Author: michel (france), 28-03-2024 21:52

reply2 - Sir Christian Map 1 Haven - Heroes 5 map

No clues will be given to you..but remember the passages ( way )of this map, because they will be useful to you for the map that follows (Sir Arantir map) good game! more...


Author: Babak (Canada), 28-03-2024 21:15

reply - Sir Christian Map 1 Haven - Heroes 5 map

Thank you, Michel! Yap, he's already been defeated. Now I'm stuck finding Zehir, but do not want any hints; this is a very enjoyable map!! more...


Author: Kir (Russia), 28-03-2024 19:59

map - Prequildo's Hubris - Heroes 5 map

A good map for a fast dynamic game. more...


Author: zorbag , 28-03-2024 14:52

Find dracon and bird of perception - GELU and hota 2.0 - Heroes 3 map

I'm stuck, can't find bird of perception and where is Dracon ? Can't find them in editor more...


Author: michel (france), 28-03-2024 11:35

Reply From Brem - Sir Christian Map 1 Haven - Heroes 5 map

Hello Babak Hello, The player "Brem" will not be able to move because his role is to protect the garrison (he will be defeated by the Necromancer) more...


Author: Babak Ahmadi (Canada), 27-03-2024 21:10

Awesome map - Sir Christian Map 1 Haven - Heroes 5 map

I've only started this map, but so far it has been fantastic!
One thing, Brem cannot move; I assume this is bt design, correct? I suspect he'll act when attacked.
more...


Author: Nebel 74 (CZ), 27-03-2024 19:14

thx - Finding Leena - Heroes 3 map

Hi Jovian, Thanks for the Like. I'm glad you liked the map. Cheers! more...


Author: Платон мне друг (Latvia), 27-03-2024 16:35

ROSE IS IMBA - Stir in the South - Heroes 3 map

Thx for creation.2m2w6d too easy for advanced players.20 fire birds on the beginnig of third week+one week later TP.Then Luna,Grindan and Alamar were hunting for poor computers players.Honorless victory. more...


Author: CopperPig , 27-03-2024 13:20

How to start? - Robinson Crusoe! - Heroes 3 map

Guys, how do you started this map?
There are two towns you can reach in the first week.
The first, on Robinson's island, guarded by 4 guy, I cannot beat them with 1 crusader, no spells.
The other, can be found by the sailing hero, guarded by ~40 pirates, unbeatable too.
And that's it.
more...


Author: 32167 , 27-03-2024 12:14

And good gain - Deer's Spiral - Heroes 3 map

:) more...


Author: Igor , 27-03-2024 10:08

Playing for castle - Fawn's Labyrinth - Heroes 3 map

Hi. Got stuck with one castle and cant get from the initial red islands... Anyone knows the hint? more...


Author: Germ (Hanover, USA), 26-03-2024 21:54

Mr - Kingdom Siege - The Reckoning! - Heroes 3 map

The main advantage the human player has is town portal. If facing a strong AI hero just portal away. Use visions to scout monster stacks and pick a few to let grow and harvest later. more...


Author: Deertheking , 26-03-2024 17:29

Good kind of pain - Deer's Spiral - Heroes 3 map

Still had fun figuring it out and questioning what I know about the game :D more...


Author: Jovian , 26-03-2024 17:02

Only one difference - Finding Leena - Heroes 3 map

Only one gamechanging difference i saw with the latest version -- ordinary garrison was replaced with anti-magic and devils in it with red dragons.
So in the latest version of the map you are unable to win this battle and loosing a HUGE chunk of fangrams (20k-30k).
The rest is the same. Just harde
more...


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Heroes4 - Your opinions about A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE - map rating = 11 Likes

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   Download map -> A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Heroes 4: Winds of War

If you are a veteran player looking for a serious challenge, here's your chance to prove you have mastered this game. Be prepared for massive, decisive battles of progressively tougher difficulty, with a grand finale destined to become a tactical nightmare! Recommended only for experienced players who know all the tricks of the game. Play this map on Champion level, with Mobile Guards.

Added: 20-10-2017


Heroes 4 maps: Hard Bloodfire | Wielka Wojna | Hearts of Chaos | ja nowe


| 1-30 | 31-60 | 61-79 |

Author: Erlend Philip Wood (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway), 18-10-2023 00:54
I published a new map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Hi everybody.

If you are interested, I published a new map today. It is called "#THE INVENTORY (Reference Map)".

Like the title says, it is just a simple small map that allows you to view all the 208 artifacts from Heroes 4, systematically organized and labelled. All 310 heroes including the special ones from campaigns can be hired, and all 142 spells are available for viewing. Unlike the Map Editor, everything can be right-clicked to read their descriptions here. A good tool for modders, to satisfy your curiosity, or just for fun. Equilibris version included.

It is available here:
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinio ns.php?map_id=831&game=4
I published a new map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

  Erlend Philip Wood (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
26-10-2023 19:15

Mistake in the link - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

For some reason the word "opinions" in the URL gets screwed up when published, so the link doesn't work. The last half of the URL should be:
/forum/opinions.php?map_id=831&game=4
(without the space in "opinio ns.php"). Otherwise, you can just search the title, or my name.



Author: spz (Praha), 09-09-2023 21:46
What about the Necro - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Thank you for the map. It is difficult for me to move forward with a Necro hero against Chaos, and I definitely need to train Order heroes, to have Berserk and to have a chance against the big armies. I am also not sure why you chose to disable Necromancy, not sure what is wrong with stacking armies on a faction where I have to rely on such strategy. I can perhaps edit the map and enable it, just that I never did such things. Struggled also to kill the eastern garrison hero in the first three months, as I did not have enough fire power, but did it eventually later. So yep, a bit hard at the moment to advance.


