Heroes of Might and Magic Community
visiting hero! Register | Today's Posts | Games | Search! | FAQ/Rules | AvatarList | MemberList | Profile


Age of Heroes Headlines:  
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
6 Aug 2016: Troubled Heroes VII Expansion Release - read more
26 Apr 2016: Heroes VII XPack - Trial by Fire - Coming out in June! - read more
17 Apr 2016: Global Alternative Creatures MOD for H7 after 1.8 Patch! - read more
7 Mar 2016: Romero launches a Piano Sonata Album Kickstarter! - read more
19 Feb 2016: Heroes 5.5 RC6, Heroes VII patch 1.7 are out! - read more
13 Jan 2016: Horn of the Abyss 1.4 Available for Download! - read more
17 Dec 2015: Heroes 5.5 update, 1.6 out for H7 - read more
23 Nov 2015: H7 1.4 & 1.5 patches Released - read more
31 Oct 2015: First H7 patches are out, End of DoC development - read more
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
[X] Remove Ads
LOGIN:     Username:     Password:         [ Register ]
HOMM1: info forum | HOMM2: info forum | HOMM3: info mods forum | HOMM4: info CTG forum | HOMM5: info mods forum | MMH6: wiki forum | MMH7: wiki forum
Heroes Community > Heroes 4 - Lands of Axeoth > Thread: Guide to the first campaign (Lysander's)
Thread: Guide to the first campaign (Lysander's)
Abazagaroth
Abazagaroth


Hired Hero
Paladin of Knowledge
posted April 07, 2002 01:37 AM bonus applied.

Guide to the first campaign (Lysander's)

Since there seems to be a lot of questions from people about the first campaign, I decided to write a quick tip sheet for anyone that might be interested. I'm not going amazingly in depth, but what I think are important points.

Mini-guide for "The True Blade" Campaign
----------------------------------------
In this campaign you will be playing Haven towns pretty much 24/7 in every campaign. You may get some different troops through summoning or diplomacy/charm, but nothing that should make you use anything but your heroes and Life troops for you main army or armies. Keep in mind that the general strategy I am putting forth is pretty simple, and will likely work in the other campaigns, but is mainly tied to this campiagn and what you will encounter.

Troop Selection
---------------
While this is something of a personal preference, for my play style and what I think works best for this campaign as a whole, I suggest you select these troops when building your Haven towns:

Level 2: Ballistas
Level 3: Monks
Level 4: Angels

I strongly advise against Pikemen, as when I did have them due to starting with some or getting a town that already had them built, they were not very effective, because if you advanced them forward, they died quickly, and if you waited for your spots to safely do damage, the fight was usually over. Ballistas are a range unit with good stats for a level 2 creature, and no range or obstacle penalty. The only negative to them is you can't resurrect them, but you won't need to.

I also advise against Crusaders, not because they are weak, but because monks to a lot of damage with little risk. Crusaders aren't bad at all, and in the first scenario I used them in castles where they were already built, when you don't have a lot of heroes taking up slots.

Angels are a given, Champions just don't compare favorably against them.

Skill Selection
---------------
I know people have lots of opinions, but if you want to just roll through scenarios 2-5, you need to get your "might" heroes to General status quickly. Your "magic" heroes aren't as strictly needed, but getting to Monk class seems to be the natural progression and works efficiently.

For your Might heroes, you want to focus on Combats and Tactics only at first. Regardless of peoples opinions of nobility and scouting and such, you don't need them in this campaign, particulary at first. If you play on champion difficulty, I would suggest nobility become your third main primary skill after tactics and combat, as it will help you compete with the numbers advantage of the computer. I played on the expert difficulty, and never needed either skill at all. Lysander starts with Tactics and Combat, so you just need to get him a few levels to develop archery and become a General. You want to get Grandmaster Archery as soon as possible. This will help you immensely. You get two shots with GM and no range/obstacle penalty. Leadership and Resistance are not needed at all really (since the computer AI is so dumb), but you will eventually develop GM resistance in the 3rd or 4th scenario. Its nice, but not as good as getting your defense/offense skills maxed. Also, you want to grab a magic skill when one pops up. Either Life or Order if you can, Nature is good too. You at least may have a chance to use those spells, though you likely will never use a spell with these heroes, but it lets you get free skill ups from the magic library thingies.

