Just finished Mission Two on Hard, and for those having trouble with that mission:
TIPS:
- build up Haven to get the priests
- collect resources laying around
- build up shooting undead-living army
- use the abundant morale and luck bonuses before each bigger battle
- use Markal all the time except for battles when you know that you'll be using BLINDNESS - Godric has it, Markal doesn't
- after the army is built up, squash everything else
- with the shooting army AND the Unicorn Bow, you're invincible
How I played:
Some guys posted that they haven't built up the Haven town, but went straight for Lorekeep ASAP (outmanouvering Orange ships and such) - well, I don't know if this is the good way, or faster way, I didn't do it that way. (Eventually it proved to be a good tactic, since Lorekeep can only be upgraded that much in this scenerio, and the troops from there are week, though numerous.) I stayed a long time on the mainland, getting everything but the Bow guarded by the titans. Orange tried to invade me once, they sent 2 parties, but by that time I was pretty strong as I had lots of Priests thanks to the Haven outpost and lots of Marksmen, so I killed one Orange and the other one escaped. If you want to built the Haven, you have to get all the gold and resources you can get - visit the Mages building on the far left side of the mainland and collect all that's laying around. I didn't bother with the Scroll artefact because I had a living-undead forces anyway, switching the army to Godric for the battles that would require more mana. Collecting the undead with Markal is obvious, and I eventually trained some otherwise useless footmen to priests.
After spending some considerable amount of time on the mainland I went for the islands. Equipped with priests, marksmen and all the undead unharmed plus already a hundred-something Skeleton Archers the Orange sailors were no match (Markal had Archery from previous mission - a real waste if you didn't choose it). The vampires on one of the middle islands were a big help, even though you had to pass through Death Knights to get them.
The norhtern mainland was very easy, as I didn't have to worry about Orange at all - once you sink the sailors, he doesn't move. Since I spent so much time back south to built up the Haven and the priest-now Inquisitor-army, all the roaming undead had grown considerably, so I picked up the ghosts ~~280 and the Skeleton Archers guarding the Ore mine ~swarm :) I upgraded all at the upgrading building, returned home, blew the now Horde of titans from the face of the earth in 2 turns and took the bow. With the Bow and IF you have built up Haven town, you're invincible.
Went back north and built up the Skeleton Archers by fighting absolutely everything that could be raised. Getting Lorekeep was a joke. As I didn't have to worry about time, I discovered the entire mainland, even though there's not much in the western part except for knowledge boost (+1) that Markal needs veeeeery much. At this time I was building everything in Lorekeep one day at a time, LEAVING THE FORT FOR THE LAST THING. When I was good and ready I built the FORT and the titans guarding the portal escaped (knew this from previous posts - THANKS GUYS!!!)
At the end battle I had: ~1400 Skeleton Archers, 179 Inquisitors, ~~650 Marksmen (200 joined me at the Archers Tower in the western part of the northern mainland), 79 Death Knights (joined me in the western part of the mainland), 65 Vampire Lords 40 Archliches that were cannonfodder since all the turrents and mages attacked them noone knows why and 16 Archangels that I didn't really used in the battle that much. The strategy was: block everything coming out of the castle with the Death Knights and shoot the shooters and mages first, than finish the Blue-Cats and Golems off with the shooters.
So, this is a no-risk guide to accomplishing Mission Two on Hard. Good luck!
I started by building my haven town with Godric inside.Went with Markal to kill weak creature stacks i could find,took mines bla bla bla...
Week two
Tokk Godric out of town and tokk the archer tower,kept taking with Markal and Godric all the recources i could but left those giants alone.
Week 3range hero landed on the west side of the map!had pretty strong army.Was close with Godric and pannicked at first,but instead he attacked those inquisitors and didn't get the recources!Pretty strange considering that they whipped out his mages and Almost all of Rakshashas!
Felt confiddent so i attacked him!remaining army:78 squires 5 monks and 19 marksmen,took recources and went in castle to rebuild my army.Kept Markal out of any other battle because of his small remaining army 4 zombies and 1 wight!
Month 2 week 1 day 6:Another hero landed this time near to my castle.Powerfull army so i was desperate!Started trading recourcess for gold,got about 2000-3000,recruted any creatures i could(dont know but our armies were pretty tied although he had titans(6).Next day he defeated giants(i prayed they did not joined him but instead of attacking my town he went of to defeat Markal so i had to act.Went with him to the edge of the map and before i knew it the hero retreated to his boat!lucky for me it was another week so i had built another four paladins 6 inquisitors...went to defeat hero!seemed that giants fought him cause he only had 3 titans and 7 rakshasha rajas,rest of the army was big,horde of mages throng of gargoyles and golems and swarm of gremlins!defeated him with marksmen and the griffins battle dive!Also recruit as many squires as you can then when you have about 150 200 send them to destroy the enemy!
Built a boat and went off to sea...found another orange hero(had only pack of genies lots of mages...),defeated himand landed on shore.after while took that town lorekeep and took Markal from one other side of the map to another also engaging undead creatures who always join Markal!Meanwhile went with godric back in haven town.
Says that you have to restore lorekeep.When you do titans at the monolith flee and the way is open to take Hikm.
Went with Godric who now had 60 plus archangels(by the way i'm not sure what month is this,sorry!)and about 100 paladins and attacked town via monolith!
Very intense battle,again had luck with marksmen and squires and those inquisitors,not to mention the battle dive ability!
After that you finish the mission and here comes the most enoiyng one!!!
