Walkthroughs
- by maltz
Warning: Wearing over-sized wings could result in unexpected loss of balance and back muscle strain. INTRODUCTION
While Epilogue 1 happens on the sky, Epilogue 2 takes place deep in the abyss. The last mission of Heroes6 is actually beautifully designed and well balanced, featuring a spectacular finale and review of the regular campaigns: legions of neutral creatures, decent mini-boss fights with Sanctuary, Stronghold, Haven, and Necropolis (no Inferno - probably because they have been defeated in the regular campaign), and a final boss that surpasses anything else big you have brought down in the game.
All you need to do is to pick your best Blood character and enjoy the thrill! This walkthrough features Anton (Blood + Might) because I have never seen Imperial Griffins' battle dive (it was bugged before v1.2). Please feel free to try other characters.
This mission is very linear. You have to defeat one faction after another; they don't come together. So this mission is easier than it seems - you always focus on one enemy at a time. You gain powers from taking each faction's well-developed towns, which are quite lightly defended like in mission 1. There will be aggressive heroes hunting you down as soon as you enter, but they are just as week as those back in mission 1.
At the end of each faction's territory, there will be a mini-boss fight that unlocks the next area. While the mini-bosses often carry armies that are above Moderate threat (up to Deadly), none of them should be overwhelmingly difficult as long as you keep a steady pace and waiting for the next week's growth should you find a battle too difficult... to win without any loss.
A Marksman's dream: all enemies voluntarily line up for a perfect shot during high morale + luck!Guess what, you will be able to collect Moon Fragments again! However, there is NO Tear of Asha in this mission (feature or bug?). All you get for collecting four fragment is the completed moon disc that enables you summon 3 pheonixes, which is completely useless by the time you get it (unless you use Sandor, you should start a mission with one anyway). The location of the fragments will be omitted from the map.
But even when there is no Tear of Asha, there will be enough towns to give you a gigantic army to fight the final boss. If you don't upgrade all creature buildings, you should have enough resources and gold to hire all creatures.
Epilogue mission 2
Level cap: 30
Difficulty Index: 3/6
Last updated: December 29, 2011 (v1.2)
Dynasty Traits: Same as the mission 1, first free generic hero (hire another Might hero anyway) is great. You can also go for the campaign-completion bonus trait. For Haven it is +4 Leadership.
You start the mission at the lower left corner (start). Since this is the abyss, you are actually on the upper level. Your main character stands beside Town A, while your side kick hero should spawns beside Fort B. Take out all neutral stacks around Town A, collect resources, and flag the resource buildings on your way out. You can clear the neutrals at (1) so your side kick hero can contribute her/his army to your main hero. South of (1) you can flag a crystal mine.
Your town is very underdeveloped, but the Sanctuary AI's towns are very well built. To harvest AI's towns as soon as possible, you can use your income and loots to hire generic heroes, and combine their army (shooters preferred) with your main hero. Your first enemy is Sanctuary, who owns a few towns and forts to your north.
If you have a good magic hero, it is possible to venture into the Sanctuary territory in Week 2, defeat a mobile Sanctuary hero, and take Town C. Otherwise, you can clear your own areas first, wait for more creatures, take Fort D first, then go east to grab Town C. From here it will be very straight forward - take Town E to the north and Fort F further north. The first mini-boss of the mission, a familiar face, is located in front of the stairs at (2). He does not move, and he will wait for you to outgrow him.
Note: Your Realm-ability expert secondary heroes can convert towns at discounted resource and gold, too. Besides, converting forts (v1.2) has now become a decent investment - you start breaking even after 15 days or so even (slightly better than buying gold chests artifacts).
After taking all towns and forts in the Sanctuary territory, take some time to clear every neutral creatures on the reachable upper level. Don't challenge the mini-boss until you have run out of things to do. Even if you can marginally beat this boss, in the next area an even more powerful hostile hero will come to you shortly. So take some time to load up your character with battle and weekly bonuses. Handle the mini-boss and use the stairs (2-2').
Your next opponent is Stronghold on the lower level. In my game, there was a hostile hero coming at me on the second day from the south. The Stronghold territory also consists of a few towns and forts - Fort G, Town H, Town I, and the mini-boss' Fort J. Grab Fort G as soon as possible to give yourself a basic town portal destination, and flag the Warpath Lodge (W) in the dead-end area to the northeast.
Your next goal is to take Stronghold's Town H to the south. Feel free to skip encounters on the side of the road - you will have the time to come back for them later. By the time you reach Town H, it should have been fully built. Interestingly, I did not have enough resources to convert Town H before a new week arrived, and I received a scripted 7-stack Stronghold army meant for the AI!
The nice things about Stronghold towns is that you can buy artifacts before converting them. (If you are Haven or Sanctuary then you can build the Advanced Market anyway.) Definitely look for the Emerald Yumi Bow, the Ring of Haste, the +8 Leaderhip and Destiny accessories, and any part you lacked. Another interesting find is that the Warpath Lodge in stronghold towns are independent of the Warpath Lodge you flag on the adventure map. In my game, at one point I gained +8 movement points per battle! Anton had some very, very long days.
Local attraction: there is a ruins south of Town H at (3). It gave me 200 Dark Elementals at (4)! They are very helpful before I eventually replaced them with Celestials close to the end. With the reinforcement, go after Town I and disable the Stronghold faction for good. Now you have all the time to come back to deal with neutral stacks.
When you have done everything on this lower-level area, you should be ready for the mini-boss fight. Load up your main hero with units and battle boosts. Take stairs (4-4'), (5-5'), and eventually (6-6') to the upper level. In this small area you can challenge the quite-powerful Stronghold mini-boss guarding Fort J. There is also a second Warpath Lodge (W) to flag.
After you defeat the mini-boss, the first barrier is lifted. You can go back to Town I and use stairs (7-7') and (8-8') to advance to the next area.
Your next opponent is Haven, controlling Town K on the lower level, as well as Fort L and Town M on the upper level. The two areas are connected by stairs (9-9'). The Haven mini-boss in front of Fort L, and he is also dormant. However, as you can expect, there will be at least one hostile hero coming at you.
By now you should be mighty enough to handle the town garrisons and mobile heroes with ease. Clear the area except the mini-boss. Then wait for your new week for more units, and visit as many battle boosts as possible. This mini-boss is the most difficult so far! (Too bad, can't fight Jorgen as a faceless). If you received another a stack of creatures back in the ruins at (3), leave them in your town. You will get a good group of upgraded top-tier units after this fight.
After Jorgen is defeated, the second barrier is lifted. Return to Town K and use the stairs (10-10') and (11-11') the enter the next area.
Your last opponent is Necropolis (so you might want to adjust your weapon and equipment), controlling Fort N, and, after stairwell (12-12'), Fort O, and Town P. This is largely a linear area, with the exception of a small dead-end south of Fort O harboring a creature building. Same routine here - beat a mobile hero and take everything from them!
The immobile Necropolis mini-boss guards the final stairwell at (13-13'). So you know what to do - after taking all the forts and towns, visit battle boosts and wait for a new week's growth. The mini-boss looks menacing, but should go down pretty quickly. You can always wait for another week if you don't feel comfortable.
Now there is no other enemies except for the final boss! Your army should be more than enough to defeat it. But hey, feel free to wait for a kick-ass army and visit more battle boosts. This is the last battle of the game, so you may as well be as powerful as you want!
Final Boss: Daughter of Malassa
180K hit points - the "healthiest" boss! The dragon has 99 movement points, but it does not move. Instead it uses a powerful ranged breath attack that shoots out like an Imperial Griffin's battle dive. So don't line up your units to let the breath hit multiple targets at once. You will receive an achievement if you always avoid the breath to hit multiple targets (it is ok to let it hit a stack protected by Praetorians, though). The breath also temporarily disables the target stack's special ability.
Otherwise, just cast your best mass buffs and keep swinging at the boss. She is a living creature, so Life Drain works on her. There is nothing to hold you back!
Congratulations for truly finishing the Heroes6 campaigns! I hope you had a great time! Let's wait and see what Raelag will do to eventually make him Agrael in the expansion. :D
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- by maltz
Welcome to the Epilogue. This mini-campaign contains just two missions, but they are not connected to each other. You have to pick one of the five main characters from the regular campaign. A Tear character plays mission 1, while a Blood character goes through mission 2. (So too bad you won't see all of them appear at the same time like in Heroes5). You can think of the setup as "alternative endings". Hopefully you have at least one characters of each path so you can enjoy both missions.
This walkthrough will use Irina (Magic + Tear) in mission 1, because I think she is the most versatile among the three Tear heroes I have. However, you are welcome to try other characters. This mission is not so difficult that only the best Magic hero can pass. This is a mission 5 with mission 3 enemies. Besides, to make sure you don't wait forever to make a powerful army to fight the final-final boss, Blackhole again dropped a Tear of Asha to be found by the usual routine of collecting four moon disc fragments.
Mission 1 mostly takes place above the clouds with pieces of plateaus connected by portals. You know it is high when the fog or wars are all white! You are against very aggressive Angels, who usually rush straight to you as soon as they can. So whenever you reach a new milestone, be ready for another fight.
Luckily, none of the regular angel heroes are too tough. I don't remember seeing any hero, or any scripted army inside a town that has any 3-digit stack (it probably will if you wait long enough). After you defeat an angel hero, it is a good idea to rush forward to take their home town, which should be very well developed. Steal them!
Warning: Since this mission is very easy, it is possible to over-achieve and trigger the forced final boss battle too early. Please refer to the walkthrough below for how to avoid this.
