Might and Magic 5 walkthrough. Campaign of the order. Flying to the Rescue Campaign

Foreword: The kingdom of the lords of death, scattered across the land of Erisha, has lost all interest in fulfilling the plans of their only goddess, Asha. The disorder of the surrounding lands allows them to live in their afterlife without changing anything, and a quiet, lethargic world has descended on the once dangerous and active land. Arantir emerged from his scholarly imprisonment preaching that he had been chosen by Asha and that Erish should be united again under the unified authority of the Supreme Ruler. His fame is backed by immense magical power. Many necropolises fell or agreed to join him. The high vampire Giovanni conquers the surroundings of his kingdom, hoping to bring them as a gift to the chosen one. Lady Ornella, an imperial countess turned follower of death, is one of Giovanni's many excellent students. He has a special task for her. As a reward, she hopes to be admitted to the final rites of conversion and become a necromancer.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Capture Illuma Nadine within 3 months.
• Ornella must survive.

Bonuses:

• Artifact "Tarot Deck".
• Vampires: 10.
• Lychee: 6.

As an initial bonus, we choose liches. We watch the video and our hero-knight Ornella is in the lower left corner of the map. The maximum allowed hero level for this mission is 12th. This mission must be completed in 3 months, so you should not relax and properly allocate time to complete the remaining tasks that will appear as you progress. We move off-road and go out onto the road, on which your path will be blocked by a detachment of new creatures of the Necropolis faction - bone warriors and rotting zombies. These creatures are an alternative upgrade to the undead in the Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East. We attack them.

After the victory, we watch the video and a secondary task is added to us . The game will point you to the Witch's Hut, which is located in the lower right corner of the map. We move along the road and upon reaching the fork, the camera will move to a one-way portal, and 2 tasks will be added to you: and . Without the key, you will not be able to use this portal, which leads to Illuma Nadine. But this is still far away, so we will capture the castle of the undead, which is located not far from the fork.

After a successful capture, we watch a short video. Capture all the nearby buildings for the extraction of resources and the hiring of creatures in this territory, and after that use the two-way portal, which is located south of your first city. Before the portal, in the presence of a combat-ready army, turn left after the magic well and the planetarium. There will be bone and astral dragons of the Necropolis faction.

After defeating them, the task "Find the bottom half of the portal key" will be considered completed. Now let's use the portal and move to a new territory. Moving along the road you will reach the second castle of the enemy. Let's grab him too.

After a successful siege, attack a detachment of twilight and astral dragons that are not far from the castle you captured. After defeating them, the task "Find the upper half of the portal key" will be considered completed. We watch the video, but a new task is immediately added -. To repair the key, you need to have 15 measures of ore. Don't rush to the forge and visit the Witch's Hut. After interacting with her, a secondary task "Ornella needs to talk to the witch" will be considered completed, but a new secondary task is added - . To do this, you need to have 10 measures of mercury, 10 measures of shining ore and 50 zombies. If you have not previously captured an abandoned shah, then the camera will point you to it - it is there that you can once get the shining ore in the right amount. Once you have enough components to complete this side quest, visit the Witch's Hut again. If all conditions are met, then the secondary task "Collect enough components for the experiment" will be considered completed. We watch the video and in the captured cities you will have the opportunity to build improved buildings for the hire of creatures and purchase alternative units.
After that, if you have 15 measures of ore, use the two-way portal, which is located near the second castle. It will take you to the Forge of the Elements, where it is possible to recover the key.

As soon as you interact with the forge in compliance with the conditions, then the task "Repair the key in the Forge of Elements" will be considered completed. Then return to the first city, replenish the army and go to the same one-way portal that is located east of the castle. As soon as you transfer through the portal, a cutscene will start. At the end of it, move along the road and turn off-road, which is near the Redwood Observatory. This path will lead you straight to Illuma Nadine Castle. Attack him.

Upon successful capture, we watch a video, after which you will need to redistribute the skills and abilities of Ornella, who became the hero of Necropolis. At the end of the distribution, we move on to the next mission.

sad hike

Foreword: Erish must be united under the leadership of Arantir, Asha's chosen one. The supreme ruler carried out the will of Asha, but with the capture of Illum-Nadin, his suspicions were strengthened. Asha encourages him to do more. Demons walk the land of Ashan, and they are supported by the corrupted sorcerers of the Silver Cities. Aranthir must unleash legions of the undead in the land of mages to hunt down those tainted by Chaos before they become a real threat to the balance of the world.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Defeat the Demon Worshiping Sorcerer.
• Defeat the local demon leader.
• Aranthir must survive.

Bonuses

• Artifact "Four-leaf clover".
• Spell "Ice block".
• Gold: 2000.

As an initial bonus, we select the spell "Ice Block". When choosing a bonus, we watch the video, after which we engage in battle with the magician. When you win, watch another video. The maximum allowed hero level for this mission is 16th. We start the game in the upper right corner of Arantir. Under your control will be the castle of the Necropolis. Be sure to visit the Prophet's Hut, which is located near your city. After watching the video, you will be added a secondary task "Achieve Level 5" . As soon as you reach the required level, return to the Hut, watch the video, after which this task will be completed, and as a reward, 6 death knights will join you - they will allow you to capture resource extraction buildings that are guarded by various creatures much faster. Visit the Mage's Hut, which is located under the ledge of your city, and it will reveal to you the location of two neutral cities. At first, we will be interested in the city of the undead, which will be inhabited by two units of Inferno. As soon as you gather a strong enough army, then head to capture it. When approaching it, a video will start, after which a secondary task will be added to you . To complete it, you need to go down to the lower level, using the entrance to the underworld, which is located behind the crypt. As soon as you find yourself in the dungeon, move towards the vampires, after which a cutscene will start. At the end of it, try to attack them, after which they will want to join the hero's army. Now you need to capture three Outposts of the Necropolis, after which the secondary task "Find all the crypts in the dungeon" will be considered completed and in the cities of the undead will be able to build buildings for the hire of vampires, high vampires and vampire princes. After that, return through the one-way portal to the upper level and besiege the neutral city of the undead.

After successfully capturing it, build up a strong enough army and go to capture the city of Joh Magic Academy.

Upon successful capture, the task " Defeat the Demon Worshiping Sorcerer» will be considered completed. Now return to one of the cities of the Necropolis, replenish the army and go to capture the neutral city that was shown to us by the Mage's Hut.

After capturing it, head to the red Guardian's Tent, which is located to the west of the newly captured city - the key from this tent will be needed to complete the task. After that, if necessary, replenish the ranks of the army and go to the underground level, using the transition, which is located a little east of the center of the map. Once in the underworld, move forward. There will be pentagrams in front of and after the Red Border Guardian, and when approaching them, Inferno creatures will be called. As soon as you deal with them, the demon lord Erazial will be at the end of the tunnel. Attack him.

After defeating the enemy task "Defeat the local demon leader" will be considered completed and you will receive the following message: “The demon managed to sneak away, but during the flight he dropped a very interesting key. It is clearly forged in Shiogh's flames, which leads Aranthir to believe that it may be opening some kind of lock made by demons.". In this case, we will add 2 tasks - "Find the leader of the demonic cultists" and . Visit the Mage's Hut, and it will show you the location of the very passage that you need to use to complete the tasks. Through a one-way portal we are transferred to the surface. To complete new tasks, you need to go to the enemy garrison and go through it, after defeating all the creatures in it. Once you get to the next enemy city turn southeast towards the crossing. You can also capture the city in order to avoid problems in the future. Using the transition job "Find a secret way underground" will be considered completed. Move forward, and when you reach the fork, turn right. There will be a Temple of Mother Earth guarded by a detachment of gnomes. When visiting this building, the amount of health in creatures will increase by 10%. Return to the fork and continue on your way to the exit to the surface. Once on the upper level, attack the enemy's castle.

When you win, watch the video and move on to the next mission.

Awakening of the Bull

Foreword: Giovanni's networks extended as far as his personal ambitions. On the territory of the Griffin Empire, “sleeping” cells of the undead were skillfully hidden. Aranthir directs Ornella to unite them under his rule and call them to his banner to fight to restore Asha's balance. Ornella must infiltrate the Duchy of the Bull and seek out Giovanni's hiding places. He did not reveal their exact location to her.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Bring Arantira reinforcements.
• Ornella must survive

Bonuses

• Lychee: 4.
• Artifact "Skull of Markel".
• Gold: 7000.

As an initial bonus, we choose liches. We watch the video and find ourselves at the bottom of the map a little west of the center. The maximum allowed level of heroes for this mission is 20th. Starting Ornella's movement, be sure to visit the Mage's Hut on the left - she will show you the place that you need to reach to complete the task. Not even finishing the first day of the week, you must reach a detachment of militia along the way, which will be highlighted with a green sign of necromancers.

When you try to attack them, a detachment of vampires will appear in their place, after which a cutscene will start. At the end of it, the vampires will want to join Ornella's army - to which we agree. After that, in the peasant huts, which is nearby, it will be possible to hire skeletons. Two secondary tasks are also added: (the game will show the location of the city) and . In total you need to find 7 shelters. Basically, it will be a small settlement of 2 huts, between which there will be creatures highlighted with a green sign of the undead, just signs of the undead, which will be located near the roads (pointers will point to them) and buildings for hire of creatures of the Griffin Empire (near they will have the same signs). We move along the road and when we reach the crossroads we turn left, at the same time we use the sign of the necromancers (zombies are added to us) and visit the barracks, after which they are transformed into a destroyed tower - 3 out of 7 undead cells have already been found. We move along the road and reach the city. We attack him.

After a successful capture, a secondary task "Take Giovanni's Abandoned Necropolis" will be considered completed. Upgrade your army and head to that very crossroads and use the second road. When you reach the next intersection, use the one that leads to the southeast. The road leading north will be guarded by a detachment of creatures of the Order of the Order faction - at the end of its path there will be the Necropolis Outpost (the 5th cell of the undead under the guise of the Outpost of the Order of the Order), the Marletto tower and three windmills). Continuing to the southeast and passing the fountain of youth, turn off the road on the right - there will be the 4th cell of the undead. Return to the road and continue on your way. Soon you will reach the next settlement - interact with the creatures highlighted with the sign of the undead, after which they will turn into liches and want to join Ornella's army - the 6th cell has been found. We continue to move along the road, along the way capturing buildings for the extraction of resources and reach the settlement. We interact with the highlighted militias, after which they will turn into zombies and the princes of vampires will appear nearby. You will have a choice: accept them into the ranks of the army or leave them to mine gold. For a secondary task "Adopt the local undead into your army" select the first option - the 7th cell is found. After all 7 cells are accepted into the ranks of Ornella, a cutscene will start, at the end of which the heralds of death who have appeared will want to join your hero's army - the secondary task will be considered completed. Now you need to gather a strong enough army to defeat the squad of seraphim and knights of Isabelle, which was previously indicated to us by the Mage's Hut. Once you're ready, attack them.

After the victory, we watch the video. Exercise "Bring Arantira Reinforcements" will be considered completed, and he himself will pass under your control. New tasks will also be added - "Seize the castle where Orlando sat" and "Aranthir Must Survive". The city in which this hero is located is located in the upper left corner. On the way to it, you will have to capture two castles of the Griffin Empire. Upgrade the army of one of the heroes and hit the road.
After a successful siege of the first city, we watch the video, cross the bridge and move along the road to the crossroads - the second city of the Empire will be on the right, and the one in which Orlando sat down on the left. Once you're ready, take over the city of Millfield.

Upon successful capture of the castle, we watch the video and proceed to the next mission.

Beasts and bones

Foreword: The Dukedom of the Bull has been cleansed of its demonic taint, and the lifeless bodies of its chief sacrilegious have joined the ranks of the Legion of Aranthir. The pursuit of Orlando continues: he again managed to escape to the neighboring Duchy of the Wolf. It became obvious that something was rotten in the leadership of the Griffin Empire. Aranthir discovered that the cultists-demon worshipers greatly revere the city of Holyflame and call it the holy city of their new religion. He understands that if he has to cleanse the whole of Ashan from the stains of Chaos, he needs to tear out the heart of the sect.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Find a path to the Holy Flame.
• Aranthir and Ornella must survive.
• Find and destroy the infernal lair.

Secondary mission objectives:

• Hold all gold mines.

Bonuses

• Gold: 3000.
• Ore: 30.
• Artifact "Armor of Courage".

As an initial bonus, you can choose gold or ore - both options will suit you for completing this mission. We watch the video and find ourselves in the lower right corner of the map. At our disposal is the city of the Necropolis of the 5th level. The maximum allowed level of heroes for this mission is 26th. Under your control will be 2 heroes - Arantir and Ornella. The blue player will not show any action compared to the yellow and red - the latter will interfere with you in every possible way. To complete a secondary task "Hold all gold mines" You need to keep all gold mines, including those under the control of opponents, under your control until the end of the mission. Moving along the road, do not rush to go further than the mercenary camp, as the orc hero (yellow player) will be waiting for you there. By this time, in 3 three weeks, try to capture all the buildings for the extraction of resources and clear the territory of neutral creatures - at their expense, thanks to the Necromancy skill, you will be able to assemble a fairly good army for one of your heroes.
Once you're ready, approach the orc hero.

You will then receive the following message "Burn their stinking flesh and gather their bones!" The Orc Warchief orders his army to attack Aranthir and his allies without warning, without giving him a chance to negotiate."- after which you will engage in battle with the enemy. When we win, we watch the video and two tasks are added to us: "Find the leader of the orc units" and side mission "Rebuild all fortifications" . If by this time you have already built a citadel, then the secondary task "Rebuild all fortifications" will be considered completed, and Aranthir will receive experience in the amount of 3,000 as a reward. The leader of the orcs will be in the upper left corner of the map - he is the blue player. As soon as you get to the crossroads, turn right and get close to the garrison, which houses the creatures of the Griffin Empire.

At this point, a cutscene will start, at the end of which an area with an entrance to the underworld will open in the lower left corner of the map. Send Arantir to him with an army, and leave Ornella to protect the area from the raids of demons and orcs. Approaching the entrance you will see the structures of the yellow player. You should not capture them, with the exception of one gold mine (I recommend capturing it last, when you are in front of the orc leader's castle). Also, do not even think about attacking the city of the Great Horde - you will simply be crushed, but you can fight their heroes outside the castle, if necessary. Go around it and head towards the entrance. Once on the lower level, move along the road. At the first crossroads, which is to the right of the hero, there will be bloody temple at the end of the tunnel. As you continue your journey, don't forget to grab a gold mine along the way. Soon you will come across a second crossroads leading to the hall of the dwarves - there will be chests with treasures and warrior grave. Going further along the main road and passing the last torches, the hero Inferno will appear on it behind Arantir, and 2 groups of archdevils will appear in front of the garrison, which will block your path.

First deal with the hero, and only then with the guards of the garrison and the creatures in it. Behind the garrison there will be a hall with treasures and an exit from underworld. Once on the surface, capture all the buildings for the extraction of resources and attack the city of demons.

After a successful siege, 2 messages will pop up: "The Infernal City has been captured, the ghosts of the cultists have been interrogated, and Arantyr now knows for sure that the Holy Flame is the center of the new church of Urgash, and that Orlando has taken refuge there"(exercise "Find and Destroy the Infernal Lair" considered completed) and "Somewhere in these parts is hidden a portal between Ashan and Sheogh, the prison world of Urgash. Every week fresh demon troops come through it. Arantir must find it and destroy it” (quest added). In this case, the city of Inferno will be destroyed, and you will not be able to use it. To complete the new objective, return to the gem mine and head north to a two-way portal from it. He will take you to a tunnel on the lower level, at the end of which there will be a portal of demons guarded by 2 squads of cave lords. Once you defeat them, the task "Find and Destroy the Demon Portal" will be considered completed.

Return to the surface, cross the bridge and head towards the second garrison of the Griffin Empire. After passing it, cross the garrison of the blue player - behind it there will be another gold mine. Get back on the road and continue your journey along it. Before the 2nd garrison of the blue player, turn off the road - there will be another gold mine. Return to the road and go right from the garrison. Having reached the bridge and starting to cross it, the video will start, after which the task "Find a Path to the Holy Flame" will be considered completed. After that, cross the bridge, turn left - there is a gold mine, and along the way head to the city of the Griffin Empire, in which the leader of the orcs is located. Attack the castle.

A cutscene will start, after which attack the orc hero again. After the victory, we watch the final video and proceed to the final mission.

Heart of Darkness

Foreword: The ghostly smoke that billows over the walls of the Holy Flames smells of decay. Aranthir is already close to unraveling the mystery of the new church of the Griffin Empire, accepting demons and all who bow before the exiled god Urgash into its ranks. Askha brought Aranthir here in order to restore balance and destroy the stains of Chaos. He vowed to do so, even if that path would lead to his final death.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Aranthir must survive.
• Ornella must survive.
• Capture the Holy Flame.

Bonuses

• Mercury: 20.
• Artifact "Pouch of Infinite Gold".
• Mummies: 8.

