Every hundred years a group of Vampire Hunters are selected to hunt down Dracula who rescurected from the death. Dracula has hid himself in a castle and is regaining his strength. His lackeys are helping him, destroy him before 5 months have passed and he becomes to powerful.
Author: JB (France), 23-06-2019 09:41 Vampire Slayer - Castle Dracula Great Map! Dracula and his minions were a very nice challenge! I played it in expert and kill every AI. The Last fight was very very difficult and interesting. Thank you for this awesome map!
Author: Moshe (Modiin, Israel), 06-06-2017 10:59 Like Very Impressive map. - Castle Dracula Armor of damned + several phoenixes + berserq expert, Dracula will destroy his army himself, then surrender (did that 3 times until almost all army of Dracula was destroyed. Now attack with all forces. Very impressive map. The Rating 10 (the best). Thanks Mark.
Author: Moshe (Modiin, Israel), 24-05-2017 18:11 Like Invalid map file version = 32 - Castle Dracula May be download file is corrupted???
Moshe (Modiin, Israel) writes:
31-05-2017 18:16
It is Hota 1.4.2 - Castle Dracula
Download file is OK. It's HotA 1.4.2
Author: Joakim Pettersson (Sweden Karlshamn), 31-03-2017 20:11 Castle Dracula - Castle Dracula My favorite map among all maps. Hope you will make more like this one! Thank you for your devotion!
Author: Sofla (Greece), 24-10-2016 18:35 I didn’t expect much by the looks, but nice map! - Castle Dracula I didn’t know what to expect but it was a nice surprise. It really is a race against the clock. You need to make decisions. But what I like is that there are multiple ways for the map. I played the map twice, once I attacked all the other AI ‘players’ as quickly as possible to use their castles as reinforcements and eventually won the game (although I had to reload some fights). And the second time I saved all the human soldiers on the snow areas and freed the heroes and used them to snowball the AI players and finally saved up for the final boss which is a nice fight.
For fun I tried to play the map on easy, it took so long before the AI opened their border gates that I doubt that’s a good way to conserve the players from each other for some time, but in tougher difficulties I see how that opens new strategies. Also thank you Homura for the hints and advice you gave below.
Homura writes:
20-12-2016 10:56
Re - Castle Dracula
Even this is late, I'm glad that helped you ^^
Author: Kyrian, 23-04-2016 02:06 Is it even possible? - Castle Dracula Is it even possible to beat the map? If I try to save up an army the time expires. I could try it on easy I guess but I never play a map more easy then hard :/. I know some advice has been given in the comments already but someone can help me a bit more with advice like a viable strategy, where to go the first weeks, which areas have priority? thanks in advance
Homura writes:
05-05-2016 04:14
Re (part 1): - Castle Dracula
I suggest you playing as Blue. Pink usually first comes to the upper ground through the subterranean close to Blue's starting area, so then you can try to get rid of its main hero at the start of month 2. In order to defeat its main hero (preferably trap him in a town so he can't retreat) that early, you need to build your town (including mage guild) ASAP, and also try your best to quickly increase your main hero's level and stats to match Pink's main hero.
Homura writes:
05-05-2016 04:21
Re (part 2): - Castle Dracula
Then speaking about hero, you can try playing by using one of the Intelligence heroes, who can give you big advantages in terms of casting spells. I hope this can help you!
Author: Homura, 06-02-2016 08:36 Like Just come back to give this map a 10 pt - Castle Dracula This is one of the maps you would like to play more than once.
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
12-02-2016 18:59
appreciated - Castle Dracula
I appreciate that a lot, thanks :).
Did you by any chance find similair maps you can recommend?