Epilogue mission 1
Level cap: 30
Difficulty Index: 3/6
Last updated: December 28, 2011 (v1.2)
Dynasty Traits: Again, free first generic hero at this level is a great trait. Hire yet another Might hero (for +1 Wood and Ore per day) as soon as possible anyway. You can also experiment with the campaign-completion reward Dynasty Trait. For Sanctuary, it is +2 Might Power and Defence. Budget will be tight in this mission, so don't get any growth bonuses.
You start the mission in the bottom left corner (start). The first goal is to get you a town to work on. Visit the stable and follow the road east. Defeat and collect everything - you need some building materials to jump boost the town when you get it. There won't be any sawmill or ore pit for quite a while.
In my game, by the time you get close to the first portal (1), the first enemy hero already found Irina. This hero might carry some artifact you can use. While you have a small army, these heroes are nothing of a threat. Use the portal to get to the east side at (1'). Head straight west to claim your first town, Town A, and come back to collect the resources in this area.
To your west, the road branches to north and south. If you are confident with your hero build (such as an ass-kicking Tide Master), it is better to go north. If not, it is better to go south first to allow your army an extra week to grow.
Let's discuss going south first. Going south enables you to flag a Warpath Lodge (W), which greatly accelerates this mission. There is another one to flag later. Continue west to enter the two-way portal at (2-2'). You will arrive at one of the small plateaus northeast. Here you can collect the first Moon Disc Fragment (MF).
When you go north from the branch point, you can take over a very lightly defended Haven Fort, Fort B. This also triggers the counterattack of another angel hero, whom may carry some artifact as well. Get rid off that and clear the nearby area. You can collect the second Moon Fragment here.
When you are ready, push further north to conquer another very weak (and underdeveloped) Haven Town, Town C. It looks like this town is of utmost importance as all the huge paved roads are leading to it, and your intuition may tell you to build an advanced town portal here. Not so fast. There will be three more towns like this. This town is actually the least developed among all. Soon you will take something much better that already has the advanced town portal built for you.
After you take Town C, don't wonder off too far. In my game, two angry Angel heroes came after me, but they are not really difficult. After defeating these two waves of counterattacks, the Haven opponent becomes quite dormant (you can notice that the AI barely think during their turn.) At this point you are free to explore in any directions. Now let's look at the general layout of the map.
Plan A: Tear of Asha. There are two portals, (3) and (6), one on each side of Town C. Through these portals you can collect the remaining two moon fragments through them, and control some mines to finally give you some (poor) resource income.
Plan B: Sacred Kirins and crystals. There are three Forts north of Town C. If you take just one on either side (Fort D or Fort E), the game rewards you with a nice group of Sacred Kirins and a large number of crystals. Sacred Kirins' movement may be nerfed by patch 1.2, but their special attack is extremely powerful (especially for a Magic hero). But don't get too excited...
The final boss fight is triggered A WEEK AFTER you take the middle Fort, which is defended by some mediocre garrison (nothing like you have seen in Necropolis and Sanctuary mission 4). So it is very easy to accidentally take it and trigger the final boss fight. Leave it for the last!
Plan C: Steal two fully built towns. There are two Haven towns, Town F and Town G, one on each side of the central forts. The AI builds them up very quickly, but don't really have enough units to properly defend them. If there is nothing left to build, who cares about having no Wood or Ore?
Thank you, AI!It sounds like all of the above are top priorities! So let's do a bit of everything - Plan D: all of the above. After defeating two invading angel heroes around Town C, head west and use the portal at (3-3') to get to the western plateau. Collect the third Moon Fragment (MF) and take Fort H. Ship the new week's growth through Fort H, and use the portal (4-4') to emerge just south of Town F. Take Town F.
From Town F, head east and take Fort D to receive you Kirin and crystals. Use the portal north of Town F (5-5') to clear the northwest plateau and take Fort I and some more resource buildings.
Come back to Town F. Travel east to take Fort E (skip the central Fort L). Continue east to take Town G. Sweet! Go south from Town G and use the portal (7-7') to get to the eastern plateau. Go west to take Fort J. Pick up the last Moon Fragment (MF) southeast of the portal, and have a secondary hero to pick up the Tear of Asha (Tear) west of Town A.
If you use the portal in the middle (6') of the eastern plateau, you will return to the east of Town C (6). Instead of leaving this eastern plateau, continue south to use portal (8-8'). This brings you to a small plateau to the northeast, where you can flag the second Warpath Lodge (W).
Return to Town G and use the portal to the north (9-9') to bring you to the northeast plateau. Go northwest to take Fort K, and go south to use the portal (10-10') to sweep another small plateau to the west. You can access an artifact merchant there.
Now you can sit and develop for a while. Use your secondary heroes to pick up resources left on the ground, and if you are Haven, Sanctuary, or Stronghold, buy some artifacts if they are better than what you are using. Don't bother upgrading all creature buildings - you probably don't have enough gold to buy all the creatures anyway.
When you feel "almost" ready to fight the final boss, take Fort L in the middle. The gate to the north should be open. Now you have 7 days to prepare for the final fight. In the meantime, you can challenge the final Haven town in the north, Town M. It should not be difficult at all at this point. If you still have extra days, send your main hero to visit as many one-time battle boosts as you can. I recommend the area around the first portal (1) (which should be a short trip from Town A).
When the seven-day counter is up, Michael shows up and the final fight automatically begins. (Before that, you can actually see an invisible Michael on the expanded world map as a yellow creature dot just north of Fort L).
Final Boss: Michael and Escorts
From the numbers, Michael does not look as tough as Uriel. His Might Power is only 7750. He has only 100K hit points. But like Uriel he is also escorted by guards - 10 strengthened Light Elementals. Good for Tide Master Irina, one wave of Tsunami and they become 10 dizzy and disabled Light Elementals.
But that did not really disable them - they serve as Michael's blood bank. All damages on Michael are transferred to the guards and evenly distributed among them. Each elemental has 10K HP, so that gives Michael 100K extra HP. When that 100K extra HP runs out, all guards die instantly.
Michael does not really have a powerful special attack. Since he uses Might Power, you can cast Mass Stone Skin to make Michael's attack miserable. Cast all your best mass bluffs, keep attacking, and Michael should go down fairly quickly. Congratulations!
Note: There is an achievement that requires at least 4 minions to live when Michael goes down. I don't see how this can be possible if Michael's initial damage taken is transferred to his minions. Maybe the damage transferring will stop after a few turns?
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- by maltz
You must have been waiting for the battle from the loading screen! But we have some work to do first - how about gathering 500 Blood Crystals? Sounds like it will take forever... it probably will.
You can accelerate the process by flagging as many crystal mines as you can (6 mines in total), collecting/buying the artifact Crystal Eyeglasses (+1 crystal per day, 2 on the map, I found one in the Advanced Market), and of course trade Wood and Ore for Crystals at the best exchange rate. Soon after you accumulate 500 crystals, the way to the boss will be force opened. However, it is probably your best interest NOT to rush to this day too early.
The AI again one-way portals heroes to you right inside your home territory. This time, they arrive through two pairs of one-way portals as well as Inferno Gates. Like before, you can stop the invasions from the portals by taking the Towns that controls the portals' entrance. You can also stop the invasions from the gates by paying 10 crystals to close the gate before an invasion takes place.
In general, this is a very easy mission - a mission 4 with mission 2 enemies. So don't feel too much pressure. Enjoy the life of a hoarder!
Stronghold Campaign Mission 4
Level cap: 30
Difficulty Index: 2/6
Last updated: December 26, 2011 (v 1.2)
Dynasty Traits: Again you don't need any economic bonus except for free first generic hero (pick a Might hero for +1 Wood and Ore per day - buy one more anyway). The +3 movement bonus is great, too. If you have the third trait slot available, consider a crystal-related trait such as Merchant (better market exchange rate for crystals, maybe you can achieve 1-to-1 exchange rate from Wood and Ore?) or Perfectionist (buildings uses 1 less crystal).
Sandor starts the mission with a very well protected Town A on the biggest island. Don't worry about saving crystals early on - the top priority is always to develop and expand. Flag the buildings nearby (the Sawmill and Ore Pit is to the south and east).
If you go all the way east, you can see the exit of the first pair of one-way portal (1'). One way to delay the demon invasion is to pick up all resources around the exit of the portal as quickly as possible, so any weak AI's hero won't accidentally step over to collect resources (and awkwardly can't go back). When I picked up the resources immediately, I never had any invasion coming this way. However, if I left resources beside (1'), I saw an "invasion" almost immediately. But still, it is a good idea to build an Advanced Town Portal in Town A as soon as possible.
Your side kick hero starts the mission on the sea north of Town A. Let her sail southwest first and flag a pair of Light Houses (LH) - you might need Sandor's help to flag the one on the main island. Ship the side kick hero's units to Sandor so she can explore faster. There are three Whirlpools (WP) on the sea. Entering one will randomly transfer your hero to one of the other two Whirlpools. There is no enemy hero on the sea - the exploring team is completely safe.
Note: If you hire a generic Might hero and fully load him up with Realm abilities, you should be able to see resources still hidden by the fog of war. This provides valuable scouting information about where islands are, as well as where to go to collect unguarded floating resources.
Head southwest to take over Fort B from the Inferno player. To the east you can see the exit of the second one-way portal pair (2'). Unfortunately, if the AI decides to come from this portal, they can take Fort B on the same day, and you will have to convert the local creature building back to Stronghold. In my game, there was only one (very weak) invasion coming this way (during the second month).
