi since it didn't appear that gold was going to be a problem.
The spells in the magic guild and two artifacts change when you restart. There were a few spells I really wanted, Precision, Slow, Forgetfulness, Teleport, and Town Gate. I had to restart 10 times before I got Precision, so I just took whatever came with that.
Week 1, Built a tavern, hired a mage, gave her the Supreme Crown and took out the 24 minotaur on day one. Finally, I approached 30 elves and they joined! I gave my mage all three chests for the xp. I want her to reach Expert Order Magic ASAP. Day 3 we beat the Hydras with minimal casualties. Melody got Expert Order Magic and hurried home to learn the spells.
Week 2, took the haven to my north. Hired a knight and another Order Lord. Careful with your boats, until you can build a shipyard in the haven, you have to make do with the three you can capture. I'm up to 4 towns, Green is down to 3. BTW, each army needs to have one hero that can cast Summon Ship!
Week 3, up to 6 towns
Week 6, I moved into the SW through a BG and a Purple Portal. May have been premature. These armies are huge!
Week 8, took Green's last town, I have 8 now.
Week 9, building, journeyed back home to study in seminary and university. I have 13 Order Lords, all have hit my only Learning Stone. The entire NE area is scouted. Found a Learning Stone and a Dream Teacher in the far NE, let's get all these Order Lords over there!
Logistics is a real headache. I can't create caravans from my main city even though I can create caravans to it! Only three towns can build a boat in a position where it can be reached. I have bought Life Magic for several of my Order Lords and taught them Summon Ship.
Week 10, took a lightly defended necropolis. Defended against a huge army, lots of levels. Took another academy in the SW.
Week 12, TG finally shows my army stronger than Purple. Half of Orange and 5% of Red. Took Purple's last town.
Week 14, Some back & forth with Orange, I'm getting close.
Week 15, on 4,3,4 eliminated Orange. TG still shows me to be a hopeless underdog to Red. Organizing to take out the two Dragon Cities. Then I'll tiptoe into Red territory, Town Gate should prevent any disaster.
Week 16, my normal income is about 27K per day and the treasuries bring in another 34K. First contact with Red. My thief barely got away. There were two L21 heroes in that army. My best is L18. Took the southern Dragon City (21 Black Dragons) losing some halflings. Still a prohibitive underdog to Red.
Week 17, Yikes, here's a Red army with 1669 Bone Dragons, 1435 Vampires, 500 Venom Spawn, a L25 General and more! My army has 63 Titans and 86 Genies
. Took the Northen Dragon City.Week 18, Building my army, gathering xp. Took the Red army in the far SW (45 Black Dragons, 45 Hydras, 13 Titans and more. Lost a Genie and each hero got a level. Looks like this got me up to 15% of the Red army, trouble is my army is split between an order army, a nature army and a death army. My Prophet slipped into red territory for the third time and did some damage.
Week 19, I have three large armies. The Nature and Order armies have heroes that know Town Portal. Time to see if I can start doing a bit of damage. My main army (order) visited the ToK.
Week 20, Hit Red's Island with two large armies. Knocked out a big army and took one city but when Red's main army attacked mine I had to Town Gate out after inflicting insignificant casualties. Beat Red down to one town defended his huge army. I decided to try it and bail (Town Gate) if it wasn't going well.
Red Army: L25 General, 1724 Bone Dragons, 1521 Vampires, 500 Venom Spawn, 690 ghosts, 2605 skeletons and 1165 imps.
My Army: Two Archmages (L21 and L19), L19 Illusionist, 89 Titans, 131 Genies, 271 magi and 1160 halflings.
The first key was to get past the 1st round without my L21 Archmage getting killed twice. Slow and Mass Slow to hold back the flyers with Song of Peace to prevent the VS from firing on the second round. My Titans took out the General. A couple of Teleports and a Forgetfulness to defend my troops. The Genies started replicating Vampires (eventually over 500) every turn and some more teleports coupled with Vials of Binding on the GDs and Vampires as possible. Now some Quicksand in front of the gate and I had them penned in. Now it was mostly a game of patience. Flawless Victory!!!
Illustrating the power of Magic over Might!
There are 7 towns that allow incoming but not outgoing caravans (intentional?). This severely complicated moving my troops. Sometimes I felt like I was playing Railroad Tycoon. At the end I had over 5M gold with 35K gold normal income and another 200K from Treasuries per day.
Fun, challenging, I may actually replay this scenario!
