Part 5

Update 5:

Day 36

Time flies when you’re having fun.

New week new units, you know what that means.


Yes, enough money for 1 dragon. These things are expensive.

Keep in mind, I already paid 15.000 coins for the tower. Now if I want to buy dragons I have to wait 2 days unless I find a goldmine or some gold lying around. (But what are the odds of that? (this would be funnier if this was a Barbarian town) )
They are so expensive that you can start to question if it’s even worth the money.


Kilburn accidentally gets off his ship. I wanted to set him near the coast and simply have Natasha toss the units on board from the shoreline. There goes that plan.

Natasha, disappointed in my ability to click accurately on a map, moves out.

Day 37

I’m scouting.


Kilburn likes magic?


Could be worse, I like paralyze.
Paralyze: You paralyze a unit. The difference between blind and paralyze is that a paralyzed unit can't retaliate.
It's about time I received better spells!

Anyway, more units are bought and end turn.

Day 38

Natasha is still scouting and finds some centaurs to beat up.


It was short. Also, knowledge +1. She picks up a campfire behind it +500 and +5 sulfur.


Let’s check out the shipwreck, what could go wrong?


Female ghosts! Quick channel Patrick Swayze!


Let’s see what turn undead does. Does it kill the stack or just a unit. Please be a stack.


That spell effect!


That was pretty good, I can already see that this spell will be crucial to winning this fight.
Let’s form up around the archers, our weakest units.


Ghosts have special AI instructions, they will always target the weakest unit first and for good reason.


But we’re not so easily slain. We hit that bed sheet so hard that blood squirts out.


This is not going well.


Only one down, that’s not a lot.


No swordsmen are going to survive this. I'm disappointed in their performance in this battle. I had counted on them, the crusaders and the cavalry to carry me through this. If they fall and the ghosts gang up on the cavalry things could get a little closer than I expected it to be. In fact, the cavalry and the crusaders aren't allowed to move at all. If they ghosts attack the archers, we're doomed. Fortunately, they can't get morale and their luck is neutral.


And this is why, after this round there are now 18 ghosts in this stack.

Let’s talk ghosts.

Remember how I said that dragons are the strongest single unit? Well, ghosts are the strongest army. Stats are around level 4, but their specialty is what makes them dangerous. You don't want to come here if you have level 1 units and you'd better have a solid army if you bring level 2 units. Jon van Caneghem is legendary for it's many screw you moments in Might and Magic and ghosts are his way of doing that in the Heroes games. Every unit they kill joins their stack, even peasants become full powered ghosts. Having ghosts in the wrong location can and will screw you over early game.
There is however no way to recruit ghosts in this game. They did add a building in the expansion pack for Heroes2 and they're every bit as gamebreaking as you would expect them to be. Still, going into battle against a throng of peasants with 10 ghosts is hilarious.
I was sad to see them go after Heroes2, they are always exciting to fight.


I was also hoping for more archers support, but they’re not helping much either. Is this the difference between having some attack on your hero (Kilburn) and no attack on your hero (Natasha)?


Turn undead on the other hand just cleaned the 18 ghost stack.


Cavalry and Crusaders gang up on the ghost next to them.


It then decides to kill my swordsmen with its friends.


Turn undead may be my new favorite spell. The cavalry can’t reach anything, so they hold their position. I don't want the ghosts to reach my archers.


In the second heroes crusaders get a bonus against undead. I wish that were true here.


I’m all out of turn undead. So I just curse the ghost to nerf its damage and we wail on it until it’s dead again. By the way, yes you read that right. You can curse ghosts. The ability to curse them (or undead as a group) is removed in later games as, despite what stunning tales such as Twilight teach us, being undead is a curse in and of itself. Well, I'll gladly take this blessing and curse them.


Keep hitting.


All done and we get a +1 on spell power as reward.


And this as well. It’s a bit gaudy to my taste, but it’s the mages ring which gives a +2 to spell power.

Well, that went well.
Losses:
6 swordmen = 1.500
7 pikemen = 1.400
3 cavalry = 900
Total losses = 3.800
So that’s a net profit of -1.800…and a gaudy ring. Totally worth it.

Anyway, we buy some units and Wrathmont goes hiking.

Day 39

During Wrathmonts hike he encounters happy gargoyles that want to join us. Sweet. We now have 38 gargoyles. You see those minotaurs near the goldmine. That’s our target!


We’ve got some beef with them.


Let’s have them fight it out as long as possible.


The dragons pitch in by roasting two at the same time. The one at the front is already dead. The one in the back survived.