Here we come to the final mission of the campaign. As an initial bonus, we choose mercury. After watching a short video, we find ourselves in the lower right corner of the map. The maximum level of development of heroes for this mission is 40th. Under your control will be the city of Necropolis and two heroes - Ornella and Arantir. Every fifth day of the new week, wagons with creatures will arrive as reinforcements. There will be liches, death knights and mummies in the city, which can be attached to one of the hero's army. Also near each city, with the exception of the Holy Flame, there will be 2 portals that allow you to quickly move between cities. Unfortunately, almost all of them will be blocked by neutral creatures and in order to move it will be necessary to destroy them all.
Start clearing the nearest territory, but do not rush to go beyond the outposts of the Order of Order. Attack the paladins that are located southeast of the castle, after which a cutscene will start and a secondary task will be added "Kill the Infernal Hero" and the camera will show you the location of the hero you need to defeat.

It is desirable to complete this task in less than 2 weeks, since when killing a demon hero it will be necessary to return to the same paladins, after which the secondary task "Kill the Infernal Hero" will be considered completed and as a reward, they, but already in the guise of death knights, will want to join the army of one of the heroes - to which we agree.
Once you're ready, send Ornella and Aranthir to those two outposts and capture them. After that, advance along the roads along two fronts, and you will see two enemy cities. Attack them.

With successful sieges, replenish the armies of heroes and send one to the center of the map - there will be the 3rd city of the Griffin Empire. Grab him too. In the meantime, explore the road from Stuzhvil (the city in the lower left corner of the map), going from the lower left corner to the left corner of the map - there will be another outpost on the road, behind which is the 4th city of the Order of Order. On the way to this city, you can meet demons that are opposite the exit from the one-way portal - Inferno heroes will appear from it from time to time. When you try to attack them, the following message will be displayed: “You approach the succubus and she vanishes with laughter in a puff of ominous smoke. Suddenly, a wall of hellfire rises in front of you. So that the flesh does not peel off your bones, you are forced to stop.. If you try to overcome the fire that has arisen, the hero will die. Also nearby is the Purple Guardian's Tent. As soon as you find yourself near the city of the Order of Order, attack it.

Once all four of these cities are under your control, cross the bridge that is located near the captured central castle of Stormwind. There will be a garrison at the end of the bridge. When you try to attack him, a video will start, after which a task will be added to you "Remove Magic Barrier" and side mission . It's best to do the side quest first. To do this, return to the beginning of the bridge and use the two-way portal that is located at its beginning. The portal will take you to an area in which you will need to attack the assassins. At the same time, a video will start and they will offer you a service - they can distract those very demonesses and you can close the portal from which the heroes of Inferno appear. If you agree to their offer, then the secondary task "Avenge ruler Fulbert by destroying his assassins" will be considered a failure. The killers will move to the succubi and kill them and a secondary task will be added to you "Destroy the portal." All you have to do is return to the former location of the demons and use the Temple of Magic Spells - a secondary task "Destroy the Portal" will be considered completed. If you decide to punish the killers, then a fight will start and if you win, return to the ghost - a secondary task "Avenge ruler Fulbert by destroying his assassins" will be considered completed. As a reward, the ghost will give you the opportunity to use one of three one-way portals that will lead to various locations with artifacts, resources, and other bonuses. In order to prematurely find out what is behind the portal, you need to use the nearest Mage's Hut.

To complete a task "Remove Magic Barrier" and open a passage to the Holy Flame, it is necessary to place 4 necromancers, with the exception of Aranthir, in sacred places surrounded by columns near the captured cities of the Griffin Empire. Recruit 3 Necropolis heroes and place them in the required locations. The fourth hero will be Ornella. As soon as everything is done, a message will be displayed and a movie will start, after which this task will be completed and the last task will be added - "Drive Orlando".

Heroes and their armies, as well as artifacts, will be irrevocably lost during the ritual, so be sure to give them to Aranthir.

On the way, head towards the Holy Flame and attack the city.

When you win, we watch the final video of the mission.

Congratulations, you have completed the second campaign of Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East.

Mission objectives and conditions:

Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of the East

So the second and last add-on for the fantasy turn-based strategy "Heroes of Might and Magic V" has been released. This series was first developed by the Russian company Nival Interactive, and the success of the experiment by Ubisoft (the copyright holder of the Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic brands) is evidenced by the fact that the sixth part of the game is already being created within the walls of the Russian developer, who returned "Heroes of Might and Magic" to its former glory.

In this article I will describe my notes on the passage of the missions Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of The East (in Russia the game is released under the name "Lords of the Horde"). I have the original English version of the game (the disc was sent by Ubisoft Corporation), but I hope that this will not create any problems during the description process...

The main task is to take the city of Voron Peak and free all the captured orcs (appears later). So, the war with the demon-possessed double of Queen Isabelle (aka Biara) continues. This time, the orcs suffered, from whom their relatives were driven into slavery. At the beginning of the mission, we are shown a video in which the shaman Kujin spoke about the signs she saw in a vision when communicating with the spirits of her ancestors.

The impatient leader Quroq says that those who want to continue to wait for signs and visions can stay in the camp, and he goes to the rescue of his fellow tribesmen. You have at your disposal a hero named Quroq, a level 5 barbarian. Immediately striking is the new building on the map, which allows you to hire orc Warriors units.

Having studied the interface, you will also note the modification of Spellbook "a - for barbarians, this book looks like this:

So, from the very first steps you are introduced to the most important characteristic of the barbarian race - Rage (military spirit). When attacking an enemy, barbarians receive the so-called. Rage points - rage points that accumulate and, upon reaching a certain level, give bonuses to the squad that has accumulated them. For example, the Warrior unit has a 5 HP increase and a 1 Speed ​​increase.

For centaurs, when they accumulate the required number of rage points, their attack increases by 6 units. In general, the characteristic of Rage is worked out quite deeply. There are several levels of rage, reaching each of them brings its own bonuses, but in order for your creature to benefit from moving to the second level of rage, the hero must "pump" a special skill. In addition, changes are made to the tactics of combat. For the fact that the squad uses the actions "wait" and "defense" - part of the rage points is removed from it. Rage is affected by various skills acquired by the hero. For example, the Memory of our Blood skill - before the start of the battle, bestows a certain amount of rage points on barbarian units.

The design and buildings of the city of barbarians, although noticeably different from ordinary cities, are still not revolutionary. Fans will notice the differences for themselves, and novice fans will easily figure out the new features without too much trouble.

Let's get back to the mission. In principle, it is not difficult. You can safely explore the entire right half of the map and "pump" your hero. As the story progresses, buildings will appear in the lower right corner, allowing you to hire units of the barbarian race. The castle you need to capture is in the upper left corner. One or two "red" heroes can periodically crawl out of the castle, which, however, does not cause any special problems. After capturing the castle, it collapses and your mission is over.

Separately, I cannot but say thanks for the very extraordinary implementation of the "goblin" unit by the barbarians. This is something! When the enemy hits, he cowardly runs away from him, and if your Cyclops is running out of health and the unit is about to die, then there is no problem - you can devour your own goblin right on the battlefield, and your health will noticeably improve. Moreover, the cyclops can throw goblins at enemies (if a detachment of these unfortunate creatures is prudently placed by you next to the cyclops). To top it all off, your goblin squad might get scared and go over to fight on the side of the enemy. These are such funny creatures, these goblins ...

Mission for a knight named Ornella, who wants to become a necromancer. Tasks: take the city of Iluma-Nadin in three months, which will require finding two halves of the key (guarded by dragons) and fusing them in the forge (which will require a certain amount of ore). The secondary task is to find out from the witch information regarding new units (alternative creature upgrades that appeared in Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of The East). Yes, now you will have the opportunity to choose one of two options for upgrading creatures - carefully study their characteristics and choose those who will more harmoniously fit into your battle tactics.

In this mission, we are introduced to the innovation of the Necromancers - Dark Energy. Under the resource panel, a strip with "dark energy" is displayed, the amount of which depends on the level and corresponding skills of the hero, the number of necromancer heroes, the presence of special buildings in cities, etc. After the battle, you may be offered to replenish your army with creatures in exchange for Dark Energy points.

Once a week, the number of dark energy points is replenished.

As for the mission itself, we can say the following - the hero is allowed to "pump" up to level 12, only at the end of the mission Ornella will become a necromancer instead of a knight, starting from level 1 (and further moving up depending on the experience gained in the final battle). The map is simple, there is enough time, first capture one, then the second castle of the Necropolis, then build up muscles and get both halves of the key, forge them and after that the one-way portal in the center of the map will become operational. Jump into it and calmly conquer Iluma-Nadin...

You have to find out the reasons for the union of some magicians with demons. There are many tasks on the map - several primary and secondary, and they are added dynamically, according to the plot. Initially, you have three opponents - orange, yellow and red. The map is not very difficult - capture and quickly develop the castles of the necropolis in time, while "getting" a couple of additional heroes.

In the mission, you will see such an innovation as a thematic set of artifacts from a common "suit".

The mission is quite long, especially if you decide to develop quietly. On the map, as you can see, there is also an underground area, but it is, in general, auxiliary. In the first dungeon, call for vampires to fight, otherwise, in the cities of the necroolis, according to the story, it will be impossible to erect buildings to hire them. The second dungeon hides an enemy demon hero with the key to the third underground area, leading to the last lock, which you take to complete the mission.

The task for Ornella is to meet with the main character of the campaign, the necromancer Arantir. There will be side quests- gather the undead under the banner, capture the castle. After meeting with Arantir, the final task appears - to capture the castle in which the knight Orlando is hiding.

The map is simple, there is no underground part. The only thing I remember is that you can be a little pestered by the knights of the red player - but after meeting with Aranthir you will quickly capture two castles of the Haven faction and the raids will stop. There is nothing to advise, just quickly develop (plus call a couple of heroes from the tavern to help Ornella). The levels of Ornella and Arantir are limited - you can only develop up to level 20.

A map of two areas - the main, above-ground, and "auxiliary", underground (in the underground, there are mainly only corridors to the right places and a couple of key objects). Opponents - Blue (barbarians), Yellow (barbarians) and Red (demons) players. It is impossible to take the yellow castle in the southeast in the normal time aspect (four or five hundred cyclops alone will quickly cool your ardor), but I caught the yellow hero and "slammed" so that he would not annoy me. But first, you will quickly destroy the "red" faction (first destroy the city of the Inferno faction in the east, then the portal to Sheog in the dungeon). There are almost a dozen primary and secondary tasks in total, but they are all completed without any problems. The mission will end after the capture of the "blue" city in the northwest (a cutscene will open - a dialogue with the shaman of the orc tribe). Before this final, pump the main characters to the maximum - Ornella and Arantira ...

The main task is to capture the city of Flammschrein and destroy the werewolf demon Orlando. There are two opponents on the map - Blue (Haven faction) and Red (demons). There are a lot of portals on the map, when you open the whole territory - feel free to choose long transitions by indicating the end point - and the pathfinding implemented in the game will find the shortest route (guiding you through portals). There are also a lot of different objects (directly a hotbed of miracles), often guarded by strong detachments of neutral creatures.
The main (and only) city of the necropolis will be supplied with caravans with reinforcements (unimproved creatures of the necropolis, several of each creature, including one bone dragon). This will be a good help in capturing the four cities of the Haven faction. Naturally, you should also use Dark Energy points tactically, replenishing the armies of Ornella and Arantir with the necessary undead units (without exchanging for small things like zombies). Near the four captured cities of the Order of the Order, you will see altars with pentagrams - at the end of the mission you will have to drive all your necromancer heroes into them (including Ornella, but not Aranthir!) - and perform the ritual of opening a magical barrier that closes the entrance to the road to Flammschrein. Before placing the last necromancer hero on the fourth pentagram - make sure you surrender all the heroes' troops to the castle or Arantira - otherwise all creatures will die along with the necromancer heroes. Yes, at the cost of the death of four heroes, you open the road to Flammschrein, where Arantir goes with his army (personally, I was not too lazy to run around all the cities of Haven and collect every single creature growth).
The final battle is not too difficult, but going through it the first time is not so easy - the enemy hero constantly replenishes his mana by picking up the souls of killed units, and the troops of hell call for help, increasing their numbers (plus the enemy hero often creates phantoms) . I won like this: firstly, I immediately killed the enemy ballista (she has four shots, and with fire arrows!); secondly, he took control of a detachment of enemy devils and made them rustle in the defensive formations of the enemy; thirdly, he destroyed the created phantoms and nearby creatures with "carpet bombardments" - fireballs or meteor showers (a phantom squad can repel a simple blow - due to the fact that it is incorporeal).
At the end of the mission, we watch a video about the release from the captivity of the soul of Queen Isabelle.
Very important: pump Arantir properly - he will face the final battle in the last mission of the game!

The beginning of the campaign for the orcs (very strong associations with the monogolo-tatars!). You are a young leader of Gotai, whom the dying Quroq (remember, the first mission-tutorial?) asked to avenge him on the sectarians from the Order of Order. The task for the mission is to collect 1000 enemy skulls. You roam the map, killing detachments of neutral creatures and replenish your deadly piggy bank. Burn villages (an object that gives an increase in peasants) - they give a lot of heads for them and initially give preference to peasant units - they are weak, and at the same time numerous. Your competitor is not too fast, but also not asleep. At the end of the "harvest" - return to Kujin (green hero). In principle, the mission is very easy, and personally I didn’t even need the trick of bribing goblins to steal the missing heads from a competitor (secondary task for the mission).

In this mission, you play as the Yellow Hero - Kujin - a female shaman who helps the young leader Gotai unite the barbarian orc tribes. In addition to you, initially there are four more factions on the map - Orange, Brown, Green, Blue. First you go to the orange city, and after the dialogue - the orange faction turns yellow, passing under your control.
Further, as soon as you accumulate a little strength, immediately “punch” your way through the garrisons to the brown hero’s castle, otherwise, if you start to sit out, the Blue Hero with an impressive army, which will be difficult to defeat, accumulating resources in only one city.
After joining the brown player - you have to swim to the island in the northeast corner of the map - to the Green hero. This is where the surprise will come - three purple heroes will appear on the map - two from the dark elves faction, and one - an ordinary elf. The army of all three is not bad, so gather all the troops in advance from one of the strongest heroes and let's fight back unexpected guests.
After joining the green castle - you should sail to the last, blue barbarians. To do this, bring the hero on the northeastern island to this place:

And use the "summon ship" spell (you can get it by buying a talisman in any barbarian city, click on the talisman icon in the leftmost menu in the city interface). Arriving on the island, you fight the army of the militant vassal of the Blues and then speak with the leader himself, completing the mission.
The mission is long enough, you can’t go through it with a swoop, get ready to systematically build up and realize your advantage. Do not ignore the development of ballista and help tent control skills - they were very useful to me, especially in the fight against units of neutral creatures.

In this mission, you will terrify the peasant settlements and cities of the Order of the Order (both blue and red). Opponents are at war among themselves, and you need to destroy five cities, after which the mission ends. There is a small dungeon on the map where you can fight with neutrals and collect treasures and artifacts.

If you wish, you can use catapults near cities - one shot at a city costs 15 units of ore. Three shots - and the city is not on the map, it turns into ruins along with the garrison guarding it. The main trouble is delivered by enemy heroes - they snoop around here and there, so pumped logistics will not hurt your barbarian commanders at all.
In general, the mission is not so difficult, but quite long (especially if you decide to climb the dungeon). Think carefully and weigh all your moves at the very beginning of the mission, build troops on time, hire several heroes, quickly build a ship (or run to the teleport in the upper left corner of the map) - otherwise the catapult will destroy the building you need so much, allowing you to hire troops of the orc faction. You will only have one home castle, so the sooner you destroy the enemy ones, the less problems you will have when completing the mission...

The most enjoyable mission in the orc campaign. The head about the construction of castles does not hurt, and the strategic element gives way to role-playing. You'll explore the map, recruit neutral troops from your "barbarian" faction, listen to oracle rants, collect keys, and traverse the map fighting neutral units. Various side quests will appear, they carry exclusively adventure content, since your main task is to run to the northwestern corner of the map, where a red demonic hero is waiting for you (very weak against the background of your army of orcs painstakingly assembled and improved in the fort). Don't miss - if you forget to press the Complete Quest button in the oracle's hut dialog and run to another segment of the map, the quest will fail. Summing up - an easy and pleasant card, a real vacation!

The end of the orc campaign is not a simple final battle, it is big map with a bunch of castles, with three opponents: factions - Red, Orange and Blue. What can be recommended here? Carefully calibrate your every move, quickly conquer the second barbarian city in the north, do not let the orange player turn around. It is critically important to upgrade several heroes at once and give them powerful armies (due to the large distances, the tactic "the whole army - with one hero" here at the beginning and middle of the game will not work). Gotai is very strong, and is able to "break" any opponent with an equivalent army, use it as a battering ram exploring the map.
Of the tips, I will also indicate the mandatory choice of money in chests, because without this you will not be able to develop and recruit an army in time (the missing experience will come by itself, because there are enough neutrals and enemy heroes on the map).
Ignore the necromancers - they are your allies (although they attacked me for some reason, but this is probably due to the fact that I climbed into their territory). Necromancers will sooner or later be destroyed by the "orange", and then you will have to pay a visit and capture the Necropolis.
There are two major battles - one for the city of magicians in the southeast, and the second - the decisive battle with Alaric, a cleric of Biara (in the guise of Isabelle). In general, fight, the mission is long, distribute forces and calculate the strategy in advance. Personally, I got tired after several hours of playing and did not open the whole map, taking the key city and meeting Alaric who ran out from the northern part of the map face to face (see screenshot)...

