Yesterday I finished the necro campaign after the last mission (when fighting Orlando in his Castle) and I must say: no challenge at all.
When I bought Tribes of the East I remember having read in several reviews that it is very difficult, much more challenging than its predecessors. But right now I am missing the difficulty of the predecessors because heroic in tribes of the east is almost like easy in the previous parts. For example the last mission, where Arantir and Ornella have to capture Flammschrein: I can afford almost 4 fighting heroes (in the predecessors mostly only one, because for sharing units the enemy was too strong and I needed a concentrated force) and they can defeat each enemy hero (blue as well as red ones) without any problem.

So I wonder: can it be that switching to "heroic" in the game menu doesn´t necessarily trigger it? Maybe I changed something in the config-files (I remember having changed something there for performance reasons...for example dynamic lights etc.) or somehow my version or my installation is not well.

Who made similar experiences?

greetings lead

Well if you wait some weeks and gain an insane army from 4 towns no, it won't be a challenge :P When I attacked exactly when I could it was hard. Anyways heroic only means lesser resources and the AI building easier, that does not matter when you have two all-powerful heroes with the key dark/summoning spells.

My battle with Deleb was also challenging since she had a much superior army but I could still win with no losses with careful play.

Anyway saying it's equivalent to easy in previous heroes is not true. I've played all campaigns since H2 and I know quite well either game. The difference is the overpowering special and the fact that necros can take on larger forces without losses than before. Remember that orc town with the crazy garrison? THAT was challenging and I did take it even if it took me like 30 mins :P With almost no army.

Thank you for your reply.

Well, the only thing that I am worrying about is that something with my version/installation might be wrong. That "heroic" isn´t "heroic" and things like that. I know that is very improbable and I don´t know what else shall influence the AI. Do you think that is possible to change the difficulty by making some changes in the config-file? I hope I didn´t do anything by chance.

But referring to the mission "Heart of Darkness":

1. You speak about this "Deleb" (I read it in other forums too): I never met him! Actually there never came a red hero with a strong army. I just met two demon heros - but I could overpower them easily.

2. Do you remember the final battle against Orlando? Did you play it on "heroic"? Maybe you remember the numbers of cerberi, Archlords etc. - so I can compare.

3. The blue enemy has got 4 castles in the beginning. In previous Heroes parts it was like that that they assembled troops from all castles they had and attacked you with a large concentrated army. But in this mission I only encountered blue heroes with maybe a two-week-load of units, but never a real "army". For example, on heroic the average blue hero in "Heart of Darkness" had 6 seraphim, like 50 blood griffins, 10 of these red champions (damn I forgot the name), 75 crossbowmen etc. I do twice "curse of the netherworld" and the hero is gone.
Other example: Arantir conquers a blue, guarded city - with 6 little skeletons (each slot with 1) and the Avatar does all the work, easily. Should it really be like that?

quote:

Originally posted by lead341:

1. You speak about this "Deleb" (I read it in other forums too): I never met him!

Deleb is a lady! An evil lady with a flaming balista, but a lady all the same.

No I played it on hard initially and never bothered to replay on heroic. About your questions I don't remember specifics. But heroic or not Arantir's special is overpowered and AI still sucks. Actually the combat and adventure AI is virtually the same as hard and being necro you don't really care about what you build in town - you can raise your army not to mention the extra reinforcements.

Well, I guess I will play this mission again until I meet Deleb - I am getting really curious ;-)

Nah, deleb has lost her old flame.

But if you want to see her in action just do a skirmish map select inferno and pick her as your hero. Not bad at level 15+

I replayed in heroic - and finally I met Deleb.

She had
125 firehounds
35 hell stallion
10 Archdemons
20 Pit Spawns
258 Horned Grunts
85 Succubi mistress

Can anybody who played heroic confirm this?
I would be grateful for a hint

greetings lead

I found a replay, she's the same in hard.

@ Elementalist: you write that Deleb is the same on hard - so you encountered her like this. But above you wrote that she had a superior army compared to yours. I think we have a different style of playing. Because when she appeared (after I took the last town) my army was at least three times as big as hers (I had 35 ghost dragons,250 vampire princes, 115 wraiths). Maybe I am just playing more slowly than others and that´s why in the end it gets rather easy...
Do you actually think that Deleb is the same on "normal" and "easy" too?

Yeah I tend to attack my opponents as fast as possible. I had 17 wraiths, 26 death knights and 28 liches hehe As for Deleb probably, what does it matter anyway?

Edit: Oh wait. She also had 137 brisk raiders. Maybe they joined from somewhere..?

What? brisk raiders? the demon hero? hehe..I am sure that they joined, they are definitely not demon-native. But you did the whole thing with 26 death knights, 28 liches and 17 wraiths? Wow! I mean..don´t tell me that you conquered the four cities with that army too..because Deleb only appears after the last city taken. But my arms was already considerably bigger even before taking the first city (and as necro you get a big army earlier).

Well, I guess I have a completely different style of playing. Before moving on in great style I prefer to explore all corners, take all mines, get all artifacts, visit all these adventure places. I must confess - also in line with my experience of the other Heroes parts - my style of playing has a big advantage: the battles - especially the final ones - are bigger!! ;-) Do you remember the size of Orlandos army? I arrived there in the fourth (or the fifth?) month...he had 650 firehounds, I think more than 75 pit spawns, more than hundreds of nightmares and stuff like that. Ok, even with a big army I had to attack the city three times, but the battle was really great and lots of fun.


Besides, I am editing this because I just met nebiros in a hard game. Did you encounter him? The funny thing was the despite of being on lower level than deleb (20), his army was considerably bigger - he came along with 140 succubi seducers, 45 pitspawns etc. - he was actually quite a bit stronger than deleb.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lead341,

I don't recall any serious casualties before that time so that's the army I used. With a full arsenal of dark/summoning spells and necro artifact set you don't need much on army. Of course with Orlando I waited a few weeks and went with a good haven army - I had not bought the army of the cities I conquered so there were already troops to buy. That was suitably epic

I don't remember the other heroes, maybe I'll replay the campaign one of these days.

Ok, now can you tell me whether this is a JOKE or what?
I am playing the second orc-mission ("One Khan, one Clan") and I am proceeding well. Suddenly there comes this blue hero with a huge army (20 untamed cyclops, over 100 slayer etc.) - I even haven´t got one cyclops! I have absolutely 0 chance against him.
The whole necro-campaign appeared very easy, and now something impossible?
Very strange...

Depends, at what week? I think I took the garrison week 4..?

Did you by chance play the last orc mission "hunting the hunter" at heroic or hard?
How was it in the first two months? Did the enemy heroes attack you relentlessly in the north or did they let you in peace (as was my case)?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lead341,

For some reason I had not seen that question until now. It was on hard but I remember little about AI behaviour.

Anyway I just finished the necro campaign on heroic. Most heroes were easy pickings, again only Deleb stands out for being a challenging fight on week 3 and that guy that had elemental balance but that's because he took me by surprise After taking all haven towns I sacrificed my necromancers and went straight to Orlando that I took down week 4 day 5.

Oh yes I love logistics