For your Magic heroes, you want to focus on Life and Order magics, though the first time you see basic Nature pop up, take it. Except for Ressurection skill, you want to choose the skills that will let you get to GM Life and Order magic, and if you are lucky Nature magic. By doing this, you will take full advantage of the many a towns in the first scenario, and all those spells they have. However, you do want to also get Combat when it comes up too, as if you don't have a Might primary skill, you can't take advantage of the veteran training facilities that give you free skill ups, and that defense will help you out. Your tactics with these guys will be to sit in the back, buff, heal, and cast various negative buffs on enemy stacks.

The Drawing of The Blade
------------------------
As I said, not exactly a detailed spoiler, as much as a tip sheet. In this first campaign you start with three heroes and three towns. Lysander is you "main" hero, and will be throughout the entire campaign. Your heroes are limited to level 18 in this scenario, though you probably won't get to 18 unless you play on expert or champion (due to the increased numbers of neutral armies on those settings). You will take Lysander, Proetho (you don't start with him), and your two highest level heroes other than those two. Your three heroes and their towns are connected by two-way portals (which makes combining armies and collecting troops a breeze), and you have time to consolidate and expand and explore the northwest part of the map.

You will want to build city halls as early as possible for your three towns, and then the creature dwellings up to your level 3 monks. By then (before then most likely, unless you play on an easy setting), you will be cash short. At this point I suggest just saving your money and buying troops, and not worrying about angels until later when you have more cash. Also, don't be too concerned about building up your spell books right now, because due to the way you can learn them, you won't be able to learn more than the first 2-3 levels until later in the game, and the spells don't make much difference against neutral armies right now. They help some, but not a back-breaker to be sure. You want to put the "magic" hero they give you with Lysander, and keep those two in the same army from the beginning till the end of the map. Take the third hero, and make him/her your scout/resource collector/dwelling/mine flagger/mop-up guy. Mid-way through the scenario you can load him with extraneous troops and have him/her mop up and finish off the map and gain some fast levels, this guy/gal needs to be a "might" type. If you start with two magic types to go with Lysander, buy a might type on Day 1, otherwise don't buy a hero, you won't need it. Also, make sure you use those teleporters to your advantage. You can buy troops in all three towns and have them combined together in one turn if you use them in the right sequence.

Basically, its straightforward from there. Follow the quests you are given and you won't get stuck like some people seem to have been. Also, I made the mistake of keeping the Ankh on my Monk till nar the end of the game, since I liked her fine, and didn't see much point in giving up the extra ressurection for another hero, when I didn't need one. You will have to turn it in at some point, and the earlier the better because it lets you develop Proetho some. When you get him, stick him with your mop-up guy and have them gain as many levels as possible, and go to all the free skill and stat objects on the map. This is important for the second scenario, to have 4 strong heroes, 2 might and 2 magic, or you may end up doing as others have and replay the first scenario. A quick tip I will give incase some people don't know (I completed three regular maps and this first scenario before I noticed this), when you go to the stat "gems", which give you permanent +stats to defense/offense/speed/etc, when you visit them you get a pop up showing all your heroes, and an accept button. I thought that meant all your heroes in your army got the bonus, but there is a barely noticeable highlight around the first hero shown. This is the only hero getting the bonus. If you click on the hero you want to give it to, it selects that hero, and then you click accept. Lysander didn't need the 18 spell points that I gave him this way. =P I went the "give everything except spell points to Lysander" route, and I don't regret it. He was much stronger than my second might hero, but I think it was more effective than if I had split them evenly with my second General. That's all up to personal preference though.

