The Good Campaign: Homecoming by Weiila

Campaign description:
Our landing has confirmed both our rumors and out fears. With the death of my father, Erathia’s lands are being greedily divided by her neighbors.

Scenario description:
To win, you must locate and capture the town of Terraneus. Your Heroes will be limited to 6th level in this scenario, but your 4 strongest heroes will travel with you to the next scenario of this campaign.

Situation:
Nighon forces have the control of the area and you’re to take care of that. You need to find their base and eliminate it.

Parameters:
Difficulty: Medium
Allies: Red
Enemies: Tan

Bonus choices:
Soldier: Bonus troops
Resources: +5 of all resources except wood and ore
Tent: Christian starts with a First Aid tent

Starting resources (without bonus):
30 wood, 15 mercury, 30 ore, 15 sulfur, 15 crystal, 15 gems, 30000 gold.

Town restraints:
No town in this scenario can build shipyards and Gates of Heaven.
Only Caryatid can upgrade a town hall to city hall and capitol. Caryatid is also the only town that can build upgraded training grounds.

Guide
Okay, first off it’s important to remember that the four strongest heroes in this scenario will follow you onwards to the next and further, which is very neat. They can only reach level 6 here, but you can take them to mercenary camps, schools of magic etc to improve their skills for the future. If you do so, you won’t have heroes, you’ll have super heroes at the end of the first scenario, and that means headaches for the enemies that are to come.

You start of with the hero Christian whether you like him or not. If you don’t like his hairdo and beard trash him and get one of the blue lizard cousins or something cuter than the goodie-doer. But you shouldn’t dislike him since he’s a knight and you’re a good guy. Or are you a bad guy saving the good scenario for last? *gasp* Unthinkable. Anyway, moving on…

Ahh, look! You’re outside of a friendly looking town but you’re surrounded by halberdiers and archers! Duck that luck…

No panic, they’re all followers and will leap on your cause like the good guys they are. Grab them all and send Christian to clean up the area around you. Hire a pair of heroes to help him, and send one of them off on a boat to clean up the ocean. There’s a lot of debris, a few chests and a pair of shipwreck survivors.

There’s no real rush in the start since the enemy seems to tend to be rather calm at first. But you’ll need to get started with the troop production as fast as possible not to have troubles later. Use the troops you got in the start to free the ore mine and the sawmill. Go north and free the griffin bastion for some extra lion-birdies. I recommend building a town hall as quick as possible and then concentrate on building troop producing buildings. You should be able to manage up to a training range within the first week, with help from the treasures lying about.

Then send Christian or whoever you gave the main troop on a boat towards the west, preferably with all new troops you might have gotten in Caryatid.

Since you should have sent a guy on a ship that way already you should have found a small coastline with a light house. Land there with the main trooper, kill the beholders and take the gem lake. To the north is a sulfur mine guarded by magogs, and a gold mine guarded by evil eyes. You should be able to take them on, but be careful. There’s also a scholar, a school of war and magic to visit.

Make sure that you make use of the wind mill, water mill and magical garden in your original territory.

I’d recommend waiting until you’ve got the troops of the third week before you make a move. While you wait, use the original troops added with whatever you get to go north in your territory (the grassy plain) and get the treasures and also the alchemist guild for mercury. You won’t need much resources for buildings and none for troops here, but it’s good in case you need extra cash quickly. You can of course take this before the stuff to the west, but it’s nice to have the gold mine.

Prepare yourself to go further to the west and take Plinth. I doubt you’ll have to worry about the enemy coming to get you, that guy seems to be slow in the start. The first hero the evil dude has is underground and it’ll take him about one and half a week to get out. When I’ve played, he’s taken his time buying new heroes in his over world castles as well, so you can be pretty calm. But don’t get too cocky.

In any case, when you’ve got a nice load of troops you head further west. Plinth lies just beside the ocean and there’s a ship beside it. However, there isn’t any shipyard. None of the castles here can build shipyards.