The beginning of this campaign, which consists of four missions, is quite extraordinary: first, you are given a level 25 hero, who then, after landing from heaven (!) right on the ground of the Academy city, descends in development to level 9.
The map has two parts - a small upper one (a corner with an island and your city) and a large underground one. The main task on the map is to destroy the purple enemy. On the map, the move also goes to the brown player, but I never saw any active actions on his part. Again you have to run, so upgrade the logistics of the heroes. The portal system at the beginning of the game will give the enemy an advantage - his heroes will jump back and forth, and you will be puzzled where they came from until you open the entire map. So actively develop the captured castles of the dark elves, using to recruit the right resources market near the city of Academy.
From time to time, indulge in replenishing Zehir's army with the help of a weekly call of golems from the Silver Cities - sometimes this action (albeit at the cost of 1500 experience points) will help you "break through" the road to the castles of enemies. Naturally, upgrade Zehir's ability to summon fire elemental shooters in time. Then in any battle with the help of their call, and then the spell "create a phantom" chosen at the start of the map (you made this choice, right?), you will greatly facilitate your further battle.
The mission forces you to think over your steps, and the lack of information due to an unopened map will be compensated by you "rollback" using autosaves (be sure to enable this game option) and a change in action planning.
Personally, I did not even have time to open the entire map to the end - the purple player, left without the last city, attacked my city, guarded by an impressive garrison, and died ingloriously.

The mission begins with an attack by a mad red knight. Considering Zehir's ability to summon elementals, the battle should not be difficult. The first half of the mission is to search for Asha's tear (in the English version of the game - "Asha"), for which you will have to swim in the dungeon. The red player will not bother you, so calmly carry out searches, fully develop your city. It would be useful to periodically replenish your army with genies sent from the Silver Cities (then, in battle, "xxer" their squad with a phantom spell, and here's a weighty argument for you in the battle). Then, when the "tear" is found, you have to go through a purification ritual, which involves three priests invited by you and yourself. Before going to the ritual, you have to prepare properly - recruit an impressive army (in several weekly increments), because an impressive army of demons will jump out at the ritual site - three dozen archdevils, a hundred succuubs, etc. At the same time, you will not be able to leave the place of the ritual - you will have to fight with what you have.
After the victory, the second half of the mission begins - Frieda and Duncan meet with Zehir, and he goes to the dwarves, leaving you with these two heroes (each has a frail assorted army of order creatures). Go to the north of the map, take troops from the adjoining garrison, destroy the blue hero, and settle in your city. Accumulate a little strength (with the help of one of the heroes and troops gathered in the garrison - go "carry out" the upper city of the devils, and the second hero at this time will collect the second half of the army - from the castle and from nearby recruitment buildings). Destroy the red heroes and castles - and now, the mission has been successfully completed. Very important: carry out all actions with Frida (let Duncan "rest" in the castle), pump her to the maximum and give her all the artifacts - this will help you in the final mission of the game!

The map is divided into underground and overground. At first, you develop underground - it is critical to quickly capture the second city of the dwarves in the northwest. Your main enemy - the yellow faction - periodically annoys you with their raids from portals, and one of the enemy heroes can disappear (teleport), which will slightly piss you off. Yellow cities - located in the dungeon, the entrance to which was guarded in my case (at the time when I got to them) - 247 improved thanes. I did not want to contact them, because I felt sorry for the accumulated army for the final battle. Therefore, he simply ran as one hero (Wulfsten) with an impressive army (regularly replenished with two weekly gains) through the dungeon and shuged the "yellows", taking back his mines. By the way, according to the scenario - Wulfsten cannot go up, so Zehir will explore the upper part of the map. He will also fight for the entrance to the portal to the Temple of Arcat - Rolf, a mad and power-hungry dwarf, will block your way (he will be strong enough - the army is led by 20 lava dragons and 50 improved thanes, etc., so be careful).

The map is also divided into underground and overground. First, you run Zehir through the overground, you have to capture a couple of dwarf treasures in order to bleed Biara's reserves. Do not ignore the possibility of weekly replenishment of the army with four titans (for this, keep an eye on the stock of experience points and gems at the end of the week). Hire a couple of heroes in the tavern - they will be useful to you for various "running around" (exchanging resources in the Trading Post, for example). Grab a couple of keys (red and blue) and go down to the dungeon, guarded by an army of demons in the east (you will not be allowed into the northern entrance to the dungeon according to the story). Capture both mines and a scene will begin, at the end of which Wulfsten will attack the city of Inferno, defended by the demon Jezebeth of the 27th level (and even "pumped" with artifacts).

The battle seems difficult at first glance, but the runic magic of the dwarves turns everything into a cakewalk. Carefully calculate your moves and tactics, send strong squads of units into the thick of the enemy and use the attack rune of all nearby enemies without their retaliatory attacks. When more than half of the creatures (about two-thirds) in your squad have already died, use the rune to restore 40% of the fallen creatures. Well, do not forget that each of the above runes can be used twice, but for a triple cost of resources. In addition, an important contribution to the victory will be the use of Vengeance spells by Wolfsten at the very end of the battle (destruction of a certain number of creatures in the enemy unit, depending on how many of your units were killed by this enemy unit during the entire battle). Spend mana only on Vengeance, and only at the end of the fight! Having killed one and a half hundred succubi or two dozen archdevils with this spell in one fell swoop, you will appreciate all its charm...

Next, you will run around the map, clearing the area around the key city - Talongard and causing scenes of the attacks of Inferno cities by heroes - the knight Frida, the female shaman Kujin, and also the right hand of Railag - Elijah. The fights are about the same as in the case of Wolfsten. Here you will understand how important it was to pump Wolfsten, Frieda, Kugin and Elijah in time. Since the characters retain the main artifacts in the campaign, you will also understand how important it was to supply these heroes with them. In addition, the fights will be a headache for Arantir and, of course, Zehir - carefully "rock" them too. Unfortunately, various forums are filled with indignant messages from players who missed the opportunity to "pump" and provide artifacts to one of the above heroes. For some players, completing these battles even at the Easy level becomes an impossible task.

I must say that I also had such problems - one of the battles was replayed twenty times (a dozen times on Normal and a dozen times on Easy). I did not get ANY positive emotions from the passage of this card. The game should be fun and enjoyable for all and sundry, and not be a tool to hone the skills of game veterans fighting online. For beginners - to face a disastrously difficult battle due to the fact that, it turns out, in the last mission, this particular hero will be weak and will not be able to resist his opponent (demonic hero) - terribly unpleasant. And Nival also claims that programmers are taught to create AI with the only task - "beautifully surrender to the player." Alas, there is a flaw with the balance: many inexperienced players had problems (most of them - re-played the campaign, or even the entire add-on - this time specially "pumping" heroes for battles on the final map). Such an arrangement is, of course, depressing. I hope that this information will help you plan your actions in advance and avoid unnecessary "bumps" while enjoying the game...

conclusions
There are enough innovations in the add-on - one race of barbarians and alternative upgrades of all creatures are worth something, and there are still thematic sets of artifacts, "forgetting

Carly my favorite dwarf

This is not a declaration of love, this is a strategy game for the Northern peoples in the addon.
The text turned out to be voluminous, get tea or coffee and sit down in a comfortable way.

After playing 30+ games on ubi.com as gnomes in 2.0, here is my experience.
He is very different. There were several bright games against warlocks, including fights with Iranna, Sinitar and Vaishan (by the way, this was the most vigorous fight). In my opinion, the League of Shadows is now the most popular on ubi (mb because they have a lot of pretty ladies?).
Several times I played against necromancers, and specifically against Caspar, Deidra and Vlad. I had a number of games against the elves, Ossir and Vinrael were my opponents. I remember two games with the Order of Order - both against Dougal. There were several games against other gnomes (oddly enough, everyone was against Ingvar), including the only defeat at the moment, thanks to my worthy opponent, he taught me how to use level 3+ runes. I played against a strong player for the Academy only twice, so I can’t judge in general yet. Naturally, both games are against Hafiz. Until now I have not played against Inferno, but I want to compete with Deleb in the speed of character development, I am sure that I will be able to overtake. So far I haven't seen one strong strategy for Inferno without Deleb, it’s clear that no one wants to spend valuable time on gates of units and removing their responses =)
My opponents were of different levels of difficulty. It's nice that people play 2.0, that there are more people after the release of the addon, the difference is obvious, especially at night. Unfortunately, bright final battles were not often obtained. Probably due to the fact that there are only a few hardcore players in 5x Heroes, and this is unlikely to change in the future. And also quite frequent game crashes and out of sync, but that's another story.
I played on different maps. Through trial and error, I found the most suitable for the game - the City of Wonders.
So I hope that thanks to the forums and my post in particular, Nival's marketing and the relative popularity of ubi.com, I will find more worthy opponents. Who will be pleased to challenge again and again.

While there was lyrics, it's time to get to the point of the post.
I'll start with the oven. From the characteristics of the gnomes.
The characteristics of the gnomes are given differently each time, sometimes it turns out a la ranger 2-8-3-5, sometimes a la magician 2-3-6-7, sometimes 4-5-5-5 a la gnome. Because the gnomes do not have a pronounced specialization in certain parameters, but there are 20% / 30% / 30% / 20%. Even with Artful Education, a well-defined pick like 2-3-17-4 (for example, like warlocks or necromancers) does not work. I specially tried different dwarfs, I have not yet found patterns in the distribution of parameters. If someone saw, write, it's interesting.
As a result, in terms of parameters, every time something came out between a warrior and a magician.
Therefore, there is a choice which idea to develop the main character. Here are my thoughts.

Develop a gnome mage?
Experience suggests that a mega-killer-nuker does not work out of chaos.
Witchcraft usually does not stand out against the background of other parameters, knowledge too.
Usually by the level of 14-15 there is something like 5-6 or 4-7, sometimes 7-4, of course Without taking into account artifacts. For chaos magic, the most powerful option is obvious - Firelord + Pyrokinesis. This bundle is capable of causing maximum harm due to the "Mahmud, Pajigay" technology. This somehow compensates for the low sorcery of the hero, however, dwarfs are far from real killers like warlocks, magicians with the Sign of the Magician and necromancers. There are no features like a wave of lasso and a powerful growth of Sorcery. It’s also true that the priests of Arcat, who, with Permanent Luck + Soldier Luck, will regularly put a cross on the opponent’s stacks, however, even with this ability, spell damage is much lower than that of the above-described comrades.
In addition, a fireball is given every other time, and Armageddon, with a huge increase in the troops of the dwarves, seems to me controversial. I do not consider an option like dragons with Armageddon. Why? Because the initiative of the dragons is low, you can’t put everyone on one Armageddon, and seven stacks + the opponent’s hero will somehow overtake the stacks of dragons and dwarves in damage. In addition, the farther into the forest, the more likely that the opponent will cut through the chip and collect the antidote to our strategy. And each faction has them, thank God the races in the game are extremely well balanced, each has its own pleasant little things.
I see this as an additional argument against the dragon-geddon. On Veteran difficulty, you can only build level 5 magic and dragon dwellings by the 4th week, if you do not sacrifice the rest of the buildings. And if you donate walking bears with Tans, you are far behind in clearing neutrals and developing the hero.
AT real games I have come across this option twice. Against gnomes, it is also controversial. The resurrection rune, magic resistance and dwarf luck are taken from Karlie easily and quickly, and the skills from the Protection branch for dwarves are useful in any situation, I will describe the reasons below.

With the magic of light, the situation seems much nicer to me. Dwarfs take "meat", i.e. growth and abundance of hits. Mass effects from light magic are very useful, because they strengthen and strengthen troops. In addition, you can take Eternal Light and make these effects stable if we know that the opponent will remove them or interrupt them with darkness (by the way, I have never seen this yet). At the same time, all spells of the Light, except for resurrection, do not depend on the witchcraft of the hero, which is in our favor. The resurrection itself has very good performance and without high witchcraft power.
I took the magic of darkness only once, when they gave me a plague against a warlock. It helped, but I won’t draw conclusions, because there are few statistics =)
I never took the magic of the call, I will also keep silent. In their native tower, the gnomes have magic of light and magic of chaos, so I didn’t take it. And I didn’t see the rune armor spell in action by the way. And I don't know yet what kind of animal it is.

However, taking magic without the accompanying bonuses is not enough if we are going to make a gnome-mage. A combination of Sorcery and Arcane Knowledge will make it possible to make the lives of other mages hell with the help of Distraction. Even if they have Sorcery, the loss in the hero's initiative after casting the spell will be very large.
In the education branch there is another, in my opinion, a very useful ability. During the Runic rollback, creatures, when the runes are activated, return GG mana in proportion to its knowledge. At first glance, with knowledge of 6, this is only 3 mana, which is quite small. At the same time, in the decisive battle, the gnome troops use runes almost every turn, and stacks are usually 6-7. As a result, the problem with a 20% increase in knowledge can be solved by regenerating mana already in battle, if only the hero had resources and slots.
Erling and Helmar are best suited for the role of the head dwarf in this situation, and both in different ways.
Because I tried different variants- and a gnome-mage and a gnome-warrior, now I will describe the one that I liked best.

Carly my favorite dwarf II

Maybe a dwarf warrior?
The warrior turns out to be funny, but effective (may the moderators forgive me for a quote from KK).
The characteristics are again average, defense 30%, attack 20%, to be honest, neither this nor that, when compared with demons or knights.
Of the "military" skills, all are useful, and all in different ways.
Most of the branches of the dwarf troops have more defense than offense, while relative to the troops of other factions, they deal damage at the level of average values. The exceptions are thanes and dragons, both are wonderfully good, but awfully expensive.
At the same time, in terms of the growth of the troops of the first levels and the indicators of the protection of the troops, the dwarfs are on horseback, in the sense, on MedvedE.
Those who wish to do a comparative analysis of the troops of various factions can look at the manual for 2.0 and add their comments regarding the troops of the dwarves, this is also very interesting to me.
A very important detail is to support the dwarven troops with rune magic, which makes them "stronger, more agile and faster" in the final battle. A detailed and very useful guide to rune magic, along with a selection of other very interesting materials about dwarves, can be found here.

Taking this opportunity, I express my respect to Protos for collecting this information literally bit by bit - and from a variety of sources. And alexrom66 for writing and providing these great lyrics. Keep it up guys!

Another detail about the gnome troops is as many as 3 creatures with special abilities that work more often with Soldier Luck. Javelin's crippling wound is my dream after the release of 5 heroes - as it lowers both the opponent's stack speed AND his initiative. A bear paw strike means an unanswered attack + a lot of tricks like pushing stacks into a wall of fire, getting hit by thanes or just pushing away from shooters. The fire sign of the priests of Arcatus is less attractive to me, but it seems useful in conjunction with fireballs and, possibly, with a wall of fire (I still don’t know if it deals fire damage or not - however, it burns great).
Let's add here the thunderclap rune, the effectiveness of which also depends on the soldier's luck - to give one more reason to want to take this excellent skill.

At the same time, the Luck skill itself more than compensates for the relatively low damage rates of the dwarves, and in combination with runes and leadership, it makes them living machines for killing.

What is the result?
The combination chosen by trial and error helped me to win. Consisting of the main character, troops, skills and abilities and the order of building the city. The scanner-scheduler of the development of the hero also helped a lot. Here is the download link and discussion.

Since I mentioned the scanner, I'll add my 5 kopecks, there will be something to discuss at the same time. In my opinion, as long as the scanner exists, there is a chance that your opponent will gain a powerful advantage at the expense of it. I sincerely hope that the author or Nival will figure out how to solve the problems voiced in that topic. In the meantime, they are not resolved, I use the scanner. And, thank God, I don't feel lonely. More and more often I notice how in response to the Attack I took, the opponent takes Defense, and vice versa. The game mutates, players adapt.

Who is the main character?
My competition for the main gnome (GG) was won by Carly, a specialist in spear throwers. Why?
He has a soldier's luck at the start, an ammunition wagon and about 30 shooters.

Everyone who tried to play for the dwarves was surprised how MANY GEMs they need! Indeed - take out and put 20 for thanes, 10 for priests, 5 for bone breakers. And 10 more to upgrade thanes, 10 to upgrade priests, and you also need a Rune School, a guild of magicians ...

In my experience, it is useful to prioritize the construction of dwellings. Those. for what week and whom we will build. And seeks to ensure the flow of the necessary resources. Look for and purposefully fight them off neutrals.

Carly has a nice bonus for when resources are scarce. Good luck on the way. It is very convenient, because you can literally take it at level 3-4, and more than compensates for the lack of gems and gold. Having luck on the way, it turns out to take 500 gold more from the chests, the hero gets more valuables from the resource stacks on the map. Well, from all sorts of mills with gardens of cheerful people, too. Fans of thinking about strategies will easily find a use for such a skill. Personally, I take it when I need a nosebleed, and build AND thanes AND priests in the second week, and there are only a couple of piles of gems next to the mine. The case is rare, but from life.

The key plus for me is Carly's ability to quickly clear neutrals much better than all other dwarf heroes (and other heroes, judging by the multiplayer). Crippling wound + plenty of shooters + free wagon = great start. And a great start = one of the strongest advantages in heroes.
Together with the troops of the second or third heroes and cars, he cleans neutrals on the auto battle from level 3-4. With the help of the scanner, every time I check the clearing speed compared to other heroes. So far, there is only one conclusion: Carly (at least in my hands) cleans very quickly. About how and whom to clean, I will write below.