I already talked about the dragons and even posted this picture. But they're dragons and you can't talk enough about the most iconic Heroes unit. They're the strongest single unit in the game and are completely resistant to all magic. Full magic resistance is probably one of my favorite abilities balance wise. Yes, you can't target them with offensive spells, but on the other side, you can't buff, heal or protect them either.
Watch as they roll over the rest of the level. They become a lot less purple in later games, but are always expensive and one of the strongest or the strongest creature in the game. Replaying this game I was actually surprised to find out they're only medium in speed.


Anyway, the back one was alive until he did a whole 4 damage to the dragons.


Look at that goofy face.


I'm no expert on medieval weaponry, but this looks like a great way to hit yourself with that flail.


Dragons!


No kill like overkill!


And there you have the dragon death cloud as it uses its two space attack. Yes, it's the same as the gargoyle death cloud. And it's not so much of a cloud as more of a flame.


Meanwhile the minotaurs go at it like gladiators. So this is a great time to talk about minotaurs.


Minotaurs look rather dopey in this game with those big cow eyes, but they are really solid fourth level units. Good HP, good attack and defense. The only downside is the cost, they are quite expensive. Starting from Heroes3 they get a great specialty in that they always have positive morale.


Don’t you just hate it when someone is looking over your shoulder, constantly hovering behind you, checking your work?

After the battle, Wrathmont claims our goldmine.

Meanwhile, Natasha picks up some gold (+1.500) and attempts to get some swordsmen protecting a banner to join us.


This went badly for them, maybe crusaders aren’t the best diplomats.


This gives her a +1 to morale.

Back home in Tundara Kilburn buys more crusaders. Considering he doesn’t have anything better to do I send him out to pick up peasants and visit the fairy ring on the island.

Day 40
One fey farthing lighter Kilburn returns home, buys the cavalry and some archers. This is his last turn here. Next turn he’ll buy more archers and move out to attack yellow.

So before we leave never to return, here is a fully built Knight town.


We are currently only missing some mage guild levels. So this seemed like a good time to show it off.


Natasha was hoping for money, but she only found some crystal and a fireball spell. Time to head home and protect our house when Kilburn is away.


Wrathmont is trying to find green, but is distracted by this lovely looking cave. By the way, do you see the wagon camp? You can recruit rogues there, I have no desire to do so.

Day 41
Green just lost a town to yellow. Nice.


Wrathmont enters the cave, to be honest I don’t remember what you normally fight there, probably gargoyles. They're the only demonic looking thing in the game.


Someone has already visited this location. Dejected Wrathmont leaves.

Kilburn spends all our money and heads to a boat, completely forgetting to take the artifacts Natasha has. Ah well, that ring probably didn't match his eyes.

Day 41
Wrathmont and Kilburn enter their new boats.
There is a weak enemy on the seas and Natasha hurries home.

Day 42

A week has passed. Everyone sails along, but Kilburn spots the weak yellow hero.

Day 43

Target acquired.


Using the view mines spell I quickly pinpoint the location of the yellow castle…that’s not something I ever imagined writing. Anyway, all towns always have an ore mine and a sawmill nearby. Just find them on the spell map and somewhere between them you're sure to find the castle.



Look who we can hire. Kastore wants to join the winning team. Right, let’s have him join up and give him a shovel.

Now, before I forget. This town is also almost completely built, it's just missing a single level of the mage guild. So let's have a look at a fully built and animated town.




I think the ultimate artifact is on that peninsula. According to his backstory Kastore is an elf, elves love digging right?

Day 44

Yellow is running like crazy.


Kilburn visits the windmill. Windmills provide you with a small sample of random resource each week if you visit them. I knew yellow had already been there, but it was quicker stopping on that then walking around it.


That is nothing. But I would like to finish it without her casting spells. I think I’ll gamble on good morale. I'll lightning bolt the druids and have the others run to the goblins. Hopefully they’ll get a morale boost.


No such luck, she flees. This is standard behavior if the AI has artifacts. If you beat an opponent holding artifacts you receive them. I saw her pick up artifacts before I reached her. Ah well, we just have to cross the desert to get to the town that used to belong to green.


Time for Wrathmont to take a castle.

I blind their druids as those are their only fast units. Everyone else is medium speed. I hope my medium speed dragons, that I remembered to sort to the top, get to go first.


The gargoyles first gaze the elves to death and after getting a morale boost also kill the sprites.


