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Heroes Community > MapHaven Guild > Thread: Let's Play: ~Metataxer's Revenge~
Thread: Let's Play: ~Metataxer's Revenge~ This thread is 14 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 · «PREV / NEXT»
RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 17, 2016 11:31 PM
Edited by RoseKavalier at 23:46, 17 Mar 2016.

Two more days forward, clearing most of the work of the 6th week.

222

As the previous day ends, the green hero behind Kyrre's prison goes into the water and collects a few things... for some reason he's not interested in going further Is he misreading the reoccurring events or something? In any case, it simplified the process.


Because there is an event preventing landing with a ship here, LLLB used the water boots to learn 'Disrupting Ray', the only place we can learn it.



Before A Friend goes on to conquer the next town, Kyrre can borrow the shooters and also pick up a slow Golem from Vertigo at R'yleh.


Back when 'Wendigo' was conquered in week 5, I skipped a few wandering creatures. They're just perfect to level up a new hero!



We get a lot of levels! Kyrre is now a pretty functional hero.


Ok, now back to A Friend. Give him all shooters, 1 Silver Pegasi, 1 Archmage, 1 slow golem and some MGenies as well as all artifacts.


As before, dismiss the slow creature in the water.


We can now go conquer 'Uruk' with the free Basilisk to open up the quest guard. Don't visit the well just yet...


The next fight is probably my favorite up to now. First, equip all +spd items so that Pegasi has 16 speed. This will be crucial soon.


###Phase One - Protect the Titans###

As you can see, the enemy has over 2,000 Lizardmen... what you can't see is that they are immune to 'Forgetfulness'. So there's no choice, we have to kill them now.


Because Lizard Warriors are much stronger than their un-upgraded form, casting 'Frenzy' on the Enchanters helps a lot. In fact, you typically have more surviving Enchanters while using Frenzy even though the Enchanters' defense is reduced to 0.


Round two, the enemy now estimates that your shooters are stronger than his so the flies come out and attack the juiciest target: MGenies stack. Now we'll start killing the second shooter stack.


In order to properly hide the Titans, we can use a nice trick. Reduce the number of lizards to a small number without killing them.


Now, cast 'Hypnotize' and we will be able to create a fortress after the other shooters are gone!


The enemy should have cast 'Prayer' by now so the Flies are now speed 20. Because of Ballistics, we can still act first every round though, protecting the Titans.



Now comes the enemy's real menace: Clone! The real flies kill the Grand Elves but...


The second flies have speed 16. The same as Silver Pegasi with all speed items [12+4]. Because of move order, the Silver Pegasi get to act after the real Flies every turn


Kill the last Lizards. It's important to have some small shooters alive so that the arrow towers will target them. When the catapult acts, hide the Titans behind the hypnotized lizards.


Phase one is accomplished, the Titans are not in any danger anymore.

###Phase Two - Exhaustion###

You should be familiar with this now, the idea is to stop the enemy threats. Here, that means drain SP and killing the flies. So every turn raise the Elves (rather than Enchanters who may cast Slow/Haste and change turn order) while the Pegasi kills the clones.


If you have no small shooters alive at the end of a round, the arrow towers will kill the Pegasi and then the clone will eventually kill our Ammo Cart :S


While the enemy knows 'Teleport' which costs 3 SP at Expert Water level, the Pegasi make it instead cost 5 SP. The enemy is almost neutralized now.


When the Flies are almost dead, cast 'Slow' and wait with the Titans. This will prevent them from killing important war machines (mostly the Ammo Cart, the rest is expendable).



Now we can finally bring back the Titans and finish off the enemy.


###Phase Three - Recovery###

Use 'Resurrection' on all your troops and slowly kill the enemy. Because the AI doesn't like having creatures standing next to each other (besides dragonbreath creatures that is), we can use the hypnotized lizards to force some creatures to move, greatly reducing their defense stats.


In taking pictures I was a bit lazy and decided to destroy the catapult then auto-combat.


Using 'Earthquake' to take down the arrow towers can sometimes be unpredictable as the garrison door may open early on. Because of exactly that, this attempt saw some non-necessary losses of war machines. In the video there are no casualties...



###Done###

Because most of the terrain in the "minimap swords" is Snow, have Kyrre come in to remove non-native creatures from Friend. We also finally learn 'Firewall' to enable the next fight.




Now we can visit the well!


Next up, LLLB goes to the Oasis and then trades with Friend at Uruk.



He can also visit the well and get quite a few spell points for later... give back the artifacts to Kyrre before going ahead to the swan pond.





Head to R'yleh with Friend and Kyrre, giving the artifacts to Vertigo.


