Once again we are faced with a realm which on the surface, and by intention of the designers, appears quite difficult. You are supposed to be required, by your lack of the Bridge, to either fight your opponent Keeper on his own turf, which is nearly impossible due to his possession of the Chicken spell, or to extend your presence to his shores by first assaulting and then claiming the central Hero keep.

Due to a lack of Impenetrable Rock and the foolish availability of the Destroy Walls spell, you can once again defeat this realm without directly involving yourself in any battles. I will still point out the location of various goods, and Heroes to fight, for the sake of completeness, but I will do this entirely after outlining the strategy for this level, since there is practically nothing involved.

Begin of course by building your basic dungeon, being wary of the gold to your direct south, which borders a cache of level 3 and 4 heroes. Also, although the gems to your far east are supposed to be guarded by even more powerful foes, including two level 7 Fairies and several Barbarians and Thieves, you can get around them by tunneling to the south of the cave that is in front of them and then leaving one row of gold tiles along the western edge, just as we have done in several of the previous realms. With the gems, you already have your finances secured.

Beware also of tunneling south from the gems. There is an innocent-looking cave here where a party of powerful, high-level heroes will drop in. South of them is a series of caves containing yet more heroes such as two level 7 Knights and numerous level 8 Samurai. You would normally be required to take over these caves to beat this realm in the intended manner, but as is, you can simply ignore them. Not even the Increase Level special the southern-most cave contains is of any real use to you, since you only need to train at most one creature (let's make it a Dark Mistress).

I recommend that you fortify along the southern edge of your domain, which borders along a large lake in which eight level 5 rogue Tentacles dwell, just in case the enemy Keeper to your south should send Imps tunneling toward your gems.

The entire strategy for this realm is now to simply wait until you have the Destroy Walls spell. Send a concealed creature out under possession and scout out the central lake, which contains the hero keep. Beware of the southern edge where one of the hero fortress's doors are unlocked, as high-level Samurai may issue forth.

You may either wait for the enemy Keeper to open up his domain, or you can possess an Imp and do it yourself. Either way, all the Heroes who are currently in the lake will attack him. Unless you're very fast at this, the chance of them destroying him with this attack is extremely poor. The reason you need Destroy Walls is so that you can let the rest of the heroes, who are locked up in their keep, out to finish him off.

Simply de-fortify one tile in each room, then possess an expendable Imp and dig down the tile yourself. Your Imp is likely to be killed when the heroes issue forth, if you don't run into one of several deadly Lightning Traps first, but none of this matters. Just keep releasing heroes. As long as the entrance to your own dungeon is unreachable via the use of Guard Posts, they will eventually saunter toward your opponent. With each attack he will be further weakened. If you send the Lord of the Land against him, who drops into the Heart Room when you approach, he won't stand a chance.

While the heroes destroy your opponent, possess a Dark Mistress and destroy the hero Dungeon Heart using her wicked claws and powerful Lightning spell. You have conquered this realm, I'm almost sad to say.

Now, for the location of all those goodies you would normally need if this realm were properly designed. If you're like me and you always eliminate all resistance on the map before declaring a realm truly conquered, then you'll want to investigate all of the locations outlined on the map to the right.

1. Just outside your domain you can find two Hellhounds, both at level 4, trapped here in the soft earth. Though it's hard to tell by looking at the map, it is possible to get to these hounds without releasing the heroes in the cave above - simply stay as far to the left as possible.
   
   
2. Inside the large gold vein is a heavily trapped chamber - a Boulder and two Lightning Traps - that contains an Increase Level special.
   
   
3. Behind the uppermost of the three gold veins, which is the only one completely safe to mine, you will find a level 5 Dark Mistress. You will want to claim her even if you use the short strategy, because she is fast to train, and Mistresses seem to be quite hard to get here.
   
   
4. The unaligned Graveyard, which is protected by a Boulder Trap, contains two level 2 Vampires for you to command. The Graveyard is also very handy for making more if you start slaughtering heroes.
   
   
5. In the final of the three chambers embedded in the eastern rock you will find another Increase Level special. This area is heavily trapped and contains powerful heroes, including two level 7 Knights. However, if you set up a series of doors and Boulder Traps leading here, you will not have to do anything other than drop some Imps to drag their badly crushed bodies to your Graveyard.
   
   
6. In this area, which can be reached from the north by claiming through part of the hero keep, you will find the Disease spell, which is invaluable if you intend to fight the enemy Keeper on his own turf. This cave is protected by yet another level 7 Knight and his level 6 Samurai flunkies. The Disease spell is also guarded by the most frightening and destructive of all traps, the mighty Alarm Trap. Its irritating claxon is enough to make even your Vampires throw up their breakfast of virgin Priestess blood.
   
   
7. Immediately south of the above cave is a cache of four level 8 Fairies. I'd say they're dangerous, but you can always just bring in a Boulder Trap and make pancakes of them. Inside you'll find a Steal Hero special they were hoarding. Fire it off for a free Samurai, assuming you haven't turned them all into Vampires already.
   
   
8. Here, just north of a location I have lovingly dubbed Squid Lake, lies a wicked Reveal Map special. As if this realm weren't simple enough, now you can see everything. Beware of breaking into Squid Lake, because it contains a large number of level 7 Fairies and level 8 rogue Tentacles.
   
   
9. Finally, on the land bridge between your opponent's dungeon and the hero keep you will find a well-trapped Steal Hero special guarded by a couple of grumpy Giants. You'll need to have destroyed the heroes, or at least claimed off most of their dungeon, in order to reach this point and be able to claim the special.

So, what would it have taken to make this realm work in the way the designers intended? First, the enemy Keeper should be walled into his domain by an almost solid wall of Impenetrable Rock, with a gap only at the land bridge where the designers intended you to begin claiming into his territory, and the gap would be protected by hero walls. You would thus be required to at least destroy the Hero Dungeon Heart first. While it's true that his would eliminate any chance of the enemy Keeper engaging you in your own domain, that's unlikely to happen at any rate, and easy enough to prevent completely with everything as it already is.

Second, the player should not have been given the Destroy Walls spell. As we have seen in several realms now, Destroy Walls disables just about any sort of strategy besides the quick kill. Especially when combined with effective possession of creatures, it allows you to engage opponents from your omnipotent and omniscient position in the sky, vandalizing whatever you please, spying on normally unreachable areas, and directing the attention of your opponents.

(There are many other things in this realm which make it evident that its design was rushed and poorly thought through, including unaligned traps that damage heroes before you ever reach them, Alarm traps placed where other traps were obviously meant, the probably accidentally unlocked door on the southern side of the hero keep, the fact that you don't have to kill the Lord of the Land to win, and last, a statement in the script which makes it seem as though you're intended to lose if the enemy keeper defeats the heroes before you, which will virtually never happen. Even if it did, it wouldn't work as intended. It's very shameful what a poor understanding of the game that this level's author has demonstrated.)