Part 25

Update 25 
Last time I finally managed to leave the swamp behind me and start my invasion of the Warlock territory. I'll teach them to make their home in a stupid swamp!

Day 64

Kilburn will like the meager reinforcements that Arturius brings. But his primary goal will probably be to be a garrison hero in Alamar.


Fresh units in tow Kilburn looks around. He can either attack Barok, or move a little to Barok’s left and try to take the third castle.


According to the magic Barok is actually right above the castle we want, I thought it was further to his left. I bought some reinforcements in my newest castle and Kelzen is on his way to the north castle. He’s the yellow dot in this map. I need to get the swamp frustration out of my system and conquest will do nicely.

Day 65

And then there were two.


Kastore will make a fine garrison hero for me. Funny how that works out.


Kilburn is fighting with Sandro, but I made a mistake. While my archers are protected from direct attacks, enemy dragon breath attacks will still hit them and the gargoyles.


I wanted to take out their centaurs, but by dispelling the blind on my griffins I actually just saved my guys. Now the griffins can park before the gargoyles. I wonder who the dragons will attack in this case.


Ah, so the AI can’t cheat his fire to hit them either. Now it's my turn.


Stop running you bastard!


This should be a fun defense. I decided that Kelzen has better things to do than to come to their rescue so that stupid traitor Kastore is his own.


Kelzen's better things involve attacking fourth castles.


I estimate that the hydras are the most dangerous.


Good lord I love the teleport spell. The reason he’s up there is because all units are large leaving no room for them to teleport within the walls except next to the minotaurs. Having only large units is kind of an interesting trait that could be seen as a form of balancing for the Warlock faction. At least in most other entries. In heroes 1 it just means they can more easily block large parts of the map.


The paladins will attack the dragons and with this lucky strike will obliterate them (2.200 damage!), thus leaving room for my dragons to swoop in and kill steal.


Like this. The minotaurs died when they attacked my paladins.


The paladins can’t reach anything with that big ass dragon (ass) in front of them.


The dragons fly to block the centaurs and give the paladins some room. Unfortunately, the next hit will kill a dragon.


Round 3, still no walls down. If it wasn’t for the teleport spell this would’ve been a long battle.


A quick bless on the paladins and they show everyone why they’re the top knight unit.


Thinking themselves safe from the paladins the centaurs hurt the dragon with a paper cut.


Victory!


Now we’re talking.


I don’t think I want to lose this town anymore.
I don't think we've seen dimension door yet:
Dimension door: Moves active hero to any space in the adventuring window. In other words teleport for your hero. It does cost some movement points and you can't move the adventuring window around. Still a great spell.


I don’t think I can win this, but I’m going to give them hell.
I wonder how the griffins will like being attacked by their berserked minotaur friends.


This went well, the minotaurs killed half the griffins and the griffins had a lucky retaliation killing 8. Everyone skips a turn. Gotta stall for more arrow tower aid and magic damage.


My gargoyles died and I lost a hydra. I think I’ll blind the gargoyles and have everyone wait around some more.


Things are getting complicated. I think I’ll cast berserker on the griffins so they can attack the minotaurs. Kastore also has lightning bolt, but I think I’ll save that for when we have to engage them in close quarters. I expect the walls to go down this turn.


So berserker only works when units are adjacent. A costly lesson learned. It’s actually in the spell description, but I figured it was just weirdly worded. Lightning bolt on the minotaurs does 200 damage. Nice, but not enough.


No more minotaurs for me. We still hold position. Only one unit can attack us at a time currently, so it's a great time waster.


There goes my wall and my griffins follow.


I cast berserker on the minotaurs again. The minotaurs were above the griffins in the queque and they're the same speed, so they will move before the griffins. This dragon attack hits both the griffins and the gargoyles, killing a good chunk.


The berserked minotaurs finish the job, killing the griffins.


Operation stall for time is working. I blinded the minotaurs. Since they're the last unit to go the AI doesn’t get the chance to dispel it until next turn, leaving my dragons free to fight one on one with the gargoyles.


Now for some hide and seek shenanigans. Basically, I’ll cast lightning bolt while my dragon flies to the far corner and the minotaur stack slowly follows.


Slowly the enemy stack shrinks down.


All out of lightning bolts, so fireball instead. I can probably have the dragons attack them now and win, but let’s just wait a little longer. The way I'm using the spells really shows how unbalanced the current magic system is. I can cast any spell as often as my knowledge permits it. In any other heroes game I would've run out of mana by now. Despite that, I do like the memorization as a method. It just needs more tweaking.


Time to attack! This killed 5 of them, leaving 5.


The AI decides to bless them! I'm going to win this battle! All their artifacts are mine! Even with bless, their minotaurs can't kill the dragon stack. At best they can kill one allowing them to survive the retaliation, but then I have the first turn next round and I can kill whatever is left.


I lost a dragon to the attack, which meant that the dragons were unable to finish it. But I will do so next turn. Victory is mine!