Kyrre will finish near 'Peak of Pot', having had a good day of transporting things for others while Friend will be next to the Oasis.



We can now use Vertigo to rescue our 5th hero. Once more, there is an event which prevents using a boat so use the 'Boots of Levitation'. The event drains 30 SP every time you go over it...



Summon a boat then go rescue 'Mephala', Sepello.




Because Sepello does not own a Spellbook and because he has very little spell points, he will not be able to summon a boat or even use town portal.


Fortunately, there is a tile here which Vertigo can go and free the way for Sepello towards an already summoned boat.


I'll spare you some details now, basically use a slow Golem when you board a boat but only fast creatures when exiting.



The closest place where Sepello can get a spellbook is... Hells Kitchen.


When both heroes are finally ashore on 'Easter Island', place all artifacts on Sepello and... you know it a slow golem.


Vertigo can use his remaining movement to capture some angels (use spells) before sleeping near Kyrre in 'Peak of Pot'.



Sepello can gain a lot of SP from this well and the artifacts we own.


As we saw with Dessa much earlier, adventure spells provided by artifacts may be used even though you lack a spellbook.


It may just be a bit frustrating before you can move ahead...









223

It seems I reversed the order of Vertigo's tasks on the previous day... it makes no difference though as the movement and spell costs are identical. He will trade with Sepello, visit some locations near 'Syburgh' and also trade with Kyrre.


Meanwhile, Sepello starts the slow grind.


Vertigo will now recuperate most artifacts, letting Sepello come closer to a spellbook.


Vertigo's second task (or first) is to bring a slow golem and artifacts to Kyrre.



Because Kyrre has 'Navigation', movement in the water is pretty cheap. We can visit this hidden Hill Fort to gain some new creatures. Because of a later event, don't bother picking up gold just now.



The second objective for Kyrre is the Library after which she'll pause for a few moments.


LLLB completes the previous day's work: recruiting these temporary workers for us.


Bring them to Friend who will prepare for an interesting battle.



Kyrre, Vertigo and Friend head to 'Noname City'. Vertigo is mainly there to teach 'Firewall' to Friend.


Kyrre is there to bring the artifacts to Friend, but also to transport these Ghost Dragons which we took time to upgrade. Pay careful attention to the setup of Friend's creatures and artifacts.



In order to learn 'Quicksand', this Pandora's Box must be opened. Unfortunately for us, something resides within it.


200 Azures! Hide your troops as shown, we can exploit the firewall bug for 2-hex creatures.



Even though we don't own the 'Orb of Vulnerability' so that we can't damage the dragons, there is a mistake in programming that evaluates that moving the head of the dragon in the fire would cause more harm to itself than what it can kill. Combining this with the AI's greed, both stacks are lured away from our little corner, killing 2 Imps and the Ballista.


Because we are wearing +3 spd, Archdevils act first [20 v 19 spd], allowing us to cast a second firewall. The Azures are stomped and will defend endlessly.


The only risk now is if both Archdevils get hit by 'Fear', but the odds are relatively low.

When the AI feels it is about to die, it will change its calculations and step in the fire, killing what it can. As you should know by now, the #1 priority with shooters is to 'block them' and after 'try to do whatever damage I can'. Move the Archdevils away and offer a weak Imp in sacrifice instead.



At the cost of 4 Imps, a Tent and Ballista, 200 Azure Dragons are dead.


Kyrre can move beyond, using her 3 Ghost Dragons to open a quest guard. Quicksand will be ours next day.



Friend can now visit the well before heading on his next adventure via R'yleh.


Trade with LLLB, giving him:
-10 Titans (the ones we got from Uruk )
-Stoic Watchman (we got this when freeing Sepello)


These items are necessary to cross the various quest guards near R'yleh. Some hidden sulfur can be picked up by LLLB while Friend starts heading north.



All these flies are Friendly but once more - the terrain is 'Snow' so leave them with LLLB.


The 500 Crystals we gained when freeing LLLB are wasted on a quest guard...


Friend comes ashore with only native creatures (+ neutral) and collects a few things. The Artifact is 'Clover of Fortune' and is weakly guarded. In the video I forgot to buy a slow creature for LLLB so he's a bit further behind where he should be compared to these screenshots.



Another quest guard asking for resources... the sulfur we just picked up.


The fight vs. 'Cow Heel' is the easiest one vs. an enemy hero. We have better army and better stats.


Titans 1-shot his biggest stack


Just clean up... he will resurrect Minotaurs every turn while we recover our lost forces.




