I played this on normal difficulty. This is my casual strategy, no sense of urgency in my moves as I explored the entire map taking all items in sight.
1. Travel EAST picking up every resource and buildings on route to the FIRST SYLVAN FORTRESS and take it. (Build up money structures or nothing for now so incase computer decides to take it back you don't want them to benefit from trainable troops)
2. Travel several turns to the EAST and get more resources and buildings without showing too much of the EASTERN map.
3. Go back WEST to get more resources and buildings on route to the WESTERN UNDERGROUND STAIRS.
4. Once underground, go SOUTH to EAST to the INFERNO FORTRESS and take it, taking more resources and buildings on route. (Also, use your remaining Sylvan armies more and slowly get them killed or leave them behind. You don't want mixed troops and get morale penalty)
5. Look at your day of the week. Make sure you build army buildings before end of the week otherwise make money and creature growth buildings first and creature building upgrades last. I took about 3-6 weeks doing nothing but build and train. (Hire those creatures that are supplied by the two buildings next to your Inferno Fortress on a weekly basis and upgrade them, they help. If you see the enemy hero on the move, try to intercept him)
6. Head back top side taking the SOUTH EAST STAIRS. (FYI: I went up because I saw the enemy hero headed towards my Sylvan Fortress up top. Anyway, I intercepted him and beat his army)
7. From the SOUTH EAST STAIRS, go NORTH towards the other SYLVAN FORTRESS and take it, taking resources and buildings on route. (You can have more freedom with what stuff to build here)
8. Go back UNDERGROUND through the NORTH EAST STAIRS and stop by your INFERNO FORTRESS for reinforcements.
9. Head for the WEST STAIRS from earlier that lead to the TOP SIDE and take SYLVAN FORTRESS in the WEST, NORTH of STAIRS. By this time you practically own the map. Just build up your miliarty and prepare for the last leg of the race.
10. Go back to your Inferno Fortress, reinforce, talk to the Black Dragon, bring at least 100 Hunters. Just train some and give to him. Now you can climb the NORTHERN STAIRS that will lead you to the FINAL FORTRESS and success.
NOTES:
1. The BLACK DRAGON is necessary to complete the mission. He's blocking the way to the FINAL NORTHERN SYLVAN FORTRESS. Stay away until the end.
2. It's possible to get the FIRST SYLVAN FORTRESS in the beginning before the INFERNO. It helps as it prevents enemy from amassing more troops.
3. To help you survive until you get Inferno Fortress, there are Sylvan troops scattered around that will join your army.
4. If you want to level up your hero quicker, sacrificed Lv 1 and 2 troops while in town for experience as everything else is enough to beat the map.
5. To stay alive, targeted range units first with Succubus Mistress, Pit fiend for clusters, Nightmares for heavy duty offense, Cerberus for medium duty offense, and Arch Devils for tanking and 1 hit KOs. Use gated troops and phantom forces spell to protect your troops or to make enemy waste retaliations. Play conservative, don't rush melee only enemies with your melee. Try to weaken them and pick them off first with your shooters and hopefully once in range, your melee can deliver the final blow.
6. You can train another hero to bring main hero reinforcements. Can be tedius but this allows you to keep going and going...
7. Don't be afraid to skip resources/buildings guarded by tough creatures, you'll have opportunities to come back to it later on.
Walkthrough Campaign 2 "The Cultist" - Mission 4 "The Ship"
This mission has a similar layout to the previous. Agrael still starts in the SW portion of the map, has an easy access of a Sylvan town, and will be conquering towns at NW and NE. However, there is no Gilraen chasing you around, only low-level heroes with not-too-impressive armies. There is an underground level that connects different portions of the map, giving a potential shortcut to end the mission. You'll also get the only totally functional Inferno town in the campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, you must choose a bonus from one of these three:
Druid: 10
Gold: 6000
Wood: 40
Resources come in whole-sale quantity on this map. You will never be short of it, if you flag whatever mines you see. Take the 10 druids - the extra men will come in handy.