Author: s2.Milky, 22-08-2023 20:15
Speed run map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
First time played this, and I was able to kill Orange hero before Month 2 Week 2. So far so good, took a bit of retry but I finally get a hang of this.
Speed run map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE


Author: Artstyle (USA), 18-06-2023 07:18
Final Update Sub 4 Month Speed Run - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Been playing around for a few months and found a way get the map clear before 4 months. The main thing is the starting locations of key spells: Home Teleport on 2nd town, Vampiric Touch and Catlike Reflexes in Orange town, and early game precision. All the player battles happened outside of town with Orange being the most difficult at Month 2 Week 2 with only 7 angels. Another time saving trick is to clear a castle and TP before winning, leaving summons and illusions to clear the rest, this allows for really quick hero movement between orange, teal, green and blue. Lord following the army then flag empty castle. Anyway, fun challenge to theory-craft. I will be taking a long break from Heroes so this was a nice bit to end on.
Final Update Sub 4 Month Speed Run - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE


Author: ColdWarrior (Ekaterinburg, Russia), 08-05-2023 19:35
Review - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
RU: https://youtu.be/Xb4JmskrBdM

This map is a mod of Zanfas's Challenge with an ambitious idea: to make a scenario for the most experienced players. In a way it is that, but I didn't feel it's THAT hard. I've seen worse.
I rate difficulty of this map to be 7/10, while I've played as Life — race that is nearly impossible to complete the map as, according to author. His reasoning for this I find pretty silly. What I find ridiculous is that he said people should play it with 2 heroes for maximum difficulty. Why didn't you just restricted the option to hire more heroes then, it's supposed to be hard isn't it?! Why should I handicap myself while playing the map that is just about the difficulty?
Story-wise it's pretty standard, you're loser who suppose to overcome the evil computer player (which is even called "Red player", creative AF). Already you start to suspect some cut corners, before even starting the game. Quests are cool, but they're too scarce and not very creative either, so they can't save lackluster "storytelling". They are no characters, only heroes that have names sometimes. Messages that you get occasionally just describe what you already see happening in the game, most of them are completely pointless. It's better to pretend the map has no story at all. 2/10.
Design is horrendous, author did nothing with the landscape, except just painted the floor in different terrains to fit new concept, making all decor look misplaced. So now it looks way worse than OG Zanfas. You may not care, but I can't respect that. Just another proof that you shouldn't expect anything from map tweaks. 0/10, I'd even extract points from another ratings.
Gameplay is what author only really cared about, admittedly in the end of the game, but it's apparent anyway. At the start map plays exactly like Zanfas's Challenge, but on sand. Not much ruins that feeling, except quest huts and some objects. When you enter enemy's territory, you declare a war on them, and when you attack them, their ally from other side of the map declare war on you. It's a cool idea, but because computer in HoMM IV is so passive, it doesn't really work well, but that's not creator's fault. When you defeat all enemies except Red, you fight big neutral armies for a loooong time, at this stage map difficulty and my interest almost flatlined. I think if creator put time into making this encounters more fun, the map would benefit a lot. I beat almost all of them by using same strategy every time. It was disengaging. In the end you have two fights with Red armies, one being very easy and second, the very last, is pretty challenging and fun, but short and nowhere near "tactical nightmare" that was promised at the start. In one of my maps there is a similar final battle, and I don't even consider it hardcore. Difficulty in general confused me, I expected more and most of the time was killing neutrals with my brain shut off. First encounters with AI were fun and intriguing, but they ended pretty early on. Idea of having to pay taxes was great, it makes you pay attention to resources and keeps some level of tension. I half-expected most of my cities to just rebel at some point, but that didn't happen, which sucks. Quests kinda add to gameplay, but later ones take forever to complete, so I just said F* it. At one point enemy spies attack you, but author warns about them in advance, which defeats the purpose of a sneak attack... Why wouldn't you let the player struggle ffs. In the end the gameplay is kinda spoiled, 6/10.
VERDICT 8/30 * MEDIOCRE
This is just retarded cousin of Fragile World. That map came way earlier and better in every aspect. I didn't finished it yet, but my impression is basically opposite of this map, and it's clear that author got a lot of inspiration from Fragile World. Cannot recommend it even to hardcore enthusiasts.


Author: Artstyle (USA), 18-12-2022 22:24
Speed Run Update - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Optimized the speed run a bit and got it below 5 months. This run was Month 4 Week 2 Day 6. Main change was making sure the orange/teal/green/blue exp was split between as many heroes as possible. Also went with 3 nature magics for extra control.
Speed Run Update - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE


Author: Ely (Israel), 17-10-2022 18:35
My thoughts - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I usually play solo, with my hero (or heroes) without creatures (unless I have necromancy), so this was a new challenge for me.
The first time I started the game, I immediately closed it because I didn't like the restrictions, but then I decided to give it a try.
I played on Champion difficulty with mobile neutral armies (which was a pain).
I chose Nature and went for Elves, Griffins, Fairy Dragons and Fire Elementals. The shooters were the most effective, the griffins only made sense when I got my hands on Vampiric Touch. I tried to replace the Fairy Dragons with Titans once I conquered Order-aligned cities, but the morale hit was too big, so I reluctantly kept the Fairy Dragons.

The first encounter with the enemy was frightening. He was so powerful. Fortunately, He decided to attack me me while I was in the city. I managed to defend the city and win. Then it was just a nuisance of load-save, load-save each time an enemy hero sneaked up on one of my cities, but eventually I defeated them all and won the game in month 29 (had trouble finding the way into the Red Player's territory [thanks for the hint, Philip]). The last battle wasn't too difficult, to be honest. Once you kill the 2 heroes, the rest of the army is nothing. Neither had Guardian Angel, which was surprising.
I arrived at Valhalla when the enemy heroes were at level 62.
I had 3 heroes (2 arch mages, 1 general), 450 Fairy Dragons, 1100 Griffins, 2500 Fire Elementals and 2500 Elves.

All in all, a fun map to play. Took several days to finish.

Thanks, Philip, for the time invested in creating this map!

  Erlend Philip Wood (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
17-10-2022 19:43

Thanks - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Congratulations on completing the map.

Actually, Rage and Fury both have Guardian Angel. Sometimes they will use it to revive each other indefinitely until their mana runs out, but for some stupid reason the AI often chooses to do something else, like buff their army or shoot at you instead.


  Ely (Israel) writes:
17-10-2022 20:06

No Guardian Angel - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

They have Robe of the Guardian, but not the Guardian Angel spell.
The Elves with Cat Reflexes exhausted the robe's powers in one go and then the Fire Elementals with Dragon Strength finished the job.
All the enemy heroes did was attack my poor elves (lost around 900 of them). The rest of my army was left virtually untouched.

No Guardian Angel - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE


  Erlend Philip Wood (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
17-10-2022 20:33

It's in their spell book - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

They don't have Guardian Angel from the beginning, because unlike the human player, the AI can't use Potions Of Immortality to prepare beforehand. But they have it in their spell book. If they do what they are supposed to, they will use it to revive each other if one of them is knocked down. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.



Author: Ely (Israel), 17-10-2022 12:39
Stuck - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I'm playing the game at Champion difficulty and mobile armies. I've defeated all players except red and all neutral armies and freed the Ranger hero. But now I'm stuck. I don't know how to enter Red's territory. I'm supposed to beat Lord Eric or what's his name but I can't find him.
The last message that popped-up is that the Thieves mentioned someone named "The Warden" (the hero I freed, I presume) but I've already freed him so I'm not sure what I need to do next.