Leave the Peasants in the newly captured town and go back to 'Tower One' where we can recruit some more troops now that Cow Heel is dead.







~~~

There are a few more fights vs. wandering creatures after this (with only 1 being non-trivial) and a lot of waiting for week 7 because there aren't enough available troops to go forward right now - two fights on Cursed Ground versus some legions of troops... and of course you can only use half of the army because they have to occur at the same time with two heroes in two different locations.

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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted March 18, 2016 12:02 AM

Formidable learning here, then an awesome map, discovering now as I couldn't complete more than one day. I didn't know the trick with fire wall, I was sure big HP mobs as dragons will not care about.

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Galex
Galex

Tavern Dweller
posted March 18, 2016 08:35 PM

I love your walktrough and I enjoy reading it. I very like how carefully you choose every step. I only have one question. What is the real advantage of using a slow creature with Admiral's Hat? How much movement you gain during conversion from land to water?

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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 18, 2016 10:40 PM
Edited by RoseKavalier at 22:42, 18 Mar 2016.

Salamandre said:
Formidable learning here, then an awesome map, discovering now as I couldn't complete more than one day. I didn't know the trick with fire wall, I was sure big HP mobs as dragons will not care about.

It's one thing I learned from Biobob's tactics file, not knowing it worked on magic immunes beforehand.


Galex said:
I love your walktrough and I enjoy reading it. I very like how carefully you choose every step. I only have one question. What is the real advantage of using a slow creature with Admiral's Hat? How much movement you gain during conversion from land to water?

Glad you're enjoying!

The movement gained when going in a ship with a slow creature can be quite significant. From the Tribute to Strategists:

Quote:
L0 - hero's total land movement points. Depends on the speed of the slowest unit, Logistics (and specialty), land movement artifacts, and Stables bonus. Adjusts automatically during turn if mentioned factors change.

N0 - hero's total naval movement points. Calculated as 3000 + 750 * Navigation level, plus specialty and Lighthouses, if any. Adjusts automatically during turn if mentioned factors change.

L - current land movement points

N - current naval movement points

m - movement cost, 100 for straight and 141 for diagonal movement

N = (L - m) * N0/L0


If we ignore 'm' for a moment, we get L/L0 * N0 in the formula.

Because slow creatures reduce your speed to 1500 base (compared to 2000 for fast ones), then you can see the possibility to gain 33% naval movement right there. Naturally when you factor in all of the factors (such as the boarding cost), it's generally not as much.

Naturally, it works a lot better if your 'L' is high as the % gained is much more important but I usually use it to avoid being penalized.

Some examples with A Friend.

Speed 3 unit (ideal)
97% --- 88%



Speed 7 unit (what actually happened)
84.7% --- 76.5%



Speed 11+ unit (worst case)
75.5% --- 68.3%



It's actually very difficult to not get penalized or to not benefit from the conversion by accident because there are a lot of things that affect 'L'... Oasis for instance.

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Galex
Galex

Tavern Dweller
posted March 19, 2016 08:31 AM

Thank you for your explanation. Everything is clear now. Looking forward to more

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Nikos
Nikos


Adventuring Hero
posted March 19, 2016 09:45 PM

Boat summoning

Hello. Once more excellent work! I have a question to ask about boat summoning. I placed a boat at 111/137/0 to block Double Bert and I also had to do it at 83/32/0 to block Cpt. Rudy. The problem is that when I summoned a new boat from another (near or distant) location there was a chance to move one of these two boats opening the blocked way. If I reloaded using a save file a couple of days old, another boat is summoned. So is there a rule about that? Thanks!

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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 20, 2016 01:10 AM

Nikos said:
Hello. Once more excellent work! I have a question to ask about boat summoning. I placed a boat at 111/137/0 to block Double Bert and I also had to do it at 83/32/0 to block Cpt. Rudy. The problem is that when I summoned a new boat from another (near or distant) location there was a chance to move one of these two boats opening the blocked way. If I reloaded using a save file a couple of days old, another boat is summoned. So is there a rule about that? Thanks!


I don't ever recall seeing any analysis about which boat gets summoned. From experience what I know is that priority is given to any previous boat you've used and afterwards to the closest boat.

There is definitely more to it but I don't know. The boat at 111/137/0 to block Double Bert is prime example of another rule in effect because when boats are summoned near Dragons Eye the 111/137/0 block doesn't move.

