Part 10
Update 10So last time, I ran around, scouted about half a map, lost a hero, conquered a castle, lost a castle and lost a hero. We’ll try that again, but this time without losing the castle and possibly less hero losing…hopefully. Meanwhile the AI wiped out one of the other factions putting me in a not very good position.
Day 21
Falagar is still walking to the enemy castle.
Maximus gets another new army, who knows maybe he will get to do something with it this time.
Day 22
The game is really picky about when you can view an enemy army. For example I still can’t see what she’s carrying. I guess everyone is hiding on the back of the horse.
Falagar stops to pray at a statue, giving him heaps of morale for the coming battle.
Maximus gets more units, he will move out and do something next turn.
Day 23
Everyone walks and the blue hero appears to be on its way to me.
Day 24
Judgement day!
Obviously, the first hit from the catapult does nothing. In addition I forgot to position my archers at the top. This leaves them wide open for the flyers.
Sometimes I just make things harder for myself and worse, there's no one around to blame. 
We open by blocking their archers. This was the sole reason to bring those 3 gargoyles along for the ride.
The computer returns the favor, but makes it double.
Fortunately, I have good spells and Falagar is a warlock so he can cast them. Time to tip the scales! 
Apparently Falagar never returned home after I bought the mage guild.
at myself! 
The cavalry and the paladins do a one-two on the gargoyles. The paladin smells blood!
Their griffins block my archers again.
And my catapult still sucks.
The gargoyles do nothing. If they attack they will probably die on the counter attack leaving the centaurs free to shoot again. I’d prefer them to stay out of it and it’s not like that 2 damage the single gargoyle can do will provide me with victory. Later games feature the defend command in addition to the skip command. Defend would give them better defense this would've been nice to have now. You know in addition later games also give you the ability to skip the unit putting them at the end of the queue without completely canceling their turn like I have to do. Heroes got a lot better in later incarnations. 
The paladins walk back to kill the griffin. Hilariously, the game can’t flip its walking animation as such the paladin walks backwards.
Nice try guys.
Charge!! 
Attack!
Even more attack!
Two hits kill three hydras.
The cavalry tried, but failed to kill the hydra.
Victory! Spell power +1 for Falagar. Now to keep the castle.
That’s….not a lot of reinforcements. Fortunately, we have already seen that this castle has a nice spell selection so at least Falagar can put his spell power to good use should they attempt to retake it.
Maximus heads out to meet the blue hero head on.
Day 25
Blue has another hero, it’s not very strong. I really have no idea what it's doing all the way over there.
Falagar looks around a bit.
Day 26
We’ve got company. There is in fact another hero right behind him. You can see the legs.
Back home I check out our hero selection. This one has spells. She probably belonged to the already vanquished yellow. I gladly add her to my ranks. I like to always have a hero active near my castle due to the combat bonuses and magic they can provide. In Heroes2 they added the ability to add a captain to your garrison who was a basically a diet hero. He could cast some spells and added some combat perks but couldn't grow or leave the castle. They were already retired in Heroes3 where it became possible to garrison a hero.
Target in range!
Guess I found where they kept their centaurs. Those guys are pretty much their entire army. The only other danger are the 11 griffins.
Let it all just rain on me!
That’s one way to thin out the opposition. I hate that spell.
“Like this mister paladin?”
“No”
Bye blue army! Fortunately they didn’t get another chance to cast "that" spell.
Victory! Also, defense +1!
We walk around a bit after that.
Day 27
A new week means new units. Luna, the hero with a fruit fetish buys units to bring to Maximus.
Falagar finds another obelisk and heads home for an army.
Meanwhile, blue runs away from the second green hero and green took that village at the top. Green is pretty aggressive. Considering Blue's lack of attempts to do anything I expect that I've taken their last castle and worthwhile army. Good thing too, the AI just attacking villages like that makes me suspect that green is pretty strong.
Day 28
Here comes another new challenger. Green has a lot of heroes.
We add new units to the army. It’s not that impressive, but it should be sufficient.
Day 29
The new enemy hero immediately attacks and recruits lots of archers.
Also, blue died. 
Time to declare a war.
I blinded the unicorns. I’m still deathly afraid of possible storm castings and had hoped to take out everyone before it gets to that. No morale boosts unfortunately so the plan fails.
The sprites go after the obvious target.
The sprites die to the pikemen and archers.
My paladins had been blinded, so no movement for them.
My cavalry have also been blinded, but that’s okay. They decided the best course of action was to attack the paladins.
I really need money so I can outfit to heroes with decent armies. Maybe I should start attacking villages as well.
Day 30
Maximus visits a gazebo and gets attack +1.
Falagar was on his way to get some money, but a hero approaches so he turns back.
I’ll just put myself over here.
Day 31
That guy sure can walk. He went around me the long way and stopped at my water wheel. He's not carrying any slow units, so that helps.
If only I had blind or paralysis. I could have finished this without him moving. Still, according to his tent the guy can’t cast a spell to save his life.
So he blinds the paladins who already moved and he kills my archers in a single strike.
He keeps casting spells.
Now my Paladins can’t reach his druids. I wonder if I should already uncast it by blessing them. 
I don’t because he has a spell power of 1 meaning it stops next turn. Unfortunately they still go second to the druids and are hit by a lightning bolt.
That Paladin didn’t have to die. Knowledge +1, that’s great.
Attack!
See that troll? I mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again, he’s the strongest shooter in the game.
He also has 23 archers. 
