Necro campaign map 3

[Nanian]

Sooo - Apparently I am not allowed to let my two heroes die on this map, and as soon as I touch the mainland the druid AI becomes active.

however, every single hero on the enemy team has hundreds of units of several kind - while I have just barelyl 100 skeletons... THere's a single place to buy units, but they only provide 8 skeleton, 8 ghosts, and 8 spiders each week, am I just to stand there for months on end to get enough units to be even capable of battling these guys, or am I supposed to go somewhere else ?

I found a neutral druid fortress, that I could just grab, not really sure what good it would do me as my units would just end up with terrible morale, not to mention that a few turns in, the AI will come and take me out before I can even manage to build anything at all.

Anyone been able to do this ?

[Memphis_MG]

hey a question

have you finish the mission "
Dark hope"

its the first mission how you fight vs 2 enemys (red and pink)

my friend has all mission opjekts but the one that this 3 heros alive its not finish ...sry 4 bad eng

[mreed2]

Just finished this mission, so:

The AI is set (or may /always/ be) very passive -- as long as you don't go into their terratory (marked on the minimap), it will take a long time before the heroes find you. On the other hand, it is not possible to sit passively in the ocean area where you start -- you simply can't recruit enough creatures from there and the AI /will/ explore eventually.

I assume you've played far enough to find the 4 barriers that block the path forward (if you haven't, stop reading and get that far... :) )

So, the strategy given by the game to avoid the enemy heroes, find the shrines, and exit the map: but, as you probably have already discovered, this isn't feasible either: first, you only know where two of the shrines are, and second (although you don't know this yet) two are buried in the heart of enemy terratory. You'll be able to beat one hero, but only barely -- leaving you dead meat for the next one that comes along.

So, it seems you are SOL, but...

There are two key notes for this map:

1) As already pointed out, the enemy heroes neither search for you nor persue you very hard (assuming you have a decent sized stack -- keep the armies split early on)
2) The enemy heroes stack either don't grow at all, or grow /very/ slowly (far slower than you would expect) -- and, if killed, they don't come back either.

So throw out the strategy the game gives you -- just conquer the map. :)

You should have master (3rd rank filled in) for Ludwilla (sp, "L" from here on out) in either Dark magic or Necomancy (if you don't, you may need to replay the previous mission). You may be able to use a different magic school than dark -- but that's what I had, so I know it works.

The strategy that I followed is:

1) While you are still in boats (at the start), don't bother landing to attack monsters -- just collect all the driftwood you can find, and arrange to be at the necromancer creature home that you've already located at the end of week 1 (so you can collect 2 weeks worth of generation without any delay). Proceed to the mainland (you won't be back).

2) On the mainland, collect resources (use /both/ C and L to do so -- keep the armies split roughly evenly) with minor casualties. The goal is to use necormancy to grow your skeleton stack and collect resources for later.
*** NOTE ***
There are a number of undead stacks that, when right clicked on, /don't/ say "(they will attack)". These stacks will offer to join you for gold -- make sure you colelct the ones that are on your path (see next item)

***LEVEL UP STRATEGY****
C should work on dark magic first (up to the point where you get the +20 mana for killing a stack), then necromancy. L should (if she should happen to level up) should focus on getting M dark magic or M necromancy (whichever she doesn't have) ASAP. Area of effect "Agony" (M dark) and raising ghosts (GM necromancy) are both key skills.

3) Head either NE or NW -- this is unclaimed terratory (it will be grey). Each is centered on an elven city, and helpfully enough, each is fairly close to one of the shrines that you need to visit. You'll need to open one of the exits out of the central area to get there -- pick one that you can beat with minimal casulaties, obviously. :) Only open up /one/ of the paths -- the AI is very slow to defeat wandering monster stacks, so the more that you leave intact the less mobile he will be.

4) You can conquer the enemy city in the selected segment, but you /probably/ can't hold it yet. Visit the shrine and pick up two weeks of monster generation at the Necormancier dwelling near the shrine.

5) Consolidate armies on L -- the wandering stacks are growing and you need the extra forces to minimize casulties. Try to ensure that you have a net growth of skeletons after every battle.