I now noticed that my boats placed near 'Leak in Heaven' (Conflux with -999 SP event) have moved when I went to kill Cow Heel and there's not much I can do about it At least Cpt Rudy seems satisfied to only steal my Firebird dwellings.

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Nikos
Nikos


Adventuring Hero
posted March 20, 2016 10:15 PM

Thanks for your reply! It is a mystery indeed as I sometimes couldn't summon a boat next to me but I summoned the boat blocking Double Bert instead. In that case I sent a hero to embark to prevent it from being summoned! Anyway I defeated both heroes and I can now even scuttle boats!

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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 22, 2016 03:07 AM
Edited by RoseKavalier at 03:27, 22 Mar 2016.

This update will be less interesting... simply because I am purposely waiting for the next week for more troops. As a result, I'm mostly using heroes to run around and use stat boosters. The main ones are shown in the next screenshots. If you really want to see all the moving around, watch the videos. Play is not optimal because there is enough movement to spare for mistakes.





Turns will therefore be an overview of what happens outside stat boosters.

224

Kyrre learns 'Quicksand' and goes to flag the gold mine. The Pegasi offer to join our cause but I kill them to gain 400 movement instead.


I had left a few troops around, collect them with LLLB. Main interest is shooters and Archies.


We now go to 'Tower One' with LLLB and Kyrre to bring troops to Friend.



Now that we can pass this quest guard, we can go recruit some friendly troops.




There are 4000 Storm Elementals but our army is far stronger combined with our stats, allowing 1-hit kills with Bless.



Also, this part from the Statue of Legion is hidden in the area, we now have 4/5.


Brewster (Kyrre) and Friend will now go to Syburgh, allowing troops to be transferred towards Sepello.



Because terrain is a mix of snow (recall when Friend came here to conquer Hells Kitchen in the first place) and Sepello lacks Pathfinding, only provide Tower creatures + neutral Enchanters.


We can now farm some experience for Sepello! With 'Bless', we can 1-shot so this is easy.



Sepello goes from level 2 to 14! Most importantly, she learns Expert Wisdom and Expert Earth Magic.


Sepello can now buy a spellbook after a few days of travel.



Our Scholar Extraordinaire, Vertigo, comes by to teach her all our spells.


...and to pick up her army plus the remnants from Brewster.


Because Vertigo has a big fight coming up on 231, I'm raising his levels as much as I can now to gain some extra stats. Head to our last captured town and pick up the Peasants we had left there.



We can pick up a few hidden resources and friendly troops as well as exchange the Peasants for the Ring of Sulfur.



3 pretty simple fights will follow, slow and/or bless to win.




Before the next fights, Vertigo takes the time to clean our backpack a bit. We have a lot of junk! Also, I needed an extra 16,000 exp after the 3rd fight for another level up so... it just worked out.




'Bless' and you can use +4 Speed artifacts for the Enchanters to act before enemy.


LLLB, while heading for some stat boosters, can pick up this artifact hidden behind the Dragonfly hive.






225
During the night we get... wait for it... FREE buildings. No resource deduction! Woo!


Next to 'Tower One' is this Seer that will offer us the last piece of the Statue of Legion in exchange for the Armor of Wonder.


Vertigo kills some Angels and learns 'Prayer' now that Cow Heel is dead.




We can get an extra Devil this week from the Dwelling near 'Locus Discordi' (I didn't have movement to grab it the first time around sadly so LLLB wastes a lot of time but it's not an issue).



Now we ready for the only interesting fight of this update. Vertigo, who has artifacts and the army, meets up with Brewster in Dragons Eye. Give her the Archdevils and artifacts as well as 6 random troops. Pick relatively fast troops to facilitate the task...



After visiting some last stats boosters, Brewster gets to attack some Crystal Dragons!


1500 of them. Not 150. 1,500!


This is actually very easy but can be very long. You can try using 'Slow' only to be frustrated by the native resistance of your enemy.


So we will use the upgraded form of Slow, 'Quicksand' which we learned last day after defeating the Azure Dragons.


Unfortunately, this is also dependant on RNG placement... we will attempt to find some areas to hide our Archdevils.



First round was a success, now keep casting 'Quicksand' and keep looking for partially enclosed areas. You can try using the Gargoyles to help protect the Devils. The Archdevils can tank 2 hits so it's not the end of the world if you get hit.



Round 3 - we are saved by the Gargoyles. In subsequent rounds, there are very low odds of not having safe places.


A few rounds later, the Crystal Dragons are reduced to 1-hex per turn. You know how it goes: Wait, Attack.


Do this for almost 15 minutes or 30 minutes if you don't use Turbo mod + Cranim
We gain a whooping 1.2M experience, which makes Kyrre very fast.



35*0.30*0.05*2000 = 1050 extra movement. This will come in handy.



I've edited out 10 minutes from this video of Wait+Attack... you still get the point of how it works.



226

Because he can, Friend goes to grab this far-off Knowledge.


To finish up Sepello's early development, we can kill some enemies hidden in an event. Stop by 'Peak of Pot' and give him some artifacts and Tower troops.