  Erlend Philip Wood (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
17-10-2022 12:59

How to enter Red Player's territory - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

SPOILER ALERT: Old Erik is Red Player's gate keeper. He is located within Red Player's territory and is patrolling the area. So in other words, you need to find a "back door" into Red Player's territory and defeat Old Erik to permanently open the two Barbarian Gates leading into Red Player's territory.

The answer you seek, you shall find at Dragon Isle.



Author: Genying Li (Canada Toronto), 11-10-2022 11:52
Thanks a lot - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
It took me 400 days to finish. It was fun.


Author: Alex (Riga, Latvia), 04-10-2022 00:10
Thanks to the author - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
16 months in middle pace, playing for Life (5 heroes, angels, monks). It was interesting. Thanks to the author for great work!


Author: Qtish, 18-08-2022 15:21
Difficulty - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Beat the game with Might at Champion, stationary monsters. I disagree with creators evaluation of difficulty. This is my rating from easiest to hardest: Might/Death > Chaos > Nature/Order > Life. The reason for that is creator forgot that Might has breeding pens, which contributes early and a lot into army size, making cyclops absolute madmen, commiting genocide on whatever the size of an enemy. Together with behemoths supporting them game was too easy. 5 heroes: Main hero Combat/Tactics/Life/Nature/Death, rest 4 heroes with combat + 4 magic elementals/ 4 Life 3 Nature 3 Chaos 3 Order, 4 death. What I would do differently about this setup is -1 death +1 order.


Author: András Szigligeti (Magyarország), 26-07-2022 02:13
What if blue doesn't attacks? - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
What if blue doesn't attacks, how to get there? Cleared orange, teal, green...


Author: András Szigligeti (Magyarország), 18-07-2022 02:51
What if blue doesn't attacks? - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
What if blue doesn't attacks, how to get there? Cleared orange, teal, green...


Author: András Szigligeti (Magyarország), 18-07-2022 00:29
What if blue doesn't attacks? - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
What if blue doesn't attacks, how to get there? Cleared orange, teal, green...

  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
18-07-2022 00:46

Doesn't matter - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

If you conquer the two Green towns, Blue Player will always declare war on you (there's an on-screen message). There's a quirk with the AI that Blue Player's heroes sometimes decide to hide in a corner in their own sector rather than rush for your capital. But that doesn't matter, as long they declare war, the Blue gate will open simultaneously. You can just go through the gate and attack them if they don't come for you.


  András (UK) writes:
18-07-2022 00:59

Thanks! - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Thank you for your prompt answer! I haven't found your email here, then tried contact you on facebook, propably wasn't you... :P


  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
18-07-2022 01:07

Contact me here - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

In most cases, this is the best place to contact me. Unless someone wants to write a private message, then my email can be found in the Game Help hut (with a sun on the roof) right next to your capital, and also in the end screen if you complete the game and want to comment.



Author: Artstyle (USA), 11-06-2022 03:41
Grandmaster Challenge Speedrun - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
First, Thank you for the map it was the most fun HoMM 4 I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
I played this map with different factions to see which could clear the map fastest, and this is my best run:

Finished with Life Faction Month 5 Week 4 Day 4. With optimized play and luck I think its possible to finish up to 2 weeks faster.

General Milestones:
Month 2 Week 4 Day 1 Defeat East Garrison
Month 3 Week 3 Day 2 Defeat Orange
Month 3 Week 4 Day 5 Defeat Teal
Month 4 Week 4 Day 7 Defeat Blue
Month 5 Week 3 Claim 4 island towns
Month 5 Week 4 Day 3 Take Midgard
* Major Advantage is extra move speed in the early game and a faction that only needs Angels to win final battle
* Let me know if you clear the map faster!

Start:
- Life Faction
- Melee Hero
- Gold pile near Windmill or Campfire

Month 1
Week 1
Day 1:
- Main Hero (MH) takes Town 1 (T1)
- MH flags Ore Mine

Day 2:
- MH flags Windmill and takes gold pile/ campfire
- Build Archery range T1
- Hire 7 Archers
- 5 Archers sent to green portal
- 1 Archer move down path towards Crystal Mine
- 1 Archer collects Ore move East

Day 3:
- MH Flags Sawmill, move towards Town 2 along path
- 3 Archers go green portal to south portal, then go northeast
- 2 Archers move west past tree of knowledge
- 1 Archer moves east to north goldmine
- 1 Archer takes both gold chests near labyrinth then move to crystal mine
- Build Abbey T1

Day 4
- 1 Archer takes 2 crystal near mine → Sacrifice
- 2 Archers continue west past tree of knowledge
- 2/3 Archers near south green portal go northwest towards mercenary camp
- 1 Archer scouts south gold mine
- Build Ballista Works T1, recruit 1 Ballista, use Ballista to recruit lord from Tavern, Move to green portal
- MH takes campfire near T2

Day 5
- MH flags 2nd Windmill near T2, continues southwest
- 1 Archer collects south gold mine → Sacrifice
- 1 Archer Positions east of Gem Mine
- 2 Archers collect artifacts Northwest and continue West
- 1 Archer collects campfire, continues West
- 1 Archer collects top resource near War University → Sacrifice
- Split Ballista and Lord and go through green portal, Ballista → East, Lord → South

Day 6
- MH continue Southwest to Apprentice Lab
- 1 Archer takes gold near top gold mill, continues East
- 1 Archer near MH takes campfire
- 2 Archers Northwest collect resource and gold chest, continue southwest
- Lord flags Imp Pit, continues Northwest
- Ballista through green portal east, continues west
- Build Monastery T1

Day 7
- MH continues to Apprentice Lab
- 1 Archer positions North of Trading Post
- 1 Archer takes gold chest near Dream Teacher → Sacrifice
- 1 Archer Northwest takes bottom gold pile → Sacrifice
- 1 Lord takes bottom resources near War University → Flee → Build Stables T1
- Lord continues to green portal
- Ballista continues west to Crystal pool picking up potion/artifact

Week 2
Day 1
- MH flags Apprentice Lab → attack neutral → flee
- Lord continue through east green portal continue to Leprechaun
- 1 Archer takes gold pile north of sacred temple → Sacrifice
- Ballista continues West

Day 2
- Lord positions near Leprechaun
- MH hires 6 Monks, 5 Archers, continue to T2
- Build Holy Cathedral Lv 1 T1
- Ballista continues West

Day 3
- Lord Flags Leprechaun continues West
- MH takes T2 (square formation with 5-1 stacks of Archers, Monks in the back)
- Build Town Hall in T2
- Ballista continues West

Day 4
- Lord → Quest Hut
- MH → T1
- Build town Hall T2

Day 5
- Lord Flags Crystal Pool → Flee to T1
- Ballista arrive Quest Hut
- MH Acquire Gold Bag
- Scouts of all resources complete at this point you can determine order of clearing the neutrals