When you feel powerful enough, break into the Necropolis vault at (3) to receive 50 crystals - WOW! These crystals actually serve an important purpose early on. Around the 3rd week or so, you should beginning to have an Inferno Gate popping up in your territory at the beginning of a turn. The game will show you exactly where the gate is, so there is no way you can miss it (unless you went for a washroom break after hitting end turn).
If you ignore the gate, I guess eventually the invasion will come. There is a very simple way to close those gates - march any hero to the gate and pay 10 crystals. In my game, I almost always reach the gates on the second day after its appearance, and there was never any invasion. There is one new gate about every week. The lump sum 50 crystals from the vault (3) will make sure you don't run out of crystals for some time.
Now let's unite all towns and forts from the main island. Sandor's next target is Town C to the east, and then Fort D to the north. Both should be very easy. North of Fort D is the first crystal mine (Crys) in this mission. There are five more. The Arena there could be a little too tough, but you can always come back later for it.
Whenever the main island is safe, you can send Sandor on the sea to conquer some Inferno towns and forts. Your first target should be the island to the northwest, with Fort E, Fort F, and Town G. Why? First, there are 50 more crystals to be collected from a ruin southwest of Fort F at (4). Second, by controlling Fort G, you also permanently stop potential invasion from the first pair of one-way portal from (1-1'). These fights should be quite easy.
If you feel adventurous, you can try to put the end to the invasion from the second pair of one-way portal. The entrance of that portal is at (2), to the very northwest end of the map, beside Town H. Before you get to Town H, you can complete the only secondary quest - the "sunk" ship is located at (5).
If you find Town H too hard, simply come back later. There are lots of islands to conquer and to flag crystal mines in the meantime. Southwest of the main island you can take over Fort I and Fort J. Each of the islands contains a crystal mine. To the northeast corner of the map lies Fort K, where you can flag another crystal mine. Just south of Town H is Fort L - yes, another crystal mine. None of the forts are heavily guarded. This is another mission 4 with mission 2 enemies!
Sandor: "What do you mean there is nothing left to do... Go out and reveal the fog of wars at the corners!Eventually, you will have killed and collected everything. The Orange inferno cease to exist, and all demon gates are promptly closed. There is nothing else you can do but to wait. In my game, I did everything I could in the middle of Month 2. Fortunately, I only idled for a few days before the next interesting thing happened.
When your crystal count reaches a certain point (roughly 300), your crystal mines will collapse one after the other, starting from the one north of Fort J. The collapsed mine serves as a stairs, leading to a narrow, dead-end underground passage. The first passage north of Fort J leads to (6). You can pick up about 20 crystals from the passage (there are no enemies in these passages). The next crystal mine to go is the one east of Fort I. This leads to the underground passage at (7).
In my game, I accumulated 500 crystals right after the second mine collapsed. I guess if you don't have enough crystals, the game will continue to collpase the mines until all six are gone. The map above shows the resource indicators of the underground area - more passages and crystals are certainly there.
When you finally have enough crystals, the final passage leading to the boss will open - in a place you least expect (and least prefer). That's why you don't want this day to come too early. Load up everything you have, let Sandor visit as many battle boost as he can, bring another hero, and get down there! The final boss is at the end of the central passage (8). The use of the secondary hero is to remove the nasty tiny neutral stack just before the final boss, so Sandor gets too keep all his one-time battle boosts.
Boss: Abyssal Worm
Hm, yet another boss with 75000 HP. The worm behaves like a chicken - it escapes to a seemingly random place whenever you melee attack him (but the retaliation will still deliver). It uses fire-based magic attack. You can greatly reduce the damage with the Tear ultimate "Might over Magic". Otherwise just slap Mass Life Drain (or equip Arache), your best attack buff and hack away! If you feel naughty, you can cast Weakness on the boss to cut the damage by half. Anyway, the boss should go down quickly.
That's the end of the Stronghold campaign! If you have followed the default campaign order from left to right like me, congratulations on your To the Bitter End achievement. See you in the Epilogue!
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- by maltz
Finally, you can upgrade units; but you have to earn them one by one. This mission has a very unique design - you will only have one town from the beginning to the end, while your opponent has zero. You do not grow powerful by building up your only town. Somehow, the walls still don't give any growth bonus!
Instead, Sandor recruits his army by gathering a large number friendly stacks on the map. There is actually a quest that requires you to collect 40 stacks, but in reality you can pick up even more! It does not have to be Sandor to do the recruit. So hire your secondary heroes and send them out in multiple directions!
While Sandor's army expands like a balloon, you will have plenty of frustration. The script spawns a seemingly endless stream of weak invasions. You won't have any problem to win perfect victories against them, but they just keep showing up when Sandor is busy far away. The mission won't end until the scripted invasions run out. Once you defeat that last hero, the mission is won.
Stronghold Campaign Mission 3
Level cap: 24
Difficulty Index: 2/6
Last updated: December 26, 2011 (v1.2)
Dynasty Trait: Growth bonus does not matter here. The +3 movement trait is definitely great, while you can opt for some battle-oriented trait. I doubt whether the Hunter trait (+50% movement while seeing an enemy hero, Gold rank) works here. First free generic hero will help at the beginning, too.
Sandor starts the mission with a fight against a familiar Sanctuary hero. The fight is not particularly difficult - but to keep a perfect record, it is better NOT to deploy the Cyclops. It is really hard to heal them (as their actual health does not decrease until their turn comes up). Even if you win this fight without any loss, Sandor will continue the mission with a lot less units. No worries though, he will soon get that number back.
Let's discuss the general strategy of the mission. The Sanctuary AI will keep spawning heroes to invade you randomly through one of the whirlpools on the sea. My end-game record shows that I fought a total of 16 heroes. The invasion comes almost every week, although in some weeks there could be 2, even 3 waves.
The invasions are largely unpredictable. Your top priority is to gather the free units. Send your secondary heroes in different directions so you can speed up Sandor's growth. This mission can be really a breeze if you can quickly pick up a lot of units. When you have enough crystals or resources to trade for crystals, build an Advanced Town Portal in Town A. This will make your life a lot easier. Later, you can also build a Warpath Lodge in Town A, which should speed up Sandor's advance by quite a bit.
There are four general directions you can go from Town A. The north is more difficult than the south, so it is better to send Sandor to the south, while letting a secondary hero pick up the north route's free units. Whenever you reach a Red Stronghold fort, you will be able to unlock one of the upgraded units, and the fort joins you automatically. Here comes the list of creature upgrades and their locations:
Fort B: Centaur - Marauder
Fort C: Goblin - Goblin Hunter
Fort D: Jaguar Warrior - Panther Warrior
Fort E: Mauler - Crusher
Fort F: Cyclops - Enraged Cyclops
Fort H: Harpy - Fury
After you unlock the creatures from Fort B and Fort C and collect the creatures in these two areas, you should be powerful enough to go north. You can unlock Dreamwalker - Dreamreaver by going down the stairs at (1-1'), and talk to the Dreamreaver at (2) (no Fort involved). Before you leave this small underground area, there is a stat boost (s) south of the pool.
Break through the undead border garrisons, unlock the creatures at Fort D and Fort E. There is another small isolated underground area accessible from stairs (3-3'). Continue north to claim Fort F. Collect all friendly stacks in these areas as well. In my game, three Sanctuary heroes spawned right after Sandor claimed Fort F.
East of Fort F you can pick up a rare "Golden Egg" at (4), which after a few weeks will hatch into a Golden Goose that yields 2000 gold per day. You can leave the hatching job to a secondary hero - just keep the egg in the hero's pocket for warmth. There is an artifact merchant east of the Golden Egg.
After defeating the next wave of invasions, you have several precious days to claim the last upgrade. Get down the stairs at (5-5') and follow the underground passage east. You should receive a quest from Sandor's mother. Return to the surface with the stairs at (6-6'). Follow path south, and you should see a Necro fort. (This guy is the boss of Sanctuary mission 3.) Now they are actually your ally, and you can't do anything to them. They don't do anything at all, either.
Is it my eyes or... the tent on the left needs a bigger texture file.
Keep going south then west so you can claim the last Fort - Fort H. Finally you have all seven upgrades! To complete Sandor's mother's quest, go east from Fort H and turn south to (7). Give the quest item to the Sea Dragon "Hai Ryou" (which is exactly "Sea Dragon" in Japanese), and use any hero to talk to Sandor's mother in front of Fort H. Done! If you want to earn Blood points, though, you fight the Sea Dragon instead. Either way, you get a Tear of Asha for your (lack of) effort.
Optional Boss Fight: Sea Dragon
How did the Sea Dragon come to this inland lake? There are actually two achievements associated with this Sea Dragon. You need to defeat it in 10 turns, and defeat it for "slaying a dragon".
The sea dragon only has 75000 HP. Its special attack freezes stacks, but is not particularly powerful. Since you have collected hundreds of units in each stack, this fight should be over very quickly. There is not really any strategy involved. Put on your Arache or cast Mass Life Drain and hack away!
Too much time and nothing to do... how about tracking down a hidden Ore under the bush? Or sailing on the rocks?
By now you have probably completed all quests except for the primary - to defend Town A. There should be a few more heroes on their way, so you can take some time visiting missed stat boosts.
There is a shipyard at (8), where you can build ships to pick up resources from the sea, and fight some more enemies on the island at (9). I thought the mission boss was on this island. But there are not many interesting things on the island.
When the last invasion finally arrives, the game will assign you a new quest - the boss is the same hero, whom you fought at the beginning of the mission. In my game, the last invasion came at the beginning of Month 3, right after I cleared the last neutral creature on the map. I hope clearing neutral creatures is not necessary, as tracking down every boring stack guarding nothing important in the middle of nowhere is really sleep inducing. Well, the final invasion is not really more exciting... but thank father sky and mother earth it is over! (Unfortunately, the same feeling will come back in the next mission.)