We can assemble a second Cornucopia and let Brewster hang on to the Statue of Legion.


Sepello goes to sea... I changed my mind about the pile of gold, I need it now (I would be short on gold next week due to large sacrificial purchases to reduce RNG). The 'Sirens' which actually look like Harpies may hint as to what is hidden in the water.




227

Not unexpectedly so, harpies in the water. I let the Golem die instead of dismissing the poor thing.



14->19 All skills are maxed. Damage is reduced by 19*0.15*0.05+0.15 = 29.25% and it'll keep improving


Finally Sepello will stop the night in the Mage Tower where we can recruit 4 fresh Enchanters next week, that is the next day.


Vertigo gets in place for the next week. Visit 2 Trees of Knowledge, getting a bonus Attack point!



This is his next destination... the why of his use (seeing as he has relatively poor skillset, i.e. no 'Intelligence') will be explained next update!


Friend finishes visiting stats boosters and buys a First Aid Tent... this will come in handy.


In an almost symmetric fashion, Friend will also need to go through a One-way portal next day.


Brewster will lazily stay in Dragons Eye, improving our growth there ever so slightly.


...and LLLB stops at the Giant dwelling.




Overview

Since this update is pretty empty of content, now's a good time to take a look at our various assets.

First, heroes without artifacts.

Friend, our main hero without whom many of these fights would have been impossible... by far the best primaries. I am raising his Knowledge over Power to take advantage of 'Intelligence' and later on 'Magic Springs'.


Vertigo... just the guy to learn spells, upgrade Enchanters and run around. His stats are pretty average. Without 'Intelligence', he's next to useless for fighting at this stage. If only I could get that instead of Ballistics


LLLB, our Intelligence specialist naturally also focuses on Knowledge. He's closing in to an interesting threshold where he will be able to generate thousands of spell points. Combined with his mastery of magic, he will be able to tackle some fights that none other can.


Newly mature, Brewster is our speedster and will be required to reach some specific areas... like that level 42 requirement in 'Wayfarer' if you are familiar.


Finally, the newbie of the bunch, Sepello. Her specialty will be in surviving enemy attacks later on. While it is difficult to resist the brunt force of 1500 Titans shooting at you when they are backed by a high level hero, such is not the case with wandering monsters. We'll be able to fight at normally impossible odds when she gets higher level.


Our available spells: a good mixture but still missing some key items such as 'Blind', 'Summon Elementals'... I'd list 'Clone' and more things here but they will not be available for a loooong time.



Same for 'Fly' and 'Dimension Door'... wishful thinking at this stage.


Kingdom overview. 16 of the 48 towns on the map under our control. We don't need to control all of them to win but it's a decent indicator of progress.

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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 24, 2016 01:52 AM
Edited by RoseKavalier at 02:13, 24 Mar 2016.

With the new week, our heroes can resume fighting in the Marods!

231

First off, recruit all the troops that we will require. I used LLLB for this as he's the hero that has visited the most stat boosters out of the three that will not be fighting.

Also don't forget to hire from the dwellings where heroes slept.




Initially I wanted to hire Naga Queens but I found a better use for them. So hire the usual shooters + Archdevils but also some Iron Golems for tanking purposes.







Also, we're picking up some Dragonflies (the free guys when we went after Cow Heel) and Thunderbirds.


Because all three non-fighting heroes have troops and still require to visit some stat boosters, have them all meet in 'Tower One', the Conflux closest to Vertigo and Friend.

First, we'll send troops towards Vertigo:
-Titans
-Archdevils
-Tbirds
-6 or 7 Dragonflies
-Iron Golems
-Archmagi to upgrade

Grab all artifacts from Sepello, and be certain to bring the Statue of Legion as it opens the first quest guard.




Vertigo goes ahead after trading with Brewster... do leave 1 Archmage as SP saver, it is more useful than 1 extra Enchanter I believe.


For Artifacts, you can see what I'm giving Vertigo. Basically as much +A+D and Golden Bow to remove distance penalty. I also removes Boots from him (I only have 4 for 5 heroes at the moment) because he will not be needing them.


The second quest guard requests the death of the 1500 Crystal Dragons... so it wasn't all for show that I killed them - it was also a necessity. And off we go!



We land in a cursed place... seriously there is Cursed Ground EVERYWHERE and no Monolith leaving out. At least each pile of gold is worth 10,000. Visit the Stables and start making your way towards the Inferno.



The seer gives us Chain Lightning... not that it's really of any use here.


The fight vs. the Liches is fairly easy. We will sacrifice 2 Dragonflies, the Thunderbirds and a few Golems. Casting 'Shield' makes the T-birds quite sturdy.


In fact, they survive the attack from 3 enemy stacks. Whatever few liches weren't killed by the Archdevils suicide against them. Because I'm using +3 speed items, the Golems can now block the remaining Liches and use 'Defend' to boost defense next turn.


