The Cultist: Mission Three on Heroic

[SardonicJonez]

I have restarted this mission numerous times, and I CANNOT get through it! I can't get a large enough army before Gilraen and Ossir come and kick my booty. I can't make it up to either of the northern towns soon enough because I'm stopped by a huge group of Zombies, or some other small group that still kicks my butt or depletes my army to almost nothing. What's the trick? Is it sheer luck? Do I have a bug? UGH, frustrated doesn't even begin to cover it!!!!

[jmsand1]

This is a rough one, especially on hard difficulty. You can google for a walk-through I'm sure.

Some basic advice: Capture (and keep recapturing) that first elven city. Build up the economy of it if you want but don't bother with the troops. Green will build it up for you after awhile, but it's hard for you to keep it long enough to build up an army from it. Just be sure to recruit the troops whenever you have it to deny them to the enemy.

Try to unlock the demon troops behind the gate as soon as you are strong enough to do so.

Kill the Druids responsible for the weekly summons. Those summons will eat up your army a chunk at a time.

Artifacts and skills that increase your speed and sight range are very handy. (Run Forest, Run is your Mantra),

The Warmachine skill with Heal Tent focus is very useful. Having the Ballista focus is a good add-on too. But you need that heal.

[Ubi_TheBerry]

Originally posted by SardonicJonez:

I have restarted this mission numerous times, and I CANNOT get through it! I can't get a large enough army before Gilraen and Ossir come and kick my booty. I can't make it up to either of the northern towns soon enough because I'm stopped by a huge group of Zombies, or some other small group that still kicks my butt or depletes my army to almost nothing. What's the trick? Is it sheer luck? Do I have a bug? UGH, frustrated doesn't even begin to cover it!!!!

Hey there SardonicJonez,

Sorry for our delay in getting back to you!

Following jmsand1's very helpful post, are you still having issues?

- Ubisoft Support

[ti9ti]

If you have trouble with it then do not capture the first elven town and skip straight to second. (druits never strat casting elves)

[SardonicJonez]

Originally posted by ti9ti:

If you have trouble with it then do not capture the first elven town and skip straight to second. (druits never strat casting elves)

I don't bother with that first town yet, since it triggers the Druid magic event. But, I can't get to either of the other two towns with the paltry army I have. I've tried sitting in my town and building it up, I've tried rushing head first at the stacks blocking the roads, nothing works.

[SardonicJonez]

Originally posted by jmsand1:

This is a rough one, especially on hard difficulty. You can google for a walk-through I'm sure.

Some basic advice: Capture (and keep recapturing) that first elven city. Build up the economy of it if you want but don't bother with the troops. Green will build it up for you after awhile, but it's hard for you to keep it long enough to build up an army from it. Just be sure to recruit the troops whenever you have it to deny them to the enemy.

Try to unlock the demon troops behind the gate as soon as you are strong enough to do so.

Kill the Druids responsible for the weekly summons. Those summons will eat up your army a chunk at a time.

Artifacts and skills that increase your speed and sight range are very handy. (Run Forest, Run is your Mantra),

The Warmachine skill with Heal Tent focus is very useful. Having the Ballista focus is a good add-on too. But you need that heal.

Gonna keep plugging away. So, which town are you referring to, one of the Northern ones? The Southern town triggers the Druid event, so I don't want that one yet. I usually take the town to the Northwest, but then the Hero from the other Northern town is usually right on my tail to kill me.

[SardonicJonez]

This is just so ridiculously difficult on Heroic. I absolutely cannot find the right strategy. This is maddening.

[jmsand1]

Can you knock the difficulty down a level > finish mission > knock level back up for next mission? Shouldn't impact your final score too much.

[SardonicJonez]

That may be my only option at this point. I keep reading on various forums that there is a patch, 1.6, that helps but I don't know where to get it or if it is even available for games on the Steam platform.

[jmsand1]

Steam version isn't 1.6? You can easily check it by launching the game and looking at the bottom left corner. If it's not 1.6 you should be able to find it with a google search. Or you could purchase the GoG version which should have the last update I think.

[SardonicJonez]

Originally posted by jmsand1:

Steam version isn't 1.6? You can easily check it by launching the game and looking at the bottom left corner. If it's not 1.6 you should be able to find it with a google search. Or you could purchase the GoG version which should have the last update I think.

Oh, my bad, it is 1.6. I'm running through on Easy right now, to see what route works there and I'll work my way up. At this point, it's the principal of the thing!!! I will not be defeated by Gilraen!!!!!!!

[jmsand1]

Good! And the patience you learn in this mission will serve you well for the next one. Or is it the one after that? You'll know it when you get to it, lol. It's one of the few missions where the Navigation skill is actually useful. It's not hard, but there's a lot of going back and forth (once you've gotten access to a unit upgrade tower).