Week 3
Day 2
- MH finishes quest acquires Equestrian Gloves
- Holy Cathedral Lv3
- Hire Mage
* From here experience may vary on how to clear depending on spells available and neutral spawn.
* Starting month 2 hire and train 4 more heroes for your main army for a total of 6 heroes, 1 of which should be a priest. I went for Mage (Order/Chaos) Mage (Order/Chaos), Mage (Order/Death), Priest (Life/Nature)
* Important spells: Town Portal, Precision(early on), Regenerate(early on), summon sprite(tactical), forgetfulness, blind(key for water elemental/ballista counter, Pathfinding(early before orange player).
* Spells for clearing island: Vampyric touch, Catlike Reflex, Prayer, Dragon Strength, Guardian Angel, Sanctuary
* Orange Player: use berserk to proc retaliate on Melee Hero and finish with Angel
* Teal Player: Kill imps before they steal Mana from Angel, Berserk/Blind on Devils
* Green Player: Town Portal home across the map after taking east teal town to make it castle before attack, monks on rampart will handle this.
* Blue Player: Take their town and have them attack into you, exorcism when they hypnotize
* After beating Blue player get rid of monks they slow you down
* With gloves and explorer boots + stable buff MH has 61 movement and no penalties
* Island can be cleared in 1 week by going counter clockwise starting with Chaos town and ending with Death town, this puts you near the coast to travel to red territory, with the move speed clear Red in 2 days.
* Top Tier Artifacts: Mind Shield, Ring of Permanence, Crown of Enchantment, Lv1 Spell book for Summon Ship
* Hire Lords for extra gold and run them around to Dream Teachers
* To save movement follow your Main army with the early lord to pickup resources, past the Red border my Main Army didn’t flag anything besides towns
* I have replays saved including Day 1 of the run in case you want to play through my run let me know!
Grandmaster Challenge Speedrun - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

  Razorockham (The Netherlands) writes:
11-06-2022 09:44

Great high scores - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Congr with your scores - 1 higher than mine. Searching for another challenge? Try map Druid, on this website. And read my message about my favorite 5 maps


  Artstyle (USA) writes:
18-06-2022 04:23

Grandmaster Challenge Speedrun 2 - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Finished Run Month 5 Week 2 Day 6

This run was more optimized throughout:
- Not clearing all neutrals in the starting section
- Not flagging with Main Hero (used lord)
- Maximizing stables move bonus

More hints:
- Units resurrected lose stables bonus
- After defeating green player get rid of monks (I may try at a later date to run without monks following
teal)
Further Optimization?
- For the island I usually get the orange key master tent to get the green speed crystal and tree of knowledge it may save a few days if this is skipped)
- A few times I waited a day to try and lure a player out of castle but ended up attacking castle anyway (May save 2 days)

All that said I think its possible to finish Month 5 Week 2 Day 1 Or even slightly faster

Grandmaster Challenge Speedrun 2 - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE



Author: Fv (Czech rep), 31-05-2022 11:11 Like
Search And order - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Hello,i played for order First..5 Heroes,4 had combat And 4 magic schools,1 had combat,tactics And 3 magic..titans +genies...38weeks,last battles with no loses after about 10 attemps.
Them played as death..5heroes Similar as above, Devils And vampires,28weeks, last Battle was more difficult,Lost all Devils(about 130),summon wenom Spawn+Dragon strenght+cat reflexes+ precision was very useful for killing Rage And Fury,them it was easy


Author: asdf, 22-02-2022 23:25
asdf - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
A few observations from beating this map (blind playthrough):

Played as Order, finished day 1 of month 8. With optimal play I think you could complete this much earlier than I did.

Since there's so much xp on the map this runs into the problem of hero spam being absolutely overpowered. Once you have 5 or 6 strong heroes going there's not much of a challenge left, making the late game mostly a grind. I only went with 5 heroes since genies and titans are both useful, however I'd definitely add a 6th hero if playing some of the other factions like Death.

The difficulty (like most heroes 4 maps) is very much frontloaded. You're not going to struggle much past month 2. The Order opponent was mildly annoying as he was fond of mass dispelling and hypnotizing, the others were pushovers.

Order seems to be a pretty overpowered starting faction here, genies being very strong in the early game and treasury saving me from the micro of having to make so many lords.

Just did the regular stuff in the early game, trying to get mines and genies asap. The free Life magic was actually useful due to Martyr preserving my Mages (RIP dwarves).

The advice at the start of the map seems a bit misplaced. Creature growth doesn't really make much of a difference in terms of difficulty, in fact I didn't ever recruit troops to my main army from the captured AI towns. I suppose if you're going with fewer heroes it might be relevant though.

Being a dumbass I left most of the trees of knowledge unused, thinking I'd go back to them later which I never did. My heroes were around lvl 43-45 before the last fight, but I'm guessing they could be 52+ if I focused on minmaxing xp instead of trying to finish the map. I left a pretty good portion of the monsters on the island untouched.


I see some talk on this page about thieves, but I never encountered any. Are they time gated?


My general tips for the map would be:

Prepare secondary heroes in advance to add to your army. That means running them through universities and such to get the base skills they want before you level them.

Master Order is good on some heroes, but try not to level it to Grandmaster (the useful GM spells are not available). Likewise, Chaos GM isn't very useful either, and Death as well (though Demonology GM is useful because of demon summoning). The good spells in these schools are at Master or Expert level.

The safe way is 2-3 heroes with GM Life, 2-3 with Master Order, 1-2 Master Chaos, rest fill in with Nature and Death for summoning.

It's also nice to eventually have 3 or so heroes with Tactics if you want to maximize defense / offense / morale / luck from artifacts. But don't sweat it.

  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
26-03-2022 14:04

If the challenge is too easy... - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Suggestions for very good players who find the challenge too easy:

Sugestion 1: PLAY THE ENTIRE MAP WITH NO MORE THAN 2 HEROES IN YOUR ARMY! It's doable, but you will need to think a lot more about your decisions and your strategy. You will also need to rely more on your army, and less on manipulation with magic.

Suggestion 2: CLEAR THE ENTIRE MAP, AND COMPLETE ALL THE QUESTS! (Get all the Relics and Major Artifacts). There is more than enough time as long as you're efficient.

Suggestion 3: NO CHEESING, LIKE DRAINING THE MANA OF ENEMY HEROES BEFORE BATTLE! It is not necessary for players at any level to do so. Outsmart them in an honest battle instead. And never save in the middle of a battle, save before instead (there's a save bug in the game that could be exploited).