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- by maltz
The struggle between the slaves and slavers is not over yet. In this mission, Sandor sets sail to the Pao islands to establish his name among the Orcs. Depending on your path of Blood or Tear, you will be battling different opponents for the first half of the mission. You can also earn different Dynasty Weapons:
Sword of Whistlebone (Might) - Tear path
Thunder Staff (Magic) - Blood path
Malathua's Cleaver - both paths
You can hire all seven tiers of Stronghold creatures, but you can't upgrade any of them. Also, in my game, there seems to be a discount on creatures' weekly growth - the walls don't give the +creature effects. Nonetheless, this is an easy mission so it doesn't make a big difference. Also, you will be able to hire a lot of heroes cheaply (probably as soon as you defeat them).
Note: By the way, you might read about a serious "Tear path" bug online. This bug has been fixed by patch 1.2. So there is nothing to worry about now.
Stronghold Campaign Mission 2
Level cap: 17 (best guess)
Difficulty Index: 2/6
Last updated: December 26, 2011 (v1.2)
Dynasty Traits: Since you still can't hire upgraded creatures, you are destined to have a lot of gold and resource leftover. So again you can skip economic bonuses and go for the movement and battle bonus, and the traits that will let you spend more gold - creature growths.
Some of the islands on this map are divided by mountain ridges in the middle, so the map above shows the territory boundaries. At the very beginning of the mission, Sandor has to fight a very brief and easy battle consistent with the cut scenes in Sanctuary mission 1.
Then Sandor landed in the southeast corner at (start). Collect resources and follow the road south and west. Don't worry about the branch roads - there is nothing valuable, and you will be able to come back later. Cash all chests since there is a group of Centaurs for hire at (1). Continue the road west and you can trigger the story at (2). After the cut scene, Sandor is transported to Town A to the northwest.
Depending on your Sandor's Blood/Tear alignment, you have to fight different enemies. As this walkthrough follows the Tear path, Sandor's objective is to defeat the Red Stronghold faction that controls Town D. (If you follow the Blood path, you have to defeat the Yellow Stronghold faction that controls Town F.) The Red and Yellow Orcs fight each other fruitlessly around Town E. They both have literally thousands and thousands of resources (see picture below). The island of Town E will soon have its beach full of abandoned ships.
Sandor: "My dear ally! I have some gold to spare! Let's see what you have. You have... 1240 wood, 1270 ore, 635 crystals, 647600 gold... (cry)"The game gives Sandor four months to defeat the Red Orc faction - that's a lot more than enough. Take your time to clear the surroundings of Town A, flagging the Sawmill, Ore Pit, and Crystal Mine (in the east). You can also flag a Lighthouse at (3). There will be lots of sailing in this mission, and this is just one of the three Lighthouses in this mission.
After you run out of things to do on the island, take the free ship on the beach and sail south. You should be able to capture Fort B very easily, and flag the creature building southwest of it. There is nothing you can do to the pointless hand-changing on the other side of the island yet.
Your passage to the outside world is the Whirlpool at (4), but don't go for it yet. Southwest of the Whirlpool is Fort C, where you can flag a Gold Mine, a Lighthouse, as well as visit a stats boost (s). If you have not done so, you can hire a secondary hero and build a ship for him/her to collect resources on the sea. Just like the Sanctuary campaign, there are lots of goodies on the sea.
After finishing all businesses in your backyard (Town A, Fort B, Fort C), collect all your creatures and go through the whirlpool at (4). Sandor should appear at the whirlpool close to the center of the map at (4'). Sail northeast all the way, pass the crater-ring (unfortunately, you don't fight any epic sea monster in this mission), and land on the northeast island where Town D is. The path to the town is blocked by a closed gate. The Red Orc sends its weak invasions with the one-way portal of (5-5').
In order to open the gate to Town D, you have to release three groups of slaves (SL) working at blood crystal mines. Their guards are all very weak, so there shouldn't be any problem at all. Upon releasing all slaves, your ally at Town F joins you unconditionally (but she does not bring any of her mountain loads of resources). And you should have a very easy time defeating the quest hero in Town D. In my game, this hero charged at Sandor during his turn, and was crushed even on auto-combat. Now how many months did you take to accomplish that? Less than two, or even one? Your reward for finishing this quest is a Dynasty weapon (a different weapon if you walk the Blood path).
You might still need to take Town E from the Red Orc if it happened to own it at this time. It is probably completely undefended, so even an army-less secondary hero can do it. However, upon the completion of your secondary quest, the Orange Orc (Sharka) awakes, and will start invading you through the two-way portal at (6-6'). If you own Town E, chances are that the first invasion will head straight to Town E. Later on, you can portal a bunch of cheap secondary heroes to Town E and enjoy the free ships. There are so many things to collect from the sea.
The second half of this mission is to slowly take over the remaining towns and forts while minding the periodic, weak invasions from the Orange Orc. Town G will join you when Sandor goes over after the Red Orc is defeated. This also unlocks the tier-6 creature building (Jaguar Warrior). When you have Jaguar Warriors in the army, the AIs will ignore the Centaurs and instead target the Jaguar Warriors, so your Reinforcement II should go to them.
You can unlock the tier-7 creature building (Cyclops) by heading to the cool-looking Cyclops hero at (7), just northwest of Fort H. You can get there either by sailing or walking from Town G. The Cyclops army that challenges you is extremely weak especially considering how much progress you have made at this point. After the battle the Cyclops hero walks away - maybe he will join Sandor on the Blood path?
Unfortunately, the Cyclops creature building is a very bad investment in this mission. First, they are very expensive. Second, you can't upgrade them, so its growth will be shamefully low (1 per week per town). In my game, this mission was over a few days after I finally had 10 Cyclops (solving this quest already gave me 3). Just spend the cash to buy the best artifacts.
Now you can take some time to clean up areas that you think might contain useful artifacts and accumulate some EXP. This mission's creature stacks are all quite small (a mission 2 with mission 1 enemy), so it is likely that you can't see the level cap by the time it ends. There are two Shrine of Seven Dragons (SD) you can pay to level up. The first one is just north of the crater. The area surrounding Town G is also very disappointing.
When you have finished all businesses here, gather all your army and pass the two-way portal at (6-6'). You can quickly conquer Fort I from the Orange Orc. There are three more stats boost in this area - two on the same island, one on the small volcano island to the northeast. You can use a free ship waiting for you at (8).
Soon you will again run out of things to do. One more enemy left - Sharka. So march everything you have to Town J and finish him! Enjoy one more Dynasty Weapon!
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- by maltz
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Stronghold campaign! In the not-very-distant past this was the "Might faction", then the Orcs who can't cast magics. Thanks to Heroes6's theme, the Stronghold faction is just as magical as any other factions... or is it? Just look at Sandor's overgrown muscle! (By the way, I used to wonder how come Sandor is the owner of the "Staff of Sandro"... didn't look at the spelling too carefully.)
PLANNING
While every other faction have two magic schools that they can't learn (for example, Necropolis cannot learn Light and Fire), Stronghold is able to cast magics from all but one schools. Unfortunately, Stronghold's magic shortage happens to be the most powerful Prime school (featuring Heroes6's Ace and King of magics: Time Stasis and Meditation). Having one extra magic school is offset by the fact that a Stronghold hero will have some trouble keeping up with mana. Besides, five out of seven Stronghold creatures use Might Power in their attack, so a Magic hero will struggle with limited damage with limited mana.
On the other hand, a Stronghold magic hero's special ability is a little more versatile than a Stronghold might hero. The idols can serve as a temporary distraction, while the Tear II ability gives a 1-turn Mass Reinforcement that goes well with other mass bluffs.
Since previous walkthroughs have covered all four possible heroes build, let's follow the game's default class - Might. How about the Tear path (Chieftan) as it makes a good story and grants an interesting ultimate ability that essentially nullifies all magic attacks for a short time? It will certainly come in handy.
Here is a list of abilities that I recommend. This campaign is very easy in general, so there is no need to spend too many ability points on mass buffs/debuffs.
Daily unit conservation: Reinforcement II, Tactics I, Mass Life Drain, Mass Regenerate, Heal (probably won't need Mass Heal).
Mass Buff/Debuff: Mass Heroism (no mana requirement), Mass Weakness
Passive abilities
- Logistics, Path Finding. To speed up the expansion.
- Archery I, II, Counterstrike I, II, III, Giant Slayer, Rampage, Cleave. Increase damages dealt.
- Parry, Resilience, Toughness I, Defense I. Reduce damages taken.
Irina... if we were not related... Wait a second, didn't Goink join me later in the story?CEATURES
Mauler/Crusher (tier-1). Yet another might-based, mediocre-initiative tier-1 melee. But this one is very different - why? The upgraded version attacks AGAIN after the target's counterattack - not only drains the damage right back (Arache or Mass Life Drain), but also delivers another heavy blow!
Goblin (Hunter) (tier-2). Ranged unit that comes in huge numbers. Somehow their boomerang, which is supposed to be full-ranged in all other games I have played, loses power over medium or longer distance. A Unicorn Horn Bow or Emerald Yumi Bow would make them stars of your roster! Before having such a bow weapon, their trap ability is also very handy. You can even split them up to setup multiple traps.
Harpy/Fury (tier-3). These flying creatures have a great range to perform their strike-and-return, but their damage is not really impressive. Only the upgraded version's attack is not retaliated - then they will be extremely useful. Bad news: there are no upgraded units of any sort to recruit in the first two campaign missions.