What skills should Carly take?
I will describe them as I remember, I chose from this list in 90% of games. There are two main selection criteria.
The first. To help with the cleaning of neutrals and the development of the hero. Number one here is Car Control + First Aid. Number two - Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Neutral arrows in 90% mean losses in personnel, with evasion they are much easier to clean. Details, as promised, below.
The second priority is to help in the final battle. A few things help here. First, the knowledge of the main character of the opponent. Saw Dugal, Ossir, Elaine, Hafiz and any of the necromancers - expect 100,000 shooters. So we take Evasion and Fortitude. If you see Ora or one of the warlocks - prepare Fortitude, Reflection and Dwarven Luck.
Secondly, the scanner helps to tune in more accurately, keeping track of what and when the opponent takes his main character.
And for the principal opponents of the scanner, there is a tavern, reconnaissance and analysis of troops and the style of clearing neutrals. To do this effectively, you need to have remarkable powers of observation, to know other factions well and to conduct reconnaissance, which is not possible on all maps.

So, the list of skills.
If the School has good runes, rune magic. By the final battle, it is useful to have 5-10 resources of the desired type, more if you already have the Greatest Rune skill. I take the completed rune in 90% of cases, but the Updated one in cases where I know that the hero will have a minimum of useful magic and it will be possible to spend his moves on updating the runes.
If the main battle takes place at the level of the middle of the second month and later, I consider a full set of runes and skills for them to be mandatory. The more troops, the more useful the runes. And since at level 3 both runes are very strong effects, in combination with thanes and dragons, they allow you to send your opponent's troops to hell quickly and with pleasure.
The only question is when and where to get slots for these skills, and this seriously depends on the map and conditions.

Carly, my favorite dwarf III

Speaking of runes.
In practice, there are powerful runes, and there are situational ones. The rune of energy, resurrection, dragon form, intangibility and battle fury have earned my boundless and constant love and affection. Yes, I forgot about the berserk rune. For some reason, it is compared with the rune of energy - and is considered less important. In the final battle, the rune of energy can be used 1 time at the beginning to run. But berzerking... I don't even know how to describe it. 2 attacks for 1 ore is a kill. Imagine a thane with two attacks equipped with chain lightning. Or bear riders… Or dragons… Or any stack that hits two lucks on a double attack…
The only thing I do not advise you to do is to use the berserk rune on rugby MEDVs in the center of the field. With soldier's luck, the bear hosts will push the stack away in most cases instead of a second attack. But in the corner they give a paw twice, this is a test.
At the same time, if they gave the resurrection rune, the matter takes an even more amusing turn. It allows you to raise 40% of the fallen warriors. Those. it is most effective on numerous stacks heavily beaten by the enemy. Like spear masters, bears and warriors. Especially on the warriors from the watchtower, of whom there are already 10,000,000.

Let's get back to the skills that are useful for GG.
Vehicle control + Ballista + First aid. Makes clearing neutrals quick and easy. In the final battle, the tent removes negative effects, and the ballista finishes off the opponent's stacks. Rune machines are good, if there are slots, we take them. The rapid-fire ballista is very good, but it strikes out the tent, which is very bad. As a result, we cross out the third shot in favor of healing, if we expect harmful buffs. There is another weighty argument for the development of machine control. In the final battle, smart opponents try to quickly kill our ammo cart in order to force the shooters to go to hand-to-hand combat. Driving vehicles significantly increases the survivability of the wagon, and in our case it is worth a lot.

Leadership + Diplomacy + Rune Harmony. Diplomacy is a good skill on its own, and rune harmony is VERY strong in the final battle where the runes fly away with a whistle. At the same time, I spend runes and just for the sake of morality, it's worth it. If you are well versed in the game, you have already understood that Developed leadership is needed for runic harmony, and this is +4 to morale in the final battle if the dwarf has only native troops. And +3 if there are good strangers among the gnomes. Since +5 morale = maximum bonus, Runic Harmony replaces the skillful leadership slot in cases where we do not expect morale-lowering effects from the opponent (like the aura of fear of hellish horses, a ring or a banshee scream).
+5 morale, plus constant luck, runes and soldier luck, it's a very strong combo, trust my experience.

Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Already wrote about it. I take against heroes with many shooters. These are necromancers, Ossir, Dougal and other training enthusiasts.
Defense + Reflection + Fortitude against warlocks. Inexperienced warlocks think that with the help of huge nukes like earth shock and meteor shower they can defeat the crowds of dwarves. And they collect the main character as a pure magician - with witchcraft, education and the luck of a sorcerer. Dudki. There is enough meat for everyone, and the troops of the dwarves under the runes, luck and morale carry away their ordinary troops with a whistle.
Skilled and strong warlocks try to take out the huge growths of fat gnomes with a combination of huge nukes and powerful blows from furies and riders. They take the attack, sometimes, if you're lucky, the leadership. Defensive Hird + Preparedness helps with this. Such a bundle allows you to respond to all attacks, including attacks from hydras and furies.
She also helps from the gnomes, who, under the guidance of Ingvar or Ibba, often resort first to tactics and energy runes.

Light magic + skills depending on the spells in the guild. I already wrote about the benefits above, in my opinion, the most effective magic for dwarfs.
Ideally, you always want skillful light magic + resurrection, in real life I received this bundle only twice. But the punishing blow and acceleration = mass acceleration + massive punishing blow, this is a test. Especially if both spells were given in the guild. Again, the scanner helps to understand this already on the first turn of the game. And this, in turn, helps in choosing a winning strategy.

Attack + Battle Madness + Shooting + Tactics. I take it less often, the priority over protection and light magic is lower. Why? Permanent soldier's luck gives a double increase in damage. Light magic increases damage, strengthens and speeds up troops. And the runes too.
And the attack in patch 2.0 increases damage by 15%, besides, this skill eats up valuable hero levels. And why take a skill, the effect of which can be compensated by others?
However, if you gave the Boots of the Wanderer, the tactic is useful for the guaranteed hit of the thanes and bears on the first turn. Combat frenzy is often more useful than shooting, because opponents, having seen Carly from the first move, try to cripple spear throwers or an ammunition cart. And the priests in the second place, because the wall of fire and evasion are burning. And they do it right.

What troops?
At quick game and the lack of gems - Warriors, Spear Masters, Bear Masters. Improvements are expensive, but worth it.
If there are enough gems, we choose priests or thanes, improvements for bears and small gnomes will have to wait.

Who came first - the Thane or the priests?
If the opponent likes shooters - priests are the first 100%. In other cases, thanas, because they are very strong.

Who 100% do not take.
Berzerkers with bonebreakers. No matter how I twisted it, I did not see 100% benefit from them. Less hits than bears, characteristics are not higher, speed is lower, the only advantage is the maximum initiative among the troops of dwarfs - 12 (bears have 11). The fury of the berserker seems to me a very ambiguous ability, and the brass knuckle lovers themselves are an easy target. In addition, their dwelling requires gems and wood. And both of these resources are usually valuable and run out quickly. As a result, I say a strict no to berserkers and save gems for thanes and priests.

What and when to build?
If the city level is 1.

First day - Tavern. The troops of the second or third hero are simply necessary for a quick sweep of neutrals and the development of the main character. The third hero is useful for reconnaissance and additional troops, I decide whether to take him or not depending on the map. In addition, starting from the second day, he brings troops and military vehicles to Carly, while the second collects resources for the main dwarf.
Second day - Halls of Shields. More midgets, more troops, all for Carly, all for victory.
Third day - Forge or Halls of Blades, whichever is more useful - a tent with a ballista or additional javelin throwers. And Carly has a cart already at the start.
The fourth day - see the third day, according to the residual principle.
Fifth day - Rune School or Mages Guild, depending on the availability of gems at the start and nearby lands. If they are enough And for the thanes And for the priests, the school of runes. Otherwise - the guild of magicians.
Sixth day - town hall. Otherwise, by the beginning of the second week, we will be overtaken by an economic crisis (on Veteran difficulty, of course). If for some reason there is a lot of gold, the Chambers of the Black Medved.
Seventh day - see the sixth day, according to the residual principle.
Day 8 and beyond - depending on the circumstances, priority #1 - Capitol on day 14, priority #2 - thanes and/or priests in the second week.

If the level of the city is 3 (usually it is a built tavern and a fort), then there are many options and the final one seriously depends on the map and the nearest neutrals.
In any case, by the end of the week you need to have at least 3 buildings for troops, a town hall and a choice of Mages Guild or Rune School.

He promised to write how I clean neutrals.

Carly, my favorite dwarf IV

What is at the start?
About 30 javelin throwers, cart, troops of additional heroes. In the early days, a ballista with a tent also joins this. On the first day of the second week - an increase in javelin throwers. I note that at the start, Carly has no runes or magic, so for the first days he stupidly pokes neutrals with his ... wand. But then useful spells appear, especially from chaos magic, which greatly facilitate the cleaning of complex neutrals, I will list the neutrals by category.

Dumb meat. These are peasants, militias, landlords, demons, devils, bone warriors, fairies, dryads, mountain defenders and warriors, simple and plague zombies, ordinary demons. Their diagnosis is autoboy death. With a soldier's luck, all of the following are sent to hell by express. In rare cases, you have to play against fairies, dryads and devils yourself. How does it work?
The main principle is several stacks of shooters, several stacks of cover from among the troops of additional heroes, in difficult cases we substitute units from cover to remove a retaliatory attack. To do this, we set up 2 stacks of shooters, 1-2 multiple stacks of cover and 2-3 ones. Spear throwers cripple neutrals, reduce their initiative and (!!!) movement speed. Therefore, we attack the stacks of neutrals in turn with them until the crippling wound works. And we remember the formula for soldier's luck when we put troops on the field. In addition, the more stacks of shooters, the greater the chance that Crippling Wound will work - especially with Carly's built-in soldier luck =)

Arrows and others. These are gremlins and older gremlins, infiltrators and assassins, bone archers, javelin throwers, spear masters, archers, crossbowmen and renegade archers. Here, in 100% of cases, losses, if there is no control of the machines and first aid. What helps to significantly reduce losses?
1-2 stacks of shooters, 1 multiple stack of cover, and 3-4 stacks of 1 fronts. Best suited for the role of dummy units are MEDVEDs (although it's a pity), gargoyles and dancers - all of them run up to the shooters on the second move. Their task is to run and stand stupidly in front of the shooters, holding back their shots until the defenders of the mountains run up.
There is trick number 1 here. If Ingvar was given as the second hero, you can not put up your shooters at all. 60+ mountain defenders with losses, but will take the shooters away due to the built-in evasion. And for further cleaning of the neutrals, as you will see, we will need the defenders only as dummy units. The main work will be done by javelin throwers, a hero and, if any, war machines.

Which of the above should not be attacked immediately?
Rogue archers, a horde of archers, a horde of javelin throwers, a horde of elder gremlins. It is better to clean them up with a tent, since the skill of driving machines is given to the gnomes with a 15% probability, and the forge is a passage building for the town hall in the city.

Fast meat. These are ordinary and fiery demons, dancing with blades and with death, beasts and furies, various bears, hellhounds and cerberuses. Tactics differs from blunt meat only in that the stacks of shooters should either be placed in different angles, or covered with units. Here it is important to choose the right amount of shooters in the stack for the optimal operation of the soldier's luck. I'm bad with numbers, I do it on intuition and experience. Each triggered crippling wound significantly reduces the loss of personnel, so it is worth choosing the right number of shooters before each such battle.
A separate subspecies of fast meat is stone and obsidian gargoyles and steel golems. They all move briskly and are immune to crippling wounds. So we clean them with the help of shooters covered with units.

There is a very interesting trick number 2. If you tightly cover the shooters with units and leave the neutrals with an unprotected ballista with a tent, they will most likely kick the cars instead of the troops. This is where the skill of controlling machines comes in handy, which increases their survivability. I checked it many times, the veteran very often works on difficulty. You understand, in this situation, you can also clean complex neutrals like lizard riders and others like them, in extreme cases, you will have to buy new equipment =)

Dumb meat-2. These are swordsmen, men at arms, zealots of the faith, various minotaurs and iron golems. The difference compared to blunt meat-1 is only in the number of shooters necessary for stripping. For example, for a group of “many swordsmen”, 2 increases in spear throwers are desirable, if you have not yet mastered the subtle art of taking neutrals aside with dummy units. Golems, by the way, are in this category due to their very low speed and initiative. They are easy to clear and without a crippling wound, stupidly poking the hero and arrows.

To clear the rest of the neutrals, more troops are required, but otherwise the principles remain similar. It is useful to remember that the archlichs have a plague, thanes and jarls pierce the formation of ones through and to death. And the royal griffins dive at the shooters on the first move (on veteran difficulty), against them it’s worth collecting the shooters in one stack, covering it with ones, and leaving it nearby free place for retreat.
Trick number 3. Starting from 2-3 weeks, the GG accumulates 4+ stacks of different troops. And to clear the neutrals from now on, you need 1-2 stacks of shooters, 1 numerous stack of mountain defenders or warriors, and a unit of cover. The neutrals themselves love to take revenge on the MEDVs and poorly standing troops. As a result, it is necessary to have troops at hand and as many units as possible in battle. The following helps here. Usually, a second hero follows on the heels of the GG to collect resources. He is in front of difficult fights and it makes sense to give away "extra" stacks. And after the battle, he will return them back. It's better to lose a single one than the valuable meat of the Medvedevs.

That's it. Why did I call it "Carly, my favorite dwarf"?

Because, thanks to Nival, another strong hero appeared in the game, which I like to play and win.

Thank you for reading this far!

I will be glad to your comments and thoughts, write.

Life is change, chaos, debauchery and suffering. Death is peace, order and eternal beauty. From the very first releases of the series to the present day, the castle of necromancers has undergone all sorts of upgrades. Even within the framework of the fifth heroes, the changes took on a global and irreversible character, which forced the adherents of the Necropolis to develop new tactics and strategies for the development of their heroes and cities. What is the cost of the Dark Energy innovation alone!? In the current version, such drastic changes have not occurred, however, you still have to be sensitive to innovations. But first things first.
Our recommendations are addressed to fairly experienced Hero fans, but also to players who are starting to master the wisdom of Heroes, they will, I think, be interesting and useful.

Let's start, perhaps, with the most important and difficult issue - the definition of the supreme commander. It is important not only to learn how to choose the right hero, but also to develop in the most appropriate way. On the first day of the first week, we have a starting hero, and one more is available in the tavern (we won’t count on luck when you can hire as many as two necromancers there). Let's take a closer look at the eight candidates:

Vlad, "Resurrectionist". Once one of the strongest, and now it is experiencing a decline in its former popularity. Is it logical? Of course, the time of the "Inhabited Mines" has already passed (although in tournaments for the passage he still firmly holds the leadership bar), and the specialty does not give a very tangible plus (at level 21 - an additional +5 to witchcraft when calculating the spell "Raise the Dead ”), but it is still too early to write it off to the archive. It's all about his starting skills - having the basics of Summoning magic, he quickly gains the "Fire Warriors" skill.

Why is the strategy about playing on the Forsworn Land map?
This map became popular due to its very small size, lack of monsters between starting locations players and the opportunity to play a duel within just one hour. Which is very important when playing on, where any delays are fraught with disconnects, desynchronization, disappearances of the enemy in real life and other bummers. By the way, in terms of duration, my games rarely exceed 30-40 minutes. Probably from the rarity of strong players on .

What is in this text?
Below I will describe the following: the choice of the difficulty level for the game, the features of the Outcast Lands, the choice of the main hero, the features of conducting reconnaissance, the choice of the main troops, the order of building the city, the order of development of the hero, the best ways to clear neutrals, an overview of four strong options for playing against Kaspar. And a bonus: what to do when the opponent is from beginners, but fancies himself a hero.

What is the essence of the strategy?
Kaspar, Rogue Lands, Veteran difficulty, minimal casualties, large army.
Kaspar is the only necromancer able to nullify early game neutral clearance losses by specializing in a tent. With the strategy described below, victory is achieved by gathering a large army in a short time and one powerful blow to the opponent.

What difficulty level do I choose?
I will describe it for playing on Veteran difficulty, as I choose it for the game as the most balanced.
On the Hero, the advantages of the necropolis are obvious, I always suggest reducing it to Veteran in order to even the odds.
On the Warrior, the game becomes easy and uninteresting - a lot of resources, weak neutrals, all buildings are available, there is no need to make a choice - build whatever you want, no need to think. For me, this means 5-6 heroes with long troop transfer chains, easy wins against neutrals, and long turns, which gets boring quickly.
On the Veteran, resources are limited, which makes it necessary to carefully choose a strategy and fight for all available resources on the map. And in such conditions it is easy to see the strength and experience of the opponent in action. And the game becomes more interesting.

What are the features of the Outcast Lands?
The card is classified as “regular” in size. Games traditionally take place between the blue and red players. Reds start in the northwest, blues start in the southeast. There is an underground part on the map, the entrances to which are guarded by very well-fed monsters. It is useful to remember the two gold mines, the dragon utopia, the magical stream and other tasty things that are on the surface. Before starting the game, I highly recommend that you view the map through the editor. You can download the map file for viewing in the editor from here:

The distance between the starting cities is small, there are no barriers in the form of monsters on the way to the adversary. Which often means a 'rush' game where the first encounter occurs within the first two weeks - and sometimes the last for either side. The levels of heroes on this map only rarely exceed level 10, most often the first battle takes place between heroes of levels 5-8.
An important feature when playing on the Lands is the surface of the ground around the starting castles. For Red, it's grass, which means no movement penalty for heroes of all factions. And for the blue ones, this is the ground, which is a native type of terrain for necromancers, heroes of other factions move noticeably slower there even with a bunch of Logistics + Pathfinding skills. You can read more about territory types and homelands in the excellent HeroesV Guide here:
I take this opportunity to express unconditional respect to the creators of this manual for the insanely useful titanic work =)

Which Necromancer do I choose when playing in the Forsworn Lands?
My choice is between Vlad and Kaspar.
In my experience, the other Necromancer specializations provide significantly less useful effects when playing this map. After all, the full potential of Lucretia, Deidra, Orson and Ravenna is revealed closer to levels 10-12, while the main battle on ZG often takes place much earlier - already at levels 6-9.

