Difficulty: Very Hard.
Your Portal max: 25 creatures.
Enemy Portal max: 30 creatures.
Starting forces: 8 Imps (1st level)
Enemy's starting forces: 1 Vampire (10th level), 5 Imps (10th level)
Starting gold: 20000
Enemy's starting gold: 2460000
Possible minions:
Both Keepers can attract: Dragon, Bile Demon, Troll, Hellhound
You can attract: Orc
Enemy can attract: Warlock, Dark Mistress, Vampire
Can be found elsewhere in the level: 1x Horny (10th level), 4x Fly, 4x Beetle (all 1st level).
Rooms:
Known at start: Basic Five
Can be researched: Everything except Bridge
Can be gained later in the realm: Bridge (but so late that it shouldn't matter by now)
Spells:
Can research: Speed Creature, Must Obey, Call to Arms, Conceal Creature, Cave-In, Heal, Lightning, Protect, Chicken, Disease
Doors/Traps:
Can be manufactured: Iron, Magic Doors: Gas, Lightning, Boulder, Word of Power Traps
Enemies: Heroes including The Avatar, and the toughest enemy Keeper yet.
After the last four realms, where you've been labouring under some pretty serious restrictions -
in #16 you were short of researchers and gold:, in #17 you were short of creatures, gold and time:
in #18 you were short of gold and living space for your too-many creatures: in #19 you were short
of creature power, without a training room - it comes as a relief to find oneself with ample living
space for your creatures, access to all the basic rooms, and a massive lot of gems early in the
campaign. This surely couldn't be as hard as the previous few realms, right? Right? WRONG.
The first thing you notice is the fact that Bridges don't even show up as researchable. Now, this
wouldn't be an issue in a waterless realm, but there's plenty of water and a central island in this
one. At some point you're going to have to fight outside of your own territory, beyond enemy lines.
Which is dangerous because of all the spells that a Keeper can only cast on his OWN territory, such
as Disease, or because of all the enemy traps that you're not going to be able to get past by claiming
the land after setting them off once.
The second thing you notice is that you ONLY get Dragons and Bile Demons early on, although Orcs
and Trolls will follow (as will Hellhounds, although Hounds are going to be pretty useless in this
realm.) No Warlocks and Mistresses. Ah well, at least Dragons, Bile Demons and Orcs are useful,
although Dragons and Bile Demons require extra living space.
The third thing you notice is that the enemy Keeper has more minions than you. What you don't know
is that he can get Warlocks, Mistresses and Vampires, which you can't.
And the fourth thing you notice is that the enemy gets a head start on research, and will start
scavenging your creatures before you get the chance. If you create Vampires, the chances are that
they will disappear before you have time to think. He started off with a free level 10 Vampire and
can get more from his portal.
The fifth thing you notice is that if you tunnel too far northward too early, you'll be invaded by
up to eight level 10 Tentacles, and you'd better be good enough to take them down. And preferably
imprison them, too.
The good news is: Just on the eastern side of the gold deposit, there are two Increase Levels. And
if you follow the river southwards, you'll find a land bridge over it, leading to a small abandoned
Hero Fortress containing two more. Normally you want to be late in using these, but on this occasion
you want to use them as early as possible because you want to break out northwards as soon as
possible, in the direction of the Hero Castle in the lake, over the only land bridge. Which by the
way you'll have to find without using Sight of Evil, either by breaking into the lake in TWO places
or by good guesswork. (Also be wary - there are three Hero Gates along the southern side of the
realm. Two can be walled in: the third, adjacent to the southern end of the river, can be walled
out by using the feature that prevents creatures climbing up out of water on to Guard Posts, IF you
haven't connected to your realm to the gate directly by land. By the way, DON'T take over the hero
fortress - fill up the corridors with doors and traps, and all the small rooms too. Notice that there
are Hero Gates in there, and you don't want heroes showing up in your rooms: you want them showing up
in deathtraps that will kill them at once.)
When you break out north and the Tentacles invade, capture and convert them - you have the gold for a
Heal spell after all so they shouldn't die under torture. Beat down the doors, avoid the boulder traps
(set them off with single expendable Imps), and get to the centre of the Hero castle to claim the
services of the insects in the castle. DO NOT destroy the Heart at once - take the insects and throw
them away in fact, then claim the rest of the castle BEFORE destroying the Heart. Pay special attention
to the neutral Reaper who will join your side from one of the southern chambers, and the hostile
Reaper and Witch at the entrance to the long northeasterly passage, who can be captured and converted
to make good minions.
(If you delay too long, then the enemy - who is set to be extremely expansionist, even out of his own
territory - may well succeed in getting a creature to the centre of the Castle before you do, at which
point the flies and beetles will join HIS side and start attacking the Heart, and eventually destroy
it. And you don't want the Hero Heart destroyed before YOU are ready to claim the castle, because
otherwise *he* may start claiming: there is one single "blue" square connected by land to the Hero
Castle at the end of the long northeastern corridor, occupied by a locked door. While the white Heart
beats, the long corridor is blocked up with doors and traps, and the enemy Keeper cannot drop an imp
in it (or on his space occupied by a locked door): but after it is destroyed, all of the non-room
tiles revert to unclaimed path, and an Imp can be dropped on unclaimed path, so he may claim the
territory before you do - and possibly claim the neutral Reaper, and kill the hostile Reaper and
Witch, when in fact you wanted them all on your side. Worse still, if he gets to the land bridge to
your land, and fortifies an earth tile against you, there is no way through. So make sure that either
YOU are the one to destroy the Hero Heart, or that at least you are IMMEDIATELY ready to claim the
Castle afterwards.)
