Hack & Slash → Grave Robber

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Grail Quest
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Hack & Slash → Grave Robber

Unread postby Grail Quest » 16 Jun 2007, 22:51

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/214

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Grail Quest
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Posts: 181
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Hack & Slash → Grave Robber

Unread postby Grail Quest » 16 Jun 2007, 22:51

There are interesting maps, and then there are irritating maps. This is an irritating map, designed to cause you stress no matter how good a player you are.

* You cannot capture enemy towns although you can easily assemble an overwhelming force against them if you are focussed and march down into the swamps. (Especially easy if you collect Crossbowmen and protect them with Mass Slow on the enemy. Losses can be avoided entirely this way if you judiciously choose which stacks to fight and which to skip or allow to flee).

* The enemy has a teleporter which puts them right outside the neutral Haven you can capture and build a Tavern in. It is, of course, one-way.

* You have to run around the map looking for Guard Tents, all the while defending your towns which are far away. Even if you managed to get Crag Hack Earth Magic and Town Portal (which would have given you a more or less easy time in the previous scenario), each time you are forced to teleport back, you lose time -- that is, you waste more of your life grinding through this scenario.

* The path to the Shield has two scripted surprise events which can devastate your army, losing you game-weeks of work. Unless you read a walkthrough. In which case consider the impact of the event and I think you'll realize it is very risky to use, having the potential to make enemies instead of give an "Ha ha! That was neat!" effect. In fact, they have by now overused this device in various maps. (Don't they have any other tool in the toolbox?) Why can't they just use visible stacks that can grow over time?



I like challenging maps, but IMO this map crosses the line into stupid. I recommend you try it for a reasonable amount of time, but thereafter instead of wasting your life in front of the computer, just cheat your way through it and move along if you really want to see the SoD campaign in its entirety. I doubt even ratcheting down the difficulty will really alleviate the stress.
Edited on Sat, Jun 16 2007, 18:58 by Grail Quest

vil2
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Hack & Slash → Grave Robber

Unread postby vil2 » 07 Jul 2013, 13:16

This mission can be incredibly hard.

What I did after a few tries was :



- 1st week : tag wood, ore mines, collect artifacts, war academy and wandering bonuses. Build the dwelling 1 to 5 without upgrading yet. Build a castle.



- 2nd week : tag the other mines, guarded by vampires, and take the 2nd town. Then free Slash from his cell. Give Crag Hack a decent amount of troops (give Slash's army), and clean the remaining monsters in your zone. Don't build your 1st town during week 2, build a city hall in the 2nd town instead.



- 3rd week : After recruting, kill the ghost dragons in the north and claim their artifacts and the town portal scroll. Go visit the southern Utopia (don't forget the keymasters tents), and then the eastern Utopia.



Now what worked well for me was that every time the enemy hero was teleporting in my zone, I immediately used Town Portal, which made him flee (with a town portal spell, too). He came 3 or 4 times and every time I just had to TP, make him flee (I did not attack him because I would have suffered too much losses), recruit if possible, and go back to where I was. With a logistic Crag, I had so much move points it was not a problem to go back and forth.



- 5th - 6th week : your castle should be fully upgraded, you should recruit all the creatures in the external dwellings and then upgrade them in your town.



- When you have some Archangels in your army, go to the eastern subterranean gate, when you exit it, go south to the port, rent a boat and go on the northwestern coast of the island to the green tent. Then immediately go to the south subterranean gate (south of the port) and follow the path that lead to Charnath. Kill him, then go as fast as possible to the Shield which is now available.



With this tactic I was able to finish the mission in less than 3 months, the TP trick worked well because I did not had a single loss. So it is still possible even if Crag has not taken Earth Magic (My Crag Hack was full Attack with Air Magic only). Confronting the enemy heroes leads to some impossible fights in my opinion. Good luck !
Edited on Sun, Jul 07 2013, 09:21 by vil2

Dec
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Hack & Slash → Grave Robber

Unread postby Dec » 08 Sep 2013, 20:03

Just completed on impossible difficulty. I chose the gloves as a bonus so this made it even harder because I found another pair on the 2nd week.



I flagged wood, ore and gold mines on first week (gold mine had liches, Destroy Undead on them), freed Slash, gave Crag artifacts + army and captured the second town. Also built 1-4 lvl creatures + castle the first week.



At the beginning of 2nd week I teleported to main castle (had TP from previous map), upgraded my swordsmen to crusader and went for the utopia to the south. It gave me black orb which was good combined with my expert Berserk as undead are immune to it.



At the end of 2nd week I didn't have cavaliers yet so I just flagged all mines + the wyvern building the next week.



I build Training Grounds and Portal of glory on 3rd week and went for the other utopia at the beginning of 4th. Luckily the utopia wasn't taken so I visited both it and the marletto tower. It gave me Sentiniel Shield which made my Crag 34 -38. I teleported back and upgraded my angels and cavaliers.



At the beginning of Month 2 I had 5 Archangels and over 100 Royal Griffins so I went for Charnath. The AI didn't attack me on my way so I killed that hero using mass Berserk on his Dragons and Vampires and on his Zombies. I had to teleport back because the AI main active hero followed, was extremely quick and had over 100 Liches and 50 Dread Knights and also because I had only my Griffins left from the tough battle. So I bought the rest army and went on the isle to get the shield.



Completed on 2nd month, 3rd week without any towns and 4 days left to capture one.
Edited on Sun, Sep 08 2013, 16:05 by Dec


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