Dreamwalker/Dreamreaver (tier-4). A rare Magic user in the Stronghold roster. They have a very nice, quickly-renewed special ability that slows and damanges a single stack (basic version) or all stacks (upgraded version). The damage is applied whenever the target moves. Combining this with Goblin's traps, the enemy's melee might never reach you.
Centaur (Marauder) (tier-5). The cornerstone of the Stronghold army. High initiative, good ranged power, and shoots at the first enemy stack that crosses the middle of the battlefield. Before you get the tier-6 Jaguar Warriors, the AI will always target Centaurs. Getting Reinforcement II as quickly as possible makes unit conservation a lot easier.
Jaguar/Panther Warrior (tier-6). High initiative, good movement, and a charging special attack that draws no retaliation. The upgraded version damages all surrounding opponent (similar to Kappa Shoya's Crashing Leap, but the affected area is bigger). The AI will always target them when they are in your army. Reinforcement II is the answer.
(Enraged) Cyclops (tier-7). By now you must have fought them and know that they won't die until their action comes up. For some reason, this trait is not fully compatible with Life Drain, so you will have some hard time keeping them properly healed. The upgraded version is a ranged unit that shoots cool (but weak and half-ranged) magic-based laser beams. Both versions deal a powerful special melee attack. Their building is so expensive that you probably won't have many of them.
BUILDINGS
Stronghold seriously lacks Wood, although the town buildings are apparently made of furs and bones. There are a few useful buildings that stand out from the rest that I not necessary recommend.
Advanced Market. Didn't know the Orcs have mastered Commerce! By now you should have learned what to look for: a Great Bow (Unicorn or Emerald Yumi), the Ring of Haste, the Boots of Wayfarer, the +8 Morale/Luck accessories, the Pendent of Mastery, etc. The Puppet Master Magic Comb may look funny on Sandro, but it will be equally ass-kicking. Even better, when a new saved game is loaded, there will be new items in the shop.
Hall of Raiders. Same as the adventure map structure, this building gives 250 gold per battle for an initial investment of 2500 gold and 5 resources each. Assuming the best market exchange rate, your still need to have 40 battles to break even. Usually the hardest fight in a mission happens before the 40th battle. It is better to put the resources into something that makes a difference early.
Warpath Lodge. Same as the adventure map structure, this building awards 3 land movement after each combat, but has diminishing returns for additional buildings. Unlike the description says, your hero does NOT have to visit the town during the same week to receive the benefit. While you may recall how far your main hero can travel with it, you need to invest 5000 gold, 5 wood, 5 ore, and 10 crystals. Fortunately, in all missions of this campaign you will be richer than you need to, so you can always be able to afford two of them. Particularly useful on mission 3 and 4.
ARTIFACTS
Four Dynasty Weapons are given in the Stronghold campaign - 1 in mission one, 3 in mission 2. You can also collect a total of two complete artifact sets in this campaign - the Prophet Set, the Regent Set, and most parts of the Warlord Set. However, since you have access to the advanced market, it is always better to replace some low-quality set artifact with the best possible choice of the part.
Stronghold Campaign Mission 1
Level cap: 11
Difficulty Index: 3/6
Last updated: December 25, 2011 (v1.2)
Dynasty Traits: Other than the usual Core Creature +3 for mission 1, by now you might have achieved the Platinum Rank in your Dynasty, so you can try something fancy. One of the three Platinum Rank traits you can buy is "Fanatic", which rewards friendly heroes with 150 points of racial ability at the beginning of each combat. This is a great trait to have! However, in my game I was never able to get Sandor's rage to level 3 or 4 even at the very end of the campaign. Is it caused by the Fanatic trait, which (by a bug) carries into later missions for free?
Very good mission name! And good for us, it runs a lot faster than the movie "No Country for Old Man". From the campaign map, you might recognize this as the same area where Sanctuary mission 4 took place (according to story: will take place). Indeed, you will find a lot of consistent landmarks!
Sandor starts in the northwest corner of the map (start). Now if you do NOT have a lv 4+ Arache, you can take Life Drain as your level 1 ability, followed by Reinforcement and Regenerate., and Reinformcent II, Mass Life Drain, and Mass Regenerate after level 5. Otherwise, you should go a long way with Arache with Reinforcement II. Fight everything that you can beat without loss, collect friendly Maulers, and follow the road all the way down to take Town A.
Sandor's only opponent is the Red Haven AI, which owns all other towns on the map. Fortunately, this map is very carefully scripted in a way that you always face something you can manage. First, travel down to (1) and free a number of Goblins and gather some free Blood/Tear points. There is a very productive creature east of Town A that you definitely want to have.
Collect the resources in the area until the Red AI launches its first, weak invasion. Defeat this hero, and easily steal Town B from the AI. On your way to Town B, you can free a group of Harpy and a group of Centaur at (2) after a not-too-difficult fight.
From Town B, travel northwest to defeat a stack guarding the stairs at (3). There are a few resource and creature buildings and some friendly creatures to flag and collect in the small underground area at (3'), but no enemy at all. You can use a secondary hero for the job.
Starting from the day you take Town B, there should be another invasion from the Red AI in a week or two. You might have to fight this hero around Town B, so don't wonder too far off or you might lose the town to the AI. However, you might have enough time to send Sandor get down to (4) to flag a creature building, and to fight the next invasion around (4).
Whenever you defeat an invasion, Sandor is usually free to do his quest for about a week. The next point you can visit is an interesting Haven town in construction at (5), guarded by a dormant hero. You can further recruit a number of friendly stacks, as well as unlock the Dreamwalker building.
There are more Orc slaves to be freed at (6). Now you should have freed all four groups of slaves required by the game, and the gate (GA1) northeast of Town B should open. But don't wonder off yet. Let's first make sure Town B is safe while Sandor is away.
You can do that by taking over Town C from the Red AI. It will be a slightly more difficult fight than those you have had so far, since the AI should be building a more advance Town wall (with the arrow towers). But since you have been collecting so many friendly creatures, there shouldn't be any problem. You can take some time to clear the area around Town B and C - the next gate (GA2) will remain closed for a while. By the way, you can see a familiar huge yellow-leaf tree northeast of Town C. This is actually the exact same tree seen in Sanctuary mission 4. Town C was labeled as "Town F" back there (although chronologically that mission happens later).
When you run out of things to do, gather everything you have and venture north of the first gate (GA1). Beat everything, visit the stats boosts (s). Follow the path east to challenge the hero before Fort D and take the Fort to advance the quest.
Defeating this hero rewards you the first Dynasty Weapon of the campaign, Sword of the Wolf (Might). At level 3 it prevents enemies to escape from battles (sadly, an active ability). Its free Mass Haste comes very late at level 4, and the ultimate level 5 ability gives insignificant power boost when you most need it (at the beginning of the battle). Not a very useful weapon.
Now the second gate (GA2) should open. By now you should be rich enough to afford some top quality artifacts, so build up the Advanced Markets and shop! The top priority should be the Emerald Yumi Bow to really boost your Goblins' power. When you are ready, pass the gate, and challenge Town E. By the time you arrive, the AI should have cleaned everything except for a friendly stack of Goblins at (7). Be grateful to the AI's generosity!
Just one more obstacle remains - march everything you have and crush the garrison in Town F! This is the final AI town and you should earn the check mark of another quest, some Might Power and Blood points. To finish this mission, simply defeat the guards of the shipyard at (8), board the free ship, and sail south a bit.
Note: Town F will become the infamous Town H in Sanctuary mission 4, garrisoned by the greatest army of Heroes6!
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- by maltz
You can tell from the mission's name - this one is going to be Haven vs. Inferno. While you can conquer and convert everything to amass a huge army, a secondary mission interestingly requires you to stick with the "Tear path" and NOT convert any Town and Fort (though you CAN convert creature buildings). Can you win this mission with just one town plus several creature buildings?
Well, the answer is YES since this is a mission 4 with mission 2 enemies! Most areas are isolated from each other so you don't even worry about invasion - but there are zero enemy hero activities anyway (except for one scripted invasion)! Maybe the AI will "wake up" once you start converting towns and forts, but this walkthrough will stick with the "Tear path" and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.
Inferno Campaign Mission 4
Level cap: 30
Difficulty Index: 2/6
Last updated: December 18, 2011
Dynasty Traits: For choosing Tear, once again you will be swimming in resources since you spend at most 50K+ gold on hiring every week. Feel free to get the creature bonuses (as it will actually make a little difference). I still like to have a free generic hero - they mean a lot at the beginning.
Kiril begins this easy mission underground at (start). Just west from the starting point, you can find a very weak stack of Fire Elementals guarding a completely random artifact at (1). This spot is made very famous around the community since it has a low chance to spawn any artifact, including Dynasty Weapons - no matter you already have it or not. Since a few Dynasty Weapons (see list below) are not awarded to the player throughout the campaign, this is the only "normal" way to obtain them:
- Dragon Flame Tongue (Might)
- Perfect Silksword (Might)
- Edge of Chaos (Might) - preorder bonus
- Staff of Sar-Aggreth (Magic)
- Staff of Asha's Eightfold (Magic) - collector edition bonus
- Staff of Cleansing (Magic) - collector edition bonus
If you see something you don't like (most of times you get garbage), simply restart the mission and take a look again. My best result for the full hour of effort was a suit of extremely overpowered Guardian Breastplate - hope you get something nice, too!