Once you've claimed the castle, stick GUARD POSTS on the two northerly entrance tiles. No enemy can
climb up out of water on a guard post. Fortify the northern walls, stick magic doors behind the guard
posts, and you've walled your enemy out for now. Don't knock down the door (owned by the enemy Keeper)
at the end of the northeastern tunnel yet, but claim the rest of the tunnel. Start scavenging from
the enemy Keeper: you're at a disadvantage with Vampires, but you should at least be able to scavenge
Dragons, Bile Demons, Trolls and Hellhounds until you outnumber him by a lot, enough to dare trying
the "brute-force" assault on his dungeon if you wish (incredibly, beating him
is optional, not compulsory!) - gather all creatures at the north end, cast Call to Arms, and
gradually move the Call into his domain, demolishing doors as you go. Weigh in to the battle by spamming
Lightning as hard as you can. Beware of the Boulder Trap to the north of his lair, and the Lightning and
Word of Power traps around his Heart, but most of all beware of his Mistresses, Vampires and Warlocks -
creatures of which you own none. If you invade by brute-force in this way, don't bother taking prisoners.
(If you have transferred a Vampire from the second Secret Realm - the only way to bring a transferred
creature in is through secret realms - then you may actually have researched the Scavenger Room first,
and been able to scavenge his vampires, in which case YOU will have the army of vampires. Or, you can
try using the fact that your "Must-Obey" spell will keep even a Vampire in the temple, despite the
fact that vampires hate temples: create one vampire, put him in prison till a second is created, then
drop the second in the temple and feed/pay him by hand to keep him there while the first one trains
up and then scavenges, to give you a chance in the scavenging duel. If you manage to get the Vampire
advantage, zap any imps of his with Lightning as soon as you see them - he'll bury them, create
vampires, you scavenge them to add to your side.)
(Another nice thing you can do: Occasionally sell your Guard Posts, and let the enemy invade the
north side of the Castle. Then after a few creatures have gotten in, stick your Guard Posts Back,
then a locked Magic Door behind them to trap them in your castle, and try to knock them out and
capture them. Each creature in your Prison is one that he can't use against you in battle, so you
can hold them in prison and be fighting fewer creatures when you invade: or alternatively you can
convert Mistresses, Warlocks and Vampires to your side and start scavenging them from him. If you
can grab a level 10 Vampire or a high-level Mistress you're laughing, and what's more you should
get some of the layout of his dungeon from torturing his creatures - particularly if you succeed
in capturing his Imps.)
You don't actually have to destroy the enemy Keeper, but by hell it's more fun if you do. Especially
if you managed to capture some of his most loyal minions (the ones that won't join you from the
portal, i.e. vampires, warlocks and mistresses) first. If you do so before taking on the Avatar, then
let your numbers recover, and build up an army of Vampires now that your foe isn't scavenging them
any more. (Also make extra 1st-level vamps and let them starve into Skeletons, build up a big army of
these.)
But at some point you're going to have to take on The Avatar, who is trapped on an island in the
middle of lava at the far end of the northeastern corridor. It's not going to be an easy task - few
creatures can cross lava. (Did anybody mention Dragons and Reapers?) And few can shoot decent melee
attacks across it (did anybody mention 10th-level Skeletons, or the Warlocks and Mistresses you may
have captured and converted?) Kill him if you must, but it's far cooler to take him alive and convert
him to your side, if you can find a way to force him across the lava on to YOUR land (Dragon's Word of
Power, or a Wind spell cast by a high-level Ghost or Witch - all will do it, provided you Possess the
creature, run around the other side of him and blow or blast him TOWARDS your land.)
And that isn't the end of it. When the Avatar dies or is converted to your side, you'll suddenly get
a massive Hero invasion *all over* the realm. (Gaining the ability to build Bridges is nice but
suddenly irrelevant...) Some heroes will come from those three hero gates along the south: some from
the hero gates and action points in the small eastern fortress you found earlier: some on the island,
some in the enemy dungeon. You really want all of these to run into traps, or be walled out of your
realm by fortified walls, before you ever have to fight them, because you need most of your creatures
to stop the worst invasion: west of your Heart, in the open area you can't close off. The Avatar is
back, with a Knight and a lot of others, all level 10. And he sends three small preliminary invasion
forces of Dwarves, to set off all your traps first so none of the main, more powerful party will fall
under boulders.
When every last Hero in the realm is dead or converted, including the second Avatar, you are
accounted the winner: even if the enemy Keeper is still alive - how lame is that? Carry on playing
and destroy him anyway, the new-found Bridges will come in handy to bridge to his realm so you can
either claim land or even assault his Heart directly from the east, via the Avatar's old prison. If
you're *REALLY* cool, you should now have TWO Avatars on your side... let them administer the coup
de grace to your enemy's Heart, even though you don't really need to because the game thinks you've
already won.
You could, of course, wimp out and claim the victory while your enemy Keeper is still alive, but
where would the fun be in that? That's why it's more fun if you destroyed him earlier, so that the
final battle against the second appearance of the Avatar really IS the final battle.