Vlad is a Raising from the Dead specialist, has Basic Summoning Magic and Lord of Life at the start. Able already from level 3 to inhabit the mines with ghosts, which can be attached to the main army. His specialization is still relevant despite the massive spell nerf in patch 1.3. It now costs 9 mana and reduces the hitpoints of the target stack by 1/5. The main disadvantage of Vlad is the need to replenish mana at the wells and in the city, which slows down the development of the character and getting the necessary resources from the map during a fast game.

Kaspar is a specialist in healing and maiming enemies through a first aid tent, has the Basics of driving machines and the First Aid skill at the start. With some luck, already from the third level, he receives the Plague Tent skill, which turns the first aid tent into a portable rocket launcher capable of inflicting heavy injuries on enemy units (with the exception of mechanical creatures and undead).
The combination of a tent that can resurrect its troops and raise dead means the lowest possible losses when clearing neutral monsters. The main disadvantage of Kaspar is the lack of magical skills at the start.

Based on this, my choice is to play as Kaspar. I choose Vlad only if the opponent plays for the necropolis and is ahead of me, taking Kaspar for himself.

If the opponent chooses Vlad himself, I take Zoltan, who already from level 3 can get a very useful skill Lord of the Dead (+1 to knowledge and + 5% to raise undead in addition to Necromancy), and his specialization gives a chance that Vlad can raise skeletons only 1 time. Zoltan also progresses through the levels faster and gains bonus stats, which is quite nice if the game drags on.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands II

Is it worth doing exploration on this map? And if so, how?
Yes, it's worth it. In addition to obtaining information about the opponent, it is worth considering that there are a large number of resources unprotected by neutrals on the map. This means that the scout hero will also be able to collect some of the things available to the enemy, which gives an advantage in development.
In addition to the scout hero, it makes sense to start each turn by watching the news of the thieves guild. There you can find out the parameters of the strongest enemy hero, which at the beginning of the game sometimes tells you exactly what he is doing. For example, if our opponent plays red Inferno and is going to visit us from the second day, then on the way he will have only two chests, one dolmen of knowledge and one tree. And by changing his parameters, it will be possible to judge whether he ran to us immediately or decided to spend time clearing neutrals.

What troops does it make sense to bet on?
I'm not offering you anything original here. Our main troops will be skeleton archers, they will be covered by zombies, ghosts and vampires, sometimes liches. Since the main clash takes place in the second week, I suggest forgetting about useful troop upgrades. And focus on the rapid creation of a large army.
Players are given a level 3 castle at the start, so the choice between liches and vampires is relevant for the seventh day of the first week and determines who grows more in the second week. In the future, it makes sense to have both dwellings.
From experience, due to the small size of the map, it does not come to the construction of the Dragon Tomb, and the wights represent the strongest unit of the necropolis in the Outcast Lands. And with the strategy that I will describe below, it will not come to the dead =)

What and when to build in the city?
The first day is the cemetery.
Such a move gives 20 additional skeletons that help with clearing the mine and sawmill.
The second day is a graveyard.
On the second day, we get 50-70 skeleton archers, with which we can clear neutrals with a minimum of losses.
The third day is the magic guild.
Firstly, without a guild, you cannot build a bone pillar, which is necessary to increase the raised skeletons and implement the strategy of a large army. Secondly, if the guild has Slowdown, there is a weighty argument for the hero to take a very strong combination of Dark Magic - Master of the Mind. Or, if a magical arrow or stone spikes fall out, meditate on chaos magic. In any case, I write down the received spells on paper and, when offered to take this or that magic, I check the list. Due to this, it turns out to avoid stupid situations when you take a magic skill, and the guild does not have the spells you need for it.
The fourth day is the bone pillar.
Skeletons are our happiness. +10% necromancy means more skeletons. 10 sulfur is expensive, but the effect justifies the cost. An important detail - it makes sense to build a pillar at the beginning of the turn, so that after the battle Kaspar is already under its effect..
The fifth day is the cursed crypt. First of all, I really like zombies. When clearing neutrals, these troops are indispensable. And in a decisive battle, a stack of zombies very often strikes a decisive blow. Secondly, you can't build a town hall without a crypt.
The sixth day is the tower of spirits. In the first week, the influx of gold is easily provided by collecting badly lying resources from the map. But the number of troops cannot be provided in any other way. The second reason is my liking for ghosts. And their super powers to evade any harm. Which is indispensable in the decisive battle, and even when clearing neutrals. There is nothing better than seeing a stack of gremlin masters led by Hafiz shoot at an incoming stack of Wraiths and… miss! Or how Sinitar launches enhanced lightning at them for 1000000 damage and receives the inscription "miss" in response ...
Day 7 - Vampire Manor or Mausoleum. Another dwelling to increase the number of troops. The seasoned reader knows that liches in the first week of Veteran difficulty are only possible if you manage to collect some sulfur. On the other hand, I prefer liches to vampires when I know that the opponent is going to bet on large numbers of living archers covered by other troops. In other cases, I like vampires more due to the unanswered attack and self-healing.
Eighth day - market or forge. Usually on the evening of the seventh day, Kaspar returns to the castle to learn spells, restore mana and recruit troops. And since we don’t have a town hall up to this point, the money becomes quite small. However, I usually expect to build the Capitol at the end of the second week, and it requires a level 15 city. Therefore, I build something inexpensive on this important day. If gold allows, and the hero does not have an ammo wagon, I choose a forge. If there is not enough money - the market.
Ninth day and beyond. I put the buildings in such a way that by the end of the week I have accumulated 10,000 gold for the Capitol. Priority number 2 is the citadel, priority number 3 is the presence of five troop dwellings at the end of the week.

What do the heroes do during this time?
On the first day, I hire two. The necromancer gives Kaspar everything except 4-5 zombies and runs non-stop towards the enemy to collect badly lying resources and reconnaissance of the territory. Necromancers run on the ground without a penalty, which means that regardless of color, this feature will speed up the movement of reconnaissance.
The second hired, most often a hero of a different faction, gives the entire army to Kaspar, receiving 1 zombie in return. His task is to collect resources and artifacts behind Kaspar for the first few days, take the mines, and then, having given everything of value, run to collect free resources on our side of the map. At the end of the week, he should stand by the mill if we play for the Reds, or at the garden of the merry folk if we play for the Blues. To get fresh resources on the first day of the second week.
What does a scout do?
His task is to run to the only passage in the middle of the map, from where the opponent can come running. And, further, to collect the maximum amount of resources before meeting with his intelligence or the main army. And in battle, escape, killing the maximum troops of the adversary. To do this, zombies are divided into 4-5 stacks one by one and placed separately so that more than one is not hooked by stone spikes and fireballs. By the way, if the opponent was greedy and gave his scout 1-3 units, most likely our intelligence will defeat him.
What does Kaspar do?
His task is to make a short journey through the nearest dolmens of knowledge and experience chests to the castle. During the journey, Kaspar clears neutrals and, very importantly, avoids collecting free resources. There are collectors for this, and his task is the development and capture of key objects. At the same time, he should visit the castle again as soon as possible in order to learn spells and restore Mana. Most often this happens at the end of the seventh day, when intelligence is already far away, and the second hired hero is already standing at the point of issue of gold. By this time, its level should be in the region of 5-8, depending on the neutrals that have fallen to us.
Priorities in developing his skills and useful tips on clearing neutrals are below.
If I plan to strike an opponent quickly, then on the first day of the second week I buy another hero, if only the availability of gold allows. Usually they give one necromancer, which means another nts skeleton archers and 7+ zombies. And if it's Orson, then generally a holiday - 27-33 zombies. If Orson was given in the first week, it makes sense to specifically attack his opponent with him and escape according to the scheme described above. At the beginning of the second week, he will most likely return - but with new zombies!
After leaving the castle at the beginning of the second week, Kaspar goes to the opponent, along the way clearing the neutrals already in the territory of the adversary. And then there are two options - either a meeting in an open field, or a siege of his castle. In the first option, the advantage is on our side - due to the high efficiency of the plague tent and the numerical advantage (and often in the advantage in the level of the hero). In the second case, it makes sense to attack the castle in the third week after receiving fresh reinforcements. Describe a specific recipe for further development events seems to me impossible, because the number of options is incredibly large.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands III

How to develop Caspar?
There are two main priorities in the first week: machine control and necromancy.
Driving vehicles is a very powerful skill in the early game. The Plague Tent not only reduces losses, but is also capable of inflicting significant damage both when clearing neutral monsters of levels 3-5, and when skirmishing with an opponent's hero. At the end of the first week, with skillful control of the machines, this marvel of technology takes away a week's increase in archers in one go. Or raises the growth of skeletons to "life".
The probability of increasing Knowledge upon obtaining the next level for them is only 15%. If the hero has only 10 mana, he can only raise the fallen undead once, while the tent works three times per battle. Therefore, the plague tent also saves the hero's mana, which is a great help for necromancers at the first levels.
After patch 1.3, the number of hit points at the tent inspires confidence, and the First Aid skill returns the whole tent if it was demolished in battle by adversaries. Therefore, among the skills to control machines, the number 1 priority is the plague tent, then the ballista. The catapult is relevant only if the enemy is a fan of sitting out in the castle. In addition, skillful control of vehicles around the base gives a 50% chance of destroying the towers of the city or the gate. By the way, it’s especially good when the starting city is Adad-Usur, in it the ballista is sold at the usual price of 1500 gold versus 4500.
Among the skills of necromancy, the priorities are as follows. Eternal Ministry is number one in the first week. For it significantly reduces losses when stripping neutrals. Raising archers is priority number 2 in the first week, because at the end of the week Kaspar will return to the city and give each skeleton a bow. But in the second week, the priorities change exactly the opposite.
I avoid taking the banshee's cry. The reasons are as follows. Living neutrals usually have a positive morale, -1 to it only reduces the chance of them getting an additional turn, but it is impossible to intimidate them with a cry without Deirdre's specialization. And golems, gargoyles, and the undead just don't respond to morale drops. In this case, the opponent's troops most often have +2 morale, and the shout has the same effect on them as on neutrals. If Haven is playing against us, and even a strong leader (which is very rare), -1 will not give a powerful effect.
Decreasing initiative by 10% is a strong bonus. However, its influence is stronger, the faster the enemy troops. And the weaker the units are slower. There are quite a few very fast troops, which means that the cry will have a strong influence on the initiative only in some cases. For my taste and color, the situational skill is not worth a slot, especially if we play fast and Kaspar will be level 7-9 by the time of the fight. Much more important are 100% useful skills that will be needed in every battle, and we will leave the scream to Deirdre, she screams better than Kaspar.
Starting from the second week, I add the following priority: get a magic skill.
The options are as follows - dark magic + skill, depending on the learned spell. In my opinion, the most useful would be TM + mind lord = mass slow and TM + curse lord + spirit link = mark of the necromancer. The first makes the moves of our troops more frequent, the second helps to restore mana in battle and cast more spells, which is very important, given the low knowledge of necromancers. TM + lord of pain makes sense to take against lovers of living shooters of 1-2 levels, if they gave a plague on the second level of the tower. This spell has an amazing effect on the number of troops of 1-2 levels, surpassing the shock spells of chaos magic in terms of victims at times.
Summon Magic + Life Lord is the second strong option. Due to the high level of Sorcery and the presence of the Raise the Dead spell built into each necromancer, we will restore even more troops - and even faster.
Chaos magic is a good choice if you somehow manage to get a second level in the guild with lightning or an ice block, and get an artifact with an increase in harm to them. AT long game lord of cold + deadly cold deals unexpectedly huge damage.

What situational development options are useful?
I choose them when playing with strong opponents, when the game gets long. The purpose of this option is a fine "tuning" for a specific enemy. For example, against Sinitar, a bunch of Developed Defense + Fortitude + Reflection helps = our troops are thicker and his spells do 1/5 less damage.
Against archer lovers, I go for Advanced Defense + Fortitude + Evasion, especially if I'm expecting Ossier with 10,000,000 archers.
I rarely take popular skills such as Logistics and Offense.
Why not logistics? The Forsworn Lands is a small map, with many narrow passages, grass and dirt as the main terrain (after all, traditionally games are played between red and blue, without dungeons). Using the strategy described here, it is not difficult to plan movements in such a way as to exclude the possibility of chases (in which Kaspar, without logistics, is frankly weak). Due to early reconnaissance, it is possible to see the key passages on the map and, if necessary, block them with the hero. And with a quick game, Caspar manages to run from his castle to the adversary's castle on the seventh day.
On the other hand, if you take logistics early, you will have to sacrifice either collecting skeletons using necromancy or controlling machines, which will increase losses during clearing neutrals.
Why not attack? First, the strategy is based on the abundance of our troops. And victory is achieved through numerical superiority. We have a couple of hundred archers in the middle of the second week + 40-80 zombies + 15-20 ghosts + 10-11 vampires or 6 liches + plague tent + ballista and cart. The opponent has a two-week increase in troops + his possible equipment - possible losses during the clearing of neutrals, which we compensate for the tent, the Raise from the dead spell and the Eternal service skill.
Secondly, the main characteristics of necromancers are protection and sorcery. And the choice of defense-boosting skills plays to our strengths, giving a greater effect. A nice addition is the fact that the effect of the popular skill Battle Frenzy can be partially mimicked by obtaining a bloodstone necklace from neutrals or from an artifact merchant's shop.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands IV

How to clear neutrals in the first week?
The level of Caspar, his strength and the number of skeleton archers with whom we will go to the adversary depend on how many neutrals we can clear during the first week.
The main priority in clearing is the ratio between troop losses and experience gained. The second priority is collecting skeletons. By the way, it is useful to remember that skeletons do not rise from undead, golems and elementals.
What kind of troops do we have to clear? Usually this is 50-70 skeleton archers, 20+ zombies, maybe a few ghosts or a vampire (Lucretia brings him with her) + living troops of the third hero.
General principle: use raising the dead on skeleton archers only if we cannot raise them with a tent. Zombies and living troops play the role of defenders of the shooters and are not subject to rise. Ghosts and vampires are only placed on the battlefield if the neutrals are strong and the battle is very important. For example, if we clean the crypt or there are two chests behind the neutrals.

Gremlins and older gremlins, scouts and assassins, bone archers, archers and crossbowmen (only if the last squad or a lot).
We put 2 stacks of zombies on the field (1+ all the rest, both stacks in the center) and shooters (in the corner), we hide the rest of the troops. We focus the archers and the hero on one stack of neutrals, crawl towards it with a lone zombie (to block it later), the rest of the zombies crawl to another. Neutrals will focus our archers until the zombies come within striking distance, so we heal the skeletons with a tent, remembering that it has 3 charges. Zombies can only be healed if the skeletons have already been healed.
If there is already a plague tent and we can kill a stack of shooters with one shot, we think about the consequences and decide to heal or cripple according to the situation.
"Pass" if you lost few zombies and not a single archer.

Stone and obsidian gargoyles, swordsmen, common and plague zombies, minotaurs, iron golems, common and fire demons dancing with blades.
We put archers on the field in a corner, surround them with three stacks of zombies (1 + 1 + all the rest), separately in the center we put a lone zombie (OZ) or two, if there are enough slots. We expose the rest only if there are a lot of neutrals. And preferably in another corner, to save until better times. Alternatively, if there are a lot of neutrals, we use the living ones as the OZ in the center.
We focus the hero and archers on one stack of neutrals, move the HP towards them so that she (it?) is in the radius of their attack. At the same time, it is desirable that she distract one of the stacks to herself. So that he can run as long as possible to the shooters and their guards.
As soon as the neutrals killed the HP and got to the main group in the corner, the damage of the archers increases dramatically. Now the task is to give a minimum of zombies and 0 archers. If it worked out - zachot.

Demons and devils - similar to the previous paragraph, with one exception. We clean them either with the second hero for the sake of chests or a dolmen of knowledge or Caspar, if we know where he will restore mana. Which these geeks will pull out of him on the first move.

Separate evil - dancing with death. They are best cleared when there is a plague tent + skillful machine control. We expose the zombies in one stack in the center, the archers in the corner, around them 3 OZ, we hide the rest. Then we focus the stacks one by one with the hero, and with the archers, with the tent for the first time we cripple the dancers, then we heal the archers. We put the HP around the archers in defense while they are alive (until the first arrival of the archers). Zachot if you lost few archers and few zombies.

What strategies are strong against this one?
I have seen four of them so far.