Try to set these rules for yourself, and you will probably find the experience more enjoyable. Good luck!



Author: Andrea (Vicenza, Italy), 16-08-2021 23:02 Like
Fun challenge - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Finished the map as Might in 227 days, with a score of 1263. I decided to attempt the map as Might because you claimed it to be the 2nd hardest faction, plus I didn't see anyone commenting about it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite a difficult early game. I didn't use Equilibris, I think the mod makes the map a tad easier.

Tactics (and spoilers) ahead:

The lack of early resources forced me to build 2 tanky heroes at first, then I got a 3rd hero and a 4th one, which I believe were more than enough. I did some mistakes too, such as developing order magic quite late (I couldn't get mass slow, key spell vs orange). I had a might hero, a life hero, an order hero and a nature hero; I only taught tactics to the main hero while completing life magic to then go for order magic. My life hero mainly had level 1 spells (chaos and death) to begin with and level 2 nature spells (such as giant strenght and quicksand); eventually reaching GM death magic (which was kinda useless, since vampiric touch in non-equilibris is unlocked at master) and GM life magic. The order hero was crucial because he allowed me to "abuse" town gate for fast travelling plus some other crowd control spells (actually I almost never used berserk). The nature hero was my key to buff my behemots and cyclops (GM nature and chaos). My idea was to either deal with undead/mechanical/elemental creatures with cyclops, shielded by either 3 heroes with full magic resistence who crowd control the enemies, or shielded by behemoths while they deal decent damage to troops who are far away. In fact, behemots are STRONG melee troops andd body guards.

I am a bit ashamed by the fact that I had to deal with Orange (just him, I swear :D) by draining their mage's mana, since, no matter what I tried, he kept using armageddon which severely hurt my troops (and not fully developed heroes). Green, Teal, Blue and Neutral heroes were no issue whatsoever, since I was able to keep up with their armies... all except the nature neutral hero, I had to cheese him with Town Gate once, after killing all of his sprites.
Actually... Red was really easy and I immediately rushed him after capturing the 4 neutral cities (black dragons are easy if you cast martyr on behemots) and building some defence against those damn 7-thief hero armies. I created a backup before the whirpool and to my surprise I won shortly after killing Old Erik, all I did was crowd control the cyclops and use mass slow... which for some reason induces the AI to not attack with their troops and just defend as my buffed cyclops kill the heroes to then leave the rest of the army to be destroyed by my 149 behemoths.

Beautiful challenge, Erlend. However, I would probably have put 3 or more heroes in the last two towns. Heroes are much harder to take down than creatures. Also, I don't think I completed any quest since they never felt useful (I don't even know what key items they even give, I tried to not peek in the editor), I just tried to rush to the end before the heroes got too strong.. and they didn't. Also, I found the Grail which ended up being a waste of a week of time, the Robe of the Guardian is amazing but it had no real use in the last fight I believe. I never visited the underground either. I suppose all those quests (and the imprisoned hero that I found in the editor) are for those who want to enjoy exploring and gearing up to the max.

Money has never been an issue after Orange, since I kept recruiting lords and leveling them up to 5 for Master Estates and then hiding them in resource generators.

Orange heroes beaten by the beginning of Month 4. A result I'm not proud of.
Teal heroes beaten by the end of Month 4.
Green heroes beaten by the start of Month 5 Week 3.
Blue heroes beaten by the start of Month 6 Week 3.
By Month 7 Week 3 I was in the middle.
I got all neutral towns by Month 8 Week 3.
Red beaten by Month 9, Week 1, Day 4.
(for more strategies feel free to send me a message on discord at Soft#6801).

I will for sure try again this challenge in the future as Life. I hope you'll eventually make a sequel :D

  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
17-08-2021 13:42

Hi - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Thanks for the thorough walkthrough, Andrea. The reason there are only 2 heroes in the final town Valhalla, is that if there were more, all of them would be placed on the towers. That would leave no free spot for the Cyclopes, and there would be no immediate offensive threat to the human player, which would change the whole dynamic of the last battle.

But I made a mistake in that I didn't anticipate anyone would reach Valhalla in less than a year. As a consequence, Rage and Fury, and to some extent Old Erik, are weaker than they should be that early in the game (you were very quick, I can see).

I don't have the time needed to make a sequel, but I might balance this better and fix some other stuff I would like to redesign or improve, in a future update.

The 7 minor quests, plus the underground treasure of the Knight's Templar, give 3 to 4 Major Artifacts or Relics each that are unique to the quests. Also, all 6 Neutral (grey) heroes roaming around Zanfas' Island carry 1 Relic each.



Author: Blabla (Hungary), 28-07-2021 17:49
Really good time spent on this map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I loved playing this map! Whatever map I was playing before, there was no challenge after a while since my army grew up such big that no opponent army had any chance. However on this map in every phase of the game I faced a well-balanced challenges. I needed to think and plan ahead, but always there were new surprises. Even though the map is exciting and difficult, it is far not impossible as I could win it with the first try. I really recommend this map to anyone who likes challenges, likes huge battles and a long map!

Spoiler alert!

I really liked the idea of the "revolting". This way my economy was never infinite, I had to carefully plan what to spend on and keep some savings to avoid any revolution. I also really liked to "chain reaction" (when I occupied an enemy castle, the other enemy declared war on me and attacked). This made it very exciting in the middle-game.

The balancing was outstanding. I could manage to buy everything I needed, but not more. Also, I could every time avoid any revolution, but sometimes I needed to really save up some resources to do so. So the calculation was very well done in the planning of the map (i.e. how much should a castle "cost" to make it challenging but not impossible). Same applies to enemy army sizes. They were always defeatable, but never very obvious.

I dont see why the life alignment is told to be the most difficult. I played with life and the most challenging part was the death army in the middle game as my heroes were not strong enough, and the enemy had like 250 devils with life ward... but still, I could solve the puzzle and took it down. After that I went with 5 heroes, champions and monks and even the last battle was quite friendly.

I also really liked the thieves, it was an excellent idea! I needed to manage some defense in my castles otherwise they can take them for free. This was kind of a challenge that I did not expect and really liked! I really needed to think about my economy a few times.

The large supply of artifacts and relics are also very nice. I always missed these objects from normal maps. If the game has strong artifacts, relics etc, why do they never appear in any map really?

One last recommendation: the last battle was exciting as the 2 heroes were very well equipped with artifacts and also very strong. However, it could have been even more interesting if we forget about the level 1-2-3 creatures and if I have to face a main enemy army consists of e.g. 4-5 heroes, and only strongest creatures (like mine).

Overall I loved playing this map, I had a really good time! Huge thanks to Erlend, very nice job!

