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• Might And Magic Heroes 6 Guide

Mandate Mania, The unofficial guide to Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven. Might & Magic VI Walkthrough: This walkthrough for Might & Magic VI [PC] has been posted at 26 Feb 2010 by daniel17br and is called 'Complete Guide'. If walkthrough is usable don't forgot thumbs up daniel17br and share this with your freinds.

Might & Magic Heroes VI Table of Contents Walkthrough

Table of Contents

Might & Magic Heroes VI is a turn-based strategy game for Windows, developed by Black Hole Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth installment in the Heroes of Might and Magic series, and was released on October 13, 2011, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Might and Magic franchise. Heroes VI acts as a prequel to Heroes of Might and Magic V, occurring almost five centuries earlier, and is set in the fictional world of Ashan. The story follows the five heirs to the Griffin dynasty in their quests to repel a demon invasion and assist or impede Michael, a legendary Archangel general plotting to revive an ancient war. Two digital versions were released via Steam and Uplay, titled Might & Magic Heroes VI: Gold Edition (shortened to Might & Magic Heroes VI Gold on Steam) and Might & Magic Heroes VI: Complete Edition. Gold Edition includes the original game and both original DLC packs: Danse Macabre Adventure Pack and the Pirates of the Savage Sea Adventure Pack. Complete edition includes the Gold Edition plus the Shades of Darkness DLC (a standalone campaign).

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As in previous Heroes of Might and Magic titles, the player can choose between single player or multiplayer modes of play, and controls a number of heroes and towns associated with various factions, commanding armies of creatures between tactical overland exploration and a turn-based combat system to satisfy each scenario's victory conditions. Heroes VI alters some of the series' long-standing conventions, overhauling its chance-based skills system and reducing the number of resources in its economics model, and also introduces new mechanics, including a points-based reputation system and the ability to convert one faction's towns to another.

Table of Contents

editHeroes of Might and Magic series↑ Might and Magic

Precursors:King's Bounty (remake:Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff) ·King's Bounty: The Legend

Main series:Heroes of Might and Magic ·II: The Succession Wars (The Price of Loyalty) ·III: The Restoration of Erathia (Armageddon's Blade ·The Shadow of Death) ·IV (The Gathering Storm ·Winds of War) ·V (Hammers of Fate ·Tribes of the East) ·VI (Pirates of the Savage Sea ·Danse Macabre ·Shades of Darkness) ·VII (Trial by Fire)

Spin-off:Heroes Chronicles

This guide covers the various factions as well as strategy and tips for all of the campaigns and maps.

Might and Magic Heroes VI Strategy Guide

IntroductionA demon invasion assaults the land of Ashan, but demons may be the least of your worries. Treacherous 'allies' and honorable 'enemies' abound, and magic has the ability to pervert your own thoughts and turn them into something dark and deadly. Creatures of all shapes, sizes, and nasty dispositions engage in wars of supremacy. Chaos rips apart the land, and with it the House of Griffin, whose descendants fight to stay alive and unravel the political machinations that threaten to engulf their family and the world around them.

Do you have the discipline and wisdom to lead an army into the field of battle? Can you champion the heroes of Might and Magic to victory?

This guide includes:FIELD TRAININGEven a battle-hardened veteran should drop his nicked-and-scored shield to get his hands on the secrets inside these pages. Beyond a schematic of the GUI interface and a general kingdom overview, you'll uncover how to maximize your movement points, what treasure is worth pursuing, how attributes and reputation shape your hero, and an in-depth analysis of all facets of combat. Enter a squire and leave a general.FACTION STRATEGYBuilding and battle strategies abound for all five factions. Rule the resurrection scene as the Necropolis faction, or raid countless forts as Stronghold. When Haven unleashes, its Griffins know how to counter with the Air-powered abilities of a well-prepared Sanctuary hero. If all hell breaks loose, know the ins and outs of the Inferno faction like there's no tomorrow.WALKTHROUGHSFrom your first steps outside of town to the final victory against your most formidable opponent, these seven walkthrough chapters detail everything you need to know to beat each Might and Magic Heroes VI Campaign. Learn how best to build up your town, level up your hero, recruit a massive creature army, and tactically annihilate your foes for the Prologue, Necropolis, Haven, Sanctuary, Inferno, and Stronghold Campaigns, as well as the Epilogue.MULTIPLAYERIt's bad enough when you have one lunatic scouring the land for your heroes and unguarded fortresses—now imagine you have up to eight players in a deadly free-for-all on unique maps you've never seen before! Have no fear: We give you the blow-by-blow on each multi-player map, from the 'Creek of Lost Souls' to 'The Wheel of Hate,' as well as all the Duel and Siege layouts.Field TrainingBasic TrainingThe Interface1. Events Log: Detailed information if you want to read more about what happened in combat or an event on the Adventure Map2. Resources: Quantity for your four primary resources–wood, ore, crystals, and gold–displayed next to the appropriate resource icon3. Your Hero: A faction banner floats above your main hero, who can move around the Adventure map collecting resources, investigating buildings, recruiting forces, and attacking hostile armies.4. Mini-map: A top-view of the land around you on a global map. A fog of war obscures regions you haven’t explored yet.5. Hero Portrait: Click on this to gain access to a hero’s inventory and abilities.6. Custom Buttons: You can drag abilities and certain action buttons to empty button slots on both sides of the Command Meter for quick access.7. Command Meter: Turns are broken down by weeks, with each day of the week represented by one of the seven segments encircling the hourglass. The hourglass advances your turn to the next day, the gear symbol presents the Options menu, the spellbook opens your hero’s abilities, the magnifying glass opens your Quest menu, and the arrow symbol walks your hero along the currently plotted course (up to your hero’s maximum movement points).Kingdom OverviewThe arrow button in the bottom left corner of the mini-map opens the Kingdom Overview window. It’s extremely useful for toggling on and off icons to see where resources, buildings, and artifacts lie on the Adventure Map. On the bottom, you can view your resource production for the week. If you click on the second tab, the Kingdom Overview shows how many creatures are produced per week and lists your heroes, town, and forts with the associated armies.Traveling and TerrainHero movement points are precious, so don’t waste them. Before you move, scour the area for intended targets based on your daily needs. You may even want to plot courses (without moving) to see if you can reach your intended targets, or to see if you can maximize your move by reaching multiple destinations. If, for example, you plan on building a structure that requires two more ore than you have this turn, you may want to send your hero to acquire ore and build that structure a turn or two earlier than if you waited for your ore mine to produce the resources. Also keep in mind that terrain can speed you up or slow you down: paved roads enable faster traveling, rougher terrain costs more movement points to pass through, and obstacles like rocks, marshes, thickets, lava flows, and forests are not passable. Deep bodies of water can be traversed, but only with a ship built at the Shipyard.

Heroes without armies spend less movement points, and thus move faster; however, they cannot go through enemy armies. If one of your heroes meets up with another of your heroes, they can exchange armies and/or artifacts.Days and WeeksTime is measured in days, weeks, months, and years in Might and Magic VI heroes. When you use up all your movement points for all your heroes on the Adventure Map, your day (turn) is over. At the end of each week, your buildings recruit a certain amount of creatures into the creature pool, which can be bought and enlisted at any town or foot associated with those creature types. Especially early in the game, you want to plan your weeks around maximizing resources and creature production. Buy buildings and upgrades that increase production early in the game, and don’t worry about buildings that won’t come into play till later in the game (such as Necropolis’ Altar of Eternal Servitude, which helps you resurrect dead creatures). Each new week also triggers an event: most are benign (production increase) or neutral (fun storyline events), though some can hamper your plans for the week (such as reducing your magic abilities as you prepare to head into an important battle). Always have a Plan B ready in case Plan A has some severe roadblocks that week.ResourcesYou have four main resources: wood, ore, crystals, and gold. Mines produce the resources–with wood and ore mines being the most common–and you can also adventure around the map and grab up uncontested resources with your hero or fight neutral armies safeguarding resource stashes. Your main town building produces gold each day, so it’s important to upgrade it as quickly as possible to crank out higher gold amounts. If you build a Marketplace in your town, you can trade for resources. At first it will be very expensive to buy resources (twice as much for crystals); however, the more Marketplaces you acquire from conquering other towns, the cheaper trading becomes. Once you have gold flowing, the Marketplace is an excellent option to collect one or two missing resources when you have that key upgrade at the end of the week.Control PointsEach area on the map contains one control point: either a town or a fort. When you capture the control point, you automatically gain all affiliated mines and dwellings, so it’s generally best to take out the control point rather than waste efforts on the mines and dwellings. If you want to control a mine or dwelling without the control point, you will have to leave a hero in the structure to maintain control. Once they leave, the structure reverts back to the control point’s owner. If a control area is neutral, you can take over individual mines and dwellings without controlling the main town or fortress. In addition to supplying more resources and creatures, controlling an area allows your heroes to spend less movement points moving through the area, and some unique buildings built in the controlling town may have effects on the area.

You cannot add buildings or upgrades to a fort, though you can hire creatures in a fort if it has the associated dwellings in the control area.Special Buildings and ObjectsOther than the buildings you can add to your town, certain special buildings on the Adventure Map can give you crucial advantages. If you’re looking to scout out the area, an Observatory will allow you to see farther into the fog of war. Dragon Veins restore mana, while a Dragon Nexus doubles your hero’s maximum mana. Stables increase your movement points for the current week, and the Lighthouse does the same on water. More common objects like the Rally Flag gives a bonus to Leadership and Destiny for the next battle. Explore all the special structures and get used to them on sight: that way the next time you spot a glimpse of one through the fog of war, you’ll know whether you want to head there or not without expending precious movement points.Artifacts and TreasureArtifactsThroughout your journey, artifacts will help bolster your hero’s power as you recover them from around the land. Minor artifacts offer a small bonus, major artifacts grant a big bonus, and relics give you the greatest boost. Once you acquire an artifact, it automatically drops into the appropriate slot in your inventory (armor slots into the chest, boots to the feet, and so on). However, if you gain more than one of a certain type, you’ll have to choose which works best for your hero and play style. Do you want a bonus to your magic ability or hero movement? Is Destiny more important to you, or Luck? As you obtain more artifacts, they stockpile in your inventory, so check back often to see if you can upgrade your active artifacts with a stronger choice for your upcoming weeks.

Set ItemsSet items group certain artifacts by name. When two artifacts from the same set are equipped, a special set bonus is granted to the hero. Each additional set item adds a new bonus. Set items are carried over with your heroes through campaigns.

Dynasty WeaponsThe most powerful of items, Dynasty Weapons, bind to your Dynasty. When you discover a Dynasty Weapon, it becomes active in your Dynasty Tree under the Dynasty Weapons tab and all heroes in that Dynasty can access the weapon. Dynasty Weapons gain experience as your hero gains experience, and when a Dynasty Weapon levels up, it unlocks a new ability. You can pile up multiple abilities on top of the special ability that normally comes with the weapon from the start.

Treasure ChestsTreasure chests give you a choice: gain gold to improve your kingdom’s financial welfare or gain experience for your hero by spreading the gold out to your kingdom’s citizens. Generally, early in the game it’s best to take gold so you can build up your kingdom, and later it’s best to accept experience to build up your hero. Of course, if you really need gold to build that special building, or know you’re on the brink of leveling your hero, choose gold or experience based on what’s happening that week.

Scrolls and PotionsScrolls act like spells in your spellbook; however, they can only be used once and they require no mana to activate. Potions can be used in combat and replenish a hero’s mana. Collect as many of these as you can; you never know when you’ll need that extra boost in particularly troublesome combat.

The Tear of AshaThis unique artifact is required to build a special building in your town that significantly increases your gold supply and creature production. It’s difficult to acquire except by completing a complicated quest or beating a deadly boss. If you do manage to gain the Tear of Asha, return to your Capitol and build the most powerful building in your arsenal.Leveling and ClassesYour hero gains experience from winning battles, finding specific objects, and visiting certain buildings. Each time you level, your hero gains two attribute points and an ability point that can be spent on new abilities. You begin with a single hero, but can add more heroes as you conquer towns and build a Hall of Heroes to recruit your powerful leaders.

See the Heroes section for complete details on your main characters. If you want to know what your hero can spend his or her ability points on, see the Abilities section.AttributesThe six basic attributes include Might Power, Might Defense, Magic Power, Magic Defense, Destiny, and Leadership.

Might Power increases Might damage for creatures in the hero’s army and the Might abilities used by the hero. Recruit melee bruisers and non-magic creatures if you concentrate on building up your Might Power.

Might Defense decreases Might damage against creatures in your hero’s army and reduces the power of Might abilities used against your hero.

Magic Power increases Magic damage for creatures in the hero’s army and the Magic abilities used by the hero. Recruit magic-based creatures if you concentrate on building up your Magic Power.

Magic Defense decreases the Magic damage against creatures in your hero’s army and reduces the power of Magic abilities used against your hero.

Destiny increases the Luck of creatures in your army.

Leadership increases the Morale of creatures in your army.

There are also three minor attributes: Might, Magic, and Mana. Might increases the power of Heroic Strikes and some other abilities. You calculate Might by adding the sum of Might Power and base Might Defense. Magic increases your hero’s maximum mana by 10 for each point of base Magic Power plus base Magic Defense. Mana displays your hero’s actual amount of mana points. Artifacts can influence all of your attributes, and may be the deciding factor for keeping some artifacts over others.ReputationYou can choose to walk the path of the Dragon Blood (red) or the path of the Dragon Tears (white) as you proceed through Ashan, and you acquire reputation points based on your exploits. Blood points are gained by pursuing fleeing enemies and using Blood Reputation abilities. Tears points are gained whenever a hero avoids using force to accomplish a goal, letting fleeing enemies go, and using Tears Reputation abilities.

When you collect 500 reputation points in either Blood or Tears, your hero can enter any town and change class. It’s a permanent change for the game or campaign; make sure you want to take that path before committing to the new class. Accepting the new class, grants one hero ability unique to your class and reputation, one more powerful hero ability unique to your class and reputation (after you reach 1,000 reputation points), and a power bonus to hero abilities of your current reputation. If you stay neutral, you still retain the neutral ability, which you do not lose if you switch to Blood or Tears.Might, Magic, and Tactical AbilitiesYou can spend your ability points anywhere you like, though you probably want to match your points to your affinity (i.e., if you’re concentrating in Magic Power and Magic Defense, you normally want to spend your ability points in the Magic tree). In the Might and Magic trees, you can immediately acquire any Tier 1 ability in any of the categories. At level 5, Tier 2 abilities unlock, and you can begin to acquire them (some require a prerequisite Tier 1 ability first). At level 15, Tier 3 abilities unlock; some can be accessed immediately, while others may need Tier 1 and/or Tier 2 abilities first as prerequisites. Certain Tier 3 abilities may not be available to the opposite affinity, and in the Magic tree, some of the seven schools of Magic may not be available to all factions.

The Tactical tree shows your Faction Abilities, Heroic Strike, starting ability, and reputation abilities. Your Faction Ability begins at Rank 1 for a Level 1 hero, Rank 2 unlocks at Level 10, Rank 3 at Level 20, and Rank 4 at Level 30. Your Heroic Strike is unique to your faction, so read it carefully to understand its nuances. You select your starting ability when you create your hero, and it generally has a modest affect on the early game. Reputation abilities can be quite powerful, but you’ll first need to choose Blood or Tears and commit to a class.

When a hero changes class, they gain a one-time opportunity to respecialize any and all of their abilities. If you click the Respecialize button, your hero unlearns all abilities and you gain spend regained ability points on the same or different abilities.Towns and BuildingsEach faction begins with a Town Hall, with the hopes of building it up to a Capitol one day. You can add fortifications to your town (to increase defense and creature production), erect buildings to recruit your faction’s different creatures (and the upgraded versions of those buildings to recruit stronger versions of the creatures), set up a Marketplace (to increase your resource potential and exchange artifacts), construct a Hall of Heroes (to recruit or resurrect new heroes), and build two of the four structures unique to your faction. Each of these unique buildings can alter your play strategy; examine them thoroughly before committing to one direction.

You can only construct one building per day per town. Plan out your building plans several days in advance, and make sure crucial creature-related buildings are built before the end of each week.My DynastyOnce you have defeated a Campaign, a hero from that faction will appear in the My Dynasty Tree for use in custom single-player and multiplayer games. Click through the various tabs for information on the Dynasty Weapons you’ve collected, your Dynasty Traits and Dynasty Abilities, view the creatures you’ve encountered in the Dynasty Bestiary, and see how much progress you’ve made on Dynasty Achievements. You earn Dynasty Tokens for unlocking achievements, and those tokens can be spent at the Altar of Wishes to unlock bonus Dynasty Traits, Dynasty Weapons, new profile portraits, and more.Combat TrainingInitiating CombatIn Might and Magic heroes 6, when your army meets up with another army on the Adventure Map, combat begins. The attacker’s army always appears on the left side of the combat map, and the defender’s army lines up on the right side. Combat maps can be of various sizes, so the two opposing armies are not always the same distance apart, and you’ll have to deal with terrain obstacles when planning your cover opportunities and offensive tactics. If an army eliminates all the opposing army’s creatures, or if an army retreats (and loses a portion of its army in penalty), the surviving hero and creatures wins. It’s possible that an action, such as Armageddon, kills all friendly and enemy creatures on the combat map, in which case the battle is declared a draw and both heroes stay on the Adventure Map with no creatures in their armies.Neutral ArmiesMost of your Might and Magic heroes 6 battles will be against neutral armies. A neutral army’s reaction to you will be heavily influenced by your army’s strength: if your forces are inferior, you will be attacked; if you’re more or less equal, the neutrals may be willing to join your for a fee; if you’re strength overmatches the neutral army, they will try to flee or offer to join your cause for free. You may pursue a fleeing enemy for extra experience, or let them (you still gain some experience).

If your faction matches a neutral army’s faction, you increase the chances that they will join you. Friendly armies always join for free. Aggressive armies will never join.

When you attack a neutral army, the number of stacks it splits into depends on the relative power of the two armies: the more powerful you are, the less enemy stacks you’ll face. Before attacking a neutral army–or an enemy hero’s army, for that matter–you should always recon the anticipated threat level. Charge in if its Trivial or Low, and weigh your attack versus the reward if it’s a Moderate or Average fight: If you want the reward badly enough, it will be worth the loss of creatures in your army. Generally, avoid threat levels of High or worse: they inflict too many casualties on your army, and you’re usually better served to come back with a bigger army and overpower them later.Threat LevelsEnemy armies are ranked in the following order from weakest (Trivial) to strongest (Deadly):• Trivial• Low• Moderate• Average• High• Severe• DeadlyGenerally, a Trivial battle will present no loss of creatures, while a Low battle may result in zero loss or close to it. Moderate and Average will result in some loss of creatures, but a guaranteed victory if you play your tactics reasonably well. High and Severe will result in significant army losses on your part, and you aren’t guaranteed to defeat the enemy. A Deadly battle will usually annihilate your entire army.Army ArrangementUnless you have the Tactics ability, which allows you to rearrange your creature stacks before each combat, make sure you organize your army in the hero window before you charge into battle. Experiment with different formations by moving your creature stacks to various open slots in the army layout panel. Consider the challenges of each combat map, such as obstacles and chokepoints. Do you want to quickly move melee creatures out to take cover behind obstacles or get them past them?

Think about your ranged attackers. Is it better to spread out your shooters or group them together? Grouping them can provide better defense, but makes them vulnerable to area-of-effect attacks. Ranged attackers with penalties may have more opportunities to hit when placed in the middle where they can reach more enemies; however, that means more enemies can potentially reach them. Of course, ranged attackers without range penalties should be placed on the outer edges of your army where less harm generally can come to them.

Creatures with a high defense can either stand next to more vulnerable creatures and provide extra defense, or be placed in a position to intercept the enemy out on the field of battle between obstacles. High-initiative creatures should be aligned in such a way that their movement isn’t inhibited by other, slower creatures in your army.

Keep in mind your hero’s abilities and your faction abilities. A healing strategy tends to play defensive and hold its creatures back, while a damage-dealing strategy would line up its creatures to pour out onto the battlefield and attack with ranged support.Creature InitiativeThe creature stack with the highest Initiative value acts first in a combat turn; the creature stack with the lowest value goes last. It’s always better to go first; if you can kill enemies outright, they won’t attack back, and even if you manage to reduce a creature’s stack number, its counterattack will be less effective. If for some reason you want to go later in the round–say, you want to see what a creature does first–a high-Initiative creature can still Wait and act later in the turn. Creatures are displayed on the Action Bar in the lower left part of your screen, with the higher Initiative creatures to the left. After a creature acts, the next creature on the Action Bar goes until the turns completes and a new turn begins.Creature ActionsNormally, a creature stack can perform one of the five combat actions each turn, unless it has enough movement points to reach an enemy, and then it can move and attack in the same turn. Depending on Morale or other special abilities, a creature stack may gain a second action (or even lose one), but still chooses for the five basic actions:

MoveA creature stack’s Movement score determine how many squares it can move on the combat map. A single horizontal or vertical move costs 1 movement point, while a diagonal move costs 1.4 movement points. The grid highlights for each creature showing the extent of its maximum movement for the turn, so it’s easy to figure out which enemy creatures you can reach with a single move.

Creatures move in any of three ways on the combat map: walking, flying, and teleporting. Walking, the default method of travel for most creatures, allows the creature stack to traverse the combat grid according to its Movement score, but it has to make its way around obstacles. Flying enables a creature stack to take to the skies and avoid obstacles–and other creatures–though it always has to finish its movement on an open square. A rare number of creatures teleport, which allows them to disappear and then reappear anywhere on the battlefield, though it too has to end its movement on an open square.

AttackAs you might guess, a creature stack can attack an enemy creature stack. Melee creatures must move to a target before attacking, and it’s possible to move and attack in the same turn if you can reach an enemy creature.

Special AbilitySome creatures have special abilities, such as healing or powerful, limited attacks. A special ability might have a cooldown (e.g., after using it, the creature cannot use it again for three turns) or charges (e.g., after three uses, the ability cannot be triggered anymore in combat). Some abilities are Might-based, some might be Magic-based, and some do not end a creature’s turn, so they can move after activating the special ability.

WaitIf you want to delay an action until later in the turn, a creature stack can Wait. Creatures that are issued a Wait command can act after the last creature that did not Wait, and their order is reversed (the creatures with the lower Initiative will act before creatures with higher Initiative). Each creature stack can only Wait one time per turn.

DefendIf a creature stack uses the Defend command, it skips its normal action and gains a +15 Might and +15 Magic bonus to its defenses. This bonus stays active until the creature stack takes its next action.Hero ActionsYour hero can attack once per turn in combat, before the action of any of your creature stacks. If you choose to perform an ability from your hero’s Spellbook, that action replaces the normal Heroic Strike action (damage based off Might), but they are generally much more powerful if you have the mana to use them. If you choose to use your Faction Ability, you can still perform a Heroic Strike or use an ability from the hero’s Spellbook. At a full gauge, the Faction Ability is more powerful than a partially filled gauge, though you can still use the Faction Ability if it’s not full. If you have the time, however, it’s better to wait a few turns for the Faction Ability to reach full gauge before activating it. Your creatures still get their actions each turn regardless of what your hero does.Combat DamageWhen an attack occurs, all creatures in the stack strike simultaneously. The damage dealt adjusts based on the attacker’s Might Damage (or Magic Damage) versus the target’s Might Resistance (or Magic Resistance). A hero’s Might Attack (or Magic Attack) increases the creature stack’s Might Damage (or Magic Damage). Artifacts and Abilities can modify these values, as well as other factors such as cover.Combat HealingWhen you use a healing ability on a creature stack, the first creature is healed, and if there is still some healing power left, one slain creature is resurrected, and so on. The total amount of creatures resurrected cannot exceed the creature stack’s original number. No matter how much damage is on a stack at the end of combat, all creatures are fully restored to their full hit points, though slain creatures are removed permanently from your army.Melee AttacksIf you can reach an enemy creature, you can attack it in the same turn. However, think about your facing before you strike. Do you want to end your turn next to a friendly creature stack to provide additional defense, or maybe you want to plug up a chokepoint between two obstacles to slow enemy movement? Should you swing around behind it so that you have the flexibility to move farther across the battlefield next turn to attack another enemy creature? Is it better to engage an enemy with ranged abilities to prevent their stronger attacks? You should always thinks ahead on your creature stack positioning, especially for creatures that have limited mobility.Ranged AttacksCreatures with ranged attacks have unlimited ammo or mana, so you never have to worry about running out of artillery. Generally, if a non-magic attacker shoots at a target on your half of the combat map you inflict full damage, and if a non-magic attacker shoots at a target on the far half of the combat map you inflict half damage (marked by a broken arrow symbol). Magic attacks, however, inflict full damage anywhere on the map. If an enemy creature stack moves adjacent to a ranged attacker, it cannot use its ranged attack and will be forced to use its melee attack. The majority of ranged creatures have melee attacks, though most have a melee penalty that decreases their damage output by half. Presented with a situation where your ranged creature is pinned down by an enemy melee creature, you’ll have to judge whether it’s best to move away (effectively skipping an attack) to position for a ranged strike the following turn or deal reduced melee damage in the hopes of removing the melee threat quicker.On the BattlefieldRetaliationMost creatures have the ability to retaliate, or counterattack, once per turn. This triggers the first time the creature is dealt melee damage. It’s important to remember retaliation as both an attacker or defender. On offense, you usually don’t want to all-out attack a superior creature stack for fear that its retaliation will significantly damage your attacker. Sometimes the small amount of damage you would deal is best avoided if it means saving a lot of creatures from retaliation. On defense, you want to use your creature stacks’ retaliation to maximum effect, which sometimes means positioning your defenders next to stronger enemies to force counterattacks. Abilities such as Counterstrike and Stand Your Ground improve your creatures’ retaliation power.CooldownCertain abilities require a hero or creature stack to wait a certain amount of turns to use the ability again (known as a “cooldown” value). Cooldown abilities don’t carry over from combat to combat, but reset after each battle. Remember to stagger your powerful abilities as best you can so one is always available and you don’t have them all unavailable on a crucial combat turn.ChargesCharges are different from cooldowns: a charge equals how many times an ability can be used during a certain time period. If the charge type is “combat,” for example, and an ability had two charges, you could use that ability twice during the combat, then it would reset after combat, and you could use the ability twice more in the next combat. If the charge type, however, is “game,” and you had one charge, you could use it once and once only in the entire game.LuckLuck increases the change of a creature stack dealing extra damage. Each point of luck adds +1 percent to the chance of dealing +50 percent damage on an attack. A hero’s Destiny score also increases the Luck modifier. It’s also possible to gain “bad luck,” such as visiting a specific building that reduces Destiny. Bad luck adds +1 percent chance of a creature stack dealing -50 percent damage on an attack.MoraleMorale can be key in any battle: good Morale may gain you an extra attack, while poor Morale may forfeit an attack. Morale can be determined by first adding the creature stack’s Morale score with the hero’s Leadership attribute. Next, consider any special cases, such as buildings affecting Morale or innate creature abilities altering Morale (Undead, for example, are not affected by Morale). Finally, check the creature stacks relationship within the army. If all stacks are from the same faction, everyone is happy and there’s no change. If there are two different allied factions within the army, there is some discontent and Morale takes a -5 penalty. If there are three or more allied factions, or any enemy factions in the same army, the army is in disarray and takes a -10 Morale penalty. Should a faction die within your army and the relationship suddenly alter, the new effects immediately come into play. After the calculations, each point of Morale adds +1 percent to the chance of gaining an extra attack for the turn. If Morale goes bad, each negative Morale adds +1 percent to the change of losing the creature stack’s action for the turn.

Army Allies & Enemies Haven Sanctuary Neutrals Necropolis Inferno StrongholdHaven - Ally Ally Enemy Enemy EnemySanctuary Ally - Ally Enemy Enemy EnemyNeutrals Ally Ally - Ally Ally AllyNecropolis Enemy Enemy Ally - Ally AllyInferno Enemy Enemy Ally Ally - AllyStronghold Enemy Enemy Ally Ally Ally -

If a creature stack with a successful Morale check chooses to Defend or Wait on its first action, it forgoes any movement or attack on its second action. It may, however, choose to Defend for its second action.CoverObstacles give a 50 percent Defense bonus to creatures that take advantage of defensive positioning. If an obstacle prevents line of sight on a ranged attacker’s target, the defensive bonus applies. Abilities that do not deal damage, such as a Slow spell, are not affected by cover and trigger for their full effect. Melee creatures that can’t reach an intended target in a single turn should always seek out cover for potential defense, so long as they can reach the same target the following turn.Siege CombatTo ultimately take over a defended town, you must perform a successful siege. Depending on the town’s fortification level (bought as building upgrades), the siege becomes more difficult:

Starting Town: No Special Defenses, Normal Combat MapBasic Fortification: WallsAdvanced Fortification: Walls, Central Tower, MoatSuperior Fortification: Walls, Central Tower, Moat, Guard Towers

WallsWalls protect a town with four defensive sections and a central gate. Only creatures with flying, teleporting, or other special movement options (such as a ghosts immaterial form, which allows it to pass through walls) can bypass the wall sections. If line of sight is blocked by a wall, attackers suffer a -50 percent damage, on top of the normal reduced range penalties. However, ranged defenders inside the walls do not suffer this siege penalty. As you might imagine, each level of fortification increases the walls’ strength. Walls cannot be damaged by ranged attacks; only melee attacks, special creature abilities, or catapults.

Central GateThe gate functions like a wall, except it allows defending creatures to exit and attack enemy creatures outside the walls. Be careful, though, to make sure defending creatures move past the gate and don’t stand (or die) on the gate squares. The gates will close automatically behind defending creatures and prevent normal attackers from entering, but only if the gate squares remain clear.

MoatThe moat in front of the walls stops enemy movement when entered and triggers a special ability based on the defending town’s faction:• Haven: Enemy creature movement standing in it decreased.• Necropolis: Minor damage and debuff for one turn that reduced Might and Magic resistance.• Inferno: Moderate damage as long as creature stack remains in the moat.• Stronghold: Heavy damage, but it is not continuous while in that square.• Sanctuary: Initiative debuff for the creature stack’s next turn (stays in effect while in moat).

CatapultEach faction has a catapult that fires ranged shots at the enemy fortress at the beginning of each siege turn. Normally, unless you have a special ability to affect the catapult, it fires at a random wall section each turn. The catapult will not attack the central tower until all the walls, side towers, and central gate has been destroyed. The catapult has a toughness score like obstacles, not hit points, but it can be attacked and destroyed by an enemy creature stack. Effect that do not deal damage, however, have no affect on a catapult.

Central TowerIf a town has built its Advanced Fortification or Superior Fortification, it will have a central tower. One creature stack can be garrisoned inside the central tower, and the creature stack gains a small bonus to ranged damage, cannot be damaged in melee, and, more important, does not suffer from the normal ranged penalty for distant targets. Enemy creatures that manage to penetrate the walls and attack the base of the central tower cannot be attacked by the creature stack garrisoning the tower. As long as all four exit squares at the base of the central tower are not blocked, defending creature stacks can enter and exit the tower.

Guard TowersAt Superior Fortification, guard towers appear on the walls and fire arrows at attacking enemies and the catapult. These guard towers act first in the turn and can chip away at exterior forces trying to break through the walls. They can only be damaged by melee attacks once the adjacent wall is destroyed, or by creatures with special abilities that can target them.Defending a TownWhen you first enter a town, your army sits in the lower, visiting row. If you drag your hero up to the top row, the garrison row, the hero’s army follows and your force will now be inside the town walls for a proper defense. Before an enemy attacks, always check your creature pool to see how many new creatures you can recruit for your army to suddenly double or triple its size. Just be careful that you don’t leave yourself vulnerable somewhere else. If you have two heroes and/or armies guarding the two, always put the weaker force in the visiting slot and the stronger force in the garrison slot. The garrison slot fights in siege combat, which provides added defense to your stronger force, and the weaker force will engage the enemy first and remove any combat bonuses it may have gained for its next battle (such as Rally Flag).Game Effects

Name Effect Type Effect Description Caused By…Blind Negative Target creatures cannot move, attack or use any active ability (but they can defend and retaliate). Caused by Light MagicChilled Negative Target creatures suffer from extreme cold, which translates into an Initiative / Movement debuff, and an increased vulnerability to Fire damage. Caused by Ice (Water) damage abilities.Dazed Negative Target creatures are shocked and suffer from an Initiative / Movement debuff. Caused by Lightning (Air) damage abilities, the Earthquake Earth spell, etc.Diseased Negative Target suffers from a general Debuff. Caused by some Earth abilities.Frozen Negative Target creatures are completely frozen and cannot move, attack or use any active ability (but they can defend and retaliate), additionally, they are greatly vulnerable to Fire damage. Caused by Ice (Water) damage abilities.Immolated Negative Target suffers from Damage Over Time. Caused by some Fire abilities.Petrified Negative Target creatures turn to stone and cannot do anything, but also become invulnerable until the effect ends or is dispelled. Caused by Earth magic.Poisoned Negative Target suffers from Damage Over Time. Caused by some Earth abilities.Possessed Negative Target creature is under the control of the enemy player. Caused by some Dark abilities.Soaked Negative Target creatures are drenched by water, which makes them more vulnerable to Lightning (Air) damage. Caused by several Water abilitiesStunned Negative Target creatures are “rooted” and cannot move, attack or use any active ability (but they can defend and retaliate). Caused by various abilities.Enraged Positive Target creature benefits from a Might Damage buff.
Resilient Positive Target creature benefits from a Might Defense buff. Exalted Positive Target creature benefits from a Magic Damage buff.
Warded Positive Target creature benefits from a Magic Defense buff. Alert Positive Target creature benefits from an Initiative buff.
Swift Positive Target creature benefits from a Movement buff.
Resolute Positive Target creature benefits from a Morale buff.
Lucky Positive Target creature benefits from a Luck buff.
Tough Positive Target creature benefits from a Health buff.

ProloguePROLOGUE: CHAPTER 1: Griffin BanePrologue: Chapter 1: Week 1Might and Magic Heroes VI’s campaign mode begins with the Prologue. You can’t play any of the other Campaigns until you guide Duke Slava to victory in two chapters that are meant to teach you the game’s basics.

Unlike most other Campaign maps, Slava starts without a town. After speaking with his Aunt Sveltana about demons in the area, she leaves him outside the walls of an inactive tower in the far northwest corner of the map. As Slava, you have 5 wood, 5 ore, and 5,000 gold at your disposal, but nothing to spend it on yet. Hold all the resources you gain in the early going until you can spend them on buildings and creatures later. In the small cul-de-sac, you can only proceed in one direction: to the south and straight into the claws of your first enemy encounter.

Engage the Timber Wolves blocking your path to the south. Pay close attention to tutorial tips throughout combat and follow the instructions on how best to vanquish the wolves. Between your Crossbowmen and Sentinels, the beasts shouldn’t even make it halfway across the map before they fall. If you play it right, you may lose only one or two Sentinels by the end of the encounter.

Tutorial tips pop up throughout the Prologue. They not only teach you how to play the game, but they give you good strategy tips from time to time. Heed these reminders until you’ve mastered adventuring with your hero and his army.

Fortunately, this wolf pack is one of two in the area and destroying them is an active objective for the “Demon Sightings” primary quest. Complete all the objectives in the quest and you gain 1,000 gold and 3 wood.

Continue south and pick up the ore sitting in the path. You’ve earned your first resource, one of four—wood, ore, crystals, gold—that you need on each map to successfully build up your kingdom. A few spaces beyond the ore pile, pick up your first artifact: the Four Leaf Clover, which grants +4 Destiny to your hero. Artifacts fit in your various inventory slots—the Four Leaf Clover, for example, fits in one of our pocket slots—and artifacts increase certain attributes of your heroes and their armies, or instill extra bonuses, such as additional movement points each turn or scouting powers to better clear up the fog of war around you.

Look for the Weaponsmith building to the west as you descend into the next open area. The Weaponsmith gives your hero +1 Might Power permanently, but you can only visit it once per hero. (However, if you hire another hero later on, that hero can visit the Weaponsmith and gain the bonus, too.) Buildings on the adventure map offer various rewards for a visit, including increasing hero or creature attributes and frequently bestowing combat benefits.

If you head west of the Weaponsmith you’ll discover a treasure chest. When you open any chest, you’ll be given a choice: claim gold pieces for your town coffer to help build up your kingdom, or claim experience for your hero to raise his individual power level. Since we’re early in the game, claim the gold pieces to help support your town (once you secure it). When you feel you have enough gold to buy your crucial buildings and creatures, you can start collecting experience instead.

Before you head out of the area on the eastern path, stop by the campfire. Each campfire bestows random resources, and who doesn’t want free resources? To the right on the path out, you’ll also find a gold pile to bulk up your stockpile.

Attack the second wolf pack at the top of the eastern path. Hero abilities contribute a little more to this fight, and the moves will go down with very few, if any, casualties on your end. With the second wolf pack dead, you complete the first objective in the “Demon Sightings” quest and get a second objective: Find the Priestess. Keep that in mind for the road ahead. Grab the wood and gold on the path after the wolves.

As the path loops around to the south, a sawmill (wood mine) appears in front of the cliff face. Mines are the most important aspect of resource gathering: Each day they generate resources of the appropriate type for your kingdom. Sawmills provide 2 wood a day, ore pits generate 2 ore per day, crystal mines give you 1 crystal per day, and the gold mine deposits 1,000 gold per day in your kingdom coffers. Don’t forget the wood pile outside the sawmill as you leave.

Travel south on the road a few spaces and the fog will clear to reveal the Priestess group that you’re looking for on your quest. Before you gallop up to the friendly Priestesses, examine the grass on the eastern side of the path. You’ll spot an old skeleton if you look closely; you can easily move right by it if you go too fast. Like campfires, old skeletons offer up random resources to help your cause.

Speak with the Sisters and they will join your army, along with more Sentinels and Crossbowmen. That completes the second objective in your “Demon Sightings” quest, and it activates the third objective: Reach the nearby village. It’s time to plow ahead again.

After the Priestesses, you spy a band of orcs besieged by Inferno demons. This battle increases the number of forces to three creature stacks on each side and, naturally, actions become more complicated. Your Crossbowmen should be able to make quick work of the enemy Succubi, while your Sentinels stave off the melee creatures. Keep your Sisters back to heal any wounded and keep the dead to a minimum.

At battle’s end, you find out that you’ve come to the rescue of Kraal, Warchief of the Whitespear Clan, who will become your fiercest ally. Later, the orcs will join your army, but for now you must continue on with just your Haven forces.

Pleasant Valley, your first town, slowly comes into view out of the fog. It will serve as your home on the map, once you’ve eliminated the demons terrorizing its citizens. This will be a tougher fight, and you will likely lose an unhealthy amount of creatures in the battle, but anything short of victory is unacceptable–you must have the town to continue! When you win the battle, you liberate the town and complete the third and fourth objectives in the “Demon Sightings” quest. Your kingdom gains 1,000 gold and 3 wood for the reward, which is perfect timing as you’ll want to spend it on the town’s new buildings and upgrades.

Now a new primary quest pops up: “Infernal Hero.” Its two objectives include defeating the nearby Inferno hero and capturing the four mines located in the valley. Completing the quest gives you 500 experience.

Enter the village and examine your starter town. It’s a simplified version of a normal town, just to teach you how to slowly build up a kingdom. In fact, only the Barracks is accessible at this point. Spend the 1,000 gold and 4 ore to build the Barracks. Remember to navigate to the creature recruitment panel (gold bag icon) to hire your six new Sentinels and add them to your army. At the start of each new week, the Barracks (and any other creature-recruitment building or upgrade) will add creatures to your creature pool, where you can recruit them from any town that has that creature’s associated structure.

With the week winding down, it’s time for some more adventuring. Exit the town and head south to the Mother Earth Shrine, which gives all your creatures +10% health for the next combat. Near the upcoming intersection, you’ll spot another neutral army with a Trivial threat level. You should dispatch them with ease and reap the rewards they guard: some more wood and the Cape of Protection (+2 Magic Defense).

Continue to the Rally Flag in the middle of the intersection and gain the +5 Leadership and +5 Destiny (which last until the next battle), and +5 movement points. Attack the neutral army guarding the gold mine to the northeast. It’s a relatively easy battle if you haven’t taken heavy losses from early fights. Once you have the gold mine, your kingdom earns an extra 1,000 gold each day. You’ve also managed to capture one of the four mines you need to fulfill the “Inferno Hero” quest objective.

Around this time, you should see Slava reach Level 2. Your attributes will increase slightly, and you gain one ability point to spend on your Ability Tree. In this chapter of the Prologue, Slava only has access to the Warcries school of Might abilities. Spend it on any of the three available Rank 1 abilities. You start with Stand Your Ground, which proves very useful for surrounded Sentinels or any of your other stacks needing sudden defense. To balance out your defense with some offense, you may want to take Flawless Assault, which allows a target stack to inflict maximum damage for two turns.

Leave the gold mine and visit the campfire just off the road to the south. Now cut all the way across to the west. Stop by the Stables along the path to gain extra movement points, scoop up the extra ore between the Stables and the Armorsmith (+1 Might Defense once per hero). Your seventh day will end somewhere in this vicinity. With all the hard work you’ve put in, the second week will be a lot more rewarding.Prologue: Chapter 1: Week 2Creatures are ready! At the start of each week, you should consider steering your army back to your town to pick up new recruits, unless you want them to stay in town for defense or you plan to wait and pick them up on a future convenient day.

After visiting the Armorsmith, travel west and lay claim to the vacant ore pit on the path to the north. The sawmill has been cranking away on wood for the past few days, and now you can get your ore production level up. Snatch up the ore outside the pit, too. You now have two of the four mines you need in the valley.

You can recruit your first orcs to the west where the path ends at the broken bridge. Accept the orcs into your army and collect the wood and the gold or experience from the treasure chest nearby. Now that you’ve explored the eastern and western valley lands, it’s time to head to the southern part of the valley.

First, though, you have Sentinels waiting for you back in town. Retrace your steps back to Pleasant Valley and enter the town to recruit your new allies. Buy the Sentinels and don’t forget to add them to your exiting army or they’ll stay behind defending the town in the garrison row.

Head due south from Pleasant Valley, and be sure to stop at the Mother Earth Shrine and the Rally Flag along the way to improve your bonuses for the next combat. Kraal’s orc Maulers stand guard along the road, and another set of allies doubles your orc creature stack. You now have a serious melee threat in combat.

A few spaces beyond the orcs lies another treasure chest. You have probably accumulated more than enough gold by this point, so accept the experience option and start working on building up Slava’s personal attributes and abilities. You may actually level up here, and you can spend your ability point Heroism to increase a stack’s Morale, Luck, and Damage (Might) for three combat turns.

You meet your first enemy hero in the southern valley. Don’t rush toward the enemy hero until you’ve checked her out and made sure that her threat level isn’t Severe or Deadly. If it is, retreat and wait until next week when you’ve had a chance to recruit more creatures and strengthen your army.Enter the southern valley and watch out for the enemy hero Daeva to the southwest. If you want to take one of the crystal mines before meeting up with Daeva, attack the enemies guarding the crystal mine to the east (and stay shielded from the enemy hero temporarily with the central outcropping blocking line of sight). You can also attempt to duck in and snatch the western crystal mine quickly, though Daeva will spot you and rush up at the first opportunity she gets.

The battle against Daeva will be a bloodbath. It’s your toughest challenge yet, with Daeva using her hero abilities against your army and a more formidable lineup of Inferno creatures against you. Despite your Sisters’ best efforts, there will be heavy casualties, but it’s all worth it if you defeat your first enemy hero. Your orcs will deal the most damage, so concentrate your healing on them if they get injured. Use your Sentinels to slow down the approaching enemy melee creatures, and have your Crossbowmen pick off any melee creature that threatens to engage them in melee or the enemy Succubi. If you have no big worries, always damage an enemy creature stack that hasn’t attacked yet during the turn, to reduce the amount of damage it can deal. So long as you didn’t enter the battle as severe underdogs, a few bloody turns should hand you a victory.Be sure to convert both crystal mines to your kingdom. This completes the “Infernal Hero” quest and rewards you with 500 experience.

In the southern valley, you also receive the secondary quest “The Horn.” If you can find the War Horn of Legion artifact (lost on the underground map), you get to keep it and use its abilities for your own army.

Daeva’s death opens up the entrance into the underground lair next to the western crystal mine. Slava and Kraal puzzle out that Toghrul, the leader of the demons, must have plans to defile the Griffins’ family mausoleum. At this time you’ll be given two primary quests: “Demon Blood,” which entails defeating Toghrul and converting the Mausoleum to a Haven structure, and “Journey through the Dark,” which asks you to reach the other side of the tunnels.

Before you leave the area, visit the nearby campfire and collect the Ring of Conjuring (+1 Magic Power, +20 Mana) a few more spaces to the south. At the southern tip, seek out the Stone of Enlightenment for 2,500 hero experience and another gold pile hidden off to the southeast.Prologue: Chapter 1: Week 3As a new week begins, you have a choice to make: press on into the underground section or return to your town for more creatures. Depending on how wounded you are after the battle with Daeva, you can foray into the underground for a little while (though you’ll never make it all the way through without reinforcements) or head straight back up to town.

Most will want to return to town first. Gallop north to Pleasant Valley and recruit as many Sentinels as you have ready to join. Remember to visit the Mother Earth Shrine and Rally Flag before heading south again.

Enter the underground entrance in the southern valley and begin to explore the dark caverns. North leads to the main encounters; however, you’ll miss completing “The Horn” quest if you don’t explore the south dead-end to the left of the entrance. Fight the Ghoul guards to retrieve the War Horn of the Legion and complete the quest. You gain the Horn with its +1 Leadership and the ability to increase elite creature production by two per week.

A few strides beyond the entrance as you travel north, Toghrul pays you a visit. We learn that Pavel Griffin took everything from Toghrul in the earlier wars–the orc’s family, tribe, home–and now he has sacrificed his very soul to become a demon and plague Slava and company as the “Griffin’s Bane.” Toghrul quickly vanishes after the brief confrontation; you’ll have to reach the surface on the far side of the tunnels to meet up with him again for the final battle.

Visit the Blind Maiden statue a short distance up the passage and gain +5 Destiny for the next battle. Look for a Necropolis neutral army ahead in the fog. You can bypass them if you’re worried about army attrition; however, if you defeat them, you gain the Sandals of the Swift Journey, which gives you +2 land movement each turn. Increasing the distance your hero can travel each turn gives you more options each day, and allows you to chase down enemy heroes (or flee) when the opportunity arises.Prologue: Chapter 1: Week 4As another week begins, you’ll likely be making your way deeper into the tunnels. At any point, if your army dwindles to the point where neutral armies are constantly appearing as Moderate or higher on the threat level, return to Pleasant Valley for more allies. They will keep accumulating back home, and even though it will take several days to resupply and return to your previous location, it’s worth having a bigger army to deal with the constant threats.

Assuming you stay or resupply and return, take the north passage, which then forks to the east and northwest. A Pyramid lies hidden in the eastern gloom, and you want to enter the Pyramid as long as the threat is Moderate or lower. It’s a tough battle with Necropolis foes; however, if you win, your army gains 30 Marksmen, which should more than make up for the creatures lost freeing them.

After the Pyramid, take the northwest fork. Several upcoming encounters are optional, but you don’t want to skip the treasure chest along the eastern wall. Choose experience for Slava, because by this time you have more gold than you can spend. If you choose to attack all the neutrals, you can gain the Winterwind Peace Circlet (Diplomacy increase by 10%), more experience, and more gold.

Next you meet up with Duke Ishtvan, the spirit of one of Slava’s ancestors who has been upset by the unrest at the family mausoleum. After hearing Ishtvan’s words of condemnation, grab experience from the nearby treasure chest and head south into the exit area.

Another neutral army guards the subterranean gate leading back up to the surface. Slay the enemies and return topside when you’re ready for the final encounter against Toghrul. Another Weaponsmith building lies to the south; to better improve Slava before the final battle, it’s best

Scout Toghrul’s army at the Mausoleum and gauge whether you can beat it yet. If not, return home and resupply until you have enough creature stacks to overcome Toghrul’s defense. When you’re ready, dash out from the subterranean gate and touch the Rally Flag as you advance on the fortress.

Welcome to your first siege! Toghrul holds the Mausoleum, and you must first destroy all his creatures in order to liberate the Mausoleum and convert it back to a Haven sanctuary.

Unlike normal combats, your turns begin with a catapult attack on a random wall section. You don’t want to advance your melee creatures up to the wall until a wall section has crumbled and you can get inside to attack, or until an enemy leaves the protection of the walls and sets foot on the exterior battlefield. Healers should protect themselves and ranged allies, who have the greatest impact on a battle whose sides have been divided by a protective wall.

Siege combat generally comes down to which side holds the superior ranged firepower. With melee creatures stuck on opposite sides of the wall, unless the defender opens the central gate to send out melee creatures, range combatants hold the key to victory.

Use Slava’s Flawless Assault on the Marksmen and concentrate your ranged attacks on the opposing ranged defenders. If you can’t get in, you can eliminate the ranged attacks and force the enemy outside the protective walls. When an enemy melee stack eventually exits through the central gate (or a hole in the wall from your catapult), send your orcs and Sentinels at it. They should be more than a match for the enemy stack, unless more than one enemy exits simultaneously. If there’s any risk that a melee creature stack will reach your Crossbowmen or Marksmen, focus all your attacks on the offender, then return to the regular assault plan.

Eventually, the siege will turn in your favor. Since this is the final battle for chapter 1, use whatever hero abilities you want to reduce the enemy forces quicker. When the last Inferno foe falls, victory is yours! Congratulations on defeating the demon Toghrul and his demon horde.

After the battle, convert the Mausoleum into a Haven building. Collect your 1,000 experience and +2 Might Power from the “Demon Blood” quest reward. If you’ve leveled up, spend your new ability points on another Warcries ability, and if you’ve reached Level 5, you can buy Rank 2 abilities, such as Mass Heroism or Warlord’s Command (as long as you have already purchased the prerequisite Rank 1 ability Rush!).

Slava asks Kraal to stay on the land, rather than attempt the harsh and distant journey back to his homeland. Kraal accepts and promises they will hunt together. When Slava’s Aunt Sveltana arrives, she’s less than pleased at the orc invitation; however, she abides by the young duke’s decision. As a final reward, Sveltana bestows upon Slava the Sword of the Griffin, a Dynasty Weapon with Might Affinity and +3 Leadership. The Dynasty Weapon levels up along with the person it is equipped for, and gives extra abilities at the next four levels.PROLOGUE: CHAPTER 2: The Emperor’s WillPrologue: Chapter 2: Week 1In the second chapter of the Prologue, “The Emperor’s Will,” Slava must choose to adhere to the emperor’s decree to rid the land of the orcs (and the emperor’s men aren’t going to ask nicely) or defy the emperor and protect the orcs. As he has befriended Kraal and his kind, there really isn’t any choice in the matter: Slava will defend the orcs and make the cruel Duke Gerhart pay in the process. Unfortunately, he may have alienated his children’s nursemaid and tutor, Valeska, with his “disloyal” act.

As Slava, you begin with a base town immediately at your disposal. It’s only a “starter town,” with the Village Hall and a few Rank 1 buildings available: Garrison (you already start with the Barracks active and can purchase the upgrade), Loophole Tower, Priory, and Marketplace. Since you have more Sentinels than Crossbowmen at the start, why not upgrade the Barracks to the Garrison and turn those Sentinels into more powerful Praetorians?

Two primary quests pop up as you prepare to leave: “Expand Your Territory” and “Wolves at the Barndoor.” For the first, you must expand your territory by capturing a sawmill, ore pit, and crystal mine. Your reward is five of each resource. For the second quest, you must eliminate the Crossbowmen at the nearby ore pit.

You never have a big enough army; to increase your forces right out of the gates, look to the northwest corner for a friendly band of Sentinels. Ride up there to recruit them, plus cash in on some ore, wood, gold, and a treasure chest. Because it’s early in the map, it’s probably best to choose gold as the treasure chest reward, at least until you can fund anything your town can produce with some left over for unexpected emergencies.

Kraal makes an appearance to let you know that Gerhart is busy burning orc villages. After you fortify the town a bit, you will hook up with Kraal’s orcs to go after Duke Gerhart.If you upgraded to the Garrison, stop back in town as you pass with your new Sentinels. A quick stop at the town’s Recruitment & Training panel transforms them into Praetorians with a little gold.

Speaking of the town, stop back at the Village Hall on day two. Add another creature building to the town: most likely the Priory if you built the Garrison earlier. Buy the Sisters (or other creatures) and continue on your way.

Gallop southeast to the ore pit. Enemy Crossbowmen guard the place, and it’s up to you to take down the Wolf’s men. If you have healing and upgrade melee attackers, it won’t be long before all the Crossbowmen are wiped out, probably with little to no casualties on your end.

On days three and four, scour the area for free resources. A neutral Ghoul army guards a campfire and a Four Leaf Clover. On day five, continue south and gain the resources behind the Griffin army. Don’t forget to build the Loophole Tower back in town so that you can recruit additional Crossbowmen.

Spend the rest of the week gathering whatever other resources remain. As long as your creature count hasn’t dropped too low, you should easily clean up all the neutral armies in the area and collect all available resources.

Unfortunately, you can’t leave through the south gate until you’ve built the Basic Fortification in the second week.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 2More quest objectives appear at the beginning of the second week. For the “Wolves at the Barndoor” quest, a new objective asks you to capture the enemy fort, which has appeared on your mini-map to the far south. “Improve the Mausoleum” wants you to build the first level of fortifications, which you can do if you have the resources to build the Basic Fortification structure. If you can find a way to reach Ishtvan’s Tomb and defeat the spirits there, you will fulfill the objectives for “A Restless Griffin” and earn the Purse of Endless Gold (+250 gold per day).

You’re going to come up short on resources to build everything that you want. How do you overcome the resource shortage? Easy. Build the Marketplace. Yes, it costs you 2 wood and 2 ore, plus 2,000 gold, to build, but once you have it in place, you can buy any resource you need so long as you have enough gold. On day two, you can spend gold to grab your missing resources and build your Basic Fortification. After the walls go up around your town, the south gates open and you can venture out into uncharted territory.

As you head south, you’ll spy your first mine: a sawmill off the path to the west. Notice the red flag flying over the sawmill? That signifies that the red player (in this case, The Wolf, Duke Gerhart) controls the sawmill. You won’t gain control of the mine by simply stepping inside; you have to seize the nearest control point, and you’ll end up gaining control of multiple buildings at once. Continue gathering resources as you venture forth, and remember to check on your town each day. You should have enough resources to upgrade your Rank 1 Village Hall to the Rank 2 Town Hall.

With the Town Hall, you now have access to Rank 2 buildings, such as Haven’s unique buildings. Choose one of the unique buildings–say, the Angel Watch, which helps fill your Faction Ability each combat–and start saving to buy the building. Unique buildings need crystals, as well as the other three common resources, and fortunately for you, there’s a crystal mine to the west near the western gate. Before you overcome the guards and seize the crystal mine to produce a crystal a day, you’ll want to take the fort to the south.

Survey the area and scout all the neutral armies. So long as they recon Trivial or Low threat levels, you’re safe to attack and add to your growing resource total.When you’re ready for a tougher fight, ride south across the shallow waters. Water Elementals block your path; you have to go through them first to reach the far side. If you’ve kept your army strong, you might only lose one or two creatures during the battle.

The southern island has many interesting spots, including a Dragon Gate that will teleport you to a distant map location; however, you want to concentrate on the fort first. You definitely want to capture the fort and control the area before the end of the second week so you can add the newly seized resources to your kingdom in time for creature production. Attack as soon as you can; you will suffer some moderate losses, but that’s all worth it to control a new area.

Speak with the Haven creatures to the east guarding the Stone of Enlightenment. You should be able to convince them to join your cause without a fight, and then access the Stone for 2,500 experience. Grab whatever else you can in the area before the week ends.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 3With a new week, load up on any new allies that are sitting in your creature pool. Your army will expand healthily and neutral armies with a previously Modest or High threat level will probably recon now at Low or Trivial. Engage along your path back up to the crystal mine.

Attack the mine with your now-larger force and gain crystal production. Pick up any other resources you may have missed, and don’t forget to check your hero abilities in case you have any extra points to spend on new abilities.

You may want to journey back north to your original town. Recruit any creatures in the creature pool, and upgrade any Sentinels in your army to Praetorians. You’ve become even stronger still!

Return back to your fort in the south. Since it’s the end of the week at this point, you might as well wait for new creatures to arrive before setting out on your longer travels.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 4Draft more creatures into your army and make final preparations to set forth into the unknown. Ride south to the Dragon Gate and teleport into the midst of a large battle in a new Wolf control area.

The Wolf’s men are attacking Kraal’s orcs. You arrive to intervene, and 20 Maulers join your army. As the battle begins, you’re given a special task: At least one of your new Maulers must survive the battle. Use them wisely!Rather than waste the Sisters’ healing early, hold off until an allied creature stack is moderately wounded or the Maulers take significant wounds. As you might guess, your Guardian Angel Faction Ability works extremely well on the Maulers in this battle.

Let the Maulers and Praetorians do the heavy melee battling; they hit the hardest and the Praetorians will defend adjacent allied creature stacks competently. If you time your Guardian Angel ability and heal well, you should escape with minimal deaths.

In the new area, visit Ulagan, an orc who has a new quest for you: “The Hostage Pup.” Ulagan has taken Gerhart’s nephew and says that he will release the child when the Wolf soldiers leave orc lands. Because Slava has already chosen the Path of Tears, you can only choose to Negotiate (not Attack) at the end of the dialogue. Should you complete the quest, you can return for a Bag of Endless Gold.

Continue attacking targets of opportunity when you see resources or artifacts that you’d like. If you’re not sure, and the neutral army is a Trivial or Low threat level, it’s usually best to attack and gain the experience from battle regardless. As you proceed, you’ll get a new quest to build a Hall of Heroes. Return to your Town Hall and construct the Hall of Heroes. Once it’s built, click on the mug icon and recruit a hero of your choice from the lineup. You now control two heroes! You can either build up a second army and send this new hero to explore in addition to Slava, or you can use the hero to supply Slava with more creatures while he’s out exploring far from home.

If you see an opportunity to recruit neutral armies to your cause, definitely take extra time to do so on your journey. When you come in sight of the Wolf fortress to the west, visit the nearby Rally Flag and examine Karloff’s army and the fort’s garrison. If they’re a Moderate threat level or below, attack now while the going is good. If not, wait for reinforcements next year and then attack.

With superior numbers, you should seize the fort without too much trouble. During the siege, rely on your Crossbowmen to pick off ranged defenders while your Maulers and Praetorians handle any enemies brave enough to step outside the fortress walls. When your catapult punches a hole through the wall, rush in with your ample melee attackers and overwhelm the defenders. Of course, the Sisters should stay back and heal themselves or the Crossbowmen if attacked. Use your Guardian Angel ability to protect the enemy’s favorite target.

With the fort secure, you now control the central part of the map. Ride south to the free resources and battle any neutral armies in the area that look like easy pickings. The Air Elementals guard the Guardian Spaulders, one of three in the Guardian set that grants extra abilities if you find matching pieces. This is part one of the three-part “Stolen Heirlooms” quest.