Pick up the wood and enter the Garden of the Wee Folk. Now, you can continue north along the path, but I find it much more rewarding to use an alternate route, by going east along the cobblestone road. Head east and flag all the mines you pass, as well as picking up treasure and resources - the first stack of master hunters will join you. On day 2 there's a cut scene with an unpleasant surprise for you - the Sylvan forces are deserting you and you'll slowly lose them. If you have Diplomacy you can probably get some extra Sylvan stacks to join you along the way. If you find certain stacks too tough, simply avoid them for now. The master hunters south of the Ore Pit will also join your rank.
Master hunters come with the "warding arrow" ability that sometimes triggers upon arrow impact, and pushes the target's initiative back. This is one of the reasons that you really want to split your master hunters into multiple stacks. Your attack are also more effective this way, by not over-killing just one stack, instead killing all stacks before they hit you.
Continue until you get to the Sylvan town Hallin, owned by the green player. Visit the Hut of the Magi next to it to see two different Subterranean Gate Entrances and you get a glimpse of the Inferno town Ur-Nebryzias. Capture Hallin and enter - unfortunately you can't build a Tavern, so you can't get an extra hero... yet. Now depends on the patches and difficulty level, the AI has a different degree of effectiveness. It is possible that some roaming AI hero will claim this town while you are miles away, so you can focus on the economic buildings first. You will be benefited by building the Hunter's Cabin in the near future, too (more on this later). Pick up a first aid tent if you have the war machine skill; they're mighty cheap in the Sylvan towns. Continue east, flagging all the mines.
Now you are ready to go underground to claim your Inferno town. You can follow the road east, until the road turns north and is blocked by lots of ancient treants. Avoid them by going straight east - through the forest towards the Subterranean Gate Entrance. Enter it when you get there. Once undergound follow the path to the north west. When it divides, head east towards Ur-Nerbryzias. On the way you should flag the mines. Capture the town to complete your secondary objective.
Alternatively, you can go west from Hanllin, and turn north. There is a Sulfur Pit along the way, which is quite useful to you as Inferno towns needs a lot of sulfur. Turn west afterwrads, and you will also end up underground. Head east to defeat a group of Deep Hydra (very slow, therefore very easy), flag mines, and take the town Ur-Nerbryzias.
This Inferno town has a Tavern, so get some extra heroes. The daily desertion of Sylvan units only happens on Agrael, so you can give all Agrael's Sylvan units to a new hero just before pressing End Turn, and at the beginning of the next turn return them to Agrael. You can flag the remaining mines in this area by moving Agrael together with a new hero.
Now quickly build your Inferno town up, focusing on troops and a capital. Upgrade hell hounds to cerberi as they are much more useful. Nightmares are also nice as you have 3 extra every week from the creature building just south of the town. Pit fiend/lord is a big money burner. Go for them only if you have enough cash. Capture the Howling kennels and the Inferno Military Post. Later on, hire another new hero here whose job is to purchase new hell hounds, hell chargers and pit fiends from these two dwellings every week.
You can give your remaining Sylvan forces to a new hero (preferably Sylvan to avoid the -2 morale penalty) and send him/her back to Hallin, and start exploring the map with the troops from Hallin.
It is time for Agrael to head up north from Ur-Nebryzias and turn north west immediately after fighting the wights. At some point you should spot a large stack of spectral dragons; approach them (but DO NOT attack them) to trigger a cut scene with the shadow dragons (!) and get another secondary objective: Complete the dragon's quest. You must obtain 100 hunters and/or master hunters for the dragons (this is why the Hunters Cabin is important early on). This objective, however, is one you shouldn't haste to complete - you won't need to complete it before you're absolutely ready for the final show down. It's also worth noticing that any Sylvan forces under Agrael's command still flees each day, so you should use somebody else to move the 100 hunters to the spectral dragons (hand them over to Agrael to let him complete the quest though).
It's now time to explore the remaining underground; you can find a couple of interesting things - besides treasure. A set of stairs to the south west, where you were supposed to enter the underground. Two set of stairs to the north east - the one furthest to the east leads to the Sylvan lands, but you should exit through the other one first to fight some ancient treants and get a huge gold/xp boost. Then return to Ur-Nebryzias and recruit all the demon troops you can afford, then head to the other set of stairs to the north east (the ones next to a garrison).