A couple of other general tips for all games, if you have an extra range artifact (like something that gives +offense defense or whatever to range attack, or removes penalties, etc), give them to your casters. This will automatically give them the range attack option. Not amazing or anything, but when you don't need to cast and you have only a few in a stack, they can do some damage safely. Also, before you attack, rest the attack cursor on the enemy stack and wait a moment, a popup with a damage range will appear, and you can plan out your strategy better. This was very useful for the seiges against castles.

The Trials
----------
This scenario is a bit different than the heroes maps most of us are used to. You never get a town the entire game, and you have almost no non-hero troops. You start with four heroes (unless you let one or two secondary heroes die off in the first scenario, which would be incredibly stupid), Lysander, Proetho, and if you followed my advice, another General and another Monk. I find the standard formation works best from this point on, with Lysander, Monk/Proetho, General, Monk/Proetho set up in your first four slots in that order, that will put your two casters behind your two generals, to protect them. Combine all four heroes in one army like that, and if you did like I said for the first map, built all four heroes up in levels and stats, visited all the towns to get as many spells as you can before you win the scenario, etc., this map will take you maybe an hour at most.

You start with your way blocked and you have to come up with 10k gold. This is the way of this map, you get a quest to move past a quest guard, rinse and repeat till the end. Your heroes are limited to either 24 or 25 in this scenario, can't remember which off-hand. My heroes only got to 22-23 between them all. If I was playing expert I maybe could have gotten to 24, maybe not. Don't fret about it much. There isn't much to this map if you have the heroes, just attack the creatures, range attacks with your generals, buff with your casters (prayer, celestial armor, and/or defender was the only spells I used this entire map). One tip if you are playing on a higher difficulty and having problems. Sanctuary spell is your friend. its a level 5 Life magic, and is amazing. Basically, attack with your generals, waiting with your casters if their turn comes up first, then use one caster to cast a buff like prayer, then use the other to cast sanctuary. Sanctuary affects all your troops and heroes, and prevents any attacks or spells on them (including your buff spells, which is why I said use the first caster to give a buff). The thing is - and something that I hope they patch ASAP to the AI - the enemy won't even move toward you, its like they don't see anything to attack. 90% of the time you can attack with your range troops over and over, casting sanctuary after you attack and before the enemies turns, and they won't attack you are cast a single spell, and will die in place. It is a trivializing spell against the AI (completely different against humans though). So run through the map, killing everything for the exp and hitting all the structures, and its a piece of cake.

The First Step of Many
----------------------
This scenario is a packed map with lots of towns, and you start with none. This is a straight forward map. Your heroes should be very strong by now, and I used monks, crusaders, and champions along with my three heroes for the whole map, because that's what was built up in the first two castles (right beside each other and near where you start). I used other troops to protect the forward castle just in case. I bought several heroes for this scenario just to run around and flag crap, and moved all the troops I got from charm to them. Charm is great for gathering crap troops to put on scouts so no one attacks them, not real great for ever getting troops you can use for your main armies. Your heroes are limited to level 30 in this scenario, but even though I cleared the entire map, I didn't get close. I think Lysander and my main Monk were 27 at the end, and my other two were 23. I will caution you that you will get a free hero at the start that you free from a jail. She's a might character and likely will be a higher level than your heroes when you get her. Don't think about dumping your second General for her though, cause all those stat buildings you hit and free skill ups make your lower level guy/gal much better. I caution because you will move on to map 4 with Lysander, Proetho, Desette (whom you are trying to find, you find her at the end), and your two highest heroes. I had to kill her off so she didn't get carried along instead of who I wanted. I cleared the whole map to get all the stat and skill increases, it wasn't really necessary. On champion difficulty I would have though, because you start maps so much at a disadvantage and you need all the strength you can get. Make sure you get to Desette through the portal and not by attacking the garrison. Attack the garrison and you lose the campaign, its a loss condition.