Be on high alert for enemy heroes! They will be looking to take back the fort at first opportunity, so don’t stray too far from the fortress if you only have one army in the area. If you’ve kept your force strong, you should be able to repel the first attack or two. After that you’ll need reinforcements. When you spot an enemy hero out of the fog, recon the army’s threat level and, if you think you can win, attack immediately so they don’t have a chance to retreat and escape. Martina has the Lion Shield, a second part of the Guardian artifact set, which you’ll gain if you beat her when she comes after your new fort.

After you’ve repelled the Wolf’s latest attack, ride to the northeast and look for the blue-green posts that signify the border to Ishtvan’s Tomb. Defeat the Ghosts guarding the border to enter.

As you enter the area, you receive a new quest objective for “A Restless Griffin” to defeat Ishtvan and put the vengeful spirit to rest. It’s the only way to give your ancestor the peace he deserves.

So long as you can win this battle, don’t worry about the casualties; even heavy losses are acceptable to take another town. After the town defenses fall, your Aunt Sveltana arrives to send Ishtvan’s spirit back to the grave. The Necropolis town is all yours to adapt for your own purposes, or to convert to another Haven town under your control. If you want to complete your “A Restless Griffin” quest, you’ll have to convert the Necropolis town.Generally, it’s better to convert a town and keep your creatures as a unified force. As soon as you recruit other factions into your army, you incur combat penalties; the more factions, the more penalties.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 5Before you leave your new town, recruit whatever new creatures you’d like from the creature pool and gear up your primary army for the final battles ahead. Over the next few days, build up whatever structures you want in the new town to crank up your production levels. You should always build your creature-recruiting structures, your fortifications, and any other special buildings that fit your strategy.

Take the next few days to explore the area around Ishtvan’s old tomb. Overwhelm the easier neutral armies, and be sure to conquer the two gold mines to the north. The first lies just northwest of the town, and the second hides up in the hills to the north.

If you ride way up north above Ishtvan’s Tomb, you’ll discover a hidden mountain pass with a secret Dragon Gate at the end. Unfortunately, a strong group of Liches guards the Dragon Gate. Take a large army up there and dispatch the Liches once you have superior numbers.

Enter the Dragon Gate to teleport to a lone island floating out in the northwest sea. It’s a hidden treasure vault holding a Dragon Claw Amulet (+2 Magic Power), a campfire, the Dwarven Pickaxe (provides 1 ore per day), a gold pile, an ore pile, a Life Drain Scroll, and a treasure chest. Once you’ve collected everything, enter the second Dragon Gate and teleport back to an area just north of Ishtvan’s Tomb.

Recruit a second hero for your new town and leave the defenses in his or her hands. Send your primary army back to the fort area and head north. Almost immediately you’ll uncover an orc building guarded by enemy Sentinels. Defeat the Sentinels and liberate the building to gain more orc recruits to your cause and complete Ulagan’s “The Hostage Pup” quest. Convert the building to Haven and add more allied creatures to your potential creature pool.

Dart over to the west and remove the neutral army guarding a treasure chest, campfire, and Stone of Enlightenment to pick up extra experience and resources. If you feel your army is ready, continue north into the next Wolf-controlled area, or wait another week or two for more creature reinforcements.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 6If you want to resupply, rather than send Slava back to town and waste precious movement points, recruit all your new creatures in your second town and send your new hero out with the creatures to meet up with Slava. Even if they meet halfway, it saves your primary army that many more movement points.

Continue to build up all your structures and upgrades. To take advantage of new artifacts, build the upgrade to the Marketplace, the Artifact Merchant, and examine the six artifacts for purchase. By this point, you should be able to afford anything on the list that looks like it will improve your heroes’ equipment. In a pinch, if you need more gold, you can always sell artifacts back to the merchant.

Strike out for the heart of the Wolf’s kingdom in the north. A short ride and you’ll spot Wolf-controlled buildings and the final fort near the northern border. Tag the Rally Flag for extra support before heading into hostile territory.

You’re in for an unpleasant surprise: the enemy hero guarding the Wolf’s fort is Valeska. She betrays you to the Wolf because she feels you betrayed the Emperor when you sided with the orcs. The battle will be long and hard. Valeska has many healers that will keep the defenders strong for the early turns. Concentrate your ranged attacks on the enemy Crossbowmen so they can’t hurt you as badly. The enemy Sisters may heal the Crossbowmen, but while they are doing that, they can’t do much else. Once their magic runs out, your bolts should start dropping enemies, and your catapult should destroy a wall segment to let your greater melee forces in for victory. At the end of battle, you choose the Path of Tears option to exile Valeska and spare her from execution. This completes the “Wolves at the Barndoor” quest and you gain 2,500 experience.

Slava has a meeting of minds with his orc allies. They decide to take the fight to Duke Gerhart and ride to the west for the final battle. Gather all your creatures into one huge army and attack the Wolf with everything you’ve got to fulfill your new quest, “Slava’s Promise.”Watch out for the Wolf’s counterattacks. He will send out an enemy hero with a moderate-sized army to harass your nearby fortresses. If you don’t have a proper defense in place to repel the attacks, you will lose control areas. Keep your primary army nearby for defense until you’re strong enough to strike quickly against Gerhart.

The neutral army up in the northeast corner past Valeska’s fortress holds the final piece of the Guardian set: the Guardian Breastplate. This relic is a huge advantage for Slava in the coming battle, so make sure you grab it before heading west. Once you have all three Guardian pieces, you complete the “Stolen Heirlooms” quest and earn 1,500 experience.Prologue: Chapter 2: Week 7It’s time for the final confrontation against Duke Gerhart and his remaining Wolf army. There are two entry points into Gerhart’s kingdom: either to the west of Velaska’s fort or northwest of the fort you control in the south. Take the quickest path, based on your position after reinforcements.

Ride north to Duke Gerhart’s home town on the coast. By this point, there should be little resistance left to stop you. It’s now between you and him.

Gerhart will have a fairly balanced army, with slightly more Sentinels and Praetorians than Crossbowmen and Sisters. Enact the same strategy as with Velaska’s siege: concentrate on the Crossbowmen to draw out the Sisters’ healing magic. When enemy defenders emerge from the central gate, pound them with your Sentinels, Praetorians, and Maulers. Save your own healing for your Crossbowmen to keep up the ranged attacks. When the walls fall from the catapult, you can press in and seize the day.

You defeat Gerhart, but the Emperor Liam arrives with his councilor, the Angel Uriel. Speaking on behalf of the Emperor, Uriel chastises the two dukes for fighting each other when a demon invasion is imminent. He insists on peace between the dukes, and to solidify that peace, Uriel suggests that Slava’s daughter, Irina, marry Gerhart. The Emperor approves, much to Slava’s dismay, and the Griffin family is forced reluctantly into a union with their enemy, Duke Gerhart. As the Prologue ends, it starts in motion events that will threaten House Griffin and all its children.NecropolisNecropolis Building & Battle StrategiesCampaign BackgroundAnastasya, youngest daughter of Slava, the Duke of Griffin, loves her father intensely in spite of his reticence to embrace the Holy Church of Elrath as the one and only true faith. Slava’s child is gifted and did not go unnoticed by the church. They sent none other than their most esteemed emissary and tutor, the Celestial Angel Uriel, to oversee her education. Uriel helped her develop her magical powers for the service of Elrath, and Anastasya proved to be a brilliant student. Alas, as often happens when a young woman spends extended time debating principles of theology and magic with a handsome man sporting wings, she fell madly in love.

Anastasya’s story takes a tragic turn. She awakes one morning to the sound of her Great Aunt Svetlana’s ageless voice. Anastasya learns that she had been executed, and that she stabbed Slava with a poisoned knife in the middle of the Griffin throne room in front of a crowd of shocked and bewildered subjects.

Anastasya has been awoken as an undead and after surpassing her initial surprise and shock, she is encouraged by her Aunt Svetlana to embark on an adventure to meet the captured Faceless who are held in the Celestial Prison in order to find out why and how her father was killed.Starting HeroAs a Necropolis player, your primary hero will be Anastasya in Campaign mode. Like her Aunt Sveltana, who brings her back to “life” as one of the undead, Anastasya has an affinity for Magic. Though you certainly can train up Anastasya’s Might abilities, she will be most effective as a Magic-based hero. If you aren’t playing in Campaign mode, you can develop your hero however you like.Faction StrategyNecropolis excels at weakening the enemy army and raising fallen allied creature stacks to maintain army superiority. You may not win quickly with Necropolis, but you will win if your Necromancy keeps you ahead in the creature count.

Unlike most other factions, Necropolis tactics generally involve destroying the enemy damage-dealers first and worrying about support creatures later. While your creatures pound away at the enemy’s heavy hitters, if you can heal or resurrect more damage than the opponent deals, it doesn’t matter how many Necropolis creatures fall in pursuit of killing enemy creatures. Of course, if you have enemy creatures with abilities that negate your strengths, such as enemy healers to match your Necromancy or a Mermaid’s Siren Song thwarting your melee attacks, remove those threats first.

Your Faction Ability, Necromancy, plays into the main strategy. As living creatures and undead fall on the battlefield, the Faction Ability gauge fills and you can trigger it to heal and resurrect allied creatures. Even if you don’t have Ghosts and Spectres to affect healing, Necromancy alone can give you creature superiority in shorter battles.Necropolis AdvantagesHealing and ResurrectionMass DebuffsDenial of Healing and ResurrectionResilient CreaturesUndead Unaffected by MoraleNecromancy and Ghosts provide all the healing and resurrection you’ll likely need, which is a good thing since you don’t have access to Light abilities. The Lamasu and Putrid Lamasu drain living creatures of 5 percent health per turn, while the Archlich debuffs and buffs in the same attack: 20 percent of damage dealt by the Archlich’s Life Drain to an enemy stack is added an allied undead stack. Spectres limit enemy healing and resurrection. In general, your creatures can withstand a bit more damage (even if they can’t hand out as much), and they won’t fail to act because of poor Morale.Necropolis DisadvantagesLow MobilitySlow-Developing Damage OutputLimited Support AbilitiesShambling corpses don’t move too fast; you’ll have to be patient with your attacks and plan several moves in advance to execute your assault correctly. With an overall lower damage output than other factions’ creatures, battles will take longer, and you need to rely on Necromancy and other undead tricks to outmatch your opponent. Your support abilities are very strong, but few–don’t waste them needlessly, and use them at crucial junctures when you can gain maximum benefit.Recommended Magic SchoolsYou are forbidden to use Light abilities as a Necropolis player. Concentrate, however, on the Darkness and Prime magic schools for most of your tactical plans. Unless you see an opening to exploit an enemy along a different path, Darkness and Prime match well with the Necropolis creatures in your army.The Reanimation StrategyNecropolis healers drain the life from enemies to heal and reanimate fallen allies. Your Faction Ability, Necromancy, reinforces this strategy the best, as it can be used over and over during a battle as creatures perish. Combined with the Ghosts’ Wail of the Netherworld ability, Necromancy will out-heal all but the most dedicated Light-based forces. The Archlich’s Life Drain can harm/heal in a pinch, and the Vampire’s and Vampire Lord’s Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Grasp abilities help heal themselves in combat. If your heroes study the Darkness magic school, the Life Drain ability will support your creatures as well.

Choose the Tears Magic reputation path and you can improve the efficiency of Necromancy and raise additional fallen creatures with the No Rest For The Wicked ability. You can also forfeit one stack to spare others with the Sacrifice ability. Though less effective with this strategy, you can choose the Blood Magic reputation path, where Curse of the Netherworld also heals allies.

Two of Necropolis’s unique buildings, the Chamber of Necromancy and the Altar of Eternal Servitude, can devastate enemies over time. The Chamber increases your Necromancy power, which is great for any fight. The Altar allows you to recruit dead creatures for a few days after the battle. Raising creatures with the Altar is much more expensive, but if you have the gold you can set up a cycle where you never lose a creature and your army keeps getting bigger, no matter the opposition and “casualties.”The Resilience StrategyIf you’re looking to concentrate on defense and retaliation, a Tears Might hero will add to your resilience strategy. A Bone Guard’s Bound by Death ability drains departing lifeforce from corpses on the battlefield and instantly grants health regeneration to adjacent undead allies. Its Death is not the End; ability improves upon the resilience strategy: when a stack in the hero’s army is “destroyed,” it drains health from each adjacent enemy stack and instantly revives with health equal to the amount drained.

Necropolis creature abilities can aid with your resilience too. A Skeleton’s Hollow Bones, a Ghoul’s Dead Flesh, Ghost’s Incorporeal, and Spectre’s Immaterial resist Might damage, while a Vampire’s Out of Time ability dodges damage completely. Against Magic damage, you’ll have to be a little more careful, but that’s where you can rely on your healing and resurrection abilities to supplement your resilience strategy.

The unique building, Wasting Grounds, punishes living creature inside a Necropolis control area. With Wasting Grounds active, all enemy living creatures in the control area are dealt Might damage and their maximum health is decreased. Coupled with your tougher creatures, living foes are in trouble.The Crowd Control StrategyA Crowd Control strategy for Necropolis generally works best in combination with one of the other paths to victory. Magic heroes will have access to the Darkness and Prime Magic schools, which gives them access to abilities like Puppet Master, Slow, Terror, and Time Stasis. Aim these abilities at the enemy’s most challenging stacks and either slow them down or temporarily remove them from the battlefield. A mind control ability like Puppet Master can backtrack an enemy stack’s attack plans, as well as deal damage on your behalf.

Skeletal Spearmen’s Webbing Spears create a slowing area in a three-by-three grid around the attack. Any enemy caught in the area loses one movement point for two turns. Even better, the Fate Weaver’s Freezing Web paralyzes all adjacent creatures. Alternating these two abilities can cause havoc to enemy navigation and allow your slower creatures to get into position and land extra blows.

The last of your four unique buildings, Asha’s Hourglass, reduces the land movement of enemy heroes in your control area, and hampers enemy creatures’ combat movement should they choose to attack one of your armies. On top of all that, Asha’s Hourglass decreases enemy creatures’ Initiatives in a siege. First you slow them down, and then you get the drop on your enemy’s creatures, which might make them think twice about heading in your direction.The Attrition StrategyIf you want to whittle your opponents down, a Blood Magic hero can turn to abilities in the Darkness and Earth schools. If some of these damage-over-time abilities don’t do the trick, the class ability Mark of the Necromancer increases Darkness magic efficiency, and Curse of the Netherworld deals massive damage to all living creatures on the combat map and then converts a percentage of the damage dealt into health for allied undead creatures. A Blood Might hero can turn on the For Whom the Bell Tolls ability and outright destroy a core or elite enemy stack after a short period of time.

A host of creature abilities apply to attrition. The Ghoul’s Rage Against the Living increases damage (which is, in effect, the same as reducing health in the target), and the Spectre’s Death Seal cuts healing and resurrection in half for enemy stacks. Perhaps your best attrition creature, the Lamasu, emits an Aura of Putrescence that decreases the health of living creatures adjacent to it, and the Putrid Lamasu’s Contagion spreads that Aura to all nearby stacks. The Putrid Lamasu’s Breath of Vermin deals damage to nearby stacks for several turns and decreases Might Power and Might Defense. Once you can afford to recruit them, your Namtaru can weaken opponents with Venomous Touch (living creatures attacking or being attacked by the Fate Spinner are dealt damage for several turns), Baleful Gaze (creatures attacking the Fate Spinner are dealt damage before their attack), and Dance of Decay (living creatures lose a percentage of their total number and all temporary effects are hastened by one turn).

Of course, the unique building, Wasting Grounds, plays into attrition with its punishing attack against living creatures. Inside your control area, all living creatures suffer Might damage and have their maximum health decreased. Add all your other attrition abilities and the enemy will be falling before you hit them.Necropolis ArtifactsDepending on your initial affinity (Might or Magic) and your eventual reputation (Blood or Tears), your hero will seek out different artifacts that complement your battle tendencies. Some artifacts are great utilities, such as artifacts that increase movement points, or give you resources, or improve all your primary attributes–feel free to equip any of those, no matter your hero’s affinity and reputation. Here’s an example of a Necropolis Magic hero’s ultimate item wish list, though there are tons of possibilities in each inventory slot, even for Magic-based heroes, and if you wanted to go Might, your inventory wish list would look quite different.

Magic Hero Item Wish ListHead: Shadow Comb (+8 Magic Power; Grants the Puppet Master spell)Neck: Amulet of Necromancy (Necromancy points increased by 10 percent)Shoulder: Magister Spaulders (+5 Magic Power; +3 Destiny)Chest: Robe of Sar-Issus (The mana cost of all spells reduced by 50 percent)Cloak: Cloak of Malassa (+10 Magic Defense against Darkness magic)Main Hand: Staff of Sandro (Dynasty Weapon)Off Hand: Codex of the Archmage (+100 Mana; +10 Mana Regeneration)Gauntlet: Bracers of the Archmage (+6 Magic Power; Grants the Implosion spell)Finger: Ring of Haste (+10 Initiative to friendly creatures)Feet: Boots of the Wayfarer (+8 Hero Land Movement)Pocket 1: Saddle of Pathfinding (Hero’s movement not reduced on rough terrain)Pocket 2: Golden Goose (+2,000 gold per day)Pocket 3: War Horn of the Legion (+1 Leadership; Weekly elite creature production increased by two)Building Up Your NecropolisNo matter the skirmish or campaign ahead, your first few days, and certainly your first few weeks, are crucial to a successful development. Before your hero sets hoof to path, consider a very important question: Do you have enough wood and ore in the immediate area to support your first week’s worth of development?

If the answer is yes, then you can afford to upgrade your Village Hall first and buy creature recruitment buildings second. If the answer is no, you should buy one of your creature recruitment buildings first, so you have enough creatures in your army to beat some of the nearby neutral armies and gather extra resources from the rewards.

Generally, you have enough resources at the start of a map to purchase a single building or upgrade. Will it be an upgrade from the Village Hall to the Town Hall, which gives you access to Rank 2 buildings and increases your kingdom’s daily income by 1,000 gold? Or will you purchase the Graveyard (to recruit Skeletons), the Crypt (to recruit Ghouls), or the Ruined Tower (to recruit Ghosts)?

Remember that your goal by week’s end is to have all your Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings in play, plus a few extras: Basic Fortifications, a Marketplace, and a Hall of Heroes. By the end of week two, you want to upgrade your recruitment buildings to Boneyard, Ravenous Crypt, and Haunted Tower, and/or begin to work on your Rank 2 creature recruitment buildings to hire either Liches or Vampires. In the third week, you want to continue with your Rank 2 buildings and adjust to what you’ve learned about your opponents through exploration.Necropolis Town Ranks1. Village Hall: Your first decision is always, “Do I upgrade to a Town Hall to gain more gold each day, or do I start with creature recruitment?” If you think you have enough resources that you can win off weak neutral armies, or free wood and ore you can gather through exploration, always upgrade to the Town Hall. Stockpiling gold can’t hurt, and once you build the Marketplace that gold can be traded for missing resources. If you decide you need help with your army first, think about upgrading your Village Hall as your second purchase after your creature recruitment building. You must upgrade to Town Hall by the end of week one, and it’s better if you’ve reached City Hall in the first seven days. Later, upgrade to your Capitol as soon as you can fit it in your building progression.

1. Ruined Tower: Your three Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings are interchangeable: as long as you buy one of them with your first or second purchase, you should be fine. If you start with a Magic hero, it’s best to start with the Ruined Tower and take advantage of the Ghosts’ Magic-based damage. You really can’t go wrong with the Ghosts’ healing either, so the Ruined Tower is a great choice in any situation. In week two, you should upgrade to the Haunted Tower.

2. Graveyard: Skeletons give you a ranged attack in your army and slow enemy creatures down with their webbed spears once you upgrade to the Boneyard and its Skeletal Spearmen.

3. Crypt: A Might-based hero might want to recruit Ghouls earlier than Skeletons or Ghosts and take advantage of their raw melee power. Otherwise, they serve as faithful foot soldiers in most armies, and the Ravenous Crypt generates even tougher Ghouls to suck up damage.

4. Marketplace: It’s crucial to own the Marketplace, especially if you build up the Village Hall early and have a lot of gold piling up. You never know when you’ll fall short by one or two resources to build; rather than waste a turn, the Marketplace can transform your gold (or other resource surplus) into the missing resources and you’re back in business. Buy this building when you have an extra 2,000 gold and a couple of hunks of wood and ore lying around.

5. Basic Fortification: It’s important to get this built early: not necessarily for defensive reasons–though that could come into play if an enemy surprises you very early in the game–but more for the creature production bonuses the fortification chain offers.

6. Hall of Heroes: You won’t need this building until you’ve captured another enemy town and can hire a second hero, or if your first hero has died and you need a quick resurrection. However, it only costs 2,000 gold to construct, so slip it in on a day when you have extra gold but may be missing other resources to build a better structure.

7. Sepulcher: The Sepulcher and Vampire Mansion are interchangeable: purchase the Sepulcher first if you have a Magic hero, or purchase the Vampire Mansion first if you have a Might hero. The Sepulcher produces Lichs, and the Mausoleum recruits the more powerful Archliches, which will be the key offensive weapons in a Magic-fueled army.

8. Vampire Mansion: In a Might-based army, Vampires can cut through an enemy army and serve as a higher quality melee creature from your Ghouls. Throw your resources toward this building in week two if you can.

9. Advanced Fortification: It’s important to reach this upgrade in week two to boost your creature production before the end of the week. The moat and enhanced wall defenses are a bonus.

10. Basic Town Portal: This building allows you to teleport your hero and army to another town you control. Not necessary until you own another town, but once you do, this is crucial to your defenses. Build this immediately after your first successful siege so that you can move around the map quickly with your main army and defend conquered towns.

11. Superior Fortification: Build this, the first of your Rank 3 buildings/upgrades, as soon as you have the extra funds. Sure, it adds guard towers and stronger walls to your defenses, but it’s really the bonus to creature production that you’re looking to capitalize on week after week.

12. Chamber of Necromancy or Wasting Grounds: Your first unique building construction will depend on your play strategy. Most of the time, you want the Chamber of Necromancy to increase your Faction Ability. However, if you want a little extra defense as your enemies wander into your control area, choose the Wasting Grounds.

13. Altar of Eternal Servitude, or Asha’s Hourglass: Buy the second of your unique buildings as soon as you have the resources (usually you’re waiting on crystal production at this point). The Altar follows the Chamber, and Asha’s Hourglass follows the Wasting Grounds.

14. Advanced Town Portal: Purchase this upgrade whenever you have the necessary resources and aren’t desperate for another building. You can usually wait till mid to late game before getting it, but if you feel a threat coming, upgrade your towns immediately so your main army can teleport back to defend in a single day.

15. Spider Temple: As soon as you have enough resources to purchase the Spider Temple, you should. The Namtaru is your strongest creature, and the earlier you get them into production, the harder it will be for enemy armies to compete with you. Upgrade to the Spider Sanctum for even nastier creatures.

16. Pestilent Tomb: It’s not that you don’t want to recruit Lamasu, it’s just that there are so many other good choices that it might take you a while to get around to it. However, if you play the Necropolis attrition strategy, or you want more utility on the battlefield, move the Pestilent Tomb (and its upgrade, the Pestilent Catacomb) much higher in the building progression.

17. Hall of the Immortals: You don’t really need this upgrade. Don’t worry about it at all unless you have tons of extra resources, and then it’s good for some free resurrections and a bonus to abilities if one of your heroes dies.

18. Asha’s Undying Resolve: This one really isn’t the lowest priority in your building progression. It’s actually the highest priority as soon as it becomes available, which, unfortunately, will probably be late game or not at all. With such a boon to gold and creature production, you’ll be happy to spend the massive resources to build the structure–but first you have to discover the Tears of Asha artifact.Necropolis Creatures and CombatNecropolis creatures spawn for many diverse tasks, but generally they are tougher than they are strong, and they’re bred for the long haul in grueling battles. Core creatures consist of Skeletons/Skeletal Spearmen, Ghouls/Ravenous Ghouls, and Ghosts/Spectres. Elite creatures consist of Lich/Archlich, Lamasu/Putrid Lamasu, and Vampire/Vampire Lords. Your champion creature is the Namtaru, which can transform into a Fate Spinner (human form) or a Fate Weaver (spider form).Core CreaturesEarly in the game, you will only have access to your core creatures, and later, they will still serve as the majority of your fighting force. If you control a Magic hero, invest more heavily in Ghosts and Spectres. As a Might hero, don’t forget about the Ghosts and Spectres–their healing is always valuable in combat–but rely on the Skeletons and Ghouls to do your damage.

Skeletons/Skeletal SpearmenSkeletons are your slowest creatures, both in Initiative and movement speed on the battlefield. Their damage is also the weakest, but they do have a ranged attack and Skeletal Spearmen can hamper enemy creatures’ movement with their webs. They fall in the middle of the core creatures for Might defense, but their Magic defense is better than Ghouls and Ravenous Ghouls. Hit points, as you might expect from a pile of bones, is the worst of all your creatures.

Ghouls/Ravenous GhoulsThe stronger of your core melee creatures, Ghouls charge out into battle to choke enemies with their clanking chains. A slightly above average Initiative score sends them up early on the Action Bar, which plays into the theory of “hit them before they hit you.” Hit points and damage are the best of the core creatures, and the Ghouls’ armor against Might attacks beats out other core creatures; however, they are particularly susceptible to Magic attacks with a poor Magic defense.

Ghosts/SpectresHealing, healing, and more healing! Combined with Necromancy, Ghost and Spectre healing and resurrection may prove to be the single biggest factor in coming out on top in most of your battles. Ghosts and Spectres have a decent Initiative, though it’s not as important if they are hanging back and protecting your creatures–they may use a Wait order in that case anyway. Defensively, their hit points and Might Defense fall in the middle of your core creatures, but they’re tops in Magic Defense and Magic Damage.Elite CreaturesOnce you unlock your Rank 2 buildings, you have access to the lynchpin creatures of your attack strategy, whether it be Magic-based or Might-based. Liches decimate enemies with powerful magical attacks, while Vampires and Lamasu engage the enemy face-to-face with nasty abilities. Until you can save up enough to unlock your Champion creatures, these bruisers serve well.

Liches/ArchlichesYour elite Magic users have to wait a while to get into the fight: their Initiative equals that of the slow Lamasu, and only Skeletons are slower in your entire creature force. However, once they unleash their powerful ranged attack (which ignores standard range penalties because it’s Magic-based) they blow whole stacks off the battlefield with each barrage.

Lamasu/Putrid LamasuSlow like the Lich/Archlich, the Lamasu flight makes up for poorer reaction time by being able to lift up, avoid combatants and obstacles, and touch down on a more desired combat location. Attrition Necropolis players will love the Lamasu’s Aura of Putrescence ability and the Putrid Lamasu’s Contagion ability to whittle away at living opponent’s health. They aren’t as defensive as Vampires, but deal more damage.

Vampires/Vampire LordsIn melee, Vampires (and upgraded Lords) can be extremely difficult to kill, and that’s not because they’re dead already and reanimated as undead! They have the most hit points of all elite creatures, the best Might and Magic Defenses, and respectable damage output. The Vampire’s Out of Time ability avoids the first strike in combat, and both types of Vampires drain the health from their targets, damaging the enemy and healing themselves in the process.Champion CreaturesIt probably won’t be until late in the game when you can afford the resources to purchase your Champion creatures. Once you do, though, they instantly become your best creature stacks, if you can recruit enough to match the size of growing enemy armies.

Fate Spinners/Fate WeaversThe Namtaru has the fascinating ability to transform back and forth between humanoid and arachnid forms. This gives you tremendous combat flexibility. Need melee damage in a hurry? No problem. Switch to the Fate Spinner and let Venomous Touch and Baleful Gaze do their thing. Want more crowd control? Fate Weaver’s Freezing Web paralyzes those around it.SiegesAs with any siege, look to your ranged creatures first. Liches/Archliches and Skeletons/Skeletal Spearmen will likely be your most valuable troops attacking or defending town walls. Of course, a Lich is preferred over a Skeleton since Magic damage won’t suffer the range penalty to reach foes (it will still suffer the wall penalty, however, if attacking).

You have plenty of creatures to bypass the walls on the attack. Ghosts and Spectres can walk through the walls, the Lamasu can fly over them, and the Vampires can teleport inside. Be careful, though, that any attackers entering the inner walls don’t get overwhelmed by defending enemy stacks.

When attacking a town, you generally want to hold back your melee stacks and play defense until creatures emerge from the central gate. It’s safe to attack then and trade blows with the enemy melee creatures, allowing Ghost and Spectre healing, along with timely Necromancy, to keep your troops alive. Bombard the enemy-ranged defenders with Lich/Archlich damage, hero abilities and Heroic Strike, and Skeletal Spearmen attacks. Take out the strongest enemy stacks that have the ability to counterattack, and always heal/resurrect your ranged attackers first so you have enough firepower to wear down your counterparts inside the walls.

On defense, stay inside the walls as long as possible. Eliminate the ranged attackers first, and save your healing for fellow Ghosts and Spectres, or Liches and Skeletons that become targets. Fill the central tower with your best ranged creatures to grab the tower benefits. Feel free to send some of your more mobile creatures, such as the Vampires, to quickly cross the battlefield and pin down enemy threats while your ranged shots continue.Advancing ForthOnce you have your town increasing on a daily basis and you’ve acquired all the free resources in the immediate area–this usually takes a week or two–it’s time to adventure outward. Use the nearby neutral armies as a guide. Anything that recons with a Trivial or Low threat level should be an immediate target, and your circle of influence should extend that far. If something recons at High or Deadly threat level, your civilization hasn’t grown enough to expand that far (assuming you’re keeping your main army strong).

Scout out the local areas for mines first. You want a Sawmill (wood mine) and an Ore Mine as quickly as possible, and definitely before the end of the first week. Crystal Mines are harder to come by, and you have several weeks to acquire one before you start becoming desperate for the better upgrades and buildings. Alternatively, you can seize gold mines and use your gold surplus to buy missing resources at the Marketplace. Eventually, though, you need at least one mine of each resource producing.

Pick off the easier neutral armies so you don’t lose as many creatures in each attack. Plan your attacks based on the resources you need. Want to build a Ruined Tower but don’t have the five ore? Go on the hunt for neutral armies sitting on an ore supply (or better yet, another Ore Mine). On your outings, you also want to gather treasure chests (for more gold or experience) and artifacts to improve your hero’s equipment and combat prowess.

Be on guard for enemy attacks and try to figure out where your closest enemy might be hiding in the fog of war. The sooner you conquer an enemy town and add its resources to your empire, the better off you’ll be. It’s fun to beat up on neutrals and collect goodies, but that can only take you so far–as you near the end of the first month (possibly sooner), you should lock on to a neutral fort/town or player/A.I. fort/town and siege it.Multiple HeroesYou don’t want to send your hero back to your lone town for new creatures all the time. That wastes movement points when you could be out conquering and acquiring more resources and artifacts and building benefits. That’s another huge reason to invade your second town. Once you earn that second town, you can hire a new hero from the Hall of Heroes.

A second hero doubles your options each day. If the threat level in the area is still relatively weak, you can load this second hero up with creatures, and now you have two armies running around collecting goods. You also explore twice as fast–more with multiple heroes–which gives you valuable information on the surrounding buildings, neutral armies, and treasure. Just be careful that you don’t split your creatures too much and run the risk of a devastating loss from a standing neutral army or surprise enemy invasion.

If you think it’s best to keep one stronger army, which is usually the case in normal hostile territory, you can use your second hero as a supply chain. Rather than return all the way back to your hometown with your primary hero, you can run new creatures out of town with your second hero and meet your primary hero to pass the creatures off to the bigger army. This saves time and, so long as you aren’t in danger from a roving enemy army, the lone hero won’t have any problems returning safely home and resupplying for the next visit. With a second town, you can also recruit creatures directly from there, if it’s closer and has all the necessary buildings and upgrades developed.Taking Out Enemy Heroes and ArmiesAs soon as an enemy appears out of the fog of war and stays in the open on your next turn, examine it for details. If the threat level is anything below High, destroying the enemy is a top priority. You certainly don’t want it disappearing into the fog of war and causing you problems when it appears somewhere in your territory. Beyond that, though, if you can eliminate it without heavy losses, you weaken your opponent and possibly put yourself in a good position to seize a nearby enemy fort or town. Move in with your primary army and watch that you aren’t exposed to a stronger army hiding elsewhere. It’s best to strike the same day you see it, or on the next day. If the enemy flees and you can’t reach it within a day or two of movement, let it go: you can’t afford to run all over the map not furthering your position.Conquering Control PointsForts and towns hold the key to controlling areas. Seize one and you control all the buildings the owner has gained to that point. Obviously, towns are better because they come with so many buildings/upgrades and you can hire more creatures with them each week.

As with enemy heroes and armies, examine a neutral or enemy town the second it comes into view. Analyze its defenses. Is it guarded by a nearby army? Does it have a strong garrison of its own? Or is it open for the plucking? Unlike an enemy hero or army that you don’t want to cover lots of ground to track down, you may want to travel several days to sack a town. If you can catch an invading enemy out of its home, steal it away, and seal up the defenses before the enemy returns, it’s worth forgoing almost anything else. You can always backtrack and eliminate neutral armies for rewards later, and you want to grab any limited-defended fort or town as quickly as possible before someone else gets to it first.Defending Your Control AreaIf you only have one or two towns, your main army will generally be cruising around the area and should repel nuisance invaders. If an enemy invader is going to prove a Severe challenge, you may want to strategically retreat to fortify your position and return another day. If it’s a Deadly threat, flee immediately and put as much distance between your armies as possible. Assuming you want to fight and hold what’s yours, you have two main defensive strategies: multiple armies or town portals.

Multiple ArmiesBy the mid game, you should have enough resources to support at least two fairly formidable armies. In an area where enemy attacks become prevalent, consider stationing one of your armies near an important crossroad or chokepoint. This limits invaders’ options, and if they travel into your control area, you should be able to track them down as long as you’ve positioned yourself correctly. In a control area with lots of access points, you may need two armies to properly defend a town or string of control points. Make sure you clear the fog of war around your forts and towns. Now you can see invasions far ahead and plan accordingly.

Town PortalsGenerally, the best defense revolves around the Basic Town Portal and Advanced Town Portal. When you only have enough resources to grow one army strong, or have your primary army off on long adventures away from your towns, invest in the Basic Town Portal. It enables your leader with enough movement points to teleport from one town to another. You may be on the other side of the map when you see an attack coming on one of your towns, but one portal later from a nearby town and you’re suddenly defending the town under attack. If you time it right with a superior force, you can charge out of town after you portal to it and track down a foe who might have fled due to knowing the strength of your army ahead of time.

The Advanced Town Portal allows your hero to teleport back to that town from anywhere on the map. This is even better if your main army has to venture forth far away from your controlled towns. Employ the same strategy as with the Basic Town Portal and eliminate invaders that aren’t properly prepared for the sudden arrival of lots of creatures. Be careful, though: a hero’s Advanced Town Portal ability brings him back to the closest town with an Advanced Town Portal. If you only have one Advanced Town Portal (which is a good strategy, say, if you always want to come back to your Capitol), you don’t have any worries; you’ll appear exactly where you want to go. If you have multiple towns with Advanced Town Portals, it may take you two days to return to your target town: one Advanced Town Portal jump to return to the closest town, and a second Basic Town Portal jump to reach the intended town.Winning It AllTake the time to properly build up your town in the beginning, and don’t rush into any battles without checking all your options first. Better to gather the appropriate resources early and make sure you have a solid defense going than try to be too aggressive and overextend yourself.

Expand outward and seek out the weakest nearby enemy for your full attention. You need to conquer an enemy town (though forts help too) first, or at least at relatively the same time as any other strong enemies out there. You can’t afford to spend weeks behind the resource game if other enemies have more control areas than you.

Once you have your second or third town, you should be in full command of the area. As days march into weeks, your creatures will grow into a near limitless supply and enemies won’t be able to keep up. If you tap into the Altar of Eternal Servitude, and own a ton of gold, you won’t lose many creatures in war, while your opponents wear away to nothing. Even if you choose a strategy that doesn’t include Necromancy or the Altar, the merciless undead will not stop until they’re dead a second time–or more than likely, your enemy lies dead first.

Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1NECROPOLIS: CHAPTER 1: In the Wake of AdversityNecropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 1As the Necropolis Campaign begins, Slava’s youngest daughter, Anastasya, is dead. Her brother Anton executed her after she killed her father Slava during a tragic moment in the Griffin throne room. Except, Anastasya doesn’t remember any of this, and she wasn’t in control of her own actions during the murder of her father.

Her Aunt Sveltana brings her back to life as a member of the Necropolis faction. Sveltana hopes to find out the deeper mystery of why someone wanted to kill Slava, as well as save her niece from the dark abyss. She implores Anastasya to embrace the Necromantic arts and strengthen her mind against further intrusion.

As Anastasya, you start in an underground cavern alongside Sveltana. You can only head west, so after you’ve spoken with Sveltana, ride toward the treasure chest and collect its gold or experience reward. If you haven’t spent your ability point yet, consider spending it in the Darkness school. You can spend it on any ability–even Might abilities–but you should play to your strength and study at least a few Darkness abilities, such as Life Drain, Agony, or Despair.

If you reach the surface, you complete the first objective of the “Inquisitive Girl” primary quest that becomes active when you arrive with Sveltana. Your rewards at quest’s end–+2 Magic Defense and 15,000 experience–will aid your endeavors once you make it topside.

A group of Ghouls blocks the path ahead. Sveltana explains that these are spirits of murderers who have been trapped in undead bodies as a form of punishment. They have lost their free will and will follow your every command, which is a good thing as you need more creatures to join your army.

Continue on and look for a Stone of Enlightenment in an alcove to the north. It’s guarded by a neutral Haven army, and you can try out your new Ghoul army on the Sentinels. You have creature superiority, which means very few deaths, if any, on the part of your Ghouls. Collect 2,500 experience from the Stone and the ore next to it.

Each time you level up, click on your hero portrait and spend your ability point. A brand-new ability or an upgrade on an old ability can prove the difference in your next combat.

To the west a little farther, a Skeleton group blocks the path. As with the Ghouls, Sveltana instructs you on how to use them. Recruit the Skeletons to your army, and you’ve now doubled in strength.

Clear out the cavern as you go; defeat each neutral army you pass to gain experience and reap the rewards they guard. When you round the next bend, Sveltana tells you that the person the Holy Inquisition believes controlled you to kill Slava is being held in a prison above you. She wants to question the prisoner for herself, not trusting what others say about the matter.

More Skeletons join your cause near the exit stairs. Defeat the Sentinels in front of the stairs to climb to the surface. If you’ve fought well in the caverns, these Sentinels should run away from your large army.

You appear on the surface in the southwest corner of the map. Hidden in the fog of war, the yellow Holy Inquisition forces have control over most of the map. You will have to capture control points methodically and seize power away from them.

Start your mission by visiting the nearby Stone of Enlightenment, which, after you’ve beaten its Haven guards, should bring you up to Level 3 and give you another ability point to spend.The second objective of the “Inquisitive Girl” quest pops up when you reach the surface. You must find clues about the Inquisition activities, which won’t be from searching treasure spots but rather the pockets of a dead enemy hero.

Ride north to two potential targets: west, a Stronghold army sitting on a stockpile of resources; north, an ore pit yours for the taking. Gather as many of your four main resources as you can early in the game. Just because you don’t have a town yet doesn’t mean that you won’t wish you had tons of resources later when you do conquer your first town. The same goes for the ore pit: capture it now so that you can start collecting ore on each turn, in preparation for lots of building later.

If you find any artifacts that improve your hero’s movement, such as the Sandals of the Swift Journey, equip them immediately. Even if you have boots that grant other abilities, most of the time artifacts that grant movement points prove better: they give you more options daily and allow you to catch (or flee) enemy heroes easier.

With the ore pit captured, ride east to capture your next mine. Along the way, scoop up any free resources and recon any neutral army you spot. If an army recons a threat level of Low or Trivial, attack to gain the extra experience and rewards from a certain victory.

Watch out for the first attack from the Holy Inquisition. One of its heroes waits on the path to the north near the sawmill and charges down out of the fog of war as you near. Fortunately, your Ghouls and Skeletons should destroy them without much incident.

Capture the sawmill before the end of the first week. You now have your two basic resources building up at a steady pace.

Before you leave for the larger area to the north, stop by the Stables and increase your movement points for the week by five. Extra movement points mean farther travel and potentially more rewards.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 2The new area leads to the nearest Holy Inquisition town, which you will conquer to serve as home base. First, though, survey the area for resources and artifacts that can boost your cause. As always, if you level up, spend your ability point before the next major combat.

The Mother Earth Shrine improves the health of all creatures in your army by 10 percent for the next combat. It’s worth visiting before you attack any army, especially the nearby town, so long as it’s not out of your way.

Ride north, stopping to destroy the Air Elemental and power up your mana at the Dragon Vein, before tagging the Rally Flag. To the north you should see the edge of the Holy Inquisition town.

After gaining the advantages of the Rally Flag (and possibly the Mother Earth Shrine if you backtrack a bit), attack the town of Argia. You’ll have to be patient and let the catapult break down the walls, but your melee forces are far superior to theirs, and your hero magic and attacks can easily dispatch the town’s Sisters and Crossbowmen.

Convert your newly won town and you have a Necropolis home base. Study the building structure to plan out what you need in the coming days. Do you want to improve to a Town Hall immediately, or build the Crypt to recruit Ghouls?

Because there are ample resources around the town, and you’ve been collecting wood and ore since you left Sveltana’s side, you can build everything that you need in the first week. Go out and gain +1 Might Defense from the Armorsmith to the east and more gold from the treasure chest guarded by the nearby Stronghold army.

Double back to the western side of the town and collect more free resource piles. To gain gold faster, build the Town Hall the day after you conquer the town (you can’t build it the day you convert the town).

To the west, look for a gravesite glowing with a greenish hue. You’ll see inquisitors and Holy Inquisition dropping their victims’ bodies into a large trench. There are five of these atrocities around the map, and if you find four more of the mass graves, you complete the “Mass Recruitment” quest and gain the Amulet of Necromancy and 10,000 experience.

Follow the western ridgeline and access the Observatory to scout out the region on the far side of the rocks. You now have a good view of all the challenges ahead and the rewards once hidden in the fog of war.

Continue on the path to the west and engage the Stronghold army guarding several resources. Add to your growing stockpile, and upgrade your Town Hall to the City Hall to continue producing more gold. You should have at least two days to go in the week, which gives you time to build two more key structures.

Proceed up the north path and defeat armies, collect resources, and visit the Stone of Enlightenment for more experience. Make sure you build the Crypt to recruit Ghouls before week’s end.

Near the end of the path you’ll spy an entrance back down to the underground. Tag the Rally Flag to help in your battle against the gate guards, and make sure you build the Basic Fortification before week’s end.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 3If you continue past the underground entrance to the cul-de-sac in the north, you’ll uncover a hidden Dynasty Weapon. Don’t just charge in, though; the Cyclops army guarding the Dynasty Weapon is made up of Champion-strength creatures and will probably display as a Severe threat. Retreat to town, recruit all the latest undead in your creature pool, and then return to battle the Stronghold army. Even if you take heavy casualties, it’s worth earning the Soulreaver Staff. At Level 1, it increases the Magic Power for Darkness spells by 10. At Level 2, it gives your creatures a +5 Initiative bonus. At Level 3, it grants you the Mana Drain ability. At Level 4, it gives you +5 Magic Power. At Level 5, it gives the Time Trap ability.

Over the new few days, concentrate on building up your town. The Marketplace is a necessity, and the Hall of Heroes will become crucial once you want a second hero to serve as a supply line to your primary army or to explore on his own. Once you get enough resources, build the Advanced Fortification for extra defense and improved creature production.

If you decide on a second hero right now, use the second hero as a supply line for Anastasya’s army. Each week, after new creatures arrive, recruit them in town, load them into the second hero’s army, and ride off to meet up with Anastasya. This saves precious movement points for your primary army and reinforces once a week to keep your army strong.

Descend into the underground caverns again when you’re ready. Gather the free resources and gain the +1 Might Power from the Weaponsmith building.

Fight your way through the army guarding the bridge to the east. After that battle, you’ll see a group of Ghosts ahead. Interact with them to gain some Ghosts for your army, and, more important, to add the Ruined Tower to your town, which allows you to recruit Ghosts (and upgraded Spectres) in the future.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 4At any point during your travels, if the threat levels of neutral armies start to register as Moderate or higher on a consistent basis, look for a resupply faster. Rather than waste creatures in costly attacks, double back and rendezvous with your second hero to reinforce with as many creatures as you can afford from your current creature pool. As you move deeper into the underground cavern, you might need a bigger army.

As you continue east, you will uncover a Goblin Hunter army and a Dragon Vein. Cut through the Goblin Hunters and gain the resources and artifacts it protects. Stop by the Dragon Vein to double your mana for the week. A few steps beyond, you can gain more experience at a Stone of Enlightenment and pick up some extra ore.

The main path leads to the north; however, the path to the south holds a secret treasure area. Loop down south for some ore, crystals, gold, a Minor Mana Potion, a Blindness scroll, and a treasure chest.

Back in Argia, don’t forget to build your ghost recruitment building, the Ruined Tower. After the tower, save up enough resources to build the Superior Fortification to further increase your defenses and creature production.

As you proceed north, you’ll have to best two neutral armies. First, destroy the Haven army blocking the path around the underground lake. Second, fight through the Haven army to the Mother Earth Shrine. You can now proceed to the rest of the caverns. An alcove to the north holds some Ghouls that you can recruit to your cause.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 5To the east, you’ll spot a pink glow in the darkness. A Darkness Elemental army guards a Dragon Gate. Unlike most gates that will throw you into enemy territory, this gate takes you to an isolated location. Feel free to defeat the Elementals and prance through the gate before you proceed deeper into the cavern.

The Dragon Gate teleports you to the top of a plateau overlooking one of the Holy Inquisition’s towns below. Beat the Air Elementals and you gain a big pay day, including a Mana Potion, wood, two treasure chests, and the Winterwind Peace Circlet artifact.

Return through the Dragon Gate back to the caverns. Stop at the Stone of Enlightenment and the Arcane Library, which adds +1 Magic Power or +1 Magic Defense (your choice) when you access it. If you choose Magic Power, you gain +25 Blood reputation, and if you choose Magic Defense, you gain +25 Tears reputation.

Eliminate the Air Elementals guarding the stairs leading back up to the surface. If you’ve missed anything in the caverns, go back and gather it before you leave for good.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 6The new dungeon exit brings you to uncharted territory in the north. It’s time to explore again and look for another town to conquer in the area, only this time you still have a town back in the west that can supply you with new creatures (though it takes a long time to ride them there with your second hero).

Scout your new area and decide where you’re headed. There’s a Choral of Believers to the northwest of the cave mouth, a building which raises Leadership and Magic Power by five for the next combat, and an ore pit out of sight in the fog. However, until you gain control of the nearby town, you can’t benefit from the ore mine, so you might as well wait on it.

Travel southeast instead and look for the second mass grave. Interact with it to advance the “Mass Recruitment” quest. As the path snakes around the trees, the walls of the next town (a Holy Inquisition prison) should come into view.

Pass the Arena, which is probably too challenging for you now–you can always visit it later once your army has grown–and head toward the Angelic Shrine (gives +5 Magic Power and +5 Morale for one week). If you need mana, seek out the Dragon Vein nearby. Of course, attack any neutral armies to increase your artifact count.

Speak with the Skeletal Spearmen near the intersection. They have a quest for you: find the Inquisition list with their names on it. If you do that, you complete “Kilburn’s List” and a ton of Skeletal Spearmen and 5,000 experience.

Comb the area for more resources and armies you can beat for rewards. If you haven’t already done so, load up all the creatures in your pool in your second hero’s army and make the long trek to this new area. You want those reinforcements to take the town.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 7Finish gathering all the resources in the area and defeating neutral armies as you wait for your reinforcements to arrive. The town defenses will probably recon High or better, so it’s better to go in with a stronger army.

After reinforcements, attack the town. The Inquisitor’s army contains core Haven creatures (Sentinels, Praetorians, Sisters, Crossbowmen, Marksmen) as well as elite creatures (Griffins). You only have core creatures, which means you have to make sure your numbers are greater and your tactics strong. If you have enough Ghosts, you can heal to greater success and raise your dead all battle long with Necromancy.After the town falls, make sure you have both mines in the area under your control: the sawmill to the east and the ore pit to the northeast.

Taking the prison frees Lady Elisabeth, Slava’s first love and former mistress, the mother of Anastasya’s half-brother Sandor. Broken in mind and spirit, she gibbers like a mad person until Sveltana takes her away to her castle. This completes the “Collateral Victim” quest and rewards you with 7,500 experience and the Magister Sandals.When you conquer the prison, the southern gates open and you can continue south to the rest of the Holy Inquisition lands.

Survey your new town and figure out which buildings and upgrades you want to work on first. Make sure all three core creature buildings are in place to keep your creature pool growing. Now that you have a second town on this side of the underground caverns, you no longer have to make the long supply run; you can set up town portals to teleport back and forth, and eventually this new town will produce everything you need and you can operate out of here.

There are two southern gates. Take the southwest one and attack any neutral armies that you can beat easily. If you wipe out the Sentinels guarding the Stables, you can use it periodically for an extra movement point as you pass through.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 8Now that the Holy Inquisition knows that you’re in the region, it will periodically send out heroes to intercept you. As soon as you spot these heroes, recon their army strength and decide whether to fight or flee. If the hero is an Average threat level or below, you can probably meet them head on. Anything more dangerous, and it’s probably best to retreat and reinforce before attempting the battle.

Your first goal after seizing the prison: the southern fort. However, you may have to backtrack for reinforcements when the first of the Holy Inquisition heroes arrives. Increase your creature strength and then attack when you have the advantage. Spell abilities like Grounded to limit the Griffins’ movement, and Mass Life Drain to counterattack enemy damage, will prove especially useful in this battle. When you beat the Inquisitor, you receive the Inquisition List, which completes the quest objective for “Kilburn’s List.” As an extra reward, now you can upgrade Skeletons in your towns to Skeletal Spearmen.

Assuming the battle against the enemy hero went relatively well and you escaped with light casualties, you can continue to the southern fort. Once you have the fort under control, you extend your reach into the Holy Inquisition heartland.

Just south of the fort lies a crystal cavern. With the fort under your control, seize the crystal mine and you finally have all four resources generating daily. Given time, you can purchase any building or upgrade available.

Almost hidden in the fog lies a gap in the cliff. You don’t want to miss this gap to the west of the crystal mine. The third mass grave disturbs the ground to the south of the path through the gap. A little farther stands a Stone of Enlightenment. Defeat the Inferno army for more experience and some gold piled nearby. If you can destroy the Darkness Elementals and Fire Elementals to the south, you score a huge treasure with the Spaulders of the Prophet (+20 Mana, +2 Mana Regeneration), gold, and crystals.

Continue to build up your second town, and recruit a third hero (or use a portal to move your second hero over to the new town). Send your extra hero down to Anastasya for reinforcements. Watch out for invading Holy Inquisition armies, and if you have to wait a week or two playing defense and building up creatures, you should do so rather than spread yourself too thin and lose control areas to the Holy menace.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 9Another Holy Inquisition may come at any time! Move through the region slowly, and watch the mini-map for any enemy action. If an enemy hero suddenly appears out of the fog, you may have to rework your current course of action.

If there are no enemies threatening your towns, ride out to the northeast gate from the crossroad below the southern fort. The Haven army at the gates won’t put up much of a fight. Continue through them and veer north up the outer path.

Visit the Spectres by the Stone of Enlightenment. It’s nice to collect the extra experience from the Stone; it’s even better to have the Spectres join your army and allow you to build Haunted Towers in your town to recruit them in the future.

With your newly added Spectres, the nearby fort won’t stand a chance against your invading army. Take it out and gain control of another region.

Scour the area for anything else that can power up your kingdom. You probably want to wait before you cross the bridge until you have another reinforcement of creatures at the beginning of the next week.

If you have enough creatures building up, you may want to invest in your special buildings, particularly the Altar of Eternal Servitude. Once the Altar is active, you can return a portion of your combat losses to your town for gold. It’s like having the weekly creature production after every battle!Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 10The fourth (or fifth) mass grave, depending on how you want to discover them, is on the south side of the path after the bridge.

If you want to finish the “Mass Recruitment” quest, the final mass grave lies to the north of the path inside the gate on the eastern road. You don’t have to continue against the heavily defended town down the road; you can simply interact with the mass grave and loop back to the bridge to complete the quest when you find the mass grave on the bridge’s far side. Completing the quest gives you the Amulet of Necromancy and 10,000 experience.

If you want a bigger peek of the area, journey off the road to the south and tag the Statue of Revelation. It reveals a map area of your choice, so you can use it to peer into the fog of war and take a guess at the location of an enemy town or hero.

Continue east down the road. At this point, you may not need many resources, except, perhaps, crystals, so rather than waste creatures in needless battles, concentrate your efforts on artifacts you may want, or required fighting.

You may want to take over the nearby Stables for extra movement.

At the end of the road sits the last Haven fort. Storm the defenses with a swarm of undead and bust in the gates. Once you have the fort another region falls under your control.

It may be off the beaten path, but you’ll want to take the detour down the southeast path below your new fort. It looks like nothing; however, it leads to a copse with a large host of Water Elementals. Beat the Elementals and you earn the Supreme Crown of the Magister (+5 Magic Power, +50 Mana, +5 Mana Regeneration).Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 11Depending on how you’ve fared on your bigger battles, it may take you several weeks to build up a powerful army for the end game. If the threat level is still Severe or Deadly for some foes, keep recruiting creatures to catch up to the enemy army size.

If you take the south path from the last fort, it drifts down to another underground entrance. This is the entrance that eventually leads to the final Holy Inquisition area. Skip it for now.

Gear up for an attack on the last Holy Inquisition in the south. Even if you have to wait an extra week or two to gather forces, it’s worth the time rather than attack with a smaller army and die against the town’s walls. With enough ranged attacks and Anastasya’s powerful magical abilities, you can bring down the town even with a smaller melee force.

After you take care of your new town, venture out and defeat the Haven creatures guarding the cave entrance. When you’ve built up your army for the final battle, head down into the caverns below.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 12Down in the caverns, crush the guards in front of the Crystal of Power and gain a permanent +1 Magic Power for Anastasya.

At the main intersection, north leads out of the caverns. If you want extra loot, take the east fork and beat on the neutral armies to collect the extra resources.

If you beat the formidable Inferno army in the far eastern section, you earn the Dynasty Weapon Arachne. Attuned to Might, Arachne offers +3 Might Power at Level 1, Slow at Level 2, Sadness at Level 3, Drain Life at Level 4, and Spider’s Web at Level 5.

Clear out the caverns until you reach the Dragon Gate. Touch the Sigil of Arkath nearby to gain +5 Magic Defense and +5 Might Defense for one week. Before you exit to the final area, wait for one last reinforcement from your secondary hero. Whatever creatures are left in the pool at the beginning of next week should be shipped to your primary army.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 13After reinforcements, step through the Dragon Gate into a small subterranean area with the final staircase up to the surface. Access the Crystal of Revelation for +1 Magic Defense before leaving the caverns.

Exit the caverns and investigate any buildings and structures you think might help you before the final battle.

Be on guard for any enemy heroes. If you spot one, beeline for the enemy army and take it out before it has a chance to retreat to a fortified position inside the town.

Ride east to find the final town. Now’s your last chance to collect anything you want before the final battle.Your army should be at least twice as strong to take down the town. After you beat the town’s forces, you must fight another, harder battle to free Jorgen from the Inquisition clutches. Err on the side of many, many creatures.

Salvatore holds down the final Holy Inquisition town. The fanatical leader will fall if you go in with enough creatures to expect two epic battles. Load up on healers and Skeletal Spearmen, who will serve well in both battles.

To free Jorgen from his prison, you must fight a large army of Radiant Glories. If you aren’t ready to take on over 200 of them, you had better save up more creatures and return again. Each Radiant Glory stack teleports quickly, and you can’t retaliate against them since they quickly teleport away after their attacks. If the Radiant Glory assault wasn’t enough, Jorgen takes damage each turn in his special prison cell–you are on a clock to defeat all the Radiant Glories before time runs out!

Your battlefield-affect spells can hinder or injure multiple Radiant Glory stacks at once, but be careful–mass abilities also affect Jurgen, and you don’t want to damage him too much, since he’s already taking damage each turn from his cell.

Respond with healing and Necromancy as your creature stacks take significant damage. An ability such as Mass Life Drain can counterattack some of the damage from the Radiant Glory attacks. You won’t be able to prevent many of the attacks, which is okay, since this is the final battle and it doesn’t matter how many creatures perish on your side so long as you survive. If you have the ability to summon elementals, do so to take the heat off some of your creature stacks and hopefully deal some extra damage in the process.

Eventually, you will overcome the odds and defeat the Radiant Glory jailors. You free Jorgen, and he reveals himself as one of the Faceless, though he insists he had nothing to do with Slava’s death. There are many more mysteries to unravel, but at least you’ve led a crusade to rid the immediate lands of the Inquisition.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2NECROPOLIS: CHAPTER 2: Towards the WithinNecropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 1In the second chapter, Anastasya journeys to see the Mother Namtaru. If you go to see the Great Mother and finish the “Unlocking Memories” quest, whose first objective is to go to Nar-Heresh, you’ll be rewarded with 10,000 experience and the Boots of the Explorer.

Your journey lies east, but first visit Elisabeth to the west. You talk with her about love and the angel Uriel. After she departs, claim the nearby treasure chest and choose the gold reward. You don’t have a town to spend the gold on; however, you will need it (and every crystal along the way) to level up at the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon ahead.

You accompany the wizard Kaspar on the road to Nar-Heresh. Since you’re to safeguard his trip, stay close to the wizard. He will move at his own pace toward Nar-Heresh, and you won’t get in any sooner than when he arrives, so you might as well explore all the areas and claim any rewards in your reach.

Access the Observatory on the road if you want a better view of things to come. Ahead, a Ghost army guards a treasure chest, gold, and crystals. Attack the Ghosts and choose gold as your reward from the treasure chest. You need 11,000 by the end of the map, which will require scooping up everything you can.

Explore the side paths, too, for neutral armies and rewards. You have time to battle each one on the map, so take advantage of the fact that you don’t have enemies breathing down your neck.

When you get in sight of Nar-Heresh, speak with Miranda and Sveltana. After Miranda berates you, it’s eventually decided that Sveltana will speak with the Mother first and call upon you soon. You have to wait until summoned, so visit the few places of interest around Nar-Heresh’s entrance while you wait.

A pile of great resources lies south of the city. Defeat the Stronghold army and claim more gold, crystals, and the Magister Robe (+4 Magic Power, +20 Mana, +2 Mana Regeneration).Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 2Your wait won’t be more than a few days. At some point Kaspar will discuss the Cult of the Spider Queen and his magical studies. After you discuss faith and philosophy with the old wizard, the Mother Namtaru summons you.The Spider Guardian will not let you pass until Sveltana sends word to enter the Mother Namtaru’s area.

You may want to visit the Graveyard before entering the new area. Defeat its Necropolis guards and you will force a band of Skeletons to join your army.

Loop up to the northern section of the path and attack the neutral armies to gain more rewards. Don’t forget to collect the crystals at the very top.

Ride south and stop at the Necropolis army (to win the Gauntlets of the Brawler, gold, and crystals) and the Fate Spinners (to win more gold and another artifact).