  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
28-07-2021 18:01

Cool! - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Thanks a lot, Blabla! :-)

The reason Life is considered more difficult is simple because you get fewer Life towns (3) and can hire fewer creatures. Chaos, Death, Nature and order get 5 towns.


  Blabla (Hungary) writes:
31-10-2021 18:16

Played it again, enjoyed again! - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

I played the whole map again with the challenge that my army should only consists of heroes. This made the map totally different and even more challenging in some aspects (and made it easier in some others)

I have to admit in my own territory I needed to use creatures as my heroes were too weak yet. Also as I recall to defeat the first enemy I still brought one creature (genies I think). I was order alignment but since I went through the 95% of the map only with heroes, it didnt really matter.

Differences:
- economy was much easier to manage since I didnt really need to buy any more creature than necessary to defend my castles from the thieves.
- Battles were more difficult even against neutral armies because (obviously) the damage output of my army was very small. Initially I wanted to make 3-4 tank heroes who can fight directly but it turned out that even lvl1 creatures can one-hit take them down if the number is large enough.. so I changed the strategy and usually I slowed down enemy units, summoned a lot of lvl4 or lvl5 creature and fought with them. This also made the battles to be much longer
- I couldnt really lose any battle though given that my whole army could be resurrected with divine intervention

In the first part of the game my heroes were still quite weak, I could usually only win the battles in 1-2 particular ways. However after mid-game my heroes became so tanky that I could very easily beat any army. Even the neutral armies with heroes were super-easy. Usually I decided not to use berserk spell, and it was still easy. When difficult army came I used the "summon devils to summon ice demons" trick.

I wanted to maximize everything so I defeated every army and collected everything on the map. I needed to wait ~3-4 months until I collected 1000 centaurs for a quest (in the might territory) :D but it was also my intention to maximize the power of red player to make the last battle as epic as it can be, so I played the last battle around 2yr4months

Finally the last battle was unexpectedly difficult. I needed to try multiple times because the enemy heroes and cyclops were able to take down multiple heroes in one round so divine interventions were almost not enough. I needed to gain time until the enemy heroes run out of shots... :D then I started to summon devils and use them so summon ice demons and at the end of the battle I had like 6k summoned ice demons and they could take down everything.



Author: Simon (Bulgaria), 11-03-2021 15:32
Quetion about map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I think map is the best but have one question about set wich allow you to cast spells on enemy hero wich have 100% magic resistance.When i play i find all set items exept one staff of disruption i think was her name.My question is this staff exist on map att all or didn't

  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
13-03-2021 12:19

Regarding Relics - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

I tried to make as many Relics as possible available on the map: Besides most of the one-of-a-kind ones, there are 5 complete sets that exist in Heroes 4, and all of them can be found on the map, except one item, the Staff Of Disruption (the one you asked about). The reason is that the complete 5-piece Wizard's set gives too much of a benefit. Like you said, you can bypass all magic resistance if you have all 5 pieces, which is too strong and takes away a lot of the tactical challenge of the map.

Most of the powerful artifacts and Relics can be acquired from solving the 7 minor Quests on the map, so do try to get them all. Some are carried by enemy heroes, and finally there's the treasure of the Knight's Templar, which is hidden in the secret tunnel under Dragon Isle in the center of the map.



Author: Bobur (Uzbekistan), 02-02-2021 22:24 Like
The toughest map II - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
So I completed the map again, now with Life side, and the most fun part is that I played with 7-hero army. I conquered the Orange with 3 heroes and Angels, then I hired 3 more heroes. I think after or before defeating the Blue player included another hero instead of Angels, and here all the fun began! Most of my heroes were Grandmaster Life Mages so dying was not an option. Divine Intervention and Sanctuary spells made sure none of my heroes ever have got killed after battles. Almost all my heroes had all their necessary spells and skills pretty quickly - I didn't feel the experience drought at all. Those side quests and rewards for killing "bosses" made sure that I didn't have any underleveled weak hero. Throughout the game "The Pathetic Boy" was my puncher. But during the Valhalla battle used Summoning Devils tactic. Heroes summoned Devils, every hero cast "Martyr" on themselves so that all the damage transferred to Demons, a hero also cast Guardian Angel whenever Devils started dying, fully upgraded Devils and Ice Demons killed Rage and Fury, then my army made short work of the remaining enemies. It was fun but most of the map felt too easy. 7 heroes with 4 magic schools each is an unstoppable army (one had 3 schools because she was also a Tactician). Maybe now I'll try the Valhalla battle without summoning Devils? That must be a challenge


Author: Vendetta (France), 25-01-2021 22:44
To players, about this map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I see many comments crying and complaining about this map for several reasons.

PLAY THE MAP, it's a good challenge, don't listen to the crying ones, it's nowhere close to impossible and it doesn't require glitches or anything to be completed. So far every one i saw complaining were people who didn't make it past like 10% of the map. They are just bad players whose ego doesn't let them admit it so they try to rationalise thinking it's the world's fault. If you can't reach at least zanfa island, just humble yourself and train by playing easier maps or watching guides or w/e you need.

Thanks to the autor fun this fun challenge, i'd happily play other ones !


Author: notme, 13-01-2021 01:30
QQ - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Honestly, there are so much wrong about this map. Terrain is terrible, consuming most movement. Then there is no pathinding spell, no pathinding, enemy does rebellion - so you walk like an idiot left and right retaking, what you already taken several times. You cant fight enemy economy, because there is no point, enemy gets massive armies for free, so every rebellion he retakes several zones.


Author: Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway), 06-01-2021 00:00
Not a bug - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Congrats on completing the map Eranikus!

Regarding the last battle, it's not a bug and you didn't do anything wrong. It's a calculated and desired effect. If you right click on any enemy during a battle, you will see all spells, wards and immunities that are currently in effect. Notice that the enemies are immune to certain types of spells, but not ALL spells. There's a very good reason for that, and if you take a closer look at the artifacts you capture after the battle is won, you will understand why. Artifacts have no effect when the hero wearing them is knocked down, which explains why spells sometimes work and sometimes not.


Author: Eranikus (Vinnytsia, Ukraine), 05-01-2021 21:54 Like
I wish there were more maps like this - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Finished the map at 13m 4w 1d, difficulty champion, mobile guards, on the first try. It was indeed the most difficult map, but even after passing it, I do not consider myself a master in heroes 4, as I know very little about the details of the mechanics of this game.

When I first met the orange computer hero, he was actually killing me in the first round, and I was already prepared for the fact that I would have to start from the very beginning in order to better prepare specifically for this opponent. But I still decided to make several attempts, I managed to organize a battle with him when I was in the town, and I managed to defeat him, surprisingly. After this victory, I realized that there are always chances.