Seeking the Steel
-----------------
This was a short crappy map. There is a knowledge tree near the start. I suggest you kill everything except the hero you have to kill, just incase you are close to leveling. Check your manual though, in the back is an experience chart for levels, if you are 30k away or more on all your characters, just hit the tree so the exp you get goes towards your next level. Plus it will save you a couple of turns if you don't go back for it later. You could finish this map in 6 or 7 days if you have pathfinding. Its that short and simple. Your heroes are limited to 33, but I only got the one level from the knowledge tree, hardly anything to kill. At the end they saddle you with Desette's husband, Sir Kentaine (I think I spelled it right...maybe?), who is a 28 general that you get for the last campaign.

The Rightful Heir
-----------------
Another easy map, but longer. There was a problem with this one, a bug of some sort. I can't remember what it said for the 4th scenario, but I thought it said you take Lysander, Proetho, Desette, Sir Kentaine, and your two biggest heroes with you, but when the last map started, Desette was missing. No big deal at first since I didn't even fight with here, there wasn't a need. In the 4th map I had her by herself picking up resources so that she didn't eat into my other heroes experience. However, right where you start there is a quest guard in front of a town, and you have to have Desette and Sir Kentaine for them to let you pass. So I don't know if its a bug or what. I didn't end up needing the town or anythign around it that I couldn't see because of the blacked out map, but I was very pissed and worried that I would have to start all over, because I had saved over my save game when the map first loaded. But luckily nothing there. But for some people it may hurt you, cause you won't take a town for a few weeks most likely. But you shouldn't need any troops other than your 4 heroes for most of the map. You will need to take the two towns in the southwest as soon as possible, especially on champion difficulty, because those are the towns you can get angels from, and you will need them to take Paledra (sp?) at the end. Luckily, the AI is so stupid (even on expert difficulty, that it didn't even take the angels out of the angel dwelling right beside that last castle. So right before I got there I got another 15 angels. Basically, I suggest you take those towns quickly, get some troops, I used monks, angels, and some ogre magi I had charmed (good for diversion and for casting bloodlust, that stack kept dying, but I kept ressurecting some =) ). I had no problems, if you gave them the 15 angels I had received from the dwelling, I still would have won. This battle (and the other castle sieges on this map) was well served by using beserk. Unless you walk right up to the gate, the AI won't move the stacks out of the castle, so with your two casters, cast beserk on the two strongest troops, and they will do a lot of the work for you. Don't worry about losses taking that town though, because you won't need anymore troops after that. After you take the town, you walk through another quest gate that will only let Lysander (by himself) through, you have to kill Wortan and 80 bandits by yourself, a piece of cake. And then you are victorious! Woohoo! Give youself a pat on the back! =P

Well, that was my take on the first campaign, hopefully that will help some of y'all out.


____________
C. David Kreger
dkreger@yahoo.com
[url]http://www.modernhumanorigins.com[/url]

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Abazagaroth
Abazagaroth


Hired Hero
Paladin of Knowledge
posted April 10, 2002 05:33 AM

Quote:
Hmm, I'm almost done with the 3rd mission, the Wheel town.  But over that last brige are a Crap-load of nasties.  Goliaths or Behemoths and some tough lightning drakes, and those damn rock throwers (sorry at work, so I can't think of the names and I haven't played HoMM since the first one).

I have gone from not losing a single troop during the whole map, to not being able to defeat this group.  My standard Holy Shield, Martyr is not helping because one swipe from them behemoths/drakes and my monk/cleric die as well as the troop/hero they were protecting!


Any suggestions?  I was a bit disappointed with the steep difficulty curve for these monsters.  I hope it's not one of those "amass 300 of each troop" type replies.


What are your troop types hero/types? You can clone your angels, use beserk, and use sanctuary to prevent them from doing any damage to you at all. Need a bit more info to give you a good strategy (numbers and types of mobs on both sides).