Note: Farming your missing Dynasty Weapons here is very inefficient, since most artifacts are not Dynasty Weapons. There is a custom scenario made by ShardofTruth on the Ubisoft official forum. In this custom game (put it into your game's My Document/MMH6/Scenario folder), you can simply pick up your missing Dynasty Weapons from the floor (use it at your own risk; it might take away the fun of collecting and leveling). For the Weapon Master achievement, your hero has to equip a new Dynasty Weapon after obtaining it to make the counter go up.
Update for patch 1.2: This spot no longer spawns Dynasty Weapons. Doh!
Continue on the path north towards Town A. Defeat the unimpressive mini-boss to claim the town - this will be our only base of operation for the "Tear Path" - better build it up quickly! Pick up all resources lying around (you are also given quite a few to start this mission), and make your way to the exit through (2).
Kiril emerges from the top of the volcano at (2') to begin his conquest of the Purple Haven lands. Three roads lead away from the volcano - which one first? Kiril's dominance of the surface is established by conquering Town E - after that the Haven player goes completely dormant. The defense in Town E isn't too powerful, so you should be able to challenge it with a few more weeks of creatures from Town A.
Let's go south first to grab the closest and weakest Town B and boost our income. (We won't convert the towns, but we can still build the economic structures inside the towns.) Clear the area until a Purple hero comes from the east with a mediocre army. If you ignore him, he will proceed to attack Town A. In my game, I moved Kiril back toward the volcano (2'), and the Purple hero chose to fight Kiril even if Kiril was not really on his way.
After dispatching this hero, you can continue expanding southward and take Fort C, flag the creature building and convert it (only converting Towns and Forts will fail our Tear Path). The main quest of this mission involves clearing seven stacks of Dark Elementals, marked as (DE) on the map. In this area, you can fight the first (and weakest) stack of Dark elementals (they usually come with some other creatures). The Town B - Fort C area is not connected to anything else. Consider them your backyard now.
Next let's work on Fort D to the north. You can fight the second stack of Dark Elementals (DE) east of Fort D. Sweep clean the vicinity of Fort D. Now you should have enough units to take over Town E. Ship your fresh recruits to Kiril and do it! In my game, Town E has been built to level-4, and I ended up with two level-4 towns (Town A and E).
After taking Town E, the familiar Purple hero awaits you at (3) (the picture on the left is the army he carries on hard). He is probably too powerful for you now, but don't worry - he does not move at all. The Purple AI has officially entered hibernation (feature or bug?) and you might not even notice your new turn has arrived - don't press End Turn too hard or twice!
The rest of the surface is now open for Kiril to conquer. Fort F, Fort G, Town H, Town I just take them one by one when you feel like to. You can defeat two more stacks of Dark Elementals (DE) in these territories. The shipyard at (4) enables you to explore the sea, where you can bring down another stack of Dark Elemental - probably the most powerful among the seven. From Town I, do not go northeast to use the stairs yet - leave it for the last.
By now you should have accumulated enough units to defeat the Purple hero at (3). Continue east to flag Fort J and meet some interesting family members at (5) (you don't have to fight them - maybe you do for the Blood path?). Knock down yet another Dark Elemental stack.
Almost over! Finish all your business, equip your best artifacts, gather all you have, and enter the stairs at (6-6'). Here comes the last stack of Dark Elemental at the beginning of the underground passage. Follow the passage north to use the stairs (7-7'). Follow the boring path east to use the teleport at (8), which won't be activated until you have defeated all seven stacks of Dark Elementals. Ready for the mission finale battle?
Hm, the picture on the right is what you fight. You might find this fight difficult if you "over-achieve" and reach here too early. But since you have completed the "Tear Path" secondary mission of not converting towns and forts by entering the Invisible Library... you CAN convert them now! Within a few weeks, you should have more than enough units, and you should be gating in so many stacks that you may forget which ones are real! This marks the unspectacular ending of the Inferno campaign. Anyway, congratulations!
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- by maltz
Jorgen: "Forget about the full-plate armor... where did the other two guys come from?"INTRODUCTION
Mission 3 sounds like an undead map, but the undeads are gone! In mission 3 and beyond, we will always face living creatures (easy heal!), mainly Orcs and Naga here. Xana, the better-looking Heroes5 Biara, joins Kiril and will be carried over to mission 4.
Resources is no longer abundant due to the endless construction projects going on - lots of towns to conquer, all structures unlocked except the Pit Lord (tier-7) upgrade. It may be worthwhile to assign a town-building specialist hero to get the 20% upgrade discount. Crystals will be in dire shortage as usual, but you can always trade for more. Chances are you will win this mission before you accumulate enough resources to fully upgrade all towns, so you only need to upgrade buildings in your primary hiring town.
Again it is Tear of Asha time! Four moon fragments can be found scattered on the map. As usual, by the time you get the tear, you would be powerful enough to win the mission already. But 3 free phoenixes could help a bit at the beginning of the next mission.
Dynasty Traits: As usual, free first generic hero is great (pick a Might hero for level-3 Realm abilities). There is usually a Hellhound Master who breeds +3 hellhound per week, or a Master Trainer who trains +1 elite creatures per week. I ended up hiring both of them and use Kiril's Mentor to give them enough experience to reach level 15. Hero movement +3 helps, too.
Inferno Campaign Mission 3
Level cap: 25
Difficulty Index: 3/6
Last updated: December 18, 2011
Kiril starts the mission with a very unique volcanic Town A with a very un-unique town name. Grab the free small stack of Pit Fiends by the town (there is an achievement for getting free tier-7 creatures to join you). Take a few days to collect the resources nearby, and go south.
You can quickly flag a weakly defended Orc Fort B. There is Orc's Town C just west of Fort B that you can conquer in a hurry. The highlight of this area is a Warpath Lodge, which gives you additional movement points after defeating an enemy. There are two Warpath Lodges in this mission (the second one is just east of the stairs at (4)), giving you a total of 5 bonus movement points for each victory.
There are various observation towers on the map that will give you a good look of the surrounding territories and possibly some early warnings of invasions. Let's spend a moment to look at the layout of the map.
Town A, Fort B, and Town C are your headquarters. I recommend that you build an Advanced Town Portal in Town C and make it your capital. There are enemies in three directions - west, east, and underground (south). The AI only attacks you from east and south. Getting the Advanced Portal in Town C enables you to defend home efficiently.
Let's look at west first. There is an Orc's Fort D not far from Town C, controlling two creature buildings (core and elite). The creatures blocking the border are actually more powerful than the garrison in Fort D. Further northwest is a powerful Orc hero designed for much later. Fortunately, this hero, and any other hero that stands behind are completely dormant - so we can ignore them all together. Fort D will be the farthest from enemy attacks (although they are actually the closest to enemies).
Let's look at east next. From the observation tower at home you already saw the exit of a one-way portal at (1'). The AI will send an endless stream of very weak heroes (like having "4 creatures" in total) to you. Looks like just another "spawn something right beside your home" trick from Blackhole, but this one is much more easily tackled.
The entrance of this one-way portal (1) is surprisingly close. You can easily push northeast and conquer Fort E and Town F, both are very weak, to put an end on the nuisance. Fort E and Town F are also isolated from the outside world. Take them as early as possible and make them your backyard. (There is something obviously wrong with the foundation of Town F.) The second piece of Moon Fragment can be found just south of Town F.
Finally, let's look at underground. Between Town C and Fort D you can see stairs (2-2'). You can get down here and take the Orc's Town G in the underworld. Now look at the name of Town G! Two is a bit too many. Just south of Town G lies the first piece of Moon Fragment (MF).
In my game, the defending hero of Town G has a bracelet artifact that allows him to cast Implosion. Since the damage of Implosion cannot be healed, I had to resort to Tear II's special ability "Seal of Power" to let the gated dogs replenish the loss. This could be the only spot in this mission that you would lose any unit at all.
East of Town G, you can collect a large number of resources and flag a crystal mine. There are two set of stairs leaving this underground area. The stairs on the northeast (3-3') will bring you back to the road leading to Fort E and Town F. The stairs on the south (4-4') will bring you to the south, where you can reach deep in the Orc's territories to proceed with your mission. The enemies will be progressively more difficult.
Once you own Fort D, Fort E, Town F, and Town G, it is time to go south. Emerge on (4) and continue east. You will be able to conquer Fort H, Town I, and Town J on the way. Between Fort I and Town J is another set of stairs (5-5') that will take you to a small area with two crystal mines (nice!) governed by Fort K.
By the time you are done with Town H to Fort K, you should be powerful enough to tackle the Orc hero in front of Town L. There are two 2-way portals beside Town L. The green portal on the right (6-6') leads you to a Sanctuary island governed by Fort M with a couple of buildings to flag, and more importantly the third moon fragment (MF) on the beach southwest of the portal.
The blue portal on the left of Town L (7-7') leads you to an isolated beach area, where you can collect the fourth and final Moon Fragment (MF) south of the portal. Having all four fragments on the same hero allows you to collect the Tear of Asha (Tear) on the very east of the map close to Town H.
In the same beach area there is a very well-built Sanctuary town, defended by the most powerful hero in this mission so far - but this should be still far from challenging. After grabbing the Sanctuary town but before converting it, you might be able to pick up a few useful artifacts from the Advanced Market.
Now with the Tear of Asha installed in your capital and so many towns and creature dwellings under your command, you can demolish the rest of the mission like a bulldozer. Go back to Town J and descend down the stairs at (8-8'). There is a linear passage that leads you to the exit stairs at (9-9'). Take the nearby Fort K and advance your quest. You can also finish another quest by opening one of the three chests (the top one) at (10). Don't open it with a weak secondary hero or that hero can be kissed goodbye! Take Fort P.
When you are done with everything such as stats boosts (s), gather all you have and march to Town Q to face the boss battle of this mission. It is not a difficult fight since you must have accumulated a huge army by now. After the battle, you can enter the cave at (11) to end the mission.