Homura writes:
15-02-2016 04:08
Re - Castle Dracula
You have seen the comments I left almost one year ago. That time I "cheated" with Armageddon. Since then I've wanted to try playing this map another time, but just didn't like to face those anti-magic garrisons again. One week ago I eventually beat it normally with two or three reloads. More importantly, I found there is a way to possibly defeat Pink almost every time; that is, when Death came to the up-ground with medium amount of troops but already really good stats at the start of month 2, try catching him in a town. After eliminating Death and capturing all his artifacts, then the only thing Pink has left is lots of troops on a relatively poor hero. That's the time to completely get rid of Pink. I don't like custom maps that requires tons of reloads/saves to playthrough, so I was glad to find out that this is one of the maps that not only has good design but can be finished in one smooth game play! Then, I came to give it a 10 pts x)
Homura writes:
15-02-2016 04:23
Re - Castle Dracula
You may have already played all the maps I like, but well I'll still name a few here. 1. Kurgadako's Apocalypse: a fun custom map to play but is not that challenging since the size is XL. 2. Challenge extra: haha I'll say this one is harder than Castle Dracula! 3. Pestilence Lake: this classic official map. I think it's always a fun to see how fast you can beat it in one game play (when you're bored :)
Author: homm3r, 07-12-2015 00:59 This map is good but think of the... - Castle Dracula Great map but, i hate those puzzles that fit for pro players only.
How do i get to kill that shaft?
How do i get past that border that wont let me pass unless i kill that mistress(forgot the name)
Some areas seems unaccessible even at the time i can go for dracula castle..
P.S. i really hoped i have read this tip in here(choose same castle) if you need it easier.
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
10-12-2015 20:08
Shaft & Fiona - Castle Dracula
Hello, glad to hear you liked the map.
Shaft and Fiona are two enemies that will show up if you wait to long before engaging Dracula. It is possible to win the map before meeting them. But if you play safe and gather a lot of troops for the final battle there is a solid chance that they will surprise you (thus making it harder to just sit back and save up troops).
Hope this helped!
Author: Paulo (Netherlands), 01-11-2015 20:01 Cervesa - Castle Dracula I enjoyed the map but I don't see the reason why this map is for Horn of the Abyss only.
I tried the map twice, first time I guess I did wait to long and let the computers free the imprisoned heroes. After that I restarted.
This time something stupid did happen. I met pink his strongest hero with a silly small army, I destroyed him before he could flee and therefor pink was not much of a challenge. Teal is a nice surprise, but to scale better in the game I think you could make their armies a bit bigger or the heroes stronger (they have decent stats, but still much lower then your main hero if you collect all stat boosters on the map.
Dracula could also get a bit more attack and defence skill point in my opinion.
Thanks for the map! Can recommend it as a nice challenge and somewhat unique map
Author: Lemming (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 27-07-2015 14:03 Like Loved it - Castle Dracula Loved the difficulty and the theme of the map!
However consider banning Armageddon, it is too powerfull here :)
Author: DragonKnight (London, UK), 01-07-2015 23:31 enjoyable I like maps with a story that are not enormous and this one fits fine. Also decent replayability because you can play as multiple towns from various (but sadly similair) locations. Thanks anyway!
For some reason i don't receive confirmation by email. Thanks for your response anyway!
Author: Homura, 31-05-2015 09:18 Interesting to play Hi Mark, nice work. I played it twice. I played as stronghold in my first try. I wanted to get rid of Pink ASAP at the time, but Pink was already really strong in the middle of month 2. That garrison with over 200 dread knights pissed me off, making me not able to conquer all 3 Pink's towns at once. Then, I gave up. There was only one stronghold town.
I played my second time yesterday. I played "nastily" this time. Malekith + Black dragon + Armageddon was the strategy. After conquering Pink, the victory was almost assured. Armageddon surpassed the map.
I usually don't like to play heroes with sorcery specialty because I always feel that's not true victory. But my problem with the map is those "no magic allowed" garrisons before Pink. In my opinion, that killed some certain strategies (or made them really hard) to get rid of Pink in a relatively short time (instead of using Armageddon against its main hero).
Have you ever thought banning Armageddon but making magic possible at those Pink garrisons to probably make the map more interesting/strategy -oriented? Thanks for reading this. Nice map overall.
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
09-06-2015 22:00
Re: Interesting to play
Hi Homura,
Thank you for your time to write a review, I always like receiving some feedback.
Concerning your first game. Your starting town always should contain a same type of town in the map (Either in one of the desert areas or swamp areas underground). This is made so in the editor so if this did not happen, something weird happened (do you perhaps have a save game of it remaining?)