By this point, you should have collected more than 11,000 gold and seven crystals. Approach the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon and spend the requested amount to level up Anastasya. A free level can be a huge advantage, especially if you have a long way to go till the next level with conventional adventuring experience. Spend your ability point and improve one of your magic schools.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 3You have one last challenge before you meet the Mother Namtaru. First, you must defeat her champion creatures in battle. Since you have nowhere else to recruit creatures, you had better hope that you didn’t waste them all on previous confrontations. If you have a moderate army, though, you’ll beat the creatures and advance.

You finally reach the Mother Namtaru. She tells you that you must confront your memories one by one, and only then shall the murderer be revealed. You know that the only way to truly confront your memories is to see Jorgen. He can send you inside your own mind. As you leave the Mother Namtaru to talk with Jorgen, you complete the “Unlocking Memories” quest. Put the Boots of the Explorer on immediately–nothing beats gaining +4 Hero Land Movement daily.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 4Jorgen explains that you must confront your own memories, and your personal fears, to unblock and access the memories of who controlled you and who killed your father. Only by understanding your own mind will you understand why you can’t remember those tragic events.

Jorgen transports you to a surreal dimension of floating islands: the currents of your mind’s memories and dreams. Speak with the first spirit you see when you arrive. It’s your mother, Cate, and she admits that she was your first trauma when she abandoned you and left you to fend for yourself. Cate tells you to be true to your heart, and that you will have to make some difficult choices and have to slay some phantoms in here.After speaking with Cate, you receive “The Spirit World” quest. If you complete the whole area, you receive 10,000 experience, +2 Magic Power, and +2 Magic Defense. You also gain two more quests: “Build a Wall” (which requires you to gather 15 wood and 15 ore) and “Fractured Memory” (which requires you to gather 15 crystals). “Build a Wall” gives you 4,000 experience, +1 Might Defense, and +1 Magic Defense. “Fractured Memory” gives you 6,000 experience, 10 Ghouls, and 10 Ghosts.

Travel south down the small island and collect everything. The neutral army won’t be any match for you. There is another Shrine of the Seventh Dragon ahead, so when given a choice on treasure chests, choose gold, and collect as many crystals as you can. When you want to leave the island, speak with Jorgen and he will transport you to the next island.

A beautiful blue lake dominates the next island. Speak with your sister Irina. She chides you for whining and wanting to be someone else, and not yourself. In order to proceed, you must battle her army and overcome the memory.

Ride south around the lake. You don’t have to seek out every challenge, especially if you feel it will whittle away at your army’s strength. Remember, you have a limited supply of creatures in here–don’t waste them! To strengthen your army, attack the Graveyard and resupply your army with new Skeletons when you win.

Whenever you see gold and crystals, battle the armies guarding them. You want to build up a good supply of each to level at the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon ahead. You also want to collect wood and ore to fulfill your “Build a Wall” quest, though there are plenty of those resources throughout the area; even if you gather them casually, you will complete the quest.

The town of Seishin sits at the south end of the lake. Siege the town, and after you beat its main forces, you have a choice: leave the town and let her creatures flee or convert the town and destroy the enemy creatures. If you follow the Path of Tears, you want to leave the town, which rewards you with 5,000 experience, +150 Tears reputation, and +2 Destiny. If you follow the Path of Blood, you want to convert the town, which rewards you with 5,000 experience, +150 Blood reputation, and 10 Spectres for your army.

Continue up the west side of the lake and gather any resources you feel necessary. Defeat any armies so long as it doesn’t deteriorate your army too much.

After you’ve encountered everything you want to visit on this island, speak with Jorgen in the northeast corner. He will transport you to the next island, but there’s no coming back, so make sure you really want to leave.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 5The next island holds your greatest fears. You must speak with three people–Kraal, Valeska, and Sandor, which satisfies the “Secret Fears” quest–and confront the fears each one represents. You will be given a choice with each person: one decision will lead you down the Path of Blood and the other decision will lead you down the Path of Tears.

If you go east, you’ll meet up with Kraal first. A fire burns down the family library with Kraal in it. Your choice: save the library or save Kraal. If you save Kraal, you earn +250 Tears reputation. If you save the library, you earn +250 Blood reputation. By interacting with the Kraal memory, you confront your fear of ignorance.

North of Kraal, visit the Meditation Temple. It grants you +5 Might Power and +10 Leadership in the next battle, but more importantly, it completes one of the three objectives for the “Serenity in Death” quest. You want to finish that one off: it gives you 9,000 experience, five Fate Weavers for your army, and the Pendant of Mastery.

Valeska stands at the north end of the island. She worries about Anastasya’s older brother Anton who, as a young child, almost died of the white fever. Your choice: tell Valeska to leave and free her from the burden of care or tell Valeska to stay. If you tell her to leave, you earn +250 Tears reputation. If you tell her to stay, you earn +250 Blood reputation. By interacting with the Valeska memory, you confront your fear of worthlessness.

Take the western path and collect everything that you can. If you have amassed 11,000 gold and seven crystals, you can visit the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon and jump up another level.

Sandor, the last fear memory, stands to the west of the original entrance. He asks if he can buy your love with a beautiful trinket. Your choice: refuse the gift or accept the gift. If you refuse the gift, you earn +250 Tears reputation. If you accept the gift, you earn +250 Blood reputation. By interacting with the Sandor memory, you confront your fear of love and the anxiety of losing it. Speak with Jorgen and he’ll take you to the final island when you’re ready to leave.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 6You gain two new quests on the final island: “Dark Thoughts,” which requires you to capture two Crematoriums to earn 8,000 experience, 15 Liches for your army, and +1 Destiny; and “Love Gives Wings,” which tasks you with destroying the Inferno army near the Angelic Shrine and rewards you with 10,000 experience, +1 Might Power, and +1 Magic Power.

This final island is very big. You won’t need to explore everything, though you should concentrate on the quests you want to finish. Everything lies to the north, and when you’re finished, you can speak with Jorgen at the southern tip and he’ll continue your journey.

Approach Anton, who guards the path to the north. He argues with you and tells you to grow up and start taking responsibility for your actions. You must defeat Anton and his army to continue, and you earn a Saddle of Pathfinding.

To complete the “Dark Thoughts” quest and gain 15 Liches for your army, veer to the east and fight up to the hill on your right. After you defeat the Darkness Elementals and access the Crematorium, you satisfy the first objective of the quest.

Now backtrack to the first intersection and head west. Stick to the eastern path and defeat the neutral army in front of the Armorsmith to earn +1 Might Defense. Attack the Fire Elementals guarding the Dragon Gate so that you can reach the Angelic Shrine.

The Dragon Gate teleports you to a small area to the far north. The Angelic Shrine stands before you, but the Inferno army won’t let you get anywhere near it without going through them first. That’s okay with you, since you need to kill them to complete the “Love Gives Wings” quest. They shouldn’t prove too difficult if you’ve kept your previous army losses to a minimum. Don’t forget to gather all the resources in the area and touch the Angelic Shrine (+5 Magic Power and +5 Morale for one week) before you return through the Dragon Gate.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 7Descend from the hill with the Dragon Gate, and, as usual, attack any neutral army of Low or Trivial threat level to gain more experience and rewards. Make your way down to the Necropolis building for an influx of creatures to your army.

Continue up the path and gather a bunch of free resources hanging around in piles. Atop the hill to the west, look for the second Crematorium. Defeat the Darkness Elementals and claim your quest rewards for finishing “Dark Thoughts,” including 15 much-needed Liches to bolster your army’s ranged attacks.

Ride a short distance north and dispatch the Ravenous Ghouls in front of the second Meditation Temple. Visit the Temple to complete step two of the “Serenity in Death” quest.

Continue up to the fork in the road. At the fork, you’ll find another Shrine of the Seventh Dragon. Even if you have the 11,000 gold and seven crystals for a level jump, hold off for the moment. Check your experience bar, and if you’re more than halfway to the next level, wait to use the Shrine. You can level up naturally if you pick as many fights as you can and collect as much experience as you can from treasure chests. If you can level up on your own, return to the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon, pay the cost, and you’ll get a whole level of experience for the same price.

Veer east at the intersection and visit the first building ahead. The Artifact Merchant holds lots of fun items that may or may not be of interest to you. Purchase any that you can afford and upgrade your current equipment. By this point, you should have a ton of extra or redundant items; sell as many as you like to earn extra gold.

If you continue to explore east and then south, you’ll eventually come to a Crystal that grants you +1 Magic Power. You can also collect a lot more gold and crystals on this side of the island.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 8The Arena to the south also offers excellent rewards if you have an army large enough to beat the combatants. Defeat the Sanctuary army and you can choose +2 Magic Power and +25 Blood reputation or +2 Magic Defense and +25 Tears reputation.

When you’ve had your fill of the far eastern path, return to the hedge maze and continue to the northeast. Stop by the Arcane Library for even more Magic upgrades and reputation bumps based on your level.

In the very northeast corner, you’ll find the third Meditation Temple guarded by a Necropolis army. Beat down the defenders and access the Temple to complete the “Serenity in Death” quest. The Pendant of Mastery will probably be a serious upgrade to your neck slot, so look to equip that immediately.

Crush the Necropolis defenders in front of the last Necropolis building in the northeast corner and you gain more creatures for your growing army. Considering you’re nearing the final battle, you’ll need them.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 9Return to the main intersection and take the northwest fork this time. Eliminate any armies you want, especially if need to gain more experience before accessing the nearby Shrine of the Seventh Dragon.

Next, you must confront your brother Kiril. You must defeat Kiril and his army, and ultimately accept responsibility for a part in your father’s death.

Upon defeat, Kiril warps into a mirror image of yourself. The duplicate Anastasya forces you to realize that it was your weak mind that allowed events to happen. You must recognize the fact that you had a part in the scheme and were not just an innocent victim.

You’ve accomplished all you can on the island. Ride back south to Jorgen.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 10Speak with Jorgen and ask him to transport you to your final destination in this dream realm.

In one final battle, you must defeat Anastasya’s Reflection and her large army. Use all your mana in this fight and fire off your best abilities to aid your army in the struggle. Victory brings an end to your internal struggles: you have killed the part of yourself who needed a mother, and you are now a woman.

Your mother and father visit you one last time. Slava forgives you for your part in his death, and asks you to forgive yourself.

You finally leave the dream realm and return to Jorgen in Ashan. You have much more to accomplish as a rising power in the Necropolis faction.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3NECROPOLIS: CHAPTER 3: Circumradiant DawnNecropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 1Miranda has captured Sveltana, and as the “Politics of the Dead” quest advises you, while you were fighting battles in the spirit world, Miranda took control of the area and it’s up to you to rescue your aunt. If you defeat Miranda and finish the quest, you earn 40,000 experience and the Magister Robe.

As Anastasya, you begin with a town in the very northeast corner of the map. You also begin with a second hero, your wizard companion Kaspar. Spend his ability points however you like, and decide if you want to build up two armies (one for each hero) so you can cover more ground, or stick with one primary army with Anastasya supplied by Kaspar. Early on, though, it’s best to combine your armies into one so you can overcome the neutral armies in the first week when your creature force is low.

As you develop your town, you should ask the standard questions: Can I build up the Village Hall first? Is my starting army strong enough to defeat the local neutral armies, or do I have to build a creature-recruitment building first? In what order should I build my structures, and what resources do I need for each one? In this case, you have enough resources nearby that you can afford to upgrade the Village Hall to the Town Hall first.

Ride west to take over the sawmill on the first day or two. To save time, your primary army can defeat any armies in the way, while your secondary hero follows and picks up free resources and undefended rewards.

Beeline straight from the sawmill to the southwest and seize the ore pit next. With your two common resources ticking up daily, you will have a much easier time building frequently throughout the week. With your resources in really good shape this early on, spend your second day upgrading your Town Hall to a City Hall.

Nestled in the trees above your town, an Armorsmith and precious crystals are yours for the taking if you can beat the Liches guarding them. Two Stones of Enlightenment will give you a big early experience boost if you visit both flanking your town.

With your City Hall constructed, begin work on your creature buildings by the third or fourth day. Your goal is to have each core creature building ready to go by the end of the week, along with the Basic Fortification to increase defense and creature production.

Continue gathering free resources and picking off easy neutral armies and claiming the rewards they defend. Slowly expand your kingdom outward and scout the surrounding area for future targets.

As you make your way south, you’ll find a group of Skeletal Spearmen ready to join your army on the west side of the main path. To the west, you’ll just make out the wall of the nearby fort, which you want to rush as soon as you can.

The Angel Uriel descends from the sky as you approach the fort. At first, he believes you to be a normal Necromancer, but you reveal that it’s you, Anastasya, and he confesses his happiness in seeing you again. He warns, though, that the demon invasion is imminent and that you must first save the land from the Legion of Destruction before you can save your aunt from Miranda.

Seconds after Uriel leaves, the spirit of your mother Cate arrives. She warns that you are in danger, and that you need to free Sveltana first. The balance between Light and Darkness is swaying in favor of the Light. Now you’re caught between two powers: What is the right thing to do?

The quest “Lovebird” opens up after you speak with Uriel. If you can defeat all the demons in the underground you earn 50,000 experience, 10,000 gold, and the Magister Codex.

Explore farther west and pick up anything you can safely acquire. Don’t attack the fortress until next week, after you’ve had a chance to reinforce with a full creature pool.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 2A new week dawns, which means more creatures and new structures to build. Make sure you recruit all the creatures in your pool, and if you have the resources, build the Sepulcher so you can also recruit Liches this week.

Send Kaspar and the new creatures down to your primary army next to the fort. Once you meet up, you should have a much bigger army to exert your will.

Attack the Necropolis fort and use your Ghosts and Necromancy to heal your undead creatures while the opposing undead fall. Once you own the fort, you control the area and should hold it for the rest of the game.

For the second week, concentrate on upgrading your creature buildings. This will improve the effectiveness of your core creatures throughout the coming battles. At any point, you can return home with your inferior creatures and upgrade them to their stronger counterparts.

Secure the crystal cavern next to the fort to provide you with all your resources on a daily basis. The Necropolis dwelling to the southwest also bulks up your weekly core creature production.

Ride south and advance on Ludmilla’s kingdom below. Ludmilla is an “ally” who won’t really help you much until you beat back the orcs plaguing her borders. Of course, as you move, collect every resource and item you can as you build your kingdom.

Ludmilla may not help overtly, but her kingdom’s resources are at your disposal if you get there before the orcs. Examine each building and neutral army to see which ones you want to take for your kingdom.Speaking with the vampire Ludmilla opens the “A Vengeful Warlord” quest. If you can defeat the orc Sharka, you gain 30,000 experience, the Magister Cloak, and 15 Vampires for your army.

After you’ve built all your upgraded creature buildings, construct the Advanced Fortification. Stronger walls and a moat are good defense for your town, but you really want to capitalize on the increased creature growth it offers.

Visit the Arcane Library near Ludmilla’s home. It will aid your Magic prowess by giving your choice of +2 Magic Power or +2 Magic Defense.

Continue to explore and acquire resources and artifacts. Before week’s end, you probably want to build the Marketplace. Yes, you have all four resources daily, but you may need more of a certain one to build timely upgrades, which you can only achieve through gathering with your hero or the Marketplace.

The Crystal of Power increases your Magic Power by one. If you can reach the one in Ludmilla’s kingdom before your next battle, do so–one extra point is a big deal when you’re casting high-powered spells. Back in your hometown, upgrade to a Capitol as soon as you have your key buildings for the week and reap the rewards of pulling in huge piles of gold each day.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 3In your third week, if you have all your creature buildings upgraded, your Basic and Advanced Fortification, and your Marketplace and Sepulcher, you will want to invest in your unique buildings. You can hold off on the Hall of Heroes and Town Portals until you have your second town, but if you go the route of the Chamber of Necromancy and Altar of Eternal Servitude, the sooner you have them in place, the better–you’ll lose a lot less creatures in battle once they’re active.

Finish scouring Ludmilla’s kingdom for resources, artifacts, and special buildings. Send Kaspar down with new creatures and reinforce before you decide to invade the orc territories.

Look in the southwest for the gates to the Orc Raiders kingdom. There’s also a southeast gate; however, that gate leads more directly to the orc town and you probably aren’t ready for that confrontation yet.

Cut down the Stronghold army that guards the gate. Force your way into the new orc territory and start stripping resources and artifacts from the easier neutral armies. Anything you take now is something that the orcs can’t take later.

Your exploration quickly reveals a western shoreline and docks. The nearby Shipyard is a crucial strategic point: It allows you to build ships and sail to the lands on the other side of the sea, and the beach serves as a landing zone for enemy ships looking to invade your land. Depending on how vicious the fighting becomes, you may need to stage a modest army here in the future to safeguard the area.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 4Advance on the orc fort on the beach. Once it falls, convert it to Necropolis and use it as defense if a slightly stronger enemy army hunts after you. Hiding inside the walls will prevent some enemies from chasing you down. The fort also gains you control of the nearby crystal mine, which will help greatly in your construction of the more powerful buildings.

Access the Centaur Statue as you ride by and gain +5 Movement and +10% ranged damage for one week. Continue east toward the orc town.

Visit the Mother Earth Shrine. You can expect trouble soon, so you might as well prepare for it. Ride southeast to the gate into the second half of the orc territory.

The orc’s closest hero attacks as you near the border. If you’re strong enough, take the orc army on and eliminate the threat before it can retreat back into the fog of war. If you’re still a little weak, retreat and wait for reinforcements from Kaspar, then counterattack.

Before the end of the week, build the Superior Fortification in your town. Your defenses are now maxed out, and you’ve increased your creature production for next week. Gather up crystals to spend on the remaining buildings.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 5It may take a couple of weeks before you’re ready to challenge the orc town. See if you can get close enough to scout it out, and watch any visible heroes for their threat level. As long as a threat level doesn’t pop up Severe or Deadly, you have a shot at taking your second town.

Repel the orc hero attacks as you build up your forces. If you kill enough of the Orc Raiders’ heroes, there won’t be much left to defend the town when you’re ready to move in.

Attack Sharka in his city when you have a chance to beat the heavily defended town. Your healing and superior ranged attacks will be the difference.

When the town falls, Sharka surrenders. He accepts his fate, but you have a choice to make: allow Sharka’s soul to pass on or turn him into a Ghoul. If you allow his soul to pass on, you follow the Path of Tears and gain +100 Tears reputation. If you turn him into a Ghoul, you follow the Path of Blood and gain +100 Blood reputation.

Convert the town and begin building up its structures and upgrades. With two towns now, buy your Basic Town Portal, Advanced Town Portal, and Hall of Heroes as soon as you can so your defenses are set for future enemy attacks.

Journey north of your second town and take over the area between the former orc territories and your hometown.

Seize the neutral Necropolis dwelling inside the neutral-controlled area north of the former orc town. Your core creature production increases with this capture.

Ride north and take out the Necropolis fort before the end of the week. This controls the new area and links your kingdoms in the north and south with a safe route.The cave entrance to the underground rests in the mountainside to the west of the Necropolis fort in this area.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 6Return to Ludmilla and let her know that you’ve eliminated the threat of the orcs. The 15 Vampires is your reward for completing the “A Vengeful Warlord” quest, as well as the Magister Cloak, and will help for the rest of the map. Now you can build Vampires in your towns also, so make sure you construct

Expect attacks from powers overseas around this time. Defend your shorelines vigorously; you don’t want to lose anything there, and you definitely don’t want to let enemy heroes get behind your defensive front line and wreck havoc on your undefended control points.

Look to expand your kingdom overseas now. Hijack an enemy ship or build your own at the Shipyard. For your water trip, make sure you load up on as many creatures as you can afford, with some left for defense. Depending on your resources, you can look to build the Mausoleum to upgrade your Liches to Archliches, the Spider Temple to begin recruiting Namturu, or save up for more expensive creatures and stick with a steady stream of Vampires.It’s generally easier to control most of the towns on the surface, if not all, before journeying down below and dealing with the demons.

Sail your ship west and visit any islands that hold resources and artifacts of particular interest. Your goal is to land on the mainland beach in the southwest corner of the map.

Disembark on the beach and attack any targets of opportunity. However, don’t waste too much time on neutral armies. You want to explore west and scout out the nearby enemy town. This is a sneak attack, and hopefully you’ll take the enemy unawares and steal the town away from him.

You should always stock your army so you’re prepared to battle multiple armies in possible back-to-back confrontations. Recon the nearby enemy heroes and the town. If you think you can win all three battles, attack now while the going is good. It’s a lot of time to resupply if you have to sail back home.

If you can manage to beat the enemy defenses, convert your new town to Necropolis. Now that you have a town on this side of the map, it’s much easier to explore, grow, and defend. Set up a Basic Town Portal and you can teleport another hero in for assistance and recruit creatures directly from your new town. Just remember to build it up quickly so you have access to your better creatures.

Before the week ends, scout out the surrounding countryside. Even if you pick only a select few neutral armies to attack, it’s worth exploring to see what’s available and increase your sight range to better defend your town.

Another fort lies to the west. Seize the control point in the very southwest corner to expand your influence even farther. You now have full control of the south; it’s time to advance north next week.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 7Take over the Crypt to the southwest of your latest fort. More creatures never hurt.

Stay alert for new enemy patrols. As soon as an enemy hero passes into view, attack if you can reach the enemy hero and have a large enough army to beat him. If not, retreat to your town and reinforce with extra creatures from your pool until you have enough to defeat him.

Enemy heroes usually mean an enemy town is nearby. Follow the path along the western edge of the map to discover the next town. Before you can attack, though, you’ll have to deal with the outer defenses.

With reinforcements from your town if necessary, advance on the next town and overpower it with your growing creature horde. It’s already Necropolis, which will save you on conversion costs. Start building up its tiers through the next week or two.

Uriel comes back for a visit as you near the end of your battles on the surface. You find out that he was merely preparing your body to host an angel’s spirit, Aurora, who was once a great healer.

Take out the fort above your new town. You can explore the new area and cash in on more resources and artifacts as time allows.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 8If you want to save Miranda for last, return to the eastern mainland. Use the town portals to get there quickest. If you go by boat, it will take you nearly two weeks to cross the terrain.

Descend to the underground caverns through the cave entrance. Stop only for neutral armies that have an artifact you desire.

All seems quiet at first. Don’t be fooled! The Legion of Destruction demons have been gathering strength this whole time–you may have some difficult battles on your hands soon.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 9Look to the north as you reach the main intersections. The red gates show where a new demon area exists.

Battle through any enemy heroes you encounter, and take out neutral armies if it gains you advantage, such as a permanent improvement or if you need the experience to level up soon.

Lay siege to the first Inferno town and overpower it with your superior creature force and Necromancy tricks. Convert it to your side and gear up with any artifacts you seized in the process.

Leave the first underground town and return to the crossroads. Head west and then north to find the passage to the next town.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 10Keep scouting through the darkness until you find another enemy hero or the final enemy town.

Hopefully your primary army is still intact enough through the underground battles to lay one more siege. Attack with everything you’ve got and tap some of your more powerful Magic abilities to help your army break down the enemy defenses. Your healing and Necromancy should be a match for the Inferno champion creatures, and your ranged attackers should have more firepower than the Sucubi and Lilim behind the walls.

Victory! If you overcome the final Inferno town, you score a big stockpile of artifacts that have been collected from the underground and you complete the “Lovebird” quest for a ton of experience, gold, and the Magister Codex.

You don’t have much time to revel in your glory; you quickly realize that someone has been manipulating your thoughts again, pushing you away from your mission to save your aunt. Double-back to the surface and hunt down Miranda in the northwest corner of the map.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 11Retrace your path up to Miranda’s kingdom. Bring all your creatures for this final fight. There won’t be any counterattacks; just you versus Miranda.

It’s the final showdown. Battle any enemy heroes defending the area in front of the town, then take on Miranda inside the town defenses.

Miranda explains how she used the mysterious comb you’ve been carrying around to try and control your mind. However, your recent spiritual journey has strengthened you against such sorcery. She will have to try and beat you on the conventional battlefield.

If you’ve powered up your kingdom well, Miranda and her undead horde will fall, like the others before her. You free Sveltana and question Miranda before her death. She vows that it was not her that used the comb to control Anastasya’s mind, but it’s possible to trace the magic back to the controller through the comb. Those answers and more will be revealed in your final chapter in the Necropolis Campaign.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4NECROPOLIS: CHAPTER 4: The Spider’s StratagemNecropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 1Demons have invaded the countries of the Dragon Veins, and the Mother Namtaru has set you upon the path to stop them. After you consult with Sveltana, you arrive in a new area with a new town to construct from scratch.“When the World Bleeds” quest activates at the start of the map and can be completed by capturing all six of the underground demon strongholds. Your reward is 40,000 experience and the impressive Supreme Crown of the Magister. Secondary quests include “Dem Bones,” which tasks you with gathering 1,000 Skeletons or Skeletal Spearmen for 25,000 experience, +3 Magic Power, and +25 Blood reputation; and “The Tear of Asha,” which requires you to collect the four Fragments of the Moon Disc, assemble them at your Capitol, and add the Tear of Asha upgrade to your town. The Tear is worth it all by itself, but you also receive 30,000 experience.

Your town begins with a Town Hall and all your Tier 1 buildings, plus the Sepulcher. You’ll have to search for crystals before you can build any of the new buildings or upgrades, except for the City Hall. Take advantage of the daily gold increase and upgrade your Town Hall to a City Hall and send Kaspar out to gather free resources. As Anastasya, your primary army can take on the stronger armies to gain more resources and artifacts.

Clear out the area around the town and add to your resource piles. Visit the Armorsmith for +1 Might Defense and capture the ore pit to the north of town.

Ride south and gain +1 Magic Power from the Crystal of Power near the iridescent swamp in the southeast. The Skeletal Spearmen to the west will join your cause and increase your army total.

Attack the Necropolis neutral army to the southwest and take control of the sawmill. Continue your attack on the nearby Necropolis neutral army to seize its crystals, campfire, and artifact.

Fight through the gates at the red gate in the west and enter into enemy territory. Take out the guards in front of the Stables; you will use it constantly for extra movement points as you travel back and forth on the road.

Follow the northwest trail up the hill. Slay any neutral armies of Low or Trivial threat level for extra loot and experience, and visit the Blind Maiden statue for combat bonuses, but your main purpose for heading to the northwest is to bring the nearby Inferno fort into view.As soon as you have the 10,000 gold, 10 wood, and 10 ore, build your Capitol to increase your daily gold intake to 4,000.

Seek out targets of opportunity as you advance. Look at the next building you want to construct and aim for resources that will help you erect it within the next day or two.

Your initial force should be enough to claim the fort with very few losses. Convert the fort from Inferno to Necropolis and claim your second control area.

Watch out for enemy heroes in the area. One will likely be on patrol to the west of the fort near the gate to the next area. If the hero’s army recons Average or below, and you can reach the hero in a single day’s move, attack and eliminate the threat quickly. If you can’t reach the hero in a single day, don’t risk running around the fog of war blindly–you probably won’t catch a fleeing hero and you don’t know what else you’ll run into by accident.

Explore the local area and stop at any structure that will improve your standing. Of course, access Stones of Enlightenment for experience bumps and collect any crystals you spot to help with building costs.

Before the end of the week, invest in the Haunted Tower. Once you have four crystals, you should have the resources to build the upgrade to Spectres. Now, heading into the second week, all three of your core creatures spawn in their upgraded forms.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 2Recruit your new crop of creatures and send Kaspar to rendezvous with your primary army. Give half to your primary army and keep half for Kaspar’s secondary army. After this batch of reinforcements, you should be able to overcome any neutral armies in the area.

Explore the land to the south and west of your new fort. This early in the game all resources help, and the experience from offing neutral armies is worth minor deaths so long as your primary army stays strong.

A Shrine of the Seventh Dragon stands on the beach to the southwest of the fort. If your hero’s experience bar is less than half full, wait on accessing the Shrine, even if you can afford the 11,000 gold and seven crystals cost. Come back later, immediately after you’ve leveled up normally, and you’ll gain a bigger boost.

As you reveal more of the beach, you’ll uncover a Shipyard. Save up wood and gold to build a ship later on for exploration across the sea.

Kaspar’s army should prepare to defend your town. Periodically, the Hounds of Chaos will send a moderate-strength army to sneak-attack your town. Keep enough creatures around in your garrison to hold, and between each battle, send Kaspar out to tag the nearby Rally Flag and gain some bonuses for the inevitable next siege.In a pinch, you can gain a few extra creatures by hiring a new hero through the Hall of Heroes and adding that new hero’s creatures to the garrisoned forces.

Your primary army should continue to explore the western path and clear the fog of war from the western gate. Now you have a clear view of any invading enemies, and there will be some. At the same time that the demons send an army after your town, they usually send one after your fort as well.

You will have to fight a two-front war in this chapter. Keep your primary army in the west, fending off incoming enemy heroes and gradually pushing west. Your secondary army, led by Kaspar, should stay back in your hometown to defend against incursion. If Anastasya’s army needs a resupply, you will have to pull back more than normal so that Kaspar is always one move away from defending the town.

Build the Advanced Fortification before the end of the week. It will help defend against the frequent attacks on your hometown and bolster your creature production.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 3Each week, resupply your primary army with some creature stacks and leave enough back to fend off the demon attackers. You’ll have to gauge the time between demon attacks on your control points. Watch the revealed area to the west, and when you spot a new enemy riding forth, you can bet that a similar enemy army is heading toward your town as well.

Send your primary army deeper into the west. You’ll spot the first Sheogh Portal burning in the desert sands. These portals lead to the underground caverns, each with an Inferno base of operations to destroy. When you conquer an underground control point, the portal shuts down and you no longer have to fear attacks from that portal.

The first Sheogh Portal is probably too dangerous to invade at this point. Wait until you gather a greater primary army and you can return later to take care of the demons below.

Another enemy hero means the demons are on the march again. Stop this army’s charge and continue moving west with your primary army. Back home, prepare for another assault on your town.Repel the next demon assault and assess your losses. If you sustain heavy losses, next week you will have to hold more creatures back on defense. If you only sustain minor losses, you can afford to resupply your primary army with more creatures.

Spell abilities that summon Elementals will help keep your defensive creature count high. If you can drop a few Elemental stacks into combat, the enemy will be forced to deal with them and your regular creatures will withstand less damage. Pound away with a mix of Magic abilities and undead creatures and you’ll hold the town fine.

Since the Superior Fortification doesn’t require crystals, it’s likely you’ll have the wood and ore necessary to build it before you can complete your other elite or champion creature buildings. Purchase it as soon as you can to increase your town defenses and improve creature production.

Push west and scout out the area for the nearby enemy town. Remember, leave enemy mines alone–you can’t keep them unless you sit on the property, so it’s better to take over the control point and convert them to your side in one shot.

When you see an opening to take out the enemy town, ride in and attack. Even if it costs a huge chunk of your army, it’s a risk worth taking. Once you convert this second town, you don’t have to worry about the long supply line: you can jump back and forth with a Basic Town Portal or recruit creatures directly with the new town.

If there are any Inferno creatures available in the conquered town, you may want to consider hiring them and bulking up your army. Once you convert the town, they will no longer be available.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 4Your second town looks very similar to how your first town started. You’ll have to spend this week building up the core creature buildings and looking to gain your Tier 2 buildings as quickly as possible.

From your second town, ride to the southwest with your primary army. Pick up whatever resources you need to build your second town up to your first town’s current level.

Find the southwest gate and enter new enemy territory. A short distance into the area you’ll spot the Inferno fort to the southeast, though you must loop around to the beach to reach the fort’s entrance.

Scout out the fort and attack if you think you can overcome the defenses. Controlling the fort seals off the northwest corner from topside enemies; however, you still have a Sheogh Portal to the south which needs to be addressed to make the area completely safe.

Meanwhile, back home you should have enough creatures now that Kaspar’s second army can venture forth and start exploring on its own. In addition to securing more kingdom resources and claiming new artifacts, the farther north you travel to uncover the fog of war, the better chance you’ll have of spotting incoming enemy attacks and giving you proper time to prepare.

Sure enough, an enemy hero presses the attack before Kaspar’s army can get far into enemy territory. If you don’t know where the local enemy heroes are hiding, it’s generally best to stay close to the gate so you can cut off any enemy run at your hometown.

With your primary army, continue south along the beach until the Sheogh Portal comes into view. Your army strength should be strong enough to descend and take on the demons below.

Each Sheogh area is self-contained and it’s only a day or two journey to cross the entire expanse. Defeat any neutral armies that you feel will help your cause and slowly explore the underground cavern.

Head east and you’ll eventually see the outskirts of the Inferno control point. Defeat the nearby Cerberus army to clear the Rally Flag and use it for a combat advantage in your upcoming siege.

Launch a full attack on the Inferno town. If it’s a close fight, go ahead and give it your best shot. If you can defeat the town, you’ll close up the Sheogh Portal for good and you’re instantly teleported back to the surface, which saves you a full day’s worth of movement.

You also gain the Shadow Comb as a reward. The magic item allowed the misguided angel Uriel to take over your mind to murder your father, but with your newly disciplined mind, you no longer fear it and can use its formidable power to aid you. The relic grants +8 Magic Power and the Puppet Master spell, so equip it immediately. You also satisfy the quest objective to capture Ur-Malphas with the destruction of the Sheogh Portal.

As the enemy attacks escalate, make sure you have a Basic Town Portal built in each town. If you want to teleport back to a particular town quickly, build the Advanced Town Portal and you can trade 25 movement points for direct passage there.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 5Now that you have the majority of the map’s southern half under your control, expand north near your hometown. As soon as you spot an enemy hero, recon its threat level and plan accordingly. If it’s beatable, attack immediately. If it’s too strong, retreat and add defenses to beat it near your hometown.

Eventually, you’ll push up to the Inferno fort above your hometown. If you have a strong enough army, siege the fort and control the area. If you need to wait a week or two for proper reinforcements, hang back near the southern gate. There’s no rush to take this fort.

Once you control the fort, you’ll want to position an army near the northern gate to protect from enemy incursion.

Remember, you’re still fighting a two-front war. Even as you expand and take over the fort by your hometown, you’ll need to watch for attacks on your second town to the west.

As always, if you have the gold and crystals, your special buildings will aid in your defenses. Build them as soon as you can in all your towns.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 6-8For the next few weeks, you need to build up your creature strength and play defense. Let your control areas increase your resource advantage over the other heroes. When you can repel the invading enemy heroes with ease, you know you’re ready to expand aggressively again.

During your buildup weeks, you might want to complete the “Tear of Asha” quest and achieve the valuable items to significantly increase your kingdom’s production. The first Fragment of the Moon Disc is easily grabbed from the neutral army near the north gate above your newly won fort.

The second Fragment is an easy one. Simply ride north of your second town and steal it away from the Necropolis neutral army guarding it.

You can only reach the third Fragment by ship. Sail out from the docks near your first town and search for an island south of your second town. Defeat the Inferno army for your prize.

The fourth Fragment is the hardest to get. It lies in the northwest corner, and you’ll either gain it toward the end of the map after you’ve conquered most of the towns, or you can lead a mission to recover it. If you go for the Fragment during your buildup weeks, don’t interact with anything else along the journey–ride up there fast, defeat the Pit Fiends guarding the Fragment, and ride back before a superior enemy hero discovers your presence.

Once you have all four Fragments, return to your Capitol and assemble the item. After you do and complete the quest, you can now purchase your Tier 4 building, Asha’s Undying Resolve, which provides 5,000 gold a day, increases all creature production by 50 percent, and increases the effectiveness of Necromancy by 100 percent.

Given the opportunity, you may want to sneak up to the northwest from your second town and destroy the nearby Sheogh Portal. While you’re building up, if you have the free time and can dispatch with any enemy heroes that patrol around the area, it’s a good idea to eliminate the demon town below the surface and seal off another potential headache.

You also want to plug the Sheogh Portals in your controlled areas. The one north of your northern fort is a little difficult to close due to the length of time it takes to reach it and the fact that enemy heroes can charge into your unprotected control area if you aren’t careful. The best time to venture beneath the surface and destroy the Inferno town below is right after you’ve defeated an invading enemy hero near the northern gate.

It’s crucial to seal the Sheogh Portal that lies between your two southern towns. If you don’t, you will suffer constant harassment from Inferno heroes that suddenly sprout up from below. Once you destroy the Inferno control point below, you no longer have to worry about attacks from within your borders.

You discover that the Aurora, the angel spirit that Uriel was grooming you to share your body with, turns out to be his mother! Uriel has serious issues, and it’s time to set him straight!Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 9For the next two weeks, continue building up and make a push on two more towns to the north. Sheogh Portals in the area should also be closed.

The enemy town north of your first town is probably an easier target than the one north of your second town. Explore the area north of your new fort until you discover the red gates leading into enemy territory.

Once the enemy town is in sight, touch the nearby Rally Flag and drive straight for the town entrance.

Siege the town and overpower it with your vast numbers. It’s even easier when the enemy hero has vacated the defense and is out scouring the land somewhere.

Convert your new town and build it up slowly to the level of your other towns. Hire an extra hero from the Hall of Heroes if you want to garrison a new defense.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 10Press up to the north above your second town once you’ve accumulated a solid army on the west side. Watch for marauding heroes, and cut toward the center of the map until you find the red gates leading into the enemy territory to the north. Defeat the Fate Weaver guards to enter the new area.

Choose the eastern fork after you enter the enemy territory. You’ll have to battle through a Necropolis neutral army to continue, but it’s worth it to cut off travel distance.

Charge toward the enemy town when it’s in sight. If you have the means to overwhelm the defenses, take out the town and convert it to another Necropolis town.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 11Build up your new town and make sure you have the proper defenses in place before exploring the lands to the west. If you’re worried about losing control points, sit back and play defense for another week or two until your creature pool can solidify your armies again.

If you see a Sheogh Portal in your travels, take the extra three days or so to journey down into it and siege the Inferno town. After you beat the defenders, you’ll plug up the portal, advance your quest, and have one less area to worry about enemies hassling you.

As you destroy Sheogh Portals, the story of Uriel unfolds. The angel lost his brother Michael and his mother Aurora to the Faceless. Something snapped inside him, and an insane obsession to take vengeance on the Faceless motivates his schemes.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 12If you look to the west of your new town, you’ll spy another Sheogh Portal and your brother Anton. Make your way west to reach the secluded plateau.

Circle around the mountainside (and past the fourth Fragment of the Moon Disc) to reach the plateau. Speak with Anton before moving to the Sheogh Portal.

Your conversation with Anton goes well. He explains that he felt that stabbing you would free you from the tortures the Holy Inquisition would have put you through. You agree and remove some of the guilt he feels for having to kill his own sister.

After a huge siege, you’ll best the enemy defenses and take down another demon town. With the final Sheogh Portal closed, you learn that Uriel and the angel Sarah schemed with Emperor Liam a long time ago to become your official tutor as babes. To avoid the prophecy, they planned to sacrifice you or your twin brother Kiril.

Completing the “When the World Bleeds” quest gains you 40,000 experience and the Supreme Crown of the Magister. Now you must embark on your final mission: to destroy the angel Uriel within the confines of his own mind’s defenses. The special portal in the center of the map will lead you to Uriel.Necropolis Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 13+Uriel is a foe not to be trifled with. It will take a huge army to beat him. With the help of the Tear of Asha, though, it should only take you several weeks to accumulate the forces you need. Once you have at least one thousand Skeletal Warriors, one thousand Ravenous Ghouls, one thousand Spectres and a formidable amount of elite and champion creatures, you can enter.

When you’re ready, travel to the special portal and enter to meet up with Uriel.

The angel pleads with you one last time to accept his warped thinking, but you’ll have none of that.

With 135,000 hit points, even your biggest enemy stacks will take a long time to bring Uriel down. You might think it’s best to destroy his support Haven creatures, but that would be a mistake. Uriel has the power to resurrect them all whenever he wants during the fight, so try as you might to whittle them down, they just pop back up when Uriel commands them.

Concentrate your damage on Uriel. Mass damage spells, such as Chain Lightning, work great: You can hit Uriel with the largest portion of damage, and still wound his supporting creatures too.

Necromancy and healing will stabilize your losses. A spell like Mass Life Drain can offset deaths in your creature stacks, and since it will take many turns to kill Uriel, you should maintain defense over offense whenever possible.

Uriel moves around the battlefield quickly, so space out your melee creatures so that at least one of them can get to him each turn. Your ranged creatures like Skeletal Spearmen and Archliches can strike him anywhere, but they’re also very vulnerable to his attacks. A single Uriel attack can wipe out 100 to 200 of your creatures.

Pour on the damage and bring Uriel to his knees. When you get him real low, he drops out of the battle. At that point, you can attack the Haven creatures without fear that they’ll be resurrected.

When the last Haven creature dies, you are victorious!

Inside Uriel’s mind, the angel is executed by the demon invasion he always feared would come. You have beaten the Necropolis Campaign, but at what cost? So many have already died, and the angels which you once thought were the Griffin families staunchest allies have turned traitor.

Haven Building & Battle StrategiesCampaign BackgroundAnton, Slava’s first-born son and rightful heir to the Griffin throne, has heard “voices” since he was a child. This “sensitivity” is seen as a blessing by the Angels and priests of the Holy Falcon Empire, but to Anton it is an affliction. As he grows older, he learns to ignore the haunting sounds and locks them away in a dark corner of his mind.

Like his brothers and sisters, Anton lived a peaceful childhood until one dark day their father is made to choose between his allegiance to the empire and his family’s happiness. The consequences of that action tear the family apart and eventually lead to the murder of Slava. Anton is brought to his knees by the destruction of his family. The voices that he has kept at bay since he was a child, suddenly come to life and consume him with their anger. They tell him that the death of his father is indeed the work of the Faceless, the greatest evil Ashan has ever known.

Anton leads a witch-hunt for Faceless throughout the Griffin Duchy. His army pushes farther and farther to the northern baronies, where belief in Elrath, the Dragon-god of Light, is often lax. The peoples there also honor Ylath, the Dragon of Air and an older god of the Humans, on an equal ground with Elrath. Anton is accompanied by two beings of great stature: Michael, a Celestial Angel and counselor to the Emperor, who is surprisingly familiar with the countryside and landmarks of the Griffin realm; and Jorgen, the esteemed Griffin Counselor, who has known Slava and his children for over a decade.

The voices in Anton’s head push him onwards, past the borders of the lands that his father Slava had given to the Orcs. His paranoia and anger push him to burn any village along the way that does not claim Elrath as their principle god, whether Griffin or Orc. His lust to find the Faceless assassins seems to know no bounds.

The voices start to sound more loudly in Anton’s mind, urging him on, leading him to suspect nearly everyone. As the blood becomes more and more difficult to wash from his hands, Anton starts asking himself questions.Starting HeroAs a Haven player, your primary hero will be Anton in Campaign mode. Like his father before him, Anton has an affinity for Might. Though you certainly can train up Anton’s Magic abilities, he will be most effective as a Might-based hero. If you aren’t playing in Campaign mode, you can develop your hero however you like.Faction StrategyHaven defends against all threats and resists assaults better than any other faction. In a long battle, a Haven army will absorb damage, weaken enemy forces, and eventually overcome the opposition.

Where some factions prefer to charge in and pound away, Haven tactics rely on defense and healing to keep creatures alive for the contest. When you get a chance to attack, Haven creatures should concentrate on enemy damage-dealers and creatures with special abilities that can take out your healers and other support creatures. With the most resilient creatures on the battlefield, you’ll match up well against any other similarly sized army.

Your Faction Ability, Guardian Angel, reinforces the defensive strategy. If a creature stacks falls into a vulnerable position against an attacking enemy group, or if you want to protect a special creature stack (perhaps, your healing Sisters), you can trigger the Guardian Angel ability when the faction gauge fills up and prevent any stack from temporarily taking damage. Even if it only lasts a single turn, avoiding damage at a crucial point in the combat can be pivotal and alter the outcome in your favor.Haven Advantages• Superior Healing Abilities• Temporary Damage Immunity• Most Resilient Creatures• High Morale• High Retaliation DamageSisters and Vestals heal your creatures at an exceptional rate, while Seraphs can resurrect fallen allies on the battlefield. Your high morale and resilient creatures, particular your elite ones, are generally better than your opponent’s for the cost, and if they get into trouble, your Guardian Angel ability to prevent all damage for a short duration can bail them out. In the retaliation department, Praetorians inflict an extra strike on enemies that strike one of the Praetorian’s allies, and Griffins gain unlimited retaliations.Haven Disadvantages• Limited Ranged Attacks• Low Damage OutputYou have your Crossbowmen and Marksmen, and even flying Griffins, but their offensive damage isn’t as good as other ranged attackers in other factions. In general, your creatures don’t hit as hard as other faction’s critters, which means you’ll have to think defensive and play smart. Coupled with strong defense, your attacks will seem powerful if you don’t try to match swing for swing with other enemy creatures and ignore your special abilities.Recommended Magic SchoolsYou are forbidden to use Darkness abilities as a Haven player. Light and Air abilities, however, are your strong suit. Tap into these abilities whenever you can to augment your defenses or stretch out your offense.

The Healing StrategyThe Haven Sisters and Vestals are your biggest assets with this strategy. Make sure that you recruit enough healers to support the size of your army; each Sister or Vestal creature stack only has three healing charges, which means you’ll want enough healers to keep your other creatures near full capacity for the first three or four turns of the battle, or even longer. Though not pure healing, the Seraph’s Blade of Mercy and the Celestial’s Blade of Epiphany resurrect friendly creature stacks. Even if you can’t keep your allies alive, the Seraphs and Celestials can return fallen comrades to life and continue to keep your creatures in the fight.

Choose the Tears Magic reputation path for your primary hero to gain access to class abilities Resurrection and Divine Intervention. Resurrection will augment your Seraph and Celestial powers, while Divine Intervention’s healing supports Sisters and Vestals. If you want to pursue Blood Magic instead, you can supplement healing with the Word of Light ability. It’s primarily a damage-dealer against undead and demons, but it also heals all living friendly creatures.

The unique Haven building, Resurrection Altar, can return fallen allies to life. Similar to Necropolis’s Altar of Eternal Servitude, the Resurrection Altar enables you to bring back creatures several days after a battle, but for a greater cost than recruiting them normally. However, if you have the gold to recycle these “dead” creatures, your army will always stay strong even through difficult battles.The Defense and Retaliation StrategyHaven creatures can take a punch and counterattack with the best of them. Sentinels are 25 percent more resistant to Might damage to begin with, and their Shieldguard ability sucks up 50 percent of the damage from adjacent friendly stacks. When you want to protect your more valuable creatures, park a Sentinel stack next to them, or better yet, defend with a Praetorian stack and when an adjacent friendly stack gets hit, the Praetorians get a free retaliation. The Griffins’ Unlimited Retaliation punishes attacking enemies, counterattacking for every strike against the Griffins, while the Seraph’s Blade of Judgment ability inflicts greater damage against enemies who have destroyed any of your friendly creature stacks.

The path of the Paladin, guided by Might and Tears, can apply the Martyr ability to the most damaged friendly stack to boost Might Defense and health. Then on the retaliation front, Holy Retribution deals a percentage of the overall damage an enemy creature has dealt since the start of combat. Even the general Fervor ability increases Morale and Might Damage for all friendly creatures, which increases overall defense.

Haven’s Angel Watch building fills the Guardian Angel faction ability gauge by a percentage at the start of combat, which significantly improves your creatures’ odds of surviving the battle. Though more for creatures looking for a Magic Power boost–which could enhance Haven’s Sisters, Vestals, and Glories–the Choral of Believers also increases friendly creatures’ Morale when they fight in one of your town’s control areas.The Pacification StrategyHaven creatures are also good at eliminating the enemy’s aggression and retaliations. Combined with strong defense and quality offense, Haven’s core and elite creatures can nullify key enemy creatures and take advantage of tactical play. The Vestal’s Pacification outright prevents an enemy creature for operating for a turn, which can be used to great effect early if you delay the enemy’s heavy hitter from advancing on you. The Radiant Glory’s Speed of Light passive ability avoid retaliation by teleporting, attacking, and returning to its original position without the enemy touching it–as does the Sun Crusader’s Blinding Charge–and the Radiant Glory’s Cleansing Light ability dispels negative effects on friendly adjacent creatures and gets rid of positive effects on enemy adjacent creatures. The Blazing Glory’s Searing Light ability blinds enemy on a successful hit: another hampering of the enemy’s abilities.

If you follow the Blood Might path and embrace the ways of the Vindicator, you can access your Anathema ability. Anathema decreases Damage, Defense, Morale, and Luck for the entire enemy army. There’s no better way of pacifying the enemy than to weaken them on all fronts.

No unique Haven buildings play into this strategy, though you could use Angel Watch to pump up your Guardian Angel faction ability, which in turn can be used to stymie enemy special abilities that can’t target one of your creatures under the Guardian Angel effect.The Morale StrategyThough more of a secondary strategy, it’s important to note that many of your creatures have a high Morale score. If you can get your creatures’ Morale high enough with the Fervor faction ability, other Might and Magic abilities, and equipment to increase your Leadership score, your creatures can get off two, or even three, successive attacks. Later in the campaign, when you can access stronger creatures and stack creatures larger and larger, several attacks from the same stack can obliterate an enemy army.Haven ArtifactsDepending on your initial affinity (Might or Magic) and your eventual reputation (Blood or Tears), your hero will seek out different artifacts that complement your battle tendencies. Some artifacts are great utility, such as artifacts that increase movement points, or give you resources, or improve all your primary attributes–feel free to equip any of those no matter your hero’s affinity and reputation. Here’s an example of a Haven Might hero’s ultimate item wish list, though there are tons of possibilities in each inventory slot, even for Might-based heroes, and if you wanted to go Magic, your inventory wish list would look quite different.

Might Hero Item Wish ListHead: Crag Hack’s Helmet (+7 Might Power; +5 Initiative to friendly creatures)Neck: Amulet of the Jaguar (+4 Might Power)Shoulder: Mesmerizing Spaulders (-10 Initiative to enemy creatures)Chest: Guardian Breastplate (+4 Might Defense; Friendly creatures are immune to damage dealt by the first three attacks each combat)Cloak: Lion Mane Cape (+6 Leadership)Main Hand: Iron Feather (Dynasty Weapon)Off Hand: Logbook of the Master Sailor (+8 Hero Sea Movement; The hero’s army is not affected by whirlpools)Gauntlet: Gauntlets of the Giant Slayer (+6 Might Power; Grants the Giant Slayer ability)Finger: Ring of Haste (+10 Initiative to friendly creatures)Feet: Boots of the Wayfarer (+8 Hero Land Movement)Pocket 1: Crest of Honor (+8 Leadership)Pocket 2: Golden Goose (+2,000 gold per day)Pocket 3: War Horn of the Legion (+1 Leadership; Weekly elite creature production increased by two)Building Up Your Haven TownNo matter the skirmish or campaign ahead, your first few days, and certainly your first few weeks, are crucial to a successful development. Before your hero sets hoof to path, consider a very important question: Do you have enough wood and ore in the immediate area to support your first week’s worth of development?

If the answer is yes, then you can afford to upgrade your Village Hall first and buy creature recruitment buildings second. If the answer is no, you should buy one of your creature recruitment building first, so you have enough creatures in your army to beat some of the nearby neutral armies and gather extra resources from the rewards.

Generally, you have enough resources at the start of a map to purchase a single building or upgrade. Will it be an upgrade from the Village Hall to the Town Hall, which gives you access to Rank 2 buildings and increases your kingdom’s daily income by 1,000 gold? Or will it be to purchase the Barrack (recruit Sentinels), Loophole Tower (recruit Crossbowmen), or the Chapel of Light (recruit Sisters)?

Remember that your goal by week’s end is to have all your Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings in play, plus a few extras: Basic Fortifications, Marketplace, Hall of Heroes. By the end of week two, you want to upgrade your recruitment buildings to Garrison, Marksman Tower, and Cathedral of Light, and/or begin to work on your Rank 2 creature recruitment buildings to hire Griffins, Radiant Glories, or Sun Riders. In the third week, you want to continue with your Rank 2 buildings and adjust to what you’ve learned about your opponents through exploration.Haven Town Ranks1. Village Hall: Your first decision is always, “Do I upgrade to a Town Hall to gain more gold each day, or do I start with creature recruitment?” If you think you have enough resources that you can win off weak neutral armies, or free wood and ore you can gather through exploration, always upgrade to the Town Hall. Stockpiling gold can’t hurt, and once you build the Marketplace that gold can be traded for missing resources. If you decide you need help with your army first, think about upgrading your Village Hall as your second purchase after your creature recruitment building. You must upgrade to Town Hall by the end of week one, and it’s better if you’ve reached City Hall in the first seven days. Later, upgrade to your Capitol as soon as you can fit it in your building progression.

1. Chapel of Light: Your three Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings are interchangeable: as long as you buy one of them with your first or second purchase, you should be fine. It’s usually best to start with the Chapel of Light to take advantage of the Sisters’ healing abilities. In week two, you should upgrade to the Cathedral of Light.

2. Barrack: Sentinels and Praetorians (once you upgrade to the Garrison) are the backbone of your defensive forces. You’ll have more of these creatures than any of your elite or champion creatures, and their ability to absorb half of the damage focused on adjacent friendly forces prove invaluable when you want to save better creature stacks.

3. Loophole Tower: You’ll want ranged attackers quickly, but Haven’s ranged attacks aren’t as strong as other faction’s. Upgrade to the Marksman Tower when it’s reasonable to do so and you’ll have a pretty fine stack of ranged damage-dealers.

4. Marketplace: It’s crucial to own the Marketplace, especially if you build up the Village Hall early and have a lot of gold piling up. You never know when you’ll fall short by one or two resources to build; rather than waste a turn, the Marketplace can transform your gold (or other resource surplus) into the missing resources and you’re back in business. Buy this building when you have an extra 2,000 gold and a couple of wood and ore lying around.

5. Basic Fortifications: It’s important to get this built early: not necessarily for defensive reasons–though that could come into play if an enemy surprises you very early in the game–but more for the creature production bonuses the fortification chain offers.

6. Hall of Heroes: You won’t need this building until you’ve captured another enemy town and can hire a second hero, or if you’re first hero has died and you need a quick resurrection. However, it only costs 2,000 gold to construct, so slip it in on a day where you have extra gold but may be missing other resources to build a better structure.

7. Griffin Tower: Any of the three elite creature buildings are good choices at this stage. The Griffin Tower gives you flying beasts that can hit at range and retaliate against any enemy aggressor. The Griffin Tower upgrade generates even tougher flyers.

8. Altar of Radiance: This altar–and its counterpart, the Altar of Resplendence–create Glories for your army. Though not as tough as some of your other melee creatures, the Glories can teleport, which means they strike and return before the enemy can counterattack.

9. Chapel of the Holy Sun: This and Priory give you access to your Sun Riders and Sun Crusaders. Charge into battle with these melee creatures and increase your damage output, and their high defenses keep them around even if they’re out there on the other side of the combat map all by themselves.

10. Advanced Fortifications: It’s important to reach this upgrade in week two to boost your creature production before the end of the week. The moat and enhanced wall defenses are a bonus.

11. Advanced Marketplace: Gear up with this building upgrade. It allows you to buy and sell artifacts right from the safety of your town, which means you can trade away junk you don’t want for the special artifact that helps you win the next battle.

12. Superior Fortifications: Build this, the first of your Rank 3 buildings/upgrades, as soon as you have the extra funds. Sure, it adds guard towers and stronger walls to your defenses, but it’s really the bonus to creature production that you’re looking to capitalize on week after week.

13. Angel Watch or Statue of Revelation: Angel Watch improves your Guardian Angel faction ability at the start of combat (always useful), while the Statue of Revelation can reveal an area of the Adventure Map once per week (selectively useful).

14. Choral of Believers or Resurrection Altar: Depending on what you built with your first unique building, you’ll construct either the Choral of Believers, which improves your creatures Morale and Magic Power inside a town’s control area, or the Resurrection Altar, which allows you to raise fallen Sisters, Sun Riders, and Seraphim in combat for an extra cost.

15. Transept of Heaven: As soon as you have enough resources to purchase the Transept of Heaven, you should. Seraphim and Celestials (from the Transept of Elysium upgrade) are your strongest creatures, and the earlier you get champion creatures into production, the harder it will be for enemy armies to compete with you.

16. Basic Town Portal: This building allows you to teleport your hero and army to another town you control. Not necessary until you own another town, but once you do, this is crucial to your defenses. Build this immediately after your first successful siege so that you can move around the map quickly with your main army and defend conquered towns.

17. Advanced Town Portal: Purchase this upgrade whenever you have the necessary resources and aren’t desperate for another building. You can usually wait till the mid to late game before getting it, but if you feel a threat coming, upgrade your towns immediately so your main army can teleport back to defend in a single day.

18. Eltrath’s Infinite Mercy: This one really isn’t the lowest priority in your building progression. It’s actually the highest priority as soon as it becomes available, which, unfortunately, will probably be late game or not at all. With such a boon to gold and creature production, you’ll be happy to spend the massive resources to build the structure–but first you have to discover the Tear of Asha artifact.Haven Creatures and CombatHaven creatures can defend better than attack, but doesn’t mean they won’t give a whipping to an enemy army over time. Core creatures consist of Sentinels/Praetorians, Crossbowmen/Marksmen, and Sisters/Vestals. Elite creatures consist of Griffins/Imperial Griffins, Radiant Glories/Blazing Glories, and Sun Riders/Sun Crusaders. Your champion creatures are the Seraphim and Celestials.Core CreaturesEarly in the game, you will only have access to your core creatures, and later, they will still serve as the majority of your fighting force. Keep a balance between your healers (Sisters and Vestals) and your Might-based creatures (Sentinels/Praetorians and Crossbowmen/Marksmen).

Sentinels/PraetoriansThey can’t move quickly out into the combat map, and their Initiative is slow, but you have Sentinels and Praetorians for defense. They can shield other friendly stacks, such as your healers, and Praetorians can get in extra damage strikes whenever enemies strike adjacent friendlies. Hold these stacks near back lines and adjacent to your more delicate creatures, and only charge out when you’re within five spaces of your enemies and can attack instantly at the end of your move.

Crossbowmen/MarksmenThe fastest of your core creatures, your Crossbowmen and Marksmen deal ranged damage, which can prove crucial to pick off strategic targets on an open combat map or in sieges. Their damage output isn’t the best; however, the Marksman’s ability to strike more than one enemy creature stack with a single shot can make up for the limited damage. Their defense isn’t high, so keep them away from enemy melee creatures, and nestled up against Sentinels or Praetorians if under fire.

Sisters/VestalsWith Haven’s strong defense comes some great healing! Their superior healing can keep your creatures in the battle much longer, and they can dish out decent melee damage when enemy creatures get up close. Their slow Initiative isn’t as big a negative as you may think; you generally want your healers reacting to the enemy damage during a turn, and you may Wait anyway if their action pops up before all enemies have dealt damage.

Elite CreaturesOnce you unlock your Rank 2 buildings, your bruisers start entering the fray. The Might-based Griffins and Sun creatures can put a hurting on the enemy, and your Magic-based Glories cause fits for slow enemies who can’t deal with their teleportation. Until you can save up enough to unlock your Champion creatures, these creature stacks will win you more than your fair share of towns.

Griffins/Imperial GriffinsGriffins will usually get their attacks in first. Order them to take to the skies, and when they dive bomb the enemy, they damage effectively without counterattacks. When the enemy does manage to attack, the Griffins’ Unlimited Retaliation ability means they punish any enemy attacker no matter when they strike in the turn.