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- by maltz
Kiril returns in a long Mission 2 to combat Necromancers and Necropolis creatures in the fearfully symmetrical Heresh. The mission starts quite linear, but suddenly expands to give you a lot of freedom of what to do next. You will also unlock the tier-4 and tier-6 Inferno creatures within the mission, although you probably have guessed that only the basic version will be available. Since Life Drain does not work on undead, you have to rely on Reinforcement and Regenerate to conserve units.
The ultimate goal of the mission is to defeat the Spider Queen (Mother Namtaru) frequently featured in the Necropolis campaign. Since this mission is quite long, by the time you finally reach the boss, it will be more than a reverse of the final fight of mission 1. You will have a bigger army and much higher stats than Xana, while the AI-controlled Spider Queen is not smart enough to run away from your loyal two-headed friends.
Dynasty Traits: You will be again swimming in resources and gold in this mission. So you can mostly ignore economic bonuses and go for +3 Core creature growth. Hero +3 movement bonus is also nice. Despite the relatively high level cap of 19, you will still fight enough battles to reach the level cap long before the mission is over.
Inferno Campaign Mission 2
Level cap: 19
Difficulty Index: 3/6
Last updated: December 18, 2011
Kiril starts without a town at (start). The east is a dead end (looks like Kiril was air-dropped to this location). Follow the road west and cross the bridge. In my game, there was a Druid's Bracelet just down the road. It is by no means a powerful artifact, but it offers one free Regenerate per battle, which comes in very handy against Necro heroes.
Soon you will be able to take over Town A owned the Red Haven player; it is even defended. The AI is so nice that it builds up the town for you, so don't feel too rushed as long as you take and convert it before the end of the first week. Take some time to collect resources nearby. You won't have a crystal mine until quite a bit later, so try to pick up all crystals and save them up for more important buildings.
When you have run out of things to flag and collect within Town A's borders, you should be powerful enough to take on the next Haven town, Town B. There should be an aggressive Haven hero who goes after Kiril, but it is a Haven army, so Mass Life Drain works. Take Town B, which the AI also builds up for you. If you have yet to build up Town A to level up, maybe the AI gives it to you here! You will almost always inherit a highly upgraded town from the AI in this mission.
After taking Town B, the gate at (1) is opened, but don't pass the bridge yet. To the northwest there is a Fort C, which governs a creature building and a Sawmill. This area is like your backyard, so you may as well make a round trip and grab things from the floor. There is an artifact merchant at (2) to burn some cash, as you will have way too much of it.
When you have done everything north of the bridge, go south and challenge Necropolis' Town D. From now on, almost everything you fight is undead, so you can switch your Dynasty Weapon to something other than Arache. The Angelic Alliance from the Haven campaign mission 4 is a good choice as at just level 3 (only requires 1M EXP), it provides a free Celestial Armor that absorbs a few hundreds of damage.
Before taking Town D, you probably need to face a Necro hero. While his army isn't particularly big, remember now your Life Drain does not work, so you have to really be careful to avoid losing units. You can use gated units to distract the last remaining units of the AI - so the battle drags longer and you will have more time to slowly Regenerate back lost units.
After taking Town D, you will be attacked every now and then. There could be as many as three roaming Necropolis heroes coming at you at the same time. They will attack your closest undefended town/fort, but will not hesitate to escape from Kiril by Town Portal if they sense danger (and unfortunately, they will come back in just a few days through a one-way portal (2)-(2'). They can reach Town D three days after coming out from (2'). It will be still a while until we can swat these flies for good.
Your strength might not be enough to produce a perfect victory against the first counterattack, so you might consider defending in Town D. But the subsequent Necro heroes will be progressively harder to "catch". In the meantime, you can flag your first crystal mine northeast of Town D, and visit the first stat boost (s) of the mission northwest of the town.
Around this time, you should be given the quest (capturing the next town) to unlock the tier-6 creature, Juggernaut. With poor movement range, their special attack is not very useful. But you can still practice their placement to avoid hitting your own units on the battlefield. In general, they should start a battle very far away from other friendly units.
With the crystal mine in production and some additional trading, you can build an Advanced Town Portal in Town D. Now you can freely explore and portal back when there is any threat. Then you can cast Basic town portal to some front-line town or fort to continue your expansion.
Not very far south of Town D, you can see two braches off the main road at (1). It is better to go west first to unlock the Breeders. Follow the winding path to take Fort E, and then south to take Town F. It is also a good idea to take Fort G early to give you an early warning of the Necro hero's presence, although the invaders then tend to go after Fort G, which gives you even less reaction time.
In my game, I parked Kiril in Fort G, and three Necro heroes stopped their turn just far away enough from Kiril so that Kiril cannot reach them on the next turn - at least they thought so. I then used a second hero to carry Kiril's troops, so Kiril can save up some movement points and have just enough movement points left to swat three heroes all in one turn! I did not see the next invasion for a long, long time.
Upon your capture of Town F, the game spawns a relative weak (level 1) Necropolis hero at (3). After defeating the hero, you can recruit a friendly stack of Breeders, and unlock their buildings in all your towns.
In Town F area you can find an underground entrance at (4), but it only leads to a disappointingly small and dull area at (4'). There is also a one-way portal entrance at (5), exiting at (5') so you can return to Town F a little sooner. This swamp area really does not hold anything valuable.
Now you should be powerful enough to put an end on the Necropolis invasions. Take Fort G if you have not already done so. In this area, you can find a pair of two-way portals (6-6'), but they do not serve any important purpose. Cross the land bridge, pass the portal exit (2'), and continue northeast towards Town J. This town could be a little too tough for you if you arrived here too early, but now it should not be difficult at all.
There is a Fort I just east of the land bridge. In my game, it was strangely undefended, so I captured it with an army-less secondary hero. Northeast of Fort I you can find a friendly and large stack of Cerberus at (7). Suddenly you become Xana in mission 1!
Now nothing should be able to stop you. Destroy everything on the way south and take Town K. The portal entrance (2) beside Town K is the source of all annoying invasions.
Keeping going south and grab Town L, the last stand of the Necropolis faction. There is another group of friendly creatures (Demented) at (8) in the middle of a narrow, dead-end path.
Now there is only one task remaining - gather all units you have and travel east from Town L. You will eventually see the stairs at (9-9'), leading to the Spider Guardian at (10) and the boss of this mission, Mother Namtaru. The boss has an odd HP of 87035, a quite-powerful attack that damages and disables multiple stacks in contact with her. But she does not retaliate attacks, and she does not avoid the dogs! Just look at how much the dog bite hurts her! Just like the Azkaal vs. Xana's dog battle, my dogs also hit more than all other stacks combined! Terrible creatures! (bug or feature?)
By the way, various spirits dotted the battlefield of the boss fight, but you cannot attack them. You will receive an achievement if you do not allow the boss to "consume more than 3 spirits". As long as you end the battle quickly enough, you should have no problem with this one.
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- by maltz
Kiril: "I should not never trust a demon!... just occasionally."Welcome to the Inferno campaign. Some may find the orange-red theme a little overused; some may be simply excited about playing the bad guys, although Kiril is probably the most harmless among Slava's kids. Even after finishing the campaign I had little idea of why Kiril does this and that.
Demons are not the only race that wins by conquering everything, but it does accomplish it with a unique style - by bringing in lots and lots of helpers through Gating. Each mother stack can support one gated stack. There are three general uses of gated units:
(1) Block enemy shooters - you must have seen the AI faithfully doing this to you. They also create a good sacrificial distraction and allow you to deal more ranged damage before melee takes place.
(2) Absorb counterattacks - in this case you gate in the highest-initiative units, the Ravagers, and hope that it acts before the mother stack. They also have an aura that attracts nearby enemy attacks.
(3) Contribute to ranged damage in a castle assault - Lilim.
The Gating meter is filled up by each lucky attack, so to maximize our Gating efficiency, we need a (1) full 7 stack roster (if you don't have seven, split the Lilim into multiple stacks of one) and (2) high Destiny, which happens to be Kiril's specialty. There are various artifacts that increase Luck (such as the golden Horseshoe, Destiny +8). The chance of getting lucky is capped, but so far how high the cap is and how the cap is achieved is still unclear. There is also a unique building in towns, Heart of Urgash, that increases the Gating meter.
Kiril: "You molesters! Oh wait, I still have my clothes on."PLANNING
Might or Magic, Blood or Tear? How would you like to play this game? A cliche analysis would sound like "do you want to play by force (Might) or by brain (Magic)?" But in Hereso6 we are really talking about "do you want to be careful and take one step at a time to face only inferior enemies (Might) or over-achieve, and fight unnecessarily difficult battles (Magic)?"
Certainly, only a Magic hero can defeat an army 10 times larger. However, Blackhole is not so mean to make the missions so difficult on Hard that only a Magic hero can succeed. In fact, the Inferno campaign is so relaxed (except for one battle unrelated to Kiril) that you can easily cruise through with a Might hero and use fingers on one hand to count battles where you actually lose units.
So let's go with the game's default Kiril (Might). Might goes well with the Inferno army, where five out of seven units deals Might damage. Even if the only two magic users happen to be the only two ranged units, Kiril will end up with very high Magic Power thanks to various stats boosts.
In the Haven campaign, we went for Blood with the reasoning that increased damage is converted to increase healing by Arache. This time we will go for Tear (Hellcaller) and enjoy free extra Gating (Tear I passive ability) and a "Plan B" healing (Tear II active ability) using gated units (throughout this campaign I only used it once). Kiril is able to cast Mass Life Drain, so he doest not have to wield the Arache.