I will hunt you down! Today was the day Kastore learned two things, he learned the face of his enemy and he learned to hate it. (Knowledge +2)

Day 66

That could be troublesome.


And Sandro’s back for more too. I don’t think Kastore can win against that with his 18 centaurs and 2 dragons. I could be wrong though.


This should help Kelzen cover some extra ground.


Mind if I drop in?


Hidden under the stats is an outcropping which is doing a bang up job at keeping my Cavalry stuck in their starting positions.
A quick berserker on their gargoyles should provide with some easy fun.


I was hoping for more, but there’s only three dragons and Ari isn’t exactly a strong attacker.


And that’s the end of the minotaurs. Their dragons died picking a fight with mine.


The AI seems to think that blinding everyone will save them. I’ll help out by blinding their centaurs. My dragons can easily kill the griffins and with the centaurs blinded they will have to skip their turn.
If you’re wondering why my swordsmen are following the pikemen instead of boldly going forward, that red puddle is actually another obstacle.


I forgot that my blinding spell only lasts one turn and without my fast units they get the first turn since I went first last round. So their turn consisted of blinding my swordsmen and stabbing my dragons. This is the end result of that cunning strategy. Kelzen did finally learn spell power ensuring that next time his blinding spell lasts two turns.


No running away this time, okay?


Their centaurs died and on their turn their gargoyles attacked my archers. Killing none since Kilburn is made out of adamantium and his moustache hits like a truck so their Gargoyles subsequently died.


Kilburn is on a roll.


Victory! Artifacts pour moi! A major scroll of knowledge (+3)! A stupid compass which allows me to move further on the seas! What's this levels obsession with the sea. First summon boat and now a useless compass. Anyway level up with spell power +1!


After this short intermission Kilburn heads back the way he came to take the castle.


I had to look up when he ran away from me, but that Ballista alone is worth his cost.

Day 67

Did you hear about the one where a barbarian could teleport?


Because now you have.


No running allowed.


That was short, also get back with your artifacts!


The gargoyles guard the archers, causing their gargoyles to attack my dragons and die.


My griffins dine on griffin soup.


And my dragons barf some soup on the minotaurs.


Now properly seasoned they decide it’s time to eat them.


Kilburn is really killing it out there. Actually, not just Kilburn. Kelzen is waltzing over the enemy with similar ease. The biggest challenge so far was the castle defense.


Victory! Now one castle remains. Knowledge +1 for Kilburn.


Kilburn leaves the archers behind. He’s going on a quest to flag the mines. With his movement he can cover some good ground.


No longer under threat by the enemy Kastore walks around and spots the real castle Alamar. Now I need to decide who will do the final battle. Who will represent the knights as they show the warlocks what they can do.

Day 68

Castle Alamar is at least properly defended.


And Agar is helping.

Day 69

About thirty days ago Atlas left home to bring these guys. Kelzen will be the one to do the final battle. Despite my love of the mustache, I believe Kelzen has earned it.
I was looking at the mini map when I noticed some unsightly grey dots in my red castles.


Right clicking the area around the castle shows me that there are two hidden sorceress villages, one under each castle, both with no units.

Day 70

Dimension door is pretty great, Kelzen just visited two castles in a single turn.

Day 71
We runteleport around, collecting spells and a few units.

Day 72

So, we’ve collected all the dragons and artifacts and are ready for battle! Everyone came to watch.


This should do it.


I am disappointed. They only have 74 minotaurs and 51 hydras. The dragons look pretty impressive, but I have half that number and Kelzen.
Drown them in corpses!


Teleport! The bolt that’s over the paladins is the arrow tower shooting. The paladins were immediately blinded.


Teleport is just plain great.


The pikemen kill just under half the griffins.


The minotaurs make a big mistake.


A really big mistake.


They died.


The swordsmen kill the rest of the griffins and it becomes clear how one sided this battle is. One round in and over half their army is dead.


The cavalry at least show how underpowered they are even with bless and Kelzen. Only killing 10 dragons and losing 25 of their own.


The hydras, despite being big slabs of HP are wiped out in a single paladin turn.


The humilation isn't over yet as the pikemen give it their best. This was so short, that despite the ballista of quickness the walls didn't even have time to go down.


If you ever wondered what a walkover looks like, here it is.


Imagine if he'd had that defense before the attack.


Flawless victory.


I may have shattered more than just their might.

All right, so I guess that wraps up this LP. We took their important trade center, conquered their seaways, healed the lands by rubbing someone eye on it, I've humiliated Lord Slayer , I've converted Queen Lamanda to the church of Morglin and I've destroyed lord Alamar. There is nothing left for me to do.


Who is even leading these armies? And how exactly do they think taking a glorified gold mine will stop me? You know what, who cares. They want, so I'm taking it. And I know just who I want as a starting hero and I'll reload this game as often as is needed to get him! Join me next time as we start the final level in this campaign.