Radiant Glories/Blazing GloriesEqually as frustrating as Griffins, Radiant Glories teleport, attack, then retreat before the enemy can hit them. Cleansing Light also gets rid of negative effects on your creatures and positive effects on the enemy creatures. Blazing Glory can blind enemies and prevent more deadly foes from unleashing their bad mojo. The Glories are also your fastest Haven creatures and will frequently act first in the turn.

Sun Riders/Sun CrusadersCharge into battle with your Sun Riders and Sun Crusaders to increase damage, and once they’ve engaged the enemy, sit back and defend with the best Might Defense and second-best Magic Defense of your elite creatures. It also helps that your Sun Creatures have the highest health totals of any of your creatures save the champion Seraph and Celestials.

Champion CreaturesIt probably won’t be until the late game when you can afford the resources to purchase your Champion creatures. Once you do, though, they instantly become your best creature stacks if you can recruit enough to match the size of growing enemy armies.

Seraph/CelestialsDo you even have to think about this? Recruit these powerhouses as soon as you can. They deal three times as much damage as your elite creatures, have twice the defense of your elite creatures, four times as much health than most of the elite creatures, and are faster than all but the Glories. Celestials have slightly better stats than the Seraph, but it really comes down to the special abilities if you can afford both.SiegesAs with any siege, look to your ranged creatures first. Keep your Crossbowmen/Marksmen and Griffins/Imperial Griffins alive with healing and defensive Sentinels and Praetorians. Remember that your Hero can strike any target inside the fortress walls, and your Glories can teleport on top of enemy defenders.

When attacking a town, you generally want to hold back your melee stacks and play defense until creatures emerge from the central gate. It’s safe then to attack and trade blows with the enemy melee creatures, allowing Sisters and Vestals to heal, along with timely Guardian Angel, to prevent all damage against your best creature stack or the one in the most defensive need. Charge with your Sun Riders and Sun Crusaders to deal extra damage and stay on the move to harass the enemy flank. Take out the strongest enemy stacks that have the ability to counterattack, and always heal your ranged attackers first so you have enough firepower to wear down your counterparts inside the walls.

On defense, stay inside the walls as long as possible. Eliminate the ranged attackers first, and save your healing for fellow Sisters and Vestals, or Crossbowmen and Marksmen that become targets. Fill the central tower with your Marksmen (if possible) to grab the tower benefits. Feel free to send some of your more mobile creatures, such as the Glories or Sun creatures, to quickly cross the battlefield and pin down enemy threats while your ranged shots continue.Advancing ForthOnce you have your town increasing on a daily basis and you’ve acquired all the free resources in the immediate area–this usually takes a week or two–it’s time to adventure outward. Use the nearby neutral armies as a guide. Anything that recons with a Trivial or Low threat level should be an immediate target, and your circle of influence should extend that far. If something recons at High or Deadly threat level, your kingdom hasn’t grown enough to expand that far (assuming you’re keeping your main army strong).

Scout out the local areas for mines first. You want a sawmill (wood mine) and an ore pit as quickly as possible, and definitely before the end of the first week. Crystal mines are harder to come by, and you have several weeks to acquire one before you start becoming desperate for the better upgrades and buildings. Alternatively, you can seize gold mines and use your gold surplus to buy missing resources at the Marketplace. Eventually, though, you need at least one mine of each resource producing.

Pick off the easier neutral armies so you don’t lose as many creatures in each attack. Plan your attacks based on the resources you need. Want to build a Loophole Tower but don’t have the six wood? Go on the hunt for neutral armies sitting on a wood supply (or better yet, another sawmill). On your outings, you also want to gather treasure chests (for more gold or experience) and artifacts to improve your hero’s equipment and combat prowess.

Be on guard for enemy attacks and try to figure out where your closest enemy might be hiding in the fog of war. The sooner you conquer an enemy town and add its resources to your empire, the better off you’ll be. It’s fun to beat up on neutrals and collect goodies, but that can only take you so far–as you near the end of the first month (possibly sooner), you should lock on to a neutral fort/town or player/A.I. fort/town and siege it.Multiple HeroesYou don’t want to send your hero back to your lone town for new creatures all the time. That wastes movement points when you could be out conquering and acquiring more resources, artifacts, and building benefits. That’s another huge reason to invade your second town. Once you earn that second town, you can hire a new hero from the Hall of Heroes.

A second hero doubles your options each day. If the threat level in the area is still relatively weak, you can load this second hero up with creatures, and now you have two armies running around collecting goods. You also explore twice as fast–more with multiple heroes–which gives you valuable information on the surrounding buildings, neutral armies, and treasure. Just be careful that you don’t split your creatures too much and run the risk of a devastating loss from a standing neutral army or surprise enemy invasion.

If you think it’s best to keep one stronger army, which is usually the case in normal hostile territory, you can use your second hero as a supply chain. Rather than return all the way back to your home town with your primary hero, you can run new creatures out from town with your second hero and meet your primary hero to pass the creatures off to the bigger army. This saves time, and, so long as you aren’t in danger from a roving enemy army, the lone hero won’t have any problems returning safely home and resupplying for the next visit. With a second town, you can also recruit creatures directly from there if it’s closer and has all the necessary buildings and upgrades developed.Taking Out Enemy Heroes and ArmiesAs soon as an enemy appears out of the fog of war and stays in the open on your next turn, examine it for details. If the threat level is anything below High, destroying the enemy is a top priority. You certainly don’t want it disappearing into the fog of war and causing you problems when it appears somewhere in your territory. Beyond that, though, if you can eliminate it without heavy loses, you weaken your opponent and possibly put yourself in a good position to seize a nearby enemy fort or town. Move in with your primary army and watch that you aren’t exposed to a stronger army hiding elsewhere. It’s best to strike the same day you see it, or on the next day. If the enemy flees and you can’t reach it within a day or two’s movement, let it go: you can’t afford to run all over the map not furthering your position.

Conquering Control PointsForts and towns hold the key to control areas. Seize one and you control all the buildings the owner has gained to that point. Obviously, towns are better because they come with so many buildings/upgrades and you can hire more creatures with them each week.

As with enemy heroes and armies, examine a neutral or enemy town the second it comes into view. Analyze its defenses. Is it guarded by a nearby army? Does it have a strong garrison of its own? Or is it open for the plucking? Unlike an enemy hero or army that you don’t want to cover lots of ground to track down, you may want to travel several days to sack a town. If you can catch an invading enemy out of its home, steal it away from him, and seal up the defenses before the enemy returns, it’s worth forgoing almost anything else. You can always backtrack and eliminate neutral armies for rewards later, and you want to grab any limited-defended fort or town as quickly as possible before someone else gets to it first.Defending Your Control AreaIf you only have one or two towns, your main army will generally be cruising around the area and should repel nuisance invaders. If an enemy invader is going to prove a Severe challenge, you may want to strategically retreat to fortify your position and return another day. If it’s a Deadly threat, flee immediately and put as much distance between your armies as possible. Assuming you want to fight and hold what’s yours, you have two main defensive strategies: multiple armies or town portals.

Multiple ArmiesBy the mid game, you should have enough resources to support at least two fairly formidable armies. In an area where enemy attacks become prevalent, consider stationing one of your armies near an important crossroad or chokepoint. This limits invaders options, and if they travel into your control area, you should be able to track them down if you’ve positioned yourself correctly. In a control area with lots of access points, you may need two armies to properly defend a town or string of control points.

Make sure you clear the fog of war around your forts and towns. Now you can see invasions far ahead and plan accordingly.

Town PortalsGenerally, the best defense revolves around the Basic Town Portal and Advanced Town Portal. When you only have enough resources to grow one army strong, or have your primary army off on long adventures away from your towns, invest in the Basic Town Portal. It enables your leader with enough movement points to teleport from one town to another. You may be on the other side of the map when you see an attack coming on one of your towns, but one portal later from a nearby town and you’re suddenly defending the town under attack. If you time it right with a superior force, you can charge out of town after you portal to it and track down a foe who might have fled knowing the strength of your army ahead of time.

The Advanced Town Portal allows your hero to teleport back to that town from anywhere on the map. This is even better if your main army has to venture forth far away from your controlled towns. Employ the same strategy as with the Basic Town Portal and eliminate invaders that aren’t properly prepared for a the sudden arrival of lots of creatures. Be careful, though: a hero’s Advanced Town Portal ability brings them back to the closest town with Advanced Town Portal. If you only have one Advanced Town Portal (which is a good strategy, say, if you always want to come back to your Capitol), you don’t have any worries; you’ll appear exactly where you want to go. If you have multiple towns with Advanced Town Portal, it may take you two days to return to your target town: one Advanced Town Portal jump to return to the closest town, and a second Basic Town Portal jump to reach the intended town.Winning It AllTake the time to properly build up your town in the beginning, and don’t rush into any battles without checking all your options first. Better to gather the appropriate resources early and make sure you have a solid defense going than try to be too aggressive and overextend yourself.

Expand outward and seek out the weakest nearby enemy for your full attention. You need to conquer an enemy town (though forts help too) first, or at least at relatively the same time as any other strong enemies out there. You can’t afford to spend weeks behind the resource game if other enemies have more control areas than you.

Once you have your second or third town, you should be in full command of the area. As days march into weeks, your creatures will grow into a near limitless supply and enemies won’t be able to keep up. If you grow your healing power and max out on Celestials, the challenges will topple one by one. Before long, as the towns fall to your conquest, the entire world will be a Haven to your armies.

Haven Campaign: Chapter 1CHAPTER 1: Something is RottenHaven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 1As Anton, you are on a tireless mission to seek out and punish the Faceless, whom you blame for your father’s death after watching your mind-controlled sister Anastasya plunge a sword through his heart. Embrace the ways of the Might hero and load up on Might-based abilities, such as the combat abilities in the Warfare school.“The Wild Hunt” quest activates at the start of your map. Your first objective to investigate the local orc activity will take you over three quarters of the map. If you complete all the quest objectives, you receive 15,000 experience.

You begin with a new town in the northwest corner of the map. With a sawmill nearby, some free resources in sight, and the ore pit around the corner, you should have plenty of resources to build your early buildings. Naturally, then, you can afford to upgrade your Village Hall to the Town Hall first.

Ride out from your town and recruit the friendly Sentinels and Crossbowmen along the path. The Sentinels stand next to an ore pile and treasure chest, which gives you a choice of gaining extra gold or experience. Early in the game, it’s usually best to choose gold so you have enough to pay for all your buildings, upgrades, and creature recruitments; later, when gold isn’t as much of an issue, you can choose experience from treasure chests. The Crossbowmen guard the sawmill for you, and once you capture it, the sawmill provides 2 wood per day.

On day two, build the Loophole Tower. Your goal is to have the Priory and the Basic Fortification also built by week’s end so you can recruit all your core creatures next week. Ride to the east and look for the Sisters on the south side of the path. They will also join your cause, and now you have a creature stack for each of your core creatures.

When you get close to the eastern bridge, a Griffin flies by and you track its descent to the neutral building on the isolated plateau near the middle of the map. The only way to reach this location is through the underground caverns, but you’ll want to befriend the Griffins and add them to your army. Some crazy goblins also steal Griffin Eggs, and you receive a quest (“Egg Stealers”) to return them to the Griffins.

Before you reach the eastern bridge, take the path to the north. Collect any free resources and fight through the Haven neutral army in front of the nearby ore pit to capture the mine and start producing 2 ore daily for you.

After you seize the ore pit, explore the area around it. Take on any neutral army that recons a Low or Trivial threat level. Any higher threat level and it’s best to amass a bigger army and return later.

Keep working on your town structure. Build the Priory after the Loophole Tower, and build the Basic Fortification next. If have a few extra resources, try to squeeze in the Marketplace one day. With the Marketplace, you can buy any missing resources (with enough gold) and get something built in a pinch.

Continue to explore the area around your town with the last day or two of the week. You’ll probably need to resupply with new creatures, so it’s a good idea to travel back to town, or end close to it, by the end of the week.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 2Return to town and bulk up your army with your new creature recruits. Your goal in the second week is to upgrade your core creature buildings to the better structures. You’ll also want to gain the Advanced Fortification if you have enough resources.If you upgrade a core creature building, make sure you check your existing creatures and upgrade any weaker version that may exist for their stronger counterpart.

You may have to wait in town for a few days to gain enough gold to buy all your new recruits. It’s better to wait and get them all than to rush out and have to return shortly to resupply. Wasting movement points like that will eventually give the advantage to your more efficient neighbors.

Investigate the road directly south of town. It’s a small area that can’t be reached from anywhere else, but it has valuable resources and a few key artifacts to get you going.

Convert the neutral Haven dwelling, which will help you produce more creatures each week. Don’t forget to collect the nearby crystals (which you don’t produce daily yet), and visit the Stone of Enlightenment to the south and gain 2,500 experience.

If you can upgrade all your core creature buildings and have 5,000 gold, 5 wood, and 5 ore left over, invest in the City Hall. It doubles your gold income each day and allows you to purchase Rank 3 structures.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 3You recall the recent funeral of your father. The voices in your head whisper that the Faceless are to blame, and the crusade against the Faceless has consumed you ever since.

Feel free to comb the area for easy prey and free resources. Make your way eastward again, with the goal of taking the eastern bridge and beyond.

A Stronghold army guards the eastern bridge. Recon the army and if it appears Low or Trivial, you know you’re ready to attack and take on what’s on the other side. If you suffer heavy losses in a battle, return to town for creature reinforcements. Once you build the Hall of Heroes, you can hire a second hero and use this hero to supply Anton’s primary army.

Travel south on the far side of the bridge. Pick off any neutral armies that won’t make a dent in your army; you certainly don’t want to lose too many creatures now, since you have a bigger prize in mind.

A Stronghold enemy hero will likely attack you as you march toward the nearby fort. If you’ve built your army up well, you shouldn’t have a problem with the hero. Once you smash the enemy hero’s army, the fort is left unguarded save for a moderate force within.

Convert the fort before week’s end and you’ll control a whole new area ripe for the taking. Any structure you capture now, such as the crystal caverns nearby, fall to you since you control the area with the fort.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 4-6Capture the neutral crystal mine next to your new fort. After you beat the Earth Elementals guarding the entrance, it will fall under your kingdom’s control and generate 1 crystal a day for you. Soon you’ll be able to afford the more expensive buildings.

Hire a second hero through the Hall of Heroes and send that hero out with all the creatures that arrive for the week. It will take about three days to reach Anton’s primary army, but until you take a second town, this is the best method to keep your primary army strong.

Your orc neighbors to the east won’t wait long to attack. Since your fort is so close to the border, watch for activity near the orange gates. At this point, you should be able to repel an orc attack; however, they frequently like to send two enemy armies at you in back-to-back turns. Send your second hero to resupply and double-back to the bridge if you fear trouble. You can always retake the fort; you don’t want to lose Anton and his entire army.

Build up one army until it’s big enough to defeat both orc heroes patrolling the area. Once you force those two into submission, you can move east and assault the orc town.

Push into orc territory when you feel confident that you can survive a sudden enemy hero attack. If you recon all the surrounding neutral armies and none are Trivial or Low threat levels, you’re not ready yet–retreat to your fort and wait for your creature pool to grow larger.

Once the crystal mine produces 5 crystals, you should have enough resources to build your first special building. Stick with the Angel Watch, since it improves your Faction Ability and every combat advantage helps.

When you’re strong, attack the orc town and its defenders. If you’ve recently beat the orc hero armies, the battle for the town will go quickly. Use your healing to keep your Marksmen alive and let their ranged damage (with Anton’s strikes thrown in there) eliminate first the enemy ranged attackers and then any Stronghold melee stack bold enough to venture out of the walls.

Convert the orc town and gain your second Haven town. Spend the next week building up its creature production and defenses. You shouldn’t venture too far away until you’re comfortable that both towns are producing at a high level and defensible.

While you build up, seize key locations, such as mines and valuable artifacts, to increase resources and hero strength. You want to be ready to set forth into the underground once your defenses are set.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 7As soon as your two towns are in good shape and you can afford to recruit all your new creatures, load them up into one army and travel north of the eastern bridge. The path leads to an underground entrance guarded by a Goblin army. Crush the Goblin guards and enter the caverns below.

Explore the underground map slowly and methodically. Defeat any neutral armies that won’t cause you too much harm and have resources or artifacts you would like to acquire.

Try your hand at the Arena hidden in the cavern gloom. It’s a very difficult battle against Fire Elementals and Darkness Elementals, but if you win, you gain +2 Might Power or +2 Might Defense. In Arena battles, if you lose, you don’t suffer any permanent losses to your army, so why not give it a shot?

Continue deeper into the depths. Battle the neutral army in front of the Stone of Enlightenment. With a victory, you gain 2,500 experience from the Stone, and two gold piles and a treasure chest.

The Sentinels on the opposite side from the Stone of Enlightenment offer to join your army. A new melee creature stack is always welcome.

A gold mine hides up in the northeast corner. Take down the guards to add more gold to your daily output.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 8After all your fighting in the underground, if you think you need a resupply, load your second hero up from town and cart the new creatures down to Anton. It’s going to take four or five days, but you’ll be down here long enough to receive them and still use them well.

Ride west from the main intersection and wipe out the neutral army defending the Rally Flag. Grab the Flag’s bonuses and adjacent treasure chest.

Speak with the Goblin Hunters hiding in the northwest section. These are the creatures responsible for stealing the Griffin eggs early. You have a choice when you meet up with them: send the Goblins to jail and earn +100 Tears reputation or kill the Goblins and earn +100 Blood reputation. When you take the Box of Griffin Eggs behind them, you complete the first objective for the “Egg Stealers” quest. Now all you have to do is return the eggs to Griffin Rock to claim the reward of 15,000 experience and the Iron Feather item.

After a resupply, feel free to explore the rest of the underground caverns. Send your secondary hero back to town to await another supply trek.

The nearby Griffin should be a clear sign that you’re near Griffin Rock. Take the staircase up to the surface to find the hidden location.

Speak to the Griffins on the hill. Two dozen join your army and you complete the “Egg Stealers” quest. Even better, you obtain the Iron Feather Dynasty Weapon and now can produce Griffins in your towns with the Griffin Aviary building.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 9-10Return to the western side of your kingdom. The road south of the bridge leads into the second orcs’ kingdom. Your next goal is to conquer that orc town, but you can stop and pick up resources and artifacts along the journey.

To help your kingdom keep up with the other kingdoms, make sure you control any mines you see to the south. Gold mines and crystal caverns, in particular, will aid in constructing your better buildings.

Attack the neutral fort between your kingdom and the southern orc kingdom. Once you overcome its modest defenses, you control this whole area.

Praetorians guard the Stable southwest of the fort. These friendly creatures will join your army and improve your melee options.

Before the week ends, head south and capture the neutral Barracks. A few core creature stacks join your army, and you’ve increased your weekly creature production just in time for another batch to join you next week.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 11-13Don’t start a war you can’t finish! Once you charge into the orc territory to the south, you begin the endgame.After you enter the orc territory, you’ll be forced to destroy the orcs (or constantly battle them on defense), and after you beat the orcs, the more powerful Duke Djordje enters the fray from the previously sealed-off southeast part of the map. Spend the new few weeks building up your creature pool, and then make one final supply trek down to Anton to prepare for war.

If you have a formidable force ready to go, attack the orc army by the waterfall and press farther south. At this point, there’s no turning back.

A Stronghold fort lies to the south, and a pair of mines produce to the northeast. Charge in with your large army and crush the Stronghold defenders. Once you have control of the area, continue on.

Before capturing the mines (if you even need to at this point), convert the nearby Stronghold dwelling to increase your weekly creature production yet again. The gate to the east remains closed (and Duke Djordje’s armies sealed within) until you take over the last orc town.

If an enemy hero arrives, attack immediately and don’t let it past you. If the enemy hero escapes north, it will wreck havoc on your control points.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 14A Stronghold hero will guard the final gates into the last orc territory in the southwest corner. Meet the Stronghold creatures on the field of battle and show them that Haven creatures take no prisoners.

Before you advance on the final orc town, send your secondary hero to Djordje’s gates in the northeast, just southwest of your second town. This defensive army should contain at least two or three week’s worth of creatures. If you don’t have enough, hold off the attack on the orc town and build up more creatures.

Before you attack the orc town, you might also want to explore the local area, including the dungeon caves below and the treasures on the hill next to the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon. The Shrine can level you up if you have 11,000 gold and seven crystals, and other resources can help fuel your creature production.

Finally, you’re ready to make the attack on the orc town of Waterway. Charge in with your primary army and rip through the town walls. When the orc chief surrenders, you complete “The Wild Hunt” quest. Duke Djordje pays a visit and defies your commands to lay down arms and accept your religious decrees. He declares war on you instead.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 15Take your new creature reinforcements for the week and add them to the weaker army, either Anton’s down south or your secondary hero up north. Of course, build up your third town, but you won’t have much time to reap its rewards.

Race Anton and his army back up to Djordje’s gates. Tag the Rally Flag if you have time before Djordje’s army arrives.

Attack Djordje’s army after it gallops out of the gate. Hopefully you’ve built up enough to destroy the army with some creatures to spare.

Mount your own offensive into Djordje’s territory. A group of Praetorians will join you near the gate, and pick off any targets that won’t wound your army too badly.

Ride straight for Djordje’s western town. You need to take that out as soon as possible and cripple Djordje’s production.

If you’re feeling confident with your northern army, you can send your secondary hero through the gates. Watch out for enemy heroes, and don’t stray too far from the path.

Seize Djordje’s northern town with a well-executed attack from your secondary hero’s army. With two towns down, it’s only a matter of time before the final town falls.Haven Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 16Send your bigger army into the final territory. You can even converge from both directions and add your forces together for the final battle.

Proceed east to find Djordjes hiding in the last town nestled up against the eastern border. If another hero stands in your way, eliminate that army before pressing the attack.

Launch the final attack! Prepare to find two big battles, one against the hero outside the walls, and one against Djordje’s army inside the walls. Employ all your normal siege tactics, and let your superior ranged attacks and healing win the day.

You defeat Djordje’s army, but not his spirit. He curses you to the bitter end!

After the battle, your councilor Jorgen questions your single-minded determination to blame the Faceless for your father’s death. You begin to doubt the voices that speak inside your mind, and when Jorgen reveals himself as a Faceless, you’re not sure whom to trust any longer.

At the very end, you dwell on the tragic memory of Anastasya in the dungeons. Even as the Holy Inquisition questions her and has future plans for your sister, you decide that it’s time to end her misery. Before the angel Uriel can stop you, Anastasya hangs mortally wounded in chains, your sword through her stomach.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2HAVEN: CHAPTER 2: Fair is Foul and Foul is FairHaven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 1A civil war has erupted in the Griffin kingdom, and only Anton can repair what his previous actions have broken. Lord Djordje has returned from the dead to terrorize the land, and three other barons have declared independence and created a free Alliance of Temperance to defy Anton.

As Anton, you don’t even have a town to build up at the start; you will have to venture out and conquer one to begin recapturing your kingdom. From your initial fort, speak with Lord Kilburn, who has been wandering the empire seeking a way to repent for his crimes, and tell him that he’s welcome to stay in your kingdom (he’ll be of use later on).The “Rebel Alliance” primary quest rewards you with the Guardian Helm, 5,000 gold, and 50,000 experience if you can defeat Barons Gritchka, Ivana, and Igor. The secondary quest “Heartrending Song” gives you the Thunderblade Helmet and 15,000 experience so long as you find the artifact Heartrending Song.

Now travel north and hook up with the Sentinel army at the top fork. These Sentinels will join your cause and add much-needed melee strength to your army. After doubling your Sentinels, you can safely engage the other hostile neutrals in the area.

Capture the gold mine and other resources to the north. Work your way back down to the south after you’ve recovered everything you want in the northern passage.

Swing down to the northwest passage and attack the neutral dwelling. After you liberate the Barrack, several Haven creatures will join your army and help build up your numbers, as will the Barrack’s creature production each week.

Continue south and target the ore pit as your next major target. Even though you don’t have a town yet, it’s crucial to control the surrounding mines to build up your resources for when the time comes to resurrect your kingdom.

After the ore mine, visit the Weaponsmith building to the north. Defeat the Necropolis guardians and you’ll be rewarded with +1 Might Power.

Clean up the last of the neutral armies in the immediate area. Stop by the Stone of Enlightenment for extra experience and the beat the Haven neutral army for some more resources and an artifact.

Crush the Haven neutral army near the stairs to open up access to the rest of the map. If you recon them and they’re still strong, make sure you’ve recruited all the troops in the area.

Adventure to the south and attack any neutral armies you feel you can defeat without heavy losses. The more resources you gain now, the better.

Before the end of the first week, strike out for the sawmill to the southeast. Capture the sawmill to add a continuous wood supply to your kingdom stats.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 2Look to the northwest, past the Stables, for the crystal mine. Capture it and you have a steady stream of all four resources piling up daily.

Once your army depletes to the point where neutral armies begin to get tougher than Trivial or Low threat level on a regular basis, return to your starting fort. Recruit your new weekly creatures to build back up your army.

Eventually, you’ll want to move into the next control area. Defeat the neutral army guarding the green area and enter the new territory to the southwest.

As you proceed farther into the green area, a new primary quest pops up: “Unfinished Business.” The undead baron, Djordje, controls this area, and you have to deal with his restless spirit to complete the quest and earn the Lion Shield, +2 Charismatic Leader, and 50,000 experience.

Scour the immediate area for more resources and artifacts. Recruit any armies willing to join you, and defeat the ones that won’t. Head to the southeast to find Djordje.

If you want a better view of the surrounding terrain, stop by the Observatory and clear the fog of war in a larger scouting radius.

Follow the path east past the Observatory to find Djordje’s town. Challenge Djordje and attack his town defenses. It’s a modest defense, so it shouldn’t take you too long to seize the town if you concentrate your Crossbowmen on the right targets and heal appropriately.

You temporarily defeat Djordje, but being a spirit and all, he disappears to haunt you again elsewhere. You now have to find the Hidden House to learn something there to continue on your quest to quell Djorde’s spirit. Convert the old Necropolis town to a new Haven town, which will serve as home for the new few weeks.

Stick close to home till the end of the week. Venture out and defeat any nearby neutral armies to gain resources and artifacts, but don’t wander off too far–you need to return to town anyway at the start of next week to recruit your new creatures.If you have a day or two before the end of the week, start to build up your town with the Basic Fortification.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 3On day one of the new week, return to town and recruit all the new stacks in your creature pool. Remember to build up the town, such as concentrating on your elite creature buildings this week.

Head back to the west and continue to explore. As soon as you have the resources, build your new town up to your Capitol so your gold is at maximum capacity.

Watch out for enemy heroes now! There’s an underground entrance to the northwest that allows you access to the kingdom below the surface, but also makes you vulnerable to enemy attacks until you clear it out. Loaded with your new creatures, you should defeat the first enemy hero you encounter; if the battle looks too tough, return to your home town and wait for more creatures next week to overcome the enemy.

Continue west once you’ve beaten back any threats from the underground. A neutral area lies past the rocky bridge, with a neutral town easily within short striking distance.

Attack the Forkriver town with everything you’ve got. If you can seize this second town, you’ll vastly improve your production and set up to move out into the rest of the territories. It should be a Trivial force compared to yours, and a short battle later you’ll have your new staging town.Don’t forget to build up your new town, especially improvements to your core creature buildings and building elite creature buildings. The longer you wait, the less creatures you’ll have at your disposal to defend your newly acquired, and vulnerable, town.

Ride out and take the sawmill to the southwest, but don’t continue too far to the west. Pick up any other resources and artifacts that are easy targets for your army.

Be careful how far you go to the west. You need to build up your defenses before you can press out into the rest of the map. Better to retreat back to your two towns and concentrate on creature production for the next few years.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Weeks 4-6For the next few turn, increase your defenses by sitting home and using the weekly creature pool to stockpile more creatures. It’s a good idea to build the Hall of Heroes so you can recruit a second hero. Park one hero at Forkriver with most of your defenses, and the second near the underground dungeon entrance in case of a sneak attack.

Enemy heroes will soon advance on Forkriver, and they like to attack in back-to-back strikes: the first attack weakens your defenses, the second tries to overwhelm you. Scout them as soon as you see them emerge out of the fog of war. Stack entrenched in the town if you think you can beat them; otherwise, you may have to give up the town temporarily and retreat to your Capitol while you gather greater forces.

While you build up, you may want to send a smaller force to scout out the caverns below. You’ll need a bigger army to penetrate deep into the caverns, but if you feel you have your town defenses well in hand and have extra time, start exploring.From this point on, you’ll need at least two heroes and armies to defend what’s already yours and take new control areas. Split your forces for this first week so that one force heads down to clear out the underground area near your first town and the second force defends your towns, and possibly advances after repelling enemy attacks.

Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 7

Send one army down into the underground caverns. You don’t have to capture everything underground; simply scout the available loot and associated defenders and attack targets that make sense based on your army strength.

Above ground, make sure your second army has more creatures to defend against the inevitable incoming enemy forays. It’s best that you always have enough creatures to defend against the enemy attacks, even if that means waiting on your underground excursion.

Assuming you’re able to maintain two armies, continue to explore the underground caverns. If you spy a particular artifact you like or spot resources you need, go for those first.

Continue underground to the northwest until you reach the Necropolis fort. This will be your first foothold in the underground; so long as you have a strong enough army to take it without heavy losses, invade the fort and set up your underground base of operations.

With your remaining time left in the week, adventure to the southwest. You can still overcome a few more neutral armies and cash in on more experience and rewards.

Up top, you may want to speak with Valeska near Forkriver. The Emperor has sent her to be your Holy Councilor, and she has come knowing that you may execute her for betraying your father.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 8At any point, if you need a bigger defense, send your underground force back up to help out with your towns. You might also need to return topside to resupply to keep your army strong for adventuring throughout the underground caverns.

With your topside army, seize the gold mine north of Valeska’s original position. You can never have too much gold, and you’re going to need it to accelerate your kingdom growth.

You’ll find a fort just across the wooden bridge to the west. Slip in and overtake the fort defenses for another control point.

Before you advance too far west, bring up another army to guard the main crossroads at the bridge. Attacks will come frequently from the north and west here, so it’s crucial to hold down the chokepoint with a very strong defensive force. You might want to hire a third hero, or take a break from questing underground to secure the crossroads.

Continue to the west and invade the purple territory. Grab the Stables to the south of the purple flags; you’ll pass by many times and should take advantage of the Stables’ extra movement points.

Advance slowly into the new territory and be on guard for roaming enemy heroes. Don’t let any enemy heroes slip behind you, even if it means backtracking to catch one, or retreating if they recon much stronger than you.

If all goes well, you should surprise the enemy with a sneak attack on your third town. You may have to combine your two (or three) armies’ forces to ensure a complete victory, but it’s worth it to gain another town. Hammer the defenses and beat Ivana’s army at the gates. You’ll earn another vital town and complete a big step in the “Rebel Alliance” quest.

Once you beat Ivana, you’re given a choice: condemn or pardon Ivana. If you condemn her, you gain +250 Tears reputation points. If you pardon her, you gain +250 Blood reputation points.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 9With your attacking army, travel north from your third town. A short distance puts you into another purple territory.

With your defending army, stay near the crossroads. Watch for enemy heroes and attack on sight. Defend the fort near the bridge, but otherwise stay near the crossroads to control the chokepoint area. If you have extra creatures in your pool, it’s better to hire a new hero at one of your other town if they’re in danger.

Your attacking army should see a new fort to the north. It shouldn’t prove difficult to take it for your own.

Continue to the north and into the next purple control area. If you see treasure or a building that interests you, stop for it; otherwise, you’re on a mission to defeat the remaining barons.

A straight shot north brings you to the fourth town. If you’ve built your army well and haven’t suffered heavy losses to this point, the town will only be moderately defended and fall before your creatures. If it’s well defended, retreat south and build up a greater force to conquer it.

Once you have your new town well in hand, seek out the path that wraps up around the trees to the northwest. Near where the forest gives away to the mountains, you’ll see blue posts flanking a passage up into the hill. Head into here.

Fight your way through the hilly path and ride east. Inferno creatures block steps up to a plateau. Crush the Inferno army to proceed to the plateau.

A second set of stairs leads up to a skull-carved entrance into the mountainside. You’ve uncovered the Hidden House entrance! Step inside to be given the Trials of the Dragon Knights.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 10Your mother Cate speaks with you after you enter the Hidden House. She confides that she also was plagued by voices in her head, and she has set up the Trials of the Dragon Knights to helps you understand the voices.

Advance into the cavern and collect all the crystals and visit the Stone of Enlightenment. In the northwest corner, a stone bridge leads to another cavern. Guarded by various Elementals, the bridge holds your trials.

The first trial pits you against Fire Elementals and Water Elementals. To pass, you must defeat them in combat. After combat, check your army strength to see if you can continue. These battles can take a toll on your army; you might have to return after a resupply if your army’s strength gets too low.

Air and Earth Elements make up the second trial. To pass, you must defeat them in combat. As before, check your army strength after the battle.

Light and Darkness Elementals make up the third trial. To pass, you must defeat them in combat. This will be the most difficult of the bridge trials, and unless you have a huge army, you’ll most likely have to retreat to get more creatures before proceeding.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Weeks 11-12Return to the Hidden House once you have a full army again. Kiril stands in front of you in the final chamber. You must defeat him and his sizable Inferno horde to finally open the underground gate to Djordje’s final fortress.

The battle will be intense. Bring a big army to combat the Inferno numbers, and rely on your healing to better Kiril’s damage.

Fortunately, there’s a Dragon Gate nearby that teleports you back down to the underground caverns and saves you a week or more of travel. Use it if you’re ready to go after Djordje.

Ride all out until you reach the gates to Djordje’s area. Don’t forget to return to the surface for reinforcements if your battle with Kiril was a costly one.

Follow the maze of corridors and head north to meet up with Djordje. There’s also a large gold stash to the west of Djordje’s entrance if you want to fill your pockets first.

Attack Djordje in his Necropolis fortress. It’s well guarded, so be sure before charging in.

It’s going to be a long siege. Concentrate your Crossbowmen and Griffins on the Skeletal Spearmen to slow down the enemy’s ranged capabilities. Don’t worry about the Ghosts; they will be forced to heal the Spearmen, and eventually they will run of healing if you can deal enough damage. Leave a large melee stack to defend your Crossbowmen or Marksmen, and challenge any enemy melee stacks that venture out of the gates. With strong tactics and stronger creatures, you should finally beat Djordje.

Djordje’s ghost is sufficiently impressed with your leadership skills now to consider it an honor to die at your hand. You give him his wish, and earn the Lion Shield in the process.

Convert Djorde’s Catacombs to another Haven town. Now that you’ve completely wiped out all enemies in the underground, this town is safe from attack and can become a hideaway if you need it.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 13Now that you’ve conquered the underground, you can concentrate on finishing off the surface enemies. From the crossroads, lead your biggest army up to the northern bridge.

Continue along the northern path until you reach the next town. Your resources should far surpass the remaining foes at this point, so sieges should be a cinch. However, if you meet stiff resistance, retreat and wait a week or two to bring in new forces to overmatch you opponent.

Defeat the town to beat Gritchka and claim the second objective on the “Rebel Alliance” quest. You can pardon Gritchka for +250 Tears reputation points or condemn Gritchka for +250 Blood reputation points.

If you want to have a chat with your long-dead ancestor, Ishtvan, seek his spirit out in the gardens.

Before finishing off the final baron, discover the powerful Heartrending Song artifact guarded by Celestials near the center of the map, south of the bridge that leads out from the western end of the gardens. This Dynasty Weapon increases its abilities as it levels up and is a must-have for anyone with Magic Affinity.Haven Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 14Search for the final town in the map’s northeast corner. Seize the fort along the way to bolster your control of the area.

Continue up the path and into the snow-covered mountains. You should see the outskirts of the town to the east.

Attack the final town with everything you have. There’s no more enemies to worry about, so you can match your full force against Baron Igor. It shouldn’t even be an issue; however, if defeat is even in the cards at all, wait a week or two to gain even more creatures before pressing the attack.

As with the other barons, you can pardon Igor to gain +250 Tears reputation or condemn Igor for +250 Blood reputation. After you choose his fate, you complete the “Rebel Alliance” quest and claim the rewards.

The angel Michael praises your war efforts and prepares you for more: Now is the time to strike at the demon horde poised to invade Ashan. Your battles are far from over.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3HAVEN: CHAPTER 3: Tempt Not a Desperate ManHaven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 1Demons are invading Ashan, yet the Nagas of the Jade Queen have invaded the Wolf duchy and captured the holy city of Flammschrein. The angels want the city retaken and their brethren held as hostages freed.If you capture Flammschrein, you complete the “Sword Diplomacy” primary quest and earn the Lion Mane Cape and 50,000 experience.

Lord Kilburn joins you at the start of your new adventure. Transfer Kilburn’s creatures to your army so that you have one strong force to take on the surrounding neutral armies. Send the creature-less Kilburn up the northwest passage; there are free resources that he can pick up with any battles and save you time.

Take your primary army east and access the Observatory. This reveals much more of the control area and helps you see exactly where you have to go.

Speak to Lady Jezebeth up on the hill. You ask her to assist in your task to quell the Naga advance. She accepts, and after your conversation you can now produce Celestials in your towns.

Follow the path up to your first town: Borderkeep. This will serve as you home town, at least for the early part of the campaign. Defeat the light guard at the gates and begin to develop its infrastructure. Borderkeep begins with Sentinels and Crossbowmen, but you’ll need to build the Priory in the first week to recruit Sisters. First, though, upgrade to a Town Hall to gather more gold each day.

Explore the northern section above Borderkeep. You can pick up extra experience at the Stone of Enlightenment, +1 Might Power at the Weaponsmith, and capture a gold mine to boost your daily gold intake.

All resources in the surrounding area are vital at this stage, so don’t leave without them. Some resources that may have been hidden behind trees previously come into view when you move.

In a cul-de-sac southeast of the town you’ll find your first ore pit. Capture the mine to increase your daily ore production.

Before the end of the week, make sure you’ve constructed all your core creature buildings, the Basic Fortification, and the Marketplace.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 2With your first town set up, it’s time to explore. Ride back down south to the intersection and defeat any neutral armies that recon Trivial or Low threat levels. Stockpile as many resources as you can.

Continue down the southern path that gradually curves to the east. At the end of the path lies a neutral sawmill. Capture the sawmill to gain extra wood each day. Back at Borderkeep, try to improve your Town Hall to a City Hall as soon as you can.

Gather all the resources and treasure you can along the southern path. As usual, crystals are scarce at the start; detour to collect crystals if you spot any lightly defended.

In week two, look to upgrade your core creature buildings. The Garrison is generally the easier of the three, since it doesn’t require crystals to construct.

Stay to the west until you discover the next set of territory posts. White indicates a neutral area, which usually means it’s less defended and shouldn’t have enemy heroes wandering around this early. You’ll press into the new region next week.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 3Set off south into the neutral control area. Off to the west, shortly after the entry posts, a Pyramid offers a battle challenge and some riches. If you’ve built up your army well and prevented any major losses, you should conquer the Pyramid and earn its 19,900 gold boost without much issue. Back at Borderkeep, upgrade to a Capitol when you have all the resources.

Beware of enemy heroes entering your control areas. You’re surrounded by the Tide Legions; attacks will come frequently from the eastern half of the map. The greater territory you gain, the more ground you’ll have to defend with your heroes. For now, backtrack your primary army to deal with any threat before it reaches your town or forts.

Return to your exploration and continue to ride south. Recruit any friendly neutral armies to grow your army. If you can recruit enough of them, you won’t have to return to Borderkeep next week for more creatures.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 4You’ll soon come upon a neutral fort on the east side of the path and a Haven dwelling on the west side. Invade the fort and secure it to gain another control area. Cross the road to take over the nearby Barracks to increase your weekly creature production.One of the four-pillared shrines you’ll need later to infiltrate the final Sanctuary-controlled areas sits next to the fort and Haven dwelling.

By this point, you should be able to split some of your forces off and allow Kilburn to command a second army. Pick off some easier neutral armies on the road to the east and defend the area from incoming enemy heroes.

Continue south with your primary army and begin conquering the areas below your new fort. Seize the Stables for increased movement as you travel back and forth.

Follow the tree-lined road as it wanders in a southerly direction. Continue to defeat the neutral armies that recon Trivial or Low threat levels. If you start seeing enemies pop up as Moderate or higher, it’s time to resupply back at Borderkeep.

Keep building up your elite creature structures at Borderkeep. If Kilburn’s army has enough creatures, make a run on the neutral fort to the northeast of your home control area. Securing another control area always helps.

Speak with the angel Laurielle. She tells you that nagas using dark magic came over the walls of Flammschrein under cover of night. They quickly conquered the town and captured the town’s Celestials. You now get the feeling that you might not be able to negotiate with them.

Past Laurielle, you enter a new territory controlled by the Tide Legions. The nearby Arena offers a chance to boost your stats, if you can defeat the elite Haven creatures guarding the Arena.

Seize the Tide Legions’ southwestern fort. Once you do, you’ll have to keep an army nearby throughout the war. This is a hotspot for activity, and the Tide Legions will always be dropping off enemy scouts on the nearby shores to comb the area for undefended forts and towns.

You can add more gold to your stockpile if you capture the gold mine above Kilburn’s fort. If you have a decent secondary army, feel free to explore with Kilburn and add to your resource and treasure totals. However, his main job is defending your home regions, so don’t stray too far away from the main roads.

Add an ore pit to your kingdom as well. By this point, Kilburn’s army may have to return home to resupply and stay strong.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Weeks 5-7You can spend the next few weeks working toward any number of goals, depending on how your game has progressed so far. If you’ve taken a beating from invading enemy armies, slow up your expansion and concentrate on defense. You can gather more resources and grow your town, or work on your quests. If you’ve stayed strong, you can continue expanding your kingdom.

The first Fragment of the Moon Disc lies to the northeast of the fort you just captured. Guarded by Water Elementals, it will take a moderate force to gain the Fragment. Once you have a piece of the ancient Shantiri Moon Disc, you might want to hunt down the other three to gain the Tear of Asha.

The second Fragment of the Moon Disc hides in the very southwest corner of the map. Look for a path that curls up into the hills and leads a Stronghold elite army. Bring a large army on each Moon Disc raid; you’ll need it.

The third Fragment of the Moon Disc appears to be close to your fort up in the north; it isn’t. Though it borders the fort’s walls, it’s on a different plateau, which you can find by wandering through all of the northeast corner of the map to weave toward the Inferno army guarding the Disc.

The fourth Fragment of the Moon Disc can be found in a secluded section of land near the center of the map. It’s next to the Crystal Caverns and guarded by a fierce Stronghold army. Once you have all four, return to your Capitol, assemble the Moon Disc and build your only Rank 4 building: Elrath’s Infinite Mercy. It provides 5,000 gold a day, increases all creature production by 50 percent, and grants a special ability to have an Archangel resurrect 33 percent of friendly fallen Haven creatures after each combat.

If you’re looking to hold off on the questing and expand instead, the Sanctuary town above you southern fort is the best target. Advance northward with your primary army and storm the gates without mercy.

A new town, especially one developed such as this, is a welcome addition to your kingdom. The approach to the central tower is windy and long, which makes it very defendable when enemy heroes come scouting around later.

Adding another fort to your control with Kilburn in the northeast increases your stranglehold on the land too. Remember to split your forces evenly if you’re adventuring with both Anton and Kilburn.

Stay vigilant against enemy attacks. Your most important task during this buildup phase for your kingdom is to maintain a strong defensive position. Don’t leave paths open that lead to your inner control areas, where an enemy can wander around and convert forts or towns to the enemy cause. Always keep your primary and secondary heroes near the crucial crossroads, or hire a third hero to maintain a defensive army in the heart of your kingdom.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 8Continue to defend your kingdom. Gradually, extend your borders as you do so, keeping an eye on the important crossroads, such as the one near the Hellgate near the water.

The fort to the east of your central town should be your next conquest. It’s not well defended and it stretches your reach over the western side of the map. By this point, you should be in firm control of everything other than the heavily defended Sanctuary positions.

Unfortunately, only two paths lead to the eastern section of the map, and some of the areas can only be reach by ship. The Shipyard rests in the hands of Tide Legions; you’ll have to fight your way to it.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Weeks 9-10While Kilburn’s army guards the northern bridge for the time being, your primary army should advance on the southern bridge. As you ride toward the bridge, take note of the second four-pillared shrine to the south.

Continue east over the bridge made up of a series of waterfalls. You’re now entering Tide Legions territory so go slow and watch for activity at the edge of the fog of war.

Once you enter Sanctuary-controlled territory on the eastern side, the Dark Nagas behind this invasion retreat behind heavily fortified walls. You won’t be able to get past these gates until you complete the “Light as a Breeze” primary quest.

There are three shrines located in the south: one near the naga gate, one near the southern bridge, and one by the Barrack across the street from the fort. Perform the rituals at each of these four-pillared shrines to enter the Tide Legions’ final area.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 11While Anton’s army solves the “Light as a Breeze” quest in the south, attack the north with Kilburn’s army. You should have plenty of creatures to fuel the attack, enough that you can recruit a third hero to stay behind and defend your control points on the off chance that an enemy hero slips past your two main armies.

Conquer Vigil, the Tide Legions’ town in the northeast corner. It should be fully developed, or close to it, but spend a little on it if you want to upgrade anything.

Send Kilburn’s army southwest of your new town to discover the Shipyard on the shore. Spend the 1,000 gold and 20 wood to build a ship.

Take the short boat ride across the waterway to Zensho. Annihilate the enemy defenses with your formidable army and lock up the hidden town as your own.Haven Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 12The Tide Legions’ gates will keep you out until you visit the three shrines and complete the “Light as a Breeze” quest. Combine your armies into one huge army and prepare for the final assault.

Ride north and tag the Rally Flag near the hedge gardens. Strike out east for the final Sanctuary-held town. Dispatch any heroes along the way.

Siege the town with everything you’ve got. Your huge force should crumble the walls and wipe out the defenders without too much trouble. If you recon it at a Severe or Deadly threat level, retreat and let your resources pile up until you can recruit enough creatures for an easy win.

You take the last town, but the Dark Naga leader escapes to the Celestial Shrine. Follow the road to the south and track down your final foe.

Enter the Dragon Gate to reach the hidden Celestial Shrine area.

Journey west toward the Celestial Shrine. You can fight the nearby neutral armies if you like, but you really shouldn’t need resources right now.

Confront the Dark Naga in front of the Celestial Shrine. It will be a glorious battle, one which you should triumph in if the majority of your creature stacks are in the triple digits.

The Dark Naga turns out to be one of the Faceless. It agrees to help you find out the identity of your father’s killer because it corresponds with the Faceless’ agenda.

Before you can think about rest, the leader of the Sanctuary armies arrives. She chastises you for your insolence and insists the lands you stand on belong to the Duchess of the Wolf. You agree with this, and then realize that your sister Irina now leads the Sanctuary forces. You both catch up, and then you excuse yourself: a demon army threatens Falcon’s Reach, and only you can repel its advance.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4HAVEN: CHAPTER 4: A Battle Lost and WonHaven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 1Demons have invaded Falcon’s Reach, killed Emperor Liam, and threaten the very heart of the Empire. With the help of Lord Kilburn and various others, you must ride to save the town before the demons break through the outer walls, but first, you need an army of your own to rival the demon horde.

As Anton, you arrive in the vicinity of Falcon’s Reach and discover the whole region in a state of war. Fortunately, you have Lord Kilburn at your side, and the two of you can split objectives across the map to best the demons.

When you first arrive, you unlock the “Demons at the Gates” primary quest. Defeat the enemy army at Baile Ionga to earn 25,000 experience, +2 Might Defense, and +2 Magic Defense.

Begin your campaign by exploring the northeast corner of the map. As usual, engage any neutral armies that recon Trivial or Low threat levels. Gather all the resources you can to stock up for your first town. Artifacts will help too, especially if you want them off to Lord Kilburn, who no doubt lags behind in what Anton will have.

Your first town, Baile Ionga, comes into view soon to the south. Continue to defeat neutral armies and work your way around the garden to the east of the town.

Stop to take time out to visit the Observatory in the gardens. Accessing it will reveal much of the surrounding countryside and help you plan out future moves.

Invade Baile Ionga with the combined forces of Anton’s and Lord Kilburn’s armies. Together your force will be strong enough to overtake the town with minimal casualties.

At this point, you complete the “Demons at the Gates” quest and unlock the “Breaking the Siege” primary quest to convert four villages: Caer Griobta, Caer Poc, Caer Aonbhean, and Caer Faol. When you finish off “Breaking the Siege” you receive 40,000 experience and the Guardian Breastplate. You also receive the secondary quest, “Reinforcements,” which rewards you with Guardian Boots, +50 Marksmen, +25 Sun Crusaders if you meet up with your cousin, the Duke of Stag, in the northwest corner of the map.

Build up Baile Ionga as you would any town. Begin with your core creature buildings (Basic Fortification is already built for you), and gain the Marketplace at some point during the first week. Depending on how much gold you’ve acquired, you may also want to build up to a Town Hall or City Hall in the first week.

Advance out and start conquering the surrounding countryside. Start with the local mines, such as the sawmill immediately to the west of the town’s front gates.

Before the end of the first week, the Voices should whisper to you. They tell you that the way to rescue Princess Gwendolyn out of the castle is through the secret tunnels beneath the fortress.The “Prophecies” primary quest gives you 55,000 experience and the Angelic Alliance Dynasty Weapon if you eventually rescue the Princess Gwendolyn. However, you have many objectives along the way, including descending into the underground tunnels and capturing and converting the underground bases of the demon cultists: Ur-Klusaz and Ur-Grynobbl.

With whatever days you have left in the week, expand to the south and take over the Stables and any neutral armies in the area.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 2Ride south and seize the fort that rests near the posts into the adjacent neutral control area. Branch out and explore the nearby area, including the Shrine of Chivalry, which gives you movement and Morale combat bonuses for the week.

Be sure to snatch the sawmill to the east of the fort. Mines are always a priority when you spot them in the area.

Speaking of mines, secure the ore pit above Baile Ionga to ensure a steady supply of ore on future building turns. The gate to the west leads into another neutral area and several sites will be a target for advancement once you’ve built up a stronger army.

Follow the path into the neutral territory and liberate the crystal mine on the north side. Now you have all the resources piling up daily. Given time, you can build anything or recruit anyone.

Begin work on your elite creature buildings in the second week. Start with a structure like the Chapel of the Holy Sun and make sure that you get the Advanced Fortification up before week’s end too. You’ll also want the City Hall this week, and possibly the Capitol upgrade if you have enough resources for creatures as well.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 3-4You don’t want to spread yourself too thin here. Concentrate on improve your town infrastructure and increasing your creature pool before you venture too far into enemy lands. You’ll need to repel a strong enemy attack or two soon.

If you want to gather more resources, stick with neutral armies that recon Trivial or Low threat level only. The ones in eyesight of your home town are the best choices.

Take the fort to the west of Baile Ionga. Wait until you have a strong enough army to reduce the odds against you; if you take heavy casualties here, you’ll be set back a week or two, so don’t risk it.One of the cavern entrances to the tunnels below sits next to the fort and in striking distance of Baile Ionga. Once you expand into this area, you must have a secondary army ready to defend, preferably parked near the cavern entrance to prevent a hostile force from advancing into your territory.

The Legions of Hate will eventually attack. Your town and forts are spread out; you’ll have to be quick to recognize an attack and respond. The more fog you clear around your control area, the better to spot incoming attacks.

Continue to expand slowly and strategically, grabbing a nearby fort or dwelling to improve your resource and creature production. Don’t race out for an enemy town yet; you’ll get clobbered.

Once you have enough creatures, tackle the Barbarian Camp west of the fields and above the ore pit to the south. Barbarian Camps are usually stacked with defenders, and consequently a difficult battle, but the reward is almost always worth it.All the Barbarian Camps on the map reward you with a large creature stack to add to your army and will give you a significant boost on the battlefield.

Caer Griobta burns a hole in the fields to the west of Baile Ionga. Seize the Inferno town once you have enough creatures to storm the walls and overwhelm the defenders. To complete the “Breaking the Siege” quest you must convert each of the four “Caer” towns and recruit four Sisters/Vestals into the town’s garrison.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 5After you capture your first “Caer” town, your Aunt Sveltana will arrive on the map in the southeast corner. You insist that you lead your army to meet up with Sveltana, and Archangel Michael eventually agrees. First, you’ll meet up with the Stag’s army in the northwest corner to gain an alliance there, then you’ll journey to the southwest and form another alliance with your aunt.

Take the bridge to the west and defeat the Inferno army that prevents free passage across it. You’ll want to head to the northwest corner to find the Stag’s army.

Explore the area on the west side of the bridge. Collect resources from the easier neutral armies, and make sure to capture any mines in the vicinity.

Head toward the Inferno army guarding the yellow posts. Visit all structures that give you an advantage for the next combat and gain additional experience from the Stone of Enlightenment in the middle of the fields.

Continue to build up your towns back east. You should be finishing off your elite creature buildings by this point and saving up for your Rank 3 buildings.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 6Enter the yellow area controlled by the Stag. You’ll have a chance to explore later; first beeline for the Stag’s army in front of the town.

Completing the “Reinforcements” quest beefs up your army with 50 Marksmen and 50 Sun Crusaders, a welcome boost to any army. You also gain a new town, Baile Beanna, and your creature pool increases significantly with the creatures it produces.

Conquer the surrounding the countryside next. A sawmill and ore pit lie to the west of the town.

Though it may have a formidable defense, clear out the Ruins above the town for a big creature reward: a large stack of Earth Elementals for your army.

Back east, keep your secondary army on guard for enemy hero attacks. Lord Kilburn should have a strong enough army to repel any invaders, especially if you increase Kilburn’s army with creature production from your town and increase Anton’s army with creatures your raiding from the Barbarian Camps and Ruins.

As you pass the forts in the area, capture them to improve your control areas and expand your hold on the available resources. Remember, though, the more towns and forts you control, the larger area you’ll have to defend. Build a Hall of Heroes in each town so that you can suddenly add a hero and load that hero up with creatures from your pool for an instant defense if needed.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 7-8Continue to expand out with Anton’s army as you return to the east. Neutral forts and dwellings are easy targets.

You may also want to seize the crystal mine south of Baile Beanna and visit the Barbarian Camp above it. The Camp will give you a large stack of Timber Wolves as your reward.

Convert the next Caer town southeast of Baile Beanna (south of the bridge on the west side). Make sure you’ve also capture the nearby gold mine and ore pit.

Stay vigilant on defense! Lord Kilburn’s defensive army will see a lot of action between the underground caverns entrance and the crossroads near Baile Ionga.

Continue to the east and then south once your reach your original control area. A bridge leads to the southeast section of the map and toward Sveltana’s army.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 9Once you’ve recruited a third army for defense, or if you want to risk a quick underground run with your secondary army (immediately after you repel an enemy attack), it’s time to complete your objectives in the Tunnels below Falcon’s Reach.

Enter the Tunnels through the underground entrance near Baile Ionga. Head south and pick up any loose resources.

A magical fire blocks the southern route to the Princess. Instead, turn to the east and follow the steps down to the next area.

Attack the Inferno fort hidden in the shadows to the east. Once you take the fort, you have your first control area in the underground and can press on for more.

Back up top, Anton’s army can continue conquering the land. Caer Faol blazes away a short distance off the south road to the west. If you can beat its modest defense, you’ll lock up another town in the “Breaking the Siege” quest.

Lord Kilburn’s army should head south into the next orange controlled area. If you think the rewards are worth it, attack a Trivial or Low threat level neutral army; otherwise, conserve your strength for the demons.

Anton’s army can carve out a large chunk of the southeast in this week. Seize the Inferno fort before you enter Sveltana’s gate to the east.

If Lord Kilburn spots an enemy, it’s crucial to attack immediately and catch them before they flee. If they get by you, they can revert your control points in the Tunnels, or exit back up to the surface where they can attack multiple targets. If the enemy hero is too strong for you, retreat the way you came and resupply before you advance farther.

Ur-Grynobbl, the first of the two demon towns in the Tunnels, hides in the southeast section. Pound away at its defenses with your creatures. Your Crossbowmen and Marksmen should concentrate on the ranged defenders, while your Sisters and Vestals heal crucial allied creature stacks. If you have a formidable melee force, push through the first hole in the wall and exert your melee superiority inside the walls.

After the demon town falls, convert it to your Haven side. You’ve now completed the first half of the main objective for the “Prophecies” quest.

With your first underground town conquered, ride west and prepare to enter the next enemy control area next week.

After conquering much of the southeast, Anton’s army should enter the gates leading to Sveltana’s Necropolis fortress.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 10In this next week, you’ll alternate between Anton’s army on the surface and Lord Kilburn’s army in the Tunnels. If at any point the enemy forces are too strong, wait a week or two to accumulate more reinforcements, or combine your two armies into one stronger army to overcome select targets.

Anton’s army should ride to the southeast in search of Sveltana’s army. Your goal is to cut through the armies in front of her to finally speak with your aunt.

Attack Sveltana’s stronghold when you’re ready. You’ll need a huge amount of creatures to overcome the defenses. If you’ve raided all the Ruins and Barbarian Camps, you should have enough bonus creatures to get your army into the thousands to defeat the Necropolis town.

Baile Giall will be yours with the Necropolis army defeat. You’ve now unified the eastern front and have only a couple of objectives left topside.

In the Tunnels, Lord Kilburn’s army rides west. In the southwest corner, overrun the next Inferno fort and gain another control area.

Similarly, Anton’s army can ride to the north of Baile Giall and into another neutral control area to take over the nearby fort.

Lord Kilburn’s army rides north and through the orange posts into the next enemy territory.

Continue north until you reach Ur-Klusaz. You may have to resupply Lord Kilburn’s army to attempt an assault, though if you recon the town with a High threat level or less, go for it. Since it’s your last major encounter in the Tunnels, you can afford to lose creatures if you gain the town.

After capturing the final neutral area in the east, Anton’s army should ride west to finish off the rest of the southern front. Caer Aonbhean is the final of the Caer town you need for the “Breaking the Siege” quest.

With Anton’s army, finish off any surviving enemy heroes wandering around the countryside. If you like, you can capture the remaining forts, though it’s not necessary; you have a stranglehold on all but the Falcon’s Reach area at this point.

Defeat the final Inferno town for some extra resources and to remove any chance of enemies taking anything while you adventure toward Falcon’s Reach.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 11-12To battle to save Falcon’s Reach, you must first defeat the two demon forts west of the capital city. Destroy the Inferno army guarding the northern path leading to the forts and advance with your biggest army.

In the Tunnels, ride to the where the magical fire used to block the bridge. It’s vanished with the fall of the two demon towns. Ride south along the bridge.

Anton’s army should attack the first demon fort. If you can’t take the fort easily, retreat and continue to build up your forces. You have no hope in the final battle if you can’t make short work of the forts.

Once you conquer the first fort, the gates to the north open and you can continue.

Conquer the second demon fort. You’re now ready for the final battle once the gates open to the east. When you complete the “Breaking the Siege” quest, you earn 40,000 experience and a special relic, the Guardian Breastplate, which bestows +4 Might Defense and friendly creatures are immune to damage dealt by the first three attacks each combat. Equip that immediately for your big fight against Ahribban.It’s a good time to save the game before your final battle against the supremely powerful Ahribban. You can always return to the save point, wait a few years to gain more creatures

When you reach the Princess down in the Tunnels, you discover that Jezebeth is a traitor. She has abandoned Elrath for the power and temptations of Sheogh. Her Inferno army offers stiff competition, but a well-prepared army of a few hundred creatures should defeat the Chaos Lord. Upon her defeat, Archangel Michael arrives and tends to Princess Gwendolyn’s wounds. The new Empress will survive to take the throne if you can rescue Falcon’s Reach.Haven Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 13-14Before you embark on the final battle against Ahribban, combine your armies into one, large force. Depending on how many casualties you’ve accumulated over the past few weeks, you may have to build back up your army. Don’t attack Ahribban until you’re ready to thousands of points of damage in a short amount of time.