Deleb, Inferno
The first one is called Deleb, she is a demon lord, a ballista specialist, and just a hellish woman =).
Her ballista usually shoots twice, and each time it throws a fireball that hits targets around the main one. Hits accurately, hits painfully, skeletons fly away to another world with a whistle.
When meeting face to face in an open field, I do this:
A) I divide the skeletons into 2-3 packs, put them in the center, put the usual protection from ghosts and zombies at a distance of 2 cells on the sides so that they don’t get caught by ballista or stone spikes.
B) I play the game “who will bury whom first”: I try with the help of a tent, a hero and archers to carry away his units faster than he mines. In this game, I have such advantages - a strong spell to raise the undead and the ability to return troops with a tent. And he has endless ballista shots and an abundance of mana against our poor knowledge and a tent that only works 3 times. Moreover, the imps will suck out a piece of mana, which is already so small.
There are two possible responses from this:
Quickly clear the neutrals closest to your castle along with the crypt and build at least a citadel by the time he arrives. If the arrival is expected in the first week, at the expense of the logistics received along the way and the bonus from the morale fountain (which is very rare). If Deleb reaches our castle at the beginning of the second week, God himself ordered to take the gain of the second week and fill her with her demonic hmm ... face =)
In any case, before meeting her, it makes sense to teach Kaspar first-level magic in the hope of attacking spells like stone spikes or a magic arrow. And increase the amount of mana with one of four options: take initial education and mana attraction, take a +1 bonus to knowledge with combat (easier if we play as red), take a magic stream with combat and double our mana (if the enemy is not a fool, he will catch us there), purposefully develop dark magic to the sign of the necromancer and regenerate mana already in battle.
Several useful tips and observations:
1. Do not agree to play against Deleb on Hero difficulty - this will give the adversary more advantages than us. The same goes for the choice of colors - for red, she gets a significant advantage if she gets logistics along the way. So, if you play against such a frankly unbalanced hero, then on Veteran and Red.
2. You don't need a special ability to win for Deleb, which attracts many players who want an easy victory. But the games against her are fast - once he took her troops away, threw her back to the castle, but for now the demon runs to us for the second time, we raise the hero and recruit skeleton archers.
3. A good answer for a ballista would be Defense Basics + Reflection, the ideal option would be Developed Defense + Reflection + Fortitude, although most likely you will have to sacrifice necromancy. And, of course, it makes sense to take your ballista to shoot back the reinforcements called from behind.
Hafiz, Academy
A strong and popular answer to Kaspar is Hafiz from the academy with the ability to control machines. By the middle of the second week, his gremlins usually have the characteristics of higher vampires, and the adversary almost always plays on defense - covering the gremlins with golems and gargoyles, summoning elementals, attacking with genies and mages.
It is very important by the time of the meeting to have a higher level than his. From my experience, power over machines works less often if Kaspar is higher than Hafiz in levels. And more often, if vice versa. In addition, this skill takes the tent with some probability. And Hafiz often lacks first aid skills, not to mention the plague tent. And the magical skills of this magician by the middle of the second week are rarely well developed compared to Nazir or Ora.
Therefore, for the decisive battle, I use the following tactics.
I expose two stacks of skeletons in the corners, if there are lychees, put them in the center. In the center I put the rest of the troops - ghosts with vampires and a stack of zombies. Priority targets for archers are mages, then master gremlins (MG). There will be 2-3 stacks of mages, so 2 stacks of skeletons will find targets. Ghosts in such a fight play a key role. Their task is to get to the MG and stand next to them, making it difficult to shoot. An experienced mage will try to kill them as soon as possible with mages, MGs, or their spells. Therefore, it makes sense to be ready to treat them with a tent or raise them from the dead.
The role of the vampires in this fight is to cut out the attacking genies and cripple the MG guards so that the ghosts get to them. If the liches are on our side, their target, of course, is the MG, because by the will of Nival their attack for some reason damages the golems and gargoyles. With which the adversary will cover the MG.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands V

Vittorio, Order of Order
The battle against Vittorio, the siege engine specialist from Haven, looks similar. Experienced Players trying to quickly prepare archers from the peasants. So by the time of the fight, there will be more of them from the horde. Which means a similar arrangement on the battlefield to Hafiz - archers or crossbowmen in the corner (or in the corners), next to swordsmen or men at arms with large shields (one or two stacks), royal griffins (one or two stacks) in the center. If there are monks, then usually in the opposite corner from the archers (they are afraid of lich attacks and do it right). If there are knights or paladins, then they put them in the center next to the griffins to intercept our vampires and ghosts. Vittorio is strong with a three-shot ballista, some of his opponents take Lead for the sake of Inspire and Aura of Speed ​​and Offense for the sake of Tactics and Retribution.
Therefore, our answer to such a strategy would be Advanced Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Dodging will reduce the damage from shooters and ballistas, I won’t repeat about durability =)
In a fight, I put a stack of skeletons in a corner, diagonally from it a stack of zombies, in case of an attack by knights or ordinary griffins. Vampires, ghosts - in the center, if there are lychees - in the other corner. The adversary usually launches the royal griffins into the sky, aiming at the skeletons. Therefore, I put only one stack of skeletons, which, after the move of the griffins, should simply step aside. At the same time, the high initiative of the griffins sometimes allows them to land before the skeletons move:<.
Priorities for attacking with skeletons and a tent are griffins, monks and archers. The task of the vampires with ghosts is to block the archers. Zombies guard our archers and often finish off the gryphons after they fly. An important detail is the enemy tent, which not only heals and raises from the dead, but also removes harmful spells. Therefore, the damage makes sense to destroy the opponent's stacks between the turns of the tent - or spread the damage across different stacks to make it harder to heal.

Sinitar, League of Shadows
For dessert, I left tactics against Sinitar, the warlock. His strengths are powerful spells and thick troops. By the end of the second week, 6 cave hydras with regeneration allow the adversary to play his favorite game of attack-spell-hit-escape. Yes, and the intelligence of warlocks most often strives to attack Kaspar and, having patted the skeletons, run away.
What do I do with intelligence? I expose a stack of zombies (at least 20) against the usual 7 scouts. The tent heals the zombies, while the hero methodically knocks the spirit out of the scouts.
What do I do with the main character? If the game is fast, then the alignment is usually like this. He has 2-4 stacks of one hydra, furies, minotaurs and scouts. Everyone plans to stand on the defensive, except for the furies. I deploy all troops with an interval of one cell with the letter G to avoid getting hit by stone spikes and fireballs. Skeletons in the corner, zombies nearby, vampires and ghosts further. Targets for archers and tents - furies, hydras. Usually one charge of the tent is enough to stop the furies from running. By this point, they usually manage to bite off painfully once or twice due to the huge initiative and the initial randomness during the arrangement. Then the zombies crawl forward, and the game is reduced to a focus of troops of hydras and minotaurs and healing and raising their own from the dead. In terms of meat, tent, and Raise from the Dead, I have never lost an early battle so far. Often the adversary throws lightning once and flees to the castle. At the same time, part of the dead returns due to eternal service, and Kaspar runs on.
During a late battle (end of the first month), it makes sense to prepare by picking up Developed Defense + Reflection + Fortitude. The second counter against warlocks are the archlichs. Even for the sake of building them alone, it makes sense to clear the mines. What's the matter? But the fact is that, in addition to the hydras, the rest of the warlock's troops have a relatively small number of hits. And extremely vulnerable to the plague spell. Which two stacks of archiliches in the final battle pretty quickly impose on the adversary's army. And the warlock has a serious choice - to hit the skeletons with Ground Slam or do it with the archliches.

At the moment, I have not seen a single strong strategy against my elves. Yes, and there are somehow few fans of eared ones if you play on the Outcast Lands.

Thank you for your interest and patience! I am sure that this text is an occasion to discuss interesting moments in the game for and against the Necropolis in the Outcast Lands.

Bonus: how to play against newbies for the sake of ranking
Before I met really strong players on , I had many encounters with beginners. Who fancied themselves experienced and seasoned. And still, due to the buggy rating system, in which the numbers in the profile do not guarantee the presence of a skill, I stumble upon them. Such games are interesting to me only if a person is mature, educated and wants to learn how to play well. In such cases, it is pleasant to talk, and it is not a sin to continue acquaintance. In other cases, you have to listen to crying about bugs, developers' mistakes, etc., when the adversary starts to lose, but I don't like it.
Against such beginners (and there are enough of them), I play _very_very_ aggressively. Those. having captured the mines on the first day, I immediately run Kaspar after the scout. The third hero at the same time catches up with Kaspar on the third day and brings either a ballista with a wagon of ammunition or a pack of zombies. Along the way, Kaspar does the following things:
A) cleans the Dolmen of Knowledge in the middle
B) comes to drink from a magical stream, which is very useful if knowledge did not drop out during development
C) takes all chests for experience. At the same time, which is very important, I choose, first of all, two things - Necromancy and control of machines. And of course, a plague tent, as soon as the opportunity presents itself. I ignore the rest of the skills, because with each new skill branch opened, the chance is lower that they will give us the things we need, like the plague tent, ballista, and catapult. And of course I take skills like eternal service and banshee scream only if they don’t offer necromancy or machines. I take the rise of archers if I have overcome half of the way - and it is not possible to give back the skeletons for an upgrade.
D) cleans the crypt if there are 100+ archer skeletons and 20+ zombies. The only problem with the crypt can be if it has 5 liches or 5 wights. We focus the dead with the hero, cover the shooters with zombies or ghosts, and while they are running towards, we feed 1-2 units to buy time. The liches are more interesting - we divide the living troops in different corners, try to save the charges of the tent for the end of the fight, let the liches shoot the archers, and ignore them until we bury the rest of the inhabitants of the crypt. The fact is that liches have only 5 charges in their staffs, after 5 shots they slowly creep towards us, which makes them easy prey for the remaining troops, while the hero picks up the skeletons and heals them from the tent (you probably know that after raising skeletons tent works even better for them =)).
E) Purifies neutrals that don't look like archers, high vampires, or druids with archmages. At the same time, the monsters of the first three levels, when meeting with a hundred archers, are in a hurry to replenish their troops. Melee-monsters up to the third level are not even discussed. Who else can be cleaned up with a minimum of losses? A squad of unicorns, a squad of nightmares, a squad of hydras, a squad of simple griffins, a squad of genies - the tactics are one and the same. We cover the archers with zombies and ghosts, send lone zombies forward or, if it is very important, ghosts. Since all the monsters described above are large creatures, it is often commonplace to stop them by blocking the road with suicide bombers. It makes sense to send them to the other world stack by stack, focus with the hero, tent and archers and put the defenders in defense. With a little practice, the losses when clearing these creatures will be minimal - like 3-4 zombies and / or 1 ghost.
E) if necessary, visits the well. It is in front of the entrance to the territory of the blue.

When meeting with enemy reconnaissance, I hide both skeleton archers and their ordinary colleagues, because the adversary usually focuses them with his hero or spells before running away from the battlefield.
Victory in such games occurs on the 7-8th day in the area of ​​the opponent's castle.

Barbaric Technique on the Warpath I

By tradition, let's briefly get acquainted with the contenders for the role of commander-in-chief - and also, according to tradition, we will make a division into sprinters and stayers, although, just as applied to barbarians, this division is rather arbitrary. So, in the first group we brought typical rushers...

Haggesh is the leader of the centaurs.
The vast majority of players, without hesitation, take it at the start of the game - the presence of almost three dozen shooters in her army and their total increase by +1 to attack / defense for every two levels allows you to immediately get a fairly powerful punching fist, before which many are powerless neutrals. In addition, her specialty increases the starting initiative of the centaurs - at high levels, it is almost a 100% guarantee to make your volley first. However, in this very strength, oddly enough, lies its main weakness - it is Haggesh from the entire line of barbarian heroes that is the easiest to leave without specialization.

Tilsek - Khan's fist.
Those who do not dare to take Haggesh take it. A strong hero with Machine Fundamentals and equipped with a ballista - starts as fast as Haggesh. Even without the "First Aid" skill (but with the presence of the tent itself), he is able to clear strong neutrals with minimal losses (a few units of simple goblins), using the "Rage" skill of his orc warriors.

Krag is an intruder.
Introduced into the game by the will of the developers in memory of the unforgettable Crag Hack from the third heroes. Good at the start, but it reveals itself especially brightly closer to the finish line in the fight against high-level creatures - it is able to defeat hordes where Haggesh centaurs cannot do without serious losses.

Argat is a bloodhound.
Of all the walkers (Grock, Rutger) the fastest in all respects - her specialization brings more movement points and the start, thanks to the same "Logistics", is successful. On maps densely populated with neutrals with the presence of the "Path of War", he clears both his own and enemy lands with a hurricane - and this leads to the fact that the enemy does not have enough time to successfully complete his development.

In the second group, we conditionally included heroes whose specialties are most fully revealed in protracted games - however, one should not think that their start is much worse and we are dealing with outsiders.

Keegan is the goblin king.
At one time, I happened to test a pair of Keegan-Haggesh - in almost all cases, it was he who was ahead of the leader of the centaurs in development. It's all about having the basics of "Leadership", which becomes skillful pretty quickly, and thanks to this, both centaurs and goblins in battle begin to walk like clockwork. In addition, this hero has the most direct path to the Super ability, and we will definitely talk about this later. The second part of the specialization causes some regret - the cancellation of betrayal is not very relevant at the start and does not play a role at all in the final battles - however, one can understand the developers who managed to take into account the disadvantages of Ingvar's sharp increase to the detriment of other heroes.

Haruna is a blood drinker.
Along with Keegan, he is also one of my top five favorite barbarian heroes, and just like Keegan, is underestimated by most players. Her specialty is more clearly felt, the higher the level of the heroine - however, her start, thanks to the rapid receipt of "Fire Arrows" (usually no later than level 4-5), is very good.

Goshak - Khan's blade.
Strengthens assassins, executioners and leaders. Has a developed "Blood Wrath" (which instantly becomes skillful) and "Help" - the main prerequisites for a successful start to the game.

Shak-Karukat is a wyvern tamer.
Gives an increase to his wards in the form of 2 health units for each level, starting from the first - compared to the already mentioned imbalanced Ingvar, this is not so noticeable (in quantitative terms), however, the presence of the "Basics of Protection" makes it very likely that you will soon receive the BDP - and with it punching, as you know, is greatly facilitated.

Hero development

Let's talk now about the possible ways of development of our heroes (and heroines). But first, let's deal with the so-called "Universal Development Scheme", which includes obtaining power skills - "Attack", "Defense", "Machines", "Leadership" and the fifth item "Luck", "Logistics" or "Education" (in depending on the map or random drop of a particular skill, for example, in a witch's hut). It enjoys considerable popularity among the players, not so much due to the well-known simplicity of execution, but because of its viability.

In "Attack" without exception, all skills are useful to the barbarian - it's a pity that you have to choose only two out of seven possible ones (why two? - because we take "Battle Madness" with any attacking scheme). For example, "Tactics" would help to cover the centaurs (or, for example, the goblins located in the very corner - the cyclops during the assault on utopia) in the process of placing troops before the start of the battle - otherwise you have to spend the initiative of the goblins covering units. Still, two options are usually most common: leaving for the "Fire Arrows" through the intermediate "Shooting" or striving for the "Devil Strike" (taken after the "Help" and "Stunning Blow") - we recommend the latter development, as the most optimal, because the effectiveness of "Fire Arrows" (and in general "War Machines") drops in a protracted game; in addition, there is an alternative way to replace the "Fire Arrows" - about it a little later. There is also a wonderful skill "Retribution" (damage increases by 5% for each unit of morale) - its influence is noticeable in the later stages of the game and it is equivalent to "Devil's Strike". True, there is also a significant minus - although the barbarians are perhaps the only race that can disperse the morale indicator to the area of ​​\u200b\u200b12-15 units, the bonus damage from "Retribution" will still not exceed 25% (this limit is set by the developers in order to maintain balance) . However, and this is a lot, which the reader will be able to see for himself in a battle where a large number of creatures participate.

Defense is an essential skill for all races, and barbarians are no exception. The most popular is the desire to get the "Battle to the last" (colloquially - BDP), which is taken after the "Evasion" - then instead of units of goblins, twos are used in the penetration and it is already possible to eliminate a fairly strong large-sized neutral guard with almost no losses (with "First Aid" - so and without loss). The second branch is getting "Resilience" and then - "Deep Defense" (very effective when punching through the regeneration of wyverns or when taking utopias). The "Readiness" skill, in our captious opinion, is unlikely to ever come in handy and is an empty acquisition - instead of it there is a good alternative in the form of "Reflection" (reduces magic damage by 15%) or "Resistance" (the hero receives a one-time increase in the defense parameter by +2), although instead of the latter we prefer "Protect us all" - not only increases defense by +2, but also adds 1st level creatures to the army. However, all this occurs in the main character episodically - and most often "Evasion", "Fortitude" and "Reflection" are taken with various additions in the form of BDP or "Deaf Defense".

Barbaric Technique on the Warpath II

In the evolution of the Fifth Heroes, engineering thought did not stand still, and the unique skill "Goblin Help" appeared in the "Machines" - now the hero, if he has a cart with ammunition in the army, is replenished every day in the form of a trapper. Most often practiced by several secondary heroes, but occasionally used by the main one in a protracted game - you need to remember that this skill is one of the intermediate ones on the way to the "Pure Rage" super skill. However, for an easy start, it is more important to quickly get "Ballista" and "First Aid" - increasing your own and leveling the effects of enemy damage in one bottle. Ideally, this bottle is also filled with "Rapid-Fire Ballista" - since the "Plague Tent" is practically useless in breaking through neutrals (its damage is incomparable with the damage of centaurs or ballista) and can only occasionally come in handy in the final battle (for example, it is guaranteed to deal with a phantom), and "Catapult" followed by "Brimstone Rain" [after the intervening "Goblin Aid" and "Strength vs. Magic"] is good in a long game with superpower tendencies. There is an important nuance here - it often happens that at the initial stage of development they don’t offer “Machines” in any way - and therefore the hero has to fill in the previously taken skills and abilities in anticipation of better times. It is important here not to be nervous about this (a barbarian is able to successfully carry out a rather complicated penetration even without equipment), but to correct his development - after about the 15th level of the "Machine", if they were not offered earlier, it is better not to take it at all and switch to other branches development - the benefit is to choose from (see paragraphs above and below).