____________
C. David Kreger
dkreger@yahoo.com
[url]http://www.modernhumanorigins.com[/url]

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Abazagaroth
Abazagaroth


Hired Hero
Paladin of Knowledge
posted August 25, 2002 05:05 AM

***bump***

Shameless bumpage! Actually, now that I'm back to HoMM4 since the multiplayer patch is getting close (I went back to Everquest after a couple of weeks after HoMM4 came out to wait for the MP patch), I was wondering how well people thought this mini-guide ended up being, now that y'all have had months to play and learn. =)


____________
C. David Kreger
dkreger@yahoo.com
[url]http://www.modernhumanorigins.com[/url]

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
japjer
japjer


Adventuring Hero
posted August 29, 2002 12:05 AM

well, i didn't read the whole walkthrough because i already finished the campaigns but i have 1 comment:

i would've preferred pikemen over ballistae. since the comp (if im correct) only builds guardhouses, you get a lot of pikemen. furthermore, the kind of have no retaliation, can be resurrected and, most importantly, don't slow your army down. ballistae are great shooters to defend your castle, but have the lowest movement and initiative, making them really slow, even on the adventure map.
it's also better to have those pikemen to protect the monks and crossbowmen or heroes, that way you have a meat shield that can actually do some damage (unlike the squires).


____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Wolfman
Wolfman


Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
posted September 03, 2002 03:25 PM

Quote:
well, i didn't read the whole walkthrough because i already finished the campaigns but i have 1 comment:

i would've preferred pikemen over ballistae. since the comp (if im correct) only builds guardhouses, you get a lot of pikemen. furthermore, the kind of have no retaliation, can be resurrected and, most importantly, don't slow your army down. ballistae are great shooters to defend your castle, but have the lowest movement and initiative, making them really slow, even on the adventure map.
it's also better to have those pikemen to protect the monks and crossbowmen or heroes, that way you have a meat shield that can actually do some damage (unlike the squires).




I totally agree that is what I did and it worked for me.
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Wolfman
Wolfman


Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
posted September 12, 2002 02:39 AM

You got a bonus applied, and a rating of inspiring!
I put 2 Guides on this message board and I didn't get anything.  What is up with that?
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Titan_888
Titan_888


Known Hero
Wind of Change
posted September 12, 2002 04:03 PM

ouch.. poor wooolfie... he got no bonus

its soooooo important

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Wolfman
Wolfman


Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
posted September 13, 2002 02:13 AM

Quote:
ouch.. poor wooolfie... he got no bonus

its soooooo important


I got one now
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
csarmi
csarmi


Supreme Hero
gets back
posted November 20, 2002 05:42 PM

Nice guide, but there are many things you have overlooked. Some I will point out later. Many points to be improved.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
ToxicSoap
ToxicSoap

Tavern Dweller
posted May 29, 2003 06:33 PM

Hey great guide, it's helped with a few things but I still have no idea where to find Proetho. If anyone could help me out with this it'd be very appreciated.
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Lord_Woock
Lord_Woock


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
posted May 29, 2003 06:48 PM

Why isn't this in the Lands of Axeoth?
____________
Yolk and God bless.
---
My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Lich_King
Lich_King


Honorable
Supreme Hero
posted May 30, 2003 11:07 AM

I was going to ask the same question...
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
streetspirit
streetspirit

Tavern Dweller
posted September 15, 2003 04:44 AM

Quote:
Hey great guide, it's helped with a few things but I still have no idea where to find Proetho. If anyone could help me out with this it'd be very appreciated.


toxicsoap, go somewhere in the middle of the map... and when you're in the middle, it's somewhere in the upper left... there you will find a quest and the reward is Proetho... to get the reward, you should bring the Ankh of Life... which is guarded by venom spawns... they are located to the right of your center castle... hope this helps!
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
UncleJR
UncleJR


Adventuring Hero
posted September 30, 2003 01:02 AM

Breaking the Wall

You have to retrieve the Dwarven hammer and give it to the quest guard in a hut around that wall.  (I can't remember exactly where it is, but it seems to me it is slightly west of the wall, or Southwest perhaps.)

The thing is, quest guards in Homm IV look a lot like peasant hovels, or whatever.

If you have the dwarven hammer, seek out what looks like a shack near the wall.  Give him the hammer and the wall gets broken, then go for it.


____________
Huh?

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Jump To: « Prev Thread . . . Next Thread »
Post New Poll    Post New Topic    Post New Reply

Page compiled in 0.0591 seconds