I played for my favorite nature in 3 heroes (2 archmages and 1 general with order magic). The creatures with me were mantises, elves, and a few fairy dragons for confusion. When I was about to go to the last computer, I accidentally forgot to take the elves with me, and I fought Old Eric and the final battle without them.

Old Eric was one of the easiest enemies, has beaten him from first attempt.

The final battle was really the hardest battle, I had 3 heroes, 96 mantises and 5 fairy dragons. I spent 2 hours and managed to win, mainly due to the berserk on the Cyclops. A very large influence of randomness in this battle, and also, for reasons I do not understand, I could not cast disables on the enemy (cyclops on the tower, I try to cast confusion or berserk, but I cannot, like this is a hero with full immunity from magic) , and sometimes I could, after a reload, are these bugs or did I do something wrong? And here the point is definitely not in the wards, they reflect the spell, and here I could not even direct the spell.

Later I will try to beat this map for life alignment. Thank you for a great time!

  Eranikus (Vinnytsia, Ukraine) writes:
06-01-2021 02:23

No, it's rather a bug - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

I'm talking about the first round, all enemy heroes are alive. I attack the city, and it's my fairy dragon turn, I try to cast confusion on the cyclops that on the tower but the cursor is showed with red circle crossed, can't cast. But if I make a save at this point, reload and try again - now it works. I remember during the walkthrough my General hero could not buff elves with precision and could not berserk enemies while my mage did it successfully. Winds of War 3.0


  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
06-01-2021 12:33

Yes, it is a bug - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

You are right Eranikus. It is a bug within the game. All the spells you mention (Berserk, Confusion, Precision) are mind spells (spells that affect the mind), the same goes for Forgetfulness and a few more.

The enemies are wearing a Mind Shield (a type of hat). You should not be able to cast any mind spells as long as they are alive, your cursor should ALWAYS be crossed out like you describe. As it turns out, however, if someone saves during the battle, and then reloads a battle in progress, then the Mind Shield no longer works! It is clearly a bug and there's no way to remedy it, as it is hard coded into the game.

My best advice is this: If you want to play a honest and challenging battle the way it was intended, don't save during a battle, play it through in one go. Save before and after the battle instead.


  Eranikus (Vinnytsia, Ukraine) writes:
08-01-2021 17:58

I did it! - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

After of nine hours of infinite tries I managed to win the battle for Valhalla, without any bugs and reloads. I think I will upload this battle on youtube a bit later)


  Erlend (MAP CREATOR) (Rælingen, Norway) writes:
08-01-2021 18:17

Please tell - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Wow! Your persistence is admirable. Please notify me if you upload to Youtube, it would be fun to watch.


  Eranikus (Vinnytsia, Ukraine) writes:
10-01-2021 00:40

Final battle video - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=P8sjvjFTbCA (Remove one space)



Author: Alexander (Japan), 30-12-2020 19:10 Like
Great job! - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Great map, took several nights and two attempts to handle. Captured Valhalla and month 13


Author: Bobur (Uzbekistan), 29-12-2020 16:20 Like
The toughest map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Hello author. A good map. Despite being handicapped throughout the whole scenario I finally managed to beat the map. First about my strategies:
1. I didn't use any kinds of cheese tactics. I had 3 heroes: All of them Demonologists. During the final battle each one had a specific role: my 1st and 2nd heroes kept casting Mass Unfortune to keep the enemy heroes busy with casting Mass Exorcism. My 3rd hero continuously summoned 32 Demons every turn, who in turn kept summoning Ice Demons every turn non-stop. I used the exploit which refreshes Demons' mana points every time they are summoned. So when I had 700+ Demons I also had some 2800+ Ice Demons and those Ice Demons quickly made short work of the enemy heroes. As for the cyclops I cast Sanctury at the beginning of the battle and took my 3 heroes out so the cyclops would waste all their arrows (or rocks) on them. It worked like a charm because of the 2 guardian robes on them.
2. About funds. I continuously hired Nobility heroes. Whenever I had a group of 7 of them I took them to places to raise their lvl and Nobility. When they had Estates-4 I put them inside a mine and gathered another group of 7 Noble heroes. 1 army of 7 Nobel heroes generate 2800+lvl+10% gold each day so I ran out of gold only once and I'm going to talk about it later.
3. About losing towns to enemies. I didn't lose a single town to an enemy because I never conquered them until I dealt with the 2 heroes. I would catch them by surprise or lure them to me. I only conquered a town when 1) enemy heroes are dead; 2) I visited all buildings and completed all quests in the area. This way I was able to gallop to my other towns in the opposite side of the map in full speed. Despite this and what I said earlier I may have lost the yellow town once and quickly reconquered it.
Now my thoughts: I know you won't edit the map now but I think you didn't have to disable the Thief skillset. I think you didn't want us to raise exp from those neutral armies in Zanfas' island but by the time I reached the island my heroes were pretty much high in lvl anyway. But I can understand why you disabled the Nobility skillset - to prevent us from gathering 1.5 times more armies from each town.
P.S. I almost forgot: before the Valhalla battle all my heroes drank about 40 mana potions each so they had 1000+ mana points each.
Thank you for this amazing map. I had almost given up hope when I read here others telling stories about how they finished the map without using cheese tactics. So thank you too dear users. Cheers

  Bobur (Uzbekistan) writes:
29-12-2020 16:27

The toughest map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Oh I forgot how I dealt with those sneaky thieves: well, I didn't. Since i had enough gold to keep each of my towns with considerable amount of army they didn't dare attack. Of course they posed as a small discomfort stealing my mines and attacking my 7 Noble heroes, but other than that they didn't cause me much trouble.


  Bobur (Uzbekistan) writes:
29-12-2020 17:17

The toughest map - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Oh i forgot one more thing. I have to admit that before I started the scenario I used cheats to check availability of Sanctuary spell, without which I just couldn't have completed the map. I also checked the secondary skill libraries to know if they'd give me necessary enhancements.



Author: Logic (UK), 22-05-2020 00:22
Crap - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
Completly unpleyable crap. I tried until i meet orange player. Same level hero as mine -25... but hey so what, if AI hero by 1 hit can kill 20 black dragons or by chain light kill my hero in first move. Balanced? No, its unpleyable. Every battle - 1st hit, hero is dead = end of game. What idiot create something like that?

  Vendetta writes:
25-01-2021 22:38

You're bad and toxic - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Title says it all. Instead of playing the map (which isn't impossible in any shape of form, completed even tho i just started HoMM4 after playing only HoMM3 custom maps) you just cry and insult, you've nothing to do in this community.