Ahribban starts with 125,000 hit points. It’s going to take more than a thousand creatures on your end to down the demon, and you should concentrate on creatures that deal heavy melee damage. The main battle takes place outside Falcon’s Reach’s walls, which means your melee creatures will be face to face with Ahribban from the beginning.

Charge forth with your melee creatures and inflict as much damage as you can to Ahribban each turn. The demon calls forth an Inferno creature stack each turn, but don’t worry about them with your big attackers. You also control smaller Haven defenders inside the town walls. Use the ranged attackers inside the walls each turn to destroy the Inferno creature stack that Ahribban spawns.

Pour on the damage with attack after attack. Encircle the demon so that all of your creatures can strike at him no matter their size.

When you knock Ahribban down under 25 percent of his hit points, the demon counters with a devastating area-effect attack that inflicts massive damage on all your creature stacks. All the small forces will be destroyed in that single blast. Your larger creature stacks–now reduced to half or three-quarters of their size–will have to finish the demon off on their own.

It will be a race to the end. Ahribban will destroy most of your damaged creatures stacks he strikes with a single blow at this point. Ignore the Inferno creatures Ahribban summons and throw everything you have at the demon to bring it down.

With a final bit of damage, you condemn Ahribban to another eternity in Sheogh. Princess Gwendolyn thanks you for your service, and even asks to see you more in court should you spare the time from war. Sveltana and Anastasya, the sister you stabbed through the heart, greet you upon victory and all is right, even if it’s just for a brief time.

Sanctuary Building & Battle StrategiesCampaign BackgroundAfter Slava’s battle against the Wolf Dutchy, Slava begrudingly agrees to give his daughter Irina to Gerhart, the Duke of Wolf, in marriage to form a treaty. However, Irina is not too happy about the arrangements. On their wedding night Gerhart attacked Irina violently and Irina in turn grievously wounded Gerhart. As punishment, Irina was imprisoned in the Duke’s fetid dungeons. However, Irina was rescued from her imprisonment by her brother Sandor. Together they escaped to the southeastern islands of the Jade Sea.

Sandor and his army escort Irina to Hashima where they meet Katsue, the priestess of Shalassa and furen of the temple of Banteki Reef. Since Gerhart and his Wolf army are pursuing her, Irina asks for sanctuary. Katsue agrees to this, especially since the Wolf army is invading the island as it searches for Irina.

Irina is given a few Sanctuary creatures for her protection. Not only must she escape from the Wolf army, she must raise up an army of her own to drive the Haven forces of the Wolves away from Hashima while proving her worth to the Naga creatures and their leader the Daimyo.Starting HeroAs a Sanctuary player, your primary hero will be Irina in Campaign mode. Irina has an affinity for Magic. Though you certainly can train up her Might abilities, she will be most effective as a Magic-based hero. If you aren’t playing in Campaign mode, you can develop your hero however you like.Faction StrategySanctuary uses strategy during battle similar to a chess match. Each creature stack should be used to target an enemy against which it has an advantage or that offers the biggest threat.

Sanctuary creatures are well balanced between attacking and defending. In addition, many of the units gain benefits by attacking the same target until it is defeated and removed from the battle. The Sanctuary army consists of a couple main attacking stacks of creatures, usually with higher numbers of creatures than the rest. The other creature stacks support these main attackers by attacking the enemy’s supporting units

Your Faction Ability, Honor, plays into the main strategy. As creatures who have not been hit yet during the turn are attacked, the Faction Ability gauge fills and you can trigger it to increase the Might and Magic Defense values of all friendly Sanctuary creatures. Therefore, instead of all your units attacking a single stack, you should attack as many enemies as possible during a turn so that you can use this ability often. This defensive bonus can help your creatures stay in combat longer.Sanctuary AdvantagesPowerful Triggered BuffsCrowd Control AbilitiesBalanced UnitsResistant to WaterSanctuary has some great advantages; however, you must know how to use them. The Shark Warriors and Wanizame as well as Kenshi and Kensei benefit from attacking the same stack of enemy creatures each turn until they are destroyed. The Kappa and Kappa Shoya both have a leaping attack that inflicts more damage the farther away these creatures are from their targets. The Spring Spirit and Mizu-Kami both can create a link to another friendly stack and share positive effects such as returning a percentage of damage back to a melee attacker. Several units have abilities that benefit other friendly creatures during battle as Sanctuary creatures benefit by working together.Sanctuary DisadvantagesLimited Range AbilitiesNo Burst or Instant EffectsNo Healing/ResurrectionExpensive TroopsRelying on a couple of stacks of strong creatures can be a disadvantage. If the enemy can slow them down or keep them out of action for a couple of turns, the rest of the Sanctuary army can suffer. Often Sanctuary armies are outnumbered since other factions have cheaper costs for their creatures and can produce more per week. Since many of the Sanctuary benefits come by attacking the same creature stack for several turns, they lack the ability to respond to changing circumstances without suffering a penalty.Recommended Magic SchoolsSanctuary cannot use Fire or Darkness magic. Of course, the Water school of magic is an excellent choice for Sanctuary Heroes with a Magic affinity. Air magic is another good option, especially when fighting against other Sanctuary creatures. Earth or Light magic can also be useful for their healing spells since Sanctuary lacks an inherent ability to heal.The Waiting StrategySanctuary creatures are not the quickest. While they often have the initiative, sometimes it is best to wait for your enemies to go first. However, that only applies to your melee creatures. Always start off with a damaging spell if your hero has a magic affinity. This is usually best targeted against the enemy ranged units since those are often the only ones that can inflict damage on you during the first turn. Then use your Coral and Pearl Priestesses to attack remaining ranged units. If you don’t hit them, they will hit your ranged units.

Order your melee units to wait and see what the enemy will do. Your Kappa don’t have the range to perform their Leap attack clear across the battlefield. However, if you wait for the enemies to advance, they will move into range and you can then use this powerful attack the first turn.

Your Kenshi and Shark Warriors should also wait since they can’t reach the other side of the battlefield either. Then after the enemy creatures have ventured out into the middle of the battlefield, go on the attack. That lets you get in the first hit and then when they retaliate, it is only with the remaining creatures.The One on One StrategySanctuary creatures often benefit from picking a target and sticking to it. This is especially true of Wanizame and Kenshi/Kensei. When the Wanizame and Shark Guard attack, they create a Ferocious Wound on the target. Then when Wanizame attack a target that already has a Ferocious Wound, the Wanizame inflicts additional damage. Kenshi and Kensei actually are penalized if they change targets before their initial target is eliminated.

Using the One on One Strategy, have each of your melee creature stacks pick an enemy stack and go after them. Keep at each enemy until they are defeated, then move onto another enemy stack. Since Kappa/Kappa Shoya do more damage with their Leaping attacks, they should pick a target, use their special attack, then move away unless they can finish off the enemy with a close melee attack.

While the melee units are fighting it out, use your ranged units to keep the enemy ranged units from interfering with the melee fights by eliminating the enemy’s ranged units. Also use your Spring Spirits/Mizu-Kames abilities to link or bond with your melee units so they can benefit from the Pain Mirror ability which reflects some of the damage back at the attacker.The Protect the Priestesses StrategyIf you are battling against an enemy who likes to go after your Coral and Pearl Priestesses with their melee units, then you need to protect them. Position them in a corner and then surround them with your Kenshi/Kensi and Shark Warriors/Wanizame. Also consider putting your Snow Maidens behind the protection as well. Since ranged units can’t use their more powerful ranged attacks when enemies are adjacent to them, by creating a wall of melee units, you not only protect them from melee attacks, but also allow your Coral and Pearl Priestesses to continue using their ranged attacks. Don’t forget to use your Honor faction ability to keep up your creatures’ defenses. While most of your melee units are defending, use your Kappa to go after the enemy creatures that are staying back and attacking from a distance. Since ranged units usually are not that strong, a good-sized stack of Kappas can kill a lot of ranged enemies with a single Leap attack.The Water and Air Magic StrategyIf your hero has the magic affinity, then you want to invest a lot of your ability points in spells and increasing your Magic Power. This power increases the damage inflicted by your magic units. Get some damaging spells such as Ice Bolt or Lighting Bolt. You eventually want to get Chained Lightning and Circle of Winter. In addition to using attack spells, you should also get some defensive spells such as Ice Armor which adds defenses to a stack of creatures. Don’t discount Storm Winds I and II. The first reduces the amount of damage you take from ranged attacks. It lasts a full five turns. Storm Winds II actually inflicts damage on ranged units. While you can use your hero’s spells, some of your creatures also have spells. The Coral and Pearl Priestesses can do some healing, Spring Spirits/Mizu-Kames can link or bond with other friendly units sharing some of their abilities, and Yuki-Onnas can create icy traps on the battlefield. Finally, don’t for get about the Sacred Kirin. Its Hailstorm Aura can be used to inflict extra damage when it attacks. Sanctuary ArtifactsDepending on your initial affinity (Might or Magic) and your eventual reputation (Blood or Tears), your hero will seek out different artifacts that complement your battle tendencies. Some artifacts are great utility, such as artifacts that increase movement points, or give you resources, or improve all your primary attributes–feel free to equip any of those no matter your hero’s affinity and reputation. Here’s an example of a Sanctuary Magic hero’s ultimate item wish list, though there are tons of possibilities in each inventory slot, even for Magic-based heroes, and if you wanted to go Might, your inventory wish list would look quite different.

Magic Hero Item Wish ListHead: Supreme Crown of the Magister (+5 Magic Power; +50 Mana; +5 Mana Regeneration)Neck: Evercold Icicle (Water spells deal 20% more damage)Shoulder: Magister Spaulders (+5 Magic Power; +3 Destiny)Chest: Magister Robe (+4 Magic Power; +20 Mana; +2 Mana Regeneration)Cloak: Cloak of Shalassa (+10 Magic Defense against Magic)Main Hand: Staff of the Tides (Dynasty Weapon)Off Hand: Libram of the Prophet (+5 magic Defense; +50 Mana; +5 Mana Regeneration)Gauntlet: Bracers of the Archmage (+6 Magic Power; Grants the Implosion spell)Finger: Ring of Haste (+10 Initiative to friendly creatures)Feet: Sandals of the Blessed (+1 to all Hero Champion creature production increased by two)Pocket 2: Golden Goose (+2,000 gold per day)Pocket 3: War Horn of the Legion (+1 Leadership; Weekly elite creature production increased by two)Creating Your SanctuaryNo matter the skirmish or campaign ahead, your first few days, and certainly your first few weeks, are crucial to a successful development. Before your hero starts exploring around, consider a very important question: Do you have enough wood and ore in the immediate area to support your first week’s worth of development?

If the answer is yes, then you can afford to upgrade your Village Hall first and buy creature recruitment buildings second. This increases your daily income of gold and the earlier you do this, the more gold you will have at the end of the week. If the answer is no, you should buy one of your creature recruitment building first, add the creatures that come with it, and then attack the nearby neutral armies and gather extra resources from the rewards.

Generally, you have enough resources at the start of a map to purchase a single building or upgrade. Will it be an upgrade from the Village Hall to the Town Hall, which gives you access to Rank 2 buildings and increases your kingdom’s daily income by 1,000 gold? Or will it be to purchase the Reef Barrier (recruit Shark Warriors), Coral Sanctuary (recruit Coral Priestesses), or the Enchanted Pond (recruit Kappas)?

Remember that your goal by week’s end is to have all your Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings in play, plus a few extras: Basic Fortifications, Marketplace, Hall of Heroes. By the end of week two, you want to upgrade your recruitment buildings to Reef Rampart, Pearl Sanctuary, and Blessed Pond, and/or begin to work on your Rank 2 creature recruitment buildings to hire Kenshi then Spring Spirits or Snow Maidens. In the third week, you want to continue with your Rank 2 buildings and adjust to what you’ve learned about your opponents through exploration.Sanctuary Town Ranks1. Village Hall: Your first decision is always, “Do I upgrade to a Town Hall to gain more gold each day, or do I start with creature recruitment?” If you think you have enough resources that you can win off weak neutral armies, or free wood and ore you can gather through exploration, always upgrade to the Town Hall. Stockpiling gold can’t hurt, and once you build the Marketplace that gold can be traded for missing resources. If you decide you need help with your army first, think about upgrading your Village Hall as your second purchase after your creature recruitment building. You must upgrade to Town Hall by the end of week one, and it’s better if you’ve reached City Hall in the first seven days. Later, upgrade to your Capitol as soon as you can fit it in your building progression.

1. Coral Sanctuary: Your three Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings are interchangeable: as long as you buy one of them with your first or second purchase, you should be fine. If you start with a Magic hero, it’s best to start with the Coral Sanctuary and take advantage of the Coral Priestesses’ Magic-based damage. This also gives you some powerful ranged attacks that maintain full strength clear across the battlefield. In week two, you should upgrade to the Pearl Sanctuary.

2. Reef Barrier: Shark Warriors are the backbone of your army and your main melee creature. If you are a Might-based hero, you should make this your first priority. Be sure to upgrade to the Reef Rampart and its Wanizame during week two.

3. Enchanted Pond: Kappa can be very powerful when using their leaping attack. Therefore, you want to be sure to recruit them. Since the Kappa Shoya can hit several enemies next to each other, you definitely want to upgrade to the Blessed Pond as soon as possible.

4. Marketplace: It’s crucial to own the Marketplace, especially if you build up the Village Hall early and have a lot of gold piling up. You never know when you’ll fall short by one or two resources to build; rather than waste a turn, the Marketplace can transform your gold (or other resource surplus) into the missing resources and you’re back in business. Buy this building when you have an extra 2,000 gold and a couple of wood and ore lying around.

5. Basic Fortification: It’s important to get this built early: not necessarily for defensive reasons–though that could come into play if an enemy surprises you very early in the game–but more for the creature production bonuses the fortification chain offers.

6. Hall of Heroes: You won’t need this building until you’ve captured another enemy town and can hire a second hero, or if you’re first hero has died and you need a quick resurrection. However, it only costs 2,000 gold to construct, so slip it in on a day where you have extra gold but may be missing other resources to build a better structure.

7. Sunken Arena: Kenshi are great creatures, but it can take a while to produce a lot of them. Therefore, build this structure as your first of the rank two creature buildings. Then as you can, upgrade it to a Sunken Dojo so you can recruit Kensei.

8. Sacred Source or Frost Shrine: Both of these produce magic creatures. Depending on whether you want Spring Spirits or Snow Maidens, build one and then later the other. Both of these creatures gain new abilities when you upgrade their structures so you can recruit the upgraded creatures.

9. Advanced Fortification: It’s important to reach this upgrade in week two to boost your creature production before the end of the week. The moat and enhanced wall defenses are a bonus.

10. Basic Town Portal: This building allows you to teleport your hero and army to another town you control. Not necessary until you own another town, but once you do, this is crucial to your defenses. Build this immediately after your first successful siege so that you can move around the map quickly with your main army and defend conquered towns.

11. Superior Fortification: Build this, the first of your Rank 3 buildings/upgrades, as soon as you have the extra funds. Sure, it adds guard towers and stronger walls to your defenses, but it’s really the bonus to creature production that you’re looking to capitalize on week after week.

12. Pagoda of the Great Challenger or Shrine of the Ever-Flowing Water: Your first unique building construction will depend on your play strategy. Most of the time, you want the Pagoda of the Great Challenger to increase your Faction Ability. However, if you want a little extra defense as your enemies wander into your control area, choose the Shrine of the Ever-Flowing Water.

13. Pagoda of the Master Duelist or Shrine of the Celestial Waters: Buy the second of your unique buildings as soon as you have the resources (usually you’re waiting on crystal production at this point). The Pagoda gives visiting heroes benefits for the next combat while the Shrine increases Water and Air magic effectiveness for one week with a one week cooldown.

14. Advanced Town Portal: Purchase this upgrade whenever you have the necessary resources and aren’t desperate for another building. You can usually wait till the mid to late game before getting it, but if you feel a threat coming, upgrade your towns immediately so your main army can teleport back to defend in a single day.

15. Misty Mountain: As soon as you have enough resources to purchase the Misty Mountain, you should. The Kirin is your strongest creature, and the earlier you get them into production, the harder it will be for enemy armies to compete with you. Upgrade to the Cloudy Mountain for even more powerful creatures.

16. Hall of Heroes: You don’t really need this upgrade. Don’t worry about it at all unless you have tons of extra resource, and then it’s good for some free heroes in case one of yours dies.

17. Shalassa’s Frozen Breath: This one really isn’t the lowest priority in your building progression. It’s actually the highest priority as soon as it becomes available, which, unfortunately, will probably be late game or not at all. With such a boon to gold and creature production, you’ll be happy to spend the massive resources to build the structure–but first you have to discover the Tears of Asha artifact.Sanctuary Creatures and CombatSanctuary creatures often have a good balance between attacking and defending. Core creatures consist of Coral Priestesses/Pearl Priestesses, Shark Warriors/Wanizame, and Kappa/Kappa Shoya. Elite creatures consist of Spring Spirts/Mizu-Kami, Snow Maidens/Yuki-Onna, and Kenshis/Kenseis. Your champion creature is the Kiren/Sacfred Kiren.Core CreaturesEarly in the game, you will only have access to your core creatures, and later, they will still serve as the majority of your fighting force. If you control a Magic hero, invest more heavily in Coral and Pearl Priestesses. However, you still need to rely on the Shark Warriors and Kappa to do your main damage.

Shark Warriors/WanizameShark Warriors are the backbone of your Sanctuary armies. You can recruit lots of them every week and they are great melee attackers. When they attack, the inflict a Ferocious Wound that reduces the target’s movement for a couple turns and the target also receives damage when it attacks. After upgrading to a Wanizame, their Blood Frenzy ability inflicts an additional percentage of damage to targets already suffering from a Ferocious Wound. Therefore, it is best to keep attacking the same target until it is destroyed.

Coral Priestess/Pearl PriestessThese are your main ranged attack creatures. Since the attack with magic, the higher the magic power of your hero, the more powerful their attacks. In addition, their attacks do not decrease in damage over range, so keep them back out of the fight and take out enemies anywhere on the battlefield. The Coral Priestesses have the Wave of Renewal ability that can heal a bit as well as remove one random negative effect from a target. The upgraded Pearl Priestesses have the Eyes of Medusa ability. When they attack, it lowers the initiative of the target for a few turns .

Kappa/Kappa ShoyaThe Kappa may not look like much, but they can be powerful—especially in large numbers. Their best tactic is the Leap attack. They can use this jump towards a target at a distance. The farther away, the more damage they inflict. This is much more damage than they can inflict up close. The Kappa Shoya have a Mighty Leap that damages not only the target, but also adjacent enemies as well. A large stack of Kappa Shoya can inflict great amounts of damage against much more powerful enemy creatures with their Mighty Leap attack.Elite CreaturesOnce you unlock your Rank 2 buildings, you have access to the supporting creatures of your attack strategy, whether it be Magic-based or Might-based. While these creatures can inflict more damage than your core creatures, you can’t recruit as many per week. Though you rely heavily on your core creatures, the elite creatures play an important supporting role in helping protect your core creatures.

Spring Spirits/Mizu-KameSpring Spirits and Mizu-Kame have a good magic melee attack. However, their ability to share positive effects with another stack using their Sprit Link or Spirit Bond abilities. In addition, they both have the Pain Mirror ability that reflects some of the melee damage they take back to their attacker. The Mizu-Kame have the Lifeguard Membrane that resists a percentage of the damage they receive. Both Pain Mirror and Lifeguard Membrane can be shared through Spirit Link or Spirit Bond.

Snow Maiden/Yuki-OnnaSnow Maidens have a magic ranged attack which also contains the chilled effect. Though their ranged attacks are more powerful than the Coral and Pearl Priestesses, you rarely have as many Snow Maidens. By upgrading them to Yuki-Onna, their attacks also decrease the target’s initiative for a few turns and they have the Ice Shards ability that creates an ice trap on a 3×3 area on the battlefield that inflicts damage on enemies walking through it.

Kenshi/KenseiKenshi are noble warriors that like to finish what they start. When using Kenshi, select your target carefully. Once they attack their first target, keep attacking that same target until it is eliminated. Changing to a different target before the first is destroyed results in a significant reduction in damage the Kenshi inflicts. On the other hand, Kenshi can retaliate against attackers an unlimited number of times. This is often how they inflict so much damage during a turn. The Kenseis also have the Four Waves ability which gives these creatures an extra attack against an enemy if the Kensei attacked it on his last attack. You can stack this up to four times if you keep attacking the same enemy stack, inflicting a lot of damage. However, each subsequent attack within a turn is half of the previous attackChampion CreaturesIt probably won’t be until the late game when you can afford the resources to purchase your Champion creature. Once you do, though, they instantly become your best creature stacks if you can recruit enough to match the size of growing enemy armies.

Kirin/Sacred KirenKirin can inflict a lot of damage and they can also take a lot before they are killed. They are resistant to affects reducing their movement and initiative. In addition, Kirin leave behind a mist in the squares as they move across the battlefield which reduces the movement of enemies moving through it. Sacred Kirin leave behind a Trail of Clouds. Friendly stacks of creatures moving through this cloud gain one additional action for the turn. Sacred Kirin also have the Hailstorm Aura attack that deals additional damage to the target and inflicts the frozen effect.SiegesAs with any siege, look to your ranged creatures first. Coral Priestesses/Pearl Priestesses and Snow Maidens/Yuki-Onnas will likely be your most valuable troops attacking or defending town walls.

None of your creatures can go over or through the walls. Therefore, you have to rely on your ranged units until you can create a breach. Send your Shark Warriors/Wanikame forward to breakdown the gate so you can get in quicker with your melee units. Keep your Kappa back from the gate. While they could help, set them in a position to use their leaping attack against any enemies that come through the gate. In addition to your ranged units, also cast damaging spells on the enemy inside—especially against their ranged units that are inflicting damage on your units outside the wall.

On defense, stay inside the walls as long as possible if you have a lot of Coral or Pearl Priestesses. Eliminate the ranged attackers first to reduce the amount of damage you take from them. Fill the central tower with your best ranged creatures to grab the tower benefits. If the enemy has a lot of ranged units, send your melee creatures out through the gate to attack. Lead with your Shark Warriors and then use the Kappa’s leaping attack to eliminate the enemy ranged units.Advancing ForthOnce you have your town increasing on a daily basis and you’ve acquired all the free resources in the immediate area–this usually takes a week or two–it’s time to adventure outward. Use the nearby neutral armies as a guide. Anything that recons with a Trivial or Low threat level should be an immediate target, and your circle of influence should extend that far. If something recons at High or Deadly threat level, your civilization hasn’t grown enough to expand that far (assuming you’re keeping your main army strong).

Scout out the local areas for mines first. You want a Sawmill (wood mine) and an Ore Mine as quickly as possible, and definitely before the end of the first week. Crystal Mines are harder to come by, and you have several weeks to acquire one before you start becoming desperate for the better upgrades and buildings. Alternatively, you can seize gold mines and use your gold surplus to buy missing resources at the Marketplace. Eventually, though, you need at least one mine of each resource producing.

Pick off the easier neutral armies so you don’t lose as many creatures in each attack. Plan your attacks based on the resources you need. Want to build a structure but don’t have the required ore? Go on the hunt for neutral armies sitting on an ore supply (or better yet, another Ore Mine). On your outings, you also want to gather treasure chests (for more gold or experience) and artifacts to improve your hero’s equipment and combat prowess.

Be on guard for enemy attacks and try to figure out where your closest enemy might be hiding in the fog of war. The sooner you conquer an enemy town and add its resources to your empire, the better off you’ll be. It’s fun to beat up on neutrals and collect goodies, but that can only take you so far–as you near the end of the first month (possibly sooner), you should lock on to a neutral fort/town or player/A.I. fort/town and siege it.Multiple HeroesYou don’t want to send your hero back to your lone town for new creatures all the time. That wastes movement points when you could be out conquering and acquiring more resources, artifacts, and building benefits. That’s another huge reason to invade your second town. Once you earn that second town, you can hire a new hero from the Hall of Heroes.

A second hero doubles your options each day. If the threat level in the area is still relatively weak, you can load this second hero up with creatures, and now you have two armies running around collecting goods. You also explore twice as fast–more with multiple heroes–which gives you valuable information on the surrounding buildings, neutral armies, and treasure. Just be careful that you don’t split your creatures too much and run the risk of a devastating loss from a standing neutral army or surprise enemy invasion.

If you think it’s best to keep one stronger army, which is usually the case in normal hostile territory, you can use your second hero as a supply chain. Rather than return all the way back to your home town with your primary hero, you can run new creatures out from town with your second hero and meet your primary hero to pass the creatures off to the bigger army. This saves time, and, so long as you aren’t in danger from a roving enemy army, the lone hero won’t have any problems returning safely home and resupplying for the next visit. With a second town, you can also recruit creatures directly from there if it’s closer and has all the necessary buildings and upgrades developed.Taking Out Enemy Heroes and ArmiesAs soon as an enemy appears out of the fog of war and stays in the open on your next turn, examine it for details. If the threat level is anything below High, destroying the enemy is a top priority. You certainly don’t want it disappearing into the fog of war and causing you problems when it appears somewhere in your territory. Beyond that, though, if you can eliminate it without heavy loses, you weaken your opponent and possibly put yourself in a good position to seize a nearby enemy fort or town. Move in with your primary army and watch that you aren’t exposed to a stronger army hiding elsewhere. It’s best to strike the same day you see it, or on the next day. If the enemy flees and you can’t reach it within a day or two’s movement, let it go: you can’t afford to run all over the map not furthering your position.Conquering Control PointsForts and towns hold the key to control areas. Seize one and you control all the buildings the owner has gained to that point. Obviously, towns are better because they come with so many buildings/upgrades and you can hire more creatures with them each week.

As with enemy heroes and armies, examine a neutral or enemy town the second it comes into view. Analyze its defenses. Is it guarded by a nearby army? Does it have a strong garrison of its own? Or is it open for the plucking? Unlike an enemy hero or army that you don’t want to cover lots of ground to track down, you may want to travel several days to sack a town. If you can catch an invading enemy out of its home, steal it away from him, and seal up the defenses before the enemy returns, it’s worth forgoing almost anything else. You can always backtrack and eliminate neutral armies for rewards later, and you want to grab any limited-defended fort or town as quickly as possible before someone else gets to it first.Winning It All

Take the time to properly build up your town in the beginning, and don’t rush into any battles without checking all your options first. Better to gather the appropriate resources early and make sure you have a solid defense going than try to be too aggressive and overextend yourself.

Expand outward and seek out the weakest nearby enemy for your full attention. You need to conquer an enemy town (though forts help too) first, or at least at relatively the same time as any other strong enemies out there. You can’t afford to spend weeks behind in the resource game if other enemies have more control areas than you.

Once you have your second or third town, you should be in full command of the area. As days march into weeks, your creatures will grow into a near limitless supply and enemies won’t be able to keep up. Remember to use your Honor ability as much as possible during a battle. The increased defense it provides will help keep your creatures in the battle longer so they can inflict more damage on the enemy. Since you don’t have much healing ability, reducing the damage you take it the next best thing.

Sanctuary Campaign: Chapter 1SANCTUARY: CHAPTER 1: The Fury and the MireWEEK 1At the end of the Prologue, Slava agrees to give his daughter Irina to Gerhart, the Duke of Wolf. Gerhart attacked Irina violently on their wedding night and Irina in turn grievously wounded Gerhart. As punishment, Irina was imprisoned in the Duke’s fetid dungeons. However, Irina was rescued from her imprisonment by her brother Sandor. Together they escaped to the southeastern islands of the Jade Sea.

Sandor and his army escort Irina to Hashima where they meet Katsue, the priestess of Shalassa and furen of the temple of Banteki Reef. Since Gerhart and his Wolf army are pursuing her, Irina asks for sanctuary. Katsue agrees to this, especially since the Wolf army is invading the island as it searches for Irina.

As Irina, you begin on the island of Hashima with a small army of Coral Priestesses and Pearl Priestesses. Since you have one ability point to spend, consider using it to add a magic ability since Irina has an affinity for magic. The water school is a good place start, so select something such as Ice Bolt. After spending your ability point, move to the right to attack a group of Sentinels guarding a treasure chest and an artifact.

At the start of the chapter, your primary quest, “The Wolf Hunts”, provides your main objective. You must escape from the Temple of the Pearl Priestesses. One you complete this quest, you are rewarded with 2,000 experience and the Sandals of the Prophet.

This is your first combat with your sanctuary army. The Coral Priestesses and Pearl Priestesses are best used for ranged attacks. Therefore, hit the Sentinels right at the start. Since it takes them two turns to get to your creatures to attack, use Ice Bolt if you selected it to freeze one stack so it can’t move the first turn while both of your creature stacks attack the other stack of Sentinels. By fighting this battle with these tactics, any enemy stack that reaches your creatures will not have enough to inflict much damage. After you win this battle, select the experience rather than the gold since you want to level up as much as you can to learn some new spells and abilities. Also pick up the gold as well as the Crest of Valor which increases your Leadership. Finish off the first day by heading to the left.

Start off the second day by visiting the Meditation Temple. It increases your Initiative and Might Power for the next combat. Then head down the map to attack some more Haven enemies. Once they are defeated, collect the gold and get the experience points from the chest. Continue south as far as you can to end the day.After defeating two groups of enemies and collecting experience points from chests, you should have reached level 2. Don’t forget to spend your new ability point. It is a good idea to stay with the same school of magic and build up your abilities in that area. For example, select Water Magic I to increase your magic power.

As you advance, stop by the Shrine of the Frozen Pearl to increase your initiative for the entire week. Then continue south to a group of Coral Priestesses.

Don’t worry about a battle. These Coral Priestesses want to join your army. Accept them and then grab some more gold and experience from a chest. Spend what little movement you have left moving to the east.

While your previous battles were voluntary since you could have avoided the Wolf’s groups of enemies, in order to continue to the east, you must fight a battle. This time your army is a bit larger. You face not only Sentinels, but also Crossbowmen. Use your spells and ranged attacks to defeat this enemy.

After winning this battle, you have completed “The Wolf Hunts” quest and earned experience and the Sandals of the Prophet. You now need to get to the town of Umiya. Since it is on the other side of the mountains, you need to find a way to move under them. You now have a new quest—“The Naga Lord”. You must reach the town of Umiya on the other side of the mountains to complete this quest. In return, you will earn lots of experience, some Kenshi creatures, and the Humble Coif of the Prophet artifact.

Before continuing to the southeast, head north to a group of Water Elementals guarding a powerful staff.

You have a choice to talk to the Water Elemental or attack. Since they are quite powerful, you risk losing your army if you attack. Instead, try talking. The Water Elemental agrees to give you the staff if you defeat some Fire Elementals to the south. Now continue moving to the south.As you move south, there are several groups of enemies. Right click on them to see what they contain. If they are trivial threats, attack to earn experience and collect gold, experience, or other items nearby. However, don’t get into large battles. Until you have a town under your control, you can’t replace losses to your army.

Make your way to the southeast. Since you are using magic during your battles and using up your mana, but sure to stop by the Dragon Vein. It restores your mana completely. These can be visited once per week.

As the week is about to come to a close, fight a group of enemies near a Stone of Enlightenment. It offers some experience. Once you win the battle, collect the goodies nearby, including the Amulet of Health, and then continue to the east.

WEEK 2

During this week, you need to advance towards the town of Umiya. Fight those enemies who block your way as well as those who do not offer much of a threat off to the sides. Don’t forget to grab resources along the way.

Head west to the enemy group near the Blind Maiden statue and defeat them. You should have little trouble with this battle. Be sure to stop by the statue to increase your Destiny for the next battle.

Continue south and visit the Rally Flag and Observatory. You can see the Subterranean Gate across a river to the southeast. However, you have no way to cross the river.In order to get across the river, you must have your horse drink from a Dragon Nexus. Then it will be enchanted by Shalassa and can walk on water. This is the objective for the “Riding the Waves” quest.

Now advance to the west onto the Fin Peninusula. Fight your way through a Haven group—or they may flee at the sight of your might. Be sure to stop at the Mother Earth Shrine to increase the health of all your creatures during the next battle.

Continue out onto the peninsula. In the distance you can see a Wolf ship. However, before you can worry about it, you have to get to the Dragon Nexus.

Ride west to the Dragon Nexus. After your horse drinks from the water, it can then walk across water. You also finish a quest in the process.Now that your horse can go across water, you get a new quest—“Of Sharks and Men”. The Wolf troops are blockading the island of the Shark Guards. The objective of this quest is to destroy the Wolf ship. Not only will you be rewarded with lots of experience, you also gain a stack of Shark Guards for your army.

Ride out to the Wolf ship and attack. The ship has a hero as well as stacks of creatures. However, using your magic abilities and spells, your army should have little difficulty defeating the enemy. Once you win, you add Wanizame and his Shark Guards to your army.

Spend a day or two riding around the peninsula to collect chests floating out on the water to help build up your experience.

Finish the second week by collecting resources on the peninsula and also from the flotsam floating on the water.

WEEK 3

Now that the Subterranean Gate is in sight, this week you must make your way to the gate and then advance underground to get to the other side of the mountain. Much of this week is spend backtracking.

After gathering resources on the peninsula, make your way back across the narrow neck of land to the main part of the island. Be sure to stop in at structures along the way.

As you return to the observatory, you are now able to cross the river to get to the other side. Ride your horse across the river.

There are a couple small groups of enemies on the other side of the river. Take time to battle them and get the resources or items they guard.

Now that you have the Shark Guard, you have a good create stack for melee attacks. Use your Coral and Pearl Priestesses to take out the enemy Crossbowmen and decrease the numbers of the other stacks before your Shark Guard move in for the kill. Be sure to visit the Shrine of Elemental Water behind the second group of enemies. All of your creatures get a water shield during the next combat.

Once you have cleared out this area, make your way through the Subterranean Gate to enter the cave under the volcano.

Once inside the cave, move to speak with Arashi. He joins your army along with his group of Kenshi.

Spend the remainder of the week exploring the area in the cave. Head to east to get resources from a campfire and then visit Sigil of Arkath which gives you 5 Magic Defense and 5 Might Defense for the week.

WEEK 4

Spend most of this week exploring the cave under the volcano. There are some weak enemy groups here guarding some resources, items, and structures which can be useful to you.

Start off by heading south to pick up the Scroll of Chained Lightning and add it to your inventory. In this same area, defeat some Earth Elementals to visit the Crystal of Power which increases your Might Magic by 1. Then head to the west to defeat Fire Elementals to get the Motley Cloak of a Fool.

Scrolls can be used during combat. However, unlike spells, they do not require mana and can only be used one time. Make sure to use them wisely and for a good purpose.

Once the southern part of the cave is cleared, head to the north to defeat another group of Fire Elementals and get the Sandals of Swift Journey.

As you near the end of the week, continue to the northern part of the caves where you must defeat Darkness Elementals to continue.

Finally, make your way to the east a bit and then south to get to the other Subterranean Gate so you can exit the caves and return to the world above ground.

There is a structure to the east of your battle with the Darkness Elementals. However, it is guarded by a strong army, so skip it for now and make your way out of the cave. You can come back later when you have a larger army.

WEEK 5

This week you are back above ground. Make your way to the town of Umiya to set up a base where you can recruit more creatures for your army.

As you exit the cave, begin advancing to the east. Pick up some resources and a chest along the way. Keep going and stop at a Dragon Vein to restore your mana before meeting up with Hiroshi.

Speak to Lord Hiroshi. He offers you the town of Umiya in return for your help in driving the Wolf army from Hamashi. You now have another quest—“Secession”. The objective is to capture and convert the Wolf trading post of Strandholm into a Sanctuary city.

Now that you have control of Uniya, start building structures in the town so you can recruit creatures. Start with a Coral Sanctuary, then build a Reef Barrier and an Enchanted Pond. This allows for three types of creatures to be recruited every week.

Now move around the area near Umiya and capture a Sawmill and an Ore mine so you can begin producing their resources daily to help build up your town. Also fight some groups of creatures to get more resources as well as items. This will take you the rest of the week and then some.

WEEK 6

This week is a good time to secure the area around Umiya and to build up the town. As you find chests, consider taking the gold. By this time, it is tougher to advance to the next level and now that you have a town, you need the gold to recruit more creatures for your army.

If you ride your horse out onto the bay north of your town, you can pick up a chest and some flotsam for resources.

Sometime during this week or the next, a Wolf hero arrives to attack. Stock up on creatures at your town as soon as they arrive at the beginning of the week so you are ready. You should not have too much trouble defeating this enemy army as long as you use your spells and abilities.

Be sure to visit the Weaponsmith to the west of your town. You have to defeat some Air Elementals, but it is worth it.

As you have enough resources, upgrade your town to rank 3 so you can build a Sunken Arena and recruit Kenshis. Build as many other structures as you can during this week to help prepare you for future weeks.

WEEK 7

This is another week of securing the area around your town and building up your army.

By now your army should be strong enough to head down to the Coral Caven south of your town. Defeat the Water Elementals and take control of this structure to increase the number of creatures you can recruit each week.

Now move to the west and take on some Air Elementals so you can visit the Weaponsmith and increase your Might Power.You are in no rush. So in between each battle, be sure to stop by the Rally Flag as well as the Dragon Vein so you have your mana maxed out and you get the bonuses from the flag.

Build a wall around your city. Then when you see a Wolf hero coming your way, move into the city and take cover behind the walls. Use ranged attacks and spells to keep them at decrease their numbers, then rush out and finish them off.

WEEK 8:

If you are going to go on the attack, you need to build up your army. As you have been clearing out the area around your town, the battles with the elementals have taken their toll.Spend resources and gold on upgrading your defenses to Superior Fortifications. This adds two arrow towers to your walls and further increases the number of creatures you get each week.

Head north from your town, and then to the west to find a Stone of Enlightenment guarded by some Air Elementals. Defeat them and gain some experience from the Stone.

To the west of the Stone of Enlightenment is a Haven Fort. It is usually pretty well garrisoned, so wait another week before attacking and build up your force. Continue to scout around to find what resources and items you can, but try to avoid any fights.

WEEK 9

This week it is time to begin expanding your territory.

Load up your army with new creatures and get ready for battle. However, if you see the Wolf hero coming down the road, head back into your city and take cover behind your walls.

A good strategy is to allow the enemy to take damage from your ranged attacks as well as your arrow towers. Then as it looks like they might break through the gate, rush out and attack with your melee units.

By letting the Wolf hero attack your city, you can eliminate this army while minimizing your losses. Then as soon as it is destroy, leave your city and move on the Haven fort to the north. Be sure to stop at the Dragon Vein to top off your mana as well as a Rally Flag. Then attack the fort. Send your Kappas and Shark Guards to attack the gate while your Coral Priestesses go after the Crossbowmen. Use your spells and abilities as well.

After you have captured the fort, convert it to a Sanctuary fort.

Finally head back to Umiya, your city, to collect some new creatures at the beginning of the next week.

WEEK 10

This week continues the exploration of the map as well as some expansion.

By now you should have a fairly strong army and are ready to tackle the Arena just north of your city. Here you battle a Stronghold army.

Don’t worry about losing your creatures. This is a practice battle. Any losses are returned at the end of the fight. However, if you win, you can increase your Might or Magic by +2.

Advance north up the road past the fort you captured. Continue all the way to the Observatory. As you use this structure, you will be able to see much more of the surrounding area.

Continue north to visit the Choral of Believers to increase your Magic power for the next combat, then attack the Haven Fort to the west. Once you have captured it, convert it to a Sanctuary Fort

If you still have some time in the week, get over to the nearby Barracks just to the west. Convert it to a Sanctuary Barracks so you can begin recruiting creatures at the Fort in this area.

There are many groups of enemies in this area that you can attack in order to get to resources and items. However, since the Wolf hero continues to attack, it is best to keep your army strong for now.

WEEK 11

Now that you have expanded your territory, it is time to secure it to prevent the Wolf hero from taking it back.

You can now recruit all of the core creatures at your northern Sanctuary Fort. However, the elite Kenshi are only available at your city. Therefore, hire a new hero and use this hero to carry Kenshi from your city to your Fort or Irina’s army.

Advance to the west of the Fort to scout out the final territory which is still under Wolf control. Place the cursor over the army in the gate of the walled city to see how it compares to your own. It is still too early to attack, so head back towards the Fort.

Move out from the Fort to engage the Wolf hero that occasionally comes out to attack. However, by this time, you should not have too much trouble taking on this enemy.As your army becomes larger and more powerful, the enemy groups off to the sides of the road are easier to defeat. Fight against these creatures to get the resources or other goodies near them.

During this week, you can also try exploring to the east of your territory. Ride your horse across the water to a small island on the eastern edge of the map.

This island has a Gold Mine, a Crystal Mine, and lots of other goodies. You need to fight several creatures guarding these structures and items, but it can be worth it.

WEEK 12+

This section covers the several weeks leading up to the end of this map. You spend most of your time traveling around the map and revisiting areas you were too weak to conquer earlier.

Make your way back down into the cave below the volcano. You can leave your northern Fort undefended or have your other Hero garrison it. Once down in the caves, go to the northeastern corner and fight the creatures guarding the Arcane Library.

You now have a large enough army to conquer these creatures. Once you do, enter the Arcane Library. There you can choose a reward of increased Magic Power or Magic Defense. Your choice also includes either Blood or Tear Reputation, so select carefully to so you can move towards the reputation you want.

You still have more unfinished business to attend to. Continue through he cave and make your way to the Fire Elementals the Water Elemental wanted you to destroy.

The Fire Elementals are tough to defeat. However, your army can handle them. Plus use your spells and abilities.

After the Fire Elementals are defeated, ride to the Water Elemental. She rewards you with the Staff of the Tides. This artifact increases the Magic Power for Water spells and is a Dynasty Weapon. At Level 2, it gives you +30 mana, Call of the Depths at Level 3, +5 Magic Defense at Level 4, and Ice Barrier at Level 5.

While on the western side of the island, collect all the remaining artifacts and other goodies you were not strong enough to get earlier. Then head back through the cave to get back to your city. Stock up on all the creatures that have been arriving while you were gone.

Now you are ready to defeat the Wolf army on this island once and for all. Ride with your army up to Strandholm and attack the army in the gate. Don’t forget to visit structures on the way to Strandholm so you have some advantages.

After reinforcements, step through the Dragon Gate into a small subterranean area with the final staircase up to the surface. Access the Crystal of Revelation for +1 Magic Defense before leaving the caverns.

Exit the caverns and investigate any buildings and structures you think might help you before the final battle.

Be on guard for any enemy heroes. If you spot one, beeline for the enemy army and take it out before it has a chance to retreat to a fortified position inside the town.

Ride east to find the final town. Now's your last chance to collect anything you want before the final battle.Your army should be at least twice as strong to take down the town. After you beat the town's forces, you must fight another, harder battle to free Jorgen from the Inquisition clutches. Err on the side of many, many creatures.

Salvatore holds down the final Holy Inquisition town. The fanatical leader will fall if you go in with enough creatures to expect two epic battles. Load up on healers and Skeletal Spearmen, who will serve well in both battles.

To free Jorgen from his prison, you must fight a large army of Radiant Glories. If you aren't ready to take on over 200 of them, you had better save up more creatures and return again. Each Radiant Glory stack teleports quickly, and you can't retaliate against them since they quickly teleport away after their attacks. If the Radiant Glory assault wasn't enough, Jorgen takes damage each turn in his special prison cell--you are on a clock to defeat all the Radiant Glories before time runs out!

Your battlefield-affect spells can hinder or injure multiple Radiant Glory stacks at once, but be careful--mass abilities also affect Jurgen, and you don't want to damage him too much, since he's already taking damage each turn from his cell.

Respond with healing and Necromancy as your creature stacks take significant damage. An ability such as Mass Life Drain can counterattack some of the damage from the Radiant Glory attacks. You won't be able to prevent many of the attacks, which is okay, since this is the final battle and it doesn't matter how many creatures perish on your side so long as you survive. If you have the ability to summon elementals, do so to take the heat off some of your creature stacks and hopefully deal some extra damage in the process.

Eventually, you will overcome the odds and defeat the Radiant Glory jailors. You free Jorgen, and he reveals himself as one of the Faceless, though he insists he had nothing to do with Slava's death. There are many more mysteries to unravel, but at least you've led a crusade to rid the immediate lands of the Inquisition.Sanctuary Campaign: Chapter 2SANCTUARY: CHAPTER 2: The Winding StairWEEK 1In the second chapter, Irina has been made a vassal of Daimyo Hiroshi and has been tasked with driving the Wolf army from the island of Hashima.

You start off with three quests. “Remants of the Pact” requires you to capture the brigand’s Fort in four weeks. For “The Choice” quest, you must reach the Tears or Blood class for your Hero. Finally, the “Wolves Go Home” quest’s objective is to capture the eastern Haven Fort.

Irina begins outside the city of Strandholm. There are no structures inside the city for recruiting creatures, so start off by building one. Then recruit those creatures.

You are short on resources. Therefore, in order to build some more structures inside the city, you need to scour the area around the city. There are several resources scattered about the beaches near the city. Most are guarded by creatures. Start at the northern beach and engage the first group.

Some of the creatures offer to join you—often for a price. Since you don’t have much of an army to begin with, pay for those who are willing to join your army.

Work your way along the beach, gather resources as you go. Those creatures you do have to fight at not that tough. You still have the same spells and abilities you earned in the previous level, so use them to your army’s benefit.

To the south of the city are an Ore Mine and a Sawmill. Take control of them as quickly as possible so they can begin producing resources for you. All of the area around the city can be cleared and under your control by the end of the first week.

As you gather resources during the week, be sure to build structures in the city for recruiting. You should have no trouble building a Reef Barrier for Shark Guards, a Coral Sanctuary for Coral Priestesses, and an Enchanted Pond for Kappa.

This level allows you to upgrade your recruiting structures so you can then recruit elite creatures instead of just the core. However, you need to upgrade your town to rank 2 and get a lot more resources including Blood Crystals.

WEEK 2

This second week, you should continue to find resources to build up your city. The east has what you need.

Recruit all of the creatures you can at the start of the week. This will essentially double the size of your army. Then ride down to the south to the Stables. By visiting this, you increase the distance you can move each day for the week.

As you come across chests where you can choose gold or experience, go for the gold right now. You need a lot to build up your city and for recruiting creatures.

From the Stables, head southeast to find the Crystal Cavern. Defeat the creatures guarding it and take control of it, picking up the nearby crystals as well. You now have all three resources coming in every day so that you can gradually build up your city.

Now had to the west to attack some Earth Elementals. After making short work of them, pick up the goodies as well as an artifact. The Crest of Courage provides +4 Leadership for you. Move north and defeat some Haven enemies so you can use the Stone of Enlightenment to get more experience.

Keep moving east and stop by the Rally Flag and the Meditation Temple as you collect more resources.

While in the northeastern part of the map, be sure to venture out into the water a bit until you can see a group of Mermaids. Attack them to clear them from a small island. Then collect resources and an artifact. The Celestial Shield can be used by Haven. However, you can sell it later if you build an Advanced Market Place.

By this time, you should have been able to upgrade all three of your creature structures and upgraded Strandholm to rank 2.

WEEK 3

This week you must finish collecting a few resources and then head back to the city to prepare for the attack on the brigand’s Fort.

Move east a bit more to fight a mixture of Sanctuary creatures so you can capture some additional resources as well as the Spider Helm artifact which decreases morale and luck to enemy creatures.

It is now time to head back to Strandholm and recruit some more creatures and begin preparations to attack the brigand’s Fort.

You might be tempted to build a Sunken Arena so you can begin recruiting Kenshis. However, this structure costs a lot of gold which you need to recruit your other three types of creatures. Hold off on the Sunken Arena for now.

If you arrive back at the town and still have a few more days, load up your recruited creatures and head south to clear a path to the enemy Fort. There are some Griffins at the border between the two areas and some other Haven creatures a bit farther south. Once they are all eliminated, grab anything they leave behind and then return to Strandholm.

WEEK 4

This is the week you go after the brigand’s Fort to the south and take control of it.

If you have not cleared the way to the Fort during the previous week, do so now. Then advance on the Fort. First you must fight Martina and her army who are located just outside of the Fort. Your army is larger and contains both core and elite units. Use them all to defeat the Haven army of Martina. Next you must fight the Fort’s garrison. This is not very tough since they have no Hero as a leader and are not as powerful as Martina’s army.

Once you have captured the Fort. Convert it to a Sanctuary Fort. Also do the same with the nearby Barracks. After it is converted, you can then recruit core creatures at the Fort.

The “Remnants of the Pact” quest is not over. Even though you captured the Fort within four weeks, you must now investigate the nearby village of Haijing for signs of Wolf activity.

You should still have some time left in the week, so advance to the south and clear out some more enemies as you gather resources.

Exit through the open gate and fight against a group of Kappas so you can get the Fireball Scroll they are guarding.

Continue to the southwest and fight more creatures in order to get even more resources. Stop by the Stable to increase your movement and be sure to get stuff from the skeleton and campfire. By the time you have done all this, the week will be at an end.

WEEK 5

While you have fought a major battle and expanded your territory during the previous week, this week is a good time to consolidate and build up for the next week.

In order to increase your daily income of gold, it is a good idea to upgrade your Town Hall as much as possible. Though is costs a lot in gold, you easily make it up within a week due to the increased income.

Rather than continue down to Haijing, make your way back up towards Standholm at the start of the week and then advance to the east. This is a good opportunity to collect some items, artifacts, and resources while fighting some easy battles against groups of creatures. You are also earning experience in the process and allowing time for creatures to be produced at your town.

Start off by attacking this group of Elementals. You get a Summon Air Elementals Scroll, some other goodies, and can access a Stone of Enlightenment to get some more experience.

Make your way to the west and attack the Griffin and other creatures near a Barracks. You can’t capture this barracks since the Fort that controls it is behind a closed gate.

Finally move back to the east and go after the Air Elementals located next to the gate. By this time, you should have collected all of the goodies in this part of the map, so head back to Strandholm as the week comes to a close.

WEEK 6-7

Haijing is a long ride from Strandholm. Therefore during these two weeks, you gather new creatures and then advance to the Sanctuary town of Haijing.

Since you were collecting goodies in the east during the previous week, you now have to ride home. Stop by the structures such as the Rally Flag and the Stables as you go.

If you arrive back at Strandholm with only two or three days left in the week, stick around until the first day of Week 7 so you can add another week of recruits to your army. It is a long way down to Haijing, so going back for reinforcements is difficult.

Leave Strandholm on the first day of Week 7 and ride south. It will take you most of the week to get there. When you arrive, talk to Kenta, the Wawnizame who is in charge of Haijing. He asks for your help as a Wolf army headed your way.

A Wolf ship drops off an army on the coast to the northwest of Haijing. It looks like you have your work cut out for you.

By arriving at Haijing, you have completed the “Remnants of the Pact” quest and get a new quest. “Declaration of Independence” requires you to defeat Karloff and his Wolf army. The rewards for this are quite good—a +2 to Leadership along with lots of Shark Guards and Coral Priestesses.

WEEK 8

Now that you have arrived at Haijing, you must help defend it against Karloff’s Wolf army. Expect a large battle this week.

Ride off to meet up with Karloff and defeat his army. He has all Haven creatures—and large stacks of some. However, hit his melee troops with spells that slow or stop them while your Coral and Pearl Priestesses take on his Marksmen and Crossbowmen. Meanwhile, move your melee creatures forward to attack. If you have built up your army with elite creatures, this battle is not very difficult.

At the end of the battle, you must make a decision. If you are going for Tears, send Karloff to Jail. On the other hand, if you want Blood, execute Karloff.

After defeating Karloff, you gain control of Haijing. Quickly upgrade the creature structures and build new ones so you can use this town for producing creaturs as well. Since your elite units are recruited up at Standholm, hire a new hero to lead them down to Haijing for you. While this is taking place, begin building up Haijing so you can recruit your elite troops there as well.

By defeating Karloff without permission from Hiroshi, you have become a rival. Therefore, you have a new quest—“Honor and Necessity”. You must either defeat Hiroshi or force him to surrender. In addition, you get another quest. “The Ronin” requires you to defeat Changbo, a knight without a master, and his band of renegades in the western islands.

You are now at war with Hiroshi. Therefore, don’t waste any time going on the attack. Send Irina and your army south from Haijing to one of the two cities from which Hiroshi will send armies to attack you. Follow the road around to the east to arrive at Sunjo. By attacking it as soon as possible, you have a better chance of defeating the army defending it before they can build up. Once Sunjo is yours, begin building up this city as well. The more cities you control and the more creature structures, the more you can recruit every day. Plus, you now have three cities while the enemy has only two left.

As you find the city of Sunjo, you get a new quest. In order to complete “Twin Cities”, you must capture both Sunjo and Setsujo. In return, you gain +25,000 experience and +2 Might Defense.

Quickly return to Haijing and recruit new creatures for your army. Hiroshi will send armies from Setsujo to attack. They often come at you from the Subterranean gate to the eat of Haijing. Defeat this army if they try to take Haijing or go after them while out in the open. It is important to defeat this army before it can capture any of your cities. Destroy all of its creatures and you will set back the enemy.

Build Basic Town Portals and Advanced Town Portals in all your cities. Then if an enemy army is headed towards one of them, you can quickly get back to defend those cities. These portals are also great for moving creatures from one city to another with your second Hero rather than having to ride clear across the map.

WEEK 9

You have secured the western part of the map from the north to the south. Now it is time to drive towards the east.

After the start of the week, load up your army with new creatures and head through the Subterranean Gate to the east of Haijing. You want to move as quickly as possible to capture another city this week so you can add to your territory and at the same time deny it to your enemy.

Quickly advance through the cave to the east. You don’t want to waste time or lose creatures fighting battles for resources or items. You can always go back for them later. The gate back up to the surface is on the eastern side of the cave. Climb up the stairs to get back up on top.

Once you emerge onto the surface, race to the east to find the city of Umiya. It is usually not too heavily defended yet, so attack and capture the city. Once again, build up structures here so you can recruit new creatures at this city rather than having to transporting them here from other cities.

Setsujo is to the south of Umiya. By making Umiya your forward base, you can intercept and stop any enemy armies coming from Setsujo. Defend at this one spot and you don’t need to worry about garrisoning your other cities.

WEEK 10-11

These two weeks you are preparing for your attack on Setsujo and then capturing this city.

As you are building up your defenses at Umiya, take Irina and her army north of the city and across a small bay to a Fort. Capture the Fort. The defenses should be fairly light. This further increases the numbers of creatures you receive each week and denies them to your enemy.

Watch for an enemy army to approach Umiya. It if does, quickly use the Advanced Town Portal to get back to Umiya and defend it or to go after the enemy army. It is best to defeat this army out in the open or at the walls of your city rather than fight all those creatures as you are attacking Setsujo.

After collecting more creatures at the start of Week 11, head south from Umiya towards Setsujo. You have to fight your way past some enemies at the border between your two territories, but they should not be much of a match for your powerful army.

Continue advancing all the way down to Setsujo and waste no time assaulting the city. You want to do this before the end of the week so the enemy has no time to recruit new creatures to defend the city.

There will usually be two heroes at Setsujo. You have to fight a battle outside of the walls of the city first. Try to keep your casualties light. Rely on your ranged units to kill many of the enemies while also using your spells and abilities. Remember to save mana for the attack on the city itself. During the second battle, don’t worry about casualties as much. Once you win this, you will have eliminated all threats to your territory.

WEEK 12+

Now that you have captured Hiroshi’s two main cities and unlocked the doors leading to Hiroshi’s capital city, it is time to complete three of the other quests. Unless you want to fight a massive battle against Hiroshi, it is time to talk to the Kirin. Use a Town Portal to send Irina and her army to Haijing.

Katsue informs of a way to force Hiroshi to surrender without having to actually fight him. If you can be recognized by the Kirin as the new Daimyo, then Hiroshi would be forced to abdicate. Therefore, head east from Haijing and then south down a narrow path to speak with the Kirin.

The Kirin will base its decision to help you one how you handle two situations. You must find the Snow Maidens and the Spring Spirits and complete quests. The two Spirit Gates near the Kirin will take you to these two groups.

Move through the Spirit Gate on the right and talk to the Snow Maidens. You can choose to befriend the Snow Maidens or dominate them. This decision affects your reputation. If you don’t want to have to fight Hiroshi, befriend the Snow Maidens.

You get “The Snow Maidens” quest which requires you to find the body of the lost Pearl Priestess. Completing this quest earns you experience, some Snow Maidens for your army, and Tears Reputation points.

Head back through the Spirit Gate to return to the location near the Kirin. Now ride through the Spirit Gate on the left to get to the Spring Spirits. Advance to these creatures and speak with them. Once again you must decide whether to befriend them or dominate them. By the time you have spoken to the two different groups, the week will be at an end. However, you have received several new quests. Where should you begin?

“The Spring Spirits” quest requires you to rebuild their Temple. In return, you get experience, some Spring Spirits for your army, and Tears Reputation points. Plus this will go favorably with the Kirin.

You can get started on “The Spring Spirits” quest right away. Follow the trail north and then to the east from where you spoke to the Spring Spirits. As you approach the Temple, a window pops up and asks if you would like to spend 20 Wood to repair the Temple. You have more than enough wood, so fix it up.

Return to talk to the Spring Spirits. They will give you your rewards including 18 Spring Spirits to add to your army. They also agree to speak to the Kirin in your favor. Now head through the Spirit Gate to return to the pathway by the Kirin.

Make your way back to the town of Haijin and recruit some new creatures. By now your other Hero should have arrived with some more elite creatures and added them to your army. Send the Hero back up to Strandholm unless you have been able to build up the elite creature structures at Haijin.

It is now time to go after the Ronin. Ride to the whirlpool located northwest of Haijin and enter it to warp to the eastern side of the map.

As you emerge from the whirlpool, move north onto a small island. This is where Changbo has set up his little empire. There are several resources here as well as artifacts that can be had by some quick battles. However, hold off until after you have completed this quest.

Changbo and his army are located by his fortress in the northern part of this island. Move quickly to battle against this Ronin. His army is weak compared to yours, so after his defeat, you have a choice to make. You can choose to spare Changbo or kill him. Sparing Changbo will upgrade Irina to Tier 1 Tears Reputation while killing him upgrades Irina to Tier 1 Blood Reputation.

You should make your selection on whether you are going for Tears or Blood. However, if you spare him, he joins your side as one of your Heroes. Transfer his creatures to your army since he has quite a few Kenshi.

Spend some time getting resources and visiting sites. There is a Crystal of Revelation that adds +1 Magic Defense when you visit it. You can also get an Amulet of Thunder which makes Air Spells deal 20% more damage. Finally, when you are done here, head back through the whirlpool.

The whirlpool is the only way to get to and from this island. You can’t leave any other way.

WEEK Final

Now that you have completed the quests and found a way to get the support of the Kirin without having to fight Hiroshi, it is time to complete the “Honor and Necessity” quest.

Use the Town Portals to take Irina and her army to Setsujo. From there, ride south and then west through a gate. You could also go to Sunjo and ride east through another gate.