6) Move to the sector that you didn't select in #3 -- visit the shrine and collect more forces from the /other/ necromantic dwelling near the shrine (this is the third, and last, necormantic dwelling on this map).

7) This time, make a concerted effort to clear out most of the treasure spots available -- with your forces conslidated you should be in good shape. Use C to collect treasures (as she has no army at this point) to save time for L to clear more stacks.

8) Conquer the city, ideally on day 3 or 4. Position L in the /garrison/ (not just sitting in the gate), and position C at the nearby market (which is where she will remain for quite a while, as this ensures that enemy heroes either turn back or attack the city).

9) Build up the city.

10) Fairly quickly an enemy hero will attack you -- hopefully, after you've gotten the level 1 fortifactions built. You are going to take heavy casulaties in this battle, but the following techniques will help:
* Wait with all of your units until the last friendly unit before the first enemy ranged unit turn -- then, use "summon elementals" to position a stack next to the enemy shooters. This way, most of the melee folks have moved towards the castle wall, ensuring that you have at least two turns before the elemental stack is attacked.
* Use Agony (with Master dark, it is an area of effect spell) to deal damage if you have it -- shooters first.
* Otherwise, use Weakness to minimize the damage that you take from all the fliers (with at least the most dangerous shooter stack out of comission due to the elementals)
* Try to avoid eating retaliation attacks with your ghosts and skeletons -- you'll probably lose most of the other stacks anyway, and you won't be able to replinish them fast enough to make a diference, so...

11) You should win this combat -- with 50%-75% losses, which is normally "game over" -- but remember, the enemy heroes /don't grow their armies/ and /don't regenerate/: so the hero that you have defeated won't be replaced. You should end up with loads of skeletons (and not much else.

12) You have 2-3 weeks before the next hero wander's over -- use this time to build up the city, focusing on building creature generators (but /not/ the upgrades) and fortifcations. Have C trade at the marketplace as required, and use L /carefully/ to clean out wandering monster stacks to unlock more treasures.

13) I didn't hire any of the elven units at this point, just letting them accumulate in the city (that's why I didn't buy the upgrades). I did buy all the necro reinfroncements available from the generator, but the stacks were never large enough to serve a purpose other than eating attacks / retalations.

13) You should end up facing 3-5 heroes, at intervals of 2-3 weeks -- each time it will be a little easier, thanks to your growing skeleton stack. Eventually, L will be strong enough (from skeletons) that they simply stop coming.

14) Build up the to the "Moon Garden" level (never got to the dragon dwelling in my game), with loads and loads of monster's built up. At this point, build all the creature dwelling upgrades and swap out L with C in the garrison -- giving C the army from all the newly recruited elven units (you probably won't be able to hire all of them -- recruit from the bottom up). L should keep the whatever necro forces she has at this point. C's forces should be enough to deter heroes from attacking the city.

15) Send L to conquer the city in the SW or SE -- but don't rush. The wandering monster stacks should be easy to clear without casulaties now, and are a good source of both XP and skeletons (and, hopefully, ghosts, with GM Necromancy).

16) You should be able to conquer the selected city without much in the way of difficulty (whether the hero is in attendance or not). Agony is vital at this point -- it will clean out shooters in mass over one or two turns, and they are nicely clustered together to be killed in seige defense Beyond that, you simply don't have any signficant ability to get past the wall -- you won't have enough liches (if you have any at all) to win an artillary duel, elementals alone will die in short order, and you don't have enough ghosts yet to depend on them.

17) At this point, life is simple -- keep using L untli she hits maximum level, then use C (put L back in the first city you conquered to hold it). C can pick-up reinforcements in the city you just conquered.

18) The other two shrines can be located after you've conquered the SW and SE castles -- they are positioned so that you have to pass by the castle to get to them.

18) Clear the Northern castle last -- it is signficant stronger than the other two.

19) Proceed to the endgame (which is straightforward). You'll need /both/ C and L to solve a puzzle in the endgame area -- I had a hero stuck in a sanctuary near a castle, and you can't recruit heroes in this map, so I ended up hiring a big garrison at the castle the enemy hero was nearest and saving loads of money in ever tried to attack another one (he never did).

(There is yet another mission after this, by the way).