So I paralyze his trolls and I block his archers. I check out the enemy hero, she has 4 knowledge. She’s either won a few battles already or has an artifact.
The sprites attack the griffins which puts them in range of the swordsmen.
Alright, the griffins moved! Anyway, I don’t have them attack the trolls. I don’t think that they can kill one and the thing that makes trolls dangerous is their regeneration. Every round the damaged unit is fully healed. This looks like a job for the paladins.
Let's talk griffins. Griffins are the level 3 unit for the warlock castle and are their second of three flyers. They have pretty good stats as is to be expected by a warlock unit, but their real strength comes from the specialty. They’re the only units that can counter more than once, too bad being low level units means they will not keep it up for long. In Heroes3 griffin defect from the Warlocks and move to the future of the Knight town. Despite that I don't see the griffins as a iconic creature for the heroes games it seems the developers disagree. The Heroes3 box art shows them, the opening cinematic follows show them, we follow the griffin empire in the later heroes games and they are usually some of the first units that are shown to the public.
“Have at you!” And thus all trolls died.
I was afraid the enemy would run, so I had contemplated not having my griffins and gargoyles attack. They did, but the enemy stayed put. He only cast a lightning bolt on the paladin.
We’re killing green heroes by the dozen. Knowledge +1
Now I have the money and I really want another hero for my warlock castle and guess who shows up. I missed that friendly sneer.
Day 32
Now I notice that it’s day 7 today and I have a cunning plan. I will not buy anything this turn. Instead I’ll empty my knight town next turn. Meanwhile I put all slow units in the garrison. Luna goes to the water wheel while Maximus comes to replenish his spells. Hero movement speed is calculated at the start of the turn, without her slow units Luna can get home faster. With another set of units I hope that Maximus can invade enemy territory.
Which reminds me, Luna came equipped with this. Considering the distance between my own castle and my sawmills I assume the same will be true on the other side. So their castles are probably next to the highest ore mines.
Wrathmont knows the drill and picks up some cash while Falagar explores and guards the equator. The amount of stuff around here is surprising.
Day 33
No enemy movement.
Week of the beetle!
Now this is an army. I’m out of money, that is until Luna picks up some more.
I’m lucky and +1.000 is just what I needed. Wrathmont runs around a bit more and discovers more deposits. Falagar continues flagging enemy mines.
Day 33
Falagar discovers a spell in a shrine.
Teleport: This moves one troop to an open spot anywhere in the battlefield. Time to fetch some
More scouting with Falagar and getting stuff with Wrathmont. (two piles of gems and some sulfur)
Day 34
This is getting serious, she’s packing at least one Cyclops. That the barbarian top level unit.
Wrathmont picks up 2.000 gold and an obelisk.
Yeah, that’s less of an army and more of a ragtag bunch of misfits.
I open by blocking the druids. The AI responds by blinding my paladins. I hadn’t cast a spell yet, so I haste them on my turn to act as a disspell.
Unicorn have a spatial dimension in their head, where did you think those energy waves come from? Anyway, the unicorns die and the wolves die on the retaliation.
Sprites are annoying since they only die if you attack them thanks to their no retaliation ability. So you always have to waste a turn to kill them.
The Cyclops attack with an eyebeam. They immediately show one of their dangers by paralyzing my paladins.
Guess they found that spell as well.
My gargoyles try their own eyebeam and die for their attempt.
When it rains it pours.
This means the Cyclopes die to the sword.
A costly victory. But at least we got a medal of courage (+1 morale) and a +1 knowledge out of it.
Run home Falagar!
I need a better second army, so time for some amazeing units.
Day 35
I ignore the villages. They will do nothing but cost me units if I attack them. If I can take out Greens main castles the threat they pose is over.
Wrathmont runs home so he can be a supply line to Falagar who is also on his way. Luna does nothing.
Day 36
Crap, a dead end. Yes, I can easily kill them. However I want to save my units and since I know that the enemy didn't come through here it's probably safe to assume that it isn't a direct road to their castle.
I change my mind about Falagar, he needs to be home to get his spells back.
Day 37
He has an army again. Good thing too, another green hero with Cyclops approaches.
Day 38
Finally found something promising, I’m sure he’ll lead me to the castle for old times sake.
Day 39
A new week has come.
And I have found a lightly defended castle. I Ignore the heroes. While they have a wide selection of units all of their units are few. Taking all of those villages has really spread green thin.
Siege! I blind the elves to buy me some time. Everyone moves to the walls and when my archers get their move they shoot the ponies.
My kingdom for a flying unit.
Same thing happens.
What are you aiming for?!
I’m out of blind spells. I throw a curse on the elves to nerf their damage. 
Come on! Who the hell is aiming?!
I have rage! Guess what, next turn the catapult finally makes a hole. All the way at the top. I have units everywhere but there.
Finally everyone can enter. You can see my paladins on their way to the top. I didn't expect my catapult to hit anything this turn.
My turn!
Stupid elf!
Victory. But this was my worst siege ever. Also, Maximus is slightly confused and gets a +1 spell power.
Welcome to Scorpigal! A town filled with déjà vu and units for me to buy.
I think that this is a good moment to quit. I took one of green's primary castles. Considering green is running around with level 6 barbarian units I assume that this castle used to belong to yellow. Things are looking up, but unless I can get to the Barbarian castle to cut off their access to high level units I expect some tough battles ahead of me. I'm lucky green is spreading itself thin. I just need some defenses here and then I'll probably have Maximus run ahead while Falagar tries to take control of the middle. On the other hand, teleport + hydras = easy siege.
It should be interesting.