Now ride north through another gate and approach the city of Hiroshijo. This is Hiroshi’s capital city. However, since you have the support of the Kirin, just ride up to the gate of the city and Hiroshi abdicates, making you the new Daimyo Jubo of Hashima.

Sanctuary Campaign: Chapter 3SANCTUARY: CHAPTER 3: The Blood Dimmed TideWEEK 1

Having defeated her daimyo and been honored with the role of leading the land armies of the Eternal Empress, Irina has now been adopted by the Nagas. Her first responsibility is to halt an invading army of the Undead that have sailed across the Jade Ocean to a sacred and protected island, where an Avatar of Shalassa is said to rest.

Irina and her initial Hero, Changbo, begin at the town of Takagake in the southeast corner of the map. Right at the start, go to the town and begin building new creature structures and upgrading the existing structures so that you can begin recruiting more creatures for your army.

You begin with three quests. “The Wrath of Shalassa” requires you to capture or gain control of the four sacred villages while at the same time preventing the Necromancers from controlling all four at the same time. The Necromancers begin in control of one of those villages. “The Harversters” objective is to defeat the Necromancers. Finally, “The Tear of Asha’ tasks you with collecting the 4 fragments of the Moon Disc in order to earn lots of experience and the Tear of Asha.

Right at the start, send Changbo around to explore the area to the west and north while picking up unguarded resources. Meanwhile, after Irina picks up some extra creatures from the town after building or upgrading a structure, send her to the east to defeat some small groups of creatures so she can collect more resources.

During this first week, concentrate on exploring, gathering resources, and building up your town.

There is an Observatory to the north of Takagake. Send Changbo there so you can better see the surrounding area. During this week, the Necromancers will capture two more of the sacred villages. However, don’t let this rush you to go after the final sacred village in the southern part of the map. It is safe for a while.

During the first week, it is important to get resources coming in at a steady rate. Therefore, in addition to attacking groups for one-time collections of resources, move to the north of Takagake and capture the Sawmill. Wood is a important resource at the start of the game as you begin building up your town.

Gold is a tough resource to come by for the first several weeks. You spend a lot of gold building up your town and structures. Therefore, whenever you get a chest and have a choice of gold or experience, choose the gold.

Continue to the northeast and capture the Ore Mine as well. There is also a Rally Flag nearby. Defeat the creatures guarding it and you can pick up some gold for your troubles.

As Irina clears out the area around Takagake, send Changbo across the river to the west to continue exploring. He come across some Orcs. They are not hostile. Instead, they are watching you—waiting to see what type of Hero Irina can be.

Finish off the week by defeating the creatures by the Stone of Enlightenment. Then use it to give Irina +2,500 experience.

While Irina is clearing away structures such at the Stone of Enlightenment, your other Heroes can also use them—they just don’t have to fight. Be sure to have Changbo visit this structure so he can earn some experience as well.

WEEK 2

During this week, continue exploring and gathering resources in the southeastern corner of the map. You also want to build up your town.

By now, Irina should have cleared out the area to the north of Takagake and secured the structures there. Now press forward to the river and begin clearing out creatures and gathering resources.

Follow the road to the southwest to discover a Weaponsmith structure. Fight the creatures guarding it and then visit the Weaponsmith to add +1 Might Power to your hero. Remember that all of your Heroes can visit this location as well.

After clearing out the territory east of the river, follow the southern road east back to Takagake. Clear more creatures and gather resources. By the time you reach Takagake, the week should be near the end.

WEEK 3

By now you should have cleared out and taken complete control of the territory around Takagake. This week you should advance to the west to take control of the fourth sacred village before the Necormancers do.

At the start of the week, recruit new creatures for your army and then send Irina off to cross the river. Changbo has already scouted out some of this area during the first two weeks. Visit the stables and then defeat some creatures so you can visit another Stone of Enlightenment and increase your experience.

You may not have enough gold to recruit all of the creatures which are available this week. Don’t wait around for your town to produce more gold. Instead, send Irina across the river and bring Changbo back to Takagake. When you have sufficient gold, recruit those creatures and use Changbo to carry them forward to Irina.

Don’t rush Irina. Take time to clear out the creatures and resources as you advance along the path towards the sacred village. Go past the Orcs. They will not bother you.

As you get near the border markers along the road, be sure to take control of the Hall of Raiders. By controlling this structure, you get bonus gold after each combat. Look for more of these as you explore the map since each of these structures you control further increases your gold bonuses.

A Necromancer army blocks your way to the sacred village. As you approach, Haffayad, a Necromancer Hero, invites you to surrender and join with the Necromancers to fight against the demons. Irina declines and Haffayad rides off. However, you still have to fight another, less powerful Necromancer Hero and army. Use similar tactics as you have before. Try to take out their Skeletons first since they have ranged attack and then go after the melee creatures.

You should have no trouble defeating the enemy Hero. Your victory impresses the Orc Hero. Ruqav decides to join with you. He brings with him a Stronghold army.

The shaman Ruqav gives you a new quest—“Means to an End”. To complete this quest, you must liberate two groups of Orc prisoners. As a reward, you get lots of experience, Bracers of the Freemage, and +100 Tears Reputation.

Send Ruqav up the road to the north to scout around. He has a strong enough army to engage some of the weaker groups of creatures and collect resources along the way.

Keep moving Ruqav north to find an Observatory. Once he has visited it, you will be able to see a lot more of the surrounding area. Notice where the two groups of Orc prisoners are being held.

Meanwhile, Irina should continue west to the sacred village of Ikeya. The village is empty, so just ride right on in and take control of it. Start building up structures inside the village so you can use it to gain more creatures every week and even recruit them from this town.

Finally, spend the rest of the week clearing out the area around Ikeya. You can use the resources here to help build up your two towns and for recruiting creatures.

WEEK 4

Now that you have one of the sacred villages under your control, the Necromancers are going to want it. Be ready to defend it as well as your original town.

Begin exploring the area to the west of Ikeya. There are more creatures to defeat and resources to collect. Also, it is a good idea to start building up another army around Changbo. You will have to defend both of your towns from attack and a second Sanctuary army will help.

Keep pushing Irina west. Visit the Shrine of the Sacred Pearl to increase your Initiative by +10. Then continue around the town of Ikeya collecting resources as you go.

About this time, a Necromancer Hero sails a ship down the river. This army will usually go after whichever town Irina is not closest to. If Changbo does not have a sufficient army to defend the town, use the Town Portal ability to get Irina there to stop the enemy.

The Necromancer Hero will flee from Irina. Therefore, as soon as you go through the portal to get to one town, the enemy starts running in the opposite direction. You must hold on to Ikeya. If it falls, the chapter is over. Therefore, you may have to let Takegake be captured if Changbo can’t hold it, then send Irina to defeat the enemy and retake it.

A second Necromancer Hero with an army arrives and tries to hit Ikeya. If Irina is away, use Ruqav to defeat this army. His army is strong enough to take them on. The key to this week is to defeat those enemies. If you can’t do it, this task may carry over to the next week.

WEEK 5During this week, you must continue to defend your territory and ensure your resources continue to pour in everyday.

Send a Hero out to secure the Ore Mine to the west of Ikeya as well as the Saw Mill and Crystal Cavern to the north of the city. Also spend your resources building up your cities. Since Ikeya is vital to winning the chapter, eventually make it your capital city. As you increase your cities’ ranks, you earn a lot more gold each day.

Watch out for Necromancer Heroes that invade your territory. Quickly send Irina to defeat them before they cause any trouble. All of these enemies enter your territory along the road that comes from the north just to the west of the river.

Continue exploring the area northwest from Ikeya. As you follow a road along a peninsula, you not only find some creatures and resources, but also an Observatory. Use it to reveal a larger area in the west.

Finally, send Irina towards the road leading into the northern part of the map. It is time to expand and take the battle to the enemy.

WEEK 6This week you begin advancing into enemy territory to secure one of the sacred villages. However, it is important for you to keep track of your cities in the south and ensure they to not fall into enemy hands.

As Irina advances along the road to the north, take a detour to the west to this meadow. Defeat the creatures by the Rally Flag and then open the chest to get the first Fragment of the Moon Disc.

Now advance east. A group of Stronghold creatures blocks your way. However, Irina’s army is strong enough to defeat them without taking many casualties.

As you advance up the winding road leading up towards icy, mountainous northeastern part of the map, collect some recourses you might need to continue upgrading your cities. But avoid unnecessary combat since you are a ways from reinforcements.

Continue along the road until you come to the prison where the Orcs are being held captive. Defeat the enemy creatures guarding them. Again, this should not be a tough battle for Irina. Remember to use spells and abilities every turn.

Once the Orcs have been freed, you must make a decision. If you free the ORc and let them recapture their village occupied by the Necromancers, you earn +50 Tears. However, you can have the freed Orcs join your army and capture the village yourself if you want to earn +50 Blood.

Unless you are really going for a Blood Reputation, let the Orcs recapture their own village. This saves you a battle and several days of riding to get to the village.

After freeing the Orcs, ride north a bit and clear away creatures from a Stone of Enlightenment so you can visit it for increased experience. There are also some resources and a Rally Flag nearby.

Now that the Orc villag of Hukarere is in your control, build a Town Portal there and send Ruqav there. He can recruit Stronghold creatures and build up the village as well as defend it against enemy attacks.

Keep a close eye on the movement of enemy troops. Necromancer Heroes not only come from the cities in the north, but also sail down the river. If necessary, use Town Portal spells to send Irina back to the cities in the south to defend them. Once Ruqav builds up his army, you can even send him back to help.

WEEK 7This week you will be freeing more Orcs and taking control of the third sacred village.

It is important that you defend the cities in the south. If you lose one, the Necromancers will change them into Necropolis cities and you will have to convert them back in order to get your Sanctuary units.

Once your cities are secure, move Irina through the middle of the map. There are several creatures guarding structures, artifacts, and resources here.

Continue to the west to the second prison. Defeat the enemy creatures guarding the Orcs. Then you have to make a decision once again. Will you let the Orcs go to reclaim their own village or add them to your army and capture the village for yourself. If you let the Orcs do the job for you, you get Tears. Otherwise, if you want to capture the village on your own, you earn Blood.

By freeing the Orcs, you have completed the “Means to an End” quest and receive +30,000 experience, +100 Tears Reputation, and the artifact Bracers of the Freemage. You also get a new quest. “Smooth at a Millpond” requires you to convert all cities of the main island. This is a path of Blood quest and by converting any of the Orc Villages, an Orc army will be created to fight against you.

Build a Town Portal at the new Orc Village of Hinewai so you can send Ruqav there to build it up as well. This village is the front line against attacks from the Necromancer city in the northwest. Don’t forget to maintain defenses in the south since the enemy still sends Heroes and armies in ships down the river to attack you.

WEEK 8Now that you have three of the four sacred villages, take some time to build up your forces and prepare for the assault on the fourth village.

As you are building up, it is a good time to do some exploring, Irina or Changbo can ride their horses over the water in the western part of the map. Talk to the Captain’s Ghost to learn about how the Angels are breeding the children of the Dukes in order to harvest their spirits. The ocean also contains crates and flotsam you can investigate for resources or other goodies.

As you are exploring the western ocean, be sure to look for the second Fragment of the Moon Disc. It is an artifact located near the Captain’s Ghost. Once you have it, you only need three more fragments to get the Tears of Asha.

Continue looking for the other Fragments of the Moon Disc. A third is located along the path from the eastern prison to the Orc village of Hukarere.

The fouth Fragment of the Moon Disc is located north of the village of Hukarere. After you have all four fragements, you can now go after the Tear of Asha.

Send Irina to Hinewai and from there head to the east. You must defeat a group of Cyclops in order to get across a stream. Cyclops are tough creatures. When you attack, the damage is not inflicted immediately. Instead, they get to retaliate and then the Cyclops loses are removed at the end of the turn.

Collect the Tear of Asha and then use the Adanced Town Portal ability to get back to your capital city. The Tear of Asha must be with your Hero in the city in order to build Shalassa’s Frozen Breath.

Shalassa’s Frozen Breath structure provides 5,000 gold per day and increases all creature production by 50%. In addition, those creatures that can cause the Chilled effect on enemies during combat now have a 50% chance to upgrade that effect to Frozen.

Finally, if you still have some time left during this week, begin exploring the area to the west of Hinewai to find a road leading to the fourth sacred village which is controlled by the Necromancers.

WEEKS 9-10These two weeks, you will be preparing for your attack on the attack on the fourth sacred village.

Continue exploring the territory between Hinewai and Kiriya, the fourth sacred village. As you approach the coast in the northwest, you see a fleet of Necromancer ships getting ready to invade. Don’t worry about them just yet. You need to focus on capturing Kiriya.

Locate the Observatory near the coast and you can see a larger area. Not only does exploring help you find a route, it also gives you a chance to build up your resources and improve your Heroes. Be sure to have them visit the Stones of Enlightenment.

By exploring and removing the fog of war from the map, you also get more of an advanced warning of enemy attacks since you can see Heroes moving across territory you have explored.

Continue building up armies around Irina and Ruqav. While Irina takes all of the Sanctuary creatures from the southern cities, Ruqav builds up his army from the Orc cities. Having Shalassa’s Frozen Breath really helps build up Sanctuary creatures, so

As you are exploring, try to engage any Necromancer army you can find. It is easier to defeat them out in the open rather than fighting a huge force behind the walls of their city.

Once you find the fourth sacred village, explore the area to the south and you come across a large group of creatures guarding a bridge. This is a fight for Irina. Defeat these creatures and then cross the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge you find an area where you can easily collect resources, a couple scrolls, some artifacts, and take control of an ore mine. The only defenders were those creatures at the bridge, so once you defeated them, all of the spoils here are yours.

WEEK 11This week you should be ready to go after the fourth sacred village.

By this time, the Necromancers have fortified Kiriya and probably have a large army. Therefore, make sure you are ready for a big fight. Start moving your Sanctuary army under the leadership of Irina and the Stronghold army under the leadership of Ruqav towards Kiriya.

Place the cursor over the armies defending Kiriya to see how strong they are compared to your own armies. If they are still an even match, send in Ruqav first to weaken the armies. Then order Irina to attack to finish them off.

The enemy usually has two Heroes and their armies defending Kiriya. You must first defeat one army outside of the city.

After defeating the first army, you have to battle against the second who are behind the fortified walls of Kiriya. While your ranged units attack the enemy ranged units, send your melee creatures to help break down the gate. The faster you can get your Wanizame and Kappa Shoya into the city, the more damage they can inflict on the enemy and the sooner the city will be yours.

After you have captured the city, Hai Ryou, one of the spirits, comes forth. Irina asks the spirit to destroy the Necromancer fleet off the coast. The spirit complies and lays waste to the fleet, leaving behind only a couple ships.

WEEK 12+You now must face off against the Necromancer fleet before driving them from the land.

By the time you have captured Kiriya, your army may be depleted. Use Town Portals to return to your Orc and Sanctuary cities with your armies and load up on more troops. Then use Town Portal again to return to Kiriya from where you can begin your attack on the enemy. Ride to the fleet. The Heroes have large armies on the remaining ships, so use all your spells and abilities to defeat them.

After defeating the fleet, load up your armies with more creatures and then move across the water to land in the northwest corner. Irina can walk across, but Ruqav needs a ship. Mover Irina to the shipyard and purchase a ship. Sail it over to the shore on the east and leave it there for Ruqav and his army.

Head back to the west. Move Ruqav onto the ship and sail west to join up with Irina. Explore the area as you follow a road up to where the Necropolis city is waiting. Pick up some resources and items as you go.

You must defeat Haffayad and his armies. However, they are very powerful. After getting to the city, place the cursor over the armies to see how they compare to your own. If they are stronger, spend a few weeks building up your armies.

When you are ready to attack, you should have overwhelming forces. Since you have five cities creating gold and the ability to recruit lots of creatures every week, you can build up your armies faster than Haffayad. Attack with Ruqav first to take out the army outside of the city. Then move in with Irina for the siege. Focus on the ranged creatures first and get into the city quickly so your melee creatures can take part in the battle. Once you have conquered Haffayad and his city, you have won.

Sanctuary Campaign: Chapter 4SANCTUARY: CHAPTER 4: Death-in-Life and Life-in-DeathWEEK 1A Blood Moon Eclipse has cast a reddish glow over the night of Ashan, and Demons are invading. The Emperor Liam has asked the Eternal Empress to send an army to help them defend the Duchy of the husband she fled But when the war is over, Irina has already decided that she’ll pay a visit to Gerhart. he must never be able to harm her again.

When Irina arrives on the shores of the Wolf Duchy, she finds that the Demons have already arrived. They have taken over nearly half of the duchy. While she does not care what happens to Gerhart, Irina carries the heir to the Wolf Duchy and wants to protect her people against the destruction from the Demons.

You begin with three quests. “The Fall of the Ashwick” requires you to capture the town of Ashwick which has been overrun by Demons. “To Behead a Wolf” has two objectives—defeat Gerhart and gain access to Isegrim, Gerhart’s fortress. Finally, a secondary quest is “We come in Peace”. For this you must avoid capturing any Wolf city except Isegrim.

Irina starts out with a small outpost town in the southwest corner of the map—Ohmizu. Start right off beginning to build your core creature structures. You don’t have much of an army at the start and need to build it up. This first week is spent to the south of Ohmizu.

Your next task is to get some resources. Start off by collecting nearby resources and then heading east from Ohmizu to take control of the sawmill.

As you build up your town during the first week, concentrate on getting all of the core creature structures by the end of the week. Early on, upgrade your town to Rank 2 so you can get some extra gold coming in everyday. The sooner you do this, the more gold you earn during the first week.

Continue on to the Observatory so you can get a better view of your surroundings. To the south is a Crystal of Power. Defeat the creatures guarding it and visit this structure to gain +1 Magic Power. Also defeat creatures along the way to get more resources and some items or artifacts. Since you are low on gold, choose this resource over experience when you come across a chest.

Even though your hero is powerful by now, it is still important to visit all of the structures on the map that you can. Gaining Magic Power or Magic Defense is vital as your enemies become more deadly. They also make your spells more powerful.

Now advance west until you come to an Ore Mine. Capture it so you can begin receiving daily supplies of Ore. Also be sure to visit the Shrine of Chivalry which increases your combat movement and morale for a week.

Now that you have reached the southwest corner of the map, turn north and ride towards the Crystal of Revelation which gives you +1 Magic Defense. Defeat all of the creatures nearby and you can pick up an artifact as well. Finally, head back to Ohmizu as the week comes to a close so you can recruit some more creatures for your army.

WEEK 2This week, you continue securing your territory and building up your army. Now that the south is under control, it is time to move to the north.

Your army is a bit larger and stronger now. It is time to fight some Demons. In order to get to the land north of your town, you must defeat one of two groups of Demon creatures. Head to the right of your city and take on the eastern group.

During this week, start upgrading your core creature structures so you can get the upgraded versions of these creatures. Then when you visit at the start of the next week, not only can up pick up new upgraded creatures, but also upgrade those already in your army.

Continue north and defeat some creatures so you can visit the Arcane Library. There you can choose either +2 Magic Power and +25 Blood Reputation or +2 Defense and +25 Tears Reputation.

Now make your way north to take control of the Coral Cavern. After defeating the creatures guarding it, you can visit it in order to increase the production of your core creatures every week. Plus you get some creatures to add to your army right there.

As you continue your loop around the land north of your city, visit the Stone of Enlightenment for some experience. Also collect some artifacts and resources before capturing the Crystal Cavern so you can start receiving a steady supply of Blood Crystals everyday. These are necessary to begin building the elite creatures.

It is time to head back towards your town as the week begins to come to a close. Move south along the western edge to collect more resources and an artifact. Then as you ride south a bit farther, you find a Gold Mine. Capture it from the defending creatures to get +500 Gold per day. Over the course of a week, that will allow you to recruit several more creatures. Finally, move back to Ohmizu.

It is a good idea to build a Hall of Heroes so you can recruit another Hero if you did not bring one from the previous map. Then use this hero to transport newly recruited creatures up to Irina’s army so she does not have to keep coming back to Ohmizu.

WEEK 3By this time, your city and surrounding territory should be well under your control. It is time to venture out into Demon territory and take control of Ashwick away from the Demons.

As the third week begins, a Demon hero and army may ride into your territory. Ride out to meed this threat and defeat it before it can steal your resources. Once it is defeated, ride north into Demon Territory.

As you cross the border, Nebiros, the Demon Leader challenges you for who will control the Wolf Duchy. This is a fight you cannot back down from and still maintain control of your Naga army.

You now have another primary quest. “Honor can be two-edged” requires you to defeat the Demon Leader. He has a powerful army, so you are not quite ready for this battle at this time. However, you need to make sure you are preparing for it.

From the border, ride north to find an Observatory. Visit it so you can see the surrouding territory. Just to the north is the town of Ashwick—your objective for this week.

Before going to Ashwick, visit the Altar of Desruction. This damages the enemy with a firestorm at the start of the next combat. After defeating the creatures defending it, pick up the nearby artifact.

It is now time to attack Ashwick. This town does not have a wall, so all you have to do is defeat the defending creatures on open ground. While this can be a tough fight with your army, by using your spells and abilities every turn, you can win.

As you capture Ashwick, you get another quest. “Mother of Nightmares” requires you to find the source of the corruption that is affecting all the pregnant women in the area.

Now that you have control of Ashwick, convert it to a Sanctuary town. Once this has been accomplished, the town already has core creature structures. Therefore, begin upgrading them.

Now that you have a second town, build Town Portals in each. That makes it easier to move between towns. Try to get the creature structures upgraded first so you can recruit upgraded core creatures from Ashwick at the start of the next week.

There should still be some time in the week, so begin securing the territory south and east of Ashwick. In addition to getting the resources, take control of the Ore Mine as well.

Finally, before the end of the week, convert the Scorching Pools to the east of Ashwick into a Coral Cavern in order to increase the production of all your core creatures.

WEEK 4During this week, you need to secure the territory to the north of Ashwick and continue to build up your towns and army.

You should already have take control of everything south and east of Ashwick to the border of this territory. Now head to the north. You must first get past group of Demon creatures.

The creatures you start facing now are much tougher and the groups larger. If you find it hard to defeat them. Wait a week or two to build up your army, then continue.

As you continue north, defeat a group of Breeders so you can capture the Sawmill. Even if you are not using a lot of wood now, you can always sell it for gold or trade it for other resources.

Head west from the Sawmill. Visit the Stone of Enlightenment to gain some more experience and then the Observatory to increase your view of the surrounding area.

Continue to the west. There are two groups of Tormentors. These are tough Demons to fight, so be ready. You definitely want to visit the Crystal of Power to get +1 Magic Power. Also take control of the Crystal Cavern. Blood Crystals are necessary not only for building up your elite creature structures, but also for recruiting some creatures.

Finally, pay a visit to the Weaponsmith to add +1 Might Power to your Hero. However, to get to the Weaponsmith, you must first defeat some Pit Lords and other demons. This is a tough fight, so you may want to wait until you have a more powerful army to take this on. It is a lot for some might power—especially if it sets you back a week or two in creature casualties.

During this week, watch out for enemy armies coming from the east. If you see them, quickly move to defend your cities. This is when the Advanced Town Portal ability is useful for quickly getting back to Ashwick.

WEEK 5Now that you have secured a second territory, it is time to expand again. Not only will this let you build up your army, but also denies that same territory to the enemy.

You cannot allow enemy Heroes and their armies to roam unchecked in your territory. Therefore, move to intercept and defeat any intruders into Sanctuary land. If you have been keeping your army as strong as possible, focusing on core creatures first, you should have no trouble with these early invasions.

As you approach the border, head north for a bit to capture a Gold Mine. That gives you +500 gold each day.

Be sure to stop by the Demonic Shrine adjacent to your eastern border. It gives you +5 Might Power and +5 Destiny for one week.

Advance east through the border to the town or Rauchburg. It is an Inferno town garrisoned by Demons. However, there should not be too many defenders at this point in the game.

Rauchburg is a great town to capture since it is already well developed. Convert it to Sanctuary and you will already have your core and elite creature buildings upgraded and possibly a champion creature building constructed as well.

After washing away the Inferno stench of Rauchburg with a wave of Sanctuary cleansing, ride south to the Infernal Chamber and convert it to a Coral Cavern. This further increases the number of core creatures you can recruit every day.

Ride around the left side of Rauchburg to the north to find another Gold Mine. There is an Ore Mine to east of the Gold Mine, so be sure you are in control of each of those resource production structures.

Rauchburg will be your front line in the war against the Wolf Duchy. Therefore, it is important to leave some defenders behind or build an Advanced Town Portal so you can instantly return to this city as enemies approach it. Also consider upgrading the defenses.

WEEK 6Spend this week exploring and building up your forces. Be aware of Wolf Heroes coming at you from the east and Inferno Heroes from the north.

Since the Wolf Heroes approach from the east, send Irina or another Hero of yours east from Rauchburg and through the border pylons.

Spend some time exploring around the town of Kriegspire. This town is not heavily defended. While it would be easy to take, doing so would prevent you from achieving the “We Come in Peace” quest.

If you are not concerned about the secondary quest, go ahead and capture Kriegspire and other Wolf cities. They allow you to build up your army and bring in more gold. However, it also spreads out your territory requiring you to defend more towns.

Ride past the town of Kriegspire and visit the Observatory. This gives you a view right up to the edge of the Duke’s territory around the city of Isegrim.

Get back to Rauchburg using the Advanced Town Portal ability and then ride north up through another border opening. Not only are you exploring this area, but also finding ways to build up your forces.

Continue north from the boder until you some across a Scorching Pools structure. Defeat the creatures guarding it, then covert it into a Sanctuary Coral Cavern so you can further increase the number of core creatures you can recruit each week.

Keep riding northwest and you come across a Crystal of Revelation. Visit it to add +1 Magic Defense to your Hero. There is also a scroll, an artifact, and some resources in this area for you to collect.

WEEKS 7-8In order to avoid having to fight a two front war, you need to eliminate one of the enemies. At the start of the week, load up your army with all the creatures available for recruitment. With three towns and several Coral Sanctuaries, you should have lots of core creatures coming in each week. By now, you should also have lots of elite creatures in your army as well.

It is time to go after the Demons to the north. Get ready for another expansion of your territory. Send Irina and her army back towards Ashwick,. Then head north through the border opening by the Weaponsmith.

As you go north, move east when you come to a Scorching Pools. Don’t waste time on it now since you can’t convert it until you control the city which governs this territory.

Continue to Nebyrzias, the Inferno city where the Demon Leader is located. Expect a couple of armies defending it. You will have to defeat the first army outside of the city and the second across the walls in a siege. Again, get your melee creatures up to the gate and break it down as quickly as possible so you can get in and clear out the defenders.

If your army is not quite strong enough to take Nebyrzias, return to Ashwick or Rauchburg and wait a couple of weeks to build up your army with lots more creatures. However, expect the enemy to be increasing as well—just not as fast as you.

Once you have taken Nebyrzias, convert it to a Sanctuary city and explore around the area. There is a Gold Mine south of the city and two Crystal Caverns as well as another Gold Mine to the west.

You have completed the “Honor can be two-edged” quest. However, you are not ready to head down through the Subterranean Gate north of the city to attempt the “Mother of Nightmares” quest. Therefore, stay above ground for now.

WEEKS 9+These next several weeks are a time to explore around the map and really focus on building up your army. This all leads up to a big battle with a boss Demon.

Now that you have four cities and control several Gold Mines. Make sure your cities are all at Rank 3 with one at Rank 4 as your capital so you can maximize your income of gold. Now that the Inferno armies are no more, watch for Wolf Heroes approaching Rauchburg from the east. Keep destroying whatever armies the Duke sends to attack.

Send Irina or one of your Heroes to the east to explore more. As you approach the border leading to Isegrim, you see it is defended by a strong garrison of troops. There is no way to get around it.

While you have been focusing on exploring the land, send a Hero out on the water. There are some whirlpools that warp you to different parts of the ocean. As you explore around Isegrim, you discover there is no way to the city from the sea.

Continue to the northeast corner of the map to find a secret island. Once you discover it, send Irina there. When you arrive, move towards the Kenshi as if you want to attack. However, they want to join your army.Leave behind most of your army with another Hero at Rauchburg to defend the city. While Irina can take some creatures, be sure to leave a couple slots open. You are going to be doing some recruiting.

Continue along this island recruiting creatures for your army. Some require payment while most join freely. In addition, visit the two Stones of Enlightenment for some experience. There is also a Meditation Temple which increases your Initiative and Might Power for the next combat, a Shrine of Elemental Water that gives your creatures a water shield when they take damage during the next combat, and the Arcane Library where you can select either Magic Power or Magic Defense increases.

Once you have recruited a lot of creatures, go through the nearby Spirit Gate to return to the mainland. Or you can use the Advanced Town Portal ability as well.

Once you get back to Rachburg or another one of your cities, be sure to upgrade the creatures you recruited. Some of them are the standard core creatures and you want to upgrade them before the big fight.

While you have been exploring, your army had been increasing in size. With the addition of the recruits from the secret island, you should have a fairly good size force. Make sure you have several hundred of each type of your core creatures and lots of your elites as well. Then use the Town Portal ability to quickly get to Nebyrzias and then move through the Subterranean Gate to get into a chamber below the volcano.

Be sure to save the game before heading down into the chamber. You have a tough fight ahead of you and want to be able to try again in case you fail the first time.

There are several piles of gold and some chests in this chamber. Pick them up and then advance on the Breeder Queen Demon. This battle is unlike any other you have fought, It is against a single enemy and this one has 100,000 hit points! A meter at the top of the screen helps you keep track of your progress. Start off with some spells. While attack spells cause some damage, you are often better selecting spells or abilities that either protect your creatures or enhance their attacks.

They key to defeating the Breeder Queen is to surround the creature. It focuses on one challenge creature stack. In addition to making ranged attacks, the Breeder Queen also makes a sweeping attack across all of the squares in front of it. Therefore, keep almost all of your melee units on the sides or behind it. Keep up the pressure and keep moving your units around. Your ranged units often take a beating. However, they help distract the Breeder Queen from your more powerful melee units. Keep hitting the enemy hard until it is defeated.

After defeating the Breeder Queen, you receive the Tear of Asha artifact. Take it to your capital city to build Shalassa’s Frozen Breath building which provides +5,000 Gold per day and an increase of 50% production for your creatures.

FINAL WEEKSNow that you have defeated the Breeder Queen, it is time to take the battle to the Gerhart, the Wolf Duke.

You have surly taken heavy casualties while fighting the Breeder Queen. Therefore, take several weeks to build your army back up. After building Shalassa’s Frozen Breath, you can really start producing and recruiting lots of creatures each week.

Once your army is strong again, send Irina east to the border with Isagrim. After defeating the Breeder Queen and driving the Demons from the land, the people are behind you. When you arrive at the gates, the army defending the border are gone and you can ride right through.

Continue on to the gates of Isegrim. There you must defeat a Wolf Hero and an army outside of the city. Usually it is not too strong, so don’t use up too much mana on spells. You want to save it for the main battle. Gerhart will have lots of enemies behind his walls. Expect core units in the hundreds as well as over 100 elite units and several champion units. However, after the battle against the Breeder Queen, this one will not be so bad. Conduct the siege as you have done so in the past and you will emerge victorious.

Once Duke Gerhart has been defeated, Irina takes control of the Wolf Duchy as regent for the unborn heir. However, she remains Daimyo of the Naga as well. Thus comes to an end the Sanctuary campaign.

Inferno Building & Battle StrategiesCampaign BackgroundThe angel Sarah asks Kiril, youngest son of Slava, to accompany her on an important and dangerous mission into Sheogh, the dimensional home of demons. According to Sarah, the Faceless have launched a campaign against Ashan, and she needs Kiril to escort her into Sheogh so that she may destroy a Faceless source of power and knowledge, the Invisible Library.

Kiril willingly accepts his place at Sarah’s side, but she betrays him. The demon Azkaal is placed inside Kiril, who can accept the demon because the Griffin lineage has been bred to allow angels to possess them, and this is but an extension of that same possession. In exchange, Sarah receives a rare and powerful artifact and attempts to flee Sheogh.

As we first find Kiril, he battles internally with the demon Azkaal in the barren landscape of Sheogh and desperately hunts Sarah for answers…Starting HeroAs an Inferno player, your primary hero will be Kiril in Campaign mode. Like his father, Slava, Kiril has an affinity for Might. Though you certainly can train up Kiril’s Magic abilities, he will be most effective as a Might-based hero. If you aren’t playing in Campaign mode, you can develop your hero however you like.Faction StrategyInferno’s strategy is to divide and conquer. In the midst of creating the division in the enemy ranks, an Inferno hero can gate in extra creature stacks to supplement its ranks and overwhelm the enemy.

Chaotic by nature, Inferno creatures have a tendency to damage an unpredictable amount of creatures with their area-of-effect abilities: hostile creatures and friendly creatures. The idea is to damage more hostile creatures than friendly ones. With the best ranged Magic damage of all the factions, Inferno can incinerate opponents from a distance while sending brutish melee creatures into combat to disrupt the ranks.

Gating serves as Inferno’s faction ability, and Inferno heroes can summon temporary reinforcements directly onto the combat map. You may want to hold back and play slow at the outset, so you can build up your gated creatures and waste big chunks of the enemy with ranged attacks while they press toward you. It’s usually better to sacrifice gated creatures than your permanent ones; once the gates creatures arrive, send them against the enemy and draw their attention.Inferno Advantages• Best Ranged Magic Damage• Gating Brings Reinforcements• Good Mobility• Melee Creatures Resilient and LethalSuccubi and Lilims deal significant Magic ranged damage and give you a ton of firepower from early on. Supplement your ranged and melee creatures with your Gating faction ability, which can produce timely reinforcements throughout the battle. Good mobility and resilience from Maniacs and Tormentors will buy time for your ranged attackers to destroy the enemy or bigger stacks like Pit Fiends to wipe out the other side.Inferno Disadvantages• No Support Abilities• Weak MoraleYour creatures have a few key abilities, such as the Lilim’s Enthrall ability to force an enemy stack to skip its next turn, but they can’t support each other on the battlefield. Couple that with weak Morale and your creatures won’t get off too many back-to-back attacks; just the opposite, they may suffer from losing an attack opportunity now and then from reduced Morale.Recommended Magic SchoolsYou are forbidden to use Light abilities as an Inferno player. Concentrate, however, on the Fire and Prime magic schools for most of your tactical plans. Unless you see an opening to exploit an enemy along a different path, Fire and Prime match well with the Inferno creatures in your army.The Disruption StrategyThe Disruption Strategy hinges on the Lilim’s Enthrall ability, at least until you can add more expensive creatures, like Ravagers and Pit Fiends, to your army. Enthrall forces an enemy stack to skip its next turn, and it’s possible to slow down, or nullify, the enemy’s best stack if you have enough Lilims lined up against it. If you come up against an enemy army with few stacks, Enthrall can decimate the enemy’s ability to move and attack. The Ravager’s Taunting Presence forces the enemy to concentrate on the Ravager stack, which frees up your other creatures to get into position and provides defense for those weaker stacks in the back. Even better, the Pit Fiend’s Blade of Hatred causes an enemy target to attack randomly, which gives you some extra damage and fouls up the enemy’s tactical plans.

Don’t go Blood Might (Chaos Lord) if you want to concentrate on disrupting the enemy. Instead, the Pyromancer (Blood, Magic) can pick up several enemy debuffing abilities in the Darkness and Prime schools, and the Demonist (Tears, Magic) can do the same with Air added to the mix.

Altar of Destruction supports your disruption plans by dropping a Fire Storm on attackers, and may destroy or weaken and enemy stack and cause a change in plans for your foe. The same goes for Wake of Chaos, though its ability may deter an invading enemy from continuing and therefore disrupt the enemy’s future plans.The Gating StrategyInferno’s Gating faction ability is the foundation for this strategy. You can summon reinforcements to whatever rank you currently have access–core creatures, elite creatures, champion creatures–and use the gated creatures to overwhelm your opponent’s army. Even better, the gated creatures can distract enemies away from your real creatures–who cares if the gated creatures die, since they won’t survive the battle anyway. The Breeder Mother’s Proliferation ability, to suddenly grow the stack at the start of combat, is like a free gating action.

You should go Hellcaller (Tears, Might) if you want to exploit the Gating Strategy. Irresistible Calling increases the number of creatures that you can gate with your faction ability, and Seal of Power is the exception to the rule: You get to keep some of the reinforcements from your Gating faction ability even after combat. If you go Magic-based, look for Summon Elemental abilities in the various schools to appear and help out your real creature stacks.

Just as Hellcaller is a no-brainer, so is your unique building: Heart of Urgash. The Heart increases the efficiency of your Gating ability, which dovetails nicely with your other abilities to draw in large amounts of extra creatures. If you want to stick with the “gating” theme, Infernal Gate creatures a portal next to your nearby town and teleports you to the exit point you create. It’s not Gating in extra creatures, but it does give you extra movement, which is always welcome.The Painful Retaliation StrategyThe Painful Retaliation Strategy really goes hand in hand with the Mass Destruction Strategy, except your concentrating on making your opponent pay for attacks. The Hell Hound and Cerberus’ Eye of Gluttony deal extra damage to any creature foolish enough to attack them previously. The Succubus’ Pleasure in Pain and the Lilim’s Rapture in Agony work similar, but take place immediately; as soon as an attacker strikes them, backlash damage rebounds on the attacker. The Pit Fiend’s Hateful Retaliation strikes all previous attackers in one vicious counterattack.

The Heretic (Neutral, Might) once again with its Hellfire Aura has a chance to increase damage on retaliations and attacks. As with the other strategies, branch out into the heroic abilities that will complement your retaliations, especially Earth’s Regeneration; the longer you keep your creatures around, the more retaliation (and normal) damage they deal.

There really isn’t a unique building that fits your retaliations. Both Altar of Destruction and Wake of Chaos will punish the enemy; however, they are more proactive than the reactive retaliations you’ve set up. Not that throwing in some proactive damage is a bad thing! The Mass Damage StrategyThrough fire and brute strength, Inferno creatures deal out deadly damage to any in their way. Your Cerberus stack up the damage: they’re Voracious ability allows them to attack all enemies in front of them at once, and Eyes of Gluttony increases the damage they deal against any enemy that previously damaged them. Similarly, Tormentors serve up double duty on damage. The Tormentor’s Taste of Pain gives them extra Might Power for every attack suffered or made, and its Retractable Spikes damage all adjacent opponents; the Lacerator’s Exploding Spikes do the same. If you want to damage a line of enemies, the Juggernaut’s Unstoppable Charge inflicts damage on everything in its path. Finally, the Pit Fiend’s Hateful Retaliation hits all previous attackers, and the Pit Lord’s awesome Boundless Hate deals Fire damage to all enemies on the combat map.

Blood is the path to take if you want to focus on damage. The Heretic (Neutral, Might) gives you Hellfire Aura, a heroic ability that gives all friendly creatures a 50 percent chance to deal extra Fire damage on attacks and retaliations. The Pyromancer (Blood, Magic) is probably the best, with access to Inferno and Armageddon. Inferno drops five pillars of fire down on combat map, damaging all stacks in the area, and last for four turns; the pillars move in random directions, so be careful that allied stacks don’t get caught in the conflagration. With Armageddon, all non-Inferno creatures, walls, and obstacles are dealt extra Fire damage, which really roasts the enemy if you’re playing an all-Inferno army. The Chaos Lord (Blood, Might) increases your chances to land critical hits with the Demonic Luck and Mark of Chaos abilities. Supplement all this with destructive abilities from the fire, Air, Earth, and Darkness schools for maximum effect.

The unique buildings Altar of Destruction and Wake of Chaos also contribute to the destruction theme. When your town is under siege, the Altar creates a Fire Storm that deals Fire damage to each enemy and forms random craters, making it more difficult for ground-based creatures to move. Within your control area, Wake of Chaos generates a stack of Abyssal Worms that will randomly swallow a medium-sized creature or smaller and begin to digest it. The enemy can attack the Worm to try and rescue the swallowed creature, but it’s an effective deterrent to invaders.Inferno ArtifactsDepending on your initial affinity (Might or Magic) and your eventual reputation (Blood or Tears), your hero will seek out different artifacts that complement your battle tendencies. Some artifacts are great utility, such as artifacts that increase movement points, or give you resources, or improve all your primary attributes–feel free to equip any of those no matter your hero’s affinity and reputation. Here’s an example of a Inferno Might hero’s ultimate item wish list, though there are tons of possibilities in each inventory slot, even for Might-based heroes, and if you wanted to go Magic, your inventory wish list would look quite different.

Might Hero Item Wish ListHead: Crag Hack’s Helmet (+7 Might Power; +5 Initiative to friendly creatures)Neck: Amulet of the Jaguar (+4 Might Power)Shoulder: Mesmerizing Spaulders (-10 Initiative to enemy creatures)Chest: Guardian Breastplate (+4 Might Defense; Friendly creatures are immune to damage dealt by the first three attacks each combat)Cloak: Lion Mane Cape (+6 Leadership)Main Hand: Edge of Chaos (Dynasty Weapon)Off Hand: Logbook of the Master Sailor (+8 Hero Sea Movement; The hero’s army is not affected by whirlpools)Gauntlet: Gauntlets of the Giant Slayer (+6 Might Power; Grants the Giant Slayer ability)Finger: Ring of Haste (+10 Initiative to friendly creatures)Feet: Boots of the Wayfarer (+8 Hero Land Movement)Pocket 1: Crest of Honor (+8 Leadership)Pocket 2: Golden Goose (+2,000 gold per day)Pocket 3: War Horn of the Legion (+1 Leadership; Weekly elite creature production increased by two)Building Up Your Inferno TownNo matter the skirmish or campaign ahead, your first few days, and certainly your first few weeks, are crucial to a successful development. Before your hero sets hoof to path, consider a very important question: Do you have enough wood and ore in the immediate area to support your first week’s worth of development?

If the answer is yes, then you can afford to upgrade your Village Hall first and buy creature recruitment buildings second. If the answer is no, you should buy one of your creature recruitment building first, so you have enough creatures in your army to beat some of the nearby neutral armies and gather extra resources from the rewards.

Generally, you have enough resources at the start of a map to purchase a single building or upgrade. Will it be an upgrade from the Village Hall to the Town Hall, which gives you access to Rank 2 buildings and increases your kingdom’s daily income by 1,000 gold? Or will it be to purchase the House of Madness (recruit Maniacs), Howling Kennels (recruit Hell Hounds), or Hall of Temptations (recruit Succubi)?

Remember that your goal by week’s end is to have all your Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings in play, plus a few extras: Basic Fortifications, Marketplace, Hall of Heroes. By the end of week two, you want to upgrade your recruitment buildings to House of Delirium, Raging Kennels, and Hall of Forbidden Desires, and/or begin to work on your Rank 2 creature recruitment buildings to hire Breeders, Juggernauts, or Tormentors. In the third week, you want to continue with your Rank 2 buildings and adjust to what you’ve learned about your opponents through exploration.Inferno Town Ranks1. Village Hall: Your first decision is always, “Do I upgrade to a Town Hall to gain more gold each day, or do I start with creature recruitment?” If you think you have enough resources that you can win off weak neutral armies, or free wood and ore you can gather through exploration, always upgrade to the Town Hall. Stockpiling gold can’t hurt, and once you build the Marketplace that gold can be traded for missing resources. If you decide you need help with your army first, think about upgrading your Village Hall as your second purchase after your creature recruitment building. You must upgrade to Town Hall by the end of week one, and it’s better if you’ve reached City Hall in the first seven days. Later, upgrade to your Capitol as soon as you can fit it in your building progression.

1. Hall of Temptations: Your three Rank 1 creature recruitment buildings are interchangeable: as long as you buy one of them with your first or second purchase, you should be fine. It’s usually best to start with the Hall of Temptations to take advantage of the Succubi’s superior ranged Magic damage. In week two, you should upgrade to the Hall of Forbidden Desires.

2. House of Madness: Maniacs and Demented (once you upgrade to the House of Delirium) are your shock troops that run out into battle and slow up the enemy (while dealing some damage themselves). These and your Hell Hounds/Cerberus will bear the brunt of the enemy charge.

3. Howling Kennels: You’ll want more melee creatures early on to protect your Succubi and mess up the enemy’s movements. Upgrade to the Raging Kennels when it’s reasonable to do so and you’ll have a pretty fine stack of melee damage-dealers.

4. Chaos Crucible: It’s crucial to own the Chaos Crucible, especially if you build up the Village Hall early and have a lot of gold piling up. You never know when you’ll fall short by one or two resources to build; rather than waste a turn, the Chaos Crucible can transform your gold (or other resource surplus) into the missing resources and you’re back in business. Buy this building when you have the extra resources lying around.

5. Basic Fortifications: It’s important to get this built early: not necessarily for defensive reasons–though that could come into play if an enemy surprises you very early in the game–but more for the creature production bonuses the fortification chain offers.

6. Hall of Heroes: You won’t need this building until you’ve captured another enemy town and can hire a second hero, or if you’re first hero has died and you need a quick resurrection. However, it only costs 2,000 gold to construct, so slip it in on a day where you have extra gold but may be missing other resources to build a better structure.

7. Hall of Torment: Any of the three elite creature buildings are good choices at this stage. The Hall of Torment gives you Tormentors, which you can upgrade to Lacerators with the Hall of Agony; these elites will wreck weaker creature stacks and maybe even a few elite stacks along the way.

8. Pen of Mayhem: This pen–and its counterpart, the Pen of Chaos–create Juggernauts and Ravagers for your army. These brutes work with your other elite ground-pounders, the Tormentors/Lacerators, to mop up the enemy.

9. Spawning Chamber: If you want Breeders, invest in the Spawning Chamber. The even-scarier Breeder Mothers, which automatically increase their stack size at the start of combat, hatch from the Spawning Hive.

10. Advanced Fortifications: It’s important to reach this upgrade in week two to boost your creature production before the end of the week. The moat and enhanced wall defenses are a bonus.

11. Superior Fortifications: Build this, the first of your Rank 3 buildings/upgrades, as soon as you have the extra funds. Sure, it adds guard towers and stronger walls to your defenses, but it’s really the bonus to creature production that you’re looking to capitalize on week after week.

12. Heart of Urgash or Infernal Gate: Heart of Urgash increases the efficiency of your Gating faction ability (always useful), while the Infernal Gate can give you a movement boost by teleporting you on the Adventure Map (selectively useful).

13. Altar of Destruction or Wake of Chaos: The Altar deals damage to attackers during a siege; Wake of Chaos creates Abyssal Worms for every town in your control area, a larger effect that can hold off enemy advances.

14. Pit of Bile: As soon as you have enough resources to purchase the Pit of Bile, you should. Pit Fiends and Pit Lords (from the Pit of Hate upgrade) are your strongest creatures, and the earlier you get champion creatures into production, the harder it will be for enemy armies to compete with you.

15. Basic Town Portal: This building allows you to teleport your hero and army to another town you control. Not necessary until you own another town, but once you do, this is crucial to your defenses. Build this immediately after your first successful siege so that you can move around the map quickly with your main army and defend conquered towns.

16. Advanced Town Portal: Purchase this upgrade whenever you have the necessary resources and aren’t desperate for another building. You can usually wait till the mid to late game before getting it, but if you feel a threat coming, upgrade your towns immediately so your main army can teleport back to defend in a single day.

17. Urgash’s Fiery Wrath: This one really isn’t the lowest priority in your building progression. It’s actually the highest priority as soon as it becomes available, which, unfortunately, will probably be late game or not at all. With such a boon to gold and creature production, you’ll be happy to spend the massive resources to build the structure.Inferno Creatures and CombatInferno creatures go out in a blaze of glory–literally. They love to spew forth Fire damage, no matter the consequences, even to their own allies. Core creatures consist of Maniacs/Demented, Hell Hounds/Cerberus, and Succubi/Lilims. Elite creatures consist of Breeders/Breeder Mother, Tormentors/Lacerators, and Juggernauts/Ravagers. Your champion creatures are the Pit Fiends/Pit Lords.Core CreaturesEarly in the game, you will only have access to your core creatures, and later, they will still serve as the majority of your fighting force. If you control a Might hero, recruit more Maniacs and Hell Hounds. As a Magic hero, Succubi and Lilims will be your primary damage-dealers, and they’ll even lend great support in Might-based armies.

Maniacs/DementedThese Might-based creatures are you the toughest of your core creatures. Though they have low movement points, they have a higher Initiative than the Succubi/Lilims and an equal Initiative with Hell Hounds/Cerberus. However, their Morale and Luck are outstanding–the best of all your creatures. Yes, they’re crazy; fortunately, they’re insane enough not to know they’re in over their heads sometimes.

Hell Hounds/CerberusIf you subscribe to the all-out offense strategy, recruits your “dogs of war.” Both the Hell Hounds and Cerberus have the highest damage output of all your core creatures; unfortunately, they’re big targets and don’t have much defense. They make up for that a little bit with higher health than your other two core creatures, but that’s not enough to stand in the heat of battle and last long. They will take someone with them, though, when they go down.

Succubi/LilimsYour only Magic-based core creatures, both have excellent ranged attacks: decent damage with no range penalties. The Lilims’ Enthrall ability, which skips an enemy stack’s turn, can be the difference in a close battle if you can shut down the most powerful adversary for a turn or two. Even Might-based armies should invest heavily in these core ranged attackers to add damage from anywhere on the combat map.Elite CreaturesOnce you unlock your Rank 2 buildings, you can really start to pour on the damage, whether it be Magic-based or Might-based. Breeders lend a little Magic support, but your workhorses are the Tormentors/Lacerators and Juggernauts/Ravagers.

Breeders/Breeder MothersGenerally, unless you need the extra Magic support, Breeders and Breeder Mothers will take a backseat to your two other elite creatures. They do have the best Magic defense of any of your creatures save your champions; however, they fall short in other categories, such as damage, Might defense, health, and Initiative.

Tormentors/LaceratorsThese fall right in the middle of your elite creatures: better than Breeders in most things and not as good as Juggernauts/Ravagers in others. You may take them for their superior area-of-effect melee attacks or as an available alternative to the bulkier Juggernauts/Ravagers. Or you may just like the way they cut through opponents like there’s a two-for-the-price-of-one sale on battlefield corpses.

Juggernauts/RavagersYou want these critters if you like to dominant in melee combat. Better across the board in almost all stats for the elite creatures, these Might-based bruisers love to charge into combat, dealing damage to the string of creatures they encounter. Juggernauts are a step slower than Tormentors and Lacerators, but make up for it with their damage scores and higher defenses.Champion CreaturesIt probably won’t be until the late game when you can afford the resources to purchase your Champion creatures. Once you do, though, they instantly become your best creature stacks if you can recruit enough to match the size of growing enemy armies.

Pit Fiends/Pit LordsBesides superior stats in every category, Pit Fiends can retaliate against all previous attackers at once, resist mind control effects and movement hindrance, and can force enemies to attack at random. Pit Lords’ Boundless Hate is the Inferno creatures’ best ability, enabling the Champions to deal Fire damage to all enemies on the combat map.SiegesAs with any siege, look to your ranged creatures first. Succubi and Lilims, possibly Breeders, will be your most valuable troops attacking or defending town walls. Of course, a few Pit Lords wouldn’t hurt with repeated Boundless Hates, if you can afford them.

When attacking a town, you generally want to hold back your melee stacks and play defense until creatures emerge from the central gate. It’s safe then to attack and trade blows with the enemy melee creatures. Bombard the enemy ranged defenders with Succubus/Lilim damage, hero abilities, and remember to use your Gating faction ability to increase your ranged attacks or melee defenders if a large group of defenders emerge from behind the walls. Take out the strongest enemy stacks that have the ability to counterattack, and see if you can get multiple enemy creatures in a cluster with your area-of-effect abilities.

On defense, stay inside the walls as long as possible. Eliminate the ranged attackers first, and save your Gating for fellow Succubi or Lilims, or your elite creatures if the enemy gets through the walls. Of course, it goes without saying that you should gate Pit Fiends or Pit Lords if you have the ability. Fill the central tower with your best ranged creatures to grab the tower benefits. Feel free to send some of your more mobile creatures, such as your Hell Hounds/Cerberus, to quickly cross the battlefield and pin down enemy threats while your ranged shots continue.Advancing ForthOnce you have your town increasing on a daily basis and you’ve acquired all the free resources in the immediate area–this usually takes a week or two–it’s time to adventure outward. Use the nearby neutral armies as a guide. Anything that recons with a Trivial or Low threat level should be an immediate target, and your circle of influence should extend that far. If something recons at High or Deadly threat level, your civilization hasn’t grown enough to expand that far (assuming you’re keeping your main army strong).

Scout out the local areas for mines first. You want a Sawmill (wood mine) and an Ore Mine as quickly as possible, and definitely before the end of the first week. Crystal Mines are harder to come by, and you have several weeks to acquire one before you start becoming desperate for the better upgrades and buildings. Alternatively, you can seize gold mines and use your gold surplus to buy missing resources at the Chaos Crucible. Eventually, though, you need at least one mine of each resource producing.

Pick off the easier neutral armies so you don’t lose as many creatures in each attack. Plan your attacks based on the resources you need. Want to build a Pen of Mayhem but don’t have the wood? Go on the hunt for neutral armies sitting on a wood supply (or better yet, another Sawmill). On your outings, you also want to gather treasure chests (for more gold or experience) and artifacts to improve your hero’s equipment and combat prowess.

Be on guard for enemy attacks and try to figure out where your closest enemy might be hiding in the fog of war. The sooner you conquer an enemy town and add its resources to your empire, the better off you’ll be. It’s fun to beat up on neutrals and collect goodies, but that can only take you so far–as you near the end of the first month (possibly sooner), you should lock on to a neutral fort/town or player/A.I. fort/town and siege it.Multiple HeroesYou don’t want to send your hero back to your lone town for new creatures all the time. That wastes movement points when you could be out conquering and acquiring more resources, artifacts, and building benefits. That’s another huge reason to invade your second town. Once you earn that second town, you can hire a new hero from the Hall of Heroes.

A second hero doubles your options each day. If the threat level in the area is still relatively weak, you can load this second hero up with creatures, and now you have two armies running around collecting goods. You also explore twice as fast–more with multiple heroes–which gives you valuable information on the surrounding buildings, neutral armies, and treasure. Just be careful that you don’t split your creatures too much and run the risk of a devastating loss from a standing neutral army or surprise enemy invasion.

If you think it’s best to keep one stronger army, which is usually the case in normal hostile territory, you can use your second hero as a supply chain. Rather than return all the way back to your home town with your primary hero, you can run new creatures out from town with your second hero and meet your primary hero to pass the creatures off to the bigger army. This saves time, and, so long as you aren’t in danger from a roving enemy army, the lone hero won’t have any problems returning safely home and resupplying for the next visit. With a second town, you can also recruit creatures directly from there if it’s closer and has all the necessary buildings and upgrades developed.Taking Out Enemy Heroes and ArmiesAs soon as an enemy appears out of the fog of war and stays in the open on your next turn, examine it for details. If the threat level is anything below High, destroying the enemy is a top priority. You certainly don’t want it disappearing into the fog of war and causing you problems when it appears somewhere in your territory. Beyond that, though, if you can eliminate it without heavy loses, you weaken your opponent and possibly put yourself in a good position to seize a nearby enemy fort or town. Move in with your primary army and watch that you aren’t exposed to a stronger army hiding elsewhere. It’s best to strike the same day you see it, or on the next day. If the enemy flees and you can’t reach it within a day or two’s movement, let it go: you can’t afford to run all over the map not furthering your position.Conquering Control PointsForts and towns hold the key to control areas. Seize one and you control all the buildings the owner has gained to that point. Obviously, towns are better because they come with so many buildings/upgrades and you can hire more creatures with them each week.

As with enemy heroes and armies, examine a neutral or enemy town the second it comes into view. Analyze its defenses. Is it guarded by a nearby army? Does it have a strong garrison of its own? Or is it open for the plucking? Unlike an enemy hero or army that you don’t want to cover lots of ground to track down, you may want to travel several days to sack a town. If you can catch an invading enemy out of its home, steal it away from him, and seal up the defenses before the enemy returns, it’s worth forgoing almost anything else. You can always backtrack and eliminate neutral armies for rewards later, and you want to grab any limited-defended fort or town as quickly as possible before someone else gets to it first.Defending Your Control AreaIf you only have one or two towns, your main army will generally be cruising around the area and should repel nuisance invaders. If an enemy invader is going to prove a Severe challenge, you may want to strategically retreat to fortify your position and return another day. If it’s a Deadly threat, flee immediately and put as much distance between your armies as possible. Assuming you want to fight and hold what’s yours, you have two main defensive strategies: multiple armies or town portals.

Multiple ArmiesBy the mid game, you should have enough resources to support at least two fairly formidable armies. In an area where enemy attacks become prevalent, consider stationing one of your armies near an important crossroad or chokepoint. This limits invaders options, and if they travel into your control area, you should be able to track them down if you’ve positioned yourself correctly. In a control area with lots of access points, you may need two armies to properly defend a town or string of control points.Make sure you clear the fog of war around your forts and towns. Now you can see invasions far ahead and plan accordingly.Town PortalsGenerally, the best defense revolves around the Basic Town Portal and Advanced Town Portal. When you only have enough resources to grow one army strong, or have your primary army off on long adventures away from your towns, invest in the Basic Town Portal. It enables your leader with enough movement points to teleport from one town to another. You may be on the other side of the map when you see an attack coming on one of your towns, but one portal later from a nearby town and you’re suddenly defending the town under attack. If you time it right with a superior force, you can charge out of town after you portal to it and track down a foe who might have fled knowing the strength of your army ahead of time.

The Advanced Town Portal allows your hero to teleport back to that town from anywhere on the map. This is even better if your main army has to venture forth far away from your controlled towns. Employ the same strategy as with the Basic Town Portal and eliminate invaders that aren’t properly prepared for a the sudden arrival of lots of creatures. Be careful, though: a hero’s Advanced Town Portal ability brings them back to the closest town with Advanced Town Portal. If you only have one Advanced Town Portal (which is a good strategy, say, if you always want to come back to your Capitol), you don’t have any worries; you’ll appear exactly where you want to go. If you have multiple towns with Advanced Town Portal, it may take you two days to return to your target town: one Advanced Town Portal jump to return to the closest town, and a second Basic Town Portal jump to reach the intended town.Winning It AllTake the time to properly build up your town in the beginning, and don’t rush into any battles without checking all your options first. Better to gather the appropriate resources early and make sure you have a solid defense going than try to be too aggressive and overextend yourself.

Expand outward and seek out the weakest nearby enemy for your full attention. You need to conquer an enemy town (though forts help too) first, or at least at relatively the same time as any other strong enemies out there. You can’t afford to spend weeks behind in the resource game if other enemies have more control areas than you.

Once you have your second or third town, you should be in full command of the area. As days march into weeks, your creatures will grow into a near limitless supply and enemies won’t be able to keep up. If you tap into your Gating faction ability often, you won’t lose many creatures in war, while your opponents wear away to nothing. Even if you choose a strategy that doesn’t include Gating, the fiery Inferno horde will burn down the house–or, in this case, the town–to force your enemies to submit to your ultimate will.

Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1INFERNO: CHAPTER 1: Angel, Angel, Burning BrightInferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 1You begin the Inferno campaign as Kiril, youngest son of Slava and twin to Anastasya. He has been mysteriously cast into Sheogh by the angel Sarah, with only a slim hope of escaping to return to Ashan and right the wrongs in the Griffin Duchy.

