i started by upgrading what i could on the necro town,
i didnt upgrade creatures on haven town, only money stuff.
after i built liches wights (and wraight, wights) and vampires,
i got out, built a boat on the LEFT side of the island, and went north
west. when you get to the beach you have several mines and creatures
that you can take. if you see necro creatures on the map, always attack them, they'll join you. i went north, found the inferno area. i killed
archdevils and pit fiends for the artifacts. went up and took the town.
it was easy, no serious guards there. i took the boat east, when i got to the shore i saw another town. it was too hard for me, so i went east more to the eastern town (ziyad). i took it. at that point it offered me to curse the town. i cursed it, went back to the westren town and cursed it too. the point was that cursing not only means more army for me, it means the cpu won't be able to get more of his vicious army.
after that the green elves started roaming around. they took my haven city. before they came i took isabel to necro city, and protected her with creatures there. the elves didnt follow.
i wandered in the map, gathered creatures, exp and artifacts,
and got back to original necro town to get more army.
i took army and kicked the ass of the green elves for good.
by that time i had like 2k archers, around 100 arliches, 115 vamp lords, 19 bone dragons, 100 spectres.
i went north to take the last town. by that time the CPU took ziyad back, but i didnt mind, since its necro now, he won't enjoy the army there. i took the middle town, and my army got to like 3k archers.
i didnt use any raise undead/animate dead or stuff like that. i powered up my hero with destructive spells, and i mostly do chain lightning. when i took last city i used few phantom forces on archers.
went north, took the garrisons, took the last town.
it said i cleared all objectives but raising 20 bone dragons, but that was easy, 3 of his academy cities became necro coz of the curses. so i built 20 bone dragons easily and went to the portal, and thats it.
i gathered in the final fight something like 5k archers, so it went ok.
Markal's specialty is utilized to its fullest extent in this mission. This is also probably the only mission that playing heroic will grant you an easier gameplay (pre-patched game only, though), because you will receive much larger neutral undead stacks all over the places, ranging from hordes of Vampire Lords to Packs of Bone Dragons.
After Godric, you get Isabel to help you in this mission. If you have spent some effort to develop her in the first campaign (for example, ATK + DEF > 50, Expert Light magic with Master of Wrath, Expert Luck, Expert Attack with Retribution, etc.), she actually owns this mission single-handedly even on heroic. Since patch 1.3 weakened Markal significantly, you might actually need her to fight some tough battle where your Raise Dead simply can't keep up.
This is also the first Necro mission that offers you a decent set of starting bonuses for different strategies in the necropolis campaign. If you didn’t obtain Curse of the Netherworld spell on an earlier map, you might want to take it because there are several goal-oriented heroes that have large armies for you to fight. Also, patch 1.3 boosted the power of this spell a little, so it is not a bad alternative of Raise Dead, which are rendered pretty useless in big battles now. If you did take Curse of the Netherworld, then take the Vampire lords if you wish to rush at the start, or take the gold if you prefer a slightly slower build up. By the way, on heroic, in more recent patches the scripted AI wizards tend to drop you the Armagaddon spell non-stop, so you have to finish them off as fast as possible.
You start on a small island, which includes the town of Lorekeep, a Necropolis now at level 11, and you can get upgraded skeletons and zombies from the start. Isabel starts on the same island, in front of a new town Newpost, sadly it starts at level 1 and is a haven (the only one on the map) so it’s not particularly useful except for making money. If you should get attacked on the island though, Newpost can get a castle and Lorekeep can only get a citadel.
There are various undead stacks to collect, so you can gather a quick army. There are quite a few on your starting island, and more on the northern continent, where your enemies are plenty as well. A good place to pick up undead is the area east and west of Ziyad’s landing point. (Ziyad is the wizard town directly above Lorekeep). You can get bone dragons, vampires, ghosts and archliches.