[SardonicJonez]

Originally posted by jmsand1:

Good! And the patience you learn in this mission will serve you well for the next one. Or is it the one after that? You'll know it when you get to it, lol. It's one of the few missions where the Navigation skill is actually useful. It's not hard, but there's a lot of going back and forth (once you've gotten access to a unit upgrade tower).

I have come to the conclusion that there is a glitch in the Matrix on this one. I defeated it on Hard, but after countless attempts on Heroic, I am at a loss. I found a YouTube video that helped me get past the zombies and Earth elementals, but there are some significant differences in his game vs. mine. First, he starts at Level 14 (I start at 10). Neutral stacks join him, none of them will join me. But the biggest difference is that in his game, he makes it through week 3 with NO appearance from green. But, green shows up in week 1 for me, multiple heroes chasing me, taking back any towns that I manage to grab, and making it difficult to build an army to go after the Sylvan Druids or Gilraen. No matter what I do, green is there from the start so I get no chance to gain levels or troops. He was on version 1.3 which is probably the issue, but I'm just fed up at this point. Taking a break, maybe I'll come back to this later. Thanks for all the advice here!

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

The first town triggers the druid event.

I did this a looong time ago, either hard or heroic. IIRC, what I did was kind of bamboozle the AI and just run around until I had more troops. Take cities first day of the week, recruit and run. They chase you but they don't particularly defend a lot. You can sacrifice heroes too in order to distract it.

anyways, when I get around to replaying this game one of these days, i'll have more concise feedback.

[SardonicJonez]

Originally posted by Disciple.:

The first town triggers the druid event.

I did this a looong time ago, either hard or heroic. IIRC, what I did was kind of bamboozle the AI and just run around until I had more troops. Take cities first day of the week, recruit and run. They chase you but they don't particularly defend a lot. You can sacrifice heroes too in order to distract it.

anyways, when I get around to replaying this game one of these days, i'll have more concise feedback.

I'm not taking the first town, but I'm able to get up to the Northwest one. But, as soon as I take it (before week 2), Gilraen is right there to attack me and kick my butt. Green is spawning half a dozen heroes, including his annoying ass, right from the jump.

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

Ok so I'm about of beating it on heroic (most objectives completed, just need to deliver the final blow)

The first attemp: I went by memory. Skipped first elven town. Went to get the red key then marched back. At that point I realized that it was the brown key I needed, not the first one. I juggle around, get some inferno reinforcements, then as I'm about to take the fight to the guardians, gilraen appears with his army. I was not anywhere near being able to beat him.

I also tried to lure him around. At that mark, the enemy cleared both ways. However they also had 4 armies without even triggering the druid even. This attempt was unsuccessful.


Attempt two: open a way through the west. I could beat most mobs, but the magicians prove too much of a threat. Trying to take them down results in all hellhounds dying.

Attempt three and four: similar but with a variation: take the brown key ASAP.
The variation was taking the first elven town.

The brown key is guarded by 36 of the tier 6 troops of the mages' city, so the attempt proved fruitless. Taking the town does not help at all. It only triggers the event and the town 1)is never built by the AI, 2) is too much of a resource drain. 3) you'll increase the troop production on their cities but you don't get to benefit from it, even on your elven towns.

*What finally worked:
At this point I consulted some walkthroughs and videos.

What worked was taking the main army, skipping the first elven city, then moving East and towards the zombies. The zombie stack is too big, you need to use a single hellhound stack and use double turns whilst the hero attacks them. Having a ballista helps. Having a perk for the ballista also helps, but I did it without.

Then it is the same process with the earth elementals.

At that point you want to beeline the North West city. Ideally arriving at or slightly before week 3 day 1. I don't think its doable by arriving later. This city is slightly defended if at all. The secondary hero might be roaming around.

The main elven dude seems to launch an attack at week 1 of month 2 exactly. If you got to the city in time you can fight him with proper elven troops, as the inferno ones will probably be too debilitated. Ideally build full walls and get as many treants as possible. Agrael should be able to defeat him, if by a thin margin. It is important to either not mix troops, or get a bonus previously, because otherwise low morale can seriously screw you.

After main elven dude was defeated, I took the first town with an inferno hero. This proved a mistake because only the AI gets the benefit, and the map gets blocked every week by massive stacks. You don't want to trigger the event until agrael is in position to kill the druids.

Never got the brown key because I cluterred the map full of obstacles, And I was still building the inferno hero. Agrael was busy on the North West city permanently.

Some attacks might follow after the defeat of the elven dude, but they are smaller and easier. If you don't trigger the event they are probably even easier.

After the druids are dead it would seem to be a good time to start building the first elven city. At that point you can start accumulating troops and eventually beat the main stack in the main city.