Author: Prawigya (India), 22-04-2020 13:54
Finished the game, it was very challenging - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
First of all I want to say that the map is great. It was challenging and hard and I had to use all the tactics in the book to conquer the town of Valhalla. I finished the game by playing death alignment in champion mode, mobile guards in 17 months in game time.
My army consisted of 4 heroes (45,44,45,44); 3 of which were archmages and one was a general with grandmaster life magic.
My main army consisted of the four heroes and 242 devils. I tried adding hydras and titans into the team but later realised that the devils were effective enough to take down any army once they were set up. Also the hydras and titans added negative morale to the army, which I found later is crucial in some battles.
I finished the map in two tries. In the first try I just used the one hero (whose naming I don't endorse); but couldn't get past the orange army since I'd opened the gate too soon. Then I tried a second time with 4 heroes and it was more manageable.
I had to adopt very weird tactics at some points. I had to defeat a legion of water and air elementals guarding the shipyard. I did so by setting up the devil with three heroes (dragon strength, cat reflexes, guardian angel or vampiric touch), striking them once, and using town gate with the fourth hero to teleport to town to do the same again and again.
The strategy for attacking the other players was to wait till their heroes exited town and attack them on land. Attacking them in their castles would only reduce chances of winning, or cause greater casualties. I did the same for Old Eric.
In the final battle all I had to do was cast displacement on the cyclops and let the devil loose. Of course there was more than that (casting exorcism time and again on the devil to remove hypnotize, constantly setting up the blessings that would be dispelled, and a lot of divine interventions. Luckily for me the behemoth's movement was blocked by the harpies who would always return to the same position so I got some time to finish the rest of the army first. The two heroes Rage and Fury were level 43 with 780 hit points each so they were easy to slay. I tried to do the town gate tactics to kill off a some troops but they kept respawning so I got bored decided to finish the game once and for all.

Overall I had a lot of fun playing the game. I was disheartened a bit by the restrictions and the unfair advantages- the enemy can cast hypnotize and mass dispel, there was no resurrection or dragon strength spell in any town (it could be my luck I don't know), the town revolts and their taxes- but it was all manageable at the end of the day.
I can clearly see the amount of hours and hardwork the creator must have put in to make this map. The restrictions and bans that have been put in the map are just the way they wanted the map to be played. I don't understand why there is so much hate and aggression towards the creator. If you don't like the game mechanics you can simply say that but calling the creator names is just childish. I can understand the map not convenient and there is a certain way to play it so one might get frustrated (I for one was very frustrated at times, I had to replay so many battles and saves), so you may lash out but the creator has also done an extremely good job.

With that note I say cheers to the creator. It was the first time I had played against such high level heroes and against such hordes of armies, I faced armies upto 70000 strong. I'd never imagined I could win battles like those but I did, and that gave me new perspective to the game i.e. to basically understand how broken the AI is and how you can take advantage of that and call it "tactics"; but that's what makes heroes 4 great and horrible at the same time, isn't it?

  Prawigya (India) writes:
22-04-2020 13:55

Follow up image - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

Final battle

Follow up image - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE


  Prawigya (India) writes:
22-04-2020 13:58

lol - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE

The picture got reversed when uploading you can save it and view it if you want



Author: Derakusa (Estonia), 16-03-2020 16:19
This map is too hard - A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE
I think the idea here is interesting, but the execution is poor. Of course for players that actually use cheesing all the time instead of actually playing the game this can be fun. Personally I dont see the reason why should I use my one stacks before every battle to drain out the mana for boss fights. AI has been given really OP heroes. For the final red fight it's fine, but this is not the hardest part in the game. The hardest part is the midgame when you capture somebody's castle and then some others start coming for you and put you to the 2 sided war with no money when you have only one hero bunch that can defeat them after draining out their mana. Moving there and back basically.
Also I dont see the reason of the tips for 50k. Who would pay this when they have towns to pay for and army to buy? These quest things next to your town actually all sucked because with even 1 missclick, you would lose shit. You need these tips at start when you have no money. And reading these at start would make all these first long messages even longer and time consuming. You can't remember them all.
Moving around the map is restricted and moving was the one thing which actually made the map fun in the first place. Why can't I go to the island after I defeat orange?
Furthermore I don't understand why you have banned some of few developments like you have the places that give you 3 attack, but does it matter really? I don't need this at all. However I develop my hero, the AI heroes would be always much stronger than mine. I know its part of "give challenge" thing, but please, I need to feel like buffing my hero has at least some use. Enemy heroes should be equal maybe? I don't know anymore. I just don't like the fact that I am always handicapped when playing this.
Challenge can be different than just pure cheesing in my opinion if you know what I am saying. But the idea of making the harder game than usual overall is pretty nice. I liked the start a lot, but AI is much stronger than you and reminds me the older games where they made AI basically to cheat to pose some challenge to human players.


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A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE walkthrough

SPECIAL FEATURES OF "A GRANDMASTER'S CHALLENGE":

* Artificially enhanced, super-strong computer heroes, up to a maximum of Level 70.
* Super-sized armies, potentially reaching numbers exceeding 100.000 strong.
* More than a dozen major battles to be fought.
* Lots of Relics and special artifacts to be discovered.
* Experience awarded for completing quests and for major achievements.
* Different objectives and rewards depending on which alignment you play (you always play as Purple Player, but you are free to choose alignment).
* Depending on your choice, some important computer heroes may adapt by automatically equipping different artifacts in response, like Armor or Shields of the opposite alignment to you, ensuring that they and their army always have a permanent Ward against your troops and spells.
* Neutral (Gray) heroes roam freely around the central island, capable of capturing towns and mines, while automatically generating troops for their armies every turn.
* Optional in-game help (for a price) and cheat (renouncing any claim to victory).
* Option to continue the game after the time limit has expired (renouncing any claim to victory).
* Shops. Well, sort of. More of a convenience to keep your inventory tidy than a way to make a fortune, really. The shop keeper isn't very bright, he will buy all your crappy stuff, in bulk.
* Upkeep: Captured enemy towns demand resources to stay loyal to you, with a chance for rebellion in favour of their original owner. This way, previously eliminated Players may re-emerge!
* Collaboration: If a computer Player liberates a town or mine originally belonging to another member of the computer Alliance, they won't keep it for themselves, but will give it back to its original owner instead. This is another way that previously eliminated Players may re-emerge!
* Strategic warfare: At some point, if the war goes badly for the computer, it may begin to fight dirty, and attack you in unconventional and cowardly ways rather than using brute force.
* Automatic hero improvement: After a certain time, when the warning message is given, the elite heroes of your main computer opponent will start to increase their attributes rapidly, with different countdown timers for their Defense, Attack, Spell Points, Speed and Level. If you take to long, you may have to face unbelievably strong heroes!

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