[76561198254240506]

Hello!
May I ask you a question. In the 19) you've mentioned: ".. I had a hero stuck in a sanctuary near a castle, and you can't recruit heroes in this map.."
Could you please tell what Hero it was and where exactly he was stuck? It will be very helpful for us to identify this issue and therefore address it properly.

BTW: You can try to use sneaky approach in this map. :)

[Nanian]

Originally posted by Limbic_Fox:

Hello!

BTW: You can try to use sneaky approach in this map. :)

I feel like that its impossible to be sneaky on these maps, as it seems like that as soon as you enter their territory they know where you are straight away, and will do all in their power to get to you, no ;o ?

[mreed2]

Originally posted by Limbic_Fox:

Hello!
May I ask you a question. In the 19) you've mentioned: ".. I had a hero stuck in a sanctuary near a castle, and you can't recruit heroes in this map.."
Could you please tell what Hero it was and where exactly he was stuck? It will be very helpful for us to identify this issue and therefore address it properly.

BTW: You can try to use sneaky approach in this map. :)

Believe it or not, I actually happen to have a save from the end of the map with the hero still stuck in the sanctuary if you want it (just let me know how to send it to you).

It isn't possible to identify a hero that is in a sanctuary -- it only shows the potrait + "Occupied". The sanctuary that is occupied is the one in the NE, near the castle in that quardrent (I can lookup the name if you need it).

Sneaky might be feasible if the location of /all four/ altars were revealed -- but with only two revealed, and the two that are still hidden being very close to enemy held castles, the sneaky strategy seems like a recipe for fusturation. With no clues as to your destination, it is inevitable that you'll either run into an enemy hero at the wrong time, requiring you to reload.

[negailestingaz]

to topic author , this is sneaky mission , where you need to pay extra attention at your and enemy heroes moves, location where you are goind and locations of sanctuarys. Its actually quit interesting in the way that it is different from other missions. (capturing any town even the neutral one wont help - they will come after you regardless eventually)

You can go brutal force like someone above suggested, but this mission is about planing your moves to reduce reload attempts.

(what usually is really helpfull trick is to capture enemy fortresses on turns 5/6 depending on location of elves. than build something quick , get your units on day1 and move out before too late. capturing towns is actually easy)

[76561198254240506]

Originally posted by mreed2:

Believe it or not, I actually happen to have a save from the end of the map with the hero still stuck in the sanctuary if you want it (just let me know how to send it to you).

It isn't possible to identify a hero that is in a sanctuary -- it only shows the potrait + "Occupied". The sanctuary that is occupied is the one in the NE, near the castle in that quardrent (I can lookup the name if you need it).

Sneaky might be feasible if the location of /all four/ altars were revealed -- but with only two revealed, and the two that are still hidden being very close to enemy held castles, the sneaky strategy seems like a recipe for fusturation. With no clues as to your destination, it is inevitable that you'll either run into an enemy hero at the wrong time, requiring you to reload.

Thanks a lot for the information! The provided info is enough. The issue is being looked into. And it is being addressed in our future support patches.

As a tips for a sneaky approach to this mission:
1. Try to use Blackfang hideouts;
2. Try to stay away from Area of Control of central towns, try to use paths in neutral AoCs;
3. If you are in enemy AoC try to use shelters;
4. Try to use ship/s after you discover the portal for the first time;

Hope these tips will help.

[vellu]

I managed to capture western castle and make army to overrun ai totally.

[Kikkus]

Same, just went and grabbed the first castle with my strongest hero, then traded all necro units to that hero and let the low lvl hero grab all new units from the caste...not done but it seems like i'm a lot stronger now then the AI

[Janz]

How did you manage the "endgame" part? I keep dying to the enemy hero who has like 1000 angels, and just can't find any place to run to after I do the "puzzle" part, as in open the 2 barriers and get the artifact.

[76561198254240506]

Originally posted by Janz:

How did you manage the "endgame" part? I keep dying to the enemy hero who has like 1000 angels, and just can't find any place to run to after I do the "puzzle" part, as in open the 2 barriers and get the artifact.

Did you try to check Quests and tick the "show markers" for those you have at that moment? It should show you where to go/run.