Strangely the computer still counts the blinded druids as a turn as the tower still was allowed to shoot. I had hoped to stop that from happening, now the centaurs are no more. Share in my pain as the Death star fires when ready. No one can reach the unicorns until the druids are dead. Stupid tiny map.


Like now, they got their turn and attacked the dragons.


Unicorns are pretty and are the fifth level unit for the sorceress town. They have pretty solid attack stat, but are weak defensively. I’ll let the dragons handle them.


And handle they do. They even get a second turn thanks to morale, allowing them to finish the job.


Victory. Knowledge +1.


Welcome to Greywind. Enjoy the tune.]


Our new spell for today is cure.
Cure: cures all friendly troops of negative effects. So it's mass dispel for this game.

Druids are great shooter replacements and smell less than half horse people, so we buy some and off we go again. Maybe we can find some heroes to beat up.

Day 45

Victory? This means the barbarian castle is the last castle. Yellow already bought and killed a new hero on the wolves.


Kilburn visits a shrine and gets a spell, view towns. Hah! I have view mines. Into the desert we go!


This is the view towns spell. This tells us all we needed to know. Yellow has no more towns left except the barbarian town.

Wrathmont explores more.


Kastore arrives and has to wait for tomorrow to dig in a random location.

Day 46

Crag Hack shows up as the new yellow hero. He's the only one who is as famous as Sandro. He shows up in some form in all (heroes of) might and magic games before the Ubisoft continuity. He is even the protagonist of Heroes3 shadow of death. He is name dropped in the Ubisoft continuity and shows up in a prequel expansion.

Wrathmont flags more stuff for us.


Kastore wastes a turn digging in the wrong location.

Kilburn keeps walking.

Day 47

Crag just entered the boat, I wonder if Kilburn can reach him.


But first we have to clear out a pack of wolves. I berserk the top one and the Cavalry moves before the archers. Not to protect them. I really don't expect the wolves to get a morale boost and reach the archers in a single turn. In addition if I move them they get in wolf range. No I move them, because If I don’t I’m afraid the crusaders won’t be able to move. Not that I need them this fight, but I want to finish this nice and quick and without losses.


Wolves have very weird attack animations.


This did not end well for that wolf.


Everyone pitches in. Fortunately wolves have the stamina of a house of cards.


That was the last one. No losses. Easy.


Now for that Hack.


That’s a lot of orcs, but for your information. Orcs are almost identical to archers, so for this army they're no threat at all.


Finally, some luck at the right time.


As everyone moves forward I blind the orcs. This should cause Crag to miss his turn completely provided I’m not stupid enough to attack them and undo the blinding. Which in turn means that we kill him without him even having a chance at casting a spell (not that he is any good at it).


All done. Spell power +1! We’ll make a wizard out of him yet. And he is just short of attacking the town.

Kastore moves a step to the side, Natasha is forgotten and Wrathmont explores some more.

Day 48

What they hoped to accomplish by running away I don’t know.

Kastore couldn’t dig due to something on the ground. So no ultimate artifacts this round, probably no ultimate artifact at all in this level.


Yeah, this could be difficult.


"I'm Kilburn a might wizard!"


New death cloud! This is the same death cloud the sprites create when they kill something. The magic death cloud.


One shot, one kill.


Victory! Now all I have to do is write some letters to the families of the deceased about how they died honorably during a long siege.


Winterkill? Really? It doesn´t even look like winter has ever been here. It’s also the worst town I’ve taken. I'm not counting the village because that's not a town.


Guess what, I can reach the fleeing enemy in a single go. Hooray for the compass!


We celebrate with a rain dance. The AI is so impressed they decide to participate. The swordsmen however aren't playing along.


The weather gods were not amused at their refusal to dance.


Dwarfs are pretty hardy, but I have an archer. Hah, who needs dragons or anti magic!


So, please share what you have learned about saving the environment? (Attack +1)


Bye yellow!


The war isn’t over yet, but this battle is. Onwards to the next level.
I suddenly realize I never posted my thoughts on the griffin. Looking back, that's because they never moved after I got them. Meh, we'll save it for next level.


Meanwhile in a separate timeline little over a week later:

Kastore dug so hard that he changes color in later games:



Meanwhile the computer was panicking because they didn't want to attack the almighty Kilburn while he was parked on their doorstep…menacingly. They bought three new heroes who spent all their time running around the desert not really doing anything.


We didn’t need all that extra might and it's not like you get to bring it along for the next level. But I wanted to show it off.

Next time we go Commander Boston Low on this game. (How many will get that reference.)