The Evil Campaign: Groundbreaking by BahamutXero

Campaign description:
Erathian history has never recorded the fall of Steadwick to her enemies. Today, we start a glorious campaign to forever change this fact. No longer will we allow Erathia to hamper our religious and economic ways of life. We have the element of surprise. We’ll soon have victory as well!



Scenario description:
To win, you capture all enemy towns and castles and defeat all enemy Heroes. Although your Heroes are limited to level 12 in this scenario, your eight strongest Heroes will be available to you in the final scenario if you wish to use them.

Situation:
You have found a long lost splinter colony. “Persuading” them to aid your cause will be extremely helpful. There is also a spy on an island above ground that will share is information if you find him.

Parameters:
Difficulty: Easy
Allies: Tan
Enemies: Red

Bonus choices:
Pillar of Eyes
Mage Guild Level 1
Battle Scholar Academy

Starting resources
30 wood, 15 mercury, 30 ore, 15 sulfur, 15 crystal, 15 gems, 30000 gold.

Town restraints:
No town in this scenario can build shipyards; the scenario takes place completely on land anyway. Your starting and upper left Dungeon towns can build everything; the center Dungeon town underground can build everything but a Dragon Cave; the lower left and upper right Dungeon towns underground can’t build a Fort and therefore have only the first level creature dwellings; the upper left above ground Castle can build everything except a Portal of Glory; and the remaining towns above ground can only build the first couple creature dwellings.

Guide:
Okay, first off it’s important to remember that your eight strongest Heroes in this scenario can follow you onwards to the final scenario. They can only reach level 12 here, but you can take them to mercenary camps, schools of magic, magic shrines etc. to improve their skills as much as you can before you complete the scenario. If you do so, you very powerful Heroes that can kick anybody’s butt at the end of the first scenario, and that means that the final scenario, if you choose your Heroes from this scenario, will be somewhat easier.

Personally, I use this scenario’s Heroes for the final on just because you can easily get eight Heroes to level twelve. There are five Dungeon towns underground, each able to build a Battle Scholar Academy. Add the experience gained from these with all the learning stones and other experience enhancing locations, you can get a Hero to level eight without even fighting anything!

This scenario is kind of the opposite of A Devilish Plan. In that scenario you had to mobilize somewhat quickly because Red had more towns than you. That’s true for this scenario as well but since you’re underground and Red is above ground, Red will not directly attack you. I’ve tested this theory out by spending weeks underground, conquering it first before I venture to the world above, and Red never once came underground, so don’t worry about a Red Hero popping out from a Subterranean Gate any time soon. In short, you can take your time claiming everything in sight underground before attacking Red and completing the scenario. Just use what I call the assembly line technique: start with a single hero and build him up to level twelve, then get another and give it all the army and artifacts from the first one. Continue this until you have eight Heroes at level twelve. Remember to have all the Heroes visit the skill and stat enhancing locations regardless.

You begin with a random Inferno Hero and a Dungeon town. Make this town your capitol because it is only one of two towns that don’t have any building restraints. Claim the two unguarded lumber mills to the west to have a steady supply of wood from the beginning. To the north is a learning stone for a fast level. Spend the first week building up your town, taking only unguarded things because you have pretty much no army. With a couple of week’s worth of creatures and some magic (If your using magic type Heroes) you should be able to conquer the paths around your castle, including the Dungeon towns to the west and northwest. In case you haven’t noticed yet, the underground level looks like a giant chain link fence that has a Dungeon town in each corner of the map and one in the center. Feel free to go into the Subterranean Gate next to your castle; it leads to a Hut of Magi that reveals two of Red’s towns aboveground so that you can spy on them somewhat. The Monolith Two Way takes you to a remote area to the north that has a treasure chest and a Redwood Observatory that allows you to spy on the Red Castle town nearby. Now you can see the area around every Red town except one, and that can help you decide if you have a big enough army to attack it.

To the northwest and northeast of the Dungeon town in the middle of the underground map are two more Dungeon towns. Now you have five Dungeon towns in your possession. Build a Battle Scholar Academy in easy one to give new Heroes a significant boost on their way to level twelve. After several more weeks of claiming mines and artifacts you should have a large army, including some Black Dragons. There is one pretty sure proof way to tell if you can take out Red outright without having to approach them. In the northwest of the underground map there is a Dragon Cave and Dragon Utopia guarded by more Red and Black Dragons. If you can claim them, without many casualties, you are more than adequately prepared to wipe out Red. You could go above ground via the southwest and centermost Subterranean Gates and finish the scenario but I would wait until you have completely uncovered and conquered the underground map and had all or you Heroes visit the learning stones, Battle Scholar Academies, etc. Make sure you save the game before you try to take on the dragons just in case. As a rule of thumb about 15 of your own Black Dragons and the rest of your army should be enough. Getting this amount of Black Dragons seems like a lot but considering you can get at least a week if you build a Castle in both towns that can generate Black Dragons and the extra Red Dragons you can promote from the Dragon Cave.

I was actually able to make eight level twelve Heroes without having to conquer the whole upper world map so you only have to visit all the stat builders above ground if you want. I remember that there is a School of Magic, Star Axis, Garden of Revelation, Marletto Tower, School of War, several Learning Stones, and a Scholar to visit on the surface map. Be warned however, if you go for the treasure guarded by Arch Angels in the center of the map. Not only are they faster than you and will probable give you some casualties (they killed 30 of my Minotaur Kings in one attack) but you will also lose 50 magic points, luck, and morale for entering their sacred land. These casualties are probably peanuts to you now but don’t be stupid to think you can take the angels on with a wimpy army. Like I said before, about 15 Black Dragons plus you remaining army should be plenty to finish the entire scenario.

When you have pilfered all that you desire you can finally finish Red off to complete the scenario. Just make sure you level up all your Heroes to level twelve and let them visit all the places you want them to. Red has two Castle towns in the middle and northwest corner of the surface map, as well as a Rampart town in the northeast corner and Tower in the southwest corner. As mentioned above they can only build the first couple creature generators so claiming them as your own won’t be that difficult. They will probably on have hordes of low-level creatures that won’t be a mach for your powerful Black Dragons and the rest of your army.

Now it’s time for the final stage of the scenario. First make you have totally cleared out the surface map. Now take your weakest hero, and give him or her all the army you have. If you didn’t have many casualties from defeating Red, you should be all right. Like I said before, about as dozen devils, plus whatever other army you got should be enough. Venture down underground and you’ll come to a fork leading into three directions. The left and right paths lead to green dragons guarding a bunch of treasure. Take these out before heading down the middle path. The middle path has about 10 gold and green (that’s ten total, not ten of each) guarding their queen. None of these battles should be too tough if you have a big enough army, just remember that dragons have magic resistance, green to up to level three spells and gold to level four. After you defeat them, the path to the Gold Dragon Queen is open. Despite her title, the battle is against just a single gold dragon and shouldn’t be a problem considering the number of dragons you killed to get to her.