When you awake in Sheogh, you discover that you’ve been possessed by Azkaal, a lost Prince of Destruction hellbent on escaping his imprisonment inside your body and conquering the kingdoms of Sheogh he once owned. A current demon lord in Sheogh, Kha-Beleth, sends two Succubi to shepherd you, Xana and Daeva, who work to keep you alive so that you don’t free Azkaal inside you. In the meantime, you just want to find the Sarah for answers and to force her to return you to Ashan.

You stand outside the town of Ur-Beleth near the center of the map. As with any campaign, you must make early decisions on which buildings/upgrades to construct based on your available resources. Ur-Beleth starts with limited options, so it won’t be as complex as later maps. Purchase the Town Hall upgrade first to increase your gold production.After you arrive in Sheogh, you’ll be given your first primary quest, “Pride, Prejudice and Demons.” First, you must explore your immediate surroundings. After you complete all the quest objectives, you’ll earn 20,000 experience and the Jester Slippers.

Look to the west for your first mine. As an added bonus, the Inferno neutral army guarding the ore pit will join your army. Just like that you’ve added more creatures and more ore to your kingdom.

Explore around Ur-Beleth and grab any free resources available. If you want resources or treasure defended by a neutral army, scout out the army first: Trivial or Low threat level means you can attack at will, while anything higher should make you think twice about engaging. Cross to the east and you’ll be able to capture the nearby sawmill, your second mine.

Next, visit the Scorching Pools to the northeast. The Succubi guarding the dwelling will join your army, and once you capture the Pools you’ll add seven more Sucubbi to your creature pool each week.

Keep building up Ur-Beleth. Since you only have one core creature building to construct at this stage, it’s probably best to wait on that and instead upgrade to the City Hall for even more daily gold production. Your army should continue to gather resources, and you’ll want Kiril to visit the Armorsmith to gain a permanent +1 Might Defense.

Build the Hall of Temptations at the midweek point. You can now recruit Succubi on a weekly basis.

Ride south to the dwelling with the hero parked in front. Speak with Lorhish, the kennel master of the Cerberi. You have a choice: talk with Lorhish further and gain 100 Tears reputation points, or attack Lorhish and gain 100 Blood reputation points. If you decide to talk, you’ll be offered the “Two-Headed Puppies” secondary quest, which you must complete to add Hell Hounds to your kingdom. If you decide to attack, defeat Lorhish’s army to force him to add Hell Hounds to your kingdom.If you attack Lorhish and gain the Howling Kennels for your kingdom immediately, don’t forget to build the structure before the end of the week and gain Hell Hounds next week for your army.

As the week draws to a close, pick up some more resources and treasure in the area, but don’t leave your initial control area. You want to stay close to home so you can recruit a fresh group of creatures tomorrow. Add the Basic Fortification before week’s end.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 2Defeat the Tormentors defending the passage to the east and enter a new area. Travel to the northeast after the Tormentors and ask the nearby Hell Hounds army to join your cause. After they accept, visit the Stone of Enlightenment for 2,500 experience and pick up the adjacent resources. If you were given the “Two-Headed Puppies” quest earlier, return to Lorhish after recruiting the Hell Hounds. He will reward you with 5,000 experience and 12 Hell Hounds. Even better, you now get the Howling Kennels for your towns.

Return to the new area and expand outward. Until you gain your own Crystal Caverns to produce crystals, you should attack any neutral army that hoards crystals to build up your stockpile. More powerful buildings cost crystals, so you’ll need a lot of them soon.

Upgrade your Hall of Temptations to the Hall of Forbidden Desires. Now you can recruit Lilims, a more powerful version of Succubi, and pound away at enemy armies with your ranged Magic attacks.

Clear out the small area and head to the southeast where white posts mark the next control area. At this point, you may run into enemy heroes. Scout them as soon as they emerge from the fog of war and attack immediately if you can beat them. Not only will you earn a large amount of experience, and possibly artifacts from the bested hero, but you’ll prevent the enemy from invading your territory and possibly converting your towns and forts.

The first enemy battle will be against Tor-Berith with a small army. The demon knows Azkaal well from the good old days, and the demon within you wants nothing better than to tear his old enemy apart. When you do, you earn the Souldrinker Dynasty Weapon.

Seize the crystal mine northeast of the control area entrance. Once you do, you have all main resources trickling in daily. Eventually, you can build anything, and if you want to accelerate production, seek out neutral armies that control the resources you need.

Head south now and strike out for the nearby neutral town, Ur-Ipos. The town’s threat level will probably be Low if you haven’t suffered too many combat losses. Attack and conquer the town so that you have two towns under you control heading into the third week.

Take a look at Ur-Ipos and build it up following the same method as Ur-Beleth. Send your army to the west and speak with the Maniacs guarding the nearby dwelling. As minions of the Overlord of Madness, Maniacs have gone insane; however, that may be a benefit to you. If you decide to tell them the truth about your quest for Sarah, you’ll gain 100 Tears reputation points and the Maniacs will label you crazy–which is alright in their book, and they join you if you can complete the “It’s a Mad, Mad World” secondary quest. If you decide to attack the Maniacs, you’ll earn 100 Blood reputation points, and upon your victory, you’ll force them to join your cause.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 3Around the third week, you may need a second hero to defend your territory. Hire another hero through the Hall of Heroes and bring them down to the main intersection in your new control area. Early on, you can defend your two towns well from here, and when you don’t need to defend, your secondary hero can act as a supply line to fill your primary army up with extra creatures and save on time.

With your primary army, drop down to the south and explore the path leading toward the lava pool. Defeat the Elementals guarding the treasure pile and recover the Mask of the Madman (-6 Morale to enemy creatures). Return to the Maniacs and show them the Mask. You’ll earn 5,000 experience, 60 Maniacs in your army immediately, and 100 Tears reputations points. Even better, you’ll now be able to recruit Maniacs weekly in your towns.Be sure to build the House of Madness to recruit your Maniacs weekly.

Continue to scout out the small area south of Ur-Ipos. Collect whatever resources will help you construct all your core creature buildings and upgrade to the Hall of Forbidden Desires in both towns. If you have enough resources, build the Advanced Fortification to defend better and increase creature production.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 4Bolster your primary army with this week’s influx of creatures. After you’ve bulked up your forces, ride to the purple entrance to the west of Ur-Ipos.

Look for the Observatory in front of you. When you visit it, the fog of war clears around you and the layout of the land becomes clearer. You have many choices, but if you want to focus on expansion first, ride west to the nearby Pyramid.

Overpower the Pyramid to gain the reward of a large Breeder creature stack for your army. However, this encounter is completely optional; if you think you’ll lose just as many creatures, or more, in the Pyramid attack, skip it altogether.

Circle around the path and engage any neutral armies worth conquering. At the next intersection, liberate the sawmill. It will save you a trip back when you seize the town to the northwest a day or two later.

Invade Ur-Gaap and defeat the Inferno army guarding it. Casualties shouldn’t pile up; it’s likely you’ve dealt with the local enemy hero by now and there’s just a small defensive force guarding the town walls.

As with your first two towns, build up Ur-Gaap as quickly as you can. The more buildings you have contributing to your kingdom–especially the creature producers–the faster you can outstrip your neighboring enemies.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 5After establishing Ur-Gaap, explore the southwest section of the map. Be sure to grab the nearby gold mine to increase your income, and look for any other buildings or treasure spots you’d like to secure.

Beware of the Spirit Gate to the west of your new town. It’ll be a point of contentious for several weeks, until you can build up an extra army and station in front of Ur-Gaap. You may have to delay expansion if the enemy continues to launch attacks from the Spirit Gate and you don’t have a great enough creature pool to both attack and defend.

Spend the rest of the week building up your towns. If somewhere needs an Advanced Fortification or a Marketplace, save up the necessary resources to purchase it before week’s end. If you’re short resources, continue to explore as best as you can and look for the resources you need.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 6When you feel you have enough creatures to advance forth again, head north to the purple posts alongside the rocks next to Ur-Gaap. Defeat the Inferno neutral at the gates and enter the enemy control area.

Continue to explore north. Take the path in the middle; the path to the west leads to a captured dwelling, while the path to the east loops around to where you want to go, but takes longer unless you want to seize more resources and treasure.

Recon the fort in the distance after it emerges from the fog of war. If it’s an easy siege, attack immediately; if it’s not, retreat and come back the following week after you’ve had a chance to increase your army size. It’s a help to increase your real estate up here, but not essential if it puts your army’s strength in jeopardy.

You may also want to pick up a few treasures and mines in the surrounding area. If you’ve missed something around one of your other towns, send your second (or third) hero out with a large enough force to claim another artifact or mine.

Build up and defend your towns furiously. As soon as an enemy pops into view, track them and get a stronger army between the enemy and nearest town. At this point, you may want to build up each town’s Basic Town Portal so you can teleport quickly from one to the other. Because Ur-Gaap draw the most attention next to the Spirit Gate, it’s a good candidate for the Advanced Town Portal–then, no matter, where your primary is on the map, you can instantly teleport back there to defend at the start of a new day.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 7-8Think defense first for the next couple of weeks. Better that you hold onto what’s yours and not gain any more territory than to lose a town by spreading out too thin. When the enemy heroes ride toward a town, use your established network of Town Portals to wipe them out with your best army.

While your secondary army defends the Ur-Gaap area, send your primary army north on the path above your crystal mine near Ur-Ipos. A major treasure cache sits in a cul-de-sac to the east, and if you can defeat the Inferno neutral army guarding the spot, you’ll reap the rewards.

After you pass the major treasure cache, you’ll see the angel Sarah to the east. You can approach, but you won’t catch up to her yet. She flees to the east and enters a locked gate. For now, put Sarah out of your mind and concentrate on more expansion.You have to wait until you complete the “Bad Reputation” quest to speak with Sarah inside the eastern gates.

A nearby Lilim army will join with you if you speak with them in front of the Stone of Enlightenment that Sarah passes as she flees east.

Explore all the area up to the eastern gate. After you’ve conquered the majority of the map and completed the “Bad Reputation” quest, you can return to the eastern gate and enter the final control area.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 9After you’ve resupplied with new creatures, keeping enough back on defense to prevent enemy incursions, order your primary army into the fortress area north of where Sarah once stood. There’s a lot to explore here; as the fog of war lifts, scout the various armies and treasure to decide on what direction you want to head.

Travel east and stop at various points along the way that interest you. In the corner, take note of the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon. If you have 11,000 gold and seven crystals to spend, you can level up your hero. Before you do, though, see how far along your hero is on his current experience track. If he’s near the end, wait to gain the level normally, then double-back to the Shrine later and get an even bigger level boost to the next level.

Climb the stairs to the next level of the fortress area. To the east, raid the Barbarian Camp if you think you can easily best the Stronghold defenders. Your reward will be a large stack of Breeders, which helps any Inferno army.

Scan the area for any friendly armies. If you can get a stack of Lilim to join you just for walking over and talking to them, why not strengthen your army?

You should see Ur-Vassago to the north. If you have enough creatures to overwhelm its defenses, charge in and take another chunk out of the north. With a healthy amount of Lilim blasting away at range and Maniacs and Hell Hounds to protect them from enemies foolish enough to wander out of the gates, your fourth town will come into your grasp in no time.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 10-11The enemy won’t be happy with your advances. Repel more invaders while you secure more key locations around you, such as the sawmill and the dwelling south of Ur-Vassago.

When your secondary army is big enough to stop the enemy attacks on a consistent basis, park your army directly in front of the Spirit Gate. This will automatically force an exiting enemy to engage with your army, and you can beat them before they’ve had a chance to escape deep into your territory.

Advance on the next enemy control area by riding northwest of Ur-Vassago. Enter through the orange posts and seize the gold mine straight ahead of you.

Meanwhile, if an enemy approaches your fort to the north of Ur-Gaap, gallop up there at full speed and cut them off. You can use the nearby buildings to give you more movement points to intercept.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Week 12Launch an assault on Ur-Focalor with your primary army when you have enough creatures to reduce the threat to a manageable number. You’ll probably need 500 or more creatures to overcome the defenses.

During the siege, use your Lilim to blast away the enemies inside the central tower and any ranged defenders inside the fortress walls. When the Hell Hounds or Maniacs exit, counter with your own melee creatures and keep them from pinning down your Lilim stacks. Even in a balance battle, if you hold the Lilim edge and play smart, you’ll win out.

After you take over Ur-Focalor, Kha-beleth speaks with you and explains that the angel Sarah left you in Sheogh in exchange for safe passage through the demon plane. You’ve now completed the first objective of the “Bad Reputation” primary quest to open the eastern gates and go after Sarah.

Advance on the final enemy control area on the western side with both your armies. Send your secondary army up from its stationary position in front of the Spirit Gate north through the gates to attack any enemy that flees your primary army.

Send your primary army to the southwest from Ur-Focalor. Weave down through the paths looking for any enemy heroes. Eventually you’ll near your final town on the western side.

Ur-Amdusias lies to the east in the enemy control area. Attack with your primary army and load up with all your creatures if the threat level presents a problems to your split armies. Once you have control of Ur-Amdusias and you’ve killed off Tor-Berith, you complete the second objective for “Bad Reputation” and unlock the eastern gates to go after Sarah.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 1: Weeks 13-14Take the Spirit Gate to the south as a shortcut. It deposits you next to Ur-Gaap and saves you a day’s movement points.

Ride to the eastern gates and cross into the new enemy territory. Look to the north near the neutral dwelling for a group of Tormentors who will join your cause. After you speak to them, you can now recruit them in your towns after you construct their corresponding building.

Conquer the fort to the south to weaken the enemy’s position and secure your foothold near the gates. Once you’ve cleaned out the area of anything worthwhile, ride north and deeper into enemy territory.

Kha-beleth tells you that Sarah has come down to Sheogh to forge a weapon to save Ashan. Before you can reach her again, she flees to the north.

Continue north and engage any enemy hero you spot. At this point, enemy heroes should be but roadblocks to taking over the control area, but if any one of them looks tough, retreat and wait another week to add more creatures to your army total.

Seize the next fort heading north. You now have the majority of the east under your control, with only the one last area to go.

You will have to beat Daeva’s army and then Toghrul’s army back to back when you reach Ur-Leraje. It will take a huge army to best both, so don’t attack until you have enough to reduce the Daeva’s army to a Trivial or Low threat.

Once you defeat Toghrul, it’s time to put the demon away for good so he won’t hurt your family anymore. You condemn the demon’s spirit to the soul-sucking sword, but the effort leaves you weak and Azkaal breaks free from his prison within you.

The game’s going to change for you now: You get to play the demon Azkaal! Instead of commanding an army on the battlefield, you play the boss and battle against Xana’s army.

Azkaal has three main abilities: Boundless Hate, Mark of Consumption, and Ill Blood. Boundless Hate is your main weapon: It deals fire damage to all enemies on the screen. Mark of Consumption increase fire damage to the target for the entire combat. Ill Blood allows you to mind-control an enemy and force that enemy to strike the nearest creature.

Even though Azkaal has 75,000 health and his melee strike is formidable, you don’t want to charge toward the enemy and take them all head-on. Their numbers will be enough to overwhelm you if you don’t use some cunning tactics.

Fire off your Boundless Hate at the start of the battle and as soon as its available again. This super-attack deals the most damage to your enemies and will wipe out huge stacks of creatures. After a few blasts of Boundless Hate, it won’t matter if the enemy swarms you.

Throw Mark of Consumption on the large enemy stacks to increase the damage they take from Boundless Hate. If you can get Mark of Consumption on all enemy stacks, they won’t stand a chance against your fire damage.

When the enemy closes in, you can cause havoc with Ill Blood and have the strongest enemy stack attack another enemy stack. Azkaal’s melee attack and retaliation will deliver some hefty damage too.

Use Azkaal’s teleportation to move around the combat map and make it difficult for the enemy melee creatures to get in frequent attacks. Every attack you dodge keeps you alive for that much longer, and gives more time for your Boundless Hate attacks to wear down the enemy stacks.

Continue your assault until you’ve burned away all enemy resistance. Xana will concede, leaving you the victor on the battlefield.

Before Azkaal can kill Xana, Kiril regains control of his body and stuffs the demon’s soul back inside. You demand Xana take you to Kha-beleth. She does, and you learn from Kha-beleth that the Griffin Dynasty has been cultivated by angels over generations to serve as hosts for angel’s souls. Because you are a special human, your soul can also host a demon’s soul, Azkaal’s soul.

Leaving Kha-beleth, you finally catch up with Sarah. She apologizes for leaving you in Sheogh and asks for forgiveness. However, she has set Elrath’s will in motion, and like it or not, you’re part of the Angel’s master plan against the Faceless.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2CHAPTER 2: Fearful SymmetryInferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 1With Sarah headed to the Invisible Library, your first priority as Kiril is to build the largest army that you can. You’ll run into adversity from almost everyone on Ashan, and only a superior force will allow you to move freely through the land. Of course, first you have to locate Sarah; rather than attack the Angels directly, you decide to capture the wise Mother Namtaru and convince her to tell you where the Invisible Library hides.

You begin in the northeast corner of the map, on the road in an isolated pocket with a few resources and a bridge leading to the mainlain to the west. Your meager supply of Maniacs, Hell Hounds, and Succubi will beat up on the nearby neutral armies easy enough–and you should gather as many resources and artifacts as you can early on–but you’ll need to capture a town and build a proper army quick.Your primary quest is the “Heart of the Spider.” You’ll have to discover where the Mother Namtaru resides, then defeat her Spider Guardian, before capture the Mother herself in an epic boss battle.

Grab the free resources lying around, and visit the Stone of Enlightenment for 2,500 extra experience. Early in your campaign, when you access a treasure chest like the one nearby, choose gold. You want enough gold to build your structures and recruit all your creatures; once you have enough gold to purchase anything you like, feel free to switch to obtaining experience from treasure chests.

Cross the bridge and fight your way through the red posts into enemy territory. From here on out, you’ll be looking for lightly defended forts and towns to grow your kingdom.

Seize the dwelling north of the bridge. It’s neutral now, but after you conquer it and leave it will fly the enemy flag (you’re in the red control area). Normally, this isn’t a sound plan–you’re giving a free building to your opponent, which they can potentially use for more creatures in their pool–however, in this case, the town is right next to you and you’ll be taking it for yourself before week’s end.

Continue to pick up more resources and artifacts from the weak neutral armies nearby. Your initial army should be enough to overcome all of the neutral armies between the bridge and the first town, but if you run into trouble, it’s not critical that you attack these neutral armies.

The most important task you have in the first week is to make sure that you reach, and conquer, the first town before your time is up. You need to set the town up as your own so you can start recruiting new creatures for your growing army. If you seize the lightly defended town with an extra day or two to spare, that’s good–it will give you additional time to construct some creature-oriented buildings before recruitment time.

After you create your first Inferno town, Rosado, if you have any time left, ride out to the nearby neutral army and collect some more gold and wood. The more you have, the more you can do with your buildings and creatures.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 2If you build the Hall of Forbidden Desires before you explore out from Rosado, you can upgrade your current Succubi to the more powerful Lilims. If you’ve already done this, opt for an upgrade from Town Hall to City Hall, and eventually to Capitol.

Adventure to the southwest from Rosado and pick up whatever treasures you like. The whole area around Rosado is secluded and easily defended, so you don’t have to worry about attack right now (and probably for the entire campaign). Take your time to pick up everything that you want.

When you’ve explored immediately around Rosado, look for the road leading out to the west. You have a lot more resources and artifacts to add to your stockpile if you can defeat the defending neutral armies. If an army recons higher than a Low threat level, wait until you can get more reinforcements next week and then return.

Continue to gather more resources and build up Rosado. You should reach Capitol status before the end of the week, and you want the Basic Fortification in place too. If you have the extra resources, the Hall of Torment is a welcome addition, as it will include Tormentors in your creature pool.

Explore the entire area. You’ll spot another red gate into the Holy Inquisition’s to the southwest. Don’t fight the guard at the gate until you’re ready to invade the next control area and fend off enemy heroes.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 3In the third week, upgrade to the Hall of Agony. Ideally, you’ll want to do this when you return to town for your new supply of creatures. Now, instead of Tormentors, you can add Lacerators to your army.

Ride back out to the edge of your kingdom and attack the guard at the gate into the new enemy control area. With the influx of creatures you just received at the beginning of the week, this battle will be over almost as soon as you approach.

Nelsham’s Scar is a giant crevice dividing the land in the new control area. In order to cross the Scar, and control the area, you must capture a fortress on either side of the crevice. In addition to fulfilling the “Nelsham’s Scar” primary quest, you’ll gain two more towns for your kingdom.The “Nelsham’s Scar” quest asks you to capture fortresses on each side of the scar. Bring a large army if you want the 15,000 experience reward.

The gates onto the bridge that crosses Nelsham’s Scar will not open until you capture the first fortress, Castelcross. Lady Cordelia and her army defend the fortress. After you beat her small army, you can either use persuasion (+250 Tears reputation points) or intimidation (+250 Blood reputation points) to get her to acquiesce to your demands.

After taking the fortress, swing out to the west and search for the fort controlling the western section of land. One of the Holy Inquisition’s heroes may be defending the control area, and it’s likely that you’ll find him here, safeguarding the fortress with his army. Power through the hero and his army to control the fortress.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 4Conquer all the territory northwest of Castelcross. Make sure all the dwellings and mines are under your control so you reap their rewards. You may also want to visit the Artifact Merchant to earn some extra gold on artifacts that you don’t want, or spend some gold on new ones that will increase your hero’s skills. At the same time, ensure that your new town begins to build up in the typical fashion. With Castelcross, you have a head start: it’s already significantly built up when you storm the walls, so you can jump into the higher ranked buildings, such as Advanced Fortification.

Return to Castelcross when you need to resupply. Once you have your army set, ride south to the bridge over Nelsham’s Scar.

Cross the Scar and engage the Necropolis army guarding the far side of the bridge. If the army recons anything above Trivial or Low threat level, turn back immediately and wait another week for reinforcements. This is the outer guard; it only gets harder the deeper you press into the new territory.

Visit the Weaponsmith in the northwest corner after you beat the bridge guard. It’s undefended and an easy upgrade for Kiril or any of your other heroes that come through this way.Time your attack on the second fortress to coincide with the final day of the week. You want to add the town to your kingdom before week’s end; however, the southern gates will open and you want another recruitment period before the enemy attacks.

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You want to attack the second fortress on the very last day of the week. You must take over the town before the week ends, but if you do it sooner than the last day, you will receive an enemy counterattack immediately as the southern gates open. Better to take out the fortress at the end of the week, receive new creatures on the first day of the new week, and defend against the counterattack with these sudden reinforcements.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 5An enemy counterattack strikes as soon as the southern gates open. You have a single day to prepare. With all your troops, charge out of your new town, Nelsham-Nadin, and meet the 100+ Necropolis creatures with everything you’ve got. If you win without minimal creature loss, feel free to continue south and farther into enemy territory. If you sustain heavy losses, stand your ground and wait another week for more creature reinforcements.

The map sprawls out when you reach the intersection to the south. You can head in all directions, and then those paths splinter into many other paths. Feel free to explore around the area; however, it’s generally better to attack the neutral army guarding the yellow gate to the east and plow into enemy territory again.

Travel east and stop by anything that interests you. Eventually, the fog of war will clear and you’ll spot the next fort to the southeast.

Ride directly for the fort and take it out before any enemy heroes arrive in the area. This will give you a foothold in the area. Unfortunately, being a travel hub, it’s a difficult area to control, but one that’s necessary for the remainder of the campaign.When you liberate the fort, you gain the first of four Moonsilk Crystal Key fragments. You need these four key fragments to reach the Mother Namtaru. You’ll also gain +2 Destiny and 25,000 experience when you complete the “Secret of the Inner Sanctum” primary quest.

You also hear rumors that a demon general following the Overlord of Destruction has been captured by the Necromancers. Your next task will be to liberate this demon general and get him to rally to your cause.The secondary quest “Prisoner of War” activates after you take the first fort in the south. Find the second fort where demon general is kept and you’ll earn some fine rewards: +8 Juggernauts for your army (and the ability to recruit more in the future), 1,500 experience, and the demon general becoming a hero in your army.

Be sure to grab the crystal mine to the east. Besides securing your first fort in the area, the mine is equally important to give you valuable crystals as a daily resource.

The nearby Spirit Gate will cause you headaches. Enemies can travel through the Gate and instantly teleport into your control area. Once you have a big enough army to split off for another hero, you might want to park a defensive force next to the Gate to prevent incursion.

Explore the area around your new fort. Collect treasure and artifacts, and convert any mines and neutral dwellings to your flag.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 6Back in Nelsham-Nadin, hire a second hero and load that hero’s army up with all the creatures in your pool from the new week. Ride out to Kiril’s army and resupply him with creatures so the primary army doesn’t waste movement points riding back to town. Once you gain enough creatures that your secondary hero can have an army too, use that army as defense around the southern forts.

After you resupply, send your primary army to the west at the main intersection. Wipe out the defenses in front of the neutral Necropolis dwelling and add it to your kingdom.

Continue west until you see the second fort up on the hill. This is the prison holding Veyer, the demon general. As you liberate Veyer, you’re given a choice: leave the fort intact (+250 Tears reputation points) or convert the fort to Inferno (+250 Blood reputation points). Even if you’re working on your Tears path, you may want to convert the fort to better benefit your Inferno kingdom.

Veyer joins your side. Place some creatures in his army and the general is a great defensive commander to keep your southern assets under your control.

Return to the east and ride to the rock bridge crossing another part of Nelsham’s Scar (north of your first fort in the area). Defeat the neutral army at the gate to grant access into a new enemy territory.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Weeks 7-8Before the enemy knows what’s going on, forge ahead and follow the path that winds down to the southeast. Attack the fort as soon as it comes into view and gain a new foothold in the midst of the enemy territory. If an enemy hero isn’t patrolling, you should have a relatively easy time gaining this fort.

Cross the next stone bridge ride east. Engage any neutral army that holds interest, though you may want to defeat the army guarding the nearby Rally Flag to take advantage of its benefits as you ride back and forth.

Follow either one of the paths leading to the north. Both lead into enemy territory, but the one on the east holds a Stables, which you can use to increase your movement points.

Fight your way up to the north. Prioritize enemy heroes when you spot them; you don’t want them slipping past and jeopardizing control points to the south.

Conquer the northern town, Bel-zeri, and you’ll also gain your second piece of the Moonsilk Crystal Key. As with your other town, build up Bel-zeri so that it’s on par with your other well-developed towns.

While your primary army expands your empire, rigorously defend what you already own. When an enemy jumps through the Spirit Gate or enters through one of the many paths intersecting your control areas, be quick to send your defending army to intercept.

With your primary army, explore south of Bel-zeri and continue until you hit enemy resistance. Any resources, artifacts, and buildings you obtain along your journey will strengthen your kingdom.

The town of Nadin-zakir lies directly south of Bel-zeri, between a Sawmill and Spirit Gate. After you successfully siege the town, you will gain the third piece of the Moonsilk Crystal Key.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 9Use the Spirit Gate next to Nadin-zakir as a shortcut. It will save you more than a day of retracing your steps. Travel to the southwest now as you track down the remaining enemy fortifications.

Continue riding south/southwest until you find the next gate into a new enemy control area. You may want to explore some of the area for more goodies; if you want to beeline for the enemy’s town, stop by the nearby Stables to gain more movement points.

As you approach the next enemy town, you notice that Breeders are proliferating in the swamps to the west. The Necromancers are trying to destroy them; it’s up to you to stop them, and then you’ll be able to recruit Breeders into your army.The “Growing Pains” secondary quest rewards you with the Warping Pendant, 15,000 experience, and the ability to recruit Breeders in your towns. To complete the quest, save the Breeders from the Necromancers.

Approach the town carefully. It will be well-defended, and you’ll have to judge your army’s strength versus the town’s defenses and the patrolling enemy heroes to evaluate whether you can attack now or wait a couple of weeks for stronger reinforcements.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 10Assuming you want to seize the town immediately, scout the area first for enemy heroes (not counting the Sir Jaywoods threatening the Breeders) and remove the enemy heroes’ armies first. You don’t want to weaken yourself against the town in a siege, only to have an enemy hero counterattack and retake it, leaving you decimated in the process.

Once the town is yours, you can work on recruiting the Breeders. Loop around to the west of the town and attack Sir Jaywoods and his army in front of the Breeders.

Defeating that rather large army completes the “Growing Pains” quest and grants access to Breeders in your kingdom. After the battle, you have a choice: spare the life of Sir Jaywoods (+250 Tears reputation points) or kill Sir Jaywoods (+250 Blood reputation points). A large stack of Breeders will also join your army.

There’s a secret dungeon entrance on a path to the north, next to the sea on the western edge of the map. If you defeat the army guarding the entrance, you can descend into the treasure chamber for more gold, crystals, and artifacts.

Work your way east again. You can break into the final enemy control area by defeating the army guarding the yellow posts in front of the path that leads over the stream.

Ride southeast and access the Observatory against the cliffs to clear the fog of war and get a better picture of what’s going on in the surrounding area. Follow the main path southeast to the final Necropolis town.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Week 11Siege the final town, Nar-Heresh, as soon as you have enough creatures to ensure victory. At this point, you have a stranglehold on the map, so you should be safe to combine your forces into one immense primary army to stream roll the enemy defenses. After you do, you find the fourth and final piece of the Moonsilk Crystal Key.

The Mother Namtaru visits you in your dreams. Kiril stands before the Mother and asks her where to find the Invisible Library. She answers cryptically, and Kiril slashes at her in frustration before she disappears, replaced by a taunting Azkaal.

It’s now possible to enter the Mother’s Inner Sanctum. However, first you want to visit the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon to the north of Nar-Heresh, defeat the Fate Spinners, and spend the 11,000 gold and seven crystals to raise Kiril to the next level. North of that, hidden up near the mountains, you’ll also find a Weaponsmith to give you +1 Might Power before the final battle.

Take one last look around your kingdom and build up any structure that will help you increase creature output in preparation for the final battle. If you need to wait a few weeks to gather troops, that’s fine; the Mother Namturu will still be waiting for you whenever you choose to enter.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 2: Weeks 12-14Follow the path behind Nar-Heresh that leads the southeast behind the town. Battle another group of Fate Spinners to proceed farther.

At the very edge of the landmass, you’ll see the dungeon entrance to the Inner Sanctum. Squash the next Necropolis army to gain access. If you lose any creatures in either of these fights, you may want to rethink entering now and spend another week or two building up your army.

Descend to the Inner Sanctum and navigate around the green pool. You can pick up a treasure chest and crystals in the chamber, but because you’ve accumulated so much wealth by this point, they’re probably meaningless.

The Spider Guardian is but a warm-up to the main event. Defeat the Spider Guardian and its army; if you have all four Moonsilk Crystal Key pieces, you’ll be allowed to enter the Mother Namturu’s Sanctum.

Do not proceed into the Mother Namturu’s Sanctum unless you have at least 3,000 creatures in your army. This is a very difficult boss battle, and anything less will leave you in pieces, and you’ll have to restart with a new army.

Advance on the Mother Namtaru, and prepare to make her see reason through Might. Make sure you have every available creature in your kingdom before initiating this final battle.

The Mother Namturu’s most devastating attack fires three poisonous bursts that will approximately 200 creatures in each creature stack it strikes. Several blows by that and it’s game over for normal armies; you need very large creature stacks to survive the onslaught.

She can also decimate a stack with her melee attack. As punishing as this attack can be to the stack receiving the blows, you would much rather have her hitting one stack in melee than firing off her area-of-effect blast. Rush melee creatures at her as soon as possible to try and tie her up in melee.

The swirling energy cyclones generate special Spirit stacks. These billow forth with 10 Spirits each and levitate across the combat map to aid the Mother Namturu. Compared to the size of your creature stacks, the Spirits are miniscule. You can ignore them for the most part, concentrating your damage on the Mother Namturu; however, think about destroying them if several show up and they start to interfere with your Succubi or Lilims hitting the Mother Namturu with ranged attacks.

With 65,000 health, it’s going to take a huge amount of damage to bring her down. To increase your odds, target your largest Lilim stack with your Gating faction ability and conjure a gate in the far corner of the map. It’s best to spread out your gated creatures so when the Mother unleashes her area-of-attack blast, it doesn’t strike all your ranged attackers at once.

While your melee creatures swarm the Mother, fire all your ranged attacks at her turn after turn. Once you used your Gating ability on all your ranged attacks, try it on your melee creatures, if there are any left.

Fight through her severe attacks and keep the pressure on with your hero, Lilim, and occasional melee damage. Watch her health bar shrink, and you can judge whether you’re in good shape or have to pull off some surprise tactics to overcome the Mother.

With a little luck and a large amount of creatures, you’ll eventually bring the Mother Namturu to her knees. It’s a costly victory, but you’ve defeated a goddess!

Your Aunt Sveltana and sister Antastasya arrive to prevent you from killing the Mother Namturu. They do not know where the Invisible Library, but all is not lost–they vow to aid you on your mission of vengeance against the Angel Sarah.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3INFERNO: CHAPTER 3: In the Forests of the NightInferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 1As Kiril, you continue to chase after Sarah, this time through the lands of the Naga. She seeks the Invisible Library, with you on her tail.

With Xana at your side as your secondary hero, you begin with a single town in the northeast section of the map. Combine Xana’s creatures with Kiril’s and recruit any creatures in your creature pool while you’re standing next to the town. Now you’re ready to advance outward with the strongest army you have.Your primary quest is “Traces of Darkness.” You must find the cave where the Mother Namturu was once held, for in that cave a trail of dark magic may lead to the Faceless Invisible Library. When you complete this quest, you receive 40,000 experience.

Upgrade to the Town Hall as your first town improvement. This brings in more gold, and you’ll have time to collect other resources you need for future buildings/upgrades. Speak with the Pit Fiend army to the south and they’ll join your army. Gather the resources and artifact next to the Pit Fiends and continue south along the curving trail.According to legend, a Tear of Asha is hidden somewhere on the island. If you decide to work on “The Tear of Asha” secondary quest, you must collect the four fragments of the Shantiri Moon Disc. Combine them at your Capitol for the Tear of Asha artifact and 25,000 experience.

Loop around the lava pit and scoop up all free resources in the area. Every little bit helps when it comes to building up your town. Speaking of buildings, shoot for the City Hall upgrade next in your structure.

Once you have all the resources in the initial area, ride through the red gate and continue southwest. You’ll see a Stronghold neutral army at the next set of posts. It should be an easy fight, and you’re on your way into enemy territory.

Head due south to the neutral army in front of you. Defeat the army for a small reward and scout the area that you’ve just revealed through the fog of war. A Stronghold fort, which controls the land in front of your starting area, rests in the hills to the southwest.

Follow the path to the south, then west, to attack the fort. Even with your first week’s creatures, you should seize the fort easily. If not, retreat to your home town and wait for next week’s reinforcements to augment your chances.

Continue exploring the paths around your new fort. If you see a resource that you need, or an artifact that interests you, and the neutral army recons Trivial or Low, feel free to attack the defenders and take more for your kingdom. Back in your home town, build the Hall of Temptations to recruit Succubi.

Travel through the gate to the west and access the Observatory for a better view around. Keep in mind that there is another path to the north that also leads back toward the fort and your home town. This will be important later when you want to defend: Don’t forget that enemies have several ways into your territories, so defensive armies will have to be on high alert to mobilize anywhere.

The Observatory uncovers a new town to your west, Maunga. It should be lightly defended, and you can take it by surprise if you act quickly in this first week. Even if you take heavy casualties conducting the siege, it’s worth it to take the town and grab its resources for the next week (and beyond). If you find it difficult to siege, return to your home town for Succubi, and their ranged Magic attacks will make the siege a whole lot easier.

With a new town added to your kingdom, spend the final day or two gathering more resources and artifacts. If you’re too wounded to successfully explore, sit tight and wait for the second week and more reinforcements. Build a Basic Fortification in your home town to increase your creature growth.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 2Now you want to return to the east. Backtrack until you reach the path winding up to the northeast (directly east of your first fort). This path leads to a wealth of forts and towns that are fairly well protected once you capture them. You’ll have to leave Maunga unguarded for now; however, it’s going to be under siege a lot later, so once you have a large secondary army, you’ll want to station it there, near the dungeon entrance north of Maunga, to prevent frequent enemy invasions.

Stop by the Observatory on the coast to illuminate more terrain. You’ll spot a dungeon entrance to the southeast, on a separate portion of land that you can’t reach yet. However, it’s good to reveal this now so you can watch enemies going to and fro.

Back home, continue to upgrade your town. You may need to use the Chaos Crucible to convert gold into crystals to buy some of your better buildings and upgrades. Until you secure a crystal mine or two, crystals are in high demand.

Follow the path as it winds north. You’ll pass a dungeon entrance to the east. Leave it for now; you’ll be back later to conquer the underground sections. Engage any neutral armies that have resources, artifacts, or structures that you’d like to assimilate into your kingdom.

Where the path makes a sharp turn from north to east, you’ll find a second Stronghold fort. Overwhelm the fort with your superior forces and seize another control area. Convert the local dwellings to Inferno. You’ve now set up a foothold in the northeastern portion of the map.

Even better, there’s a crystal mine sitting next to the fort. Capture the crystal mine so you now have a daily influx of crystal to help build up your kingdom.

Only explore as far as the border into the next enemy territory. You may not be strong enough to take on any enemy heroes in the new area yet. Better to wait for next week’s reinforcements.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 3Return to your second fort and recruit as many Maniacs, Hell Hounds, and Succubi as you can from the latest round of reinforcements. Your bigger army should now be able to invade the new area successfully.

Ride straight for the next town, Tipua. It’ll be well defended, but your army should take it down if you use your Succubi to eliminate the Stronghold ranged attackers first and only concentrate fire on enemy melee stacks when they exit the fortress walls. Much like Maunga, Tipua is a small town with few buildings, but every little bit helps.

Assuming you have a decent army left after the siege, attack the neutral army to the southeast in front of the Spirit Gate. Not only will you earn some gold, but the defenders guard the first fragment of the Moon Disc for “The Tear of Asha” quest.

Next, destroy the neutral army in front of the Sawmill. Gather all the resources and capture the Sawmill to increase your daily wood count.

You can even visit the nearby Arena if you want a shot at increasing your Might stats. Take down the modest Stronghold group inside the Arena for your reward. Remember, you don’t suffer any permanent casualties during an Arena battle, so you might as well try to gain an upgrade for your hero.

As you accumulate more gold, wood, ore, and crystals continue to build up your structures. You should work on your elite creature buildings and get them all erected before the end of the week. Play defensive the rest of the week as you recover from your various wars.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 4Take the shortcut Spirit Gate next to Tipua, which deposits you next to the dungeon entrance along the original path leading to the northeast control areas. Wipe out the Stronghold army that guards the entrance so you can reach the underground territory inside.

Scout out the underground cavern in front of the winding staircase. Pick up the free resource and trounce any neutral army that gets in your way from the treasure and artifacts that you want.

Crystals are still a very valuable commodity. If you see neutral armies guarding crystals, attack if able. You may accelerate your towns’ growth by gathering a few extra crystals here and there.

Capture the underground crystal mine for even more crystals each day. By this point, you should be in good shape with all your resources.

Head in a general southwesterly direction to explore the rest of the cave system. You don’t have to fight every neutral army that you see. Save your strength for the important battles ahead.

Enter the enemy control area by destroying the Cyclops army at the gate. If you’re too weak to take it on without heavy losses, retreat for now and return when you have more reinforcements.

You’ll spot an enemy town in the darkness. Take it at all costs. So long as you survive the siege, this is a huge victory for you. Not only is the underground town difficult for enemies to attack, but once you have the underground caverns secure, its many surface passages give you an outstanding tunnel system for navigating the island.

The battle for the underground town, Ana, is not an easy one. Load up on Succubi and Lilims to devastate the enemy with ranged Magic attacks. Bring along enough melee creatures to stop a sudden melee defender attack through the front gates. Other than that, you’ll win if your ranged firepower is bigger than the defenders’.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 5The battle for Ana most likely left your army depleted. Fortunately, it’s a well-developed town when you inherit it, so you can restock your army immediately at the beginning of the week. If you still think you’re hurting, wait another week before going after any enemy hero armies.

Beware of enemy traps! A few times throughout the campaign, such as at the western gate next to Ana, a Stronghold army will suddenly spring into existence while you go to attack another target. You’ll have to defeat this ambusher before continuing on with your original movement path.

Explore west to the gate next to Ana. If you spot a lurking enemy hero, and you’re strong enough to win a battle, ride directly for the hero so that its army can’t sneak past you and undo what you’ve managed to conquer underground.

Clear out everything in the western side of the caverns. Don’t forget to search around the staircase. An ore mine, in particular, lies to the north and hidden in the gloom.

The staircase pops you back up on the surface next to Maunga. If the enemy has managed to retake Maunga while your army has been stomping around underground, surprise the enemy defenders by exiting the dungeon cave and heading straight for the town. Once it’s yours again, position a defensive army here and you won’t lose it again the rest of the campaign.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 6Return to the underground caverns and ride to the staircase in the southeastern corner. After you beat the Stronghold army defending the staircase, it leads up to the surface into a new area on the eastern side of the map.

You meet up with Cate in this new area. Your mother tells you that you must stop the Angels from destroying the Invisible Library. They have no idea what Dragons they’ll awaken. Angry at your mother for deserting you, the conversation ends with you saying that the Library isn’t your problem.

Another Stronghold traps springs as you explore to the east. Defeat the army and continue along the path to reveal the next enemy town.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 7Prepare for battle by tagging the Rally Flag at the crossroads. If the town recons Average or less, attack while you have the opportunity.

You really want to conquer Tarawai right now. You’re far from your other towns, so it takes a while to resupply. Even if you lose a chunk of your army taking Tarawai, it’s worth the loss to gain a valuable foothold in this new territory.

A Shrine of the Seventh Dragon has been erected to the south of the town. Visit the Shrine just after you level up to gain the maximum advantage. If you’re a long way off from leveling, spend the 11,000 gold and seven crystals to jump up a level right now.

Press south into the next control area. You shouldn’t need resources now; however, if for some reason you’re short on ore, there’s a lot sitting around the ore pit up ahead.

Strike out for the fort in the area. Once you take it, another large swath of enemy land falls under your control.

The bridge to the south reveals a small area with another dungeon entrance. If you want to gather more treasure from the nearby neutral army you can, or you can access the Observatory to remove more of the surrounding fog of war.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 8Descend into the depths and enter a new cavern system. This one is small, but it holds a fort, two crystal mines and one of the lost Moon Disc fragments.

Take down the fort to control the whole underground area. You can only enter the area through the single staircase, so it’s almost a guarantee that these crystal mines will remain yours for the rest of the campaign.

Attack the Darkness Elementals in the southwest corner of the cavern. They defend the second fragment of the Moon Disc that you need for “The Tear of Asha” quest.

Use your Advanced Town Poral and/or Basic Town Portal abilities to return to Maunga on the western part of your kingdom. You could also explore farther in the southeastern part of your kingdom, but it’s generally more challenging down there, so better to add some more territory in the west.

Travel south once you reach the main intersection. Your objective is the nearby fort at the base of the cliff that holds Maunga.

After you conquer the fort, convert the nearby dwellings to Inferno, which will improve your creature pool potential. Ride to the west and visit the Observatory to see more of your surrounding countryside.

Retrace your steps and ride to the northwest. At the top of the trail, you’ll see another town, Koutu, overlooking the water. Add it to your collection.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 9Koutu has a Spirit Gate on either side of it. Both are useful, though the one on the left leads down to the beach and a Sanctuary town. Leave Koutu and head for the western Spirit Gate.

Gather whatever you like off the beach next to the Spirit Gate. Across the water is the Sanctuary town, but first you want the third Moon Disc fragment.

The third fragment of the Moon Disc is on the beach, guarded by the neutral army in front of the large rock outcropping. Beat the defenders, seize the third fragment and any other rewards as a bonus.

Cross the waters to reach the Sanctuary town. If you like, the islands hold more small encounters for you to practice your tactics on.

Sneak up on the Sanctuary town, Agosame, and lay siege. If you can’t destroy it on your first attempt, no worries; you can easily return up the hill via Spirit Gate to Koutu and restock until you’re ready to overwhelm.

Once you’ve finished off Agosame, return to the top of the hill and take the eastern gate next to Koutu. This teleports you to an island in the north. The fourth fragment of the Moon Disc resides in enemy hands on this island.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Weeks 10-11Journey north on the northern island and cut through the defenders in your way. Stop as often as you like to engage the neutral armies so long as you don’t weaken your army too much.

Earth Elementals guard the final Moon Disk fragment. Attack them with your primary army and gain the last fragment. You can also capture the Sanctuary fort to the northwest if you like.

Teleport back to your Capitol, and with the four fragments of the Moon Disc in hand, assemble them into the Tear of Asha. This artifact allows you to build Urgash’s Fiery Wrath in your Capitol, which provides 5,000 gold per day, increases all creature production by 50 percent, and fires meteors down on any enemy hero entering the Capitol’s control area.

Teleport again and travel down to the southeast section of your kingdom. At this point, it’s best to combine your armies into one giant army, so send Xana to Kiril and add her armies to his.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 12Head west from the bridge and into the next enemy control area. You’ll see the town on the north side of the path, but scout out enemy heroes first.

The town will be stacked with creatures; however, at this point, you should have more with all your towns working together to produce for you. Generate a few more Pit Fiends and Lilims if you run into any trouble taking it the first time.

Follow the path west away from the town. Stop at any point along the path if something holds your interest, or you can continue straight for the next major encounter.

The path leads north to another dungeon entrance. Defeat the Stronghold army guarding the cave mouth and enter.

Underground again, you discover a passage leading to the west. Only risk encounters if the army blocks your path, unless you have a huge army and don’t care how much damage you take along the journey.

Continue west until you reach the staircase winding up to the surface. This takes you into a new Sanctuary area that can only be reached through the underground passage.

Hack through the jungle and speak with Yume’s Ghost. A former Naga priestess, Yume asks for your help. The ghost of her husband, Akasha, haunts the ruins of the temple built over the cave of the Mother Namturu. She needs you to defeat him.

Yume’s Ghost gives you the “Unrestful Memories” primary quest. Defeat Akasha’s ghost and you’ll gain the Ring of Misfortune and 30,000 experience.

After speaking with Yume’s Ghost, defeat the fort to the west. You conquer another chunk of island territory, this time in Sanctuary-controlled lands.

Before the week ends, explore around the fort and work east toward the next control area. This is the last push toward the end of the map. Wait here for reinforcements if needed.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 3: Week 13Journey east and speak with Cate again. While the battle for Ashan unfolds around you, inside your very soul continues to battle for survival. You ask how you can make peace with yourself, and Cate tells you to follow your heart.

Take the southern path and stop at another Shrine of the Seventh Dragon. You probably won’t have much time left to level up before using this Shrine, so go ahead and spend the 11,000 gold and seven crystals to jump up a level.

Near the town of Terajo defeat Akasha’s ghost. You have Yume’s gratitude, and you complete the “Unrestful Memories” quest, which gives you the Ring of Misfortune and 30,000 experience.

Conquer Terajo will your large army. The defenses will be heavy, but at this point, especially if you have Urgash’s Fiery Wrath in your Capitol, your gold and creature production far exceeds anything the enemy has left. You can become as strong as you want if you wait.

Ride in front of the waterfalls and following the path west. You won’t find any resistance here. Just enjoy the view.

The path picks back up on the other side of the falls. Track the dirt until ends at the bridge, and then follow the stone across and into the temple.

Inside the temple, move through the water and up the steps. You’ll find Cate, Sveltana, and Yume waiting for you on the dais. They all pledge to help you stop the Angels from destroying the Invisible Library. You must now go into the Valley of Shadows to seek your final answers.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4CHAPTER 4: The Marriage of Heaven and HellInferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 1As Kiril, you team up with Xana in the final chapter of the Inferno campaign. You will finally catch up with Sarah and answer the mystery surrounding the Invisible Library. That is, if you survive wave after enemy wave that will crash against your defenses.

Add Xana’s creature stacks to your primary army and send the Kiril-led army to the west. Meanwhile, Xana can fly across the lava-strewn path to the northeast and collect some gold while visiting the Stone of Enlightenment.Your first primary quest is “Payback.” You must find Sarah and have a “friendly discussion” with her. When you complete this quest, you receive 30,000 experience and the Blade of Binding.

Defeat the Fire Elementals in the west and collect your rewards. Once the western peninsula has been cleared, ride north up the main landmass.

Stop by the Demonic Shrine for a boost to your Magic Power and Destiny for the week. Beat down the Succubi and grab more gold to build up your stockpile.

You’ll see a Scorching Pools dwelling to the right of the white gate. Crush the Breeders defending the Scorching Pool and you will add 8 Maniacs, 5 Hell Hounds, and 7 Succubi to your creature pool each week. A small group of those same creatures will join your army too.

Take the east path and engage the Fire Elementals blocking the way. The Fire Elementals should join your army, which will help significantly in the coming battles.

Find the second Fire Elemental army to the south. These too will join your side, and you gain some gold and wood as well.

Head north and you’ll see Sarah in front of the first town. Defeat Sarah and her small army to force her to talk to you. She won’t take Azkaal out of you, and explains that the Blade of Binding isn’t the weapon to destroy the Invisible Library; it’s you. She had conditioned you to destroy the Faceless, and if you don’t, the world will belong to the Angel’s devious enemies, the Faceless.

You decide to keep Sarah by your side until you get your life back to the way it was before she tricked you into Sheogh. Your plan is to reach the Faceless in the Invisible Library and ask them to free Azkaal from your body or you’ll bring down the Library around them.After you defeat Sarah, you gain the “Hiding in the Light” primary quest. The entrance to the Invisible Library remains sealed until you absorb the power of seven Darkness Elemental armies scattered around the area. Once you complete the quest, you gain 70,000 experience.

Behind Sarah lies the first town, Ur-Gorthol. It won’t be difficult to take, and it has everything you’d want to be a viable Capitol in a few weeks. Build it up as quickly as you can, beginning with the core creature buildings, the elite creature buildings in week two, and more improvements as the weeks wear on.

If you’re on the “Heaven and Hell” secondary quest, you must find your way to the Invisible Library without converting any town or fort. Do not convert Ur-Gorthol if that’s the case. Should you manage to accomplish this difficult feat, you’ll be rewarded with 10,000 experience, +100 Tears reputation points, and the Necklace of Tears.

Explore the rest of the underground cavern with whatever time you have left in the week. Continue to construct creature buildings in Ur-Gorthol to prepare for a new creature pool next week.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 2The staircase in the northwest corner takes you up to the surface. The Hell Hounds that guard its base will join your army and give you a few more creatures with which to explore topside. Don’t forget to check back at Ur-Gorthol for reinforcements before heading up.

The dungeon entrance deposits you at an intersection with outlets to the north, east, and south. North leads to a neutral encampment, but it’s a little bit more difficult to capture and hold, since it’s next to enemy territory. East leads closer to your main adversary, so best to avoid it for now. South is the best choice.

Before heading south, defeat the neutral army in the nearby alcove. You’ll score a ton of gold and a Stone of Enlightenment for your trouble. Down below, keep upgrading Ur-Gorthol. The Town Hall or an upgraded core creature building is a good next step.

Ride south and defeat the Earth Elementals defending the Weaponsmith. Grab the free resources outside and check in with the Weaponsmith for a permanent +1 Might Power.

Your first enemy encounter with Montbard will come around now. The enemy hero has been fooled by the Faceless to believe he’s attacking the Faceless when he seeks you out; instead, he’s actually defending the Faceless’ lands to the northeast. Defeat Montbard for now–he will return soon.

Montbard will keep coming until you defeat the town of Portmeyron for the “Be Seeing You” secondary quest.

If you suffer a heavy loss against Montbard, return to Ur-Gorthol and resupply. By the time you reach its gates, it will probably be the next week.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 3Return to the surface and ride to the south. You’ll enter a neutral control area, and you have a few neutral army targets if you want to increase your resources.

A Juggernaut army will join your side. You can find them to the east at the first intersection in the new control area.

Defeat the Griffin army blocking the path to the south. Once past the Griffins, your next town is in sight: Seahaven.

Recon the town and make sure that it’s not too defensive to siege (if it is, return next week with a new batch of reinforcements). If you think you can take Seahaven, go for it. Once you have a town established topside, it will be much easier for you to gain reinforcements for your expansion plans.

Ride out from Seahaven and capture the nearby Sawmill. Now you’ll have wood on a daily basis; your goal is to find an ore mine and crystal mine nearby to accumulate all your resources daily.

Seize the crystal mine to the east of Seahaven. With two mines accounted for, you just need an ore mine to complete the set. Down in Ur-Gorthol, continue to build up your rank 2 buildings, especially so your elite creatures are ready for next week. Try to catch up Seahaven as best as you can with the resources you gain each day.

Look around the area for resources and artifacts that interest you. Spend the rest of the week gathering resources and return to Seahaven for the new week.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 4After you receive another influx of reinforcements, ride to the west on the path above Seahaven. Take the opportunity to pilfer what you can from Trivial or Low neutral armies.

In the northwest corner from Seahaven, you’ll discover the ore mine. Overwhelm the guards and add ore to your daily deposits.

Montbard is back! Pool all your resources for a defensive battle to keep him out of your territory. It will likely be a costly battle, so prepare to spend the next week or two regaining your army strength.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 5Resupply after your second battle with Montbard. If you have Town Portals set up, Xana can recruit the more elite creatures from Ur-Gorthol and then teleport topside and give them to Kiril.

Smash the Haven neutral army guarding the gate into the control area to the south. Push forward and take out any targets of opportunity along the way.

Continue along the western path until you spot the first Darkness Elemental army. Each Elemental army gets bigger as you defeat the others; this first one should be an easy to moderate battle. Because the Darkness Elementals can teleport, you can’t wait for them to come to you; send your melee creatures across the combat map at them, and bombard them with ranged Succubus and Lilim Magic attacks. Keep your creature superiority for each Darkness Elemental battle and you’ll prevail.

A path leads through the trees behind the Darkness Elementals and winds down to the south. Defeat the neutral army almost hidden in the treeline and continue south.

Capture the secluded gold mine to add more cash to your kingdom. If you find yourself earning more gold than other resources, invest in a Chaos Crucible or two so you can convert some of that stockpiled gold into other valuable resources.

Sneak up on the fort past the gold mine and take it out to control another chunk of real estate. This fort is off the beaten path; you won’t have to commit forces to guard it, and the fort should stay yours for the remainder of the campaign.

Circle around the forest and head north. Pick off any neutral armies that you can dispatch without taking any large losses.

Convert the Haven dwelling between your new fort and Seahaven. Adding two dozen more creatures to your pool will only aid the campaign.

By this point, Ur-Gorthol should be nearly complete. If you have any buildings left down there, they may only be your uniques. For Seahaven, you should be working on your elite buildings, just in time to gain stronger creatures for the next week.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 6Now that you’ve conquered the southeast section of the map, it’s time to head east. Return to the intersection by the dungeon entrance and take the east path. Cut down the Wolf army that guards the ore, which by this point you’ll want more of to continue constructing your new buildings and upgrades. Stop by the Armorsmith for a permanent +1 Might Defense as you pass it on the trail.

Ride through the purple gate and into enemy territory. Investigate the nearby Observatory to shred the surrounding fog of war and illuminate your situation better.

You might want to stop by the Artifact Merchant to buy and sell artifacts. Unload all your junk for more gold, and buy one or two upgrades to your current equipment.

Round the corner and invade the enemy fort. Once you’ve secured this fort, you have a great foothold in the central control area. Unfortunately, the path to the north leads directly into the strongest enemy control area, which means this fort will be subject to numerous attacks for the remainder of the campaign. When you have enough to build a second defensive army, the intersection near the fort is the best place for it.

The second Darkness Elemental army for the “Hiding in the Light” quest is difficult to find: It’s out of sight in the fog of war on the far side of the trees across from the fort and directly southeast of the Necropolis Temple. This encounter will be more difficult than the first, so be sure to bring a bigger army.

By now, Seahaven should have caught up with Ur-Gorthol and you’ll be able to build superior buildings like the Pit of Bile. Pit Fiends may be expensive, but they’ll destroy most enemy armies once you get the stack into the double digits.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 7Your next destination is the enemy territory east of the fort (almost directly south of where you fought the Darkness Elementals). Defeat the army at the gate and ride into the new area.

Access the Observatory just inside the gate and shed light on the countryside. The next town emerges out of the fog.

Conquer Sorpigal-by-Sea with your primary army. This is another town easily defended so long as you keep the central area defended. Use your resources to start building up Sorpigal-by-Sea to catch up with your other towns.

Now follow the path to the southwest (which connects with the path if you had taken the south gate by the central fort). Push your way into the next enemy territory and be on the lookout for enemy heroes.

Visit the Stables as you head south to gain more movement points and attack the purple-controlled fort across from the Stables. Once you secure the fort, the whole of the southeastern lands are almost in your control.

Continue east from the fort. You’ll spot a gold mine just inside the next set of gates. Capture the gold mine for more coins, which means more buildings and more creatures.

Press on to the next town, Baywatch, and conquer it with your growing army. Now the lands in the southeast are completely yours. When you have a moment, capture the ore mine in the hills opposite Baywatch.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 8-9Now that you’ve secured the mainland, travel back to the west and pass your latest fort. Once you clear the fog of war past the Stone of Enlightenment, you’ll see the third Darkness Elemental army. Assuming you’ve recovered from your rest conquests, pound the Elementals with your primary army and

Use your primary army as defense as you develop a second army with Xana. You may have to patrol back and forth between the intersection next to the dungeon entrance and your northern fort, depending on which path the enemy takes to attack you. If you find yourself near the dungeon entrance, defeat Montbard and continue north.

At the top of the rocky climb, you’ll enter the last remaining neutral control area. Forge ahead to take out the neutral fort before the enemy counterattacks near your northern fort.

Send a strong secondary army to scout out across the water near Sorpigal-by-Sea. You’ll discover a dungeon entrance near the waterfalls.

Enter the underground caverns and attack the fourth set of Darkness Elementals if you believe you can beat them. If you can’t, retreat and return with a bigger army. You don’t have to clear out the whole underground cavern–you’ll be back later. The far side of the cavern holds a staircase that leads to the Invisible Library.

Use the Observatory to see the land better. There are plenty of riches to be had, but it’s best to concentrate on the fort. You don’t want to be way up in the northwest corner of the map and have an enemy attack your central control area.

Siege the fort with your primary army and secure another control area. This one borders on the enemy stronghold immediately to the east. Now that you’ve cleared out the area, you’ll see enemy attacks from this direction days in advance.

Ride east and attack the fifth set of Darkness Elementals next to the fort. Once you beat the Elementals, return to the intersection near your central fort.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Weeks 10-11When you’re resupplied and your primary army is top form, head north into the final enemy territory. Ignore the mines on either side of the path and tag the Rally Flag before traveling into the inner courtyard.

Attack Portmeyron, the heart of the Red Templar seat of power. You’ll battle Montbard yet again at the fortress gates. However, even after you beat him, he lives to fight another day.

You must kill Montbard one last time to complete the “Be Seeing You” quest. He stands in the copse to the east of Portmeyron, and one last win will finish him off for good and end the terrible cycle the knight has been stuck in defense of the Faceless.

