"The Warlock's castle lies shrouded in the smoky volcanic rift. To reach Lord Alamar's home castle in the extreme Southeast, you must wander through the Minotaur Maze. The Warlocks are overconfident and not expecting an attack, so sure are they that none can navigate the maze. Gargoyles have been set to dissuade invaders from the true path."
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Map size: medium Win condition: capture Castle Alamar Defeat condition: be defeated |
Warlock location: Southeast lava area Knight, Barbarian, Sorceress location: Northwest grassy area |
Warlocks need not complete this map; the others need to, however, to access the final map.
This is a hard map, which is appropriate in a way, since the Warlock will eventually have Dragons in his army. The Warlock begins in the Southeast corner with all the lava, with five castles and, of course, all the resources nearby to build all their structures. As well, there is the usual smattering of artifacts in this region. Your primary target, Castle Alamar, is in the very Southeast corner. You, on the other hand, start in the Northwestern coastal region, with one castle and one town of your type. There is another town of the same type in the area that you can (and should) capture. Your coastal region also contains all the necessary resources and mines to allow you to build all your structures, as well as some guarded artifacts which you should get. There is nothing to be gotten on the water, so don't worry about it (no way to get there anyway- no boats!). You could actually eke out a comfortable living here, if it weren't for the fact you still need to defeat those Warlocks.
Your grasslands and the lava area is seperated by a swampy maze full of Hydras, Gargoyles, and Ghosts. You'll need to go in eventually.
You don't have to worry too much about the Warlocks at the beginning, since they will never go very far into the maze. And besides, even if they did, you've still got lots of time to power up your hero(es).
Explore and secure your region quickly. Claim all the mines, resources, and artifacts. Hope that you get useful spells in your mage guilds, such as Dimension Door, Berserk, and Lightning Bolt, to name a few.
Sorceresses are actually rather good on this map, since they can memorize lots of spells. This can be useful when going through the maze, since you can teleport over the mountains to avoid the swamp, cast Turn Undead when fighting Ghosts, and use Berserk to your heart's delight when fighting Warlocks.
Before you go into the maze, build up a big, strong, nasty hero with a huge army and lots of spells. You'll need this for your final battle. When going through the maze, the unguarded paths are the wrong paths. Take the paths guarded by Gargoyles to reach the lava. Exploring the maze can take a very long time, so you should send out other heroes with Dimension Door and armies to help claim mines, grab resources, and visit obelisks.
There are no obelisks in the lava or the grasslands, but they are scattered throughout the maze. You should visit these and try to find the ultimate artifact- it will help you a lot. However, they are all guarded by 99 Ghosts, so make sure you bring some Turn Undead spells for these battles. Leave the Peasants at home, or the Ghosts will slaughter them and become too numerous to defeat.
A good strategy when fighting the battle to capture Castle Alamar is to use two or more heroes. The first hero should have a moderate army, and should be able to cast powerful spells such as Meteor Shower, Lightning Bolt, and Berserk. Cast as many as you can until you run out of spells or are defeated. Repeat if you like. Unfortunately, spells will not work on Dragons, so you'll have to save those for your major hero. However, Dragons can be hurt by troops affected with the Berserk spell, so keep that in mind. Hopefully, when you send in your powerful hero, you may only have to deal with those Dragons. Another idea is to capture other Warlock castles and send their own troops against Castle Alamar. Good luck!
"You have followed the Gargoyles to the castle of Lord Alamar and have shattered the might of the Warlocks."