Ziyad, the rightmost mage town, and the closest to where Markal starts, is probably the only plausible place to rush to. It comes with the additional benefit of giving you the Staff of the Netherworld (-20% initiative to enemies) when you take it. This has the added advantage of allowing you to convert three of the mage towns on the map into Necropolis towns, making this the best way to compete with orange. When you make a landing close to the city, the wizard staged around this city will rush back to defend. It is possible to take the city before the wizard comes back. Otherwise, you will have to do a castle siege against the wizard army, and possibly suffer at least one Armaggadon; three actually sounds normal! If you have built up Isabel well, then you can actually score a much better victory with her. But remember to give the staff to Markal. This staff was named something else, but fixed to its original name in patch 1.3. The conversion happens when you visit the new Academy town with Markal (with the staff in his possession), and leave the town. You have to pay 10,000 gold as well.
Important: Everything inside the town will be lost when the curse happens. So never leave any army or hero in there. If you leave Isabel in the city, she will disappear and you lose the mission automatically!
When you convert a town it starts at level 1. However, there are plenty of mines around and you should not have to worry. You can also leave them as academies, as they’re quite high level. (but then you cannot learn dark magics from the mage guild; they are not offered in Academy towns.) Once you have the staff you get a secondary objective, which is to convert the three mage towns into necropolis. You do not get great rewards by doing this, but it has obvious benefits to your fighting orange. So even if you lose a town back to them, they can only hire low level undeads! A secondary objective that triggers on the next day is you have is to gather 1000 skeletons, which is optional. It is quite hard not to get 1000 skeletons, though, as you fight so many enemies here and there. You also get one of the best cut scenes of any army when you do it.
As soon as you take your first Academy town, a green Sylvan army spawns. It becomes a secondary objective that Isabel is meant to complete -- destroying the boat of elven troops. Although the custscene implies that Isabel has to do it, it’s perfectly fine to attack them with Markal, which is probably eaiser before patch 1.3. Their goal appears to be to take Newpost and Lorekeep. Also, during the battle against them the dynamic battle mode is turned on (you have limited time to make moves).
The second artefact, the cloak of death’s shadows can be found in the top of the three mage towns. The westmost town doesn’t contain anything, and taking it is just to prevent it from trying to kill you. You can regardless corrupt it into a necropolis to suit Markal's twisted mind.
The final artefact is in the top right corner of the map. You have to travel through three garrisons to get there; however, the third garrison is the final large fight, so if you can survive it you should be safe. To complete the level you will need to have 20 bone / spectral dragons on you. You can either bring it with you, or collect it afterwards.
The level isn’t quite as easy as that however, because Orange spawns goal oriented heroes, from a monolith one-way exit, roughly halfway between the two mage towns that contain artefacts. Their goal is to kill Markal if they get a chance. They never attack the Lorekeep / Newpost island you start on when Markal isn’t on it. On heroic, the army that spawns with them are pretty tough -- so you better quickly gather undeads around to fight them, and you can always give the undeads to Isabel and watch the massacre. You get no skeleton archer this way, but you may also save 2/3 of the undead army from Armagaddon.
By the way, the Sylanna's Ancient (level-up tree) is still in the same place where you can find it in the last mission -- just south of Lorekeep. It is going to be there again in the campaign finale. What a forgetful tree!
Final Note: Some players reported that even after they collected the bone dragons, they cannot complete the mission. If that does not work, try to give all necromancer artifacts to Markal as early as possible, and install the latest patch (and restart the mission).
Thanks CH.
i have the same prob too...i have enough bone dragons(200) and i can't go for cyrus.and the trick @SObjective3() doesn't work.the objective which tells that i must to recruit 20 bone dragons is still there...i don't know what else to do...i hope someone to help me...
JSH at 2006-10-26 15:35 wrote:
how to convert the town?
JSH at 2006-10-26 15:32 wrote:
how to convert the town?
Davidoor at 2006-10-12 15:28 wrote:
Just in case someone having difficulty to finish mission 3 (The invasion), i have very2 easy way to finish this mission.