Our 2 powerstacks kill 2 more packs of Liches under 'Bless'.


The stupid enemy kills 1 Fly and 11 Golems before dying for good.



Continue heading towards the Inferno until... drats! -500 spell points. Because Vertigo doesn't have 'Intelligence', it's impossible to have any SP left at this point.


Finally we reach the Inferno and can reveal why this job was best fit for Vertigo:
- since there is no way out of this place, I need a hero I can dismiss and re-hire later (Vertigo is the only guy allowed for human player).
- Archery (for Titans)
- Tactics (to prevent enemy changing stacks)
- Ballistics (see below)

This last item will be particularly important for two reasons.
1- it lets us kill the Arrow Towers which like to attack Archdevils - thus we can save all of them
2- we can break the Castle Gate and let our Iron Golems in!


Because there are lower odds of breaking the Arrow towers on Round 1, it's probably not the best strategy to try and reload until you get one. So instead I tried to break the gate first.

Contrary to video, I decide to save a few Dragonflies. Send the loners to tank enemy damage, preventing the Magogs from firing. Archdevils need to wait at this stage because the enemy is stronger and will attack them instead of the Dragonflies. Wait and Attack...



When all lone Dragonflies are dead, bring in the Iron Golems and use 'Defend'. At this point it is safe to leave the Archdevils in place rather than Wait+Attack because the Magogs have a better target: the weaker Golems which will be damaged more than tier 7 units. I'd love to cast 'Bless' and 'Shield' but we have no SP


Got 'em! We get a useful artifact for the area.




In these attempts the Catapult was not very cooperative. I tried a few more times and had 35 Golems survive instead. It's not really necessary to save all of them, we just need around 15 alive.


Ok, now let's take care of our Friend. Brewster still has most artifacts but also several of our new Enchanters. Visit a stat booster then TP to the Conflux and trade with Sepello.


For the next portion, we will need a few Phoenixes. It is possible with fewer but that adds a lot of RNG-loads hoping for Rebirths.


Give everything to Sepello, the important troops being Phoenixes, Archmage, Enchanters, MGenies and Grand Elves.


Because Brewster is almost out of movement and because Sepello has not yet visited these stat boosters, it made most sense to use Sepello for bringing the troops and artifacts.



I hope this Monolith is more... generous.


Of course not! More Cursed Ground! This quest guard specifically asks for Friend so there's no choice. In any case, I couldn't use any other hero for this part.


There's an event in the way... nothing impressive.



While we have 4 different alignments in our ranks, Cursed Ground removes ALL morale and luck... even Bad one. So basically, don't worry about Morale.


Alright, now comes an interesting kiting fight! It's only difficult because we have a 2-hex kiter in the Phoenixes. Oh and large packs of Behemoths are difficult to kite as they stumble on each other.


It took me a few minutes to get this setup right and it works 100% of the time. I'm not sure if this was the author's intention but it gives a very nice puzzle.

Start with 'Slow' and attack the closest Bears.


Next round, cast 'Bless' and have everyone wait. If you kill the weakened enemy, the other enemies will move closer to us because they won't be blocked behind.


Here's the nice symmetry in the fight. As I wrote earlier, the enemy's preference is for
1) juiciest target
2) closest target

If two targets can be reached within same number of rounds, it goes for juiciest. If not, it goes to closest target.


So now the goal is to lure the enemy back. The pack of 68 can be killed by the Enchanters during the Wait Phase. I've also pointed out which stack the Elves should target.


The reason for this is, there's nowhere safe to place a kiter for the now-126 Behemoths pack within 2 rounds of movement. Hence, this stack will move forward, I need to kill it in 2 turns! Furthermore, the Grand Elves can no longer remain in place as they are a much juicier target then the Phoenixes or MGenies... 'Haste' them and we will now use 3 kiters!


Enchanters will be in time to kill the 126 while Grand Elves will pull back the 2 bottom Bears.



We've now reached a very good symmetric setup where kiting is easy. Keep luring them back and forth while the Enchanters do the heavy lifting.


Done with 0 losses.



Visit the northernmost seer hut... in some previous versions the mapmaker was generous and provided 40 Enchanters... now we get 40 lousy Grand Elves


After visiting the Marletto Tower (the extra defense is useful), attack 'frifix' for the first time... he will come around a few more times.


But first, take this -  it's dangerous to go alone! (enemy has 'Magic Arrow' and will use it)


Another interesting setup. The 5/6 Phoenixes are the intended targets while we can hide our shooters away from enemy dragonbreath. The 800 Medusas need to go.


frifix will always cast 'Stone Skin' first. Using 'Dispel', we can increase our damage by A LOT.



Since damage on Grand Elves is not fixed (and I can't cast 'Bless'), there is a chance that some Medusas will survive. In that case, kill them with waiting Phoenixes. The few surviving Medusas will target Phoenixes instead of our shooters


