"With the founding of a homeland, the other lords now take you seriously. All seek to dominate the central continent, and each is suspicious of the others. The territory is huge, the opposition distant. Resources are scarce and should be fiercely defended. You must be the last lord left to claim victory."
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Map size: large Win condition: defeat all opposition Defeat condition: be defeated |
Knight location: Southeast corner Barbarian location: Northwest corner Sorceress location: Northeast corner Warlock location: Southwest corner |
This map also has a standard goal: you must defeat all opposition to reign unchallenged. This map, like the previous one, is a large one, with lots to explore. There is a nice variety of terrain; from snow to desert to lava to dirt to water, it's all here. The battlefield this time is surrounded by a thin border of water; however, there's no real need for boats here.
All the castles start with all the necessary mines nearby. With the exception of the Knight, everyone has to deal with rough terain to claim those mines. There is a Dragon city, near the Barbarian's starting castle. It is on the very northwest point of the island, in the lava area.
There are 3 towns of the same type near the Knight, Barbarian, and Sorceress castles. However, there are no Warlock towns near the Warlock castle; matter of fact, there is only one Warlock town on the whole map. There are altogether 14 neutral towns on the map, and 7 of those are Knight towns! All the towns/castles are spaced in a rather gridlike pattern, as if that really matters.
Okay, frankly, this is a hard map. It can take a long time to complete. On the other hand, it's a great time and place to work on your skills of exploring and plundering. Resources are scarce on this map, and should be grabbed quickly.
You should not, especially on this map, expand too fast and stretch yourself thin. This happens when you capture and try to build up more towns than you can handle. You will fall behind in building and fortifying your towns, and hiring troops to defend those towns. Capture extra towns if you like, but don't bother building them up or leaving troops there. You can just use those towns as extra gold generators for now. Later, when you have completed you first town or two, move on to another one.
The Knight has a big advantage in this map, because of all those Knight towns. By building up and fortifying those extra towns, Knight heroes can easily get more troops or more spells. If you are playing the Knight, take advantage of this. But keep in mind the admonition in the previous paragraph.
"With your victory, the other lords have made their final retreat. They must each in turn be fought one-on-one in their homelands, and their personal castle must be captured."