You're now on Sylvan territory, but why should you care? Head north east to the Sylvan town Giladan and capture it. The green player should have a fairly powerful hero in the area, that you need to deal with. Then start exploring the area, there's a good deal of mines and hunters lodges that will help you get your 100 hunters (it's shouldn't be a problem, since you don't need them right away). You can also find a good deal of power-ups that you should make sure Agrael visits. There are also a couple of Keymaster Tents (Blue and Green). A little south west of Giladan are some master hunters guarding a stack of Arch Devils, who'd join you if the master hunters weren't in the way. Just west of there is a Sylanna's Ancients tree (+1 level). North west of Giladan is a heavely defended garrison owned by the green player. If you complete the dragon's quest, you won't need to come this way. Still, it's good experience (I find it hard to reach level cap on this map), but at least for now you should just let it be. To the far west is yet another Sylvan town, Aglan, which you should capture as well.
When you're done exploring the forest, complete the dragon's quest, if you haven't already. You can also choose to attack the spectral dragons, but I wouldn't advice it, since it causes you to fail your secondary objective (this means that you'll have to go through the garrison north west of Giladan, and yet another even more heavily defended one to get to Erewel, and it will make you miss some useful creature boosts). The dragons disappear upon completion of the objective and you're free to pass. On the other side of the garrison, a dark path leads to the west and an area containing an Arena and two Marletto Towers. Continue north east, past the stairs and past some Wraiths to get to one more Marletto Tower. Then venture back and up the stairs.
Start by going west and check out the Refugee Camp, continue on westwards to get a stack of succubus mistresses to join, there's also an Arena. Head back to the Refugee Camp and go east to find a stack of cerberi waiting to join. Follow the road, but at this point you can ignore flagging the mines, since the scenario is nearly over. If you haven't reached your level cap yet, you should head east past Erewel to fight some more creature stacks. To the far east you'll find the second defended garrison, which will make a good experience boost. You may also notice the Green Border Guard (there's only treasure behind it, so it's optional if you want to get it). Oh, and I never found any use for the Blue Keymaster Tent, but if any of you know, please post it as a comment and I'll add it here.
The final battle (Erewel) is quite hard, but start by having all your troops gate in extra creatures and you should be fine. Hopefully your Swarming Gate activates here! Note that emerald dragons are immune to Earth spells, so your Pit Lord's meteor shower will always be resisted by them. Also, do not rush in before the AI decides to rush out, or you will suffer very heavy casaulties. Afterwards you get your prize: The Ship - so you can sail on to the next scenario.
Note: If you are playing at a high difficulty level, you probably need to speed up the conquest a bit before the green player grows out of your control. You can charge directly to the NE Sylvan town with Agrael and a new hero, almost immediately after you take your Inferno town. You can always summon upgraded Inferno creatures somewhere along the way. After taking this NE town, hire a hero to flag the mines, and send Agrael to capture nearby Sylvan heroes. There are always a few, who will turn themselves up in the next turn or two. None of them are powerful enough to cause any significant damage to you. Next, rush straight west to the NW Sylvan town. Don't miss the Archdevils along the way. There is also a Sylanna's Ancient (level up tree) in the middle, useful if you have trouble hitting the level cap later on. You should be able to take this NW town easily as well. Now you are rich, and there is no enemy sneaking upon you. This map is all yours to explore until you crush the boss effortlessly.
Thanks CH.
In mission four of the inferno campaign, when I attack the Sylvan fortress, I cannot get into the castle. Any time I land on the moat it "entangles" me and it won't let me walk across it. Is there any way to get my forces inside the castle without having to wait for my catapult to knock down the drawbridge?
Sasha at 2006-10-04 12:11 wrote:
Q. In mission 3 of the Inferno campaign (The Ship) every turn some creatures disappear from my army. Is there a reason for this?
A. Yes, there is a reason. It is explained to you in a cutscene at the beginning of day 2. The elves don't accept a demon lord as their leader, so every turn a couple of them desert Agrael.
Two possible solutions:
1. Use only Inferno troops from the city in the underground as Agrael's army.
2. Have another hero escort Agrael all of the time and give all elves to that hero before you end your turn. At the beginning of the next turn, give the elves back to Agrael. They only desert Agrael, your troops are safe even with other demon lords (the script/event only applies to Agrael).
LOLZ at 2006-09-19 11:30 wrote:
I cleared this map without meeting those black dragon u r talking about and I never even get that mission about the 100 hunters to bring to him