Continue east and over the next bridge. Explore any area you like, though you’re ultimate goal is to head due east.

Your secondary army needs to discover the sixth Darkness Elementals. Ride out from Sorpigal-by-Sea and follow the path to the southeast that leads to the Shipyard. Spend the 1,000 gold and 20 wood to build a ship.

Sail the ship to the southeast. Pass the first island, which has a few interesting encounters if you’re still looking for treasure and artifacts, and guide your ship to the second island.

The sixth Darkness Elemental army resides on the north side of the second island. Bring a large enough army to overcome the very large Elemental group.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 12For completion’s sake, seize the fort pass the second bridge. That will eliminate the last of the purple flags on the map.

Cross the third bridge to speak with Anastasya and Anton. They warn that the Faceless are not to be trusted and heed you to destroy the Library when you find it.

After you speak with your brother and sister, you can approach the final Darkness Elemental army. This will be the largest group of all, and you will need the combined power of all your towns, with all the creatures your kingdom has generated, to polish off the last Elementals.

Teleport back to Sorpigal-by-Sea and ride to the northeast and over the shallow waters leading to the dungeon entrance that you found the underground Darkness Elemental army from before.

Travel through the underground passage to reach the far side. Stop by the Shrine of the Seventh Dragon and spend the 11,000 gold and seven crystals to gain a level.Inferno Campaign: Chapter 4: Week 13Use the staircase on the far side of the underground passage to return topside. Follow the dirt path down to the Spirit Gate that leads to the Invisible Library.

Enter the Invisible Library and speak with the Faceless. The Faceless explain that the Library holds all of them, and if you were to destroy the place, the Faceless would be unbound and all of Ashan consumed in war. The Library maintains the necessary balance.

Initiate combat with the Faceless in the middle of the Library. You’ll enter a combat map against an army of Elementals: Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Darkness.

You’ve found Elementals countless times before. These all have the same strengths and weaknesses, so plan accordingly. For example, the Air Elementals have a stronger ranged attack than the Earth Elementals; concentrate your Lilim Magic attacks on the Air Elementals, while your Lacerators and Pit Fiends keep the Earth Elementals from moving into melee range to your back row.

Strong area-of-effect attacks will reduce all the enemy Elementals at once. Also, gate in more of your stronger creature stacks (Lilims, Pit Fiends) to increase the damage per turn.

Pour on the damage. If you arrive with a huge army of 2,000 or more quality creatures, you should whittle down the Elementals eventually with creatures to spare. When the last Elemental falls, you win the battle and the war!

You decide not to play the Angels’ game or the Faceless’ game. Instead of taking sides, you bring the entire Library down to Sheogh, where it’s neither destroyed or fully operational. As for the rest of your life, you’ll split it between demon (winters in Sheogh) and human (summers in Ashan). Rather than return to your old life, you’ve created a new one with a brand-new destiny!

Stronghold Campaign: Chapter 1STRONGHOLD: CHAPTER 1: No Country for Orc FriendsWEEK 1During the course of the Stronghold Campaign, you take control of Sandor, Slava’s bastard son who has gone off to live with the Orcs. When the campaign begins, Sandor is is Wolf territory with only a few creatures in his small army.

You begin with one primary quest and two secondary quests. The primary quest, “Stealth, the Orc Way” requires you to find Irina. “Rampage” is a Blood Reputation quest where you must capture all of the Haven cities. In order to complete “The Choice” quest, you must reach the Tears or Blood class for your Hero.

You do not have a town at the start, so concentrate on finding resources at the start of the campaign. Near where you start is a Stone of Enlightenment. Visit it to get some experience. As you get experience, spend you ability points on warcries and other non-spell abilities since Sandor is a Might affinity Hero.

As you move along the path, stop to fight some groups of creatures so you can get resources and other goodies. However, when you see stacks Stronghold creatures, they will often join you.

Visit the Centaur Statue to increase your movement and sight range for a week. You can also get a Tarot Deck after defeating some Griffins.

Continue building up your army with volunteers as you approach the border markers. Stop by the Crystal of Power to get +1 Magic Power. The defeat the Haven creatures guarding the border.

After crossing the border, move south. Don’t stop to pick up resources or goodies. Instead, advance all the way to the Haven town of Ashwick and attack. You should be able to make it there on the last day of the week.

The town is defended by Haven Units. All of your Maulers are in a single group. Use your Hero attacks against the Crossbowmen while you move your Maulers against the other creatures with melee attacks.

Before ending the week, convert the Barracks located to the east of Ashwick into an Altar of Minions so you can recruit some additional Maulers at the start of the next week. You do not need to send Sandor there since it comes under your control when take control of Ashwick.

WEEK 2Now that you have control of Ashwick, this week is spent securing your territory and preparing for future expansion.

Since you are already at Ashwick, load up on Maulers and then head east to the Observatory. Visit this structure and you will reveal a larger area as the fog of war is pushed back.

Right on the first day of the week, upgrade your Town to Rank 2 so you can immediately start receiving an increased income of Gold. While you may not need it right away, the more you collect now will help later.

Now follow a path back to the west towards a Sawmill. As you approach, you see that Goblins are being held as slaves by Haven creatures. Click on the defending creatures and you have a choice: Kill the guards for +50 Blood or set fire to building and chase the guards away for +50 Tears. If you choose kill the guards, you must fight against them—not a difficult battle if you are going for Blood Reputation.

You now have a new primary quest. “Unexpected Liberator” requires you to free the Orc slaves from four slave camps. You have already freed them from one.

By rescuing the Goblins, you can now recruit Goblins at your cities. Select Ashwick and build a Goblin Slums.

Now to move into the area you bypassed in your rush to secure Ashwick.While the Gold Mine and Ore Mine are yours already, the Sawmill is not. Attack the creatures guarding it and then capture the structure.

Continue around this area collecting resources and items. The defending creatures are all fairly week as compared to your large group of Maulers. Be sure to get the Amulet of Health located neat the Gold Mine. This artifact provides +1 Health to all friendly creatures during battle.

WEEK 3Now that the territory around Ashwick is all under your control, it is time to expand to the east to free more Orcs and add another town to your territory.

Return to Ashwick at the start of the week so load up on Goblins as well as more Maulers. Then ride east to visit a Stone of Enlightenment and gain some experience.

You now have a choice of whether to proceed through border openings to the south or east. If you want to quickly seize another town, head east. Right near the border is a second slave camp. Defeat the guards and then add the Harpies and Centaurs to your army.

You can now construct a Harpy Nest and a Centaur Camp at your town. Be sure to do this before the end of the week.

Continue to the east to the town of Rauchburg. Depending on how quickly you can get to this location, there may or may not be Haven Heroes nearby. Move in and take the town and then deal with Heroes after you have control of Rauchburg.

Convert Rauchburg into a Stronghold town as soon as it is captured. It already comes with some creature buildings constructed and over the next few turns you can upgrade the town and add new buildings.

Send Sandor to the northwest of Rauchburg near a Subterranean Gate. More Orcs are being held captive there. Defeat the guarding creatures and add the Orcs to your army.

Move through the Subterranean Gate. There are no enemies down here. Visit the Warpath Lodge and you can get bonus movement after every combat. In addition, pick up some resources.

While you are down there, you can also add some Maulers to your army and take control of an Ore Mine and a Gold Mine.

Now ride east to visit a Stone of Enlightenment for some experience and a couple of artifacts. The War Drums of the Legions increases the production of core creatures by 2 each wee while the Marksman Crossbow artifact adds +1 Might damage for all your friendly creatures with ranged attacks. These are both beneficial artifacts that are easy for you to get. As the week comes to an end, make your way back towardsRauchburg.

WEEK 4During this weeks, you will expand down to the south of your current territory, increasing your control of the map.

At Rauchburg, load up on new creatures and then head south to the border opening. There is another Haven town to the south. If you see any enemy Heroes with their armies, engage them. You don’t want to let them get past you and near your cities.

Look for a stack of Crossbowmen. Attack them. However, you might be able to pay them to join with your if your diplomatic skills are high enough. Afterwards, visit the Observatory to reveal much of this territory and the town of Portsmith.

Follow the roads in this territory further south towards the town. Bypass everything else for now and concentrate on getting to the town.

Even if you defeated a Hero on your way here, one will usually appear by the time you reach the town. Luckily, if you have rushed down here, the town has not yet built a wall. That makes the battle much easier.

After capturing Portsmith, convert it to an Orc town and then begin exploring this area. By this time in the game, you may have difficulty building some structures that require Blood Crystals. Portsmith and Rauchburg usually have a Marketplace already built when you capture them, so convert Wood and Ore into Blood Crystals at these buildings to meet your needs.

If you have any time remaining in the week, visit the Stone of Enlightenment and Armorsmith to increase your experience and Might Defense.

WEEKS 5-6These two weeks, you will expand to the southwest part of the map.

Spend some time gathering resources and items around Portsmith, then head towards the western border. Defeat some creatures and capture a Gold Mine.

Now advance south towards a town that is still under construction by Orc slave labor. Defeat the Hero guarding the Orcs and then add the Orcs to your army as you also gather resources. Accept a Shaman’s offer to join your army and then you can begin recruiting Shaman after building a Dream Lodge in your cities.

Now head to the east. Capture a Sawmill and then move south to a Shipyard where more Orcs are being held as slaves. Free them and add them to your army. This completes the “Unexpected Liberator” quest and you earn the Bone Spaulders with give you +2 Might Defense.

Ride to the west, defeating stacks of creatures and gathering resources as you go. Pick up the Dragon Claw Amulet and other goodies.

Advance north to capture an Ore Mine and other resources and visit a Stone of Enlightenment to increase your experience.

Before leaving this southwestern territory, take control of the Barracks. As soon as you do, convert it to Stronghold so you can produce even more core creatures every week. Once you have cleared out this area, return to Rauchburg which acts as your forward city and base.

WEEK 7You have created a good infrastructure now with three cities all producing masses of Stronghold creatures each week. It is now time to go after Irina.

New objectives have been added to the “Stealth, the Orc Way” quest. You now need to find the hunting lodge and defeat Markus, then rescue Irina.

If you have not recruited creatures lately, there should be a lot waiting for you at Rauchburg. Recruit them all and then head to the gate to the northeast of the city which is now open. It is time to advance once again into enemy territory.

As you cross through the border, stop and pick up some more Orcs that want to join your army as well as resources along the way.

As you advance towards the hunting lodge, don’t waste time capturing resource buildings. Until you capture the hunting lodge, they do not stay under your control. Plus you want to make sure your army stays strong for the battle with Markus.

You may want to consider stopping by the Hellgate. Defeat the Demons inside and you are rewarded with 10 Blood Crystals and 2,500 Gold.

Be sure to visit the Stone of Enlightenment as you advance. The extra experience may boost you up to the next level and you can select another ability that might come in handy in future battles.

Continue following the path through the woods until you reach Markus and his army. After a chat, attack and defeat this enemy. Markus is your toughest fight yet. Be sure to use your abilities during the battle and take out his ranged creatures first.

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After defeating Markus, you gain a Dynasty Weapon. These can only be used when playing in online mode—even for single player games. The Sword of the Wolf

Even though you defeated Markus, you still need to capture the hunting lodge. Attack it. Its defenses are fairly light, so you should have little trouble with this.

Finally, before leaving the area, convert the Barracks to Stronghold and increase your production of Centaurs and Dreamwalkers. Then you can go back and gather resources and visit the structures you bypassed earlier—or use Advanced Town Portal to get back to Portsmith.

WEEK 8+Now that you have rescued Irina, it is time to make your escape.Your new primary quest for this map is “The Great Ecape”. You must steal a ship in Nilshaven’s harbor.

Get back to Portsmith and recruit as many creatures a you have available. Portsmith is now your forward base. Depending on your causalities while rescuing Irina, you may want to wait an extra week here to build up your army.

Once you are ready, ride north through the gate into Wolf territory. Watch out for Wolf Heroes that might try to come into your land.

Continue advancing to the east towards the city of Kriegspire. If you are going for the “Rampage” quest which rewards you with Blood Reputation, take some time to capture the town. Otherwise, avoid a siege and continue to the east. If the Hero inside wants to fight, let him come after you and fight out in the open.

If you fought a siege at Kriegspire, convert the city to Stronghold and then wait for the end of the week so you can recruit more creatures and replace your losses.

There is an Observatory to the east of Kriegspire. Visit it to get a better view of the land to the south. Then ride south through the border opening.

While you can stop and visit structures in the area, it is best to push on toward Nilshaven. Once again, you can choose to attack and capture the town or just continue riding towards the west and the port. If you do capture Nilshaven, convert it to Stronghold and recruit some more creatures at the first of the new week. You still have one more battle to fight.

Now make your way to the docks located to the southwest of Nilshaven. You must fight against another Haven army. This time the battle is out in the open. Send your melee characters charging into the fight. Once the fight if over, climb aboard the ship and sail it south into the Jade Sea to complete this map.Stronghold Campaign: Chapter 2STRONGHOLD: CHAPTER 2: The Good, the Bad and the BloodyWEEK 1Having freed his sister Irina from the clutches of the Duke of Wolf, Sandor has escaped to the Pao Islands, where Kraal was born. Separated from Irina, but confident that she is now in safer hands the the Nagas, and an outlaw in the Holy Falcon Empire, Sandor sets out with a spirit of adventure.

You begin with a single quest. “Terra Firma” requires you to find help in a settlement.

Right at the start, you must fight a battle with Haven creatures from the Wolf Duchy. Luckily your outnumber them, so the conflict will be over quickly.

After the battle, you find yourself on the shore of an island in the Jade Sea. You have no resources and only some Maulers and Goblins. Start off by heading southwest along the path.

As you follow the path, you can decide whether to fight creatures along the way to get resources. There is no rush, so you might as well stock up so when you do get a town, you have resources for building. Fight your way through some creatures that block your path and get to the Observatory so you can get a better view of your surroundings.

Take a loop to the north to gather some resources as well as visit a Shrine of Enlightenment for experience.

As you head to the southwest, avoid a fight with the Cyclops. They are tough to defeat and you don’t want to lose your army right now. Head to the north towards the town and you are caught by an Orc leader, Sharka. Sharka is the self-imposed warlord and chief of all the tribes of the Pao islands. After meeting with Sharka, you get the Centaur Bow artifact. Your army is also transported to an island in the northwest corner of the map.

You now have three new quests. “Wild Card” requires you to complete one of the other two quests within four months. The first of these secondary quests, “Might Makes Right”, tasks you with defeating Arini. This changes Sandor to Blood class. On the other hand, if you want Sandor to change to Tear class, complete “Time for New Ways” by freeing the enslaved rebels and then defeating Ira.

WEEKS 2-3Spend these weeks exploring your island and building up your town. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about any invaders to this side of the map for several weeks.

Since Sandor tends toward the Blood class, this walkthrough focuses on completing the “Might Makes Right: quest. However, if you choose to for the Tear class, many of the same strategies apply as you are building up. The objectives are just different. However, the final objectives later in the game are the same.

You have been given control of the village of Kainga. It has nothing to begin with. Start off by building whatever structures you can to begin recruiting core creatures. Then send Sandor around to gather resources and take control of resource buildings. Start with the Sawmill to the west of the village.

Next head to the east to take control of a Crystal Cavern so you can begin receiving Blood Crystals everyday. As you gather resources and defeat stacks of creatures, be sure to choose gold whenever you pick up a chest. You need it for building and recruting.

The Ore Mine is down to the south. Capture it as well as the Hall of Raiders which gives you gold at the end of every combat.

Continue collecting all of the resources you can and producing all of the core creatures and start recruiting elite creatures as well. Send Sandor to the small peninsula on the southwest corner of the island to take control of the Lighthouse. Since you will be traveling by ship quite a bit, controlling Lighthouses increases your movement by sea.

You may want to stay on the island around Kainga for an extra week or two if you want to build up your army more. However, the longer you wait, the stronger the creature stacks and enemies you run into later on.

WEEKS 4-5It is time to set sail and leave your island as you begin working on the objectives of your quests.

Since there is nowhere to expand on your island, move down to the southeastern corner and load Sandor and his army aboard a ship. Set sail to the south.

By sailing due south, you run into another island. This island is divided into two sides by a forest. However, the other Orc tribes are on the other side. Land on the island and ride to the fort in the middle. The garrison of creatures is not very strong, so you should have little trouble defeating them, especially if you brought along Centaurs for firing over the walls.

Now ride south to the Altar of Minions and capture it as well. This increases the number of core creatures you can recruit each week. Take time on this island to visit the Stone of Enlightenment and defeat creatures stacks so you can take the resources they are guarding.

Before leaving this island with the fort, be sure to get the Pendant of Primal Rage. The gain of Rage points is increases by 10% during combat.

Move back to your ship and sail southwest past a whirlpool to another island. Land on the island and begin collecting resources as you explore it.

There is a Fort on this island as well. Capture it by force and add it to your territory.

As you explore this small island, capture the Gold Mine on the south end. Also collect The Bracers of the Druid artifact which gives +1 Magic Power and grants you the Regeneration spell. Visit the Shrine of Elemental Water so your creatures get a water shield when damaged during the next combat.

Return to your ship and then sail just a short distance so you can land and take control of the Lighthouse to increase your sea movement even more. Also visit the Crystal of Power to gain +1 Magic Power.

Now sail your ship right into the whirlpool off the coast of the island. It warps you to another whirlpool on the eastern half of the map.

Might And Magic Heroes 6 Guide

Land on the shore to the east of the whirlpool and explore. Move towards the town of Taika and speak to Arana. He gives you a new quest. “Only the Strong” requires you to defeat Ira and then return to Arana. In addition to earning experience, you also get the Amulet of the Jaguar, +12 Jaguar Warriors, and the ability to recruit Jaguar Warriors.

As the fifth week comes to an end, it is a good idea to return to Kainga to recruit some new creatures before you do any more invading. This will take you nearly a week to get there and then back to the whirlpool in the east. Another option is to have Sandor explore the sea in the southeast, collecting flotsam and chests. Hire a new Hero and then purchase a ship at the Shipyard. Use this Hero to ferry the new recruits to Sandor. While you could use Adanced Town Portal to get Sandor back to Kainga, he would still have to buy another ship and travel back anyway.

WEEKS 6-7This week you should complete the “Might Makes Right” quest by defeating Airini and capturing another town for your control.

Once you have your larger army assembled, sail west from the eastern whirlpool to discover the island where Airini has her main town. After landing, stop by the Stables to increase your land movement.

Ride due west from the coast to approach the town of Hauhau. Airini is inside. You many have to defeat a Hero and army outside of the walled city first. Then complete a siege against the walls of Hauhau with Airini defending. You should not have too much trouble taking this city—especially if you take it during this week or next.

For defeating Airini, you gain the Thunder Staff, a Dynasty Weapon. However, since Sandor is of the Might affinity, you can’t use it with this Hero.

Also, since you completed the “Might Makes Right” quest, Sandor changes to the Blood class. No matter whether you complete this quest or the “Time for New Ways” quest, you get a new objective and a new secondary quest. The primary quest, “Wild Card”, now requires you to defeat Sharka. Completing the new quest will help you achieve that. “Need More Muscle” has you get the support of the Jaguar Warriors and the Cyclops.

You now have another city under your control. It comes with most of the creature buildings already constructed. spend the rest of the week and a second week exploring the area around Hauhau and also building up your army with new recruits. Defeat a stack of Cyclops south of the city and you can access lots of resources

WEEK 8This week you are going on a hunt for Cyclops so you can add them to your army. With Hauhau under your control, you can use it as your new base so it is closer to get reinforcements to Sandor’s army.

Board your ship and sail northeast past the whirlpool. Watch out for enemy ships. If you or they decide to attack, you fight a battle with your creatures on the deck of a ship.

Land near a Shipyard and then begin advancing eastward. Don’t worry about fighting stacks of creatures now. You can always do it later on your way back to the ship.

As you continue east, you come to a Fort. Don’t attack it yet. Instead, move north towards the volcano and attacks Acamas, a Hero with an army of Cyclops. This can be a tough fight since the Cyclops take the damage you inflict later, allowing them to retaliate and even attack at full strength. Use Sandor’s abilities to fortify your creatures so they inflict more damage and take less. Once Acamas is defeated, he joins your side and you can now build Cyclops Mounds at your cities so you can recruit these champion creatures. Before leaving, capture the nearby Fort.

By defeating Acamas, you get the Crest of Courage artifact which gives Sandor +4 Leadership.

Start heading back to your ship. Acamas actually can use one located on the shore near the Fort. Don’t forget to capture the Altar of Masters. This increases the number of Dreamwalkers and Centaurs you can recruit each week.

In order to immediately increase the power of your army, transfer all of Acamas’ Cyclops to Sandor’s army since Sandor can move faster and more than likely will be the one invading towns.

WEEKS 9-10Now that you have the Cyclops on you side, you need the Jaguar Warriors. Therefore, these two weeks you must defeat Ira and return to Arana.

Add new recruits to Sandor’s army if needed from Hauhau. Then sail north through a maze of rocky shoals to get to the island north of where you fought Acamas.

Make landfall near an Arcane Library. As usual, don’t fight any side battles on the way to the main fight. There will be time enough later to clear the area.

Ira is in the town of Koaka in the northeast corner of the map. Ride along the beach and right up to the gates of this city. Once again, you will probably have to fight an army outside of the city and then besiege Koaka to capture the city and defeat Ira. These fights are not too difficult, especially with your Cyclops.

After the battle, construct new buildings in Koaka so you can produce Cyclops. Then head through the Spirit Gate by the town. It takes you to the beach near your ship. Visit the Arcane Library to increase your Magic Power or Magic Defense, then board your ship.

Sail South to Taika to speak to Arana. He is impressed with your defeat of Ira and gives you some Jaguar Warriors as well as the Amulet of the Jaguar which gives Sandor +4 Might Power. If you combing it with the Bone Spaulders you got earlier, you get an additional +2 Might Power.

Construct a Hut of Rage at each of your three cities to produce Jaguar Warriors for your army.

WEEK 11+You have completed all of the other quests, so it is now time to go after Sharkus. This Orc warlord has been building up a powerful force and will not be easy to defeat.

The only way to get to Sharkus at his city of Tupari in the north is through a Spirit Gate located north of Taika. However, before going through it, build up your army. You want to give it at least 2-3 weeks work of growth so you can have a good number of Cyclops and Jaguar Warriors to join your other creatures. Once you are ready, go through the Spirit Gate and be warped to the northern part of the map.

You exit the Spirit Gate near a Shipyard. If you buy a ship and sail to northeast, you come across a secret island where you can visit a Shrine of Enlightenment for experience, a Shrine of the Seventh Dragon where you can pay to level up your Hero, and the Wake of Chaos which gives you an advantage in the next battle.

From the Spirit Gate, head south while staying west when you come to forks in the path. Keep going until you see Tupari off to the west. The gate is on the south side of this city.

Sharkus has the most powerful army you have faced. As usual, you fight one of his heroes first and then besiege the city as you fight against Sharkus.

While you have some great ranged creatures, your main strength is in melee attacks—especially since you now have Jaguar Warriors and Cyclops. Break open the gate of the wall surrounding the city and rush your melee creatures inside for this final battle. Don’t hold anything back.

Defeating Sharkus completes this chapter of the campaign. You are awarded any artifacts Sharkus had collected as well as the Dynasty Weapon Malathua’s Cleaver.

Stronghold Campaign: Chapter 3STRONGHOLD: CHAPTER 3: The Barbarous SevenWEEK 1Sandor has gained quite the reputation amongst the Orcs of the Pao Islands. Having dismantled Sharka’s slave ring and been the leader in numerous victories, rumors and whispers that the ancestor Kunyak the Liberator has returned. There still seems much to be done for this noble Orc people, and Sandor and his Orc friends sail to the main Pao Island to visit Taumata-Kunyak, the biggest community in the islands.

There are three quests at the start. “Symbol of Freedom” requires you to defend Taumata-Kunyak. “The Seven Veterans” objectives are to find an Orc Veteran, a Goblin Veteran, a Harpy Veteran, a Dreamwalker Veteran, a Centaur Veteran, a Jaguar Veteran, and a Cyclops Veteran. Finally, the secondary quest, “Sacred Ground” rewards you for defeating 40 Sanctuary neutral stacks of creatures.

Right at the start of this map, you must fight a battle against a Naga Hero and his Sanctuary army. Lead with your Jaguar Warrior and then follow up with attacks by your other creatures. You have the advantage and be sure to use Sandor’s battle abilities.

You start out with a city that is had just about every building already constructed. It is a good idea to build an Advanced Town Portal when you get a chance.

Taumata-Kunyak is strategically located in the central western part of the map. You have to defend it as a primary quest. If the Naga forces capture it, you are defeated. Therefore, if any enemy Heroes get close, be sure to get back to the city immediately.

There are no immediate threats to the city right away, so send out both of your Heroes. Let Sandor take care of most of the fighting while Acamas focuses on exploring. By pushing back the fog of war, you can see enemies approaching your city.

Start off by sending Sandor south. Since there are very few resource structures on the map, it is vital that you collect resources by attacking stacks of creatures. Plus, if you defeat all 40 of the Sanctuary stacks of creatures, you achieve a secondary quest. Continue south all the way to the Observatory and then the area will be fog of war will be pushed away here so you can see the first Fort with the veteran waiting there.

Ride up to Khongorz and invite her to join your war against the Naga. Then continue exploring the southern area a bit to collect more resources. Remember, you can always sell resources for gold when you need it.

After finding the Centaur Veteran, you can now produce Centaur Marauders at your town by building the Centaur Outpost.

Be sure to capture the Gold Mine near the Fort so you have some additional gold coming in everyday.

One strategy that works well is to assign a large enough force of creatures to Acamas and send him around to defeat the creature stacks. He is not fast, but can focus on clearing out areas while Sandor, who is faster, goes after the veterans.

WEEK 2You have found one of the veterans. Now this week you must find a second veteran.

Send Sandor back to your city using the Advanced Town Portal ability. Then stock up on new recruits and send him east along the roads located south of the city.

Keep going east until you can visit an Observatory. This one gives you a good view of the coastline where some of the Naga Heroes will make landfall.

Ride south from the Observatory to find the Fort with the Goblin Veteran named Zed. After he joins your side, you can build Goblin Shacks at your town and recruit Goblin Hunters.

Finish off the week by riding east from the Fort to visit another observatory which helps give you additional warning of approaching Naga Heroes.

Watch for blue flags on your mini map. They represent Naga Heroes and armies. Whenever they get within a day’s ride of your city, send a Hero quickly back using the Advanced Town Portal.

As you get near the end of the week, the Nagas will make an attack against your city—especially if it is not defended. Rush a Hero of yours back and make sure you have plenty of creatures to defend it. The enemy does not have large armies this early in the game. However, that will change later.

WEEKS 3-4Now that you have found both veterans in the south, this week you head north.

Since the attacks by the Naga Heroes are beginning to pick up, Send one of your Heroes towards coast due east from your city to visit another Observatory. There is a Subterranean Gate nearby, but don’t go in it yet. You will enter this later when you have a larger army.

There is another Subterranean Gate northeast of your city. Bypass the nearby structures as you approach and then enter this gate.

Once down in the caves, ride south to find the Dreamwalker Veteran, Natu. Three veterans down, and four more to go. Now head back up to the surface after collecting some chests and resources.

You can now build the Vision Lodge at your city and recruit Dreamreavers.

After you emerge from the Subterranean Gate, ride east a bit and then north to find the next fort. This is where you get Dash the Mauler Veteran to join up with you.

Build a War Pavilion at your city in order to recruit Crushers now.

WEEKS 5-7There are two more veterans in the northwestern part of the map that you must find. The sooner you do, the easier it will be to fight off the Naga invaders.

From the Fort where you found the Dreamwalker Veteran, ride due west. You will have to defeat some Griffins blocking your path along the way. Keep going until you come to another Fort. Here you get the Qara the Jaguar Veteran to join your side.

At your city, build the Chamber of Rage so you can recruit Panther Warriors now.

Now ride east until you come to some stairs. Ride up them to get to the northern part of the map. At the top of the stairs, then turn and ride west towards the northwest corner of the map.

You must defeat a stack of Kirin to get through a border opening. From there, ride south a bit to visit an Observatory in order to reveal a large area in this corner of the map.

Ride northwest from the Observatory to get to the Fort where Wahaki, the Cyclops Veteran is waiting for you. You can now build a Cyclops Hill at your city in order to recruit Enraged Cyclops.

Not only are the Naga Heroes attacking your city. They also will take your Forts and deny you their bonus of creature production. As you are riding around the map, recapture these Forts as you come across them. Also defeat any nearby enemy Heroes while you are at it.

WEEKS 8+You are now ready to go after the seventh and final veteran. This one is located on the island off the coast on the eastern side of the map. In order to get there, you must go underground.

Before venturing to find the last veteran, return to your city and upgrade all of your creatures and recruit new ones. You want a strong army before you leave. Be sure to leave behind Acamas and a good army to defend your city as well. Ride east to the Subterranean Gate by the Observatory and enter it.

As you enter the cavern, Sandor meets up with his mother, Elisabeth. She is working with the Necromancers to prepare for fighting the Demons. She gives you the Cup of thunder to use to appease the Dragon Eel so the Necromancers can leave the island.

You now have two new secondary quests. “Mother and Son” requires you to either defeat or appease the Dragon Eel. The objective of “The Cup of Thunder” is to bring the Cup of Thunder to the Dragon Eel.

This section of the caves contains creatures, resources, and even structures. You must advance to the east in order to get to the gate leading up to the surface of the island.

When you get to the stairway, it is guarded by hundreds of Spectres. This is where you need your strong army. Defeat them and then emerge up onto the island.

Ride south through the Necromancer territory and on to the Fort where you find the Harpy Veteran. You have now completed “The Seven Veterans” quest.

Back at your city, you can build the Fury Nest and recruit Furies.

Now advance south to the lake where the Dragon Eel is located. If you have the Cup of Thunder, it will come to you.

You now have a choice. You can either give the Cup of Thunder to the Dragon Eel and gain +100 Tears or attack the Dragon Eel and get +100 Blood. The Dragon Eel has 75,000 hit points, so this will be a big fight if you choose to attack it. It is best to appease it with the Cup of Thunder and save your army for the Nagas.

You get the Tear of Asha from the Dragon Eel. Use it to build Father Sky’s Furor at your city. This increases creature production by 50%, provides +5,000 gold each day, and all Stronghold creatures gain the advantage of Rank 2 Bloodrage ability at the start of each combat.

Once you have taken care of the Dragon Eel, go talk to Elisabeth near the Necropolis Fort. She will then leave the island on her ship and you will have completed another secondary quest.

Finally, defeat any remaining Naga Heroes and their armies on the map to complete this chapter of the campaign. Stronghold Campaign: Chapter 4STRONGHOLD: CHAPTER 4: A Wormful of DemonsPHASE 1Demons have invaded Ashan, and Sandor—who seems to have gained a knack for being at the right place at the right time—had united the tribes of the Pao Islands to confront the Orcs’ legendary nemesis. Orcs and Naga have put their differences aside and are now working together against the Demons. The Nagas are perfecting a spell that will destroy all demons present in the islands, but they need one last incredient to complete it; a Tear of Asha.

You begin with two quests. The primary quest, “One Last Tear” requires you to gather 4500 units of Crystals and protect the city of Haruru. The objective of the secondary quest “Orc Pride” is to defeat the Demon Leader.

This chapter is much more difficult than the previous chapters and takes a long time to play. Therefore, it is divided into Phases rather than weeks since it is difficult to assign a number of weeks to a chapter of this magnitude. You begin with a city. While it is Rank 4 and had a wall, it has no other buildings. Therefore, you will need to construct all of the creature structures. You also have limited amounts of resources.

The first phase of this chapter is to secure the island on which Haruru is located. Send your armies to the east first to capture an Ore Mine and an Altar of Minions as well as collect resources. While Acamas begins on a boat, you might want to bring him ashore to help out—especially until you can build up a couple strong armies.

It is a good idea to start off down the path to the east. At the top of the hill is an exit only Spirit Gate. It is linked to two other islands where the Demons have bases. Therefore, by exploring it, you can see when the Demon armies arrive.

Once you have cleared out the area to the east of your city, move to capture the Gold Mine to the west of it. Then head south to visit an Observatory to get a better view of the island.

Next, once you have built up your army a bit so that you can conduct a siege, attack the Fort near the Observatory. Once it is yours, convert it to Stronghold.

Next, as you continue to build up your army, capture the Demon city of Ur Salos in the southeastern corner of the map. This lets you produce more creatures and brings in more gold as well. Now all that remains is to continue clearing out the remainder of the island.

While clearing out your home island, be ready to rush back to Haruru to defend it when Demon armies arrive. An Advanced Town Portal can really come in handy if you don’t want to leave a large army garrisoning the town at all times.

PHASE 2After you have secured your home island, it is time to expand to other islands. SCREENSHOT: MMH6_ST4_006

Your home island is now your base camp. Unfortunately, it does not have any Crystal Caverns for bringing in a daily supply of Blood Crystals. Therefore, you need to expand to other islands that do have these resource structures. The best place to start is the island due south from your home island. Send Sandor across to this island in a ship and start off by capturing the Fort and converting it to Stronghold. Then take control of the Crystal Cavern and begin gathering resources here.

Your next island for expansion is to the west in the southwestern part of the map. This too has a Fort as well as a Crystal Cavern. Use the same tactics as before to secure this island.

It is important to convert the Forts and Scorching Pools into Stronghold structures so that you can recruit more creatures at your home cities. In addition to gathering Blood Crystals, you also need to build up a powerful army.

Now that you have taken control of the southern part of the map, it is time to head north. The next island is in the northeast corner of the map. It has a Fort, a Scorching Pool, and a Crystal Cavern.

Event the small islands that don’t have a Crystal Cavern should be visited. You want to take control of the Lighthouses to increase your sea movement as well as collect resources.

PHASE 3

Now it is time to take the battle to the Demons by invading the islands where their cities are located.

As you are beginning your invasion of the Demon islands, gather together a good sized army and set sail. Capture the small island in-between the two larger Demon islands. It has a Fort and a Crystal Cavern.

Next land your army on the island in the northwestern corner of the map. It has a city, Ur-Bael, and only three other structures. Capture the city first.

After you have taken control of the city of Ur-Bael, convert it to a Stronghold city and then use it to reinforce your army if needed.

Build up your army again since the final Demon island located in the middle of the map is the toughest. It has lots of structures on it. After landing, go after the city of Ur-Valac first. Don’t waste your creatures on other structures. By the time you capture the city and defeat any remaining Demon Heroes and their armies, you will have completed the “Orc Pride” quest.

Now take control of the Crystal Cavern on the island. Continue clearing out the stacks of creatures on the islands and gathering resources as you work your way towards 500 Crystals.

You do not have to wait until you collect 500 Crystals. Instead, use the Marketplace to trade Ore, Wood, or Gold for Crystals. However, before you get to 500, make sure you have all of your cities producing creatures and have a very strong army with all upgraded creatures. You have a big battle still to fight.

PHASE 4Once you have gathered the 500 Crystals, the Naga use them to fashion a Tear of Asha. However, you still have one giant battle to fight before the chapter is complete.

As soon as you have collected at least 500 Crystals, an Abyssal Worm appears in the middle of Haruru and eats the Tear of Asha, damaging the town in the process.

You have one final quest. “Abyssal Hunger” requires you to defeat the Abyssal Worm. Since it will have devoured the Tear of Asha within seven days, you must defeat it before the week is up.

You should already have a strong army. Get it to Haruru as quickly as possible if not already there. Then move into the city to drop down into a cavern to hunt the Worm.

You must first defeat a stack of Demon creatures blocking your way. However, this won’t be much of a challenge for your army.

Continue along the path to the pool of lava and attack the Abyssal Worm to start a big battle.

The Abyssal Worm has 75,000 hit points. Therefore, you need to hit it with everything you have. Spread out your creatures so that area attacks only affect one creature and not several. Be sure to use your abilities that not only strengthen your creatures’ attacks, but also improve their defenses. Keep fighting until the Worm is dead in order to win this chapter.EpilogueCHAPTER 1: Tears Such as Angels WeepEpilogue: Chapter 1: Week 1Though all of Ashan has been saved from the demon onslaught, the war is not over. The battle behind the scenes, the battle between Heaven and Shadow, continues. Your mother Cate recruits you in a desperate plan to stop Archangel Michael before his schemes destroy the world.

For the Epilogue, you can choose any one of the main characters you played through in the previous campaigns. For this walkthrough, we’ve chosen Inferno’s Kiril to go up against the Angels.

To stop Michael and his Celestial Legion from reigniting the Elder Wars, you must follow the Dragon Knight Cate’s instructions. She asks you to capture the fort protecting the Hall of Memories and hold it for a full seven days. If you do, she can complete a ritual that will send the souls of the Angels who died during the Elder Wars onto Elrath and thus prevent the creation of a new crop of Celestials.

The “Tabula Rasa” primary quest finishes if you capture and hold the fort protecting the Hall of Memories for seven days. After that, you’ll battle Archangel Michael in one final battle for peace of balance on Ashan.

Your main hero can’t die or you’ll fail the “True Heroes Never Die” quest and the campaign ends in failure. Be careful when you go up against strong opponents, especially the fight for the Hall of Memories fort at the end–you only get a single chance to succeed.

You also have a “Tear of Asha” secondary quest. It’s not necessary to complete this quest at all; however, if you do, you’ll speed up your resource acquisition and will ramp up to the final battle quicker. If you’re interested in completing the “Tear of Asha” quest, the four fragments of the Moon Disc are located in these positions: on the larger southwestern island guarded by a Necropolis army, on the smaller southwestern snow-covered island guarded by Ghosts, on the northwestern island guarded by Fire Elementals, and on the smaller northeastern island guarded by a Haven army.

Add your secondary hero’s to your primary army and then explore the starting area. Gather whatever resources you can from neutral armies that recon Trivial or Low threat level. Eventually you’ll want to follow the path leading to the east.

There are no mines in the southern portion of the map. The only way to gain resources for your initial buildings and upgrades is through exploration and conquests. Gather as many resources as you can without putting your army in too great danger.

Follow the path as it curves to the south and then back up to the north. Invade the neutral army at the south bend for some extra resources along the way.

Ride over the bridge to the eastern side of the starting area. As you clear the white fog of war, engage any targets of opportunity, especially ones that defend a resource that you’re lacking.

Forge ahead until you reach the clearing with the Spirit Gate. After you explore the area fully, touch the Rally Flag and jump through the Gate.

As soon as you use the first Spirit Gate, you gain a new primary quest, “Stairway to Heaven.” The Angels are closing the gates to their sky city, and to enter the city, you must capture the forts controlling the gates. Complete this quest and you gain +30 Blood Crystals and +15 Pit Lords.

Ride west and capture the nearby town of Soaring Heights as quickly as you can. Once you have control, convert it to your faction and you can begin to build it up.

Explore around Soaring Heights and continue to collect resources. You’re going to need plenty of wood and ore from defeating random armies across the land to acquire enough materials to build the town up like you’re accustomed to.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Week 2Build up your new town as best you can with your limited resources. If you can upgrade all three of your core creature buildings by the end of the second week, you’ll be in good shape.

Load up on reinforcements and set out to the east. When you pass the bridge, head to the southwest instead of north (which will bring you into conflict with the Angels).

Explore the area to the southwest and capitalize on some weaker neutral armies. Better to build up your resources now before you take on the Angels and things get busy.

Head through another Spirit Gate, which takes you to the larger southwestern island. Explore as much as you want to gather more resources.

If you’re looking to complete the “Tear of Asha” quest, the first fragment of the Moon Disc is guarded by the neutral army to the southwest of the Shrine of the Seven Dragon. If you haven’t maxed out at level 30 yet, visit the Shrine for a quick bump up in level, assuming you have the extra seven crystals and 11,000 gold to spare.

Clear out the rest of the island before returning back through the Spirit Gate. Gallop back to Soaring Heights to pick reinforcements at the beginning of the new week.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Week 3Now it’s time to take on the Angels. Take the north path from the bridge and enter enemy territory for the first time.

Press forward and gather any resources that don’t take you too far off course. You want to head due north and tag the Rally Flag along the way.

An Angel hero may vacate the fort to the north and attempt to slow you down. If it scouts Moderate or lower, attack and eliminate your foe before it can get past you.

Drive through the snow to reach the fort in the north. You should have enough forces to overwhelm the fort defenses, especially if you’ve already beaten the Angel hero earlier. After you conquer the fort, convert it to your faction and you’ve gained your first foothold into Angel territory.

Capturing this first fort opens the gates into the main Angel fortress. Explore around your new fort for resources, and when you’re ready for the next major step, set out to the west.

Continue north through the yellow gate and into the main Angel fortress. From this point forward, it will be a difficult battle for control points and maintaining positioning. Bring your secondary hero up to help with controlling towns and resupplying your primary army.

You’ll likely face off against an Angel hero as soon as you reach the first intersection. Defeat the Angel to continue toward your second town. If the Angel looks too dangerous, retreat immediately and wait another week or two to build up more reinforcements for the Angel battles.

Invade the second town, Ignis, and secure a major strategic location in the middle of the main crossroads. Of course, being in the center of everything means Ignis will be under constant attack. Your primary army shouldn’t stray too far from Ignis if you know Angel heroes are on the move, and it’s a really good idea to build an Advanced Town Portal here as soon as possible so your primary army can teleport back at any point to protect the town from sudden invasion.

Defend Ignis as soon as an Angel hero appears out of the fog of war. It’s a sound strategy to explore all the roads leading to Ignis so that you remove the fog of war and can spot invasions earlier.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Weeks 4-5After you’ve established Ignis and eliminated any immediate Angel threats, zip over to the western road. Enter the Spirit Gate and teleport to the southwestern island, which you’ll want to secure quickly before an enemy attack mounts again.

The side islands have the mines, and if you want a consistent resource supply, you need to seize the mines by controlling the fort on the island. In order to build up a creature supply great enough to defeat Archangel Michael in the end, you must capture as many mines as possible as you slowly proceed toward the Hall of Memories.

Capture the fort at the top of the island and convert all the buildings in the control area to your faction. Once the flags are all flying your colors, and you’ve gathered all the resources you can from the surrounding neutral armies, return to the central crossroad around Ignis.

As soon as you see an Angel hero advance on Ignis, make haste back to the town and defend it before the enemy breaks through your town defenses. If you have enough creatures to set up a garrison in Ignis, it’s a very good idea.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Weeks 6-7You might have to battle another Angel army as you prepare to assault the next Angel fort. Priority number one is defending the town, so stick close if there’s even a hint of enemy incursion.

Ride north and follow the path to the west. Stop for resource if you feel it’s safe, but don’t risk any creature losses at this stage.

Race along the road to the fort across the gap to the southwest from the Hall of Memories. It should be lightly defended, as the Angels are aggressive and tend to move directly for Ignis as soon as they leave their homes.

After you defeat the fort, you complete the “Stairway to Heaven” quest and gain two big rewards: 30 Blood Crystals and 15 Pit Lords for your army. Continue west as quickly as you can and set your sights on the next Angel-controlled town.

Hit the town of Lux with a concentration of Succubi and Lilim firepower. The new Pit Lords will also help out greatly. Once you conquer Lux, you shut down the Angels’ chief production facility for sending enemies after you along the western flank.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Weeks 8-9Now that you’ve cut the enemy attacks in half, it should be a little easier to take the eastern side. Gallop back to the northern intersection above Ignis and head east.

Hit the fort across the gap to the southeast of the Hall of Memories before an Angel reinforcements arrive to help it out. Your army should easily blow through its defenses and secure the area.

As you did with on the western side, ride straight for the town after capturing the fort. If you’re lucky, the Angels won’t have a strong defense set up and the town will go down without too many losses in your army. At any point, if you get badly wounded, retreat to Ignis and recruit more creatures to build your army back up.

With the town under control, follow the road around to the south and head through the Spirit Gate. You can spend some time exploring around the town if you like; however, the sooner you gain more mines, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

Ride south and then follow the path to the northwest to find the fort controlling the area. Seize the fort and you’ll gain more daily resources from your new mines.

Chase down any Angel stragglers that still harass your flanks. They will generally seek out Ignis, so if you head straight for the center of things, you should intercept the last of the Angel heroes in the immediate area.Epilogue: Chapter 1: Weeks 10-12Take as long as you need to build up an army before assaulting the fort that defends the Hall of Memories. You need at least 1,000 creatures to survive the series of Angel hero attacks, followed by the final battle against Archangel Michael.

When you’re ready, ride up north and swing around to attack the fort that defends the Hall of Memories. The fort itself is the easy part. Once you take it, Cate instructs you to defend the fort from the Angels for seven days. If you can hold out that long, Cate will complete her ritual and send the ancient Angel souls to their final rest.

As soon as you seize the fort, the doors to the north open and the Angel horde emerges. Angel heroes will billow out day by day and either head directly for you in the fort or drift off to attack another of your establishments.Don’t leave Cate and the fort! You must defend the fort at all costs, even if some of your other forts and towns fall to the angels. Those other places aren’t important now, and it’s best to stay garrisoned inside Cate’s fort to increase your defensive position.

Depending on what day of the week you started the ritual, it may be possible to have your secondary hero bring new recruits from the beginning of a new week. Keep your primary army in the fort to defend, and send your secondary army up to drop off troops if possible.

You’ll have to fend off two or three Angel hero attacks on the fort. When the eighth day arrives, Cate finishes the ritual and Archangel Michael is the Angels’ last resort to stop what Cate has begun. You square off against Michael for everything.

Michael lines up on his side of the combat map with 10 Guards. Any damage inflicted on Michael gets dispersed evenly to his Guards, and each Guard has 5,000 health. Michael also has the ability to group heal them all, so it can be a long road if you selectively attack Michael.

Michael can fly to anywhere on the battlefield in a single movement, and his melee attack hits with devastating force. Resist the urge to attack him unless you’re going to hit him hard; Michael retaliates with a punishing counterattack too.

Area-of-effect attacks like the Pit Lords’ whittle away large chunks of health off the Guards. Several of those can put the Guards in range of powerful melee attacks to take them out quickly.

Concentrate your damage on the Guards, and keep track of which Guards you damage more early in the battle. If you can send a damaging melee creatures against a wounded Guard, try to drop the Guard before Michael can heal her.

As the Guards start falling, Michael will begin to take damage. Use your faction ability to gain a key advantage during the fight, such as Inferno’s Gating to duplicate your Pit Lord or Lilim stack.

When the final Guard drops, Michael now takes all the damage you direct at him. Turn all your creatures’ attacks on the Archangel.

The more creatures you have in your army, the faster Michael’s health will go down. Even his incredible sword attack won’t be able to eliminate all your creatures before you slay the Angel commander.

In the aftermath of the battle, Cate dies. Both ancient powers perish, and you’re left to mourn your mother and the valiant guardian of Ashan. But is the war truly over? A secret meeting in the shadows between the Faceless and mysterious figure named Raelag suggest not.MultiplayerBrave New WorldBrave New World is an 8-player map consisting of a series of islands. There are two smaller islands in the northeast and northwest corners that contain just a single starting town each, while the other three large islands each have two starter towns on them. There are also a few small islands in between that have some neutral buildings and treasure.

The first objective will be to secure your starting area’s neutral dwellings to increase your army growth, as there are no neutral towns to capture on this map. There are also a few neutral forts scattered about which must be captured before you can make use of some of the dwellings. You will also want to locate and secure a Shipyard early on since most of the map requires a ship to move around.

Once you have secured the nearby dwellings and built up a strong army, you should conquer your neighbor if you are on one of the three large islands with two players. If you started on the northwest or northeast island, you can expand to any of the other islands and take it over. While you begin your attack, you should also have one or two secondary heroes use boats to explore and capture the smaller neutral islands to boost your resources. There is also a large supply of treasure scattered about the waterways between the islands.

After you have secured your island and one of the others, you should have a large enough advantage to push forward with multiple heroes. If you need to retreat and defend any of your territory, there are a series of whirlpools throughout the map which allow for quicker travel across large distance. Concentrate on taking one island at a time while using any extra heroes to contain the enemy from moving into your areas until you conquer everything.Broken AllianceThis map is a tight packed 6-player map which requires quick expansion in order to succeed. The starting areas are all spread out on one large landmass, with water on the east side of the map that isolates two small islands. In addition, there is another island directly in the middle of the map which can only be reached via teleporters that are in the north, northwest and southeast portions of the map.

Due to the small size of this map, you will need to secure your starting area quickly. The player starting areas are separated by small neutral areas that can be controlled by taking over the neutral fort. Taking over one of these areas quickly will provide a small boost to your army growth which will be key to quick expansion.

After you have a hero capable of pushing forward with, you should head for the nearest teleporter to your starting area so that you can take over the central island which provides a key strategic staging point for the map. The teleports are located in the north/central, northwest, and southeast areas. If you can’t reach one of the teleporters easily, you can also go for the neutral islands across the water on the east side of the map. There is a neutral town on the southeast island with a couple of gold mines. However, the central islands provides the biggest advantage since you will have another town plus all three teleporters which allows you to move around the map quickly. If you take over the central island, it is key that you keep a hero in the general area to defend it.

If you have control of the central island, you can now use the gates to attack any area of the map at will. If you haven’t taken over the eastern islands yet, you can do this with a weaker hero now while your strongest army attacks your opponents’ areas. It can be difficult to contain enemies from spreading out as there aren’t many choke points in this rather open map, but if you make use of the teleporters, you should be able to cut off any counter attacks until you take over every town.To Reign in HellA smaller 4-player map, To Reign in Hell features one landmass divided into sections by mountains and small land bridges. There are starting towns for each player and one neutral town located in the southeast (close to the western starting areas) and another neutral town in the north closer to the northeast starting players. Every starting area is defended easily as there aren’t many large open areas but rather small paths and many chokepoints. The northeast section of the map also has two teleporters linking the starting areas of the two players in that portion of the map.

To start out with, secure your own area and then try to take the neutral town located nearest your starting town, either in the north or southeast. If you are unable to make it there first, you can push into the neutral territory in the northwest which has a fort and some additional mines. The extra resources in these neutral areas are vital since there isn’t much room for expansion before you are forced to attack an opponent.

Secure any remaining neutral areas while pushing towards your closest enemy. The map is divided roughly into two halves with one opponent close to you and the other two farther away. Be sure to keep your area locked down using chokepoints to defend against incoming attackers and conquer your neighbor as quickly as possible.

Once you have taken your half of the map, concentrate on attacking the opposite half of the map using all of your heroes. Because there are so few connections between each area, a spread-out attack over each bridge will deter any opposing heroes from slipping past you and taking your towns.Tree of PlentyTree of Plenty is a 4-player map split into four quadrants, each of which has three cities. Water divides the map into northern and southern halves, with land bridges connecting the two quadrants in the northern half and likewise for the southern half. In the center of the map is an island where the Tree of Plenty grows, surrounded by riches. The first player to reach the center island will get a large boost of resources with little resistance.

When starting out you have one quadrant of the map to explore and conquer, while building your army. There are two neutral cities to capture and each of these two areas has a connection to the next area. One city will be near the land bridges which connect the west-east quadrants and the other city will be near a Shipyard, which will allow you to get to the center island or to the opposite half of the map. You should secure these areas as quickly as possible and prepare to expand once your army is strong enough.

The first move you should make to expand is send a hero to your shipyard and make for the center island. You can send a hero with a weak army to explore here since there is little opposition if you are the first to arrive, and a grand cache of resources to gather. If you can make it to the island first, you will gain a distinct advantage over your opponents. Once you have a strong army, you can push forward to one of your opponent’s areas via the land bridge or boat.

Once the center island has been cleared, controlling the water area in the middle provides the biggest advantage on the map. If you can conquer the opponent connected to you via the land bridge, you can secure half the map by controlling the water in the middle. Once you have half of the map secured, push forward to opposite half using one or two heroes. If you have at least one hero guarding the water while you push forward, you can eventually claim victory.Dire StraitDire Strait is an 8-player map with two large landmasses split by a large waterway in the middle of the map. There is also an Underworld for this map with an entrance on each side of the surface. The eastern side of the map has an entrance to the Underworld in the center along the eastern edge, and the western side’s entrance is in the southwest corner. There are three starter areas on each landmass, while two players start in the Underworld, making this an ideal map for a 4-versus-4 team game.

When playing a 4-v-4 team game, start off as you would in a solo game, securing the nearby mines and resources. There are also three small neutral areas controlled by forts on surface per side, one for each player. If you start on the surface, control one these areas as quickly as possible before exploring. If you are the Underworld player for your team, you will need to spread out faster so that you can secure the center island which has a cache of unguarded resources. On the surface, make your way to one of the Shipyards on the shore once you have controlled your starting area.

The Underworld has a crossroads in the middle of the map which makes for an ideal defensive chokepoint. If your team can take over this area, you can hold off your opponents easily since they cannot pass another way underground. You can also push forward to the opposite corner and use the stairs to the surface to attack the enemy from behind. Regardless of your strategy underground, you will likely need to create ships and control the central waterway on the surface.

Once your team has control of the water and Underworld, finish off the single opponent in the Underworld if you haven’t already. You can then storm the beaches above and also attack from the Underworld entrance behind enemy lines. Both the Underworld and the beach access to the water are easily defended areas, so make sure to keep a couple of heroes back to prevent a counterattack while you push forward and finish off the enemy.Rise to PowerRise to Power is a 6-player map with large starting areas in a circle around a neutral center. Each starting area has more encounters than normal, allowing for players to grow stronger before attacking. The center area has additional neutral mines and several buildings that will boost any hero brave enough to explore, but it is a desert that will greatly reduce Hero movement rate.

Due to the larger than normal starting area, it is important to capture all nearby neutral mines or dwellings and build up a strong hero instead of rushing to attack. The center area has some additional neutral buildings but the desert terrain greatly reduces hero movement. Because of this, you should avoid sending any of your main heroes into the central area. Instead, send a weak hero who can take over unguarded mines and run from enemy heroes. Because of the slow movement, it is very difficult for heroes to catch each other, allowing you to distract opponents while you focus elsewhere.

Once you have a strong hero, attack one of your neighboring opponents using the side passageways. Again you want to avoid moving through the central area as it will take much longer and also run a greater risk of running into other heroes since all players will likely send at least one hero into the middle. Each area has a chokepoint at the border that allows you to defend your territory as you spread out.

After you have control of two or three towns, you should be able to attack from both sides leaving areas in between unguarded. Keep your weak scout hero in the center and watch for any heroes who may travel through the center to get to any of your unguarded territories. The time it takes any hero to attack you this way will give you some time to send a hero back or recruit a new one and build up a quick defense.Creek of Lost SoulsCreek of Lost Souls is a 6-player map featuring one large central island and two small islands with starting areas. Water is prevalent on this map, so ship travel will play an important role. There are whirlpools and teleporters spread across the map to help quickly travel long distances.

When starting out, it is important to collect resources as quickly as possible as mines are in short supply. Crystal mines in particular won’t be found in starting areas, so you’ll have to take over a neutral fort and one of the neutral crystal mines. Also, because you’ll be using ships for most of your heroes, collecting wood is also key due to the hefty 20-wood cost for building ships.

After you have an attack force ready, use the whirlpools to go to the northwest and southeast islands. These two starting areas are isolated, so they make ideal targets to attack first before expanding on the main island. Landing zones are relatively small on the mainland, so don’t stray too far from the whirlpools or you may waste a lot of time sailing around looking for a place to land.

For the final phase of conquest on the mainland, focus on taking forts and towns and don’t spend too much time chasing heroes. This area is rather open, so it can be hard to track down a hero that runs from you. Instead of chasing, just concentrate on the towns and you can build up more heroes to finish off your opponents. There are also four teleporters scattered on the main island that will help you move to different areas faster.Creek of Lost Souls is a 6-player map featuring one large central island and two small islands with starting areas. Water is prevalent on this map, so ship travel will play an important role. There are whirlpools and teleporters spread across the map to help quickly travel long distances.

When starting out, it is important to collect resources as quickly as possible as mines are in short supply. Crystal mines in particular won’t be found in starting areas, so you’ll have to take over a neutral fort and one of the neutral crystal mines. Also, because you’ll be using ships for most of your heroes, collecting wood is also key due to the hefty 20-wood cost for building ships.

After you have an attack force ready, use the whirlpools to go to the northwest and southeast islands. These two starting areas are isolated, so they make ideal targets to attack first before expanding on the main island. Landing zones are relatively small on the mainland, so don’t stray too far from the whirlpools or you may waste a lot of time sailing around looking for a place to land.

For the final phase of conquest on the mainland, focus on taking forts and towns and don’t spend too much time chasing heroes. This area is rather open, so it can be hard to track down a hero that runs from you. Instead of chasing, just concentrate on the towns and you can build up more heroes to finish off your opponents. There are also four teleporters scattered on the main island that will help you move to different areas faster.Isles of JudgmentIsles of Judgment is a 4-player map consisting of a series of small islands. Each of the starting areas are on their own island and there are smaller islands with neutral forts, dwellings, and a few mines. There are also two neutral towns that can be found in the western/central area of the map. To make the water travel easier, there are numerous whirlpools for instant teleportation around the map.

After you take control of your starting area, you should craft a ship and try to take the neutral towns. Each of the islands with the neutral towns has a whirlpool near the landing beach, so use these to your advantage. Also look for crystal mines in neutral areas as they are in short supply on this map.

Once you have taken one or two of the neutral towns, you can begin to expand to the other islands. The smallest islands should be a secondary target, but they have forts and dwellings which will help your army grow quick, so take them over as you pass. There is also a large amount of small treasure troves and flotsam spread across the sea, so be sure to collect any that you pass by while sailing.

The player areas all have whirlpools near their beaches as well, so again use the whirlpools to move around when you begin your attacks. You should also keep a well-equipped hero to defend the whirlpools in case an enemy hero makes a push for one of your islands. Due to how wide open this map is, it will be hard to contain your opponents, but the whirlpools will be the easiest places to make any defense.The Wheel of HateThe Wheel of Hate is a 6-player circular map with an underground area, though all players start on the surface. The surface map has a center that can only be reached via a stairway in the underground, and is filled with high-level monsters and treasure, as well as a special boss encounter. Outside of the center on the surface is an inner ring which is where the players start out. Finally, the outer ring has neutral areas with forts and other neutral buildings.

After taking over your starting area, you have some choices of how to expand on this map. There is an entrance to the underworld in each player’s starting area, and all of the underworld starts out neutral so you should send a hero down early on to capture a town or two. The surface also has neutral areas located along the edges which have some easier encounters, but there are only forts and some mines instead of towns.

Use one hero to take over as much of the underground as you can, until you start facing enemy resistance. On the surface, the player starting towns can be reached quickly through the connecting neutral areas, so you can attack your opponents right away if you have a fast start. If you choose to push more in the underworld, make sure you still keep a decent-strength hero on the surface to defend your town.

If you take over the center of the underworld, you can use the middle staircase to reach the core of the surface. In this isolated valley, there is a ring of high-level monsters, treasures and buildings which can improve your strongest hero. In the middle of the core is a special boss, Ahribban, which presents a unique challenge if you have a powerful hero. You should only fight this boss if you have control of the map already, as it is better to use your strength to take over opponents instead of risking a loss against the boss. Work your way in a circular pattern on the surface to conquer each enemy, and finish off anyone who made it to the underworld after you control the surface.

1 comment for this Might and Magic Heroes VI user guide

• Comment by binharseneuit

  nice guide. :D

  Aug. 12, 2014, 8:41 a.m.