We can observe a similar picture in terms of skills in "Leadership" - two lines of development with slight variations: "Diplomacy" with "Empathy" (and here, perhaps, the only acceptable alternative in the form of "Treasury Management") and "Gathering troops" plus "The rapture of battle" and then "Inspiration" (as one of the ways to a super skill) or "Aura of speed" - the last skill will be recommended by us for taking, especially since in the attacking scheme of Maxim Sorokin (more on it later) - this is an important link.

Now we have smoothly approached the notorious "fifth point" (see note), which includes something that for some reason could not be taken earlier.

So, Mrs. Luck. And here we also see all the same two lines of development - however, even more subtle (that is, meager) than higher: "Magical Resistance" with "Barbaric Luck" and "Soldier's Luck" with "Deadly Failure". True, in practice, these two thin lines merge into one, as thin as these lines - this is due to the fact that the bug with "Barbarian Luck" has not been fixed to this day - this skill reduces the damage received by the barbarian units from magic by a constant 5% - neither a ten- nor, moreover, a fifteen-percent reduction can be achieved even with the "Luck" parameter of five or more units! "Luck on the road" (as well as "Trophies" and "Asha's patronage") - remained the prerogative of minor heroes.

A similar situation can be considered in "Education" - leaving for "Mentoring" (after the obligatory "Military Knowledge" and "Attraction of Magic"), which is relevant in long games, occurs as often as taking the "Fire of Rage" skill - its effectiveness is very significant, and for this reason we recommend it. "Endurance" and "Dark Revelation" are taken, as a rule, only when there is nothing else to choose from.

And in Logistics, even these traditional thin threads practically turn into one - in fact, nothing can replace the effectiveness of the "Search for a Way" - "Way of War" link. Of course, it can be diversified with an addition in the form of "Looting" (in our opinion - the very thing) or, at worst - "Reconnaissance" or "Tread of death" (they also have their positive aspects) - however, there is a strong feeling of the uniqueness of the option when all the visible variety of skills. (Very important: the "Sharp Mind" skill is an important part of Maxim Sorokin's attacking scheme (see below)).

Antimagic

Now it's time to talk about anti-magic directions - all the more, in our opinion, here lies the "only correct" solution to the issue of the development of the hero. With the seeming obviousness of the choice of one or another skill (depending on the race / hero of the enemy), there are options here, the choice of which is influenced by what we are striving for in the end. Let's proceed to a more detailed consideration, but at the beginning (for better assimilation of the material presented by the readers and in order not to repeat it again in the future), we consider it necessary to make the following clarification: "Corruption" increases the cost of enemy spells by 50%; "Hold" shifts the caster on the ATV scale by 25% (and it can also throw the latter into a negative position - in other words, the shift is always at least 25%); "Weaken", as the name implies, when calculating the effect of spells, reduces the spellcasting power of the enemy by the same 25%.

The least effective of all anti-magic is considered by many to be "Anti-darkness" - after all, the spells "Subjugation" and "Berserk" that are most unpleasant for orcs, it only slightly weakens, as it were. However, in fact, this "slight" weakening is very sensitive for the caster - "Berserk" even at the expert level only lasts 1 turn and therefore you have to repeat this procedure constantly (and it's not a fact that it's successful - because "Magical Resistance" can work, if it is, of course, there is), and now it will no longer be possible to subdue the cyclops, and, in general, when calculating the effect of the spell, you need to minus another 25% (cumulatively with "Weakening Darkness", which also removes 25%). So not only against Letos, this muffling can be recommended. Of the skills, in our opinion, the standard combination of "Corruption", "Weakening" and "Hold" looks best - if only because "Weakening Strike" reduces the target's attack by only 3 units, and "Cursed Earth" significantly loses in its effectiveness in a long game and can be good only in the early stages of the game, and in the fight against invisibles (however, against the latter there is another, no less effective way - see the tactical moments section).

Another unpopular anti-magic is Summon Silence. Still, not to take it, for example, against necromancers, would be an unforgivable mistake - after all, it is important for us not only to knock out his main trump cards in the form of "Raising the Dead" or "Fire Trap" - the skill "Return to the Void" (base - "Strength against magic") and "Foggy Veil" (base - skill "Weakening the Call") will also be useful - the first in the fight against the phoenix or the summoned elementals (of course, and against the demons summoned from hell), the second - to reduce the initiative (by 20% ) and damage (by 10%) to enemy infantry units (of course, in a game with elves, "Anti-Summon" is rather exotic - however, God himself ordered to take it against Dirael). Other skills ("Hold the Summon", "Corrupt the Summon"), we believe, should be taken when for some reason we do not take the above "Fog Veil" with "Return to the Void". (Very important: the artifact "Ring of Banishment" also weakens the magic of the Summon - its effect is cumulative with the "Summon Mute".)

Barbarian Technique on the Warpath III

Here, "Mute Chaos" is already more appreciated by players - especially in the early stages of the game, when the barbarian is very sensitive to shock spells, not only emitted by warlocks (even knights and elves with their ridiculously low spellcasting parameter deal decent damage with a regular "Magic Missile"). In addition, there is also an excellent replacement for "Fire Arrows" - the "Fiery Fury" skill, which is taken after the "Corruption of Chaos", allows you to inflict an additional ten percent damage to all our units (including the ballista) with the elements of fire. Very important: against an enemy BDP, "Fiery Rage" is effective at any game time frame! The only thing that needs to be clearly understood is that the effectiveness of this skill is not very noticeable in the early stages of the game and is useless against creatures that have protection from fire. In addition, it will not be possible to combine "Fiery Fury" and "Fire Arrows" - their effects do not stack, and additional damage to the ballista in the form of 50 units for each shot will not be accrued (in fact, this is an obvious bug, but you need to know about it! ) is another reason to think about optimal development. "Mana Explosion" has a double effectiveness - against sorcerers in the army of the enemy, it is effective in the early stages of the game; in protracted ones, its role noticeably decreases (and sorcerers already do more damage with ordinary shooting) - however, this skill cannot be called useless, if only because of the well-known factor of unexpected surprise.

Well, the last anti-magic - Dim Light - we also like its powerful potential. There is a very attractive piercing option ("Stormy wind" [basic skill "Light hold"] + "Protection from fire" [basic skill - "Strength against magic"]), which will prove itself well in the final battles, and there is also an interesting scheme focusing on the daughters of the sky - with the skill "Secrets of Light" [taken after "Corruption of Light"], they enter the battle by inflicting cross-strike with chain lightning on the enemy (this damage can still be doubled with Sar-Issa's half set). It goes without saying that "Anti-Light" is good against dwarves, elves, academics (and even in the case when they develop not magic of Light, but Chaos) - a bunch of skills "Storm wind" - "Protection from fire" claims to be some kind of universality applications. Very important: Dimming Light does not reduce the level of spells cast on light unicorns as a result of the Child of Light skill.

War cries

Briefly about "Battle cries". The skill itself is quite interesting in a protracted game, and even in combination with "Empathy". In addition, such skills as "Scream of Rage", which doubles the number of rage points received by our troops from the hero's battle cries (cumulatively with "Fire of Rage"), and the anti-magic chain to "Distraction" [through intermediate "Development of Combat cry" and "Mighty cry"]. All in all, this skill is quite useful in the presence of popular shouts like Fury of the Horde and Frightening Roar, but not only with them - which we will mention later.

Racial skills and abilities are best taken in this sequence - "Support", then bringing the "Wrath of the Blood" to a skillful level, and only then "The Memory of Our Blood" and "Strength vs. Magic". This is based on the effectiveness of these skills in penetration - in it, "Help" brings the greatest benefit.

A little about hit runs

At the very beginning of the release of "Lords of the Horde" one could hear a lot of indignant exclamations of barbarian players: indeed, the confrontation between a ten times stronger army of orcs and a handful of hunters looked rather ridiculous; among other things, after two or three such "battles" a tenfold superiority in manpower disappeared and the warlock called for reinforcements and won an easy victory. However, these troubles were caused, rather, by a misunderstanding or, perhaps, by the confusion or inexperience of the players - both in version 3.0 and in the current 3.1, the trappers who went into invisibility were easy to detect with the help of traps set by trappers - you just need to remember the cells with located on them with stealth (this is easy to do at the very beginning of the battle, when the hunters are just preparing to jump into the unknown) and set traps in them. There is another well-established method - the daughters of Heaven with the skill "Secrets of Light" (or any two items from the set of Sar-Issa - and even better both the skill and artifacts!) Immediately get the opportunity to deal damage with "Chain Lightning" - their initiative the same as that of the hunters, and almost always manages to destroy most of the invisible ones who did not have time to hide.

About creatures and their alternatives

We have already mentioned the usefulness of trappers in repelling the raids of hit-runners; their role is also great in normal penetration - even units slow down various neutrals quite well, and their combat initiative is higher than that of goblin shamans. In addition, there is also a whole 2 points more health, which is of great importance. It would seem that the issue here is unambiguously resolved in favor of trappers - however, there is one important nuance: in the later stages of the game, they can completely block enemy magic. To make it easy to calculate the required number of blockers even without a calculator, you should keep in mind the following formula: (sorcerer level + spell level + 17) * 25; i.e. a 10th-level hero casting a 4th-level spell will be blocked by 775 goblins; if you need to block a level 5 spell cast by the same hero, you will need 800 goblins already. A level 30 hero with a level 5 spell is blocked by 1300 goblins. In general, in fairness, even a single goblin shaman has a chance to block an enemy spell - but there this probability is not too high (however, always at least 5%!). So, in the final at a later date, you have to think about who to give preference to here.

But with the centaurs, the situation, on the contrary, is very simple. Here, fighting centaurs are out of competition - both due to a higher health parameter, and due to the absence of a penalty for hand-to-hand combat. The maneuvering of nomadic centaurs is more of a minus than a plus - as a result of running back, they fall under the blows of several enemy units and, as a result, quickly die. In addition, they suffer greatly from "Fire Walls" or "Fire Traps".

Most players give their sympathy to the warmongers - again, because of the difference in health (and here it is very significant - as much as 8 points!). However, Orc fighters have their own trump cards - initiative is above average (11 units versus 9 for warmongers) and the Assault skill. True, to increase the likelihood of the latter triggering, you should take care of acquiring the "Soldier's Fortune" - but it's worth it.

The Daughters of Heaven and the Daughters of the Earth are roughly equivalent to each other - you should just understand that if your army is focused on the power melee attack, then the Daughters of the Earth will be in favor here (as well as the trappers); if you got the regalia of Sar-Issa or developed the "Secrets of Light" - then the choice of the Daughters of Heaven is no longer in doubt.

The situation is the same with the executioners / leaders. It all depends on your development option. For example, in the previously mentioned attacking scheme of Maxim Sorokin, an important role is assigned to the leaders - accelerated by the daughters of the Earth, they practically do not participate in direct hand-to-hand combat and use their "Leader's Order" skill to alternately adjust cyclops, warmongers or sorceresses.

In a situation with wyverns, the choice is rather determined by the enemy - against necromancers, paokai should be taken not only because of the immunity to "Blind" or the uselessness of the dark wyvern's "Animal Venom" skill, which does not affect undead, elementals and mechanisms, but also because their ability Scavenger can confuse the cards of an enemy hero planning to use Raise Dead. In general, these improvements are approximately equivalent, but in most games they are almost never found, perhaps because of the main disadvantage of these creatures - "Blood Wrath" does not affect them in any way, as a result of which their survivability is sometimes lower than that of the same warmongers.

Barbaric Methodology on the Warpath IV

Free cyclops have 10 units less health, and often catch friendly creatures - as a result, many prefer to take blood-eyed cyclops into their army. However, the free ones have a good ability "Crushing Blow" - a chance to throw the target to the end of the ATV scale and the ability to break fortress walls and gates (although the latter is effective when the number of cyclops is around 20 goals \ for each damage inflicted on fortifications is 10 units).

Brief summary by levels:

I - 50%-50%
II - 20%-80%
III - 45%-55%
IV - 50%-50%
V - 50%-50%
VI - 60%-40%
VII - 50%-50%

A bit about barbarian magic (or battle cries)

The most popular among the players were "Frightening Roar" and "Fury of the Horde" - sometimes it even comes to the point that the main reason for the defeat is called bad luck with the loss of the desired cry: instead of "normal" they gave "weak" ("Word of the Leader" or "War Cry" ). However, "bad luck" is caused primarily by the inability to use "unfavorable" calls (or ignorance of their features). Indeed, no one will convince me that the "Battle Cry" (in essence, an enhanced analogue of the general "Punishing Strike") is an empty acquisition. At high levels of the hero (above 20th), and even in combination with "Mighty Cry", not only exceeds the attacking bonus of "Punishing Strike", but also gives +1 to the speed of all his creatures (of course, it also adds rage points) . The only negative is that the duration of the call is only one turn; however, in combination with Empathy and Masterful Warcry, this disadvantage is almost invisible. The "Word of the Leader" is extremely effective against low-level troops (goblins, centaurs and warmongers) - it is undesirable to use it against, say, cyclops due to the peculiarity of causing direct damage to the hero (comparison for example - a hero of level 21 kills with a direct attack 8 creatures of the first level, 6 - the second, 4 - the third, ....., 1 - the seventh - to lose 1 cyclops or 8 goblins, the difference is noticeable).

About urban planning

Barbarians are able not only to sow death and destruction, but also to build very interesting structures. We are interested in the priority order of construction in the first or second weeks - because this is where the foundation for future victory is laid. Usually, a scheme is practiced with the construction of a citadel on the 7th day (in order to get an increased increase in the main punching fist in the form of centaurs and goblins at the beginning of the second week) - on some maps (for example, "Outcast Land"), in the presence of a fort, they also manage to stick a dwelling for shamans - then on Monday, the gains are transferred to the commander-in-chief by a chain of secondary heroes, and he conducts the final battle. The main thing here is to take care of a sufficient amount of the necessary resources (primarily ore and mercury) - usually, even when playing on the "hero" difficulty level, you can successfully solve these tasks. There is another scheme - the fastest laying of the lair of wyverns. Here it is already more priority to have wood and sulfur. However, the wyvern variant is quite rare - due to the later appearance (usually in the second week), high cost, and when difficult-to-pass neutrals (forest archers, archmages, archdruids, etc.) are located in key strategic positions.

Attack of Maxim Sorokin

The attentive reader above has already had to deal with the mention of this surname. The turn has come to get acquainted with one of the many developments of this talented person, known in the heroic world as Psionic. The attacking potential of his great idea is most clearly revealed in protracted games, when he manages not only to gather an impressive amount of manpower under his banner, but also to acquire good artifacts and, perhaps more importantly, to get his hero the right set of skills and abilities. We will start with the latter (remembering Shakespeare's saying: "Last but not least").

In general, it would be useful to immediately mention that it was developed as an alternative response to elven aggression - in the final battle, almost half of their troops (and under the control of Vingael - almost all) manage to go before the enemy’s move and destroy most of our army and, as a result this - we are waiting for an inevitable defeat. However, it is possible (and necessary!). As in ancient times, here, too, everything rests on three pillars - that is, skills: "Aura of speed", "Storm wind" and "Sharp mind". Here is a complete list of the necessary skills and abilities: skillful "Leadership" ("Gathering troops" + "Speed ​​aura" (required) and "Battle intoxication" (recommended)); skillful "Mute Light" ("Hold Light" + "Storm Wind" (mandatory); "Protection from fire" (recommended for penetration, but may come in handy in the final)); skillful "Logistics" ("Intelligence" + "Sharp mind" (required, but usually taken before the final battles through retraining from a mentor, and before them, the recommended "Search for a path" is practiced in preliminary penetration of neutrals in conjunction with the "Path of War" and "Looting") "); skillful "Attack" ("Tactics" (mandatory - most often relevant for leveling a similar enemy skill; very important: against Nibros (Inferno faction) you need to take any other skill, since he levels our "Tactics" with his specialization, at the same time while retaining the ability to use your own), "Battle Madness" (recommended, but in our opinion almost mandatory) + "Retribution", which can be replaced with "Stunning Blow"); the fifth - the choice between "Protection" (in most cases, it is preferable ) and "Luck", which in this context seems more appropriate to us, especially enriched with "Soldier's Luck" and "Magic Resistance"... Those who know how to compare disparate factors together will immediately turn Please note that the key value in the proposed development scheme is given to the "Speed" indicator - all the skills that affect it are used here. Therefore, a good addition to it is the "Boots of Speed" artifact and at least two items from the "Embrace of Death" set - although personally I would prefer "Dragon's Leggings" instead of boots. Of the creatures, leaders are required (drive cyclops), divided into 2-3 squads, daughters of the Earth (also divided into 2-3 squads) and 1 squad of free cyclops (although they have both speed and initiative 1 unit lower than those of the blood-eyed) taken with Crushing Blow. At the very beginning of the battle, our daughters apply Haste to the leaders and cyclops, the barbarian hero shouts out the Battle Cry (not only a significant increase in the Attack parameter, but most importantly: +1 to speed! ) and after that you will not envy the enemy troops who fell under the power of the Cyclopes destroying everything in a row.