This will work if you have "Instant Travel"
It is not necessary to build any town to its maximum, just go with markal, recruit any undead creatures in your way. This is including bone dragon. There is more than 20 dragon in this map.
Beat every neutral creatures in the map if you have enough army, in my case 47 archlich, 16 wraith, 24 bone dragon, 1k skeleton archer, 60 vampire lord, other army not neccessary because i never use it in any combat. Note, skeleton archer will automatically increase everytime you beat enemy (need certain skill, and i forgot what skill it is). Even it is not necessary to do this, but you need to beat as much enemy as you can to raise your level. Go to sphinx in the middle of the map and answer the question and pick 20000 experience as your bonus.
Such an army is enough to finish this mission. You don't have to curse any city, and also never fight orange army, it will waste your time.
Use Instant Travel to travel through blocked terrain, gate, sphinx, etc. Beat every city, start from the middle of the map to get staff of the netherworld, beat the city at the top to get the robe, and then go east, use instant travel to pass the gate (2 gates), then you will find cyrus. Of course he will run through the portal, just follow him and your mission is complete.
Mikehuff at 2006-09-23 19:13 wrote:
to sasha I put the code in it is not working any ideas?
Leo at 2006-09-22 18:36 wrote:
i have a bug. i didnt get the staff of netherlands at all. =)
Sasha at 2006-09-21 18:10 wrote:
to: Linda
The second artefact, the cloak of death’s shadows can be found in the top of the three mage towns, the leftmost town doesn’t contain anything and taking it is just to prevent it from trying to kill you, or to corrupt it into a necropolis for extra troops.
Look below Full walkthrough from Michael
Linda at 2006-09-20 21:54 wrote:
I cant obtain the Cloak of Death´s Shadow, I have clearde almost everything on the map but I still dont have it. What haven´t I done right?
Sasha at 2006-09-18 19:41 wrote:
to: Mikehuff
Instruction for version 1.3 here:
http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes5/cheats_eng.php
Mikehuff at 2006-09-18 19:25 wrote:
Got the same thing going on have 200 bone dragons and can't enter and I can't get the console to work either some one please help thanx
Mikehuff at 2006-09-18 19:13 wrote:
Got the same thing going on have 200 bone dragons and can't enter and I can't get the console to work either some one please help thanx
deddy at 2006-09-07 07:08 wrote:
Put the following line in your Heroes 5Profilesautoexec.cfg to enable the console:
setvar dev_console_password = schwinge-des-todes
(this will active the console)
Then press "~" or "`" ingame (to enter the console) and type the command.
@SObjective3()
Now he will check again if you have 20 dragons, and if so you will get the movie and win.
i've worse than that, when i trough the portal, then the mission doesn't complete, and back to menu. Also the campaign doesn't show. so ... ???
AAA at 2006-08-18 14:41 wrote:
There seems to be bug here... in the cutscene in the beginning of the campaign, Markal say Lich Crown and the text says vampire's garment... when I supposedly have gotten the staff of the netherworld, it is actually the staff of ensnarement. have any of you experienced this? what did you do??
i have the same problem i have 45 bone dragons (i`ve met them) but portal is still closed please help me
bigshot at 2006-07-27 12:42 wrote:
you dont buy them, you dont cheat, if the game is working properly, without bugs (and bugs do occur) then all you have to do is find a stack or 2 of neutral bone dragons and attack them so they will join you (as all undead creatures join Markal).
devilboy at 2006-07-25 18:48 wrote:
I have 3 necro cities, but I want to try produce bone dragons from one city, maybe it will work
devilboy at 2006-07-25 18:46 wrote:
I have the same - I have 60+ bone dragons and 60+black dragons, but I still cant get after Cyrus. What should I do. I will try to produce precisely 20 bone dragons(ok it will take some 7 weeks of the game, 3*7=21)- but I dont know what to do. plz any hint
johan at 2006-07-17 03:56 wrote:
hm.. bug? otherwise, try to attack Cyrus by going thru the monolith. should work.