Now things will become a little tricky. When you have Plinth, which shouldn’t be much of a problem (save before you attack and get more troops if it should be a problem), you’ll see that there’s a subterranean gate just a little way to the north. And to the northeast is a passage which leads to the next castle of the enemy. So, you’ll need to guard Plinth since it’s in a bit of a vulnerable situation.

If you want you could always send down a kamikaze hero to take a look at the underground so that you at least will get a warning if the baddie approaches. But that might not be worth it as the risk is he’ll get killed on the exploration tour which would be a waste of money. And time, if you send a guy you’ve dragged around to the mercenary camps etc. And lives of the troops that will be killed, you heartless meanie you!

Ahem.

So, what do you do?

Build up Plinth a bit and send another hero with more troops from Caryatid. Just take whatever new stuff you’ve got, it should be enough as Plinth will start producing troops as well.

If you need to, give the strongest hero a chunk of the new troops before s/he sets off towards the northeast. There might or might not be a gang of centaur captains guarding the pass, depends on how active Tan has been.

Before you proceed, collect the artifacts and treasures lying around if your enemy hasn’t taken them already. Split them between your defensive and offensive hero as you see fit.

The next town is Mirham. It might have more defenders than Plinth and can also have one or two heroes guarding it, but it’s not too likely with more than one. Taking this town can be trickier than taking Plinth, so save before acting just in case.

When you have Mirham you can pretty much relax, but not completely. Build up your latest town and stock up on troops. To the east is a gang of pit fiends guarding a pass leading to your original territory. Killing them will allow you to get more troops from Caryatid quickly, and that town should have at least a new week load of them by the time you get Mirham.

Alright, now the bad guy still have two routes to get to you, three with the subterranean gate by Plinth. To the west and northeast of Mirham are passes, the northeastern one going in a pretty much straight line to the last over world castle. The western is a detour but goes over a field with a few neat things; a monastery, a crystal mine and a prison apart from recourses and treasures. However, chances are that Tan already has taken the treasures and the prison. It’s not that much to cry over though.

In the prison is the hero Orrin, a knight. His stats are:
- Level 1.
- Attack 2, Defense 2, Knowledge 1, Magical Power 1.
- Specializes in Archery.
- Skills: Basic Leadership, Basic Archery.
- Troops: 18 halberdiers, 14 marksmen, 12 griffins, 6 swordsmen, 5 zealots and 4 champions.

A bonus, but nothing impressive. If the prison already was taken, don’t bother to be irritated.

Now then, since Mirham is pretty vulnerable and Plinth probably is as well, you’ll need a new load of troops from Caryatid. So clear the eastern pass and send up a leftover hero with whatever you can get from your base. You might need the troops of two weeks to supply your attacker and get a decent defense for Mirham. When you think you’re ready, SAVE and head further northeast. The save is since Tan might come from the other way and give you a nasty surprise.

The last town is Trailia. This will most probably be better guarded than Plinth and Mirham, so you better be prepared. Take it and then let your offensive hero stay close to it to guard. Wait a couple of days but be alert. You’ll soon know if Tan has any heroes left on the over world. If not, just make sure you keep an eye on and good defense by the gates and bring all your heroes through as many of the mercenary camps, star axis, marletto towers, schools of magic/war etc. as you’ve got patience for. This is, like I said in the beginning, since the four strongest heroes will come with you to the next scenario. Mwehehe...

When you’re done or bored with building the new X-men, stock up with as many troops as you can find on the strongest hero (though you’ll still need defenses in either Plinth or Trailia depending on which route you take) and bring him underground via one of the gates.

Terraneus is in the center of the underworld, you’ll have to pass through a rather long tunnel no matter which gate you take. The dungeon castle (meaning the place with eyes, medusas and red/black dragons) will probably be pretty well guarded, but since you should have troops from four cities it shouldn’t be much of a problem. However, Terraneus is placed on cursed ground so you won’t be able to use magic.