Difficulty: Medium.
Your Portal max: 30 creatures.
Enemy Portal max: 15, 15.
Starting forces: 4 Imps (1st level)
Enemy's starting forces: Blue keeper has 4 imps, green keeper has 3 (all 1st level).
Starting gold: 3000
Enemy's starting gold: 6000, 6000
Possible minions:
Attracted through portal: Fly, Beetle, Spider, Bile Demon, Demonspawn, Dragon, Warlock, Troll, Orc, Dark Mistress, Hellhound.
Found elsewhere in level: 3 Vampires (1st level).
Rooms:
Known at start: Basic Five
Can be researched: All others - Bridge, Guard Post, Workshop, Barracks, Prison, Torture Chamber, Temple, Graveyard, Scavenger Room.
Spells:
Can research: Sight of Evil, Speed Creature, Call to Arms, Conceal Creature, Cave-In, Heal, Lightning, Protect Creature, Disease.
Doors/Traps:
Can be manufactured: Wooden, Braced, Iron Doors: Gas, Lava, Boulder Traps.
Enemies: Two allied Keepers, plus a large band of low-level heroes.
For the first time - but certainly not the last - you're facing
two keepers, who in this case are allied against you, and this realm is divided into four parts
with you in the north, the blue keeper in the west, the green keeper in the east, and the
southern quarter unexplored as yet. However, in this case, you have as many creatures as the
other two Keepers put together. There is a sneaky "back entrance" way through the gold from
your quarter into the blue keeper's western realm, which could be used either by you or him for
a sneak attack. The advantage is with you, however, because you are able to build Bridges, while
neither of the other Keepers can: so you can set a Lava Trap in the corridor when it is dug out,
and he will never be able to claim territory beyond it. The eastern green Keeper has no secret
entrances or exits, and can be sealed in. An annoyance, but only a minor one, is that you only
have access to one single face of a gem block, whereas the blue keeper gets three and the green
keeper gets two: so they will be able to train faster than you can, as you have less income
divided between more creatures. Worse still, they can - and will - both build and use Scavenger
Rooms.
The first step after building your basic rooms - or possibly even
while doing so, if you can spare the Imps - is to open the door on the southern edge of your
realm, dig one square southwards, and claim the central corridor leading south. You then have
three options...
- If you transferred a powerful creature who is good at thumping things (Horny, Mistress,
Orc), then Possess it, break down one of the enemy keepers' doors (the one on the left, to
the blue keeper, is the better choice), run in a straight line down the corridor and
destroy the enemy Heart before they know what's hit them. If you choose this option, do
so in advance, and before doing anything else... You now have twice the space, and more
gold and gems, and can take your time over blasting the hell out of the remaining Keeper.
- You can also try to Possess a powerful transferred creature (the most important
thing is that it be one that can Haste itself), break down one of the two southern doors -
the left one, for preference - then run back down the corridor, knock down the door to
the enemy Keeper of your choice, and run into their realm with all the heroes at your
back to start an almighty battle between them, then sit back and watch - and train. Just
before the battle ends, walk in with your own gang of trained slimebags and kick the
living shit out of the survivors. This is, however, risky as some of the heroes may
invade your own realm instead. (A lava trap or two will prevent this.)
- Or, alternatively, sit tight, mine out your gold, set lava traps to stop the enemies
getting out of their realms, and train your creatures up. If the enemy starts scavenging
your creatures, put some of yours in the temple. The manual claims that a creature in the
temple protects two others of its kind from scavenging: in fact, it only protects
one creature outside the temple (verified during actual gameplay), so you will need
at least half of your creatures in the temple to protect them from the enemy. Or, of course,
scavenge the enemy's creatures instead...
When you think you're high enough level to deal with a whole
swarm of 1st-level heroes, knock down one or both of the two southern doors: there are no
less than 27 there (barbarians, fairies, monks, giants, wizards.) I hope your prison is big
enough to hold them all, and that you've remembered to place secondary lairs for any skeletons
you might create, because you simply won't be able to convert the lot at once, you're going to
get some skeletons at least. Unless you kill them, bury them and create vampires instead, of
course... (not that you're going to need to, because there's a secret graveyard with three
vampires in it, right there in the southern quarter of the realm, for you to claim.) You can
also find three specials: an Increase Level to the east, a Resurrect Creature to the west, and
a Transfer Creature up the long corridor from the southwest corner of the realm.
(Note: By the way, the placement of your first Lair - the one
which you get at the start of the level - is seriously annoying, as creatures passing through
your front door must inevitably pass through it - until, that is, you build a passage around
the side of it, stick a door on the southern edge of the lair and lock it, thus reducing the
number of exits from that lair to one. Do this early on, then build a secondary lair for your
vampires and skeletons to use.)
There are many ways to deal with the enemy Keepers in this
realm. You could try the frontal battle, but watch out in case he defends his realm with
Boulder traps (also, beware in case he himself uses the Disease spell in crowded conditions.)
Or you could let an enemy creature into your territory (preferably by claiming territory
into the enemy's realm) and cast full-strength Disease on it, so it can run back into your
enemy's realm and spread death and destruction - this works especially well if you can force
the enemy to cast Call To Arms and concentrate all his creatures in one spot (and keep him
there, by throwing imps into the melee) after one or more of them has caught the disease.
Or use a couple of invisible imps to claim his rooms out from under him, then drop creatures
as close to his Heart as you can. Or scavenge away all his good stuff to leave him with
nothing but insects and trolls (although if you get too many creatures in total you won't
be able to afford to train them all, at least not until you've beaten at least one Keeper and
got more gems: and also, the more creatures you have, the more crowded you get, and the more
dangerous is his Disease spell.) When both Keepers and all the wimpy southern heroes are
destroyed, the level is yours.
(Note: The only question is, what to transfer... In the next
realm, for the first time, your enemies start off with a powerful creature in their service,
so you can't follow the extra-nasty route of invading with a Horny, Mistress, Orc, or Dragon
and destroying them before they're ready. There are two problems: one of them requires fast
research, the other requires something that's great at shooting imps at a distance, which
means Dragon or Mistress. In the end, the Mistress is possibly the better option, as she too
can research quickly when hasted.)