Kiril: "I must chase down Sarah... to give her a new hair cut!"Here comes the list of abilities recommended for a Hellcaller Kiril:
Daily unit conservation: Reinforcement I (higher level is not necessary), Tactics II, Mass Life Drain, Mass Regenerate
Close fight tide turner: Mass Heroism (more morale and luck = more lucky attacks = more gating opportunities), Mass Weakness, Mass Stone Skin
Passive abilities
- Logistics, Path Finding. To speed up the expansion.
- Archery I, II, Counterstrike I, II, III, Giant Slayer, Rampage, Cleave. Increase damages dealt.
- Parry, Resilience, Toughness I, Defense I Reduce damages taken.
There are still plenty of ability points to distribute. Please feel free to experiment with other builds!
CREATUERS
Maniac/Demented (tier-1). Average melee unit with average initiative and damage. Their attack drains the target's power. But due to their low initiative, they are not the most active units on the battlefield. They are immune to morale effects, which works against you.
Hell Hound/Cerberus (tier-2). Extremely high offence at the expense of defense. Attacks multiple enemies at front (no more friendly fires like Heroes5!) and always retaliates. Look no further - this is your primary damage dealer throughout all missions! The AI loves to focus on them, so you will almost always start a battle with Reinforcement I on the dogs just like you did to Liches, Griffins, and Kappa before. And then you will use them to lead the attacks to fulfill the "primary damage dealer" prophecy.
Succubus/Lilim (tier-3). Your more realizable ranged unit. The upgraded version has one very good ability - enthrall, which Blinds a stack for a couple of turns. However, from experience, sometimes the enthrall effect stays even after damage is taken (like Time Stasis). Very useful.
Breeder/Breeder Mother (tier-4). Your less reliable ranged unit that looks like stage-IV anal tumor. The Imps that come out from the hole don't have eyes, so they have very poor aim (like Skeleton spear throwers). Even with a bow artifact (Unicorn/Emerald), they still don't deal impressive damage. They do suck mana for Kiril, and they do it very early due to their high initiative. The upgraded version comes with a free Reinforcement every battle, but the AI always hit the dogs.
Tormentor/Lacerator (tier-5). Their special attack hits all adjacent enemies without getting retaliated. Due to their high initiative, it is possible to avoid casualty by moving them to stand beside multiple enemies at the end of one turn, and release the powerful special attack at the beginning of the next turn. Other than this, they are just another melee unit.
Juggernaut/Ravager (tier-6). The highest initiative creature on the demon roster. Their special attack is to "run amok", damaging everything on their path (friendly fire possible) without attracting retaliation. It is quite an effort to plan their path in advance while avoiding damaging your own. The upgraded version attracts enemies' attacks in a 2-tile radius. So you will have to either Reinforcement I the dogs and heal them, Reinforcement II them and heal the dogs, or like me - let the dogs and Cleave do all the work.
Pit Fiend/Lord (tier-7). Although their hit-all special attack and counterattack is quite weak, their regular melee attack inflicts a "Frenzy" effect that consumes the target's next action to randomly attack a neighbor, friend or foe, or doing nothing at all if there is no neighboring unit. So we can use Pit Fiend/Lord in a supporting role - to make them wait first, go in and attack and frenzy something at the end of the turn (and hopefully avoid the counterattack), and pull out at the beginning of the next turn.
ARTIFACTS
You will be able to collect three artifact sets from this campaign, the Warlord Set, the Trickster Set, and the Magister Set. But it is always better to forgo the insignificant set bonus and pick the best artifact for each part.
Inferno Campaign Mission 1
Level cap: 10
Difficulty Index: 2/6 (boss battle extra, see below)
Last updated: December 18, 2011
INTRODUCTION
Mission 1 is mostly easy for Kiril - the neutral stacks are small, and the AIs are a lot more handicapped than you, so they are doomed to fail. But there is a very nasty surprise at the end, something completely unrelated to what do to Kiril. We will discuss that when the time comes.
Dynasty Traits: Mission 1 is all about Core creatures, so core creature +3 would be very handy. Any economic bonus would soon be completely useless, since you will have so much unspent resources at the end due to building (spending) restrictions.
Kiril wakes up at the middle of the map (start) to build up Town A from scratch, with a few free creatures to pick up nearby. There is no hurry to rush out, so you can take some time collect everything around here. A hero guarding the gold mine below will point you to the east. After this simple quest, you can recruit hellhound from towns.
With Week 2's new creatures, proceed to (1) and defeat a scripted demon hero. The reward of the fight is the might-oriented Dynasty Weapon Soul Drinker. This weapon has a "Life Drain" ability at level 4, but it is not as powerful as Arache. If a battle is not particularly difficult, you may as well equip Soul Drinker for its Destiny bonus.
Note: Patch 1.2 vows to fix Dynasty Weapon bugs, including permanent bonuses on a previously equipped weapon. So switching between Dynasty Weapons should become a viable strategy.
After defeating the hero, you can take Town B, the crystal mine, and nearby resources. You can solve a quest to recruit Maniacs by collecting a decent helmet set artifact (enemy morale -6) at (2). If you follow the path to the northeast after Sarah, you will eventually hit a temporary dead-end. There is another route to the north that leads you to the Orange territory, but it is probably a little too tough for you now.
With Week 3's new creatures from both Town A and B, you should have no problem pushing west and take Town C. At (3') lies the exit of a one-way portal. The red hero that you just defeated will invade you again and again by entering the portal at (3) to the north, so it is a good idea to setup an Advanced Town Portal in Town C in the near future.
You now have a choice of where to go next. You can continue attacking the Red faction to take Fort D and Town E to permanently stop the invasions, or go for the Orange faction, who owns Town F and Town G. In my game, I went for Town F first, then came back for Fort D and Town E. Strangely, I was not invaded by the Red before stepping into Fort D's territory.
No matter what order of conquest you decided, eventually you will have to take them all. This completes one of the primary objectives and opens the gate at (4). A quite-powerful hero roams the eastern territory, but you should be strong enough to crush it. Continue up the linear path and take Fort I, Fort J to eventually assault the last town, Town K.
Before you attack Town K, just north of the castle lies the last stats boost (s) of the mission that can be easily missed. The defending army inside Town K is more powerful than anything you have fought so far, but this is the last battle of the mission that uses Kiril and his army.
Winning the final town fight gives you a set artifact (boots), but it is handed to you after you receive a few (in my game, 3) other non-set artifacts from the opponent hero. If you do not have at least 4 empty slots in Kiril's top-3 rows (one of them is pocket, so in reality there are just two rows), you won't get the set shoes at the beginning of mission 2. To make sure you do get the shoes, remove whatever boots Kiril is wearing now, so the new boots will be equipped on Kiril and survive the mission.
Now let's talk about the real boss fight of this mission. After finishing Necropolis, Haven, and Sanctuary campaigns, I feel this particular fight is the hardest mandatory battle so far. I fought this battle on hard 6 times, but only managed to win 2.
BOSS: Azkaal vs. Xana's Dogs (Difficulty index: 6/6)
OK, a demon that has only 75000 HP. Shouldn't be too hard for Xana's huge army, right? Let's take a look at Xana's spell book... hm, how come we can't open it...
You ARE Azkaal, the Prince of Destruction! Do you stand a chance against 1120 dogs (on hard), often hitting for 10K+ damage each bite? If there is one sentence to summarize this battle, it is "avoid dog bites". Xana's dogs frequently escapes your hit-all counterattack fire damage (probably from its natural fire resistance), and they also damage you more than all other stacks combined. If you can avoid dog bites, you win.
Azkaal has two actions each round. Here are the options:
(1) Regular attack - very weak. But if you can hit something after teleporting, you may as well swing.
(2) Teleport - The only purpose of moving is to run away from the dogs. But Xana tends to increase the dogs' morale, so they might catch up with you anyway (fortunately dealing only half damage). A much better way to avoid the dogs is to let Xana's other melee stacks block the dogs from Azkaal, and to stun the dogs with the Frenzy attack (see (5)).
(3) Hit-all fire attack - (3-turn cool down period) A powerful attack that reduces all Xana's stacks' size. The faster you reduce the dogs' health with this fire attack, the more likely you are going to win.
(4) Mark for double fire damage - Starting with the dogs, mark all of Xana's real stacks so they will go down more quickly with your fire-based attack and counterattack. Whenever you are safe from the dogs and can't use (3), mark some fat stack.
(5) Frenzy+ - This ability is better than the regular Frenzy, for it will stun the target for 2 turns ONLY IF they have no neighbor to frenzy attack. The only stack that you need to Frenzy is the dogs - but for the sole purpose of stunning them for two turns. If they actually have something to attack, they are only stunned for the current turn.
Xana tends to give the dogs Life Drain. That's a very good reason that you don't want Frenzy to hit the dogs when the dogs can actually frenzy attack a friendly stack. Not only you lose the chance to stun them for one more turn, but you also help them heal thousands of HP! This only leads to your own demise! Besides, Xana has a disproportionally big dog stack, so chances are your hit-all attacks will eventually kill everything but the dogs.
p.s. On the bright side, if the dogs' frenzy attack does wipe out a friendly stack, you receive an achievement for it.
Your counterattack also deals hit-all fire damage, which is less powerful than (3). So it is a good idea to get hit by Xana's weaker melee stacks every round. Your personal luck is also very important - you might be unable to block the dogs with Xana's own units, and the dogs may keep getting high morale and hunt you down no matter which corner you hide in, and escape your fire damage again and again.
So... good luck! You will need plenty.
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