- LONG LIVE THE QUEEN: HOMECOMING -

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Narrative: Our initial landing has captured a devastated outpost. Information is scarce and neighboring citizens have fled their villages. Remaining survivors tell conflicting stories. Evidence points to a Nighon invasion. Train local militias quickly. Destroy all hostile forces; assume the worst; Assume we are at war.

Size: Medium
Difficulty: Easy
Number of Players: 2
Your Color: Red
Starting Town: Castle
Alliances: None
Win Conditions: Capture Town.
Lose Conditions: Lose all towns and heroes.
Special Rules: Your heroes are limited to reaching level 6. Your best four heroes are available at the start of Guardian Angels without their armies or inventories.
Scenario Description: To win, you must locate and capture the town of Terraneus. Yoru heroes will be limited to Level 6in this scenario, but your four strongest heroes will travel with you to the next scenario of this campaign.

Suggested Solution:

This first scenario is deceptively simple but its fast completion requires some thought.

The key to the 1st scenario is to find the best castle to conquer/best route to take that ensures fastest access to Terraneus (underground castle). Should you travel overland to the North Subterranean gate, the fastest any hero could reach there would be on day 5. If you choose the West Subterranean gate, however, you will find that by boarding a boat on day 1, sailing + landing on the western coast on day 2, you will be in striking range of the West castle (Plinth) on day 3. (Only a hero with Basic Navigation can sail and land on day 2, for example, Sylvia the Knight) You can then recruit another hero (Primary hero) instantly to travel and even enter the West Subterranean gate. With the best Logistics and the fastest troops you should be able to reach Terraneus in 8 days. The later scenarios will present harsher mobility challenges if they are to be completed optimally, so make sure you have at least 2 heroes who have Expert Logistics at the end of this first scenario or are likely to develop Expert Logistics by the end of Scenario 2. If you are not playing for a record or don’t want to reload for specific heroes, just choose spellcasters (they will come in handy in the last scenario) and upgrade them well. In any case you should easily be able to reach Terraneus in about 2 weeks (even without any reloads) if you follow the above plan. Stables mobility bonus operates for 1 day only if you retreat and recruit the hero (recruit hero immediately on same day) and NOT for the whole week! Stables and Logistics mobility bonuses also take effect underground.

Terraneus will be weakly guarded due to weak computer AI. Several Serpent flies with a few Hell Hounds (optional) will suffice in its taking (by day 8) although more troops will be needed if you arrive only in the 3rd week. This scenario is ideal for hero development. Only 1 hero with the best Logistics and the above troops is needed to capture Terraneus, which means in the meantime, the other heroes will have at least about a week to upgrade themselves. Only the best 4 will be brought forward, so be highly selective when upgrading heroes. Primary statistics, Secondary skills and knowledge of spells will all be brought forward to Scenario 2 (Guardian Angels) whereas artifacts and troops will NOT. Therefore, visit as many places which confer upgrades as fast as possible.

Priorities would be:
1) Places which give +1 to a Primary stat (free) without increasing the hero’s level: Star Axis (+1 Spell Power), Garden of Revelation (+1 Knowledge), Mercenary Camp (+1 Attack), Marletto Tower (+1 Defence)
2) Places which give +1 level or increased experience: Tree of Knowledge, Chests, Learning Stones (You are allowed to upgrade till level 6 only, additional experience is wasted)

Explore your initial area thoroughly while at the same time forging West and taking Plinth. The initial sector gives 6 chests (some guarded) and 1 upgrading site for each primary statistic as well as a Tree of Knowledge. Taking out Mirham and accessing the North cache can be done later but be sure to expand systematically

a) Clear out the Hell Hounds to the West to access the central cache which gives 5 easily accessible chests (and 2 more a little out of the way), 1 Scholar, 1 School of Magic and 1 School of War.
b) Clear out the Horned Demons to access the North cache which gives 4 free chests and 4 more guarded ones.
c) Plinth’s sector gives upgrades to Attack, Spell Power and 1 Learning Stone.
d) Take out Mirham from Plinth or from your initial castle to access this final sector which also gives upgrades to Attack and Spell Power as well as 1 School each of Magic and War.

By combining initial troops from several troops, you should be able to accomplish these conquests easily. Trade resources at 2 Trading Posts (North and West of initial castle, Caryatid) should you run low on cash. Should you have extra time before your Primary hero reaches Terraneus, you may opt to access other caches too.

Do build at least 1 of your Mage Guilds until level 2 and use retreating as a Town Portal for your 4 best heroes to learn the spells. Use your gold, and retreating heroes as a Town Portal. This is the fastest way to relocate peripheral heroes.

There are no tactical difficulties in this map, save for perhaps the last fight at Terraneus if you only bring a few Serpent flies. Therefore, no details on fights will be provided in the walkthrus. It is very much possible to get better statistics for the 4 best heroes than stated in the walkthru. However, since the purpose is to win in the shortest days possible (or at least win speedily, depending on point of view) and it is rather unlikely that speedier upgrades would affect total number of days, I have left the walkthru as it was originally played without further modifications.