Briefly about artifacts

In conclusion, let's touch on the issue of equipping our hero a little. Unfortunately, the weapon of might special racial set is very rarely seen in action - the catch is that the barbarian can get the most benefit from owning it in the early stages of the game - but the whole question is: how to get them? And in the middle and late stages of the game, when we can get them, it turns out that instead of them there are more useful things (for example, "Shield of the Dwarf King" or "Fiery Dragon Tongue"). In addition, the following bug is associated with this prefabricated artifact - contrary to the description, when using "Help", our hero does not move along the ATV scale. In general, everything found on the road (taken from neutrals) is usually put on the hero, but in the later stages of the game there is already a choice - here artifacts that affect the initiative of creatures, as well as the "Pendant of Mastery" and "Golden Horseshoe" will bring the greatest benefit. Very important: the following bug is associated with the full set of "Dwarven Kings" - the level of "Stoneskin" and "Evasion" applied at the beginning of the battle depends on the mastery of Light magic; therefore, for barbarians who are unable to learn magical sciences, these spells are cast at the "No Skill" level, that is, they only give +3 defense and 25% damage reduction from ranged attacks. Alas, Dimming the Light does not improve the situation either.

Protection and Treasure of Dragon Utopias

1. General Provisions

The reward received for winning the Utopia depends only on the type of Utopia (a detailed description of the types is below).
Plundered Utopia is updated after 28 days. Unplundered Utopia is NOT updated after 28 days.
The entire reward is generated at the beginning of the game, that is, it is unchanged upon loading.
2. Types of Utopias

2.1 "Random" Utopias.
"Random" Utopias are characterized by a randomly generated garrison and the number of gold coins received as a reward.

Main characteristics:

2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 2.
3) Composition: random combination of two stacks from two groups, one stack from each group:
Group 1: 9 green dragons, 7 emerald dragons;
Group 2: 6 twilight dragons, 4 black dragons.
Thus, there are 4 different combinations of garrisons:
1. 9 green dragons + 6 twilight dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
2. 9 green dragons + 4 black dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
3. 7 emerald dragons + 6 twilight dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
4. 7 emerald dragons + 4 black dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
Note: The chance of one of the four garrisons spawning is calculated from the 40% chance of a "random" Utopia spawning. That is, in the general case, the probability of the appearance of a certain garrison will be equal to: 0.4*0.25=10%.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 12000-20000. The value is determined by a random generator and does not depend on anything.
2. Artifacts:
1) 1 relic + 2 great artifacts. Probability ~ 90%
2) 1 relic + 3 great artifacts. Probability ~ 10%
3. Spells:
2) 2 spells of the 5th circle. Probability ~ 50%
Note: (points 1,2,5 are common for all types of Utopias)
1. The classification of artifacts is taken from the manual.
2. Spells are chosen randomly from those possible to learn, but not learned by the hero (in the case of learning several types of magic, the received spells can be from different or from the same school of magic).
3. If 2 spells of the 5th level drop out as a reward, but there are no unlearned spells of this level, then they are replaced by 2 spells of the 4th level (but not vice versa). If 2 spells of the 5th level are rewarded, but there is only 1 unlearned spell of this level, then the second spell is lost (i.e. spells of different levels cannot be rewarded).
4. Spells below 4th level cannot be obtained.
5. Traveling spells can also be obtained: "door of dimensions" (equals to 4th circle) and "portal to the city" (equals to 5th circle), but they require the required level of the hero.

2.2 "Non-random" utopias
"Non-random" Utopias are characterized by a predetermined garrison and the amount of gold coins received as a reward. They are divided into 2 types:

2.2.1 First type.

Main characteristics:
1) Probability of spawning = 40%.
2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 4.
3) Composition: 8 green dragons + 6 twilight dragons + 4 emerald dragons + 4 black dragons.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 20000.
2. Artifacts:
1) 2 relics + 3 great artifacts. Probability ~ 90%
2) 2 relics + 4 great artifacts. Probability ~ 10%
3. Spells:
3 spells 5th circle. Probability = 100%.
Note:
You can't get spells below 5th level.

2.2.2 The second type.

Main characteristics:
1) Probability of spawning = 20%.
2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 3.
3) Composition: 6 twilight dragons + 5 black dragons + 11 ghostly dragons.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 14000.
2. Artifacts:
1) 1 relic + 2 great artifacts + 1 small artifact.
Probability ~ 10%
2) 1 relic + 2 major artifacts + 2 minor artifacts.
Probability ~ 80%
3) 1 relic + 2 major artifacts + 3 minor artifacts.
Probability ~ 10%

3. Spells:
1) 2 spells 4 circles. Probability ~ 50%
3) 2 spells of the 5th circle. Probability ~ 50%
Note:
1. If 2 spells of the 5th level drop out as a reward, but there are no unlearned spells of this level, then they are replaced by 2 spells of the 4th level (but not vice versa). If 2 spells of the 5th level are rewarded, but there is only 1 unlearned spell of this level, then the second spell is lost (i.e. spells of different levels cannot be rewarded).
2. Spells below 4th level cannot be obtained.

3. The probability of obtaining artifacts.

The probabilities of obtaining various artifacts in Utopias are different even for a specific group, approximate data are given here.

Nicholas is dead and Isabelle mourns for her lover, while Agrail must set out on a journey to meet an unknown future.
You have to go through the Inferno campaign for Agrail, find out his history and the reasons that drive his actions.

Worshiping

Demon decision

Betrayal

Foreword: The Imperial troops, led by the knight Godric, pursue Agrail, who failed the Demon Lord's mission. Death is on his heels, and the unknown awaits him ahead. Agrail will have to find a way out of this situation.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Find a way to Shio.
• Agrail must survive.

Bonuses

• Artifact "Lion's Collar".
• Cerberus: 8.
• Hell stallions: 3.

After killing Nicholas, Agrail will have to get away from the chase in the person of Godric, who has a fairly strong army under his command, besides, his level exceeds the level of Agrail, so in no case should you fight him. In the form of an initial bonus, we select Cerberus. Appearing in the upper left corner of the map, we visit the Mage's Hut, thereby opening up areas of the map within the range of the mage's eye.

At the crossroads, turn left, capture the Thieves' Den and pick up the All-Seeing Crown. We move further off-road and visit the Redwood Observatory, thereby opening the nearest area. At the beginning of the third day, Godric himself appears on the map in the upper left corner, after which we need to be extremely careful, because if we encounter him, we definitely won’t survive this meeting. We are heading to the Devil's Tower, thereby, albeit a little, but we will increase the size of our army.

In fact, all neutral creatures of the Inferno faction can join your army, thereby increasing its power - do not disdain this.

At the end of our turn, we also learn through a visit to the Mage's Hut that Godric is not the only hero who wants Agrail's head. Going out on the road again, you can get to the Garrison, only the creatures in it are strong enough, and we are again forced to go off-road, fleeing from the pursuer. Moving on, we come across a Border Guard, who can only let us through if we have received the key in the Guardian's Tent of the corresponding color.
We are looking for the Tent of the Guardian, we get the key and use the One-Way Portal to instantly move to the Guardian of the Border. We interact with these objects and the path to the Entrance to the underworld opens up for us. If we successfully avoided the pursuers and accumulated enough funds, we can improve the creatures in the Hill Fort.

Having reached the Exit from the underground exit, we will save the game, because after interacting with the exit, an army of demons will approach us, with which we have to fight. After defeating the enemy army of demons, we watch a video, after which we are informed about the passage of the mission.

Promise

Foreword: Agrail will have to get ahead of the demon lord Vyer, who, on the orders of the Demon Lord, is going to capture the Heart of the Griffin.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Capture the Griffin's Heart.
• Agrail must survive.

Bonuses

• Gold: 2000.
• Succubi: 8.
• Phantom Creation Spell.

In this mission, we have to get ahead of the demon lord Vayer, while we need to strengthen the army as much as possible to clash with him. As an initial bonus, we choose succubi. To save moves and find out the current position of the enemy, we visit the Mage's Hut every other time. Again, we are in the lower left corner of the map, and the enemy is in the lower right.

And so, we visit buildings in which it is possible to hire creatures of the Inferno faction. Having captured the Imp Cauldron and the Infernal Kennel, do not rush to take the nearest Treasure Chest, as there will be an ambush of assassins. Yes, you can defeat them, only they will significantly reduce the number of creatures in your army.

Continuing along the road and passing the Stables, which we should visit, we again stumble upon the Treasure Chest, and again assassins lie in wait for us there. We do not take the chest and move on. We capture the Outposts of Inferno, thereby increasing the number of high-level creatures. Along the way, we attack the creatures that guard the gold reserves and Treasure Chests, choosing gold over experience - we still need it in the Hill Fort, where we can improve our creatures.

Having reached the Royal Mausoleum, we have to fight the hero of the Griffin Empire, who guards it. After the victory, we watch a short video and immediately engage in a fight with Vayer. We defeat him and watch the video, after which we are informed about the successful completion of the mission.

conquest

Foreword: Agrail has a difficult path to Tier ahead. The road to it runs through the realm of the elves, and it is unlikely that they will allow the demon lord to pass through their realm with impunity. But Agrail will not let a handful of elves interfere with the achievement of his goal.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Cross the border.
• Agrail must survive.

Bonuses

• Cave demons: 2.
• Fire demons: 43.
• Nightmares: 4.

In this mission, we have to go through the lands of the elves, and believe me - it will not be so easy. We, along with the city, appear in the lower left corner. As an initial bonus, we take Cave Demons, since at this level all high-level buildings will not be available to us. In the first week we are in no hurry to the Garrison, where Gilraen is waiting for us. We capture the nearest buildings - the Cauldron of Demons and the Devil's Tower. Unfortunately, we cannot capture the Inferno Outpost, as we need to find the orange Tent of the Guardian in order to obtain the corresponding key. In the first week, we build the Tavern, the Town Hall, the Devil's Tower, the Mages Guild level 1, the Infernal Kennel, the Devil's Cauldron and the Spawn of Chaos. After waiting for the onset of the 2nd week, we leave the city, once again visit the buildings for hiring creatures and go to the border, where an elven hero has already been waiting for us.

We attack him, having defeated him, we receive a message that Gilraen managed to escape from the battlefield and Agrail will have to fight him again. The quest list is updated with the following: " Capture all the cities of the elves", "Defeat the enemy hero", a "Cross the Border" will be considered completed. Moving along the road, we will capture the Mine and Fairy Trees, after which we will attack the first enemy city of the elves.

After capturing it, we try to capture the nearest buildings that extract resources. With the onset of a new week, the following happens: the druids, using their magic, make it so that with the next new week, creatures of the Forest Union faction will appear on the map, while the growth of creatures in the cities of the elves increases and a secondary task is added "Find the source of druidic magic and destroy it" . Therefore, it is advisable to hire an elf hero in the Tavern, and then try to replenish his army with neutral creatures of the Forest Union.
As usual, we build up an army, collect resources, increase the level of heroes until Gilraen himself comes for Agrail. By defeating him once again, the task "Defeat the enemy hero", will be considered completed. If, however, there is a situation that one of the armies you created is actually destroyed, then we take a hero from whom she is ready to capture enemy cities.

The next city is in the upper left corner and if everything is ready for us, then we go to capture it.

After capturing the second city, we can visit the druids who decided to spoil the life of our hero. Finding their grove is easy enough, since visiting the Mage's Hut, which is near the first city we captured, will give us the location of the old people, and the entrance to the grove lies just on the way to the last castle of the elves.

After settling accounts with the druids, we head to the last stronghold of the elves, attack it, and after the victory we are informed about the successful completion of the mission.

Ship

Foreword: To meet with Tieru, Agrail needs to capture Erivel, a major elven port, and sail to the Isle of the Misty Dragon. Alone against the whole country, deprived of support and cursed by everyone, Agrail will either die or achieve his goal.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Capture Arivel.
• Agrail must survive.

Bonuses

• Druids: 10.
• Wood: 40.
• Gold: 6000.

And again, Agrail will have to fight against the elves, only the number of cities increases to 4, and we have none at the beginning of the game. Oddly enough, but in the army of our hero there are only creatures of the Forest Union faction. We choose Wood as an initial bonus, since we will need it when building structures not only in the city of Inferno, but also in the cities of the elves - but more on that later. We appear in the lower left corner and turn off the road and visit the Redwood Observatory, in order to have an overview and find out the location of the Entrance to the underworld. After the end of the turn, we learn that the creatures under the command of the demon lord Agrail will gradually leave the ranks of his army, after which a secondary task is added to us "Take Ur-Niberjas" . Therefore, we do not waste time and hurry to the walls of the city of Inferno, which is located in the underworld. Once there, we visit the Mage's Hut in order to find out the exact location of the city we need.

We are not in a hurry to capture the nearest buildings for the extraction of resources, increase and purchase of creatures - it is better to leave this for later. Capturing the city, a secondary task "Take Ur-Niberjas" will be considered completed. I would like to note that it is better to build a building for the purchase of creatures of the Inferno faction, while leaving the creatures of the Forest Union in the city. On the next turn, we build a Tavern, and if possible, we hire an elf hero and give him the remains of creatures from the elf faction. We capture the nearest structures and erect the corresponding buildings.
We wait for the right moment and return to the surface in order to capture the nearest city of the Forest Union faction. After its capture, we transfer our elven hero into it, who in the future will be able to independently besiege other cities of the elves. I will say right away - you should not immediately build all the structures, since our priority is to maximize the army of Agrail.

We continue to explore the underworld with the main character, while the secondary characters are ordinary. During Agrail's journey, we may come across Ghost Dragons who can offer us a deal: we bring them 100 elven archers or bow masters, and in return they will open a direct path to Erivel. At the same time, we add a secondary task "Complete the dragon mission" .

The dragons will only accept the offering if the Elven Archers or Bowmasters are in Agrail's army at the time of interaction with the Ghost Dragons.

In the meantime, one of the elven heroes can capture another nearby city of the Forest Union, thereby increasing the power of our army. After a successful siege of the city, we capture the nearest buildings.

In the same way, we capture the third city, all the buildings closest to it, and then we increase the power of the elven army.

By this time, you should have successfully acquired 100 Elven Archers or Bow Masters. We take them and go to the Ghostly Dragons and when interacting with them, we literally open a direct path to the last city of the elves - Erivel and the task is completed "Complete the dragon mission" . We leave the dungeon and head towards it. With the successful capture of the city, we watch the next video and we can proceed to the next mission.

Now about building up the elven army under your control. There are times when a hero who has settled with his army in Erivel is very strong that it is virtually impossible to defeat him. Therefore, we send the hero of the elves in advance with his troops to at least weaken the enemy, after which the capture of the city becomes easier.

Agrail's decision

Foreword: The search for Agrail is coming to an end - the last thing left for him to do is to find Tiera in the magical fog of the island.

The main tasks of the mission:

• Find Tiera.
• Agrail must survive.

Bonuses

• Demonesses: 4.
• Hellhounds: 12.
• Artifact "Sextant of sea elves".

Here we come to the final mission of the Inferno campaign. All that remains for us to do is to find the elven druid Tiera. On this map, we have to travel not only by land and in the underworlds, but also by sea. We appear in the lower left corner on the ship. As an initial bonus, choose Demoness. The only problem with passing this mission is that we can only explore the area from land or when visiting special objects - Redwood Observatories and Mage Huts. To begin with, we land on the first island and interact with the objects that I spoke about above, after which we open locations on the map. Then we return to the ship and set sail to this island.

On the mainland we go to the underworld - after all, moving by land is much faster than by sea. At the crossroads, we first turn left and go out to the next mainland, on which we do the usual actions. After that, we descend back and head to the crossroads and follow the remaining path. After leaving the dungeon, we find buildings for hiring creatures of the Inferno faction, which we should capture.

After capturing and cleaning, we return to the exit from the underworld where the Shipyard is located, where we hire a ship and set sail. We can improve the creatures near the Shipyard on the nearest island by visiting the Fort on the hill. We can also accept creatures of the Inferno faction, which are scattered across the islets. Then we head to this island and descend into the underworld.

On this island there is a Temple of Magical Enchantment, when you visit it, you can learn the "Summon Ship" spell, which will facilitate the journey, since there will no longer be a need to return for the ship.

Also below the same island is the Cartographer, from whom it is possible to buy a map of the seas, which again will make the passage of the mission a little easier.

We go down to the underworld, visit the Stables and move on. At the first road crossing, we can turn off the road and get to the treasures and Cerberus. Moving along the road at the next divergence of the path, we turn right and exit to this island.

Continuing our progress around the island, we find another entrance to the underworld, with which you can get to the central upper island. There we find a two-way portal that will take us to the island in the upper left corner, after which we go to the underworld and find ourselves on the island, which is below the previous one. There we find the Shipyard and hire another ship, on which we need to swim to the next island and descend into the underworld.

When they leave the underworld, we find ourselves on the coveted island of Tieru. We go along the road, defeat the Emerald Dragons and cross the bridge, after which we view the final video of the mission.

Congratulations, you have completed the second campaign of Heroes of Might and Magic 5.