In response to your second game, I understand your concern, those garrisons make it quite hard and I did them in the first place to deny some sneaky tactics (like armegeddon and abusing force field). You might be right that getting rid of armagedon and make those garrions not anti magic is better, I'll experiment with that (but I think I leave those garrions near Castle Dracula like they are).
Once again thanks for your constructive feedback and appreciation!
Kind regards,
Mark
Author: Leon (Berlin), 11-05-2015 21:13 advice please? I tried the map a few times but around month 3 pinks shows up with enormous armies and insane stats on one of his heroes (often Death). How do I stop him? I claimed most of the castles on the surface by that time and even freeing one of the vampire hunters does not help. Any advice? Thanks in advance!
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
23-05-2015 19:09
reply: some advice
You need to conquer the surface ASAP and dont allow pink to enter one of the 4 starting areas on the surface. This will boost pink a lot and eventualy might grow too powerful. I also advice claiming whats in the middle (snow and swamp areas) asap, you can find a lot of treasures, artifacts and reinforcements there. Goodluck :)
Author: Gordan, 29-03-2015 05:15 Interesting map indeed! Agreeing a lot with Horgh that posted down here.
The map says: no rushing: but you got to act quick before the enemy grows too strong. I personaly have HOTA and HD+ addons, so no castle faction could be chosen
Some tips regarding the map:
When entering the middle areas (snow + swamp) make sure u got a slot free for reinforcements that join you. focus on freeing the heroes in the prisons in the underground. defeat the hero on your5 side (either left or right) asap!
Tough map, but events make it unpredictable, challenging, and fun! :)
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
26-04-2015 13:58
thanks
Thank you for the positive reply :)
Author: Horgh (Himeji, Japan), 15-03-2015 07:52 Interesting Interesting map. Although the "no rushing" part may lead some players into thinking they can take their time, various timed events boost the opposition and force human players to hurry up and dispatch the others so they can build up for the final challenge at Castle Dracula.
The map has a Castle town bias, possibly due to the theme of Dracula. A Castle town player has an immediate advantage over all others and you'll soon see why. Castle troops are handed to you on a silver platter on more than one occasion and you are guaranteed a handful of creature dwellings of that type.
Choosing the opposition's town type isn't a bad idea as having only two or three towns with the same troop types may lead to a lengthier building up process and you might run out of time.
Also, the random troop dwellings on your starting quadrant are truly random (maybe due to HotA or HD patch) while the CPU gets troop generators of their faction in their quadrant.
Some of the "secrets" in the underground are timed events and you may miss them if you finish too early. For some time I thought I needed DD or Fly (both are unavailable for the map), but it turns out it's all a timed event... Clever, but again you might miss them.
Lastly, this map does hinge a bit on luck/map knowledge. There are a few hidden traps/bonus troops that will surprise you but with prior map knowledge, these can be avoided or used to your advantage.
Dracula can be overwhelmingly powerful if you lack certain creatures, spells, or artifacts and you have no way of knowing all of his tricks/patterns on your first try. Getting the Ironfist of the Ogre set and super fast Phoenixes made the fight very different...
Here's a tip, kill every opponent and then send some sacrificial lambs to test his prowess first.
While not as heavily "tricky/gimmick y" as others, it isn't a completely "strategy" oriented map either.
Mark (Netherlands) writes:
16-03-2015 22:32
Thanks for the review
Hey, mapmaker here,
Thank you for the review, received an unexpected e-mail haha.
Im no professional map maker so i'm happy with the overall response you gave. I want to make a few things clear: I used HOTA with HD mod. When I start the map there are a few things:
- Every player always has corrosponding dwellings for his starting town, AI/human alike
- red/blue/green and tan can't pick Castle or Necropolis as towns.
I don't know why they were enabled at yours!
Kind regards,
Mark
Author: Cedric, 08-01-2015 17:18 Good but tough Fun map because rushing is not allowed. It becomes pretty tough because the pink computer gets strong very fast but that does give a good challenge
Castle Dracula walkthrough
Information:
Every hundred years Dracula a group of vampire hunters prevents Dracula to rise in power. It is up to you to stop him before he becomes to powerful. Are you up to the challenge?
Tip:
to make the map more easy, give the computer players the same castle type as you. If you want to make it difficult, give every player a different castle.
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