Round 2, you can use 'Slow' to force the Ghost Dragons into killing the Phoenix in front of the gate... here they resisted because enemy has 'Resistance' skill. Video was more successful!


In any case, the surviving dragons will favor attacking the 2 Phoenixes stack so move them away from the (hidden) archmage.


Sadly, these two did not rebirth (40% odds)... you can reload a bit.


Anyhow, I did another attempt where 'Slow' worked (see Ghost dragon's corpse), hoping for a rebirth from the 2 Phoenixes...



No such luck right now.


For the Behemoths... there's nothing to show as they are sitting ducks. No Arrow Towers, the enemy can't cast offensive spells and there are no more threats. Kill them slowly...

In any case, it's definitely possible to have 2 survivors.


Walk into the city to find... Castle Gate!


We can meet with Vertigo and collect a new pair of 'Boots of Levitation'. Only problem is they are guarded by 200 Black Dragons and a quest guard requesting 'Power of the Dragonfather' Relic.


Because walking on water will be our only way out of this cursed places (and do note that this will be my only pair of water boots so one hero gets left behind: Vertigo), it's primordial to get them. Give Enchanters, 'Power of the Dragonfather' and some Golems to Vertigo. He can't quite make it this turn... but that plays in our favor.



Friend goes back to the other side. As you may recall from earlier, Cursed Ground cancels out native creatures' ability to move without penalty on terrain. This area is checkered with 'Lava' and 'Snow'. Notably, the tile 1S is snow. In order to collect the hidden Artifact, it's 9 movement cheaper to pick it up diagonally.


And when we go south, it is now cheaper by another 9 because we go diagonally again, saving a nice 18 movement... isn't that next to nothing?


Well, it lets us visit the seer hut.


Kill some easy enemies.


Bust most importantly, these 18 movement allow for one last step onto the last piece of land onto the well.


The tile east is Water... but before thinking of using 'Summon Boat', I'll just say that it's not possible to land anywhere from that puddle. There's no choice - dismiss 1 hero and the other uses the 'Boots of Levitation'.

The 3 non-fighters visit some stat boosters with remaining movement. Nothing fancy.








And now some practice for the readers... how can the next fight be done while losing ONLY golems? No War Machines lost.

There are several solutions, split however you want while knowing that Enchanters can kill the dragons in 4 shots!

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Biobob
Biobob


Famous Hero
the Bobler
posted March 24, 2016 09:30 AM

Do you remember that case in Wayfarer, in which a seer Hut was placed in an area full of cursed ground, in a way so that it was blocking sight of the only non-cursed tile around? If I remember correctly, there is exactly such a space in the area with Marde Le Grande (Magogs hero) under the chain lightning seer Hut (I believe this was also hinted at at the seer, but I could be wrong here)!

By the way, are you still working on your own epic map? How's the progress going?
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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 24, 2016 02:45 PM

Biobob said:
Do you remember that case in Wayfarer, in which a seer Hut was placed in an area full of cursed ground, in a way so that it was blocking sight of the only non-cursed tile around? If I remember correctly, there is exactly such a space in the area with Marde Le Grande (Magogs hero) under the chain lightning seer Hut (I believe this was also hinted at at the seer, but I could be wrong here)!

Oh my. And I thought I had looked as it seemed obvious

Quote:
A Friend: No, we don't have time for lessons in magic!

Mr. Vertigo: Oh, let's have a look, I am interested!

If that's the hint, it flew right over my head!

I was going to dismiss Vertigo and rush to the Tavern to rescue him now it's definitely not as much of a priority, nice.

Biobob said:
By the way, are you still working on your own epic map? How's the progress going?

Disclaimer: sorry for lengthy answer!

I've decided to focus on 2 instead of 3 maps for the moment. Map I'm postponing is called 'Damsel in Distress'. Maybe it could be a WoG map in the future if I ever get there.

Of the ones I'm still actively working on, one is a game where I investigate a concept... it won't be exceptionally difficult but still suited for players that want to go fast.

Dessa's Incredible Debt


It involves Dessa who became old and rusty in a jail cell... losing all 'powers'. This one is about 60% done. The hero must pay his debt by performing a task for the Queen somewhere in her garden...

Decoration underground decoration is done, I'm still working on above ground which feels incomplete. A small taste...

Story there is very little story involved, just an introduction and some fun lines here and there.

Concept you can't gain levels (until very late). Can't develop towns. No mage guilds... no nothing. Everything must be bought with gold at a black market. Fly and Dimension Door are readily available but you'll need a lot of gold to get either
There is also a maze and riddles tied into the main quest. The maze can be navigated by solving the riddles... any false step and you die. The maze can't be skipped by DD/Fly naturally!
A small preview:


Fighting underground is done. Above ground a lot of work remains. Wandering creature fights are planned to be simple but AI fights I have not yet done much and this is where most of the remaining work lies as I want some trick fights that can be done early while seemingly difficult. OTOH I'm happy to report that the final fight is completed.

Testing/balancing because of the concept, I'll need to test things out quite thoroughly to be certain it works. If players don't want to rush then the map is easy because enemy can't get stronger. At least I won't test that.

The other map is the difficult one, I've simply called it 'DID'. A small trilogy idea with abbreviations even though the only common thing to the maps is the author

DID

Decoration I'm having difficulty with this one because of 32,000 objects limit but I found a way to remove thousands of objects without spoiling decorations. It might still be a struggle to stay under the limit but I'm finding nice things to do. I briefly considered splitting the map into smaller parts to later group them in a campaign but it messes with some (important) hex editing so I scrapped that.

Story I know what I want to do with the story and the map is being constructed around that.... now I just need to write it well. Also, some 'Easter Eggs' are included, see next section.

Concept first portion is a path, the remainder is a regular RPG map. There are a lot of puzzles and some hidden paths. I've also got a maze - The Wayfarer's maze - going here which is in several parts...


Fighting this is the difficult part as some fights are meant to be very hard. I will probably make an 'easy version' as well for players who can't be bothered to win these types of fights. A couple regular fights without spells:



Testing/balancing I've removed a lot of the randomness out of the map which helped a lot with testing the first portion. I've ironed out most of the path portion. But I guess I'm about 10% into progress so a lot remains to be done.

I will try to finish/release the Dessa map first and then concentrate on the other one. I still haven't heard from anyone completing my small puzzle map so I feel no rush right now

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Biobob
Biobob


Famous Hero
the Bobler
posted March 24, 2016 08:18 PM
Edited by Biobob at 21:01, 24 Mar 2016.

Don't worry, I completed it just now

(Check the Valley of Heroes Thread)

Greets
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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted March 24, 2016 08:42 PM

RoseKavalier said:
And now some practice for the readers... how can the next fight be done while losing ONLY golems? No War Machines lost.

There are several solutions, split however you want while knowing that Enchanters can kill the dragons in 4 shots!




Not so hard, after all that you show here. Golems in decreasing number, each time the dragon kills the upper stack, move golems up, the dragon will always kill the bigger stack. (for test I used azures, forgot that were blackies, but will behave same)


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Biobob
Biobob


Famous Hero
the Bobler
posted March 24, 2016 09:04 PM
Edited by Biobob at 21:07, 24 Mar 2016.

In fact, even a more adventurous approach will work. A fine example of AI move priorities


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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 24, 2016 11:30 PM

Both excellent, A+ !

Some more for fun:

Terrain



1-2-3-4-5-6


Mini-forcefield

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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted March 24, 2016 11:42 PM

A better question would have been: how to lose the less golems, not how to win

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Warmonger
Warmonger


Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
posted March 26, 2016 08:06 AM

Just a question... what is going on in here?


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RoseKavalier
RoseKavalier


Admirable
Supreme Hero
posted March 26, 2016 01:45 PM

Warmonger said:
Just a question... what is going on in here?




It's a red-hero farm

Every time you kill a red hero on the map, the red hero seen (Operator) here will open up a prison, freeing another red hero that is free to go harass you.

Operator does not have the ability to cross water so he will remain in this area. All other heroes have 'Waterwalk'. If you have more room or more space, you can do the same by setting the operator on 'Radius 10' or whatever works.



###

I will try to do an update a bit later today...If not, it will be after the long weekend. With the revelation of a non-cursed ground tile near 'M**** Le G.' at (92,92,0), I can keep my other heroes busier on 232. In order to do so, I will do a few changes to 231.

Basically my new plan is to remove non-crucial troops from the area (Archdevils, Phoenixes, Grand Elves) with LLLB and use them to prepare the path towards the Tavern. It will still be faster to rescue Vertigo this way instead of letting him slowly regenerate SP (recall that recurring -500 SP event - not an issue for LLLB with 1000+ SP).

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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted March 26, 2016 11:55 PM

Hope you will do one day also Unleashing the Bloodthirsty, fantastic map.

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